Maxflier

Nintendo's choice of controller design is what has dissuaded me from buying any of their consoles after the SNES (which was awesome).

chess

How strange.

I think the N64 and CG controllers (in that order) are my two favorite controllers ever. Especially loved the Z trigger on the N64.

Gallant Pig

Hey Chess - I take it you didn't buy the GCN at launch? Why not? I guess that'd be the same reason tons of other people had and thus it "lost".

chess

No, I'm not a good indicator. I simply wasn't in the market yet.

I still had a ton of PS1 titles to catch up on and a brand new N64 with all of its AAA titles (a few of which I STILL haven't finished). Similarly, I have a ton of GCN and PS2 titles to catch up on now...not to mention GBA and DS.

I'm one of those guys that pretty much stays at least half a generation behind, and I also generally only buy "greatest hits" titles at $20.

Nintendo basically made an offer that I just couldn't refuse with the free Zelda and the free Mario Sunshine, so it got picked up earlier than usual. Once Metroid Prime came out, I'd pretty much made up my mind for this generation (with the notable exception of GTA).

All that said, I may pay full price for the Wii...depending on early reviews...that thing looks tits.

GreenMonkey

Cube saw the most multiplayer use - by far. Warioware, Smash Bros, Mario Kart DD (awesome, minus the suckass battle mode, better than MK64 IMO), Super Monkey Ball. Single player for me was limited to ZeldaWW and a few hours of Metroid. I've still got Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Arcadia to play though (I sold my DC copy of Skies).

PS2 saw way more single player use. Maximo, Devil May Cry, Twisted Metal Black, FFX, Star Ocean 3, etc.

PS2 had 2 out-the-door advantages: PS1 compatibility, and DVD player functionality. DVD was taking off at the time, and a PS2 was just a tiny bit more than a DVD player - a no brainer.

Later it became the games, but there weren't many games early in its lifespan - at the beginning it was the

1) Superior Sony Marketing B.S. (Toy Story rendered in real time, baliistic missile thing, etc)
2) Backwards compatibility
3) DVD playback at just the right time

Fincher Fan

Chess, you forgot to mention REmake. The very reason I bought the console!

Bluebomber

It boils down to games, the titles the OP listed as A list did not appeal to every person out there and on top of that there were huge gaps between just the games listed in the first post timewise. On the other hand with the ps2 you couldn't spit without hitting a good or at the very least interesting game and the xbox had a hell of a lot more then just 2-3 A titles and in a lot of cases ports looked slightly to a lot better on the system.


I personally think another big reason is the odd choices made with a few big franchise names, Star Fox being Nintendo's only real space shooter so what happens to it? A hell of a lot of ground based missions get thrown into it. But of course the game that could make or break them, Zelda gets a HUGE graphics style change from realistic which had people drooling to cell shaded which caused a lot of i'm not buying this right off the bat. That was definatly the straw that broke the camel's back and about the time I noticed a ton of people jump ship.

V-ism

I think first and foremost is their image. Even though they tried to expand third party support and gain more older gamers (Resident Evil, Eternal Darkness, Killer 7), they are still known as the kiddy brand, and drive most of the mainstream public away, especially those that didn't play NES/SNES growing up. I'm not even sure if the Mario mascot even appeals to the younger kids today. The kids that I know all prefer Jak and Daxter and Master Chief over Mario.

So some love Nintendo first party games. Maybe they love Mario and Zelda. If these are the flagship games of the system there should be quite a few of them. In the life of the console so far, we had one main Mario adventure game and one Zelda game. While the Playstation 2 has had 3 Jak games, 3 Sly games, 3 Ratchet & Clanks, 3 SOCOMs. And Xbox had 2 Halo games. Maybe Nintendo is just too slow in giving people what they want. Is it really that hard to make another Smash Bros. game?

The other big reason is third party support. They had the least third party games and many third party developers have jumped ship because they felt it wasn't worth the effort to release on Gamecube. I know in my case since I owned all third consoles that when games come out for all 3 systems, the Gamecube version usually didn't win. Whether it be because the game plays awkwardly on the Gamecube controller or the Gamecube's graphics don't fare as well.

Although online play would have been nice on the Gamecube, I don't think it would have made that big an impact on its success.

chess

Loved it on the PS1, but the control scheme felt antiquated to me on the GC. I may have to pick it up again some time (still own it), but at this point, if I'm going to play through a RE game...it's gonna be RE4.

