The GameCube is 13 Years Old

My fondest memories of the Game Cube are of Wind Waker.
It's a stellar game, that deserves all the respect it gets.
I also loved and still love Animal Crossing!

I think someone likes the green color! (Whoever gets that reference gets a cookie~)

Either way, Happy Birthday Mr GameCube! You are what truly got me into the gaming scene! Many happy memories for me especially with games like Super Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros Melee, Zelda: Ocarina of Time (on the Collector's disc), Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Resident Evil 4.

love it!

One of the greatest Nintendo consoles ever!

Skies of Arcadia Legends and Timesplitters 2 were some of my favourite games ever

I love the GameCube, so many great games- Wind Waker, Pikmin, Metroid Prime and of course the Game Boy Player. Worship it in all its beautiful purple glory. I have so many classics yet to play- FE Path of Radiance being one I should have played in the day - can anyone recommend me some unappreciated classics of theirs?

Some of my fondest video game memories are with this handled box. I remember getting this Christmas morning and playing Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance with the family all day, long weekends with my parents playing REmake, and long nights playing Sonic Mega Collection solo. Simply a marvelous system.

Happy Birthday Gamecube! Double Dash opened my eyes on why i love to play games but enough about this trivial mumbo jumbo…we must move on to the most important question…where can i get some of that delicious Gamecube CAKE!!!!

Maybe if the commercials weren't weird, it would have sold more.

More than 600 hours of gameplay in Pokêmon XD man...no need to say i love gamecube.

I love the Cube. Shows you don't need gimmicky hardware innovation to have that Nintendo magic, just a great library of games. Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4 and Wind Waker are my fondest memories but special mentions to Rogue Leader, Super Monkeyball and Viewtiful Joe.

Wii u needs a pokemon adventure game, i mean.. right now.

gamecube<gameboy player

Best memories are playing SSBM, MKDD, FZGX and SFA with people after school, can't believe it has been 13 years now.

Who cares about those other games, the Game Cube has Kirby Air Ride on it! Multiplayer perfection! I couldn't even guess how many hours I've spent playing City Trial, but I'd probably rather not know.

I never had a Gamecube, so my memories of it would be when I got my Wii to play Brawl and I took the chance to hunt down some GCN games for it: Luigi's Mansion, Soul Calibur II, Viewtiful Joe 2 and REmake. I borrowed Pikmin 1, Melee and Sunshine too.

Other games like Metroid Prime, RE4 and Twilight Princess I played them via the updated Wii versions

The GCN holds the honor of being my first Nintendo home console, and my second home console overall (the first one was Sony's well-known juggernaut). The game I got it with was Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and while its lack of single races in single-player mode (something I perceive as even more of an issue in Mario Kart 7, where it outright makes no sense) left me unimpressed, when I got my first Smash Bros game - Melee - was when the magic truly began. I still own it as a side console to be used in the kitchen (the Wii inherited its legacy thanks to its retrocompatibility), which speaks volumes of the extent I've grown affected to it. As Tv Tropes puts it, it's "the little lunchbox that could.". All hail the Cube, guys!

@ZenTurtle Cubivore. One of the best and weirdest games in the system's library.

I have mpre games for the GameCube than I do for any other console I own. I was in high school during its time. Out of all of that, I probably played Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Viewtiful Joe the most.

Even though I only got my GameCube about 4 years ago, I still have had many great times with it. Not to mention it had some of the best iterations of many of Nintendo's franchises in it's library.

@Genesaur
I think you mean in any library.

Loved this system, my top games were Pikmin, Paper Mario & Luigi's Mansion. I remember being so determined to beat Luigi's Mansion that I stayed up so late that I had to call in sick to work.

Aw, such memories. I hope the good ol' Cube shows up on the Virtual Console some day.

Congratulations GameCube! You're a teenager!

Nintendo should make a GameCube VC. I want to play Super Mario Sunshine, Twilight Princess, Double Dash, and some others.

@DiscoGentleman Obviously there's other factors, but how were those commercials suppose to sell the console?

