The future of your cube

[CMoon]

Ugh, I hate to even be starting a topic like this, but I figure there is no where else to complain about the problem.

So, the cube in retrospect wasn't quite the failure the N64 was, but the number of good games is really small. Add to that the GBA library, and you still only end up with maybe 10 games you probably want to return to.

So here at the very end of its life, two so-so games, Chaos Field and Radirgy become available for the console for extremely cheap. Over the past week or so I've been weighing this against the problematic cube controller, the weakness of the systems library, etc. Namely, I really hate to invest anymore in this doomed and unloved console (buying the games and a different controller.)

Ultimately I just decided to get the PS2 version off ebay for $40 (twice the price of the domestic version.)

Are any of the rest of you in this teetering delimma (how much money do you throw at a dead system with only a few good games?) or am I the last person to still have a cube?

[Ceph]

I still have one but never got many games for it, that's why I started this thread a few days ago, maybe you saw it

EDIT: Yeah, you posted there, too.

[Turrican]

I bought the system in an impulse in 2003 - had I known better, I should've taken an xbox instead.

The cube was a sounding failure to me, especially due to its joypad to which I never quite got accustomed to. It detracted pleasure from the few games I played on it, like Soul Calibur or Twin Snakes.

Still, the very first year with the cube was awesome, it seemed like cube was going to rock the world. Zelda WW and Prime were really great games.

However, I am the kind of stubborn guy which is always determined to make any system purchase a worthy one, so I refuse to jump on Wii early, and will probably build a respectable cube lineup instead. I just ebayed Pac-man VS which is the most quality stuff I'm missing, and I will get some Pikmin and some Monkey Ball as well.

Now I just hope Play.com will ship my TP preorder soon, and with that the Cube is going for another great christmas holiday.

[Neon]

I can probably get one for free, lots of people I know are getting Wii's. Then it's time for Mr. Driller Drill Land. I might get the N64 Zelda's for it and a gameboy player, but that's about it. Shitty console.

I kinda thought the controller was really nice ergonomically, but the button layout, dpad, and both analogs just suck. Especially the c stick, in addition to the stick part being to small there are dpad 'tracks' in it that it always gets caught in...what the hell were they smoking?

Also really stupid you have to pay $60 for a component cable, I got a combination xbox/ps2 one for like $6.

[iatneH]

I just bought Super Monkey Ball 2 and F-Zero GX 2 weeks ago, bringing my 3-year old Cube collection up to a whopping 3 games (although I had Ikaruga for a while - sold when I got the DC version).

I hate the D-pad just as much as the next guy, but that's why I have 3 Cube Joyboxes that I can use with my arcade sticks. I suggest everyone who still has a Cube to pick up a few.

[CMoon]

I still have one but never got many games for it, that's why I started this thread a few days ago, maybe you saw it

EDIT: Yeah, you posted there, too.

DOH!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... diot&hl=en

[Pixel_Outlaw]

It will just collect dust with my other systems. I was stupid enough to think that the US system would have more than a handfull of good games. Do I regret buying it?-No. Nintendo, as of late, seems to HEAVLY favor action games based on television franchises. Which as a whole are poorly made and designed.

Nintendo Entertainment System- Loved it fresh and innovative ideas.
Super Nintendo-See NES, plenty of developer support.
Nintendo 64-Lack of developers but nintendo still produced some quality games.
Sintendo GamePube-It had some damn good games but I still feel shorted by the American selection.

What will the Wii hold for the US shmupper, well at least I'll be able to play some older games-From my region .

I still like nintendo as a game company but think they have missed the boat and dropped the ball a few times.

[professor ganson]

Good question. My daughter loves the Cube, so I have no worries that it will get dusty. Though if it weren't for her, it would probably get completely neglected.

What I'm wondering about are two games that were promised for the Cube: a Kirby game and a Paper Mario platformer. Anyone heard anything recently about these?

[Daigohji]

^ Last I heard about Super Paper Mario was the rumour of it going to the Wii instead, though I don't think there's any firm news on that front.

