Best games? Best launch titles? Best controllers? That all means nothing. Today we are going to examine the only thing that matters: which videogame system is the funniest.
And the answer is the Nintendo GameCube. The Nintendo GameCube is the absolute funniest videogame system to ever exist.
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before
There have been books written about why the Nintendo 64 failed to recapture the audience that had been so dedicated during the NES/SNES years, but I am going to pinpoint the problem: Final Fantasy 7 was good, and it was cheap. After years of attempting to make the likes of Final Fantasy 3 or Chrono Trigger as popular in America as Dragon Quest 3 was in Japan, Final Fantasy 7 finally hit the mark as the start of the RPG revolution. For (at least) an entire console generation, the 80-hour RPG was the benchmark that other releases had to achieve.
And history underestimates how Final Fantasy 7 had a MSRP of $49.99. Its three discs of gameplay had a value of roughly 62¢ an hour.
A year previously, Mario Kart 64 was released on the Nintendo 64. You could get hours and hours of gameplay out of that humble kart racer, but it was also best enjoyed with 4 players. So that was a game that started at a MSRP of $69.95, and you needed three extra N64 controllers, each priced at $39.99. In both cases, you needed a base system and its one included controller (N64 was $199.99 at launch, Playstation started higher, but was $199 by May of 1996, and then $149 in time for Final Fantasy 7), but the N64’s “advantage” of having four controller ports meant a much bigger buy-in for appreciating the full experience. Yes, GoldenEye 007 would prove to be unparalleled in 1997, but the cost of four-player Goldeneye would be like spending an extra $150.00 on Final Fantasy 7 to get Yuffie to join your party (though she would be happy with that arrangement).
And Nintendo decided it would be a good idea to continue that tradition with the Nintendo GameCube. The Playstation 2 had two controller ports and Grand Theft Auto 3, the GameCube had Mario Kart: Double Dash, three Mario Parties, a seemingly infinite number of Mario sports titles, that one Wave Race, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Was Super Smash Bros. Melee a once-in-a-console-generation landmark that redefined couch gaming? Of course! Did it also reward a player that had purchased three shiny new controllers a week after the GameCube released with a more easily unlocked Mewtwo? Yep!
Nintendo had to know that four controller ports did not help the Nintendo 64 one iota. Including the same feature on the Nintendo GameCube must have been for the laughs.
Knock knock. Who’s there? Accessories!
Or maybe Nintendo was laughing at their customers…
Before the Nintendo GameCube was released, connectivity between the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo GameCube was being touted as a feature of the future of gaming. The N64 had a limited peripheral for your controller that could allow Pokémon Stadium to read data from Gameboy games, but the Nintendo GameCube was going to take it all a step further with… something. We all knew the Gameboy Advance would never work as an alternative controller for the GameCube, because the GBA did not have enough buttons to properly support Super Mario World, left alone the dual analogue sticks that would certainly be required for many GameCube titles. But the GBA had to do something better than transferring Pokémon, right? We were going to see amazing new technological achievements from the company that had been producing videogame hardware for decades!
And the answer was finally revealed to be… Your Gameboy Advance will help you carry a bucket.
Good joke. Everybody laugh.
The Gameboy Advance connectivity was most famously used in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. And what did both of those games have in common? Pretty great gameplay mixed with an angry internet noting just how many more dollars you would have to spend on three separate portable systems and cable attachments all so you could play spinoffs of games that were more fun in their main franchises. None of the GBA-based games were bad, they just meant you paid (more) dough to Nintendo for the experience. The latest real Final Fantasy did not require all this extra stuff, why did the lesser spinoff?
And, as the Gameboy Advance started to get long in the tooth, there were other, more pricey peripherals to buy. Mario got his own “mix” and Dance Dance Revolution pad at the absolute tail end of that trend. And while we are on the topic of rhythm, we had the Donkey Kong Bongos, which supported four controller ports and four games (well, three in America). And Odama! Which came with a microphone for some reason! All these peripherals, all pushed by Nintendo, a company laughing to the bank for a whole console generation.
But speaking of Odama…
The Throwaway Line
Nintendo is in the unique position of continually recalling what has gone before. Here in 2025, Microsoft is happy to send Halo over to the Playstation, and Sony must be tortured into ever acknowledging Wild Arms even happened, but Nintendo enthusiastically curates its history. We have virtual consoles, Smash Bros. cameos, and even when a random hero is about to take a console generation off, she can stop by a Mario RPG for her vacation. Nintendo’s output gives the impression they are proud of their decades of kooky characters, even when those characters are hideous, ROB-based failures.
But ain’t nobody talkin’ bout Gifpia.
We will now recount some games that were not already mentioned in order of absolute unknowntitude…
- Miraculously, Pikmin wound up being the most prominent franchise that premiered on the Nintendo GameCube. Olimar made it into Smash Bros.! As a real character! And there have been a whole two or three Pikmin games that escaped the gravity of the GameCube! Note: there have been more Persona 5 spinoff games than Pikmin titles.
