"Flawed but Fun (updated 11/06)"

Pre Intro:
I decided to change my review. I feel like my last one praised it too much, but I'm keeping the score pretty much the same. Plus the Gamecube, along the rest of sixth gen consoles, are pretty much dead now, so I'm just updating it...
PS: there may be some obvious grammer errors that I didn't change because I can't find it now...sorry!

Intro:
More then often you will find someone who hates this console. It's games suck. It's too kiddy. It's not actually a cube, therefore it messes up my feng shui. Whatever. Gamecube came in third, Xbox came in 2nd, and PS2 came in first...again. It was like this for the last 5 years. Gamecube died slowly. It lost third party support, no online, and people hated it. OK, so at times I thought it sucked too. At times I thought I would never put the controller down. It's not really as bad as people make it out to be. It launched at a good price ($199 I think) and the price dropped, making it a cheap console to buy. And throughout the systems life it slowly and gradually boasted a decent collection of Killer App‘s. And everywhere you go, someone has a Gamecube as a secondary console. That was the purpose of it. It's not that good as a primary console, but it has enough games to make it worth what you paid for. Great games. Some of the best games ever. Nintendo screwed up, many times, but the console miraculously pulled through.

The Graphics and Sound:
Okay to start this off, I am not that much of a graphics and sound whore. I do not know the specs, or anything like that, as long as it looks good and sounds good, I'm happy. If, for reasons beyond me, you are a graphics and sound whore, you would have liked what Gamecube has to offer. It had your regular “Dolby Surround Sound Pro Logic II”, whatever that is, for sound. Sounds good to me. Graphically, it beat PS2, but lost to Xbox (basically a computer in barge form). It has progressive scanning (I think that would be for HD-TV's) for certain games, but it looks excellent or normal TV's like mine. Look at games like Star Wars Rouge Squadron, Starfox Adventures, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil 4. Sure compared to maybe games on 360 they don't look as good, but this is Sixth Gen. Gamecube is capable of great graphics, although sometimes they didn't use it to it's full potential.
Score: 8.9

The Controller:
By far, from what I have held, the best controller ever made. EVER. It fit's your hand like a custom glove. It doesn't feel somewhat small, like PS2, or like Drew Carey's love handle, like the original Xbox controller. It feels great, the button layout is excellent, the analog sticks are in just the right place, and don't even get me started on the shoulder buttons. I would marry this controller if it was legal or sane. Not only that, Nintendo perfected the wireless controller. The Wavebird. Hate the chord? Want to play a game from a ridiculously long distance? Get a Wavebird! However, there were drawbacks to this Godly controller. The D-pad was too small, they were short about 1 button (even though it only made a slight difference). Oh and The Wavebird doesn't have rumble but...who cares that much anyway? Though these are just minor gripes, and it made out to be one hell of a controller.
Score: 9.7

