(upbeat tech music) - Hello, and welcome to Game Sack. This time around we're taking a look at another underrated system and this time it's the Nintendo GameCube. - That's right, Joe. A lot of people shunned the GameCube in favor of the PlayStation
2 and even the Xbox, but the system in actuality has a lot of great exclusive titles. - It really does. - And it even has the
awesome Game Boy adapter. (laughs) - Yeah, that's really awesome. - It is. - Anyway, before we look at the games, we're gonna take a look
at the system itself. (intense music) The Nintendo GameCube was
launched in North America on November 18, 2001, just three days after the launch of the original Xbox. The console's name was very descriptive because that's exactly what it was, a cube that played games. It also had a nifty carrying handle. On the back of the system
were connections for power, analog audio and video, as well
as digital audio and video. Though, the digital port was
only ever used for video, requiring you to use both
jacks simultaneously, which was definitely not cool. The console supported progressive
scan and widescreen video. Nintendo eventually
did away with this jack entirely on late model GameCubes. It was the first Nintendo system to use optical disks as the main method for game delivery, though,
they went with small disks with very low capacity,
only about 1.4 gigabytes. That meant that games
often had to be split up over multiple disks, or that features from multi-platform games had to be removed from the GameCube version. The standard controller
looks very strange at first, offering a very bizarre, but
very comfortable button layout and perhaps the best analog
stick ever for any game system. The GameCube would eventually get add-ons like a modem, broadband
adaptor and a Game Boy player which let you play Game Boy
Advance games on your tv. The online capabilities for the system were barely touched
upon however as Nintendo officially stated that gamers did not want to play games online. Instead they focused on what
they called connectivity where you attach the
Game Boy Advance player to the controller port and each player could see his or her
own screen on the GBA. The system was supported until early 2007 and sold 22 million units, more than twice as much as the Sega Dreamcast. (upbeat music) - And it also should be
noted that the CAV formatting of the Nintendo GameCube discs also helped load times be pretty fast. - Joe, just what the hell is CAV? I mean, you act like everyone is just supposed to know what that means. - They don't? - No, of course not. - Well, CAV stands for
constant angular velocity which means the disk always spins at the same speed no matter
what position the laser's in. Kind of like the old laser disks which only had a half hour video per side. But it really helps the seek
times and all that stuff. - That is very interesting. - Of course it is. - Another fun fact that I will probably never remember again. (laughs) Do we have any games that
we're going to look at? - Yeah, why don't you start
out, what have you got for us? - I'm going to show three of the finest. (upbeat music) First up is Luigi's Mansion. Alright, so the GameCube launched and there was no Mario title to the dismay of hundreds of fans. - [Joe] You know, I bet if
they did have a Mario title at launch, the system would
probably be a lot more popular. - [Dave] Sadly, we will never know. Nintendo decided it was time for Luigi to have a chance at glory
and gave us Luigi's Mansion. It's not a typical
platform game that people were accustomed to with
the new Nintendo system. This time around Luigi has
to save Mario who is trapped in this mansion by the same
scheme that got Luigi there. Anyways, you play Luigi's Mansion by going room to room solving riddles. You use your Game Boy Horror to search for ghosts and lock onto
their beating heart. - [Joe] Hmmm, ghosts don't
have beating hearts, Dave. If they did, they wouldn't be ghosts. - [Dave] They do! Look at the Game Boy Horror, there's a beating heart right there. Here you'll get a clue of what you need to do to be able to see the ghosts and suck it up with your
Poltergust 3000 ghost vacuum. (spooky music) Once you collect some of the bigger ghosts you'll get a key which will
open up new parts of the mansion to explore and repeat the process again. The controls in the game are really good once you get used to them. The music is also good for the game. It's not creepy by any
means, nor are the graphics, which are way more cute than scary. Remember, this is Nintendo. - [Joe] Exactly, we've got
kids to think about here. - [Dave] I think it split