I have written my top 5 about about an hour ago: http://tay.kotaku.com/happy-13th-birthday-gamecube-1634646934

The memories...ah the memories... still my favourite system of that generation, regardless of low sales numbers. The fact I still play it today often speaks volumes really.

@Dipper723 I assume it was Nintendo trying to be edgy in their marketing and compete with some of the strange PlayStation commercials.

@E_Blackadder - I think you're the only person I know who beat Luigis Mansion. Everybody got to the boss, but nobody beat the boss.

Starfox Adventures is still one of my all time favorite games. Super Mario Sunshine was great (I think the only game in the history of X-Play I saw Adam Sessler like.) Luigi of course. Pikmin. Thats about it, but that was more than enough for a console I bought the day after it dropped to $99.

@Genesaur
good old viewtiful joe, I think I will introduce that game to my son now. I still have it at arms reach and he is getting really good at platformers. He just might really dig it. My son's mind is about to be blown.

And happy Birthday Gamecube

well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAMECUBE!!!

Happy Birthday to the console that introduced me to gaming!!

@ZenTurtle Bomberman Generations, Cubivore, Kururin Squash, Nintendo Puzzle Collection, Ribbit King (also PS2), Go! Go! Hypergrind ...,

Yay! It's 13! Happy b-day to that console that started it all for me.

Or... accelerated it.

I was less impressed with what Nintendo put on the Gamecube than what Sega did. (The stuff I still play on it is Sega and Capcom.)

MK Double Dash!!, Rogue Squadron II, Waverace Blue Storm, 1080 Avalanche, WInd Waker... the list of GC classics is pretty impressive in my opinion. First home console i ever bought was a black Cube with Mario Kart. Good times!

Melee, Luigis Mansion, Wind Waker, and the most underrated game, Cars. I was not really a hardcore Nintendo fan then as I was young.

Never played Sunshine, Metroid or many other exclusives. It's why we need GC on Virtual Console.

So much Animal Crossing and Mariokart nostalgia...

Army man RTS, Hitman, Tloz ww, Air Ride, Harvest moon, MGS tts, Fire Emblem, Custom Robo and Tales of Symphonia to name some and not mention my fav controller.

Happy b-day GC

Happy birthday u awesome device!

I know I own a gamecube but I thought that was a real gamecube in that picture.

@Peach64 But Metroid Prime plays better with a Wiimote, I could even said that about RE4 but the loading times in the Wii edition make it an inferior version (that laggy Krauser fight!)

Anyway, I love the Gamecube, it's one of my favorite consoles of all time, and I've gotta say, that handle was very useful when I had to go to any of my friends' house. Also I played melee more than 1000 hours, it's a shame that my memory card died some months ago.

Happy birthday dear cubo

The Gamecube was strange but effective. It is ugly as sin and has those stupid minidiscs, but it made up for it with great games, an excellent controller, and the Gameboy Player.

@Jahir No way in hell does Prime play better with a wiimote, but we are all entitled to our opinions.

Mk Double Dash, Soul Calibur II, SM Sunshine, RE4, and I really enjoyed NBA Street Vol 3 w/ the Mushroom Kingdom court and players!! ;^), Metroid Prime & WindWaker, Eternal Darkness...SMB Melee OMG; sorry, need to go now to reconnect mine!!!! GCN!!

@Nintendo_Ninja

Oh man, I can't believe I forgot about Animal Crossing. So many hours spent on that game. Nothing like visiting my little island via the Gameboy Advance.

Fantastic little system.

@MC808 I like the MP Trilogy control scheme better, it felt more immersive to me. But yeah, that's just my opinion.

Probably my favorite pure gaming system and by far my favorite controller. Happy birthday!

Ah the Gamecube. One of the greatest regret in my life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAMECUBE!!!!

Hands down my favorite system, with the highest number of amazing games I've ever experienced. And it sold the worst, which caused Nintendo to change how they approached game design, and ultimately has been causing me to love the company less and less. So in my eyes, it's both the best and worst thing to ever happen to Nintendo.