I've got 23 GC games, and most of them are worthy of retaining a place in my collection. Poor old cube; it started so well, but the last 18 months it's just gone down the toilet. There was a time when I would have said the strength of it's good:bad game ratio was second only to the Dreamcast, but there's been nothing but worthless trash coming out for it recently.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

My GC collection consists of RE4, VJ, and Ikaruga. I have considered getting rid of it but RE4 is too much of a classic and I want the best version. I've considered Super Monkey Ball 2 too. It's collecting dust at the moment.

[Vexorg]

I haven't bothered much with my Cube ni a while, and now that it's been superseded by my Wii (which will play all the games) I'm probably going to end up selling my Cube off or trading it in, although I'll probably keep most of the games. I probably need to pick up a Wavebird or two at some point as well.

[Rob]

So, the cube in retrospect wasn't quite the failure the N64 was,

Oh no way. The N64 was a good casual or secondary system, GC was completely skippable.

But to the point of the thread... I'd rather get as much use out of a disappointing console as possible, which GC most certainly is. I think the regular controller is not terrible for shooters (played Shikigami 2 fine a few years ago). I've already played these games as much as I wanted to, though. Can't win localizing shooters.

[dave4shmups]

Who knows; I just traded it, and the GB player in the other day, at GameCrazy. I'm just really into my PS2 at the moment, and picked up some great games for it with the credit I got.

I am keeping both Sonic Collections, and the GC Digital controller, and my GB, GBC, and GBA games. I plan to pick up a Wii and a DS Lite, though not neccesarily in that order. As for the GB and GBC games, heck, I'll just pick up one of GameCrazy's $7.99 Game Boy Color's. Not backlit, but for those games, I don't feel like shelling out for a GBA-SP.

I traded all my other Cube games in. I just hate the button config. on the Cube controller, so it looks like I'll just be playing the Mega Man and Sonic Collections on the Wii.

[dave4shmups]

So, the cube in retrospect wasn't quite the failure the N64 was,

Oh no way. The N64 was a good casual or secondary system, GC was completely skippable.

I would agree; the Cube has some incredible graphics, but the games were mostly dissapointing-whether Mario or Zelda, and Metroid Prime had a ridiculous control scheme.

[Ed Oscuro]

If it weren't for the ridiculous number of Resident Evil games, the Cube most certainly would be dead to me. I really appreciate the Game Boy Player, though, and it's my only GBA hardware in the house. I bought the system during the first week of the GC + GBP package deal for $150. I think I have more GBA games than GC titles.

Also, I have 90+ hours on a single character in Phantasy Star Online, all played offline. Really puts my time wasting into perspective, doesn't it?

Next stop: PS2.

[professor ganson]

GC was completely skippable.

I would agree; the Cube has some incredible graphics, but the games were mostly dissapointing-whether Mario or Zelda, and Metroid Prime had a ridiculous control scheme.

Yeah, I'm left wondering what series were really advanced on the Cube, apart from the usual graphics upgrade. Mario? Zelda? Mario RPG? Mario Kart? Metroid? Pokemon? Kirby? I see no real progress and some steps backward.

New series? Pikmin and Animal Crossing for the kiddies. Wario Ware is a handheld thing imo. Can't think of anything significant, but I might be forgetting something.

Fans of Resident Evil will allow some progress on the Cube. Maybe I should give these another try.

In spite of all of this I'm hopeful regarding the Wii. I saw some AMAZING footage of Twilight Princess at EB Games yesterday. This one looks worth it for the fishing minigames alone! Metal Slug should be nice as well.

[Rob]

F-Zero was better off because of Sega's hand in it. That's all, but I'm not a fan of Metroid.

New series: none of interest to me.

[Alec]

I had a cube for a little while. I sold it several years ago. I wound up using it as a gameboy console more than i did for cube games. The sad part about the system was that the majority of Nintnedo games on the console were rehashes of N64 games and for the most part weren't as fun. Mario Sunshine, Zelda Wind Waker, and Mario Kart Double Dash all bored me to death. Its because of that that I sold my Gamecube and also why I am very skeptical of the Wii. I'll probably wind up with a Wii some time next year anyways though.

[JJG]

This thread is blah....

