If you want to discuss the Gamecube hardware you really need to include the Wavebird.  IIRC, it was the initial 1st-party wireless controller, had an incredible battery life (due to no rumble pack) and was an absolute tank throughout the years.  I setup our Gamecube for the kids to play SSBB and Animal Crossing on -- the Wavebird works just as well as my 360 controllers do.

That's true, the Wavebird was the first good wireless controller, back when it came out it was amazing to be able to play without cords running across the room and people tripping over them and systems almost breaking.  The controller was a little goofy looking but it worked great. 

Wavebirds are essential for heavy GC play. And if you play Pac-Man VS then you MUST have at least a few. I tried to do it with friends and every ten minutes or so we had to spend time 'de-tangling' the mess as we passed controllers to each other.

I ended up buying a Gamecube when I was 18 because it came out with Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition (I couldn't pass-up a chance to play OoT again, and try out Zelda games I never played).  It was my gateway into countless hours of F-Zero GX, Sonic Mega Collection, and Super Smash Bros Melee (especially during college).


Gamecube was definitely a special little machine, and a durable little thing at that.  It travelled with me all over campus to friend's houses, and took it like a pro.

:o

Check, please!

I need to retire from the interwebs, seriously.

The Gamecube seems to be the most fondly remembered console of that generation, depending on if you count the Dreamcast. The PS2 was a much bigger hit, but it seems to be taken for granted now.

I think part of the reason it is remembered more fondly than the Xbox or PS2 is because many of the popular titles on those machines are of the type  that get replaced by by subsequent releases. Madden '05 may have been huge, but who cares about it in 2013?

You could probably judge the long term success of a system by the price of their games post-gen. Most quality SNES games are going to run you $15-30 unless you include the really rare ones. Same still for DS titles. I've noticed that most original XBox titles are $8-15. PS2 is about $15-20. This is just my casual observations while hunting for deals on old games on Amazon and eBay. Someone could probably do a full study on the price stability VS success/popularity of consoles.

I was four when the SNES came out, and that didn't stop me from playing NES and SNES games at that age! Stop making excuses!

:P:

....

I love the Gamecube.  It is definitely in my top 3 consoles.  It was the first one I bought and I had so many great game nights through college.  I bought mine at launch.  The first thing me and my friend did was play Madden 2002 for multiple seasons taking the Browns to the super bowl.  This was my first 3d Madden since I came from the SNES to Gamecube era.  Then on Christmas I got Super Monkey Ball and my family and me played Monkey target for like 6 hours on Christmas.  Sure, their were better games and more experiences later but it was an awesome start to the generation for me and my love of the system has never wavered. 

Super Mario Sunshine suffered in the same way the GameCube did in that the image perception didn't help sales. I actually rented the game around release and it didn't hook me, but about a year later I found myself strongly craving this game. I picked up a used copy and was hooked for good. I recall hearing a lot of remarks from Nintendo that this game was ultimately too challenging to have mass appeal, but I find that to be absurd. You can beat Bowser without attempting the more challenging levels, but then the real fun, for me, was getting all the shines. The level designs are both my favorite quality about this game but ultimately one of my few gripes.


I'll put it this way. I'm actually glad Nintendo has moved away from this style of Mario. While Sunshine is a masterpiece of level work, having players run through the same half dozen world levels a half dozen times can get burdensome and really rides on the quality of that level--that better be one stellar design or those stars/shines are gonna suck the fun away.

Super Mario Sunshine is a fantastic game though.

GameCube is probably my 2nd favorite behind the SNES. I had an NES back in the day as well, but for some reason I just don't remember those games as fondly. What GameCube eventually managed to do, and the emerging modern day "hardcore gamer" will rarely ever admit this, is have more blockbuster AAA quality exclusive titles than either of its competitors. Eventually, GameCube became the best bang for the dollar ($100 console?!?!).


