shammack

Pikmin 2 multiplayer finally coming out for Wii in North America

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I honestly cannot understand why this game was not more popular. Sure, it is a bizarre and unfamiliar game concept, but it was developed and marketed by a gigantic video game company and polished within an inch of its life. A quick search online claims Pikmin 2 sold only 1.2 million copies worldwide, whereas Wind Waker and Super Mario Sunshine - both also Nintendo games of the same era - sold 4.6 and 6.31 million, respectively. Sure, you could say, because those are major brands. But Nintendo made them major. This is a company that got everyone to waggle their arms at their TVs and trade imaginary digital creatures, and those weird ideas are weird as hell. Why does the Pikmin series seem relegated to "cult" status? It's mystifying.

Every time I've talked to a former Gamecube owner about Pikmin, it's always been a game they were interested in but never prioritized. For some reason, the eccentric collection of launch titles like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin intrigued a lot of gamers, but Nintendo didn't really follow through with them. Instead, industry commentators whined about the system's "weak starting line-up", Nintendo responded with an onslaught of core brands six to nine months later, and everyone's like, "Thank God the drought's over!" It saved the Gamecube from the lackluster launch the Wii U seems headed for, but it killed a lot of great new properties in the cradle, and that's a shame.

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Every time I've talked to a former Gamecube owner about Pikmin, it's always been a game they were interested in but never prioritized. For some reason, the eccentric collection of launch titles like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin intrigued a lot of gamers, but Nintendo didn't really follow through with them. Instead, industry commentators whined about the system's "weak starting line-up", Nintendo responded with an onslaught of core brands six to nine months later, and everyone's like, "Thank God the drought's over!" It saved the Gamecube from the lackluster launch the Wii U seems headed for, but it killed a lot of great new properties in the cradle, and that's a shame.

The GameCube "era" was one of Nintendo's most creative periods, in my opinion. During its run, Nintendo released:

  • Luigi's Mansion
  • Pikmin (1 & 2)
  • Eternal Darkness
  • Custom Robo
  • Chibi Robo!
  • Odama
  • Battalion Wars
  • Baten Kaitos (and Origins)
  • Geist
  • Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (not to be confused with Donkey Konga)
  • Metroid Prime 1 & 2
  • Zelda: Wind Waker and Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
  • Super Mario Sunshine
  • WarioWare (both the GBA and GCN versions)

Many of these were completely new franchises, of varying originality. And the GameCube iterations of existing franchises (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Star Fox Adventures) were significant departures for their respective franchises. And yet, the GCN and its games got much maligned by gamers themselves, and as a result, a lot of these excellent titles -- like Pikmin -- got almost completely ignored. I hope Pikmin 3 proves to be a greater success. :(

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+ Doshin the Giant, Cubivore, Animal Crossing

It's also important to remember that very early in its life Gamecube stuff became hard to find in shops outside big cities, and was very rarely marked down.

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Crap, Raff beat me to posting, hit all the ones i was going to add. Though I'd also add F-Zero GX, the just balls-crushingly hard pinnacle of the F-Zero series. (Please Nintendo? I would like another one of these, it's been nine years.)

There is a strong case to make for the Gamecube being one of Nintendo's most creatively wild periods. So many new games, so many weird games, and so many existing franchises spun in strange new directions. I think that the Gamecube created more personal Nintendo favorites for me than any other system they've put out, Nintendo's GC run was awesome and tragically maligned as "kiddy" stuff.

I see Lobotomy's avatar and i am reminded how much i absolutely adored Chibi-Robo, that deserved much more love than it got, we didn't even get the third game in North America.

You know, and Eternal Darkness seems doomed to perennially be one of the most unfortunately overlooked survival horror games ever made, an extremely intelligent and adult game on a system that definitely wasn't the right market for it.

I mean, and all of this is just talking about Nintendo, there were a lot of other really great games that at least started out exclusively on that system.

The Gamecube is where i first played Ikaruga, and that is a game i still absolutely treasure. (I made a pun!) Tales of Symphonia was a pretty great game. Then there was Capcom's pretty legendary push for the system that resulted in a lot of greats like Killer 7, Viewtiful Joe, and Resident Evil 4. Also, for the few times that i actually got all the pieces together to actually play it, i still really adore Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. (Arguing over who carries the bucket is magical.)

The Gamecube was awesome.

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No-one has mentioned 1080 Avalanche... You all need to play this!!!!

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Is this thread turning into a Gamecube love thread? Because that's the kind of thread I want to be in.

Also, this is pretty much a straight port with Wii controls if I'm not mistaken, why are people surprised it doesn't have online? Also, the userbase of the console is dwindling because Nintendo is focusing on the Wii U/3DS. They basically had this port finished and just wanted to dump it into the US for some people looking forward to Pikmin 3 to get into.

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Is this thread turning into a Gamecube love thread? Because that's the kind of thread I want to be in.

Also, this is pretty much a straight port with Wii controls if I'm not mistaken, why are people surprised it doesn't have online? Also, the userbase of the console is dwindling because Nintendo is focusing on the Wii U/3DS. They basically had this port finished and just wanted to dump it into the US for some people looking forward to Pikmin 3 to get into.

Pikmin 3 for WiiU is the thing which doesn't have online, and that is the thing people are disappointed by.

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Pikmin 3 for WiiU is the thing which doesn't have online, and that is the thing people are disappointed by.

You're right, I just glanced at that URL and my brain turned that "3" into a "2." My bad.