But dang, I loved that thing. Heck, I still do.

@ZenTurtle Ive played almost all that needs to be played!
Tales of Symphona, Lost Kingdoms II, P.N.03, Soul Calibur II, F-Zero GX,

Happy birthday to my favorite console!

Happy birthday GameCube. I've enjoyed you with the games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Party and Sonic Mega Collection. And also Stairfax Temperatures.

Im getting old.

Thank Jebus that's a cake or that'd be the ugliest GameCube ever.

Oh, and purple Cubes are for n00bs. It rhymes, so it must be true. #BlackPowar

You guys are really good at making cakes!

The gamecube is a pure gem man. I'll never forget the times I had with Luigi's Mansion, Thousand Year Door, Wario World, SA2 Battle, Battalion Wars........ah memories.

As for Prime, I guess I should get the trilogy to get those games.

Seams like yesterday I got my launch GameCube. I feel like a relic

Greatest system ever. The thrill of Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil haunt me to this day. And the controller was essentially a piece of clay in my hand. It molded to anyone's hands I put it in. And those games...NBA Courtside, Super Monkey Ball, Timesplitters, Metroid, Rogue Squadron, damn. Happy Birthday Gamecube!

Wii u and wii ain't got anything on this..

Gamecube was HANDS.. DOWN.. the best system ever! Don't know what it was, maybe the games were just more interesting or fun or something.. but to this day alot of use find ourselves popping NGC disc in our wiis or old gamecubes. If I remember correctly.. I reach over 600 days on pikmin 2 on one save.. and made quite a few replays on the others. Metroid prime 1 and 2 were awesome games that current metroid games can't seem to live up to. Ty the tasmanian tiger was a very underapreciated EA game for the NGC (and the other consoles I think) that was surprisingly addicting too.

Oh.. and how could I forget my very first pokemon game colloseum? AWESOME.

Ah the cube! Had EASILY the most innovative titles, yet didn't sell. Sounds like somebody else we know!

Day 1: As I sit here in my chair reading comments, I , for some reason, start to remind myself of the first console I played, the Gamecube. I used to play games like Mario Kart: DD, Mario Party, and Mario Sunshine. Tears start to form, and I proceed to plug in my old Gamecube. After that, I shall call it a day.

Gamecube > All

I used to love playing the Gamecube at my best friend's house. I still need to get one and catch up on all the games I missed as a console deprived small child.

Alot of good memories with the Cube. Games like Luigi Mansion, Resident Evil 0, Double Dash, Wind Waker, Mario Golf are just a few of my favs. Pokémon Crystal on my Gameboy player was epic as well.

Happy birthday to a awesome console indead!, cheers!
[youtube:-p8mQmZ3vXw]

<3

Happy 13th my favorite Ninty system~

I bought the mighty GameCube in 2002. It was given to my sister's oldest daughter in 2004. As we speak the very same Gamecube is to be given to my two sons and I am busy getting my hands on all the amazing games that was released for this gem of a machine...

It was my first Nintendo home consolle and since then I become a true Nintendo fan, before I had only Playstation 1/2, Game Gear and GBA.
My fist game was Luigi's Mansion and then Zelda WW.
I bought all the accessories for GC and all the Nintendo games.
Wow, now I can't live without Nintendo and Zelda

Gamecube still has the best exclusives.

The Gamecube was my first home console, got it as a present in the form of the Pokémon Colosseum bundle in 2004. Had lots of fun with it over the years though there are still a few games I wish I bought back when Gamecube games were very prominent in shops (e.g. Paper Mario TTYD). My highlights were Mario Kart Double Dash, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, F-Zero GX, Star Fox Assault and Metroid Prime.

@Yosher The 4th player has the colour green, I think.

Also, happy birthday, GameCube. You're the best of the best

The first home console I brought myself a few months after launch. What a fantastic library, I was in absolute awe when I saw Rouge Squadron 2 and said things won't look much better then this. Probably one of the best launch games.

