Yes, I mostly moved to PC. This is debatable, but I would make the case that the early 2000s were the golden age of PC gaming, when it had the biggest edge over console gaming.
But I had PC gamed since childhood in the early 90s. It’s interesting to think about exactly how the PC fit in as a secondary games machine in the 90s, with zero overlap between its library and those of the consoles, aside from a handful of weird ports. But for me, the very end of the 90s is when the PC became primary and the consoles secondary. Though this was also helped by me getting into 8- and 16-hit emulation in those days.
I never owned a PS2, though I had friends that did and I sort of regretted having a GC instead. Final Fantasy 10 was probably my favorite console game of the era, which a friend let me borrow his PS2 to play through.
I agree fully with your thoughts on the NES and SNES. There is something timeless about the SNES that is much less true of every other console named here. The story of the NES is more complicated, but you say it well (and I'll admit I read every one of your reviews years ago).
I didn't engage much with the Wii or Wii U. But if I have to decide which is my least favorite of the ones I really did engage with, I would say the GameCube. The reason being that it didn't really serve a *purpose* for me, other than to play a few first-party games.
The NES and SNES served the same purpose: to deliver huge libraries of the best first AND third-party games available, covering all the genres, with (at the time) excellent graphics and sound. They largely succeeded at being all things to all people. Really, this is the reason you want to be owning a console.
As I pointed out in your other post, even though the N64 didn't do this, its purpose was to offer the best 3-4 player multiplayer. A smaller niche, but for me, at that time in my life, an important one that translated to a lot of fun. Its single-player library was very shallow but included two amazing and groundbreaking games in Mario 64 and OoT. You couldn't get anything like them anywhere else.
Now, what did the GameCube do? Well, it still had better multiplayer than PS2 (which once again lacked 4-player out of the box), but part of the problem was that for most of this era, my friends and I kept returning to our library of classic N64 multiplayer games when we wanted some quick multiplayer action, while the PC was increasingly competing for our attention for more dedicated multiplayer experiences. So that 3-4 player console niche felt much smaller than when the N64 first came onto the scene.
Meanwhile on the first-party single-player front, even compared to the supremely mediocre N64, I guess I wasn't as big a fan. However much you may like Sunshine and Wind Waker, you have to admit neither one innovated the way Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time did. They weren't must-play; you COULD get experiences like them elsewhere. Metroid Prime made a stronger case for itself, and it was my favorite single-player game on the console, but it wasn't enough to make me love the GC, or to even keep it hooked up once I was done with that game (I'll admit I never played the sequels).
I guess what you could say about the GC is it was the last honest attempt by Nintendo to create a console along the lines of the NES/SNES, to compete toe-to-toe with Sony, and maybe win. To be all things to all people. But unlike the NES and SNES, it was a failed attempt.
The Gamecube is an interesting anomaly. I agree, it was Nintendo's last attempt to compete with Sony on their technological level, but there were so many strange decisions made for it. No DVD compatibility, for one. Not saying that would have helped it, but it couldn't have hurt. Experimenting heavily with both their hardware and their gaming franchises at a time when they needed a big hit? I'm glad Nintendo took those risks, but clearly the consumer majority disagreed with me, given the low sales of the Cube.
Out of curiosity, what console held your interest during the Gamecube era, if any? Or did you move mostly to PC?
Yes, I mostly moved to PC. This is debatable, but I would make the case that the early 2000s were the golden age of PC gaming, when it had the biggest edge over console gaming.
But I had PC gamed since childhood in the early 90s. It’s interesting to think about exactly how the PC fit in as a secondary games machine in the 90s, with zero overlap between its library and those of the consoles, aside from a handful of weird ports. But for me, the very end of the 90s is when the PC became primary and the consoles secondary. Though this was also helped by me getting into 8- and 16-hit emulation in those days.
I never owned a PS2, though I had friends that did and I sort of regretted having a GC instead. Final Fantasy 10 was probably my favorite console game of the era, which a friend let me borrow his PS2 to play through.
I agree fully with your thoughts on the NES and SNES. There is something timeless about the SNES that is much less true of every other console named here. The story of the NES is more complicated, but you say it well (and I'll admit I read every one of your reviews years ago).
I didn't engage much with the Wii or Wii U. But if I have to decide which is my least favorite of the ones I really did engage with, I would say the GameCube. The reason being that it didn't really serve a *purpose* for me, other than to play a few first-party games.
The NES and SNES served the same purpose: to deliver huge libraries of the best first AND third-party games available, covering all the genres, with (at the time) excellent graphics and sound. They largely succeeded at being all things to all people. Really, this is the reason you want to be owning a console.
As I pointed out in your other post, even though the N64 didn't do this, its purpose was to offer the best 3-4 player multiplayer. A smaller niche, but for me, at that time in my life, an important one that translated to a lot of fun. Its single-player library was very shallow but included two amazing and groundbreaking games in Mario 64 and OoT. You couldn't get anything like them anywhere else.
Now, what did the GameCube do? Well, it still had better multiplayer than PS2 (which once again lacked 4-player out of the box), but part of the problem was that for most of this era, my friends and I kept returning to our library of classic N64 multiplayer games when we wanted some quick multiplayer action, while the PC was increasingly competing for our attention for more dedicated multiplayer experiences. So that 3-4 player console niche felt much smaller than when the N64 first came onto the scene.
Meanwhile on the first-party single-player front, even compared to the supremely mediocre N64, I guess I wasn't as big a fan. However much you may like Sunshine and Wind Waker, you have to admit neither one innovated the way Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time did. They weren't must-play; you COULD get experiences like them elsewhere. Metroid Prime made a stronger case for itself, and it was my favorite single-player game on the console, but it wasn't enough to make me love the GC, or to even keep it hooked up once I was done with that game (I'll admit I never played the sequels).
I guess what you could say about the GC is it was the last honest attempt by Nintendo to create a console along the lines of the NES/SNES, to compete toe-to-toe with Sony, and maybe win. To be all things to all people. But unlike the NES and SNES, it was a failed attempt.
The Gamecube is an interesting anomaly. I agree, it was Nintendo's last attempt to compete with Sony on their technological level, but there were so many strange decisions made for it. No DVD compatibility, for one. Not saying that would have helped it, but it couldn't have hurt. Experimenting heavily with both their hardware and their gaming franchises at a time when they needed a big hit? I'm glad Nintendo took those risks, but clearly the consumer majority disagreed with me, given the low sales of the Cube.
Out of curiosity, what console held your interest during the Gamecube era, if any? Or did you move mostly to PC?