At the time of its introduction, GameCube was a marked improvement over its predecessor, Nintendo 64, and even Sony’s PlayStation 2. Unfortunately for Nintendo, a game console is only as good as the games developed for it. This is where GameCube falls short. Nintendo’s most popular game franchises, including the Pokémon, Mario Bros., and Zelda series, target adolescents (and not those of us who merely act like them at select times) despite the fact that Mario, the world’s favorite plumber, has long since graduated from his days in Donkey Kong. While there are some titles for more mature audiences—sports games are available, and the Resident Evil series, for example, is now exclusively developed for GameCube—on the whole, GameCube is the most family-oriented of the major consoles. This can present a problem if you’d rather race  against Porsches in Gran Turismo than fellow cartoon subcontractors in go-carts (Mario Kart).

Yet another ding in GameCube’s armor is its future capability. Today GameCube competes with Xbox rather well. In fact, thanks to its efficient processor, GameCube games look as good and load as fast as current Xbox titles. But as software developers take advantage of Xbox’s more advanced processors, its games will load faster and pack more punch.

GameCube’s most significant drawback for the home theater fan is its A/V upgrade pack. Like PS2, GameCube does not support resolutions higher than 480p (“p” stands for progressive). In terms of graphics, Xbox is the more forward-looking platform.