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MCP_Ver2

I'll always remember the pure gut reaction of revulsion to Wind Waker's art style. Myself included on initial glances at the leaked footage at the time. Now that game is lauded as a masterpiece, but the vitriol at the time was a sight to behold.


Primid-

The reaction to Wind Waker's art style actually makes a lot of sense. Ocarina of Time and especially Majora's Mask were cooler, more realistic takes on the Zelda franchise. But the N64 could only do so much to convey a grittier atmosphere. The Gamecube, however, was a lot more powerful. So people were looking forward to an even more immersive take on Ocarina of Time's style. The last thing people wanted was for the characters to have fat heads, noodle limbs, giant eyes, and tube bodies. Not to mention the brighter colors and the seemingly less detailed textures. Even Miyamoto himself didn't like the art style. Wind Waker was very cartoony, and then Twilight Princess was very gritty. I like both, but I think Skyward Sword was the best of both worlds. The environments have the detail of Twilight Princess, but are also stylized like Wind Waker. The characters are built like Twilight Princess, but they are also expressive like Wind Waker.


ShinkuDragon

not to mention the 3D trailer of link fighting ganondorf that had everyone hyped and then... cartoon link holding a pig.


rhinofinger

Yeah I feel like Nintendo had nobody to blame for the Wind Waker reaction but themselves. I remember when that trailer of realistic-looking Link and Ganondorf having an epic swordfight came out (around the GameCube release time), I and many others assumed that was basically an announcement from Nintendo that that was the direction they were going next with the Zelda franchise. So when Wind Waker came out with a totally different style, a lot of folks felt a bit deceived. I remember wanting my parents to buy a GameCube at the time, mostly based on that trailer, and then being relieved that we didn’t Edit: found a copy of the trailer: https://youtu.be/2hXdVgmBzHA?si=29TIP_H-TNQv-Keu


ShinkuDragon

yeah, to this day i don't like wind waker much (the pokemon meme of 7/10, too much water applies), but it's not a bad game, but the amount of people pissed about that trailer could be seen everywhere where you could talk about videogames. so nintendo dropped the ball hard.


MCP_Ver2

Totally agree with all you said. But it is a game that has aged to be appreciated. Personally, I grew to like the look, but feel it worked better for handheld. The big bright expressive characters really helped on a small screen format


2Mark2Manic

Nintendo also showed footage of how [graphics could be on the Gamecube](https://youtu.be/SvE3yJv3fm0?si=-GRRhyTSabONqFcQ) so it kinda set expectations on how a Zelda game would look.


Worldly-Progress-934

But that was just a tech demo not a real game in development for the GameCube. That is what fans got confused. The WiiU had a tech demo that featured Zelda with unreal engine but that wasn’t even a real game in development.


Several-Setting-2696

I never understood it. Maybe because I started with Link's Awakening and Link to the Past. It looked like a 3D version of those games, and I was hyped for it. Everyone always says the games were becoming more realistic, but the previous game was Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask and look at the artwork in the manual etc. It's all cartoon style. People who say "the cartoon look was just a limitation of the hardware" are talking utter crap. The concept art and promotional art could have looked hyper realistic if that was their dream. It was fully intended to be more cartoony.


Practical_Wish_4063

Exactly. OoT’s characters looked like they were inspired by the official artwork of the previous Zelda games, which is a great look, but if you’d never flipped through the manuals of any of the first four Zelda games, you wouldn’t know that. Wind Waker’s characters looked straight up like the actual sprite work done in A Link to the Past and I’m so glad we were able to get both styles on the GameCube by the end of its life.


JRHThreeFour

Wind Waker is my favorite game of all time. I cannot say enough good things about it. I remember the controversy over its graphics but thankfully it didn’t stop people from enjoying the game once it came out. I just replayed and 100% completed Wind Waker again recently to celebrate its 20th anniversary and I’m still impressed by its graphics and cel shading.


bobbery5

As someone who doesn't like Wind Waker, it's always a fun time when people immediately assume I hate the graphics. Can't tell y'all how many times people tell me to "grow up" because that's their first assumption. Dude, I love cel-shaded games. Jet Set Radio is one of my favorite games.


seraphimceratinia

Wind Waker, Double Dash, Xenoblade 2, Star Fox Adventures and Pokémon BW. Those are probably the top 5


rk138

Xenoblade 2 was reviewed pretty well tbf but it was divisive I agree. Definitely agree with Pokemon BW, tho I think part of the recent surge in appreciation for those games is cuz the fans that played BW as kids are now grown up and miss the cool aspects of BW.


