Remembering the first year of NINTENDO GAMECUBE in the UK

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.

There are a stink load of games there I'd completely forgotten about!

Ikaruga! Donkey Konga! Viewtiful Joe!

How could I forget Metroid Prime too, and Eternal Darkness, and Timesplitters 2?

Proper blast from the past looking at those pictures, enjoyed that post a lot.

Just sold mine on eBay and it turns out that demand is pretty high. Bought it new for £79, sold it (with one game and memory card) for £83.

Definitely the most underrated console, I'll never understand why so few people bought one. Some of my favourite gaming memories for sure: Windwaker, Animal Crossing, Prime, Melee, F-Zero. I even loved Double Dash!

Is had 3 of these over the years.
I got a UK one (Metroid pack) and sold it because I was desperate for animal crossing and the free loader boot disc was on hold indefinitely. So I bought a US one from lik sang. Then I realised that i didn’t actually like animal crossing that much so sold it and picked up another black pal one.
I never really liked the GameCube. I loved Wind Walker, Sunshine and Resi 4, but nothing else on the system did much for me. I probably shouldn’t have kept on buying them.

I have such a clear memory of the day I bought my GameCube. Bunked off school (I think for the first time ever) to go the Electronics Boutique in Birkenhead. Black bundle with the REmake and a memory card.

:datass:

Abacus wrote:
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.

There are a stink load of games there I'd completely forgotten about!

Ikaruga! Donkey Konga! Viewtiful Joe!

How could I forget Metroid Prime too, and Eternal Darkness, and Timesplitters 2?

Proper blast from the past looking at those pictures, enjoyed that post a lot.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Pancake wrote:Definitely the most underrated console, I'll never understand why so few people bought one.

Because Nintendo is for babies

(The PS2 was also ridiculously good competition)

I feel I would have got this at Christmas of 2002. I can barely remember anything from that far back, but I do remember me and a friend enjoying Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and I'm fairly confident eight-year-olds would be waiting until Christmas for things like new consoles. I can remember enjoying SA2:B along with Melee and Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2. Well, we'd already got Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 on the PS1, so the 'Cube needed something different in the extreme sports category. I'm sure there's more we'd got, but I can't remember what might have been - even looking at that list. Possibly Pikmin. Definitely remember having the Game Boy Player attached to the console, though. I always thought it weird whenever I saw a Gamecube without it attached, as I was so used to the thing being on it.

Despite the fact there's Star Wars games I own within that list, I wasn't introduced to that franchise until Battlefront 2 during the Christmas period of 2007 through some multiplayer with a friend, so unless I was incredibly dense (wouldn't be surprised) to not recognise the name and designs from games I already owned, they wouldn't have been added to my collection until 2008 or beyond. Either way, despite the fact the Gamecube had been failing, I'm happy to have owned it. There were plenty more games that went to the PS1 and eventually the PS2 in 2004 thanks to being able to rent a load of them from Choices, but I know for a fact that anything that went into the Gamecube had been bought, and I spent a lot more time with the Gamecube than either of the Playstation consoles.

The GameCube was the console I took to Uni so I have some fond memories of the old girl.

I picked mine up in May 2002 with Smash, Wave Race, Rogue Leader, an imported Wave Bird and a Japanese 256 block memory card. This was gap year and all my mates had one so it was easy to get some post-pub games of smash and monkey Ball going on.

God bless the small size of it because it was easy to cram the console and all my games into a flight case meant for records whilst travelling.

I remember buying Metroid, Resi 0 and PSO on the same day in 2003 but having to wait until 12pm to grab PSO because the only shop in Chelmsford with it in stock was WHSmiths. I also remember telling my girlfriend at the time I was ill and skiving the weekend off so I could lie in bed in halls and play Metroid all weekend!

For the rest of 2003 I bought MK:DD, Wind Waker, 1080, Soulcalibur 2, SMB2, Viewtiful Joe and SSX3. I don't think I've bought so many games for a console in such a short span of time.

I really wanted the Majora's Mask disc so I bought a new GameCube and then sold it back to the shop just to get the bonus disc. I lost £60 in the process but it was worth it!

Carlos wrote:I really wanted the Majora's Mask disc so I bought a new GameCube and then sold it back to the shop just to get the bonus disc. I lost £60 in the process but it was worth it!

Ooh I really wanted this too! The indie games shop near me was (illegally?) selling this on its own for £50 and I snapped it up. Felt like I was getting ripped off at the time (even though I still paid it) but nice to see I wasn't alone!

The WaveBird :wub:

BlueAlert wrote:The WaveBird

Welcome to GRcade, BlueAlert! I've not used a WaveBird but it does have an excellent reputation!

The WaveBird was a revelation at the time, especially compared to some of the truly awful wireless controllers that we'd had in the years before!

You'd probably have to call it a Waveperson these days.

The Gamecube was the only home Nintendo console I bought during it's lifetime rather than as a retro console. It was a good console but unfortunately it suffered because that was the generation where I bought all 4 consoles. I was still getting plenty of use out of my Dreamcast, despite it being discontinued, I bought a PS2 and Xbox the former becoming my main console, the latter basically ending up like the Gamecube, a good console that I barely played on. Still, those games that I did own were great!

Victor Mildew wrote:You'd probably have to call it a Waveperson these days.

WaveBint and WaveBloke

aayl1 wrote:
Carlos wrote:I really wanted the Majora's Mask disc so I bought a new GameCube and then sold it back to the shop just to get the bonus disc. I lost £60 in the process but it was worth it!

Ooh I really wanted this too! The indie games shop near me was (illegally?) selling this on its own for £50 and I snapped it up. Felt like I was getting ripped off at the time (even though I still paid it) but nice to see I wasn't alone!

It was worth the money just to play Majora's Mask on the GameCube.

Nothing can beat the smell of a freshly manufactured, day one opening of a brand new GameCube (in black, of course).

And it's still under my TV with a collection of games that have surged so much in value, it's insane. By far likely to be my fondest memories of a console forever, even having had an N64 before that and growing up with a MegaDrive, and PS1. But I'll likely always have a soft spot for Nintendo with my first personal gaming device being a GameBoy Classic, even if I still don't own a Switch!

I would say the GameCube is still my favourite Nintendo home console only coming in second to my all time favourite console the Dreamcast

I had a black GameCube with super monkey ball on the top (I think it must have been with a magazine that you got a see through plastic disc that went on top of the console and you could change the image) I also had the GBA player that fitted to the underneath of the console, the wave bird wireless controller, the broadband adapter, bongos, GBA cable, keyboard controller, the only thing I never had was the screen because I only got the official things

I also collected games for the sake of collecting with some I never even played, I just like having them, my favourite more usual game was Doshin the Giant,

RichardUK wrote:I would say the GameCube is still my favourite Nintendo home console only coming in second to my all time favourite console the Dreamcast

I had a black GameCube with super monkey ball on the top (I think it must have been with a magazine that you got a see through plastic disc that went on top of the console and you could change the image) I also had the GBA player that fitted to the underneath of the console, the wave bird wireless controller, the broadband adapter, bongos, GBA cable, keyboard controller, the only thing I never had was the screen because I only got the official things

I also collected games for the sake of collecting with some I never even played, I just like having them, my favourite more usual game was Doshin the Giant,

I am pretty sure it was NGC Magazine they gave the plastic replacement window top thing away in one issue then would have circles you could cut out to put in it in each mag, I know they did a Monkey Ball one and a Metroid One, I know at one point I had that top window thing on mine instead of the proper cube one on one of my gamecubes but not sure if I put the real one back or not.

Remembering the first year of NINTENDO GAMECUBE in the UK

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