Flay

Taking a cue from Adam Sandler's Halloween Costume ideas, I have dubbed myself Crazy XBox Guy. Mainly for fun, but also to proclaim an affilation to a console. (As if most of you already didn't know. LOL!)

Also, for those who are wondering why I haven't posted a XBox kiosk review, I am remaining a Crazy XBox Virgin until the 15th. No way am I playing the XBox until I have it hooked up to my big TV with DD 5.1 sound blaring away.

Anyway, I got a chance to test out the Gamecube this weekend, so I wanted to write a review of the playable game demos and the controller.

First, the controller was much smaller than I thought, but it was quite comfortable. My main beef was that the directional Arrow pad is a bit too small for my fingers, but the control stick made up for that. The button layout was excellent, including the trigger buttons. For me, it is very easy to adapt to; just like the XBox controller.

I give the controller 8 out of 10.

Now to the Demos:

Star Wars: Rogue Leader II

This game really impressed me! The graphics are quite spectacular and the gameplay is very solid. The demo level is the Trench Run on the Death Star. The only flaw I saw was that it was too easy. I rarely got hit. But I bet the difficulty is preset on easy for the demo. Anyway, this is a must own game for any Gamecube Fan. I could see this game being a GOTY candidate with Halo and MGS2.

SWRL gets a well deserved 10 out of 10. The game is just that much fun!

Wave Race: Blue Storm

Graphically, it is quite superb. The improvement reallly isn't in the water itself, but the quality of what is reflecting off the water. If you are a fan of the old WaveRace, you will find the controls are quite similar. Hard to get the hang of, but easy after alot of practice. My main beef is that is just seemed way too similar to the old game. It just emits a feeling of: Been there, Done that.

WR gets a 6 out of 10 for those who have played the old version and 8 out of 10 for those who have not.

Luigi's Mansion:

This game will be a huge seller with the kids, but I wasn't impressed. Graphically, the game is excellent; yet too cartoonish for my tastes. The flashlight allows for an amazing lighting effect! Unfortunately, I see where the game will become very repetitive sucking up ghost after ghost. The control is also a bit confusing, similar to how Mario 64 was confusing to control at first. I was bored with the demo after about 5 to 10 minutes of play and quickly changed back to the RL demo.

LM gets a 4 out of 10. Nintendo should have know better than to send the this plumber to the GC first. Bring on Mario, you fools!

I didn't watch any of the videos. Videos are not much of an indicator of the games anyway. I would rather judge from an actual game demo than a video.

Wrapping up, I am very tempted to buy a Gamecube based on SWRL. Good Job Nintendo for having a great system seller to launch with the Gamecube!

Draven

There was a Cube Club at the Mall of America this past weekend, but I just couldn't find the time to make it over there. I would have been interested in "trying out" the system.

But it's good to hear Rogue Leader is worth a system purchase. That's the only game I was planning on getting at launch anyway.

Thanks for the review Flay

darkside

I got to try out the Gamecube. I didn't get to play Star Wars, but Rogue Leader II looks pretty awesome. I did play Wave Race and I give Wave Race a 9 out of 10. Maybe I just really like jet ski racing, but I was really impressed with Wave Race.

I will also have to go with the poor rating for Luigi. It's a beautiful looking game, but overall there is not much to it. I would definitely not buy it. Very little replay value.

The game I think is being overlooked is Super Monkey Ball. Its very, very addictive and a game thats definitely moved up on my list.

dek

Saw an Xbox crash with my own eyes over the weekend @ EB. Manager jumped over the counter and broke out the keys, turned it off, and wheeled it away.

Flay

That's funny, because Wired reported that the XBox's at Unleashed were running 12 hours straight without a crash. In fact, no XBox crashes have been reported from that show. The show lasted 48 hours by the way.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48109,00.html

darkside

I think the crashing was due to early versions of games like they said and not the hardware. I still haven't forgotten the problems with the first Dreamcast games. The things that cause crashes in Windows will not apply to a Console like the Xbox. Games do lock up on rare ocassions though. My PSX and Dreamcast have had it happen a few times and usually for no reason. It just happens.

spankyj

Flay - Thanks for the seemingly unbiased review of the GC. I must say that I expected a totally different review then what you gave. Thanks for your input on Star Wars, you may have just convinced me to buy it. Keep up the Crazy Xbox guy alias, he seems to be the better half!...for us GC fans anyways..

mmeadows

Having worked at EB and seen most of the managers for my region, I highly doubt that anyone jumped over anything. LMAO

porieux

I saw a crashed Xbox at a local Target yesterday.
Quite pathetic if you ask me. Exactly what I
would expect from microslop however

jeffdsmith

I too saw an Xbox go down. Just froze actually. This was at a target in West Lafayette IN.

jeff462v

Hmmm well i saw a GC freeze up at Wal-Mart when i was playing it . I told the guy working in electronics and he opened up the display it was in and turned it off then back on , problem fixed .


And i agree completly about the Star Wars game it had some awesome graphics and good play ability .

gr8vette

Whelp, I was in the local Toys R Us last night and played both the Gamecube and the Xbox... I am getting both on release day, but here are my thoughts on each:

Xbox... Man that box is big for a console, but who cares? I thoght the controller was perfect. Don't see what all the fuss is about it being "big"... Seemed perfect to me. I played the Oddwrold demo and within a minute, the controller was out of my mind. (Meaning that it is so good, I had mastered the controls.)

I thought the graphics/control/gameplay of Oddworld are exactly what has been advertised. (This is a good thing) The game was smooth, the graphics were awesome,a nd the control was crisp... It felt like a console game should. (This crap about all the games being PC-like is total bull...)

The Microsoft display was HUGE! Very nicely done.

The gamecube was smaller that I thought. I am sorry, but it looks like a toy. Again, not a bad thing... Who care what the actual console looks like... I was surprised at how small the controllers were. They look bigger in the magazine pictures. The controllers seemed pretty easy to use, but in all honesty, I thought the Xbox was a tad better...

They had Luigi's Mansion on demo. For the life of me I don't know why.... This game looks WORSE than it does in the screen shots! I was NOT impressed. Furthermore, I thought it controlled like CRAP!!! It was not intuitive at all...

Thank god they are coming out with the Star Wars game... That is the ONLY reason I am getting the gamecube. (From what I have read, Wave Race and Super Smash Brothers are the same game as on the N64 with updated graphics...)

To me, after seeing and playing both, the Xbox is the better system...