right down the middle on people who like this
game and people who don't. I for one do like it a
lot and had a great time with this game. It was and is a game that is very unique. I'm highly anticipating the sequel that's coming out for the 3DS. (coins chiming) - Mario? - [Dave] And here is
Super Smash Bros. Melee. What game system is complete
without fighting games? None of them! - [Joe] The CDI didn't
have any fighting games and look how impressive that thing was! - [Dave] (laughs) You are so right. Granted, the GameCube never
saw any Street Fighter, Kingdom Fighters or Dead or Alive, but that doesn't mean it
didn't have anything fun. Instead, it had the biggest
fanboys fantasy come true. Smash Bros. Melee pits characters from all across Nintendo's franchises against each other in a
four player battle royale. Actually, this is the best part. When you get three of your
Nintendo fanboy friends together, you would spend hours playing this game like it's just five minutes. Even if you're on your
own, you can play this game because there is so much content that it would be very hard
for you to get bored. In single player you can
play the adventure mode which has some platforming
and all out battles like defeating a certain amount of Yoshis before you can progress. Or you can play the four player melee with three CPU characters. The control in the game is good and the fighting is far from deep. I mean you have a block button, punch button, and a
secondary attack button. - [Joe] A block button? What is this, Mortal Kombat? - [Dave] Oh god, no! While it's far from difficult, it's a true button
masher that is very fun. Back to fanboy stuff. This game is loaded with it. Each stage is taken from a
different Nintendo franchise. The music is remixed
awesomeness from Nintendo games. HAL Labs has got to be my
favorite second party developer. Everything they seem to
put out is pure gold. (yelling and smashing) And what would a GameCube episode be without a mention of Metroid Prime? When it was first
announced as an FPS game, I had mixed feelings. Firstly, I love the Metroid series, so naturally I was happy to hear this. - [Joe] I love Metroid, so
I was very sad to hear this. - [Dave] Secondly, at the
time, I wasn't a fan of FPS, and I thought this would never work. How could you have a platforming puzzle solving game as a FPS? Well, I was very pleasantly
surprised by the outcome. Metroid Prime is a great game all around. Retro Studios did an amazing
job with the Metroid franchise. They made it all fit together so nicely that I was immersed in the game from the first couple of minutes of play. The controls took a bit to get used to, but ended up making perfect sense. The world created in
this game is very neat. (blasting) The graphics are very
good for the GameCube, and the music is outstanding. It's a mix of classic Metroid melodies and some atmospheric
minimalistic awesomeness. (electric sizzling) Throughout the game you are required to scan objects to open things up and get further in the game. If I remember correctly, a lot of fans complained that this
slowed the game down a lot. I, myself, liked it very much. - [Joe] That's because of
your collector mentality. Must scan everything! - [Dave] Oh, and I did. I loved scanning all objects possible to learn about the surroundings. Scanning fallen pirates to
learn how they met their demise, scanning bosses to figure
out their weak spots, it all made for a very
inclusive experience that feels very much like Metroid. Of course, Metroid Prime
2 came and was good, but not as good as the first one. A must have for any Nintendo fan. - [Joe] Yeah, but Super
Metroid is still the apex of the series to this day, in my opinion. - [Dave] But it's not on the GameCube. (blasting) And, of course, you can get
the Metroid Prime trilogy on the Wii, but it's not
very common so be prepared to spend some big bucks for it. - Yeah, but they did make them all control like Metroid Prime 3. - Which is actually really nice. That was pretty good controls, so. Alright Joe, what games have
you chosen to talk about? - Why don't I just show you? - That's a great idea. - [Joe] Rogue Leader aka Rouge Squadron II was a launch game for the GameCube. It covered the same time span that all three original
movies take place in. - [Dave] You also get to control a bunch of ships you don't
really care about either. All I really want to control is an X-wing and a Millennium Falcon. - [Joe] I hear you on that. Many scenes from the
original trilogy are here, and during those scenes you
can control Luke Skywalker. There are other scenes
that take place elsewhere and where you can