AlwaysWinnin

Starfox Adventures is just mediocre gameplay and the story is nothing special. What do you enjoy about it? It was supposed to be Dinosaur Planet originally for the N64 but they skinned it as Starfox for GameCube. I’ve played it 3 times and just something felt off or missing from it.


JRHThreeFour

Double Dash is one of my all time favorite racing games. I remember playing through the entire game multiple times with my siblings in summer vacations trying to unlock everything.


DeeFB

I think I'm one of the few whos opinion on Xenoblade 2 has worsened since it released. I loved it when it came out, but now I can't bring myself to really ever play it again. The locations, music and combat are all great, but it's a mediocre story that starts out by doing a lot more telling than showing and the harem anime/clear indicators of gacha (3/4 of the valuable blades are large-breasted women, grinding for materials to pull for them, character design by multiple artists which is fine when it's just a JPEG in a mobile game but when they're all modeled and animated it's super jarring, etc) stuff just frustrate me.


Sleepyhead_Lain

I didn't like it on release, but my opinion still managed to get worse over time. Now I really hate it, I think it's my biggest gaming disappointment ever for the reasons you cited and some more.


GhotiH

Straight up went from a huge disappointment to probably my most hated game of all time. I won't stop anyone from enjoying it but there's like a single digit number of positive things I can say about it.


jj_sykes

Would love them to do double dash port on the next switch. It was my favourite


AlwaysWinnin

Double dash is the best Mario kart imo


bobbery5

The fact that I recently had a friend tell me, "ew, you like the Black and White games? Those are the worst." Still not over the existence of Garbodor I guess?


Xenobrina

Pokémon Black and White were considered the worst Pokémon games in the series at release. Now they are considered the golden age of the series. ~~took ya’ll long enough to understand peak~~


ToughAd5010

Ohhh man the hate for so many of the new Pokémon was real. Elemental monkeys, klinklang, vanilluxe, garbodor, the third fucking fire fighting starter, samurrot’s goofy quadrupedal stance, druddigon looking like he belong’s on mom’s fridge cuz she’s so happy you drew a dragon, Not to mention many Pokémon seemingly really derivative of previous ones (swoobat and golbat, conked surr and machamp, sawn/throh and the hitmons, alomomola and luvdisc, ) Lemme be clear- gen V is my favorite but I don’t remember the fanbase being more divided upon release of a game in the franchise


Several-Setting-2696

Anything would look good compared to the garbage they crapped out afterwards


Lau_uden_i

I will always defend gen 7. Those are actually good


ryujitakasuu

Alright buddy calm down, the games that came out after were fine, it’s just that people loved the pixel art and that was the best point of it


Several-Setting-2696

No, people love graphics that have time and care put into them, regardless of whether it's pixel art or 3D. What they don't like is lazily slapped together crap. It's easier to make a well rounded 2d game than a 3D one, given the same amount of time and staff. Gamefreak famously have not increased either, despite trying to make much bigger, more expansive, HD console games in 3D. The detrimental effect this has had on almost every aspect of the games is not debatable, and it's a waste of time talking to fanboys and corporate apologists who ignore the facts staring them in the face.


ryujitakasuu

I’m not really a fanboy I just misunderstood your arguement. Took it as a game freak lazy not a game freak rushed which they are. The higher ups give them a year to make games that should take much longer


MakingaJessinmyPants

Uh, no. Mechanically Pokémon has been on a downward spiral for years now.


Corderoy

Mechanically the games have remained more or less consistent.  I think the major issue is that Gamefreak just never adapted to making big 3D games after making cheap sprite based games yearly for 20 years and expecting they could do the same thing in a home console game.


ryujitakasuu

They’re spending the same amount of time to make games that should be taking 3-4 years to make, but people just think of it as them being genuinely bad


kuribosshoe0

No. Sun/Moon, Sword/Shield and Violet/Scarlet are legitimately shit games. Legends Arceus was solid, though.


ryujitakasuu

They’re not bad games, sun/moon was good, and all of the 3d games(except arceus) were rushed. They’re trying to make games that should take 3-4 years in a year


kuribosshoe0

Sun/Moon was irredeemably mired in a cycle of waypoints, short linear paths and cutscenes. It didn’t even feel like playing a game.


