So, what’s up with the GameCube?
Posted: May 19, 2001 @ 12:03AM - By: ivan

• The booth: You know it in your heart the second you gaze upon the entrance to the lair of the big N. You’re going to be in for a massive treat. Their booth was easily the most impressive at the show. The walls were adorned with timeless Nintedo characters via a projected cycling light show. The floor was an equally impressive spectacle with water spouts and falls and plenty of color to remind you of one thing and one thing alone, you’re here to have fun.
  
  
• The system: The GameCube is small, deceptively so. From screenshots you might think it were comparable to any electronic appliance, only more ‘cubish;’ this is not the case. It’s like a slightly taller, bulkier alarm clock, believe it or not. It does have the look of a toy, but the multiple color schemes and design styles should do well for Nintendo. Though, in judging its appearance you can’t let yourself forget the purpose of the GCN, and that’s to play games and give gamers a good time, and at this its design is suited perfectly to convey just that. This is a game machine and nothing more, and at that it will succeed greatly. No crap about DVDs, VCDs, CDs, or whatever (although there was a design of the system that was a DVD player –think stylish DVD player that can also play GameCube games).
  
  On the back it has got the standard AC input as well as two outputs for audio and video. One is for Component video output and the other for the standard stuff. Yes, it can display a VGA signal like the Dreamcast, but it can also output in HDTV quality and even take advantage of progressive scan televisions. Its audio is supposed to be the second iteration of Dolby’s Prologic. The first iteration was something that was really great on the N64, but generally under appreciated. To give you a better idea of what this means, the Xbox can play 5.1 discreet surround sound during actual gameplay (which is awesome and generally considered the best for quality), while the PS2 can only play 5.1 during cutscenes, with stereo sound during the actual game. Now, 5.1 surround is better than Prologic, which only simulates a surround sound environment, but the Gamecube is said to support Prologic 2, which is significantly better than the first iteration and is in fact right on par with the widely accepted 5.1 in terms of quality. Don’t ask me how it all works, but as far as I can tell the thing does a better job of separating the sound channels so that there is not as much bleeding and the end result is very similar to 5.1 surround which uses separate channels from the outset. In the end it will essentially be very competitive to the Xbox’s audio capabilities and is going to completely destroy the PS2’s aging stereo sound.
  
  On the front of the system are four controller ports, which plenty of games will no doubt use, such as Smash Bros, WaveRace, and Madden. Underneath the four ports are two slots for memory cards, (standard memory card type deal like the PS or PS2).
  
  I honestly don’t know the specs for the damn thing, but I’m sure you could find them from another, more in depth news site.
  
  
• The controller: Like the system the controller is also deceptively small, yet it still manages to fit in your hands perfectly (and I have normal to big hands). After about ten seconds of adjusting to the new controller layout, playing becomes second nature. The triggers beautifully mold to your fingers, they are contoured and cradle them perfectly. No more terrible aching following long bouts of Tony hawk on the DC, these badboys do well to keep your precious phalanges soft and delicate. They are also analog and at the same time not analog. That means that you can press them down and they have that analog feel (like the DC or Xbox) and will react as an analog control, but then if you press all the way down to where it clicks it acts as a standard button (like the PSOne, N64 trigger, or whatever); this comes in very handy and is an excellent addition. For instance, in a game of WaveRace, the developer (an utterly cool guy) showed me that you could lean your character with the shoulder buttons in an analog fashion (more depressed equals more lean), or you could also do a quick push to where it clicks as a normal button and your character would react accordingly. Very shui. The controller also has a built in rumble feature, which works as well as anything else out there, although I find it can be somewhat annoying at times, but then I find all rumble features to be kind of annoying after a while. There are a few minor problems with the controller that I can see. The digital pad is not all that great (pretty standard N64 stuff) why oh why can’t they mimic the Saturn pad? The face buttons are not pressure sensitive, which some could argue is a travesty against mankind (but I never use the pressure sensitive functions on the PS2 anyway, so I don’t really give a damn). Finally, there are only three shoulder buttons including the two triggers. It’s kind of strange that they went for the asymmetrical route, and it would have been nice for future games to have a fourth shoulder button to work with, but it’s alright. I think the third button (Z, which is above the right trigger) was placed as a kind of afterthought anyway. Well, I’m sure you can find a much more detailed rundown elsewhere so let’s just move on.
  
  
• The GBA connection: So, what special port does the GBA use to connect to it’s cubical mother? The controller ports, believe it or not. You can plug four GBAs directly into the four controller ports on the GCN. Nintendo plans to take full advantage of this possibly using them for voice command systems with the aid of a microphone thingy, fancy memory cards, and even expanded games. I don’t really care about this much because I’ve never been into portable gaming, but I guess it’s a cool idea so long as they don’t go overboard and start making games that require the GBA in order to get the most out of a game. Imagine playing RF, but in order to unlock a couple secret levels, weapons, or vehicles, you had to have the corresponding version on a different system, which you then had to beat and upload into the main game… Pretty crappy, huh? I really hope they don’t go this route. I know third parties probably won’t, but Nintendo just may with some of their franchises including Pokemon.
  