Don't we all wish Nintendo would return to their GameCube days? Back then, they more or less conceded that they would never catch the level of hype surrounding the PS2, and then they proceeded to just focus on making the best games ever.

I could be naive, but I think the GameCube would very modestly become the best selling machine today by being everybody's #2.

I buy Sunshine HD.  All they have to fix is the Camera in that one section of the railroad area.

I'd say Super Mario Sunshine's reputation as the worst 3D Mario is deserved.  But that doesn't mean it's a bad game.  Something HAS to be the worst 3D Mario.  It's a credit to Nintendo that the worst game in that series would probably be a high mark in other series.

I find that F.L.U.D.D feels rather forced and it hurts the game.  At the time Nintendo had a very impressive reputation for innovation and creativity.  They had taken almost all of their franchises from 2D to 3D and had pulled it off every time, usually with ground-breaking games that influenced the entire industry.  Such a reputation can be hard to live up to.  I find on the Gamecube, particularly with sequels, Nintendo suddenly found themselves with writer's block at the worst time.  This Mario game had to be bigger and better than the games that came before it and had to change the industry.  It could not just be a better polished take on Super Mario 64 because, dammit, Mario doesn't rest on its laurels like that!  F.L.U.D.D. was their innovative new idea that was supposed to make Sunshine unique and essential.  Hell they made out like it was some big top secret idea that everyone would copy.  They were probably hoping people would copy it because then it was the industry changing idea they needed it to be.  It wasn't.  Nintendo did this again with Mario Kart: Double Dash.  The double karts are the major unique element of that game but it also feels forced and like F.L.U.D.D. did not influence other games or appear again in later sequels.

I think it demonstrates the importance of creating new IP on a regular basis.  Early on in a series ideas for a sequel can be obvious as you can work in ideas that were left on the cutting room floor of the original game or address shortcomings in the earlier games.  But over time it becomes harder and harder to keep the originality up while keeping true to the general gameplay of the series that made it popular in the first place.  For every series there will come a time where the ideas just aren't there.

Nintendo started to hit that point on the Gamecube, which made sense because many of their franchises were clocking over 15 years at that point.  There was no such issues with games like Pikmin, which was brand new, or Metroid Prime, which did the switch to 3D that gave so many Nintendo franchises new life on the N64.  I think Nintendo has had trouble coming to terms with this as they've since become infatuated with gimmick control schemes, hoping in vain that such gimmicks will inspire new ideas.  Once they tried waterpacks, today they try tablet controllers.

What's interesting is that Mario bounced back.  Super Mario Galaxy felt legitimately innovative, not forced.  Nintendo also came up with a new take on 3D Mario with Super Mario 3D Land.  Sometimes the new idea is just not there today and will come tomorrow.  If Nintendo felt confident enough to take a break from their established series when the inspiration isn't there they wouldn't have to feel that gimmicks are necessary or that they need to force in some half-baked concept that doesn't gel.  There is a massive difference between sitting down and thinking "what game ideas do we have that we can develop on?" and "okay I've got to make a new Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Pokémon game for this timeframe so what ideas can I think of for that?"

Roller Coaster*

Ian I totally disagree with you on F.L.U.D.D and the Double Karts.  F.L.U.D.D I found to be a good solution to my major problem with 3D platformers and thats judging distances.  I'm fairly sure at some point of time or another in Super Mario 3D World I'm going to wish I had F.L.U.D.D.

On Mario Kart, every console Mario Kart that I have played since I've wanted a double Kart mode.  It is great for non-Game players and Kids.  My Son and I could race with him throwing items.  It was a clever idea that should have stayed in the series.  Much better then Bikes and Generic Karts they have now.

I thought the Gamecube Mario Kart far exceeded the N64 version and was a worthy sequel.  The track design and physics were great.  It was the first Mario Kart with lan mode allowing for full screen for 2 players.  It mostly did away with drifting on straightaways that made the N64 version feel more like a chore.  The two players allowed a little customization and you could hold two items and switch between the two which hasn't been done since.  The graphics were much better.