control some other yahoo. The game is very challenging
and also quite rewarding. Now, I've heard it said that this game pushes the GameCube to
its limits graphically. Now, I don't know about that, but the graphics are very good. - [Dave] They are good graphics. I was pretty impressed when
I first played this game. - [Joe] The sound is also well done, with good imitations of
most of the real characters, and some good fake surround
thanks to Dolby Pro Logic II. Sometimes it's hard to
spot the TIE fighters that you need to destroy
because they blend in with everything else and
you really can't see them on the map due to all the clutter. - [Dave] A fun game, but my enthusiasm for the Star Wars universe
has seriously dropped off, so I really don't care for the storyline. (blasting) (intense music) (blasting) - [Joe] Wave Race Blue
Storm is another launch game for this system. I loved Wave Race 64 on the Nintendo 64. - [Dave] Oh, you're not the only one! - [Joe] It was one of my
absolute favorite games for that system and I couldn't wait for a high powered sequel. So, how'd this one turn out? Well, Nintendo handed it
off to western developers and they did a decent job. The water looks really cool
and sometimes it really feels like you're smacking the
waves as you speed past. The control is pretty
tough, and I don't think it controls anywhere near
as well as Wave Race 64, but it's still quite
manageable for the most part. - [Dave] I also found the
controls a little lacking. The N64 game controlled so nicely. - [Joe] It really did. The music is good in a few spots, but overall it's nothing
that'll blow you away. One thing that Wave Race 64 had was an announcer who was extremely happy. - [Announcer] That's a lap record! Don't sweat it! Bonsai! - [Joe] The announcer here in Blue Storm seems a little less thrilled to be here. - [Announcer] That turbo wasted on you. You betray what little trust I put in you. What a good turbo, dude. Were you born a loser
or did it take practice? Ooh, a turbo. - [Dave] Plus the character
choices here were also lacking. I never found any of them interesting. I hate when game companies try to give a polygon character 'tude. It just doesn't work. - [Announcer] A turbo. (engines revving) That's right, that's it. - [Joe] F-Zero GX is
one amazing racing game. Nintendo knew they could
never make the game as awesome as they needed it to be, so they handed it to the
only ones who could- Sega. That's right, only Sega had the skill to make a proper Nintendo game. - [Dave] Oh, geez, I have mixed feelings about this statement, Joe. I think Nintendo could
have made it very good, but I have to give credit to Sega. They did an excellent job here. - [Joe] Presented in widescreen, this game is frustratingly intense. That's right, I said frustrating. This game is absolutely punishing to all but the most dedicated players. - [Dave] Yeah, frustrating is a good word. It's super hard to win
races on upper levels, even when you feel you've
had a perfect race. - [Joe] Judging by the graphics, this game takes place a
few years in the future. And in the future, games always
run at 60 frames per second. Sega knew how to use the GameCube hardware better than Nintendo did. In fact, Nintendo never
made a 16:9 widescreen game for the system ever. They were weak. The music is great as well. Though, sometimes it seems a bit racist. For example, the music
in the lightning station constantly insults Italians by repeatedly saying, "Dago Wop!" (intense music) Hey, Dave, aren't you Italian? - [Dave] Uh, I'm half Italian. My parents crossbred and I'm a mutt. - [Joe] Oh, so it's only
half offensive to you then. But despite it's difficulty,
this game is amazingly fun and addictive and worthy
of the F-Zero name. - [Dave] Isn't this
game slightly different from the arcade game F-Zero AX? - [Joe] Yeah, there's a few
different tracks here and there. Too bad I didn't have my
GameCube memory card with me when I saw it in the arcade. (intense music) - [Announcer] Final lap! - [Joe] Super Monkey Ball was yet another awesome launch
title for the GameCube. In fact, it was made by
the same development team who would make F-Zero GX. And I've gotta say this game right here is one of my favorite games of all time. The goal was simple. You have a monkey trapped
inside of a transparent ball and the mission was to tilt the floor in order to get the monkey to the goal before the timer reaches zero. That's it. There are tons of stages
in here to play and master, and thanks to the GameCube's
awesome analog controller, the controls, simply, could not be better. You can kind of get this game if you buy Super Monkey Ball