That is a valid complaint. I'd say the main reason Pikmin 3 has no online is that they want to have it out by launch so it can be the "core" game that keeps them happy. I think Nintendo realized that not having any strong games of that nature at launch really hurt the 3DS launch, so they're going to do what they need to make sure at least one game of that type developed by them is there to fill that need right away.

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I want to also say how much I loved the Gamecube! It was such a fun console with tons of personality!

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As somebody who really loved the Gamecube at the time and was closely following it, i still don't really understand why so many of the fresh and interesting games Nintendo was making for that system were being met with such apathy.

Maybe the most cynical way to look at it is that, for all that people complain about Nintendo not doing enough new things with their franchises, all they actually want is the same game over and over. (Considering the way games like Call of Duty are consistently met with open arms, i think there's truth to this argument.)

Reggie Fils-Aime has regularly argued during E3 press conferences this point that Nintendo fans want something old to feel like something new. Every year he makes the same argument on stage, like a half-hearted defense against the sequelitis detractors, made in an increasingly terse manner as the years go on. (I like to imagine that Reggie drinks hard around E3.)

The Gamecube was all about new things, and people weren't interested. Pikmin was amazing and influential and not a big seller. (I mean, the games that did do well on that system were sequels. Sequels reinventing their franchises, but still sequels.)

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Maybe the most cynical way to look at it is that, for all that people complain about Nintendo not doing enough new things with their franchises, all they actually want is the same game over and over. (Considering the way games like Call of Duty are consistently met with open arms, i think there's truth to this argument.)

I think this is basically accurate. They want the same game from last year, but with BETTER GRAPHICS and MORE SHIT ADDED. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with knowing what you like and wanting more of it, but it sure as hell is depressing for the rest of us. (Although this might be hypocritical of me -- I'm pretty excited for "more Pikmin.")

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Absolutely, yes. I don't think there's anything wrong with knowing what you like and wanting more of it. It is just utterly depressing when people also demand new experiences and then aren't willing to support those new experiences with their dollars. (I think the honest truth is that most gamers don't know what they want, and so stick to the known quantities.)

You know, but the biggest thing that has changed since the Gamecube is digital distribution, and that's probably been a huge step in the right direction. Services like Steam providing a venue for creative and risky games to be developed on the cheap and sold at a lower price point, a lower bar of entry. (Though then there's the argument about the devaluing of games, and the fact that now, even there in that price-reduced market, people will only spend money on what they know.)

It's also all arguably made the retail space a lot less quirky and interesting.

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This topic inspired me to dig out my old saves and plug some of those tiny Gamecube discs into the glowing blue maw of the Wii and spend a couple hours drowning in random Gamecube nostalgia.

I think the result is that i might end up starting a new playthrough on Chibi-Robo, i don't know.

I had forgotten just how intoxicatingly whimsical that game is. The musical accents to every action you take, toys wandering the halls of that house at night, using costumes to illustrate different messages to NPC's and start different conversations. Man, and the sense of exploration and discovery, finding ways to navigate those hugely vertical spaces.

God damn, i love that game.

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This topic inspired me to dig out my old saves and plug some of those tiny Gamecube discs into the glowing blue maw of the Wii and spend a couple hours drowning in random Gamecube nostalgia.

I loaned SSB:Brawl out to various people years ago and my GameCube memory card got lost somewhere along the way. I can never go back! If I ever play SSX Tricky again, it will be with all stock characters. If I play Brawl again, nobody will be unlocked (Luigi! ;( ), etc.

A lot of my favorite non-Nintendo console games are also from this era (and I played most of them on GameCube). Prince of Persia Sands of Time and Beyond Good and Evil were both of that generation, for instance. There was some good stuff there in the mid '00s.

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I loaned SSB:Brawl out to various people years ago and my GameCube memory card got lost somewhere along the way. I can never go back! If I ever play SSX Tricky again, it will be with all stock characters. If I play Brawl again, nobody will be unlocked (Luigi! ;( ), etc.

I generally hate character unlocks in games for precisely this reason, there shouldn't be a fifty hour grind between taking a game out of its case and enjoying it with friends.

A lot of my favorite non-Nintendo console games are also from this era (and I played most of them on GameCube). Prince of Persia Sands of Time and Beyond Good and Evil were both of that generation, for instance. There was some good stuff there in the mid '00s.

I played both of those on the GC too.

Sands of Time was pretty solid on the GC, had some audio compression, but was much prettier than the PS2 version.

BG&E had some issues though, songs cut short and looping hard, while the save file was monstrously huge.

However, I think it's generally pretty hard to argue for the GC as being a good source of cross platform games when it was the X-box that usually got the best versions, and the PS2 that got the most stuff.

Soul Calibur 2 had a great GC version though. (Even though Link was actually the worst character in the game. Fun to play as, but useless in a serious fight.)

I played Alien Hominid on the GC.

Anybody remember Metal Arms?

There was also that weirdly great Spider Man 2 tie-in game for the movie, i played that on the GC too.

Then things that have already been mentioned, and things that aren't really worth mentioning.

It's a pity that franchise fell apart completely.

I don't know what you're talking about, this looks great! (Maybe mildly nsfw?) Don't you want to play this fine Super Monkey Ball DLC that Sega actually released?

Heh.

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BG&E had some issues though, songs cut short and looping hard, while the save file was monstrously huge.

And it didn't support progressive scan, and I seem to recall that it imposed a sort of letter-boxed widescreen viewport with no option for genuine widescreen support. :-/

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All these complaints about GC version of BG&E just make me want to play BG&E again.

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