In general I think the SNES - NES camparison is valid for the Gamecube - N64.  I feel like the N64 handled 3D very poorly.  It's hard for me to play most N64 games today because they look awful.  The Gamecube handled 3D well and these games still look decent attached to an HDTV today.  The other thing the Gamecube had going for it is the disc size being exponentially larger.  This meant no cutting this level or having crappy sound or having alot of the sacrifices that N64 games did.


I know alot of people are partial to the N64 and will disagree with me.  But the Gamecube was everything I wanted.  It did the things the N64 tried to do, but it did them very well instead of just being the 1st 3D console. 

I loved Super Mario Sunshine, and I don't understand the hate it gets either. I really loved the world and how much more connected the entirety of Isle Delfino was, compared to other games. And, unlike Peach's Castle in 64, it's not empty and lonely. While, I guess, that's sort of the point of 64 in a sense, it's still kind of dull compared to how lively and fun exploring just the main hub of Sunshine is. And, hell, FLUDD is actually fun and useful. It never felt clunky or tacked on (though its reappearance in Brawl is another story...).

Of course, the game isn't without its frustrating moments (but what platformer isn't?) and it baffles me that they never enabled Yoshi to swim, but Sunshine was fun from beginning to end for me.

Super Mario Sunshine is also the most challenging 3D Mario game. If you want all 120 Shines, you're going to have to bleed for it.

I would never get all the shines because I wouldn't put up with the blue coin nonsense. I wish they would release an updated version along the lines of what they did with Super Mario 64 that replaced the blue coin shines with actual levels.

I have to say, I hate Double Dash's Dual-Kart mode.

I like the game play, but it's hard for first-timers to pick up.  Which makes LAN play even harder, since a lot of people just don't "get" the game. :(

NO! The GameCube era was dark days, I would probably quit gaming (or just Nintendo) if they were perpetually stuck with GameCube-type output. Many of their games were rushed to market (SSBMelee, Mario Sunshine, Zelda Wind Waker, etc) and definitely suffered from it, and like Ian Sane talked about, a lot of their games were based around some gimmick that usually didn't work very well (double karts, sailing). Plus it was the start of their over-saturation with Mario.

Metroid Prime was a rare beam of light for the generation, but it now has a superior Wii version so it takes a bit away from the system's legacy.

I miss the creativity and variety of the GameCube. There were some crazy concepts, stuff like Chibi Robo, that got released in that era, and Nintendo seems to have gotten a lot more conservative since then. I'll agree that they're more consistent in quality and less likely to rush things, and I wouldn't trade stuff like the Galaxy games or DKCR for anything, but I wish Nintendo were a little more adventurous in what they put out. Maybe the low sales of the Wii U will prompt them to get more outside the box.

I haven't played Chibi-Robo, I'm sad the Wii version never released outside Japan. I missed some of the latter-day GameCube stuff since I was disenchanted with the system, and I actually have come back to appreciate some more of the system's games after the fact. But it's still my least-favourite era (though actually not my least-fave system currently since I feel the NES has aged terribly).

Nintendo have still created some strange games on Wii like Captain Rainbow, and of course there are the Operation Rainfall trinity, it's more of a problem that these games have trouble leaving Japan. Wii U has Wonderful 101. The handheld front still has quirky games like Dillon and Pushmo, those these tend to be smaller games on the eShop instead of retail titles. Still, I'm not quite sure I agree they got more conservative... maybe a bit in NA, but not in Japan.

Wonderful 101 is a good example, I hadn't thought of that. Hopefully we'll see more of that kind of thing, although given that it seems to have sold very poorly I'm not exactly hopeful.

I guess I don't get the hate for the 2 person carts. Wasn't physics tied to the cart?  I really can't remember. So in my mind it was basically an item switching mechanism that had little impact on the core game.

