Remembering the first year of NINTENDO GAMECUBE in the UK

I got mine with Melee week 1. I didn’t realise that was so close to launch, I swore I got it a year later and that price god damn. I had a paper round then, it felt like a lot of money

Mafro wrote:The analogue shoulder buttons felt incredible.

Really? I found that the worst part of the controller, they were way too spongey.

Great console nethertheless though, the hardware and games were nice and cheap too.

Got mine on launch day with Luigi's Mansion (yay), and Wave Race (too hard, so boo).

Ah, the GameCube.

Having adored the N64 I was in a state of complete and utter hype and placed a pre-order with game quicker than you can say "Mario". My order was initially for the console pack, Luigi's Mansion and a 59 block memory card. However, a couple of weeks prior to the release, a friend of mine mentioned that LM was supposed to be reasonably short, so not really having too much knowledge about the other launch games, I added Sonic onto my pre-order.

My plans for launch day had long been set in stone; a friend of mine was staying at mine for the weekend to play through the two games I'd ordered, but first I needed to complete my acquisition so I hopped into town on the bus after school as soon as I could. There was a reasonable queue but I didn't have to wait around too long before getting my order and getting the bus back home. My mate arrived soon after and off we went. We spent all night playing Luigi's Mansion, which seemed so strawberry floating cool at the time. Wandering around a mysterious mansion, haunted by ghosts, in the dead of night.

Of the two games I probably ended up putting more hours into Sonic, trying to get the best ranks for every level. Some of those levels were utter bastards and despite being far less demanding, I very much resented the Knuckles and Rouge levels. I think I'd appreciate them a little more now.

The same friend ended up getting his own a few weeks later and between us we were able to buy most of the main games. By the close of the year, he'd picked up Sunshine and Smash Bros whilst I'd added REmake, WWE WrestleMania X8, TimeSplitters 2 and Mario Party 4 (a few of those would become multiplayer staples for years to come). Metroid Prime would round out the first year for me and become a staple in any list of my favourite games.

The second year was pretty quiet, for me. 1080 Avalanche, F-Zero GX, Double Dash were to the best of my knowledge the only games I purchased and they all came out within a period of 30 days, just before Christmas. Year three saw purchases of WWE Day of Reckoning, Donkey Konga, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Mario Power Tennis and Resident Evil 4.

A few years ago, now older and with greater disposable income, I decided to try and pick up the games I wanted that I'd missed out on for whatever reason and I eventually finished my quest last year:


The GameCube is definitely my favourite ever console, it's given me dozens of incredible memories that I'll always hold dearly.

Got one at launch with Star Wars and Wave Race - my neighbour got his at the same time with Luigi and Super Monkey Ball, our intention was to trade between us to play as many as possible.

I was going overboard on paper rounds at the local newsagent in the build up to launch to get as much money as possible - shortly after we got Tony Hawks, Sonic, Burnout, and Smash on the day that released. Great times.

Second best start-up sequence behind the Dreamcast.

I paid circa £300 for one at the US launch with Monkey Ball, THPS3 and Rogue Leader. It was incredible, and is probably my most fondly remembered console to date.

After having a NES, GBC, N64 and GBA, this was the gen we got a PS2 instead (I think because my brother convinced my parents). I didn't play any GC games until I got the Wii the Christmas it launched, when I bought Wind Waker and the Zelda collector's edition on boxing day. Since picked up a decent collection, but never owned the console itself!

I remember saving up to grab one just after my birthday, Rouge Squadron 3 & my main reason - Metal Gear Twin Snakes which I throughly throughly enjoyed.

Then traded it in a few months later, it just ended up unused next to my PS2. Which was a shame.

Those were the days when a console would launch with plenty of actually GOOD games to play. Spoilt for choice really.

Super Monkey Ball was fantastic. One of my favourite ever games.

I didn't know about the GameCube until I saw it at a friend's house. He had Luigi's mansion, and I remember just thinking the graphics were amazing and the puzzle aspect really appealed to me. Next time I went to Yeovil ( ) I was browsing in a virgin megastore (those were the days) and there was a GameCube section. It was so cheap, even for me back when I had a shitty temporary job and no money, it seemed affordable enough to be an impulse purchase. I ended up getting a black GameCube, memory card, Luigi's mansion and Rogue leader. I later bought Mario sunshine, Spider-Man 2, and wind waker. I didn't bother with anything else after that for some reason, maybe it was when I got my new gaming pc and I got in to racing games.

