GameCube

The Nintendo GameCube (also called GameCube, NGC, GCN, or GC for short) is the fourth video                                                                                                                                                               game home console made by Nintendo. Nintendo's previous console was called the Nintendo 64. Nintendo's next console is called the Nintendo Wii, released in 2006 with models released before November 2011 being backwards compatible with GameCube games. The last game for the console was Madden NFL 08 (also released for the Wii and Nintendo DS), which was released on August 14, 2007. However, first-party development ended six months before that.

The GameCube also had many new features compared to other Nintendo video game consoles, and was the first Nintendo console to officially support Internet play (playing together without wires). It could also connect to the Game Boy Player to allow special features and play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games.

The console was released on September 14, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia. The GameCube sold 21.74 million units worldwide. It was discontinued in early 2009 to focus production on the Wii and DS.

Background
Nintendo was originally the most popular video game company. However, in the late 1990s, the Sony PlayStation began to hurt Nintendo's business. For the first time, Nintendo's main console, which in this case was the Nintendo 64, was not the best-selling console. It sold over thirty million units, which was good, but only half of what Nintendo's earlier NES did. Nintendo was starting to fear, but they decided to try again. The GameCube was essentially a really beefed up Nintendo 64. It used good and detailed 3D models, and Nintendo decided to put new games and new series on the system, rather than sticking to the same old thing. It is obviously shaped like a cube, and has a handle on the back.

Sales
In the end, the Nintendo GameCube did not do what Nintendo hoped it would do. It ended up selling just 21 million units, worse than the Nintendo 64. The PS2 was simply the way to go at the time, simply because it could play DVDs and had a bigger game library. The GameCube sold poorly because it used special discs that no one else used and looked like a toy to many young adults.

Controller
The GameCube's controllers have two analog joysticks. In many games, one of them is used to control a character, while the other is used to control the camera, or some other secondary function. In addition to the analog sticks and the directional pad (D-pad), there are eight buttons: A, B, Y, X, L, R, Z, and Start.

Nintendo later released a wireless version of the controller, called the WaveBird. Instead of wires, it used RF signals to communicate with the console and was powered by standard AA batteries.

Popular games

The Nintendo GameCube was known for its popular first games, including:

Luigi's Mansion
Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Pikmin and Pikmin 2
Super Smash Bros. Melee
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Super Mario Sunshine
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Mario Party 4, Mario Party 5, Mario Party 6, and Mario Party 7
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Wave Race Blue Storm

References

Notes

Nintendo video game consoles
Sixth generation consoles