Sailing in Windwaker was a poor design choice but I didn't feel like it was a gimmick meant to get people to buy it. It was obviously boring and too long but the primary game was the dungeons. I thought the dungeons were awesome which made it easier to overlook the sailing.

I don't see how Gamecube was the start of over-saturation of Mario. Yes, he had a few more game cameos but the core series saw 1 game. I don't think Mario sports game devalue the brand any more than Mario underwear devalues the brand.  Mario is about platforming and when people get tired of Mario platforming games then Mario has a problem. The Wii had 3 core Mario games as does the Wii U. Plus their are a bunch on the DS and 3DS. Mario over saturation is a problem now but I think it came with the Wii and DS (which initially struggled against the PSP).  I think the commercial failure and loss of third party support in the Gamecube era led Nintendo to an us vs them approach on the Wii. Which led to them going to their core franchises too much.

Why is it assumed that these games were rushed to the market?  Is it because you didn't like these games as much as other games in the series?  Is it because ofbthe lack of sales?  Most games have some flaws and these were no exception. I just dont think that means the were rushed or weren't good games.

On the N64 I assumed that Nintendo was pretty much the same company they had been in the NES and SNES years only they had completely shot themselves in the foot by sticking with cartridges.  This one huge mistake had handcuffed the N64 so severely that all the problems on the system appeared to be directly related to it.  The weak third party support, the expensive game prices, the long game droughts, the lack of fashionable elements of the time like FMV and red book audio - all of those were directly caused by the cartridges.  But Nintendo still made awesome games.  They were the best videogame developer in the world, bar none, and the fact that the system was still quite popular despite its shortcomings demonstrated that.  I figured if they had gone with CDs the train would have just kept rolling from the SNES days.  It was all just one mistake and on the Cube they would bounce back.

But that's not what happened and on the Cube I found out that Nintendo at some point had turned into clueless fuddy-duddies who could and would fuck up anything.  Well this was the company that released the Virtual Boy and going with cartridges was an insanely stupid idea that I saw a mile away when I was just some 14 year old kid who doesn't run a multi-million dollar videogame company.  The sad truth is that sticking with cartridges was such an easily avoidable mistake that it should have clued me in that whatever company would make such a decision had something wrong going on upstairs.

So I found the Gamecube years very frustrating as Nintendo just botched their way to near irrelevance.  The real core of the problem was that their attitude was such like they never acknowledged that the N64 had problems.  It was like "we're Nintendo so people will just buy it, right?"  Now I would take the Cube over the Wii any day but what's frustrating is that Nintendo's whole approach to the Wii is largely based on the Cube's failure.  They lost the traditional market with the N64, completely botched their comeback attempt and then gave up like it was all hopeless the whole time and now they're a company I largely dislike.  The Gamecube was their chance to bounce back and for things to return to normal and instead it's really when everything completely derailed.

And one thing that really annoying is that when the Cube wasn't out yet and I was getting hyped up about it I was hyped about realistic Zelda, Dinosaur Planet, Perfect Dark and Too Human.  Zelda turned into a cartoon and realistic Zelda came out so late that it was a Wii launch title, Dino Planet turned into Star Fox and then Rare was gone so I got no PD and Too Human didn't show up until Nintendo and SK parted ways and ended up being crap.  I really thought Nintendo had the titles in place to compete and they systematically gutted it all away.  From its first reveal the Cube really generated a lot of optimism but I found that was just sucked out of me as time went on.  Go back and make a few slightly different decisions from 2000 to 2002 and Nintendo's whole history would be different and no one would be concerned about Wii U sales.

The Gamecube is a good system with good games but it could have been way better.  Though unlike the Wii it was still a time where I was legitimately excited for almost every major first party release.  And the Metroid Prime and Pikmin games are as good as any N64 classic.

You mentioned Pikmin, Prime, the Mario Galaxy series on the Wii gets high marks. 3d world and the new Zelda are tearing up reviews. Not every Nintendo game will be Epic.  You're in your thirties and 10, 000s of games have been developed since you started gaming. It's not imposible, but it will be harder and harder to get that wow moment that maybe Ocarina of Time gave you.

