Would you say the PS2 had better first party support than the GameCube?

Jubenhimer

Member
The Nintendo GameCube is one of Nintendo's least successful consoles ever made, struggling against it's competitors, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox at just 22 million units sold. But one thing it had going for it, as most Nintendo systems did was it's first party lineup. Many GameCube fans argue that the system has one of the best Nintendo-published outputs in their history. However just as many gamers argue that GCN has one of Nintendo's weakest first party offerings in history.

To put it in perspective, let's compare it to the 6th generation king, the PlayStation 2. The PS2 is the best selling console of all time at 160 million sold worldwide. And part of that success IMO, is because of its first party offerings. The PS2 had a gargantuan library of third party classics, but it also had just as many greats from Sony themselves. The PS2 really was when Sony Computer Entertainment established itself as a powerful developer/publisher, one that could actually challenge Nintendo.

On PS2, SCE was pumping out generation defining games that all influenced not just future first party PlayStation games, but games as a whole.

  • Jak & Daxter's seamless open world platforming with no loading screens and impressive character animations was mind blowing in 2001.
  • Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper spiced up the stale 3D platforming genre by adding shooting and stealth respectively to the mix.
  • The Team Ico games (ICO, Shadow of the Collosus) are some of the most influential games of all time, the former in particular for its massive boss battles.
  • God of War birthed one of Sony's longest running franchises and one of its most iconic characters, on top of being fun hack n' slashes
  • Gran Turismo 3 & 4 are still considered two of the best entries in the franchise and two of the greatest racing games ever
  • Dark Cloud 1&2 both still have massive cult followings to this day, and are considered among the PS2's best RPGs.

Not all of Sony's games were winners of course, but the PS2 proved that SCE/SIE was capable of putting out genre-defining and generation-defining games of its own. Meanwhile, Nintendo's major releases for GameCube were all myred in controversy and ridicule in some way or another.

  • Mario Sunshine is very divisive for its radical change in setting and gameplay from Mario 64, brutal difficulty spikes, rushed nature, and increased focus on story, with fully voiced cutscenes.
  • Wind Waker was routinely mocked for its cartoon art style and brighter tone compared to previous Zelda games, especially coming off of that 2000 Spaceworld tech demo.
  • Luigi's Mansion was not the Mario launch title people expected, nor asked for.
  • Waverace and 1080's GameCube entries were considered a step down from their N64 predecessors.
  • F-Zero GX was amazing, but was also criticized for being way too fast and way too brutal at times.
  • Star Fox was completely butchered this generation with a Zelda clone and a wannabe SF64 with on-foot missions.
  • The new franchises, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Eternal Darkness, Chibi-Robo, all fine games but also very niche (Animal Crossing wouldn't become a big deal until Wild World).

That's not to say any of these games are bad. I love the GameCube's first party lineup for how weird, and interesting, and unhinged it was compared to previous Nintendo systems. But when you stack it up against what Sony offered on PS2 at the time. To a lot of people, it just looked lame and inferior. The truth is, Metroid Prime 1 and Smash Bros. Melee were the only universally loved and acclaimed first party releases for the Cube.

And of course, this was also peak "Nintendo is kiddie" era, so PlayStation's first party also had a coolness and edge factor to it at the time. We all like to think Nintendo is the king of first party game development, and at their best, that can definitely be true. But GameCube as much as adore it, was NOT Nintendo's A game. And on paper, I feel like Sony had the better out put this gen.
 
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It did.
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Please stop saying 'Team Ico', that was never a thing.
 
First party? Absolutely not.
Metroid Prime alone is in a completely different stratosphere compared to what Sony produced at the time.
 
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GameCube had superior first party.

Animal Crossing
Paper Mario TTYD
Mario Kart Double Dash
Mario Golf
Mario Tennis
Mario Strikers
Smash Bros Melee
Star Fox Adventures/Assault
Pikmin 1/2
Fire Emblem
DK Jungle Beat
Luigi's Mansion
Baten Kaitos 1/2
Twilight Princess
Wind Waker
Eternal Darkness
F-Zero GX
Metroid Prime 1/2
etc.

Although, the PS2 was a 3rd party beast.
 
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I had a gamecube for that gen, probably the worst error of console choice for a generation (the worst was the Wii).

The PS2 was an amazing machine, my only regret is waiting until I got a PS3 to catch up with the backwards compat.
 
Yes, the reason Sony dominated that gen was the sheer volume and variety of games.

I owned both, and it doesn't matter if someone has some emotional attachment to a particular Nintendo game or a few they think are above everything...the PS2 just had more first-party releases that were good games, they pumped more out in various genres that were small on Gamecube (Jrpgs, shooters), and aimed at more diverse age demographics.

Also, pile on various second-party studios in close relationships with Sony, and then all the third-party devs that just released on PS2 only because the user-base was largest and porting might not be worth the expense.
 
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Yeah. By the end of gamecube I had fallen out of love with nintendo. When it came to usage, the gamecube got wrecked by the ps2. Living with two roomates at the time, we actually brought in a second ps2 because that got so much use. Real Hihglights of the gamecube at the time were wind waker, animal crossing, and metroid prime.

I was never super into sony's first party, but even they managed to put up more notables than that.
 
GameCube had superior first party.

