Is the GameCube as good as the wii?

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LesterJester · Accepted Answer

Gamecube.

I owned both and also have a WiiU.

The Gamecube's graphics are about par with the Wii, if not better in some cases. Loading up games is also a bit faster.

The controller is also one of the greatest controllers ever made, and I say this as someone who's played games since the Atari. You not only could play for hours without cramps or sore thumbs, but it's response and the pressure range on the L and R buttons were well done. Metroid Prime was the first FPS I ever played using a gamepad and it worked magically with the GC controller.

Resident Evil 4 was perhaps the best game to showcase the GC's prowess in not just with the controller, but graphics and loading times. The QuickTime scenes were almost instantaneous from the moment you hit the buttons. Compare it with the RE4 version on the Playstation 2 and it was leaps and bounds. The PS2 version of RE4 was just sad. Leon's hair was an obvious poly square with a flat texture where the GC version looked like hair (for the time anyways). Loading on the PS2 was slow as hell and hitting buttons during the QTEs would result in a second or two delay and was jarring. Controls were also clunky.

This game alone showcased that the GC was a competitive beast for its generation. Even the Mortal Kombat games Deadly Alliance and Deception looked and ran better on the GC than on the PS2 (about par with Xbox)

But I digress. In regards to the Wii, while it had unique controllers that worked well for motion input, it was not always the greatest way to play games. Innovative, yes. But the motion controls tended to get in the way of enjoying most games.

Take Wii Sports. Fun overall, but the motion controls to sold to be more than they were and were pretty simplistic. For Wii Sports, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but take into account Wii Sports Resort where they included Motion.

Wii Sports Resort took the motion controls to another level and were more dynamic and accurate... When it worked. More often than not, I had to recalibrate the sensors far too many times while playing. I'd get about 5 mins, maybe 10 mins of play time before I had to pause and set the damn thing down to figure itself out and re-centre... Otherwise when I held up my stick sword, it would be pointing to my left foot or something.

The WiiFit was also pretty interesting, but again, it was finicky. Add on top of all this the cost of buying the games and buying the extra hardware to use these games, plus the batteries (two per nunchuck and four for the WiiFit, and the additional motion adapters per controller to support Wii Sports Resort) and you chewed through a lot of money to play niche games that got a bit boring after a short time.

The final nail in the coffin for the Wii is its current state. Nintendo killed off its online support and functionality a few years back. That means no more updates, no online multilayer and whatever games you bought through the Virtual Console are gone. If you still have some old games from the VC downloaded and installed, that's fine, but if you deleted them or wiped the Wii at any point, you're not going to get them back.

Essentially, the Wii is a husk of its former self with most of its functionality discontinued by Nintendo.

The Gamecube though was made before online functionality was a huge deal. It's games don't need updates. There's no online crap to worry about. You can buy a game today, pop it in and it'll play. And 98% of the games for the GC only use the default gamepad (where some games incorporate a microphone or the Donky Kong bongos)

If you are planning on buying a Gamecube or a Wii today, don't bother with the Wii, because you're going to end up with a dead system with most of its functionality gone.

Astarlessnightsky · Accepted Answer

Different. Hardware wasn't a huge jump, but the Wii innovated the gameplay with the motion controls.

Is the GameCube as good as the wii?

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