I was dissapointed initially when Windwaker became a cartoon. Then I played it and I thought Nintendo made the right call. The graphics were amazing and the environments drew me into the game. At this point in gaming history none of the consoles did that great with realistic environments.

DP. I actually thought this was a decent Zelda clone and worthy of a playthrough. Star fox didn't make a whole lotta of sense and the flying parts ackward, but I don't think this is greatly improved by removing them.

Too Human  I think this game is the poster child for more development time doesn't equal better game. This and PD were not special. You can argue Nintendo could have made them special but I think that Nintendo unloaded a sinking ship in Rare. The void I felt was filled by Retro but still dissapointing to lose one developer to gain another instead of keeping them both.

I guess I feel like we are moving towards the third party argument that has been beat to death here. The Gamecube used 1.4 gb dvds instead of 4.7. Some games came with 2 discs and most games wouldn't use more than that unless they were fmv heavy. Disc size while a mistake isn't why the Gamecube failed. Purple probably wasn't the best color choice but ever since Sega had the Genesis the competitors always attacked Nintendo as kiddie so that was nothing new. So that's not the big failure. The big failure is the PS2 had like 3x as many games.

Nintendo did move away from traditional gaming and competing with the Wii. But that's not the Gamecubes fault. Nintendo made the wrong decision to do that and that decision was always going to come because they don't cater to third parties.

Nintendo didn't just become idiots during the cube era. They are frustrating consistent in their approach to third parties. Nes was high licensing fees and strong restrictions on games with Nintendo having veto power. But all the competitors went bankrupt in the vg crash so 3rd parties had no choice but to work with Nintendo. SNES led the market because of sequels to popular titles and brand loyalty from kids that had NESs. 3rd parties felt tied to Nintendo because it had the bigger marketshare. With N64 3rd parties were glad to jump ship to run from Nintendos policies. Sure carts were expensive but so were they license fees. I actually think that as much as the carts led to N64 losing to PS1. There was a time the N64 was ahead. I'm not sure what a 96meg cart cost to produce in 1997, but if the internet is to be believed Nintendo charged $38 to license/produce 1 N64 cart at 96 meg. I imagine a large majority of that was for licencing and went directly to Nintendos bottom line. I remember it being big news when Nintendo cut the cube licensing fees in half to match Sony/Microsoft. But it was too late PS2 was already market dominant and Microsoft was changing the game with moneyhats.

Microsoft/Sony are largely hardware companies looking to sell boxes to win the living room. They have 1st parties to the extent of supporting the hardware. Nintendo is a software company that sells hardware so you can use their software. Theyve never been interested in selling third party software. They stopped competing with the others because Microsoft changed the rules. Nintendo was afraid of a future where third parties had all the power and hardware wasn't profitable.

Nintendo was wrong but not the Cubes fault. Nintendo delivered a bunch of above average to excellent games during the Cubes life. This was also the last Nintendo console that had a handful of excellent third party exclusive titles.

It isn't an assumption, Nintendo have admitted as much. The Wind Waker had two dungeons cut, and Sunshine had all the blue coins to make up for the lack of levels. As for Melee, well, there are too many things to list there, such as the half-baked adventure mode and the "clone" characters. I say this with Melee remaining my favourite GameCube game, and one of my most-played games of all time, but I'm not blind to its faults. Even Wind Waker and Sunshine I think are good games, just not up to the usual level of quality seen in most of the other games in their respective series.

I guess every game is rushed to some degree.  There are deadlines, most of the time not everything gets done that was planned.  Sometimes the team is able to get an extension, sometimes not.  Not to say those games are without fault but I think you are nitpicking to say they were rushed whereas others were not. 