[Arvandor]

I bought my cube for Smash Bros, and we still play the game to this day. Ikaruga wasa very happy thing to happen to the GC, and is what really caused me to become a shmupaholic. I'd always played shmups, just never really got into them or took them too seriously... Just enjoyed them. I also got a big kick out of the Metroid Primes (though the first was far superior to the second), I-Ninja, Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles, Killer 7, Viewtiful Joe (!!!), Alien Hominid, Super Monkey Ball 2, Paper Mario:Thousand Year Door, Lost Kingdom 2, Summoner:Goddess Reborn or whatever, some multi-platform games that are irrelevant to the argument (yes I know about Alien Hominid, and VJ even though it didn't start multi-platform), and some of the Dreamcast ports before I actually started buying games for my Dreamcast (longish story).

Not a particularly special console, and not one that I'll tell people they need to go out and buy, but definately not a disappointment in my eyes.

[Never_Scurred]

I bought my cube explicitly for Ikaruga. I later copped F-Zero GX and Resident Evil 4 cause it was cheap.


Btw, am I the only person that thinks the aiming/combat system in that game is broken? Maybe its because I spent so much time with the previous RE games that I was able to get used to their control schemes? I cannot get into RE4 at all. Its broken to me.

[scrilla4rella]

for me, all the GC has got is RE4 (amazing!!), Pikmin, and Mario Kart. I liked wind waker too.

[JJG]

The real question is how many games that you like do you have to have on a system for it to be worth it to you?

For me that answer is one, and on the GC I've got at least fifteen.

[Rob]

The real question is how many games that you like do you have to have on a system for it to be worth it to you?

If like = one where it feels like I'm not just wasting time then I've found zero. I'll take one of those.

[Pirate1019]

I have a shitload of games for the cube. It was my only console purchase this generation, although I'm getting a PS2 for christmas. It had enough good games to keep me interested.

Metroid Prime
F-Zero
Paper Mario
Tales of Symphonia
Final Fantasy: Chystal Chronicles
Batan Kaitos
Batan Kaitos: Origins
Alien Hominid
Ikaruga
Radirgy
Skies of Arcadia: Legends
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Super Monkey Ball 1/2
Soul Calibur 2
Super Smash Bros: Melee

Several were remakes of DC games, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Did I feel like I missed out on some good experiences my not getting any other consoles? Yes. Do I regret buying the console? No.

Besides, it was (is) cheaper then the other consoles.

[mannerbot]

The cube is worthless ($ wise) and there's a decent library of solid/great games. Selling it certainly isn't worth the effort so I'm keeping it forever.

Maybe I'm just totally missing it but I don't see any point to this thread. Future of the GCN? Twilight Princess with traditional controls. It's old shit, of course there isn't going to be anything new coming out.

[Andi]

Final Fantasy: Chystal Chronicles

You know, at first, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles made me mad as hell. You had to use a Gameboy to play 2 player, and despite the fact that the devoted an entire Gameboy to displaying menus, the menus were awful and didn't tell you important stuff (like how many materials it takes to make an item, or your gold amount while you are in a shop). Plus, it has a ton of obscure game play systems that only begin to make sense after you've researched them on the internet. And the world map takes about 2 hours to get anywhere on because of the boring story encounters and the elemental fields you have to pay attention to.

My roommate really wanted to play it though, so we played it for about half the game and then I quit. We started again months later and we got a little farther before I quit. Now we are playing again (because we haven't got any new two player games in a while) and since I've prepared myself for most aggrivating and stupid parts of the game, I'm actually sort've enjoying it.

[PFG 9000]

I don't have a GC, but I'll be buying one as soon as the price drops to $40 for a used console. I already have Ikaruga and Chaos Field, and I'll be picking up Metroid Prime and Echoes soon.

So, the cube in retrospect wasn't quite the failure the N64 was,

Oh no way. The N64 was a good casual or secondary system, GC was completely skippable.

I think both consoles had a handful of excellent titles and a whole ton of crap. The thing that killed the N64 for me was the ugly bland polygonal look of most games. At least the GC took care of that problem. Though I hate both controllers.

[D]

F-Zero was better off because of Sega's hand in it.

SFC F-Zero and N64 F-Zero X suck then? *a Sega fanboy shakes his head*.
GC owners that buy a Wii are very generous, they will trade their GC with you if you supply them with the peripheral of their choice. The Wii supposedly plays their GC content as well.

[JJG]

You have to understand that the N64 looked awesome for its time.