Post-Launch Software Drought for the Gamecube.
 

As far as AAA Titles go or even great titles. I'm NOT talking about titles already released. I'm talking about the Release list for the next 2 months. Take a look. This list was complied using release dates at EBGAMES and GAMESTOP.

From December 7th to Febuary 10th:

12/15/01 -- NFL Quarterback Club 2002: This game always sucks. Acclaim is terrible at sports games. Just look at All-Star Baseball.

12/19/01 -- Universal Studios Theme Park: Sorry, but, this reeks of pure crap.

Cel Damage: Sucks on the XBox. Will suck on the Gamecube.

Simpson's Road Rage: This will suck on all 3 consoles. The PS2 version got a 5.1 at IGN.

01/09/02 -- 18 Wheeler: Didn't work on the DC. Not gonna work on the GC.

01/14/02 -- NBA Courtside: Probably be above average and maybe quite good, but not a superb title.

01/29/02 -- NFL Blitz 2002: Every console is getting it. Blitz is always the same.

01/30/02 -- ESPN Winter Games 2002: Every console gets it. Blah.

02/06/02 -- Dark Summit: Proven Above Average Title on PS2 and Xbox, but not AAA.

And Finally, the drought is over.

02/11/02 -- Eternal Darkness: The Resident Evil killer. AAA written all over it. This game will rock.

But not even that is a sure thing anymore. www.gamerlog.com is reporting a delay of ED in Japan to Summer 2002. Could mean a delay for the States.

If that's the case, then March would have to be the month to break the drought with titles like WWF Westlemania, Batman: Dark Tomorrow, Galleon on March 15th and StarFox on March 25th.

But now that's 3 months. Whoa! Can the current library can hold Gamecube fans for the next 65 days or possibly 95 days?

I knew this going in. The Cube will never have as many titles as the Xbox or PS2. Considering how far I'm behind on games to play right now I will need a couple of months to catch up.

Eh...
I dont know if that really matters to me. I have twice as many XBox games as Cube games right now but the % of time I spend with each probally comes out a little in the Cubes favor. I beat Halo and I mostly play Monkey ball and Rogue now. I havent unlocked everything in Project Gothem yet and havent even started Starfighter yet so I would be happy with less Cube titles if they are as engrossing as the two I have right now.

:thumbsup:

41 for GameCube Through March 2002

Nintendo indicates there will be 41 titles on the market for GameCube by the time
March 2002 hits.

November 27, 2001

According to an interview with Bloomberg, word out of Nintendo of Japan's Managing
Director Yoshihiro Mori indicates that the company will triple its GameCube software
lineup to 41 released titles by the end of March 2002. With nearly 15 already on the
market and 20 planned by the end of the year, that would mean the software stream
would slow by 66%, offering just over 20 more titles in the first three months of 2002
versus the 20 released to GameCube in the first month of launch.
" Currently, however, our US release list only tells the story of 11 planned releases. This
leaves a lot of room for release date shuffles and new game announcements. Likewise,there's equally just as much room for delays and cancellations.

Still, it seems Nintendo is keeping a good eye on software flow to GameCube. So far GameCube support far surpasses the company's N64 lineup in terms of volume. With any luck there won't be too many dry spells, which are of course the bane of a gamer's
existence.

http://cube.ign.com/news/40101.html
"

Also, Myamoto(or somehting, the nintendo dude) said that Nintendo will be releasing one in house game per month.. so that means, Metroid, Zelda, Pikmin 2, Mario Sunshine....and more...

I'm not worried, it's quality over quantity...although lots of bad games are OK too...

Well, I would consider the next 65 days to be a dry spell. Is anyone going to buy any of those games on that list besides Eternal Darkness?

My post X-mas gift certificate fueled spending spree will include...

Max Payne - Box
Super Smash Bros - Cube
Obiwan - Box
Eternal Darkness - Cube

And if there isnt a GOOD NBA game for the immediate future I may pick up a Cube BB title. Im staying FAR away from Live. :mad:

So... probally 50/50.

I'm a Gamecube owner, and the only new titles between now and March I'm picking up are Simpson's Road Rage and Eternal Darkness. I will probably also buy Super Smash Brothers Melee in the meantime.

Yes, there is a drought between now and then, but it's no big deal for me. My main gaming rig is my PC, and I could play Civ3 alone between now and march if I had to. Not to mention that several of the Gamecube games have great replay value, especially Super Monkey Ball and Super Smash Brothers Melee.

Looking at the Xbox release list, the only game I'd possibly buy in that time frame would be Obi-Wan anyway.

The only games that I'm looking to buy are:

<b>Eternal Darkness - this one has gold written all over it!
<p>
Batman: Dark Tomorrow
<p>
StarFox
<p>
Cel Damage
</b>

After March I suspect Nintendo will announce other 'flag ship' titles.

Also in May '02 do you think we'll see an Episode II game? I wouldn't be surprised;)

At least it looks better than the N64 did when it had its first few months. All there was for that was Mortal Kombat Gold and Wave race for a few months.


I'm thinking Eternal Darkness is going to be a flop. From the looks of the movies I've seen and the response from E3, the game is too stiff, the controlls and animation are bad and the game is uneventfull. To me it looks like another EVIL DEAD: Hail to the King.