Animal Crossing
Paper Mario TTYD
Mario Kart Double Dash
Mario Golf
Mario Tennis
Mario Strikers
Smash Bros Melee
Star Fox Adventures/Assault
Pikmin 1/2
Fire Emblem
DK Jungle Beat
Luigi's Mansion
Baten Kaitos 1/2
Twilight Princess
Wind Waker
Eternal Darkness
F-Zero GX
Metroid Prime 1/2
etc.

Although, the PS2 was a 3rd party beast.

Baten Kaitos 1-2 was Namco.

And after current revisionism where games developed externally don't count as first party, F Zero GX was developed by Sega, Metroid Prime 1 by Retro before being bought, Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights who wasn't owned by Nintendo, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf by Camelot Software who wasn't internal developers, Smash Bros by Hal Laboratory...
 
Baten Kaitos 1-2 was Namco.

And after current revisionism where games developed externally don't count as first party, F Zero GX was developed by Sega, Metroid Prime 1 by Retro before being bought, Eternal Darkness by Silicon Knights who wasn't owned by Nintendo, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf by Camelot Software who wasn't internal developers, Smash Bros by Hal Laboratory...
A studio doesn't necessarily have to be owned by the platform holder to make a game first party. Even though these games were made externally, Nintendo was still heavily involved creatively with the development process.
 
Really came down to the types of games you were into. I don't know that one was better than the other. I thought they were both excellent machines with great first party games.
 
Easily as PS2 is still the best gaming console of all times while the Gamecube isn't even the best Nintendo console as that belongs to the N64. Excluding PC, it'll be PS2 > PS1=N64> the rest.
 
Yes.

There's no doubt GameCube had a great first party quality to quantity ratio, but the depth of Sony's PS2 output was amazing.
 
Hmm... I'm not sure I'd say so. Well, if we're talking Sony-developed games, then Nintendo definitely has the edge. It's a little tougher than that since Sony was still publishing quite a few 3rd party-developed titles at the time.

Even then, I'd have to go with Nintendo. The Gamecube was damn good in terms of first-party offerings. It had Metroid Prime 1 and 2, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, F-Zero GX, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros Melee, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door -- a bunch of franchises that arguably saw their best entry, or close to it. And I'd argue that all of those games aged massively better than something like God of War or the Western-developed output that was starting to rise to prominence on Playstation. Mario Sunshine was a bit of a let-down and I'd argue that Mario Kart was, as well... but they weren't bad games. A few of the new franchises, like Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion, were a little baffling in the absence of a new Mario game at launch, but those ended up being a lot of fun, too. If anything, I just wanted more games from the Gamecube; not better.

But Sony's output was also pretty damn good - something that I haven't said about any system they've had since the PS2. Similar to the Gamecube, a fair few franchises, like Gran Turismo, saw their best outings on the PS2. And I've always had a soft spot for Dark Cloud and Rogue Galaxy. And that's cool. But fewer of their games were really remarkable, at least for me - they didn't stand out the way that something like Metroid Prime did as an all-time classic.

But man, they were both good. Great generation. I really miss it.
 
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SONY was a monster on the PS2 the number of In-House games they made on that system was nuts some which don't get the credit they should, like a lot of the games made by the In-House Uk Studios
 
Sony's first party PS1/2 output is quite underappreciated. Lots of interesting games.
It's laughable really. There are people out there who legit believe that Sony's first party wasn't good until The Last of Us or Uncharted 2, or that the PS2 was only good because of its third party games.

I feel that the people who make these arguments, are the ones that never actually owned a PlayStation system before 3 or 4.
 
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Wind Waker still looks great, the Space World demo not so much now..

WW was such a departure from that Space World demo that it was bound to be polarizing. As I frequented IGN's boards, WW was derided as 'Celda' and it helped further entrench Nintendo's...how did they put it?...oh yeah, 'teh kiddie' image.
 
For me, absolutely. A lot of the first party stuff Nintendo put out on GC felt a bit rushed, even the heavy hitters like Zelda WW and Mario Sunshine.
 
Definitely the PS2, because it got a very diverse lineup from various genres, like JRPGs, platformers, action, sports, action-adventure, to even survival horror, simulation, and stealth game like Mr. Mosquito. 😂
 
First-party? Definitely not. But exclusives? That's a very different story. The PS2 was an absolute monster there.
 
Lol no. Listen, the PS2 was incredible. But no one has ever, or probably will ever beat Nintendo at first-party support.
 
Dude, what is that Densha de Go! looking game right below the "2" from the "20th Anniversary" picture?
The Keihin Kyuukou: Train Simulator Real, developed by Ongakukan, and sequel to The Yamanote Sen: Train Simulator Real, also found in that picture.
I consider both of them to be part of SIE's unofficial 'Real Simulator' series, alongside Victory Zone: Real Pachinko Simulator and the entire Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator franchise.
 
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Nah. I'd take Nintendo's GC lineup over Sony's PS2 any day, even more so if you throw in the GBA Player. Sega's DC lineup was better too, even though they only had 2.5 years.

Sony was not bad though. Sly, Ico, SotC, GoW 1 and Jak 1 were all good fun.
 
Yes - so a N64 game on optical disc, your point?
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Anyway obviously Sony's PS2 games were mostly not great sellers - but the sheer breadth/diversity on display was well above anything we've seen before or since from them. Though so much of it being locked to single region is a bit of a bummer. Still, PS3 gen was already a step down in that respect, despite the bigger 'hits'.
 
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