Metroid Prime, Windwaker, F-Zero, Monkey Ball, Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, Sunshine, Smash, Timesplitters, XIII, Fire Emblem are all ones that come to mind.

I also really enjoyed Geist where you play has a ghost and had to possess stuff, thought that was quite neat. Chibi Robo (I don't think that one needs any explanation) Would have love to of seen Chibi cleaning up in smash!

I got my black GC from my sister, who had bought it for only MKDD. So MKDD is very special. And then I got Soul Calibur 2, awesomeness. For long I searched for Wind Waker but the price was insane, even when used. Then I locally found a place that was selling WW bundle + 2 used games + memorycard for 80e. (WW alon was 50-60e). So I bought it, it had no memory card, I complained and the owners (not really knowing so much about that stuff) finally gave me a chance to pick one of the "new" games instead. Of course I had my eye on Four Swords! (I saw it when I picked up the bundle). So, with 80e I got WW and 4S and sold the console for 45e

Erm so... I never managed to build hge library with GC, still would like some games for it. But I guess I almost knew this was coming, since on Sat I digged GC out to the open and played Double Dash with my husband

And the Wind Waker. Made me so happy.

Love the gamecube, it had some wonderful games, I was lucky enough to pick up a Panasonic q a while back.

Happy 13th to arguably my favorite home console as well.

The Cube holds a special place with me because, although I played N64, SNES, Genesis, etc. before through relatives and stuff, it was the first home console that was my own.

Had tons of fun with games like Shadow the Hedgehog, Beyond Good & Evil, Luigi's Mansion, WWE Day of Reckoning, SSBM, MP, Sonic Heroes, LoZ:TP, and of course Pokémon Colosseum & XD.

@Neferupitou I had many hours on that, too. I remember being excited when I finally purified Shadow Lugia and transferred it over to one of my Gen III games; I'm pretty sure Emerald.

@Stomatopod17 I loved Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, though I played more of that on a friend's PS2.

I feel really old

Happy Birthday Gamecube! Sorry I skipped you when you were around & chose a PS2 instead because it was more 'cool', only to find out how truly awesome your games were via the Wii's backwards compatibility mode. I can't wait for the gamecube controller & adapter to be released for Wii U, I really hope Nintendo decides to rerelease all the awesome gamecube games on Wii U VC so I can buy & love them all again!

That is one tasty looking cake.

A GameSharked Animal Crossing to unlock the good NES games, the first Prince of Persia, Spider-man 2, Smash Bros., and Metroid Prime were all reasons that I loved and miss that system (mine was unfortunately stolen).

Ahhh the GameCube, the second most underrated console of all time (Dreamcast is still first IMO). How I loved you though. I know a lot of people still maintain that nothing has ever come close to WWF No Mercy in wrestling games, but the GameCube was the home of only TRUE wrestling game that could hold a candle to No Mercy, and that was WWE Day of Reckoning. WrestleMania XIX also came close ironically enough, which was also a GameCube exclusive. So apart from N64, the Cube had the best wrestling games hands down lol.

@MajinSoul Exactly! You win a cookie!

Awesome commercial!

I wish the Wii U had a commercial as good as the GameCube's.

@DiscoGentleman I still remember the Legend of Zelda rap/beatbox commercial -shudder-

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is the single best GameCube game for me. Prime 1 and Wind Waker are stellar games. I think the GameCube has aged better than the N64.

I'm glad to hear so many people ended up liking the purple lunchbox. I enjoyed it very well myself. I can't recall how many times I heard the kiddie arguments and complaints about the controller.

I love my (two) GameCubes... Its what got me back into Nintendo after the PC started to dominate my gaming time!! I wish Nintendo would release a Wavebird II for the Wii U (Shaped like the wave bird but all the features of the Wii U Controller Pro, and some extra weight/rumble please)

I was so exited by MK:DD the first day I got it, I pulled into the driveway so tightly that I scraped by car down the fence... but I didn't let that get me down as I had to play MK:DD NOW (Still don't regret it... as MK:DD, Windwaker & SSB:M all kept me a Happy Nintendo gamer for years.

