The Neglected Fine Wine Aging of the Nintendo Gamecube
The Nintendo Switch has made the WiiU completely obsolete and pretty much irrelevant in the history of gaming. All of the greatest works in the WiiU can be found on the Switch or elsewhere, from Mario Kart to Smash Bros (not a port but a spectacular sequel) to even the upcoming cult hit renegade Super Mario Maker making the transfer to the superior machine. Once Super Mario Maker 2 hits with the install base of at least 25 million, we are looking at a community that might even rival that of the Smash Bros. community. And yes, those Super Mario Maker levels are as sadistic as you've heard.
With Super Mario Maker 2’s announcement, the WiiU has no reason to be in your living room to be honest, as the Switch does everything but better, and has enhanced versions of all of WiiU’s best games except Mario 3D World. WiiU’s only advantage over the Switch right now is the Virtual Console. We are more than likely going to see improvements to Nintendo Switch Online which will include N64 and SNES games to really make it harder for us to look away at the best-selling monster (eventually).
But that’s fine. Seriously. With no WiiU, we'd have no Switch. And we'd have no Smash Ultimate and no Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and most importantly no Tetris 99.
The WiiU was a failure with great games that was able to develop a second life because Nintendo’s nostalgia game is the best in the history of gaming. The WiiU will go in the same graveyard along with the other machines that produced happiness but ran out of time like the PS2, XBox, PS3, and the XBox 360. The Nintendo Wii is in unique territory because it was console revolving around strictly motion-control gaming. Therefore, some games would have to be completely re-done in order to have a second chance at life; including Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Skyward Sword.
But the Nintendo Gamecube remains alive and kicking simply because there’s still a heavy lineup of games that has not developed a second life yet, despite being made by a company that profits off nostalgia like nobody not named Disney. You can’t get rid of your Gamecube simply because we have yet to see Nintendo truly dip into this generation of gaming. The Playstations and Xboxes were able to transition because of the (somewhat limited but still existent) backwards compatibility of their machines, but the WiiU didn’t take many games from the Gamecube days (the half-assed Twilight Princess remake comes to mind) and the Switch has yet to take anything from that era except for Melee’s entire character roster for Ultimate. Whatever the reason might be, the Gamecube remains alive and kicking, and still has a plethora of great exclusive games that hold up well today.
Metroid Prime and Prime 2 (Metroid Prime Trilogy was barely out in stores and doesn’t qualify), Thousand-Year Door, Eternal Darkness, Mario Sunshine, Toadstool Tour, F-Zero GX, Rogue Leader 2 and 3, Super Mario Strikers, Zelda: Four Swords, Baten Kaitos, the oddball in the family Mario Kart: Double Dash, and Battalion Wars are all games missing a second chance to reach a wider audience, as the Switch by this summer will outsell the Gamecube and WiiU combined. Then there’s Gamecube’s third-party hits like Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (I hope….they at least fix the glitches) Tales of Symphonia, and arguably best-in-series TimeSplitter 2, Tony Hawk ProSkater 3 (let’s be honest, this one won’t come back), Resident Evil 4, Splinter Cell and Soul Calibur 2 (with Link as a fighter, what a time).
What also gives Gamecube some staying power is that some of the franchises remain stuck on the Gamecube, with no latter installments in the coming years. F-Zero not having a new installment is borderline-criminal, as the GX/AX games were spectacular, visual works of art, and hold up extremely well today. Even if we got a mere remake with a fresh coat of HD paint it would be enough. Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike are in strange territory because the rights to Star Wars have bounced around, but these might be the best Star Wars games of all-time, and are the last two exclusive to Nintendo. And as long as EA remains the rights holder to Star Wars, the previous statement will remain true. Baten Kaitos and Eternal Darkness are cult gems with a complicated history that has prevented them from advancing into modern-day gaming, so they are also stuck in the sixth gaming generation.
Then the Gamecube also became the home of oddball installments of known franchises. Smash Brothers Melee may no longer be the best in the series, but remains with a dedicated competitive fanbase still not ready to let go of their 17-year-old game. Mario Kart: Double Dash also has an obscure audience that swears by this installment because of the duel-racer scenario and level design that is the most cohesive in the series. Super Mario Sunshine has Mario wear a water pack while also confining him to the same tropical island throughout the entire adventure. There’s also Star Fox Adventures…well, that was a thing. Then there’s Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: arguably the greatest Mario RPG game of all-time not related to Square Soft. It has been two generations and none of the Paper Mario sequels come even close. And this is worthy of repeating, we have F-Zero GX STILL STUCK WITHOUT A SEQUEL. And oh yea, the Gamecube exclusively got two Super Monkey Ball games. What on earth was that about?
The world of gaming has done a fantastic job this decade of bringing back the past, with Nintendo front and center with their NES and SNES Classics and Virtual Console during the Wii and WiiU days. The XBox One and PS4 stepped up their nostalgia game by reaching into the past, with the XBox One even accepting old XBox games. But lost in this flashback era of gaming is the first-party heavy legacy of the Gamecube, for we still don’t see any news or hints that the cubed machine’s greatest hits is making a comeback in some shape or form. Perhaps with Nintendo Switch’s lineup getting thinner they will considering looking back into the 2001-2006 era and revisit some of these forgotten and underappreciated gems. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get that damn F-Zero GX sequel. Until then, don’t throw out your Gamecube just yet.