Man, this was such a great console. Nintendo really hit their stride with 3D-sure Wind Waker and Sunshine definitely had their issues (more so the latter) but there were so many different great gaming experiences on the console:

Metroid Prime
Eternal Darkness
Twin Snakes
Resident Evil Remake and 4
Animal Crossing
Pikmin
Rouge Leader
Luigi's Mansion.
Super Monkey Ball

And the last time Nintendo really cared about their non-MK racers-F-Zero GX, Wave Race and 1080* were all great. Especially F-Zero. Plus the multiplayer joy of Double Dash, Melee and Strikers was

Bought my Black Cube day one with Luigi's Mansion, Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi.

It was an amazing first twelve months though. I can't remember when I bought the WaveBird but it was early on.

Drumstick wrote:Ah, the GameCube.

Having adored the N64 I was in a state of complete and utter hype and placed a pre-order with game quicker than you can say "Mario". My order was initially for the console pack, Luigi's Mansion and a 59 block memory card. However, a couple of weeks prior to the release, a friend of mine mentioned that LM was supposed to be reasonably short, so not really having too much knowledge about the other launch games, I added Sonic onto my pre-order.

My plans for launch day had long been set in stone; a friend of mine was staying at mine for the weekend to play through the two games I'd ordered, but first I needed to complete my acquisition so I hopped into town on the bus after school as soon as I could. There was a reasonable queue but I didn't have to wait around too long before getting my order and getting the bus back home. My mate arrived soon after and off we went. We spent all night playing Luigi's Mansion, which seemed so strawberry floating cool at the time. Wandering around a mysterious mansion, haunted by ghosts, in the dead of night.

Of the two games I probably ended up putting more hours into Sonic, trying to get the best ranks for every level. Some of those levels were utter bastards and despite being far less demanding, I very much resented the Knuckles and Rouge levels. I think I'd appreciate them a little more now.

The same friend ended up getting his own a few weeks later and between us we were able to buy most of the main games. By the close of the year, he'd picked up Sunshine and Smash Bros whilst I'd added REmake, WWE WrestleMania X8, TimeSplitters 2 and Mario Party 4 (a few of those would become multiplayer staples for years to come). Metroid Prime would round out the first year for me and become a staple in any list of my favourite games.

The second year was pretty quiet, for me. 1080 Avalanche, F-Zero GX, Double Dash were to the best of my knowledge the only games I purchased and they all came out within a period of 30 days, just before Christmas. Year three saw purchases of WWE Day of Reckoning, Donkey Konga, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Mario Power Tennis and Resident Evil 4.

A few years ago, now older and with greater disposable income, I decided to try and pick up the games I wanted that I'd missed out on for whatever reason and I eventually finished my quest last year:

The GameCube is definitely my favourite ever console, it's given me dozens of incredible memories that I'll always hold dearly.

Recently picked up the Donkey Kong games from Parkreiner and Luigi's Mansion/Zelda Collectors Edition from Ad7 to come a little closer to this magnificent collection. Still about fifteen away from it, but I don't see myself grabbing the RPGs or Mario Party games anytime soon. I do have the X-Men Legends games and a couple of other curios that aren't on your list.

Out of interest, is it just the Pokemon games you're missing from first party sources? Colosseum and Gale of Darkness? I don't imagine they're up your alley at all, but I'd be interested to know.

I think the game I ended up spending most time with on my 'Cube was Super Monkey Ball - we played so much of this during uni. Mainly the Monkey Target mode which was a mainstay of our gaming nights for the first couple of years!

Local multiplayer for stuff like that is still such an incredible experience that just cannot be matched by the online equivalent sadly

That launch price and subsequent price drops

Corazon de Leon wrote:Out of interest, is it just the Pokemon games you're missing from first party sources? Colosseum and Gale of Darkness? I don't imagine they're up your alley at all, but I'd be interested to know.

I'm not sure. Was Chibi Robo first party?

Jenuall wrote:I think the game I ended up spending most time with on my 'Cube was Super Monkey Ball - we played so much of this during uni. Mainly the Monkey Target mode which was a mainstay of our gaming nights for the first couple of years!

Yep, both Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 are still played regularly.

I loved my GC. It probably helped that I was at uni so I had a lot of time to play it. I got one at launch and never regretted it. I was a massive GC fanboy though and hated that it never got the love it deserved in the UK. It was very much seen as a kids console in the UK which I hated.

I dread to think how much I spent on it in its first two years

That first year of game releases as well was amazing.