GameCube highlights for me:
*The feel of the controller that my hand melted into and the lack of fumbling over buttons as you could feel exactly what you were pressing (why was his abandoned?!)
*Goodbye mushy blurry textures and super low-poly everything? Almost.
*The experience of Star Wars Rogue Leader was so cool that it overshadowed the horribly arcade rigid flight control.
*Metroid Prime was the Ocarina of its time — its transition to 3D near perfect.
*Mario Sunshine was so utterly beautiful you could almost overlook how stretched out it felt and how clunky it felt to clamp Mario's feet down to shoot water.
*Really loved certain segments of Everything or Nothing almost as much as Goldeneye — chasing Jaws on a motorcycle was such a rush.
*Wind Waker's visuals announced that Zelda was going to be a dynamic franchise.
*Wind Waker's visuals divided gamers in a way that amplified what was already happening in terms of visuals overshadowing fun and gameplay for many.
*Halfway through the life of this console I started to not care about third parties on Nintendo consoles — They started to pull away and it just didn't matter much to me.

That's a nice cake! I'm playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door now.

My GF bought me one at launch & was ripped off via ebay, as the seller charged her twice. It was luckily fixed by the bank. I remember how excited I was for it & how much I loved playing it. For me, the cube is one of the best pre internet gaming systems around. From the great Rogue Squadron, to Mario Sunshine, to Gladius and the great Prince of Persia remakes, it was one of the best of the past decade. The gameboy adapter was also very cool.

Wow, hard to believe its been so long, two console generations later and it somehow still feels like just yesterday. Nostalgia is funny that way, huh?

The Gamecube is easily one of my favorite consoles of all time, so many of my all-time favorite games are from that period too. Lost Kingdoms I&II, Custom Robo, Tales of Symphonia, Pikmin, Pokemon Colloseum/XD, Zoids: Battle Legends, and the list goes on. Smash Bros. Melee is one of the few games that barely work its been played so much (MH3 being the other).

It was a pretty interesting time for Nintendo as well, between the GBA player, GBA-Gamecube link cable, the Wavebird, e-reader, and the console as a whole. Its intersting, Nintendo never actually stopped experimenting, they just ignore power.

Unfortunately, an apparent disagreement between the Wii and 1049-block memory-cards wiped mine clean 13 years later. Seems noiser than I remember too, probably about time I take some compressed air to it.

Love you GameCube!! Wish I could play my cube library on wii u!! Hence the need for GameCube virtual console!! Someday......Meanwhile glad I bought a brand new one years back sealed and in my closet for backup!

@ZenTurtle

If U like RPGs then Baten Katos (and orgins), tales of symphonia, and Skies of Arcadia are all top notch.

Gladius is a very under appreciated srpg game made by Lucas and surprised no one mentioned MGS Twin Snakes which is a ps1 redo. Just so many great games Starfox Adventures is under appreciated as well and Sphynx also still looks great.

Truly GC gems have held up really well, much better than ps2 or DC IMO. Nintendo needs GC on WiiU VC now....you can already run GC on WiiU if you hack it so why wont Nintendo give it to buying customers?

The only games I got heavily into with the 'Cube were the first two "Metroid Prime" entries, and "Spider-Man 2". "The Wind Waker" was crap; I only reserved it at the time to get the Master Quest disc for "Ocarina of Time". I also liked "Mega Man Anniversary Collection", but it just wasn't the same as having the old carts.

@QuickSilver88
I live in Britain, where can I actually buy those games for a descent price? Ebay prices happen to be utterly ridiculous.... Thanks anyway though, I'll look out for such games

Out of all my old consoles, the GameCube is the one I still play the most.
Here's to another 13 years!

I have had many good times of playing Double Dash, Wind Waker and Sunshine on the purple cube machine. Heck I plan on playing the Gamecube version of Chaos Theory that I purchased very soon!