- Chibi-Robo! is the second most renowned GameCube premiere. Chibi-Robo! has yet to receive a definitive Chibi-Robo! 2, but we did see a handful of portable titles that may or may not have been camera demos. And the lil’ robot is back on the GameCube Virtual Console. Future generations will know this mini android.
- Did you know there was an M-rated first-person shooter where you controlled an angry ghost that could possess people and objects to access nearly infinite offensive capabilities? It happened! It was Geist! And if you play it for 15 minutes, you will realize this game was produced because it has the best pitch ever (see the first sentence of this bullet point) but actually controlled like steering around the haunted tank (derogatory). So we never saw this phantom again, and we were better for it.
- Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest was such a dud in Japan that Nintendo was not going to publish it elsewhere, and Atlus had to pick up the slack. To be clear: Nintendo did not want to market a game about sentient cubes on the Nintendo GameCube. This misfit was originally designed for the 64DD, was upgraded to the GameCube, and was left to rot while competing with the likes of Resident Evil Zero and Kingdom Hearts. This could have been the next Pokémon! Just enter the love tunnel of the Cubivore to mutate stronger! That’s a thing! Look it up!
- Giftpia is the story of a kid that is horribly in debt, and must run around a town to work off his debt by interacting with locals and helping out around the world. So it was basically Animal Crossing with extra steps. And that’s on the same system that gave us Animal Crossing in the first place. So one can assume Nintendo never exported Giftpia out of Japan so as not to cut into Tom Nook’s profits.
- Doshin the Giant may have actually been a 64DD game. But it feels like a GameCube game, and nobody has played it anyway, so I could say it was on the Virtual Boy for all anyone is going to care.
Basically, if Nintendo was releasing something entirely new on the Nintendo GameCube, it was all but guaranteed to be forsaken. “Not canon!” various VPs shout as they are asked about the whereabouts of Alexandra Roivas. And speaking of things not being canon…
The Shaggy Plumber Story
Super Mario Bros. is the story of Mario rescuing the princess. Super Mario Bros. 2 is the story of Mario and friends liberating a conquered world. Super Mario Bros. 3 is the story of Mario rescuing the princess. Super Mario World is the story of Mario rescuing the princess. Super Mario World 2 is the story of a heroic Yoshi tribe… and that whole continuity was spun off to its own franchise almost immediately. Super Mario 64 is the story of Mario rescuing the princess. Super Mario Sunshine is the story of Mario going on vacation, being framed as a public nuisance, and then eventually rescuing the princess who is being tricked into believing she somehow birthed a diminutive turtle monster.
That anyone wrote the words, “Princess Peach has a look on her face that conveys she is considering if she birthed Baby Bowser” had to be a jape.
It does not take much imagination to see what happened here. The Nintendo GameCube offered drastically larger games on each minidisc, and, after a generation of adjusting to the new normal of polygons, Nintendo was excited to get experimental. But the old standbys went in some bizarre directions. Link traversed a Hyrule that was entirely obliterated before the game even started, and the ultimate moral of that adventure was to let the old world go. Fox McCloud wandered off alone to fight dinosaurs and pick up a primal girlfriend. Kirby became a kart racer, Wario became a brawler. Pokémon Colosseum starred an edgy teen that starts with two completely-evolved pokémon (I genuinely do not know which aspect there is more scandalous in the franchise). Players got to peek behind Samus Aran’s helmet for prime time. In short, every major Nintendo franchise featured a world where their protagonist was going through some stuff. Weird stuff.
And by the next console generation, Mario was back to rescuing the princess, Link was exploring a very not-drowned Hyrule, and Kirby was returning to Dreamland. Sorry, players, that whole “let go of the past” thing was clowning. We’re back to normal, now! It was just that silly GameCube.
And the funniest prank of all…
They put the punchline first
It may not have been true of the portables, but every Nintendo console launched with Mario. Super Mario Bros. (and Duck Hunt and maybe R.O.B.) was packaged with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Mario World was packaged with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The Nintendo 64 did not initially come with any games, but Super Mario 64 was available right there on the shelf at launch. The Nintendo GameCube, at its birth, did not have a Mario title. Luigi’s Mansion was the only game starring a Mario brother available in any way. Odds were very high that you, either an informed consumer or just someone who understood Nintendo games, would purchase Luigi’s Mansion as your first GameCube game. So you would get home, unwrap that big, goofy controller…
Hook everything up, and start playing Luigi’s Mansion. Did you see that A button? You are going to hit that button the first moment gameplay is available. And what does the A button do?
It asks for Mario. The first action you can perform on a system that refused to launch with a legitimate Mario game is command Luigi of Luigi’s Mansion to ask, “Where’s Mario?”
And that kicks off an entire game where you must find Mario. You can never play as Mario (even in the “Hidden Mansion” New Game Plus mode), but he is, ya know, around.
Nintendo launched the funniest system in gaming with the funniest moment to ever feature a videogame mascot. Ha ha ha.
SBC #46 Luigi & Luigi’s Mansion
Luigi in Super Smash Bros Ultimate
- He any Good? I will always choose Luigi over Mario. Always. I just love his Green Missile and weirdly effective taunt. Oh! And the silly rushing punch! Such a good boy.