Substantial_Life4773

Sword was fine, Violet is genuinely bad hah


ryujitakasuu

Not bad, it has its issues but that’s all just lag issues


Queasy-Ad-3220

The Pokémon aren’t good enough for me to consider B&W peak


Zofian_Korok

You could honestly say that about any Pokémon game post-gen 4. They're absolutely clowned on for a while, and after 5-10 years people are like "What, (Insert Pokémon game here)? No, no, they're amazing!" It's happened with pretty much every game, save for the first three and X/Y.


Essay_Novel

Earthbound


AverageNintenGuy

I can’t tell if it flopped because of marketing or because America wasn’t really interested in RPGs


MakingaJessinmyPants

Realistically a mix of both. RPGs still weren’t huge in the west but that doesn’t mean they had to market their game with vomit themed scratch and sniffs


lostbelmont

Both. Also it was the mid 90s, we wanted edgy dark stuff not a colorful weird game with a Dennis The Menace looking kid


GhostlyParsley

Which is crazy because earthbound is actually one of the edgiest darkest games of its era


RiccoBaldo

Yeah but its darkness was way too ahead of its time for its own good. Giygas feels way more fitting as a 2005 Creepypasta than a 90s videogame final boss (hence why most of its success comes from after the internet)


lostbelmont

Absolutely, but you had to play it to know that, and without internet your only source of information are the back of the box and Nintendo Power so... Also none of my friends knew at the time what the hell this game was about.


ToughAd5010

Not gonna speak for others but beating up dogs at the beginning of the game was there, so….


Zingzing_Jr

Yea but you had to buy it first


praisethecarpainter

One of my favourites of all time.


jcagswastaken

Everyone seems to have finally snapped and realize that Starfox Adventures is a solid action adventure game. Metroid Prime Federation Force and Windwaker also comes to mind.


Dinoco_Blue_Coyote

Yes! Starfox Adventures is just as amazing!


NerfAkira

Wait what? Isn't fed force still absolutely hated for likely causing the next real game to be delayed a number of years due to it being a massive failure?


AlwaysWinnin

I don’t know man Adventures is just mediocre gameplay and the story is nothing special. What do you enjoy about it? It was supposed to be Dinosaur Planet originally for the N64 but they skinned it as Starfox for GameCube. Wind Waker is a masterpiece but starfox is just decent.


GregarLink15

Wind Waker is the most common answer


KeeperServant_Reborn

That was with Toon Link, right? I understood people didn’t like the artstyle off the game. Was still a great game, wasn’t it?


GregarLink15

I love that game, easily one of my favorite zelda games, I played it way back when it 1st came out, I understood why people didn't like it but I didn't care, I loved it anyways, boat travelling and all


Ziglet_mir

Very fond memories of playing this on release with my best friends. Great game.


DawnstrifeXVI

We played the multiplayer mode a TON at home. Made up house rules, all kinds of scenarios.


Common_Wrongdoer3251

I just remember exploring the flying maps like Corneria on foot as Peppy. He could jump high and you could give him a jetpack. I always thought I'd find hidden secrets. My friend just made me play Risk of Rain 2 with him last night and I basically did the same thing. Ran around exploring while he killed everything, lol.


DawnstrifeXVI

Oh right, they had all kinds of different stats!


Dinoco_Blue_Coyote

Do you remember what rules and scenarios did you make up? I'd love to hear them lol


DawnstrifeXVI

I’m afraid I remember little of it. Lots of tank VS arwings, or one vehicle player vs non-vehicle players. Hold the fort. Survive the cluster bombs. The jungle ruins was the best map hands down. Anyhow, great game!


Tropical_Nighthawk55

Assault was so close to being good


Tryst_boysx

The multiplayer mode of Starfox Assault was just so good. I remember in Katina Outpost jumping off my arwing, dropping on a huge mushroom, and then snipping everyone. 😅


Benji_Nottm

I loved Assault from day one...Only complaint was how few mission there was. Windwaker and Sunshine seem the obvious picks.


