The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U/NX)

[TwiceFriedRice]

It's really easy to say things like "fresh takes" and "needs to make history like X before it" but it's not easy to execute that.

I think Nintendo dug themselves a hole when they released the 64 era games. They were amazing but the pinnacle of what those franchises can offer in terms of entertainment. For Zelda, Star Fox, Mario, ect to be huge again they need to go above and beyond the Skyward Swords, Mario Galaxies, and Star Fox...anything after the 64 one, really.

You're not wrong about this, but many people consider the Mario Galaxies to be the best in the 3D Mario series. I'm one of them.

And the Wii's library is underrated, but it definitely weak compared to other Nintendo consoles and the 360 and PS3.

[elfshadowreaper]

The problem with the Wii was that the motion controls lead to gimmicky games. The library of games for the Wii seemed pretty big but the ratio of quality of game to suck games was low. I don't really have the same level of sentimentality toward the Gamecube that I do with the pre-Gamecube systems. The only two games I care about from that system are Mario Sunshine and Zelda: WW. Technically I guess you can add RE 4 to that list but I didn't play it until it was ported to the Wii.

I also think I'm in the minority when I say I wasn't wild about WW. It's a Zelda game, so I still enjoyed playing it and will always keep it in my video game library. I just wasn't sold on the ocean aspect, much like I wasn't sold on the loftwing air overworld in Skyward Sword. Big overworlds with lots of empty space are a turnoff. TP had a big overworld with little substance in it but at least it had nice vistas.

But you know what would be awesome? If Zelda Wii U had a huge overworld with a massive landmass and then a large ocean to cross to get to another smaller continent. The ocean could have smaller islands between the two contintents as well. That would be sooo cool.

I just hope that the overworld for Zelda Wii U is as big as Red Dead Redemption. I loved being able to mount my horse and ride for 30 minutes across the map. Talk about immersion.

[Kenny]

^I have the same sentiments. WW was good but not fully captivating enough for me. I think the long stretches of sailing in the ocean made it too boring. Red Dead Redemption is a good once when it comes to the open world, lots of stuff happening when you ride horseback.

You're not wrong about this, but many people consider the Mario Galaxies to be the best in the 3D Mario series. I'm one of them.

And the Wii's library is underrated, but it definitely weak compared to other Nintendo consoles and the 360 and PS3.

Mario Galaxy is not a terrible game, but after I was done with it...I was done with it, and had no desire to play the sequel. Same with Mario Sunshine. I didn't have the urge to play through it again like the older games. Any game that compels me to keep playing it, especially if it's meant to be a single player adventure, gets top marks in my book.

[elfshadowreaper]

I enjoyed both Galaxies too, but I liked Sunshine better. I enjoy Mario games with big hub worlds that hold secrets. And even though the physics on Galaxy 1/2 was really cool I thought the level creation kinda lazy with the flow of jumping from small rock to small rock to medium size rock. But the character design on Sunshine was pretty bad. I 100%'d Sunshine when it came out and then 100%'d it again a few years ago and it was still really fun. I liked the different uses of the FLUDD and there was something satisfying about washing the graffiti off surfaces. I've never had the desire to return to Galaxy 1/2.

I wish they would bring back the Mushroom Kingdom aspect of 3D Mario games like Mario 64. Exploring the castle was magical.

[OL]

^^Give them time, I'm sure they'll get to it eventually.

[MiTT3NZ]

Yeah, I had a lotta love for the GC n'all. Then I discovered Vice City n Pro Evo. I sold my Xbox n Gamecube after that.

[AnimeGamer183]

Lets stop and look at what the gamecube did for nintendo, after the struggles of the N64. GC put nintendo back in the position that all the other consoles makers were in, 128bit console gaming during that gen. Being able to be in the same realm of the other guys allowed nintendo to get more offers from 3rd parties, support they hadnt seen since the snes, and even more than that. They got multi-platform games again, they got exclusives, they got remakes and ports. Sure the GC's library isnt the PS2s but it still has plenty of good first party (cause lets be honest, Nintendo has the best first party games of all the console makers, hands down) exlusive and multi games. I mean think about the N64, they decided to have the hardware be significantly stronger than their competition, the N64 kind of forced everything to skip a gen almost. Making a PS1 or Saturn game, was a whole different world than making a N64 game, which turned off some developers from it during a certain period of time, also the not having a CD-ROM, space constraints were a problem. If you wanted to make a 64 game you had to step it up a notch from making a PS1/saturn game. It was just different and more difficult for devs to make games for their console.

