A simple two player fighter was fun for a while, but it hardly gave me the respite I craved. But there were obstacles: I could barely speak Japanese, let alone read it. I wanted to disappear.Īnd it worked for a short while at least. Back then I thought I was buying my GameCube because I wanted to play Soul Calibur 2 - but what I really wanted was an excuse, something to procrastinate with. One of the first symptoms, in the very beginning, is a strong desire to remove yourself from your surroundings - to find respite from the culture you don’t understand, to avoid the difficult task of assimilation. I had just turned 22, I was alone in a strange country. I had been living there for a single month. I was living in Nagoya, Japan when I bought my GameCube, stumbling home in the dark, completely penniless. Some of my fondest memories are inextricably linked with the GameCube, to the extent that I can barely separate them from the games themselves. The GameCube was the last straw for many - including my own brother, who never bought another Nintendo console again.īut, for me? It was a console I fell in love with a console I fell in love playing. It was a console without direction, a trough in anticipation of a peak. The GameCube sold poorly Super Mario Sunshine was arguably the weakest ‘canon’ Mario ever made, Wind Waker wasn’t for everyone.

When history judges the GameCube, it won’t be judged kindly.

Smash bros legacy xp mario sunshine