Aonuma "“I’ve received many questions about additional content beyond what was in the GameCube version of the game, but our desire is to stay true of the story that was in the original. If we add dungeons then that will affect other parts of the GameCube version, which we really want to stay true to. If it felt like there were maybe too few dungeons then I feel that what was wrong with the GameCube version was the pacing. It was thrown off because it took longer to get to certain dungeons. There was a waiting period, and then when you arrived there the experience maybe didn’t feel as big, as you’d waited so long to get there. "


Aonoma doesn't feel it was rushed and indicated adding the two cut levels would change the game and they didn't want to add them in the HD version.  I don't know how this stuff gets leaked, but my guess is most of the Zelda's had some dungeons/parts hacked because they were not up to Nintendo quality and wouldn't add to the player experience. 


The blue coins are certainly annoying, but collecting items is the norm for Mario games and that was probably in from the start.  That game was shown at 2 straight E3s.  If it was rushed it was a mismanagement of resources, not a lack of time. 


I'm certainly not sayng SSBM is perfect, the adventure mode was tacked on.  Much like it was in Soul Calibur and other fighting games that have an adventure mode.  They could of spent enough time making an adventure mode that would be worthy of it's own game but I don't think that was the point of it.  Fighting games have been using clones for a long time to boost total fighters.  I mean let's make you manager.  Would you delay SSBM for 6 months to give it a more robust adventure mode that most people don't care about?  Would you delay SSBM for 6 months to get 2 more unique characters and re-balance the game and create new stages for them?  Which 2 characters that weren't in it would get people excited?  Do either of these things bring more sales in than would have been brought originally? 


Every game has deadlines and limited resources and thus quality compromises happen often.  I see no proof that Nintendo intentional rushed games or brought games to the market that weren't ready to fulfill gaps in their schedule. 

Of course they didn't use the word "rush" but it's clear from what they have said that that's what happened. If you don't want to believe what Nintendo have said there's nothing else to say, but to me those games definitely felt incomplete and had less content, and others in the series felt more complete.

I am blind to SSB Melee's faults.  I thought the game was essentially perfect... and I didn't like the original SSB so Melee was so impressive it converted me.

One of the big complaints about the N64 was the drought time between games.  Yeah, that was something that needed to be addressed but Nintendo isn't so great at reading between the lines.  Rushing titles like Mario and Zelda was their response to this but it was obvious that the reason for the droughts was a lack of games and that was caused by a lack of third party support.  So "we don't want as much time between releases" really means "improve third party support" not "rush your games to get them out sooner".

But then I find the cure to what ails Nintendo is that they need to get along better with others and it sometimes feels like they come up with weird bizarre approaches to avoid addressing that.  Even when the company had good third party support they did so by abusing their position of power.  This "Nintendo vs. The World" attitude is ingrained in their corporate culture and changing something like that would be very hard.  Who wants to address their real problems if they can bullshit themselves and ignore them?  Do they want to admit that for the last 30 years they have jerked around third party publishers, retailers, the media and general videogame consumers?

Yeah, I didn't notice problems with Melee at first either, it was just so much fun, and it had a lot more to it than the N64 title. But I can only spend so much time with a game before critical thinking kicks in whether I want it to or not, and when that happened I started noticing a lot of things that weren't quite right.

Okay, who from Nintendo said it was rushed?  I'm not ignoring it, I just don't see it.  Plus, it gets complicated who says it.  There are always people that work on games that may want more time to perfect things.  A couple month delay adds tweaks to games, not new levels or more content. 


They only released one Mario and one (kinda two) Zelda's.  I'm not sure how that fills their release schedule which is the reasoning for the rush.  Mario Sunshine released in July, so that could have easily been delayed several months and still hit the holiday season which wouldn't have effected sales.  Zelda was just rereleased for the Wii U with no additional content.  Both of these games for $20+ used still so they both seem well liked.  Plus looking over the Gamecube early lineup would make the Wii U blush lots of third party games to fill the release schedule.  Eternal Darkness and Animal Crossing are stand-outs that sandwiched it.  For example, the first full year of N64 had 34 total games released.  The Gamecube had 48 games released in 2002 BEFORE Super Mario Sunshine hit and 97 games after in in 2002.  It didn't initially have a games issue.  As the PS2 took over the market 3rd parties started leaving Nintendo. 

