You know how it is. One minute you're a youthful, exuberant 20-something, looking forward to being unleashed into the world and making your way; forging new relationships, getting a job, perhaps renting your first home. Your whole life is ahead of you! Then – BOOM – you're suddenly past 40, the last two decades have been a blur and to make matters worse, some crazy person on the internet tells you that the Nintendo GameCube is 20 years old.
That can't be right; we still vividly recall reading about the box-like console in magazines and getting unreasonably excited before pre-ordering that gorgeous box of gaming goodness only a few years back! Rogue Leader. Luigi's Mansion. Zelda: Wind Waker! All of those games feel so new, so recent; and now you're telling me this thing is a whole two decades old? That it's old enough to drink, smoke, get married and join the armed forces (in some countries, at least)?
Apologies, we're going to have to have a lie-down with a nice, warm mug of cocoa. It's all come as a bit of a shock, if we're honest. Where did all the years go? Ahem. In the meantime, check out our list of the best GameCube games, as well as our look at the history and impact of the machine.
A machine that is now 20 flippin' years old.
Comments (45)
What a weird little console, the small discs, the odd controller,...
But the games...just amazing!
Wow 20 years? Really? Damn, I'm 35 this year and now this has just made me feel ALOT older. Thanks NL!
Some of my favorite games of all time were on the GameCube, this is definitely one of my favorite home consoles!
I remember being outside a branch of Game soon after this was launched, and a bunch of teenagers were looking at it and laughing at how ridiculous it looked. Whatever your views on its aesthetics, it had some great games. Would be nice if Nintendo remembered that and gave us some more remasters or ports to go alongside Mario Sunshine and Luigi's Mansion!
I was 22 when that thing came out and I'm 42 now. Good god! Somebody get me a damn wheel chair!
Loved the gamecube though! The mini discs, great games and Nintendo taking more risks! I mean it didn't even launch with a mario game for crying out loud. That came a few months later. I still have two of them and one is my launch cube! Ran home to play Luigi's mansion and Rogue leader all night!
@JohnnyC It would be nice if they gave us Super Mario Sunshine 2 made in Mario Odyssey engine! 😍
Just think in 10 more years we can have our in GameCube classic
still got mine, perfect working order ... challenge is to find an old TV to use it with ....
Somehow i am not getting warm with the Console.
Bought one a few Years ago, since it and the Games where pretty cheap.
Best Game i played (on the Wii U) is Wind Waker
I didn't like the Camera in Mario Sunshine, so i was glad they changed it on 3D Allstars.
Still not a very good Mario 3D Title, 64 and Galaxy are brutally better.
Still want the Star Wars Games, they seemed and seem very tempting.
The first and only console I got on import as it took a while to release in Europe. Maybe one of my fav console of all time. It felt like Nintendo (and other dev) were more willing to experiment with games and ideas.
When the gamecube launched I had just barely started highschool. Many memories some good and some bad. But mostly good. I spent so much time playing melee against my friends lol
Released over here on May the 3rd.. .. I distinctly remember this because mine (with Star Wars : Rogue Leader) didn't turn up until the next day.
Just to reminisce for a minute... my dad queued at midnight for the Gamecube outside some Game store in Glasgow and was one of the first to get it, so we got a free game and loads of merch including an adult sized Gamecube t-shirt. Eleven year old me woke up the next morning to find the GC at the bottom of my bed in a surprise that, honestly, is still one of my fondest memories. I then wore the super oversized t-shirt to a school football tournament that day, along with a red Fred Durst NY cap. I was a complete loser, and it was awesome. Friday 3rd May 2002. Great day
Enjoyed my time playing Twilight Princess on the Game Cube.
20 years, man hard to believe. It deserved much better sales and recognition, its library is still top tier today. It's really aged well compared to N64 or Wii.
The Gamecube is still my favourite console. It has a lot of my favourite games of all time, or at least my favourite games in the respective series. Chibi-Robo, Pikmin 1/2, Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, Baten Katios, Harvest Moon AWL, Paper Mario TTYD, Metroid Prime 1/2, Luigi's Mansion, Tales of Symphona, some of the best Mario Party games, and so many more stellar titles.The Switch has come close, but hasn't quite taken the top spot for me yet.
I didn't grow up by Gamecube games during 2000's era. I knew there was Gamecube existence during PS2 era as i grew up by PS2 games during my college age started from year 2002.
But i started to buy Gamecube games in November 2016 after i grew up and got a job, started by Harvest Moon Magical Melody, Kao the Kangaroo Round 2, The Sims Bustin' Out as my starter games and i played them by using my Wii.
I got hiatus from thinking about Gamecube games for 4 years until i saw Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3, Starfox Adventures, Mario Power Tennis available from Tokopedia, i started to build my Gamecube games again during year 2021.