Lets flash forward to after the cube now. Nintendo decided to be the awkward ones and have different hardware again with the Wii, only this time under powered as opposed to over powered like they did with the 64. But with the support they got from the 3rd party devs from the cube they didnt run into all the problems they had with the N64. Also the initial price made the Wii sell like hot cakes. With the Wii-U I think they have back tracked ever so slightly, again for the same reasons, such different hardware from their competition, but now its starting to annoy developers they have to make games underpowered from the standard for the Wii-U (maybe the U stands for underpowered lol), it also doesnt help the PS4 and XB1 are so similar in hardware. Nintendo has some what shot themselves in the foot having hardware so different, but at the same time, the cube had similar hardware and it wasnt as successful either. I think they are stil trying to find the balance, and I think cost and pricing is a big factor for them as well, and the Wii did prove you can stand on top with under powered hardware, that just hasnt carried over to the Wii-U. Nintendo needs more for the Wii-U to work like planned, there are some titles in the works to get there, but I think after this E3 they can rest a little easier they also need to give the Wii-U a price drop and they should be set, I would expect one before Zelda and Mario come out, that should get the fire burning again. We'll see.

[Henry Spencer]

I'm on the opinion that GC's first party line-up was weak and N64's was just much better. There was only ever really Wind Waker and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance that I like a lot...Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, Metroid Prime etc were all disappointments to me and didn't live up to their hype at all. GC was definitely missing the evolutionary Mario games that I was expecting, I mean, what happened? Mario Sunshine sucked.

I remember at the time being really disappointed with the GameCube. It has some third party gems, but it really lacked in any games that took me by surprise.

[OL]

^^Battalion Wars always stood out to me on the Gamecube. That was technically first-party, right? I can't remember.
Great game either way.

[Thief]

Off the top of my head -- some gamecube 1st party titles (starred ones are ones I've played and really enjoy):

Smash Bros Melee ***
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime 2
Wind Waker ***
Twilight Princess ***
Four Swords Adventures ***
Mario Sunshine ***
Pikmin ***
Pikmin 2
F-Zero GX ***
Paper Mario 2 ***
Mario Kart Double Dash
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance ***
Luigi’s Mansion
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Battalion Wars
Animal Crossing


Sunshine certainly didn't suck and it's loads better than Galaxy or Galaxy 2, but to each their own and whatever. You can also play every Resident Evil from REmake to 4 on the gamecube (you can't play the original version of 1) -- and with the addition of the gameboy advance player you can play through every single Zelda game from the first to Twilight Princess on the Gamecube. Plus some more great third party games:

Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2
Phantasy Star Online Ep. 3
Eternal Darkness
Tales of Symphonia
Ikaruga
Baten Kaitos
Skies of Arcadia
Rogue Squadron 2
Rogue Squadron 3

There's more good games on the console that I've never played so I can't comment. The console is goooooooood with many of the installments being the best, in my opinion, of their franchise.

[Henry Spencer]

Yeah forgot about F-Zero GX and Smash Bros., but technically F-Zero GX was developed by SEGA. Rest of that list is a big meh aside from Fire Emblem and Wind Waker (which are both masterpieces in their respective series). I never said the third party line-up was disappointing, just the 1st party stuff was a disappointment (third party stuff was really good mainly thanks to Capcom's published/developed games galore). Never played the Galaxy games actually, I sort of went off Nintendo stuff after the GC for a long time.

And I never played Twilight Princess on GC since by the time that finally came out (seriously took way, way too long) I already sold my GC off. Wish I hadn't now though since that's the version I want to try out one day after the motion controls of the Wii version put me off completely (along with the ridiculously long, dragging opening section).

[Thief]

I think it's a pretty good first party line-up, and when compared to the N64, I think it's a little better. I can only think of Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, F-Zero X, Super Mario 64, Starfox 64, Paper Mario, Mario Kart 64, and Super Smash Bros off the top of my head for the N64. The Zelda, Mario, and Starfox games were better on the 64 (even though I tend to prefer Sunshine/I can still understand why others don't) but I think the other games had better installments on the Gamecube -- plus there were simply just more quality games to play on the Gamecube.

I don't so much mind if people don't like the Gamecube all that much except when it's described as "easily the worst" when there's the Wii to hate.

But yeah, Twilight Princess is much better on the GC if you ever decide to give it a shot -- it actually ended up being my second favorite in the series after Majora's Mask. The game has very noticeable flaws, and I would argue that it's not as tight of an experience as Wind Waker was, but I still prefer it.

[AnimeGamer183]

N64 had better first party games, cube had better 3rd party games, but i think the general consensus is that the N64 was "better" but I think thats debatable.

[Axm]

They both had some phenomenally great games (which are actually worth owning the systems for, I'd say), but in terms of quantity and variety in their individual libraries... they're both weak.
The original NES and SNES are still the best Nintendo consoles ever.

[MiTT3NZ]

All that matters is that Double Dash kicks the absolute shite out of Mario Kart 64 (fucking despise that version n'all...)