  
• Luigi’s Mansion: Probably the most surprising and still disappointing game from the big N was Luigi’s Mansion. Surprising because it solely involves our favorite green wearing plumber and is pretty original. Disappointing because it’s not even close to a 3D platformer. I liken the game to an odd 3D mix of Dig-Dug and Smash TV. Dig-dug because you latch onto enemies (in this case ghosts) with your vacuum and try and suck them in, not at all dissimilar from the Dig-boy trying to pump up those goons so long ago. Smash TV because the control is very similar. One analog stick controls your movement while the other controls your aim (the vacuum is operated via a button though). You can move and aim independently of each other. No, it is not a third person game played like a first person shooter (MDK, Fakk2, DS9: The Fallen, Alice, etc.). The game’s camera stays in front of every room you enter always seeming to be in the same direct on look, which almost gives the game a 2D platformer type of feel. I would have preferred a more traditional Mario style adventure, but what can you do? The saddest part is the thing was a very novel idea, but seemed as if its novelty might wear off rather quickly. As far as I can tell, the only things you can do are suck in ghosts and open doors. Still, it is innovative and fun, and is also headed up by the evil genius himself, Miyamoto, so here’s hoping for the best. I’m optimistic, but still cautious.
  
  
• Wave Race: Blue Storm: This is a great racing game that takes place entirely on the water with jet skies. It melds both tricks and flat out racing together wonderfully. Oh yeah, it should be known that I’m a total junkie on the original N64 version and have been anticipating this game the most. Boy, did it ever come through. The water is downright gorgeous (although not as technically impressive as that found in Blood Wake), the physics are straight out of the original, the racing is intense with eight characters in a single track, and the whole game has gotten a beautiful makeover and runs at a very smooth framerate. Four-player split screen is in there and will run at an easy 30fps. They already got the three-player split screen going and that runs at a constant thirty so everything is looking mighty peachy on the multi front. There will also be different modes such as race, point accumulation, point race, tag, etc. Levels also have different conditions such as rain, fog, day, night, sunset, etc.. Very, very kickass.
  
  
• Starfox Adventures: Dinosaur planet: So, basically Rare was making a game for the N64 called Dinosaur Planet, which then got pushed to the GCN. Sometime after that Miyamoto stepped in and thought it would be great if they incorporated the StarFox universe into there. It basically plays like Zelda with no jumping, and an emphasis on running around with a lock on feature and beating things up with weapons or items. It’s all pretty good, but graphically it can at sometimes seem like a strange amalgamation of N64 environments and high quality GameCube stuff. As a whole the game is pretty cool and should be pretty fun to play, but I wouldn’t say it was the greatest thing there.
  
  
• Rogue Leader: Wow, now them’s is some pretty graphics Jethro. A Star Wars game that don’t suck? can such a thing be possible? I though they ended the cool Star Wars game trend with Jedi Knight and Tie Fighter? Anyway, this game is at worst a graphical tour de force and is the single, best representation of the Star Wars universe (at least aurally and visually) yet. It’s a space and land based shooting game in the vein of Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo that takes place during the original three movie trilogy. The coolest part about this game is how it’s so radically different than previous games of a similar genre, at least in the visual sense. Space and air combat based games usually have long expanses of flat textured polygons that depict large vessels, and buildings and such. This is not the case in Rogue Leader. The polygonal detail here is outstanding. Every surface has tons of indentations and dents and protrusions (think the Death Star trench from the original movie and how it was like boxes on boxes on boxes). On the planets there are buildings everywhere. The star destroyers actually have texture, scale, and definition and are not just comprised of a few enormous polygons. The end effect is truly dazzling, and yes those screens you’ve been seeing are from the actual game. What I don’t like about the game is that it plays just like the previous Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo. it can be a bit touchy when steering and the camera is a bit too quick to turn with you. It can also be a bit arcadey, but they did add some wingman ordering options that will surely add to the game. Looks pretty killer all in all and should be a seriously kick ass game when completed. Starfighter doesn’t even come close to touching it, I mean seriously, this game just wipes the floor with it.
  
  
• Kameo: A quirky adventure game that has a kind of Rayman style look to the environments and characters. You absorb monsters whom you can then turn into and subsequently do stuff. That’s pretty much all I could figure out. It seems like an odd, original kind of game.
  
  
• Eternal Darkness: This game may look like an offshoot of Resident Evil, but once you control it you’ll find it plays more like MGS or whatever. Hit a direction and your character will go in that direction. It was at times visually impressive, but wasn’t too spectacular. You can control three separate characters in three separate time periods too (Roman centurion, English knight, and modern day, sexy chick). Each character has his or her own set of attacks and weapons, (the knight and centurion being hand-to-hand with the chick utilizing guns and such). The control and movement can be a bit stiff at times and you’re only able to attack when you’re not moving. During combat you can choose to target specific parts of the enemy like head, left arm, torso, and right arm. It seems to have a better combat system than Onimusha and a better shooting system than Resident Evil. It certainly has potential, but I’ve seen better.
  
  
• Smash Bros: A sequel to the original N64 version, it’s a four player fighting/brawl style game where the action takes place on a 2D plane in a 3D environment with 3D characters. I haven’t gotten too deep with the combos and moves and such, but it seems very similar to the first game on the N64 only much, much prettier.
  

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