Opinion: I Never Felt True Nostalgia Until I Played GameCube On Switch 2

[ad_1] Picture: Nintendo Life I nonetheless keep in mind the day I acquired my GameCube. It wasn’t the launch day, as a result of I keep in mind getting Tremendous Smash Bros. Melee alongside it, which to my information launched a couple of weeks after the console itself within the UK.

Oh gosh, I used to be so excited although! I poured over early problems with NGC within the weeks main as much as The Large Day (one way or the other, there have been already about six or seven points earlier than the console even launched), maybe most notably whereas on a household vacation in Cyprus, clutching the journal whereas my Mum tried to get me to give attention to the sights and sounds of the Limassol shoreline. No Mum… I’m studying about Hyperlink’s Melee moveset for the hundredth time, thanks.

The day I truly acquired the GameCube felt so magical; beforehand, my brother’s Mega Drive and PS1 had been handed right down to me whereas he moved onto the subsequent huge factor, and I had already owned a Sport Boy Coloration by this level due to the Pokémon increase, however the GameCube was the primary house console that I might actually name my very own. It was mine. My treasured.

The three or 4 years following have been among the most memorable of my life; actually up till the discharge of the Wii, if I’m trustworthy. And it’s as a result of the GameCube launched proper after I was beginning to discover my ft at highschool, and so the friendships I cultivated throughout that point linked straight with my expertise with the console.

Picture: Nintendo Life / Nintendo I had two ‘finest mates’, I suppose you may name them, they usually each owned their very own GameCubes and have been nearly as passionate as I used to be about Nintendo’s lovable little purple field – maybe extra so, truly. So we performed multiplayer as usually as we might, and once we weren’t taking part in collectively, we’d be speaking about our personal experiences in between lessons (and sure, most likely throughout lessons too).

“How does Hyperlink management?” is an precise query I particularly keep in mind asking one among my mates after he’d acquired his palms on The Wind Waker six or seven hours earlier than me. He acquired his supply earlier than college began that day, and I needed to wait till I acquired house the identical night. Ridiculous! However it was these sorts of conversations that basically acquired me by means of highschool. I’ll always remember it.

Life goes on, after all, and for causes I can’t fairly recall, I needed to eliminate my GameCube and accompanying video games. Highschool and school ended, and so my mates and I went our separate methods when college hit, chasing our personal visions of what maturity would possibly appear to be. Outdoors of some temporary probability encounters within the years since, we’d just about remained aside for practically 20 years.

Photographs: Nintendo Life / Nintendo Nonetheless, after one other encounter a few years again, I’ve reconnected with those self same two mates I’d spent a lot time with throughout highschool. Now, on a near-weekly foundation, we get collectively at an area micro pub, knock again a few pints, munch on some pork scratchings, and spend every Saturday night having fun with rousing discussions about present affairs, gaming, and naturally, our time collectively at highschool.

The very best factor about these little get-togethers is the joint realisation that none of us has actually modified. Positive, we’ve modified within the apparent sense that we’re now grown up with plenty of completely different duties and whatnot, however we nonetheless all love gaming, and it genuinely felt like our time aside after highschool simply by no means occurred. It was like we have been proper again in 2002, albeit with out the fixed menace of bullies and the monotonous homework. I had an actual tough time in 2023 for causes I received’t go into right here, and actually, reconnecting with my two finest mates once more saved me.

Quick ahead to 2025, and our conversations incessantly contain the Swap 2. We’d go over our hopes for the console, rumours and hypothesis, together with any info that Nintendo itself had formally introduced. Naturally, when the massive Direct occurred at the beginning of April and included affirmation that GameCube video games could be making a comeback, this turned a scorching matter for the three of us. Not solely was the console that successfully cemented our friendships again in 2002 out of the blue a factor once more, however the truth that it was taking place now, after so a few years of us being aside, felt remarkably important.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube 823k So I've to confess, booting up the GameCube app on Swap 2 for the primary time, official wi-fi GameCube controller at hand, I felt a bit of bit emotional. I've had that nostalgic feeling loads of occasions – have not all of us?-- however nothing fairly like this. Hauling myself down that ladder and taking my first steps throughout Outset Island in The Wind Waker instantly introduced again reminiscences of that ridiculous query I would requested my pal all these years again.

However as a substitute of it festering at the back of my thoughts, I do know I can deliver it up with the very same pal on the pub, and I do know it's going to result in a dozen different GameCube reminiscences and unrestrained stomach laughs. That is simply how it's. And it is the identical with F-Zero GX and SoulCalibur II: all three video games performed an enormous half in our teenage years, and they also all maintain their very own respective treasure troves of reminiscences inside.

There may be, nonetheless, one factor lacking proper now. The sport that began all of it, the one I poured over for numerous hours in NGC magazines, and the one I performed the primary time I booted up my GameCube in 2002: Tremendous Smash Bros. Melee.

It is but to be confirmed for Nintendo Swap On-line, but when/when it does, I think about our nights out on the pub will flip into impromptu Melee tournaments. And I can not wait.

Picture: Gavin Lane / Nintendo Life Have you ever been taking part in GameCube video games on NSO? What sort of reminiscences has it dredged up for you? Tell us with a remark down beneath.

Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a superb horror guide whereas nursing a stunning cup of tea. He additionally enjoys lengthy walks and listens to every thing from TOOL to Chuck Berry.