RichC2

It's sort of lame reasoning on my behalf, but the sense of discovery, wonder and accomplishment (can't get much cornier than that , but it's true) that filled every inch of Metroid Prime was completely absent in Echoes. Whereas Prime felt like an action/adventure game in 1st person, Echoes felt like a full-on, generic FPS.

Ralph Wiggum

I'm a big Nintendo guy, but my PS2 permanent collection outnumbers my Cube permanent collection 3:1 - and I happily sold my Cube some time ago, to boot. The PS2 isn't going anywhere.

For me, it came down to games: Nintendo didn't deliver, IMO. I thought Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and Mario Kart were easily the low points in their respective franchises by a wide margin. Super Mario Sunshine, in particular, was inexcusable as far as I'm concerned.

Nintendo's new (or new to America) IP's - Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Pikmin - were all great, though. I think Nintendo got it together by the end of the Cube's life in terms of releasing polished, interesting AKA "Nintendo" games again, but it was too late.

I'm in the minority on this but I always loved the design of the Cube, and I thought the third-party support was much better, if not to my particular taste, than what was found on the N64.

Superboy

I'm tired of the media bashing Nintendo. Nintendo is always doing something different with their games and systems. The first time I realized this was when I played Super Mario Land on the Gameboy. A lot of my friends thought I was dumb for spending money on a game that was essentially a copy of a Nintendo game everyone already had - that is, until I realized the game was very, very different. And thus, the great Mario Land/Wario series was born, one of the most amazing series of platformers that apparantly, no one ever bothered to stand up and say "hey, it's really different this time".

I don't have any faith in the Xbox 360 and the PS3. I don't see how they can offer new gameplay experiences when their controllers are EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE PREVIOUS GENERATION!!!! doesn't anyone else notice this? I feel like i'm taking crazy pills here!!!

*cools off* anyway, yeah, i'm only looking forward to the Wii. The other systems are just loaded with features i'm never going to use and aren't necessary to design good games.

Drexl

Am I the only one who loved Mario Sunshine more than any other Cube game?

Maxflier

Because their controllers are pretty much perfect the way they are. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

deadpool24

was luigi's mansion the cube's launch title? i can't remember.

Jeremy517

US Launch titles:
All-Star Baseball 2002
Batman Vengeance
Crazy Taxi
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Disney's Tarzan Untamed
Luigi's Mansion
Madden NFL 2002
NHL Hitz 20-02
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Super Monkey Ball
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Wave Race: Blue Storm

Gallant Pig

SMB launched? I don't recall that. I do remember SSB:M launched as its strongest game other than Star Wars. Wave Race was quite good too.

chess

I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it was a damn near perfect game...don't have any idea why some folks didn't appreciate it.

For me, Metroid Prime gets the nod, with Wind Waker second, and Mario Sunshine just about even with RE4. I'd rank all of these between 95 and 100 though, so it's close either way.

Other than Ratchet and Clank and GTA (and I'd guess RE4), nothing on the PS2 is as good as any of those four games. Gran Turismo and MGS were damn solid titles too, but in the end, they weren't much different from their PS1 counterparts aside from a coat of paint.

chess

That's kind of a weak launch line-up. Wave Race and Rogue Squadron were pretty good but certainly not AAA titles. I never played Luigi's Mansion. Is it worth picking up used?

Incedentally, I was just at Wal-Mart wandering around, and overheard somebody buying a Cube.

Gallant Pig

Maybe for like $5. It was more of a system demo than an actual game.

Josh H

He wanted a new type of gamplay, and was saying it can't happen with the exact same controllers.

I agree with him. I really have little interest in playing the same games with a slightly prettier (very slight for those of us without HDTVs) coat of paint. I want some games that are fresh and the Wii controller offers a great hope for innovation.

So for me, gaming is broke, and I hope the Wii can fix it.

Jeremy517

Yep. I remember that I had to go to a few different stores before I finally found one that had it on launch day.

Josh H

SMB was a launch title.

SSB:M was not, it came out a month or so later.

xmiyux

Luigis Mansion was pretty simple but fun. If you can get it cheap - good, or even just rent it. My wife really enjoyed it and played it a great deal.

lukewarmwater

I liked the cube, but other then zelda, resident evil and metroid none of the other games really interested me. I mean I liked mario and mario kart, but not enough to buy. Just looking at this year and even the previous year nothing big came out. Resident evil 4 was the last one.

That said the only xbox games I played was gta and halo 1 and 2. So maybe it's not just a nintendo thing.