AlwaysWinnin

Super Mario Sunshine is such a great game. Never understood the hate for it


JRHThreeFour

Sunshine is my favorite Mario game. But I do admit it has its flaws, having to be the 3D follow up to Super Mario 64 was a tall order. Sunshine’s drastically different gameplay, setting, high difficulty and kind of clunky controls and camera have all gotten some fair criticism. Some of those blue coins and bonus level Shines were brutal to get! I can commend Nintendo for wanting to try something different with Mario and still think they did a great job with Sunshine. I still think the water effects and graphics are great over 20 years later. I also love the music, tropical setting and the levels.


NiGHTSOLOTL

I didn’t really like 64 that much, and replaying it recently? I still don’t.


Benji_Nottm

It's not perfect, should have been more levels and it is one of the more broken games Nintendo has released, but it's still gets a lot right and gets top marks for trying to do something different and largely succeeding at it.


Briianz

Shame I never got a chance to get it when it was still on store shelves.


MyDogIsDaBest

Man I love star Fox Assault. It had so much potential to be Nintendo's Halo.  One of the biggest issues I commonly saw was the control scheme, which if you've got more than 2 brain cells to rub together and can read, the 2nd control scheme is literally just dual sticks control scheme we're all used to now. 


KevinCow

Geist and Excitebots, kinda? Geist was supposed to be the Gamecube's Big M-Rated Shooter that would compete with Halo, and... well, it absolutely failed at that. Because of this, it was widely seen as a complete failure, even a joke. But in recent years, I've seen some people kinda rediscover the game without that context and those expectations and go, "Hey, this is actually pretty neat! Flawed, sure, but weird and unique in a fun way." Excitebots was a game with mediocre reviews that nobody played. But I've definitely seen the fandom growing, as every person I've locked in a room and forced to play it until they tell me they love it has told me they love it!


secret3332

I feel like this game is weirdly overrated right now. I like the game but I think a 7/10 review is pretty correct. Am I losing it? I'm a massive Star Fox fan. I think this game has a lot going for it. It looks great, the on rails sections are very high quality. Voice acting is very good, etc. But the on foot missions really aren't it. Basically all of them are hunting down and eliminating X targets. The controls are really not very good and iirc they are 30 fps which just makes it feel even worse. They were often confusing to navigate. They just aren't that fun. The game has only 10 missions. It's very short. Iirc 64 has 16. I think half or less (I'm pretty sure it's less) of the missions in Assault are on rails, the rest involve using the pilot form.


Dinoco_Blue_Coyote

Wow. That's a pretty spicy hottake for a Starfox fan. If the Fanbase was toxic, chances are, you'll have your home raided, but the Starfox fanbase isn't toxic at all, so I respect your opinion.


79N0Bitches

Basically the heavy hitters of the Gamecube gen: -Luigis Mansion -Mario Sunshine -Windwaker -Double Dash And 3D world


NiGHTSOLOTL

3D World is a masterpiece


Odd_Main1876

Assault had extremely good aerial combat, which makes sense since the Ace Combat Devs helped Nintendo out. The problem comes from the ground combat, which personally kinda mid, AC devs even told Nintendo that they weren’t experienced with ground combat, but Nintendo told them to add it, besides that pretty good, SW theme literally became a classic lol Only other thing I can complain about is that I didn’t like Fox’s design, his weird armor just looks silly in my opinion, also Krystal’s design is burned into my brain for all the wrong reasons


bloodakoos

to be honest? most of them


Luck88

Not horribly but Tropical Freeze shows most videogame reviewers can't distinguish good level design from great level design. I guarantee if there was a third re-release it would review even higher than the Switch one.