In January you have Namco's Smash N Drive Racer
February brings Legends of Wrestling
Although it hasn't been annouced, I'm expecting RE to make an appearance very early next year as well.

This really is a non-issue. Every system has a lull time right after the holidays, for obvious reasons. Usually games that are brought out in January and February are there because they missed their November-December target date.

ebgames lists 7 games in January and 8 in February for X-Box.

Knew this going in, thanks for the update, doesn't matter to me.

I bought a Cube, and realized that Nintendo is always slow at first, it's a non issue to me as well.

I currently have 5 Cube games to play, so I'm satisfied.

Luigi's Mansion(I really should finish this)
Super Monkey Ball
Rogue II(absolutely hate this)
Pikmin(still sealed :blush: )
Super Smash Bros:Melee

So for now, it's <b>ALL</b>good

When i first looked at the list a few weeks ago at what was coming up in the next few months i was a little disappointed to see not many games i was excited about. But then i sat down with the five games i have for the cube already and realized that in the next 3 months i probably won't have unlocked and beaten everything there is to beat on the games i have already - even if i stopped playing pc games and just focused on the cube. I personally hate using any codes to unlock anything on a game that i purchased so that means taking the long route on Tony Hawk 3, Rogue Leader, Smash Brothers, and SSX Tricky. I also have Wave Race but it has pissed me off over the last couple days I have put that game on "time out" until i feel i can pick it up again without smashing a controller.

I also have a couple games i want to rent and beat such as Luigis Mansion and Batman Vengeance - these titles didn't look like they had enough replay value to own but i defin want to see and play them.

Overall my only disappointment is i wish online play would be coming sooner rather than later. I really wish i could play Smash Brothers multiplayer online.

yeah I'm not too worried either. The PS2 had a drought of good games for about a year since its launch until a few months ago and look how it turned out. Now its probably the best system with the most must-play titles.

I've already got too many games to play right now, I will probably get pikmin next month seeing how I'm too busy playing the ones I already have(although I'm really want to play it now!). I haven't even tried out Luigi yet but I'm looking forward to that as well.

Every system has a slow period after launch, even the x-box has one in about the same time period considering I've already own the good ones like Max Payne, in a few months the next wave of killer titles will be announced for each system.

Heh, i'm so far behind on games - i mean i still haven't even started playing Shenmue on the dreamcast and i picked that game up on launch. Same thing with Spiderman on the DC. And all this is not to mention the various PC games i've shelved without playing more than a little bit. Fortunately i convinced myself not to buy the new Star Wars RTS game or AvP2 because i know i totally won't get to them so they would be a waste of cash. Personally i blame it all on Tony Hawk - Tony Hawk 2 took up all my DC playtime and now TH3 is doing the same thing on the cube... the curse of excellent games ;)

Where in the BLUE HELL are the pics and/or previews for WWF Wrestlemania GC? For a game slated for release in March, there hasn't been one single image or info released. What worries me is that the developer (Asmik) who made the great No Mercy and Wrestlemania 2000 for N64, is not doing it for the GC. If that's the case, that will be very dissapointing.

Also, games like Eternal Darkness, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong Racing, and Perfect Dark Zero are noticably absent too. Is there some special convention later on where they will show more? C'mon already! :mad: The E3 is all the way in May.

I'm fine with what I've got. Rogue Leader, Wave Race, Madden, and Tony Hawk are keeping me busy. I haven't had hardly any time to play them with work and finals coming up. Plus I'm expecting to get Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Monkey Ball for X-mas. Those will definitely keep me busy until Feb/March when I'll probably pick up Eternal Darkness, NBA 2K2 (assuming NBA Courtside doesn't end up being better), and Star Fox Adventures.

I hardly consider that a drought of titles. It averages out to more than a game a month, and I don't even have time to keep up with that. Plus, IMO, the X-box titles are much worse, beyond Halo their hasn't been another singles exclusive title announced that interests me in the least. And I'm talking period, not just the next couple of months.

It just depends on what kind of games you like, and how many you need. I don't have a ton of time for games anymore, and I prefer to thoroughly beat games, rather than just blowing throw them as fast as I can and never touching them again. So the Gamecube releases are fine for me. If you're a hardcore gamer that spends all your free time playing video games, then I can see where it would be a problem.

Actually there is one game i was a little bummed to see is exclusive to the xbox (and only because i loved the first one and i don't intend to buy an xbox to just play this one game) and that is the new Jet Grind Radio. One of my favourite games on the DC and i was a little disappointed to see Sega not multi-platform that title and make it an xbox exclusive. But who knows maybe in a year or so we will get Jet Grind Radio Future Tricky Hardcore ;) or something like that ;)

I hated JGR on the DC so I don't care about that one. ;)

Hey now - those are fightin' words ;) Actually the game got super frustrating because some of it was so incredibly difficult and repetitive but i thought the game was gorgeous and i even liked the soundtrack. (a sidenote is that i pre-ordered it and lucked into getting a copy of the soundtrack. The store i ordered it from only got 1 maybe 2 copies of the soundtrack and i pestered them into letting me have it)

The graphics were great. But the repetition is what killed it for me. I got bored with it very quick. Rolling around doing tricks, dodging stuff, and doing stupid button combinations to paint grafitti just didn't do it for me. I didn't care for the sound track either. At any rate, we're pulling the thread off-topic so I'll shut up now. :D