My personal opinion, Gamecube games library was pretty weak compared by PS2 games library as i played DDR, DrumMania, K-1, Monster Rancher 4, FF X, FF X-2, FF XII, Bomberman Battles, Bomberman Land 3, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life Special Edition, etc when i was 20's years old. I played more Japanese PS2 games than USA PS2 games.
I didn't really know much about 1st party Gamecube games as i found a lot of them are really expensive from Ebay and i have some interest with certain 1st party Gamecube games but not as big as my interest with PS2 games i have ever played.
Well, my life experience was different, guys.
I was a PlayStation guy during early 2000's era before Wii made me interested to get into Nintendo games again.
Yeah, this one was my childhood. So many great games but the best memories were from multiplayer games like TimeSplitters 2 and 007 Nightfire.
So hard to decide between this and the N64 as my favourite console however hands down it has my favourite controller. It was so strange but it just worked. Too bad it didn't get the market share it deserved!
I was really lucky to be old enough to be able to buy my Cube myself back in 2003. I already had the PS2 and being able to 2 current gen consoles simultaneously was brilliant. Though the PS2 got more use, the excellent exclusives I played and still own on the Cube left the most lasting impressions. The graphics wiped the floor with the PS2 (only Halo on my friend’s Xbox out did it) and the controller, though mocked at the time, is in hindsight almost perfect (I still use a wavebird as my go to controller for VC games on the Wii). Add the Gameboy Player and GBA connectivity and you have a unique little system that has stood the test of time. It’s first party games still look excellent today as well as a few second and third party ones.
I miss the GC and it's the only console Nintendo continually ignores when it comes to releasing their back catalog so I have to resort to setting up my GC or Wii (both somehow still work after such a long time) if I want to play the vast majority of its fantastic games.
A beautiful machine.
Happy birthday
Got my Gamecube on Christmas 2001 with Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Bros Melee, it quickly became my favorite console.
Funny enough, my Switch acquisition was kinda parallel, as I got it on Christmas 2019 with Luigi's Mansion 3 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The difference is that I got it with my own money.
I recently repaired mine after 15 years of being out of commission. Back in 2006 one ex boyfriend of my sister got too excited and pulled the console from three shelf and it fell from a height of about a meter, he never bothered to give us anything for it.
Due to that, it couldn't read discs or recognize the player 1 controller. I would've tried to find a solution back then, but my attention was now on the Wii, which now also needs its own repairs.
A few months ago I got the screwdriver to open it and I saw why it couldn't recognize P1 controlle: the controllers board was cracked. Thankfully I had a broken GameCube for spare parts and could easily swap it.
As for the lens it just needed a simple adjustment and now my Gamecube is back in action after a decade and a half of retirement.
At first I thought the Gamecube was my favorite console due to nostalgia, but playing its games in recent days I see that they still hold up pretty well.
I'll never forget picking up my Gamecube on launch day. I woke up at 3am and drove to Walmart to wait for them to open. On the way I witnessed a crazy meteor shower.
Got mine for $99 bundled with Zelda collection. A price my parents couldn't say no to that Xmas.
The GOAT.
I have very fond memories of playing mine during my teenage years, and that's at the time overlooking titles like Metroid Prime and Mario Sunshine.
You are strong and wise, and I am very proud of you.
When my oldest daughter was about 1yr old she used to love to watch me play Luigi's Mansion before bed. The GameCube will always have a special place in my heart because of this memory.
Still the worst console i've ever owned. Never going back there again - although SOME of the games were pretty nice. Not good enough, but nice.
The most amazing thing about the console is durability. I got one when they came out, and it still works perfectly fine.
@elhozzo
RE: still got mine, perfect working order ... challenge is to find an old TV to use it with ....
I saw this RCA to HDMI converter that could allow you to hook up your GC to an HDMI TV / Monitor.
https://www.amazon.com/Converter-ABLEWE-Composite-Supporting-Blue-Ray/dp/B07RX69KR8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=RCA+to+HDMI+converter&qid=1631630323&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=A3NP7PQ5ZA4FEW&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzU0o1RUZMSVhaMVFTJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzI5NzIwMlFJMkdMWk00QkE2MCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMjA4OTQyVzA5RTBNMjdXUTFZJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==
I haven't gotten this yet because I still have 3 Tube TVs in my house.
That and I play our GC games through our Wii that is hooked up to our HDMI TV with this cheap Wii to HDMI adapter.
https://www.amazon.com/Converter-Adapter-hdmi1080p-Connector-Output/dp/B078MGZ56R/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=wii+to+hdmi+adapter&qid=1631630462&sr=8-3
I had had the Game Boy before our oldest was born.
But the Game Cube was our 1st gaming system as a family.
It was a gift from my older sister. She had heard me say I was looking to get a Nintendo 64 so that I could eventually play games with my young daughter. That Christmas she gave us the Game Cube. (She had already gotten one for her family, with their kids being much older than ours.)
