Gaming Cube Club

[Gr3ymalkin]

I meant to post this last week, but things came up ;).

Anyway, I went to the Cube Club in downtown Chicago last Saturday. Me and my best friend went there when it opened at 11 AM and stayed until they kicked us out at 3 PM. It was in some vacant building in the middle of like an industrial section downtown.


---Club---
When we first walked in I was dissappointed... There were like 6 TVs and it was so small... But then they told us about the second floor which looks a lot more like the shots you see online. It that the lighted dance floor and all that... not that anyone was dancing. There was also a big couch there where it seemed all the moms and really bored girlfriends were sitting lol.

I'd say there were about 30 systems set up, including four that were in enclosed booths. They were all on these Panasonic HDTVs that were really nice, but some of them had bad color...which was obvious in one of the Luigi TVs. The enclosed rooms had these BEAUTIFUL Tao (I think she said) TVs that were just amazing. They also had really nice sound setups. From what I understand each club had different games in the rooms...but when I was there it was Luigi, Smash Brothers, Star Wars and Pikmin.


---Controller---
The first thing we played was Wave Race: Blue Storm. I think the biggest thing to mention here was the controller... I grabbed it and didn't even think twice about how to use it. The whole thing feels wonderful. It seems lighter than the Dual Shock, but don't hold me to that. The handles curve downward into your hands unlike the PS2 and this to me gives the GC controller a huge advantage. The buttons are great too, the B button is not as annoying as it looks. The C stick also seems to be entirely coated in rubber, and it has little grooves in the edges like the N64 stick did. The control stick is at like a perfect angle; no problems at all.
The L and R buttons are excellent and are easily pushed down...They don't push back like the DC ones do. The click is damn cool, but I found myself doing it on accident a lot -- especially in Wave Race. The Z button is just stiff... I didn't mind the placement, it just was not as easy to push as the others were. I found myself forgetting it was even there.


---Wave Race---
Like I was saying, this was our first game. We raced in the 4 available tracks. It looks great. The menus are very cool, especially the cool loading screens. They game has little load time, you barely notice it. The game itself runs perfectly without any slowdown. I'm not gonna go into details... you can go read some preview. My main impression was that this was TOO MUCH like the original. Sure it looks a hell of a lot better, but what it comes down to is how it plays. And it played exactly the same. To most this is a good thing, I just found myself getting bored with it. The turbo is a nice addition... but it's hard to turn when using it since the control is so loose. I could barely hear the sound at all over the speaker pounding techno in my ears. Probably the last popular game there, it was almost always open.

---Star Fox---
The game looks amazing. It plays almost exactly like Zelda. I didn't find it as endearing as Zelda since I don't care for the Fox characters as much as the Zelda ones, but good nonetheless. This also ran great and looked, the standout being the water which was amazing and the shadows the clouds left. I can tell this will be a great game, but I had NO idea what to do. There were 4 selectable areas: 1 adventure (which I was just talking about), the T-Rex Boss and 2 Arwing missions. For some odd reason both Arwing missions took you to the same exact level which only required you to fly through 10 gold rings. It played a lot like the 64 version, but seemed very incomplete. Looked great, too bad it was so damn easy. Lastly the boss -- No idea what to do in this. He chases you around this looping hallway... I just gave up. It look sooo cool though, I was very impressed. Again, I didn't hear much sound other than Slippy's horrid voice. This was open quite a bit, probably because no one there knew what the hell to do at all.

---Star Wars---
I didn't play much of this because I want to save it all for when I buy it. It looks good in vids and shots and even when you stand at the club and watch someone play it. But once you grab the contoller and play yourself you will realize just how amazing this game is. It looks incredible. The ships are amazing, the explosions kick ***. I also enjoyed the menu screens, as they featured clips from the original Star Wars trilogy. I heard some voices, but it's hard to say how good they are yet. As for levels I saw three: Hoth, Death Star and Tattooine Training. Hoth is most impressive, even the snow looks great.

---Pikmin---
Only a 3 day demo... but in my opinion it was the best damn game there. Once I figured out how to throw Pikmin I was set. The control is so simple, but at the same time allows you to do everything you could possibly want to do. I was completely sucked into this game. It was the only one I played where I zoned out every other noise in the place and just paid attention to the game. It looks beautiful, shots do it no justice. The textures are just amazing, especially zoomed in. It looks real. The Pikmin themselves are cute, but at the same time very cute. I managed to kill the 4 legged spider thing on the third day and that was that. By far the best game I played, and I'm getting it the second it comes out. Another game a lot of people just walked past, but it still had a following.

---Smash Brothers---
Looks great... However, I didn't enjoy it. Probably because they were rushing us to get out of there. Also throw in the fact that I had to play as the horribly slow Bowser, and that I had no idea what the controls were. I'd say if you like the orignal get this. It still looks damn fun, and was probably the most popular game there.