- That final smash work? The Negative Dance of Brawl has been dropped in favor of the Poltergust. While we will always remember the complete inexplicableness of his old boogie, Luigi sucking so hard that it affects everyone in the area is an appropriate replacement.
- The background work? We tossed Luigi’s Mansion to Richter, so we will use Mario Bros. (Classic) in honor of the first game to ever feature a Luigi. There are no pits in this stage, so you are forced to deal with horizontal or air-based deaths. There are also turtles and crabs to toss around. There is absolutely no way this stage can be improved.
- Classic Mode: Welcome to Luigi’s Nightmare, which means a selection of “scary” opponents like corrupted heroes and space dinosaurs. Shadow Link is fought in Midgar, and the explanation is supposed to be that it is a “nighttime” stage, but Shadow Link in Ocarina of Time did go up against Final Fantasy 7 once upon a time. Anywho, I envy anyone that found out Dracula was a boss for the first time while playing as Luigi. An inspired punchline to Luigi’s existence.
- First Appearance: Luigi premiered as the original Echo Fighter, and was little more than a Mario with differently colored fireballs. He was also the least hidden of the hidden fighters (you fight him in the fourth stage!), so his secret status was ruined by being Luigi through and through.
- Smash Trivia: Luigi was ranked 18th out of 54 characters in Super Smash Bros. 4. He was ranked 18th out of 82 characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Apt that Luigi improved drastically and wound up at technically the same rank.
- Amiibo Corner: Luigi is actively falling forward with a look of horror and resignation. A+, no notes. The corduroy detail of the overalls in the Smash version is not replicated on the Mario Party amiibo. The Mario Party amiibo also looks confident and Luigi has a noticeable butt, so it is non-canon in every way.
- Does Smash Bros Remember Today’s Game? The release of Luigi’s Mansion is one of the greatest influences on a character that already appeared in Smash Bros. Backgrounds, final smashes, and Luigi’s general disposition are all heavily influenced by Luigi’s Mansion and its two sequels. On the other hand, Super Smash Bros. Melee premiered practically simultaneously with Luigi’s Mansion, so maybe Smash Bros. influenced Luigi’s Mansion…
Luigi in Luigi’s Mansion
System: Nintendo GameCube initially, and then a 3DS rerelease a solid seventeen years later. That version had a boss rush! Now Luigi’s OG Mansion is available on the Nintendo Switch 2 Virtual Console. And I do mean “now”. It was released, like, yesterday.- Number of players: You only have Luigi in the original release, but the 3DS version implemented Gooigi from (then upcoming) Luigi’s Mansion 3. Hooray?
- Maybe actually talk about the game for a second: The other Nintendo joke was that this was clearly a Zelda game. You are exploring a dungeon and hunting ghosts! You acquire elemental abilities! You can’t jump! All that said, this is a curiously addicting game, and the general gameplay loop of hunting “portrait ghosts” and boos along with the basic mooks makes for an experience where you can while away a few hours with Luigi without even noticing. And the higher “scores” available for gold/jewel/pearl hunting means you have a reason to replay the thing. That’s great for a launch title!
- The Next Generation: This article may or may not be mocking the Nintendo GameCube, but I will firmly state that the era of the GameCube, and specifically this game, was the first time I saw the potential of “playable cartoons” with the Mario series. We take it for granted now, but every Mario title prior to this was more abstract with sprites and jagged polygons. With the “smoothness” of Luigi, the rad lighting/transparency on ghosts, and minor effects like working mirrors and lighting/shadows, Luigi’s Mansion subtly showcases all the ways that the GameCube could now render something to rival a Disney movie. You can see right from the start how this was the system that would one day give us Resident Evil 4.
- Favorite Ghost: The ghosts appear the most “human” at this point in the Luigi’s Mansion franchise. They get much more exaggerated as time goes on, but we basically just have the cast of Disney’s Haunted Mansion (ride, not move [never movie]) for this adventure. And the generally nondescript Melody Pianissima is the best of the lot, as her gimmick is playing songs from Super Mario Bros. 3. Amadeus Wolfgeist got nothing on her.
Unanswered Questions: Is Mario being trapped in a painting an obvious flip of how Mario traveled into art in Super Mario 64? Or is it King Boo using the same technology that trapped Princess Peach in a stained-glass window? Much to consider…- Go play something else: There is a video preview of Pikmin included on the Luigi’s Mansion disc. That probably generated a whole six extra sales!
- Did you know? There is a looping demo of Luigi antics if you wait on the title screen. Such things fell out of favor in this console generation, but it may have been included here since Luigi’s Mansion was likely to be in fresh Nintendo GameCube demo kiosks at launch. You know, in the seven seconds before Super Smash Bros. Melee was released, and everyone could salivate over Bowser fighting Ice Climbers.
- Would I play again: Yes. Replaying Luigi’s Mansion reminded me how great the GameCube could be (even if I have to laugh at it). Now that Luigi’s Mansion has resurfaced on the Nintendo Switch 2, I might make it my “play when I have some spare time” game, and rediscover all those platinum frames…
What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Frogger! Hop to it, everybody! Please look forward to it!