Until our oldest was able to drive the karts in Mario Kart, she had a blast being the weapons expert in the back seat! (What a great feature of Mario Kart Double Dash!)
As she got older, she got better at driving.
And over the years, as our friends (and their kids) came over, Super Smash Melee became a pretty consistent game played in our game room.
Since then, we've gotten the Wii, Wii U and now the Switch.
But I still have our Game Cube. It is hidden away in my workshop (plugged in to hopefully preserve the battery.) TBH . . . if the kids want to play a GC game, they play it on the Wii that I still have hooked up to our game TV. But every now and then I plug in the GC to one of the Tube TVs I still have and play a few rounds of Mario Kart Double Dash. LOL.
We'll all be dead in the ground before we know it
The GameCube's 20 years old now??? I was 9 years old when it came out - that's how old I was when me and my brother got it as a Christmas gift. Lots of good games and memories I had with it. Happy anniversary, GameCube!
@NintendoDad
thanks for the links! my tube tv died a few days ago ....so might get that HDMI connector (expected it to cost a lot more) so I can continue with GC goodness!
@elhozzo
+1
Enjoy!
My Tube TV is still working. (Knock on wood.) But for when it finally stops working, I was wondering what my options would be.
Oh, yeah. If you have the 1st version of the Game Cube with the digital out port, there is a more expensive (better) adapter available.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/01/hardware_review_eon_gchd_mk-ii_gamecube_hdmi_adapter_-_the_best_just_got_better
My GC is the 2nd version, so no digital out port. So I'm restricted to the (cheap) RCA to HDMI adapter.
Smash Ultimate is good, but...
IT'S NOT MELEE
Can you believe that at the time this thing was considered a failure? Suppose in a few years we'll be looking back at the WiiU Positively.
But I'll make this quick; Alongside the NES we needed to fight with to get it to work and PC games, this was my first real Video game system, and it might be the reason i game today, much like many others of my generation. IF ONLY i didn't get it right as the Wii era was starting...
But anyway, even though i didn't get it during it's, er, is heyday the right term? anyway, even though i came in late, it still left the impact it needed to, and that's what i think matters.
The GameCube is the first of the few midnight launches I ever did. I remember it so well. I’ll always have a soft spot for GameCube because in its lifetime I started my first job in high school and was able to pay for those little discs. I had the most fun with that console I think. I’m so looking forward to getting monkey ball on the switch soon as that’s one of its classics.
My console from my teen years. So much Melee, Mario kart double dash, Mario golf and above all WWE Day of Reckoning! So much multiplayer fun with me, my brother and his super-baked friends.
@Zeldafan79 exact same age and pretty much exact same memory!
I never understood why PS2 and Xbox were so much more popular. While I like that whole generation of consoles a ton, GC is my easy favorite.
GC games still look quite solid if the resolution is scaled for modern TVs. I have one of those HDMI adapters for mine and not that long ago played through Pokemon Colosseum using it. It was a great time!
So Nintendo, let's get some more GC era ports! Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Double Dash, Twilight Princess?
Like I don't even need remakes. Just cleaned up ports.
I know how unlikely it is, but if we got the Pokemon titles my dream would be that they can natively send Pokemon to Home as well. Although that can still be done with the originals. You just have to trade them to the GBA titles first, move them to the DS 4th gen games, then to the 5th gen games. From there you can send them into Pokemon Bank on 3DS and from there you can send them into Home.
Yes, I have done that many times. lol
I wasn't a big fan of Luigi's Mansion or the Gamecube Mario games. I've since changed my mind on Luigi's Mansion at least, thanks to the 3DS version.
It was a time when I stopped playing games alone as much, so most of my highlights were multiplayer. Mario Smash Football (which I still love and got loads of play on the Wii), Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Timesplitters 2 (though we mostly continued playing Perfect Dark instead), F-Zero GX...
I tried Rogue Leader for the first time recently, and there are still other games I have like Metroid Prime, Beyond Good and Evil, and especially Eternal Darkness that I mean to play...
I loved Pikmin 2 but didn't play it much.
@Heavyarms55
"I never understood why PS2 and Xbox were so much more popular."
Well, maybe because PS2 has tons of variety games especially Rhythm games by Konami that directly ported from Arcade machines. Also, PS2 can play PS1 games as long the game's region matched with the machine's region. I personally adore PS2 than Gamecube in term of games library and their available genres.
I saw XBOX just like another version of PS2 machine with four exclusive DDR Ultramix 1 - 4 on XBOX, not a really worthy machine to play.
I could never get used to the controller, especially for 1 on 1 fighters which was my go to genre. As such I gave the GC a pass. I now have a Wii to may purchase a few choice games (f-zero gx!).
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