Deluxe for the PS2 or Xbox, but the control simply isn't as good because there are dead spots
in the analog that kill you. Despite the simple game play, things can get a bit challenging here and there. For example, level seven
here on the expert mode is definitely the hardest
stage in the entire game. But otherwise, the game
is pretty easy for me. - [Dave] I like the
fact that the developers put in easier routes in some of the stages so novices can have fun and
make it to the goal also. - [Joe] Yeah, you can often take shortcuts to warp to higher levels more quickly, but you don't wanna do that because then you'd miss out on some of the
Super Monkey Ball goodness. The graphics are pretty good,
and they get the job done. The music is generally
pretty catchy as well. It even has party games,
which are pretty fun like Monkey Racing, and of course, my favorite, Monkey Target. But, actually, I've gotta say, Dave's the pro at Monkey Target. - [Dave] Hey, thanks, Joe. I hate to admit it, but I like Monkey Target even better
than the main game. - [Joe] That's because you happen to be as good as Monkey Target as I am with the main game, wouldn't you agree? - [Dave] Ha, yeah, you are right. (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Excellent! - [Joe] Anyway, this is a
game I come back to often. And I always make sure
to beat it completely whenever I play. Absolutely no other
Monkey Ball game ever made can live up to the greatness of this one, but Sega did try with Super Monkey Ball 2. This time it's in widescreen
and progressive scan. And it looks great. This is the second best
Monkey Ball game ever made. Unfortunately, they put in
gimmicks that bring the game down like toggle switches that
you have to pay attention to. Now, it's no longer a simple matter of just getting to the goal. You've gotta operate moving parts of certain stages with the switches. Still, it's really fun
with even more stages, and the music is great. There are even more party games here and Monkey Target 2 is
still pretty awesome. - [Dave] Oh, man, it's
good, but Monkey Target in this game suffered. They changed up the formula
enough to make it too easy. They took out the skill shot of the small platform and
made it easy to get power ups. It's still enjoyable and the music in this version is
actually very incredible. But it can't beat the first Monkey Target. - [Joe] Suffice it to
say, I'm good at both of these Super Monkey Ball Games, so here are some examples of the fun
I've had in these two games. (upbeat music) - You know, Joe, despite not
having a Mario game at release, the GameCube launch lineup
was pretty impressive. - It was, you know, it
was basically the opposite of the N64's launch lineup which consisted of Mario 64 and what, Pilotwings? - Yeah, Pilotwings. Well, anyways, there's a lot
more GameCube exclusive games that we'd like to show you, and we're gonna do it via a montage. - Ooh. (intense music) - And there you go. Tons of GameCube games you
should probably check out. - That's right. And I feel bad because my
memory card was corrupted and I couldn't show a lot of later levels of those games in the
montage that I wanted to. - Yeah, you're pathetic, Dave. But remember, you can
also play GameCube games on your Wii system as it
is backwards compatible. - That's true, but remember in 2011 Nintendo took out the GameCube
compatibility on the Wii. So, if your Wii has
GameCube controller spots and memory card ports, you
can play GameCube games on it. - Yes, but if your Wii
doesn't have stuff like that and you can't play GameCube games on it, you can probably find
a real GameCube system for cheap since most Wii's
are backwards compatible. So, you might as well even
use a real GameCube system. Anyway, thanks for tuning in
and we'll see you next time. (upbeat music) Hey Dave, let's see what the GameCube looks like upstairs on my new big screen. Can you bring it up? - Oh yeah, alright, I'll grab it. - No! Not like that! What are you doing? - What's wrong, dude? This is my third GameCube,
I know what I'm doing here. - No, no, not like that,
what are you doing? You're supposed to pick
it up by the handle. See, it's a handle. - Handle? That's not a handle. - Yeah, didn't you see the
opening segment of the show? I was talking about it. - I missed it. That was to put your cords through, it's not a handle. - You're an idiot, geez. - I guess that makes sense. No wonder I have three broken GameCubes, I was carrying them here. That's awesome, a handle.
Loved it! They have really good taste.
Excellent taste in games, even ones that were critically reviled (P.N. 03 for example).