The quote you had posted was about the HD version of Wind Waker. Of course they aren't going to add the two dungeons in because they already edited the game around them not existing, such as adding in the Triforce hunt, but pacing isn't why they were cut for the original release. The two dungeons were also redone to be used in other Zelda games, so it'd be a little redundant to add them in now. If you want to see them actually use the word "rushed" then here's a quote I found:

Something else that's important to mention is that usually on a game we'll have two to three composers, but this time we actually bumped it up to five to six people. Essentially, we've more than doubled the number of people. Part of the reasoning behind that was the rushed development schedule, but we also wanted to have very high sound quality in The Wind Waker.

"We've more than doubled the number of people."


Like I said all games are given deadlines.  They had a tighter deadline and it appears they staffed at what they felt was an appropriate level to make that deadline happen.  It's not like they picked these people off the street, these people were probably taken off of other Nintendo teams and those projects put on hold meaning there was probably not actual any more games developed with this approach.  It just got Zelda done faster in leui of another project.  And the tight deadline for Zelda isn't too unbelievable because that was released before Christmas a crucial time period for games. 


They didn't have to add those other two dungeons but they could have added more content if they thought it was lacking in content.  A $50 rerelease isn't exactly a bargain and they only spent 6 months on it.  Plus I'm more than sure those dungeons were tweaked in future releases and they might have been able to make minimal tweaks on them to seem different enough that the released editions. 


Your opinion is this era was rushed.  I'm fine with your opinion and I'm not trying to change it.  I just don't like the indication that the entire generation is obviously rushed because I believe that to be false.  I liked Mario 64 better than Sunshine and I'd put Ocarina and Windwaker equal.  Other than that my opinion is the Gamecube era was better than the 64 era.  But that's just my opinion. 

I think there was a misunderstanding then because I never stated that the entire generation was rushed, I pointed to three examples and stuck with those. Those were three of the biggest games on the system though, so even if just three games, that's a big part of the GameCube's legacy.

I'm glad to see Rogue Leader, my first GameCube game getting some recognition. You think the first Death Star was challenging? Wait until the (inevitable) Battle of Endor (seriously, that shit is near-impossible). Then try re-playing for even silver rankings on everything. This game is easily one of LucasArts' best.


Don't waste your time with Rogue Leader II though—they tried to use the same game engine to create a game where you often find yourself either piloting sluggish ground-based repulsorlift vehicles (painfully boring) or on-foot (the controls and progression of this mechanic are horrendous). The game was so disappointing that I leant my copy to a friend in college and never asked him to return it.

The sequel is actually worth buying just for the multiplayer mode as it is literally just two player versions of Rogue Leader's single player mode.  At the time I paid too much for it but today it's probably cheap enough to get both titles used and think of them as two parts of a greater whole.  Just don't play Rebel Strike's single player as it is a mess.

I think Rogue Leader could have been a big killer app for the Cube if it was just marketed as such.  There had never been a more authentic Star Wars experience when this came out.  It also wasn't a "kiddy" game but was still family friendly.  It was the sort of game a Playstation owner would be jealous of and wouldn't that be the very type of game to emphasize?  But instead Nintendo promoted Luigi's Mansion while Rogue Leader got like a second of footage in a general ad covering multiple titles.  *Sigh*

This was the first Cube title I ever bought and I actually got it before the Cube came out as a few third party games made it to stores a few days prior to launch.  So I took it home and read every word in the instruction manual in anticipation for the eventual release.  My parents probably thought I was a lunatic to buy a game I could not possibly play.  The Cube was the first console I actually could afford to buy at launch with my own money so that made the whole launch experience that much more exciting.