We’re all getting older, but none of us are as important to gaming as Nintendo GameCube
Whomst among us doesn’t have fond memories of hauling their Nintendo GameCube over to a neighbour’s house during the summer break, eschewing the outdoors so you could stay inside and play a bunch of videogames? Well, not me, sadly, because we were a PlayStation household, and as such I didn’t own a GameCube. Nevertheless, it came out 25 years ago. And yes, it had a handle for carrying it places. Does it count as a handheld console?
No, it does not. And truth be told, it hasn’t really got a lot of records in our archive itself. Oh sure, it’s the first Nintendo console to use discs, and the GameCube’s “WaveBird” controller was the earliest first-party RF wireless controller for a console.
But there’s no way to leave the GameCube out of gaming history because it was the crib, the incubator, the warm little nest for so many influential games. The GameCube was the franchise-starter for games that are mammoth series today, including Animal Crossing (Nintendo AED, 2001). The GameCube had Luigi’s Mansion (Nintendo AED, 2001) as a launch title. We’re not messing around here.
Metroid Prime (Retro Studios, 2002), the most critically-acclaimed Metroid videogame, is a GameCube title, and was the best-selling Metroid game for 18 years. It’s such a popular game and such an influential FPS that an enhanced version was released in 2009, and a remake for the Nintendo Switch appeared in 2023.
The best-selling GameCube game is Super Smash Bros. Melee (HAL Laboratory, 2001), the second ever Super Smash Bros. game that is still played in tournaments all around the world. Melee’s popularity in Western countries lead to Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (Intelligent Systems, 2003) being localized in English, the first Fire Emblem Game to get that treatment.
The success of the GameCube helped Nintendo recapture an older audience, and springboarded the company into the phenomenon that was the Nintendo Wii. So, raise a glass to the GameCube today, because it’s possible that without this we’d be getting no The Legend of Zelda TV show.