---Luigi's Mansion---
I did not get to play this! The place has no time limits, and kids would just not get off this game. It looks great though. The ghosts are amazing, look as good as something Pixar would do.

---Kobe 2002---
I HATE basketball games. But I LOVED this. My friend is huge on sports games and he and many others seemed to think this game was great. It was really fun and played very well. I had no problems doing any moves. The C-Stick passing is probably the best idea ever too. It looks great, the floor reflections and replays were going too. Someone did crash it once though, it was probably the earliest game there. The loading time before games was LONG though, hopefully they'll fix it.

---Madden 2002---
I haven't played 2002 on Ps2 yet... But this is way beyond 2001. It looks and plays excellently. No control problems at all, the sound was great. Madden was even talking already. It ran great, and is a lot of fun. My only problem was the rather crappy looking video it had before the title screen...

---Monkey Ball---
FAST. FUN. I don't know what else to say. It's pretty damn cool, but I would think it would get old fast unless you love party games and have four controllers. The monkey race is fun, as is like as fast as F-Zero...wish that was on there :).

I didn't get to play in the booths, and since we went in the morning I didn't see ED-- it's only out at night. My friend went again and said it looks great though.

Sorry this was so long, but it's something to read lol. Don't complain if you think it's too long to read ;).

[James]

[color=royalblue][b][size=1]Excellent post. I enjoyed reading it...makes me really want to get my hands on GameCube. :)[/b][/size][/color]

[Guest]

Its not Wave Racer its a sequel to it called Blue Wave or something. Also its not Star Fox its Dino Planet or something i forgot.I havent been keeping up with the games.....

[James]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Forte [/i]
[B]Its not Wave Racer its a sequel to it called Blue Wave or something. Also its not Star Fox its Dino Planet or something i forgot.I havent been keeping up with the games..... [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=royalblue][b][size=1]Yeah, the game is called Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet.

So it [i]is[/i] Star Fox, but it's more of an adventure game with flight bits thrown in.[/b][/color][/size]

[Guest]

Yea and the dinosaurs there are kewl with the detailing graphix

[Treble]

Thats amazing!I would really like to get my hands on some of the GCN games myself it'll be like a dream come true.

[RicoTranzrig]

Espeically to put it on a HDTV with the special 60 FPS digital A/V input. :D

[Sephiroth]

man, after reading that I reeeeally want to get a game cube....

[Cecil]

Cool post, I can't wait to get a gamecube, it's coming out in a mounth and I can't wait. Hopefully it won't be delayed again.

[Gr3ymalkin]

My friend also went back... Although he still didn't get to play Luigi. He saw ED though and said it looked great, but he didn't get to play that either. I guess we could always play that at Target or something... They seem to be farthest along with their GC setups.

I think I forgot to mention the rumbling too. It didn't seem to be two motors like the Dual Shock. It's more dead center...But I felt it did it's job well and is pretty powerful. Much better than on N64 or DC.

Lastly, me and my friend noticed somethings at the Club. I really don't know how right we are but anyway... Pikmin in the booth seemed to be farther along than the Pikmin on the floor. I noticed someone running around a rainbow colored Frog...something I never saw before. The one I played mainly had those weird Lady Bugs. The one I played seemed to be the same burn from E3. Honestly, I think this was the best game there :).

[Guest]

Man as soon as Gamecube comes out im getting it...You know what im gonna reserve one for me!As soon as the stores open that feature again.....

[Kristoff119]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Gr3ymalkin [/i]
[B]I meant to post this last week, but things came up ;).

Anyway, I went to the Cube Club in downtown Chicago last Saturday. Me and my best friend went there when it opened at 11 AM and stayed until they kicked us out at 3 PM. It was in some vacant building in the middle of like an industrial section downtown.[/B][/QUOTE]

YEAH!! Finally somebody from chicago.

Were you there on the 29th or the 6th. I was there on the 6th. Smash Bros. Melee is amazing. It is definitely going to be the #1 seller. Samus and Bowser were the only characters I played. Samus was as good as she was the first time around, but I came in the last 30 minutes, so I didn't get to play that long.

[Gr3ymalkin]

Lol, don't see many from Chicago on boards for some reason... Anyway, we went the first Saturday which I think was the 28th... but it's 3:30 AM and I cannot remember ;). I couldn't get into SSB... There were a lot of little kids on it yelling and going nuts. "Let's just all kill Mario!!" and etc etc. Not the atmosphere I like to play in :). I'll leave my judgement for later.

[NorykoAngelcry]

Very awsome and well thought out post. Thank you for all the great info. I was a bit worried(fractionly mind you) about the whole controller. . but you put me at great ease =)

*drools* . . can't wait.

[Guest steve]

:cool:great post man!! i have to thank you because i`m about to go to the cube club here in dallas and i now know what i`m probly going to see and play with thanks again... :cool:

[Flare Falcor]

Cool! Now I really, really, [i]really[/i] wanna get a gamecube.... and all those games too....