Gamecube



"Life is a game."

Nintendo's 6th generation console. Vastly overshadowed by the massive success of the PS2, the GCN never truly achieved market acceptance during its production; still, it had a fuckwin game library which, among others, includes games from Nintendo's flagship franchises and some of the best versions of multiplatform titles such as Resident Evil 4, Killer7, and Skies of Arcadia. One of the last game consoles released to be entirely about just vidya and nothing else (which was one of the reasons it failed).

There was a Japan-exclusive Panasonic Q, which was a Gamecube + DVD player combo. It's very rare, but if you find it for a reasonable price, pick it up.

It's noteworthy that you can play Gamecube games on a Wii, with actual controllers and memory cards. Later Wii revisions had the Gamecube ports removed and introduced a new disc drive which couldn't read Gamecube discs. You can still play Gamecube games on newer Wiis with homebrew, though.

There was also the smaller, black and red Wii Mini. It's intended to be a budget version. It has no SD slot, no Gamecube compatibility, no internet connectivity, a top-loading disc drive, much worse build quality and composite video only. Even if you find it very cheap, don't buy it unless you're a hardcore Wii collector. It sucks.

Dolphin, the GameCube/Wii emulator, has progressed to the point where it should be considered your first choice for experiencing the GameCube's library. Games can be played at higher frame rates and resolutions than what was possible on original hardware. There are also texture packs available for many games that make the art assets much more palatable at modern resolutions and aspect ratios.