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Editorials 
GameCube Opinions: The Games
- By Rob
Schlicht
Well, it’s been a few weeks since Dolphin was finally put in his big, cubic aquarium. Along with the GameCube’s debut came his diminutive little brother, Game Boy Advance. From 2 AM to 5 AM Thursday morning, every Nintendo site on the Internet was singing the praises of Nintendo. Then, a few days later, sites began posting members various thoughts now that the systems were unveiled. Surprisingly, many sites contradicted what they had previously said, and began unleashing waves of criticism on the machines. I’m not here to try and gain attention by rattling off concerns I have over the NCube and GBA. I’m here to tell you what I honestly think about them, which is overwhelmingly positive with only a few minor doubts.
GameCube Opinions-The Games
The “games” shown are very impressive. I say “games” because none of it really is confirmed to be actual games yet, it’s all just technical demo’s right now. But, come on. They obviously were chosen to impress the world, but some of the stuff was done too well for it to just be a tech demo. Although it would have been nice to have some playable software, I can understand the company’s iron wall of secrecy. How many Nintendo innovations have been stolen by rival companies? The rumble pak, the idea of putting memory cards in controllers, the Mario Party games, the Mario Kart games, and there’s a lot more. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a Sega or Sony mascot fighter soon. Either way, we did catch a glimpse of a few games.
Although Metroid was shown at Spaceworld, it was only in a few seconds of pre-rendered footage, which would be representative of a cutscene in the game. We do know that Metroid is being developed for GameCube by Retro Studios for some time, now. They have recently hired the man responsible for the Capture the Flag mods for all three Quake games, which tells you that this Metroid will have more action than the previous ones. However, for those of you worried, this won’t be some dumbed-down first person shooter. Nintendo is keeping Retro on a very short leash with this game, since Samus is one of the most popular Nintendo characters in the US. I don’t know in what format Samus is going to make the 3-D jump in, but I do know that this game will be amazing. And with it being in development for so long, this very well could be a potential launch title.
Luigi’s Mansion was a very spectacular demo, and it was all real-time rendered, meaning it’s probably actual gameplay footage. Mario was nowhere to be seen, but you know he’s in there somewhere. You can’t launch a system without a Mario game, but can you have a Mario game starring his brother? Either way, this title has to be in development. Looking at the high-res screenshots, and seeing all kinds of little details in the background seals the fact that this is definitely in development. If you want an example of something done just to be a demo, look at what Rare gave us for Perfect Dark on GameCube. I didn’t see what Miyamoto was talking about in reference to a more mature Mario. If anything, Luigi looked more cartoony than ever. Let’s just hope this isn’t another “Mario is Missing”.
Zelda for GameCube is a definite. Zelda for launch isn’t as certain. When you saw this beautiful video of Link fighting with Ganondorf, and each were made of more polygons than were in the entire Ocarina of Time game (that’s an exaggeration), it obviously looked good. But if you looked in the background, you could see a door leading to a stairway, and even more great details that make it nearly certain that this game is in development. But for how long, and how much longer will it be? After Ocarina of Time, half of the team began work on Majora’s Mask, while the other half was reassigned to other projects. We haven’t seen any “other projects”, so you could speculate that they’ve been doing a lot of pre-production work on the new adventure, and possibly a lot of the game is already done. But remember, Ocarina of Time was in production for five years, and though this jump for the series isn’t as big as the one to 3-D, I’m betting that it’s still too much to finish before launch. But I hope Nintendo proves me wrong.
Rare didn’t show much, but it did hint broadly at the future. It showed a clip of another Banjo adventure, but it wasn’t as impressive as the other demos. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, but it looked essentially like a beefed-up Banjo-Tooie with higher polygon counts. I wasn’t a huge fan of Banjo-Kazooie, and Banjo-Tooie hasn’t really caught my eye, but every game developed for GameCube is a welcome one, and there’s plenty of fans who want an update to the series. Rare’s demo for Perfect Dark was probably thrown together in the span of a few days. It was just a 3-D model of Joanna, rotating in front of a black backdrop. The game’s probably not in development yet, or is just starting, but Rare’s letting us know that Perfect Dark wasn’t just a single adventure, it’s a franchise the company is building. And I couldn’t be happier.
If you haven’t seen them yet, head to IGN and take a look at the Rogue Squadron 2 movies they have. Although originally listed as a game based on Episode I, it looks like LucasArts is pulling a sequel to Rogue Squadron, instead. This game was real-time, and pushes the limits of what’s thought possible in a game. In it, someone is controlling an X-Wing, flying over the top of the Death Star. The game is pushing the AI of dozens of TIE Fighter opponents, the gun towers covering the Death Star, and just the Death Star itself, as the player puts the X-Wing through barrel rolls, looping around. All this looked better than the original Death Star Battle in the movie, and was running 60 frames per second, barely using a third of the Gamecube’s power. And remember, this is a pre-alpha build!
The other game shown was Wave Race. Released shortly after the N64’s launch, Wave Race is still a very impressive game, with one of the best physics engines ever. In fact, it’s so impressive that the guys at NST who are taking care of the GameCube version elected to keep it. Now we’ve got even better crystal clear water, tantalizing lens flares and riders who are actually animated this time around. All this, bumping and skidding on the best waves ever seen on a videogame system, and it’s running at 60 frames per second. Wave Race was one of the single most impressive N64 games, other than Mario 64, and it looks like the GameCube version will be even better.
This time around, we shouldn’t have to worry about the first and second party games carrying the system. Sure, they’ll be amazing, but wouldn’t you like more variety? Well, you got it. With the low cost of the mini-discs, the ease of development, and no more N64 exclusivity contracts and high royalty costs, third parties will be coming out of the woodwork to develop games for the system. In fact, they already are. Mad at Nintendo for the dearth of RPG’s on the N64? Well, after Spaceworld, high ranking officials at companies like Enix and Squaresoft (You’re damn right I said Squaresoft) were asking Nintendo personnel lots of questions about developing for the little cube. Are we going to see a repeat of the Super NES, with possibly the best RPG’s of all time coming together on the Cube, in stunning 3-D? Tough to tell, but maybe two years from now the speculation will be on whether or not Square decides to port Final Fantasy XI to Playstation2, or whether they want to keep it exclusive to the GameCube.
It looks like Nintendo learned their lesson from the N64, and aren’t messing with a “Dream Team” for GameCube. Now, all I need is another sequel to Chrono Trigger, and I’ll do anything for that system.
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| "Two years from now the speculation will be on whether or not Square decides to port Final Fantasy XI to Playstation2, or whether they want to keep it exclusive to the GameCube. " |
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