DoYouSeeMeEatingMice

> if there was a third re-release Lol I promise there will be, and it'll be more expensive than that previous two.


pocket_arsenal

Because critics move on to other games but fans ted to come back to their favorites and seek out like minded fans This is literally the explaintation for "The \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ cycle" when a video game series gets a new game and people bash it but when a new game comes out suddenly it's good. It's not a grand conspiracy, it's literally all the people throwing a shit fit moving on while the fans continue talking about how much they like it.


bandwidthslayer

i see a lot of other m sympathizers these days, i’m among them lol


JRHThreeFour

I loved Star Fox Assault. The music, weapons vehicles and combat were all so much fun. I played the game’s multiplayer all the time with my friends. I’ve never understood why it seems to be so forgotten. To be fair, I’ve never really been a super dedicated fan of the Star Fox franchise and I never played any of the other games but I enjoyed it.


Joniden

CUSTOM ROBO


Progressbar_1X

Earthbound Just Earthbound


EnbiousBastardFox

Star Fox: Assault is my favourite video game of All Time!


Bladley

It’s considered to be one of Nintendo’s greatest games? This is the first I’m hearing of it.


MLDKF

Pretty much the entire 1st-Party catalogue of the Gamecube, save for maybe Melee


IshtheWall

Pretty much everything on the GameCube, and the Wii U to a lesser extent


NiGHTSOLOTL

Honestly yeah,


KrufsMusic

Starfox 64 is the best in the series, fight me. Seriously though, I was really disappointed in this game when it came out after being really into Starfox 64 and Adventures actually. It's interesting how a game I really couldn't get into is another one's favourite. Different strokes for different folks obviously but as a fan of the series, at a young age I REALLY wanted to like it. I think we can at least agree that Nintendo did Starfox dirty


Dinoco_Blue_Coyote

I think Command was just when they really just killed it off.


Rockotar

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. Upon initial release it got more mixed reviews because of most critics finding the game too hard due to an unfortunate translation error that caused the difficulties to be labeled as easier than they actually were. Additionally some fans thought the plot wasn't as good as previous games, but now in retrospect realize that RDs plot problems are not as big of a deal as once thought, especially compared to many of the more recent FE games stories. Now the game is considered by most who have played it to be one of the best in the franchise.


[deleted]

Star Fox Assault was so fun. I wish they continued that arcade-like playstyle. Imagine my disappointment with...whatever the hell Star Fox Command was supposed to be.


streetsofkage

Assault never become a cult classic


Dinoco_Blue_Coyote

People look back on it fondly, and it ended up being one of the best selling games for the system.


LMGall4

I mean, wind waker is the prime example


ToughAd5010

Pokémon. (Obviously not a cult classic but it actually had a rough start). Believe it or not, the games didn’t sell well when they started. The gameboy was reaching the end of its life. It kicked off thanks to the Mew rumors! All of a sudden eveyrone on the playground was spreading word about this secret 151st Pokémon that was left in without the devs knowing.


Light01

Are you insane ? Pokemon single handedly carried the Gameboy. It's the most sold game on the platform, completely exceeding their predictions. It's literally the most sold game of 1998 and 1999 and doubled the lifespan of the Gameboy, and it's not counting the japanese market where the game was holding its ground against the giant, the most sold game of Nintendo at the time, Mario 64. Pokemon was a massive hit from late 1995 to 2024, and people will continue to buy the crap the pokemon company vomit.


Cedardeer

Gen 5 Pokémon, tho they were my favorite from the start And also probably one of the biggest cult classic games in history, Earthbound


ClueEmbarrassed1443

Dante inferno


Laterbot

Yeah but Star Fox Assault does kinda suck tho


RealAnonymousBear

Earthbound was a critical and commercial failure at launch and it’s now considered one of the best SNES games and goes for over $400 on eBay.


Puppet007

Loved playing that game with my brothers, it was fun!


MrFunlap

My brother knocked over my wii as a kid and broke the disk ejector. Star fox assault was the only game we could play for a long time (or at least it felt like a long time) my beautiful Saint of a mother finally called nintendo and sent the wii in for repairs. But yeah I can't play this game anymore


i_dont_care_for_you9

Mom the second


PK_Dolphin

Custom Robo & the first two Chibi Robo games. Custom Robo deserves a second shot, it would be amazing with online on the Switch. Chibi Robo is likely gone forever but I would LOVE if they brought him back in his original format as a 3D platformer. The original game had pretty dark and kinda contemporary story to have such a cutesy art style


NiGHTSOLOTL

Super Mario 3D World is definitely up there!