Gamecube goes live! | Suite101.com

As an Army General might say, this is not a retreat. No, it is a tactical withdrawal from a position found to be untenable due to unforeseen circumstances. Okay, okay it’s a retreat. Remember this, because it won’t happen very often. Anyhow, I think now that it is time I gave some love to Nintendo. I have been backing Microsoft and their X-Box all along in the “console war” and still believe that the X-Box will show amazingly strongly but to give credit to Nintendo they seem to have blanked out all the distractions and done what they normally do: produce a good, streamlined console with some really nice games. I have been lucky enough to sample their Gamecube Japanese launch titles recently and they are really very impressive as a group (although the paucity of software available must be a worry). Luigi’s Mansion has improved vastly since we last looked at it, and although it may turn off some (especially younger) gamers with its highly distinctive style and somewhat repetitive gameplay I found it fascinating and congratulate Nintendo on taking such a bold, interesting step. Waverace: Blue Storm is just what we thought it would be: a fairly straight update of the N64 version with better graphics. What is amazing, though, is the difference that the updated graphics and hugely impressive weather effects make – the resulting game experience is far more enjoyable and immersive than before. While I have some doubts regarding its longevity (maybe too few tracks?) it is nonetheless a really enjoyable romp of a game. The surprise package for me was Monkey Ball from Amusement Vision (one of the ex-Sega R and D units). An innovative game which somewhat defies categorization (is it a puzzler or a platform game or what?), this can be immensely frustrating as you attempt to indirectly manoeuvre (I know it sounds weird – just play it and see!) your – you guesses it – monkey in a ball around 3D maps but I guarantee you will be punching the air when you finally do that difficult level you have been struggling with. Intuitive, innovative and fabulous. See www.nintendo.com for more on all of these titles.

That said, I still have some fairly serious reservations about Gamecube. Nintendo’s third-party support has always been shaky, and though they have received a shot in the arm with Sega coming in to help them I think that this lack of external games will still be a problem for them. The other thing I am worried about is the quality of games to come: Starfox Adventures is looking alright but does not seem to have the magic we associate with the series, the eagerly-awaited Metroid Prime was pulled from Nintendo’s Japanese Spaceworld event because it was too poor to show (an insider I spoke to talked of crippling frame rate issues) and the Rare Donkey Kong race game is looking somewhat underwhelming. Still, given that Nintendo still have many of their main properties to wheel out- Mario (in Mario Sunshine), Mario Kart, Zelda etc. – I think it would be foolish to write them off yet. All in all Gamecube has gotten off to a very good start but fairly soon gamers are going to want more titles to play and if they are not delivered then the machine could suffer in comparison with X-Box, which seems to be going the PlayStation route, i.e. make as many games as possible even though some will be awful. But a promising start indeed…