So I got a Gamecube for Christmas, and with some Christmas money bought Super Smash Brother Melee.

Store didn't have any Nintendo memory cards, so I bought a Mad Catz Memory Card. Well, I have two games, Pac Man World 2 and SSBM. I had played Pac Man for a while without a memory card, but then when I got the memory, it locked up the game after 2 levels or so. So I quit, and tried SSBM. Everything plays fine, except on the Pokeman Arena level. Suddenly, everthing gets real jagged, so you can't see what's going on, then the game freezes. Can't reset or anything, have to turn the power off.

I figure it's the cheap memory card. So I return it to Wal-Mart, and come home, cardless (they were completely out of Official Brand). So I play Pac Man for about a half hour, maybe longer, no problems. Then I play SSBM for a bit. Pokemon level comes up again, again, same problem. So I think, well maybe I've just got a bad game. My wife and I try the different levels, no problem, except on the Pokemon level. So I think, bad game.

So I return the game, get a replacement, get it home, and try it out. It plays the Pokemon level fine the first time around, but then later on, same damn thing again.

At this point, I'm forced to conclude that the Cube itself is the one with the problem. So I'm returning it for an exchange tomorrow, unless any intrepid dvdtalkers have any other possible explanations?

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a bad Cube. I would just exchange it.

I'm on the side of it being the cube's fault. You exchanged everything else, why not the gamecube?

That's exactly what happened to my GC. It would play some games for about 10 minutes and then freeze or not even load the game without freezing up. I took it back and I've been happy since.

Yup, looks like you just got a bad one.

Well, after much hassle at Wal-Mart (WITH a receipt, mind you) I got the Gamecube exchanged and now everything is groovy. Thanks for the help!

Cool that the problem's fixed... bummer that you had a bad time. I'd think this would be the easiest time of year to do a return, other than the lines you have to wait in.