Games:
The most important part of any system! This is probably going to end up being the longest part of the review. Last time I reviewed each genre of games the system had. To make this short and sweet, I'm just going to tell you the Gamecube lacked in FPS and online games and ruled in Action/Adventure. Everything else was basically good. Now for some general background. Gamecube has been deemed the “kiddy system” because people are sick of Mario and are more interested in blowing the heads off zombies and causing pointless mayhem. I see there point. I agree that causing mayhem may be a tad more fun then Mario nowadays. MARIO ISN'T THE ONLY GAME!!!!! Okay Okay sure, what about all the other games. Why did Zelda go Cel Shaded? I don't know. Maybe Nintendo wanted to try something new. Maybe Nintendo inherited some acid and listened to Led Zeppelin for the majority of Sixth Generation. It's not like these games are bad because they look cartoon-ish or kiddy. Then again, most of these “Kiddy Games” aren't the best Nintendo has to offer. I will tell you in my honest opinion, most of the sequels to the N64 classics, like Star Fox 64 and Super Mario 64, are not the Killer APP's. In fact, some of them just plain out suck. Nintendo messed up on the first party end this time, but that's okay. The Gamcubes absolute must haves, can't live without games, the pride and joy, everyone and there second uncle owns it, are Super Smash Brother's Melee, and Resident Evil 4. SSBM, the only game that surpassed its predecessor on the N64, was probably the biggest multiplayer achievement of sixth gen, along with Halo. And we have Resident Evil 4, although also on PS2, I heard it was a overall better experience on GC, and boasts the kind of game play for the psychotic zombie obsessed masses. But only two games? No, it's got more then two. Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime II, Nintendo's exclusive FPS/Adventure games. I haven't played the second, but the first is a must have. Tales of Symphonia, Nintendo's exclusive (exclusive in America anyway...) RPG, my personal favorite on the system. It boasts one of the best battle systems ever created, and if your a RPG fan or not, it's a must have as long as you can hold down fast game play and a anime-ish storyline. Eternal Darkness, I haven't played, but heard, was really scary, surpassing that of Resident Evil, and also a must have. The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, which boasts cool and somewhat “cute” (I like it, shut up) graphics, and one of the best battle systems in a Zelda game ever. The storyline is kind of mediocre, but it's still a great buy, and a must have for Zelda fan's. There's also Star Wars Rouge Squadron II, a nice space combat Star Wars game with beautiful graphics. It is a must have for Star War's fan's or just someone who likes space combat, and you should also pick up Rouge Squadron III if you want RS II in Co-Op multiplayer. Those games, excluding Resident Evil 4, are the exclusive “must have's” for the Gamecube. You also got all of the pre-Gamecube Resident Evil's remade, and Resident Evil 0, a exclusive to the Gamecube which I heard was a good game. They remade Metal Gear Solid with MGS2 style gameplay, an exclusive to Gamecube. I don't think it's a must have but I heard it was still good. Soul Caliber II, while it's multiplatform, has Link as it's special character on Gamecube, and fun to play. Otherwise Gamecube had a other variety of good multiplatform games to hit the system, sometimes with extra features, like THSP, Medal of Honor Frontline, Splinter Cell, Madden, Mortal Kombat, ect. The usual games you get on any console. These games may be better on other consoles because of Online modes, which I will talk about in a minuet, but the point is they still came out, sometimes even better on Gamecube. And for you diehard Nintendo fans, there's always Mario and his slew of games.
Score: 8.0

Nintendo's biggest mistake, the (non-existent) Online:
Seeing a online game for Gamecube was like seeing a nerd play football. There were 2. Both Phantasy Star Games. There was also that homemade thing you had to do to enable the LAN enabled games (there were only 3, Mario Kart Double Dash, Kirby Air Ride, and 1080 Snowboarding) to trick themselves into playing people online, but that wasn't even official. Nintendo made the stupidest move ever. This is what killed the console. They weren't ready for online, meanwhile, everyone else was, and like the slowest kid in your Elementary School class, it was left in the dust. Nintendo wanted innovation, everyone else wanted online gameplay. And I agree here. How can you be innovative when you won't even let people play against other people across the world? They at least meagerly attempted online, giving us 2 MMORPG's (you have to pay for it), but it was not enough to compete against Xbox and PS2. This is the biggest flaw in Gamecube.
Score: 2.9

All the other extra's:
If you all remember at the beginning of Gamecube's life, they had that “connect the Gameboy Advanced for extra features thing? Yeah that died. We got Gameboy Player, which was a cool thing that lets us play GBA games of your TV, sorta feeling like a classic system again. Gamecube wasn't able to play back DVDs/CDs due to its mini discs. Never bothered me along with a lot of people, it wasn't that big of a deal. As far as multiplayer went, your standard 4 slot controller ports, nothing new. A good, but not amazing lineup of extra features.
Score: 7.7

Conclusion:
Gamecube is underrated. If it had some online gameplay, it would have gotten more third party support, and if it did that, Gamecube might have had a chance at winning. However it suffered a quiet death, like the N64. Although, there was still reason to buy one. It was cheap, and had good single player and 4 player multiplayer games like I mentioned above. As sixth gen comes to a close, all the new consoles launched. Xbox 360 has been out a year and is slowly starting to pick up speed, Wii is innovating people with the Wii-mote, and PS3 is becoming unpopular with its lackluster games and expensive price tag. However, as these Seventh Gen consoles begin, and especially because of the Wii, Gamecube is rendered obsolete, because the Wii can play the Gamecube games. If you were to get one now, I would only recommend it to people who are not intending on getting a Wii (like I am) and buy a Gamecube, which is extremely cheap new, for some of it's killer games. Otherwise, Gamecube is dead. However, our last great game, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, is coming to the masses that have been waiting for it for 3 years (more like 3 millennia's) . This is also on Wii with a new control scheme, but I am picking it up on Gamecube, and this is another reason to justify your purchase if you don't want a Wii, or would rather play the Gamecube version instead (you would be surprised how many people would). With this aside, my final thought its that the Gamecube was flawed, which resulted it in being third, but it was still a fun console, and many people enjoyed it.

Final Score: 7.5/10, rounded up to 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/06, Updated 11/27/06