50 Fun Facts About GameCube

A study found that warming up with Super Monkey Ball on GameCube improved the work of which professionals?

Surgeons who played for 20 minutes before a surgical drill finished slightly faster and made fewer mistakes than colleagues who went in cold.

Which GameCube launch game sold more copies in its opening week than Super Mario 64 had managed?

Luigi's Mansion sends Mario's brother ghost-hunting with a modified vacuum cleaner, and it became the console's most successful launch title.

Which former console rival of Nintendo developed the GameCube racer F-Zero GX through its Amusement Vision studio?

Sega had been Nintendo's great competitor in the console wars, and the racer was the first significant game collaboration between the two.

Which GameCube life simulator hides playable NES games in its village for players to collect and enjoy at home?

Animal Crossing also runs on the console's internal clock, so its days, weeks, months and years pass in real time.

Which mascot, once Mario's fiercest rival, made his Nintendo console debut in a GameCube port subtitled Battle?

Sonic the Hedgehog arrived in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, which went on to become the best-selling third-party game on the system.

Donkey Konga and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat on GameCube were both packaged with which unusual controller?

Bongo drums, sold as DK Bongos, carry a sound sensor between the two pads so that the games can detect the player clapping.

Which unusual feature is built into the GameCube's case, and was kept on Japan's DVD-playing Q model?

A carrying handle sticks out of the cube's casing, part of a design that reviewers criticised as toy-like.

The fourth main Mario Kart game, released only on GameCube, added which twist to the racing?

Two riders per vehicle is the hook of Mario Kart: Double Dash, where one character drives, the other uses items, and the pair can swap places mid-race.

Which Nintendo hero was the guest fighter exclusive to the GameCube version of Soulcalibur II?

Link fought on GameCube only, while the PlayStation 2 version got Tekken's Heihachi and the Xbox version got the comic-book antihero Spawn.

What colour is the oversized A button at the centre of a standard GameCube controller's face buttons?

Green marks the A button, which was made the largest so that players would sense it performs the primary function.

Which game was the GameCube's best-seller, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide?

Super Smash Bros. Melee passed a million sales within two months of release, the first game on the system to get there.

Which later Nintendo console hid four GameCube controller ports under a panel and could play GameCube discs?

Wii launch models ran GameCube discs and memory cards as well, but later revisions removed the ports and the compatibility.

Which rival console, discontinued in 2001, was the only one of its generation that the GameCube outsold?

Dreamcast sales stopped at about 9 million, while the GameCube's 21.74 million left it behind both the Xbox and the PlayStation 2.

Which graphics technique gave The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker the cartoon look that divided fans at its unveiling?

Cel shading disappointed fans who had hoped for a more realistic Zelda, like the duel with Ganondorf shown in a demo the year before.

In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, released for GameCube in 2006, the hero transforms into which creature?

A wolf is the shape he takes on entering the Twilight Realm, where he cannot use his sword or shield and attacks by biting instead.

Super Mario Sunshine on GameCube sends Mario on holiday to which tropical island, where he is framed for vandalism?

Isle Delfino is smeared with graffiti by a lookalike, and Mario is ordered to scrub it clean with a water-spraying backpack.

Which 2005 horror game, first released on GameCube, sends agent Leon S. Kennedy to rescue the US president's daughter?

Resident Evil 4 was announced as a GameCube exclusive, yet its sales there were undercut by news of a PlayStation 2 port due later the same year.

Star Fox Adventures was the only GameCube game by which British studio, bought by Microsoft a day after its US release?

Rare began the project as Dinosaur Planet for the Nintendo 64, until Shigeru Miyamoto persuaded the studio to rebuild it around Fox McCloud.

In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on GameCube, the title refers to what kind of magical object?

A conductor's baton lets the hero change the direction of the wind for sailing, and the Japanese subtitle translates as Wind Baton.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on GameCube asked each player in multiplayer to use which handheld as a controller?

Game Boy Advance units plugged into the console by cable and worked as a second screen as well as a controller.

Which codename did Nintendo give the GameCube when it first announced the console in May 1999?

Dolphin survives as the name of the emulator that first ran commercial GameCube games on a computer.

Which electronics company sold the Q, a Japan-only GameCube in a steel case that could also play DVD films?

Panasonic had developed the disc drive for the standard console, but the Q sold poorly and was discontinued after two years.

Which Nintendo hero, created by Masahiro Sakurai, raced on GameCube in a 2003 game called Air Ride?

Kirby had waited years for it: the game began as one of the first Nintendo 64 projects and was cancelled for a time before reaching GameCube.

Which bounty hunter do players control from a first-person view in the GameCube adventure Metroid Prime?

Samus Aran was first planned in third person, until Shigeru Miyamoto stepped in and almost everything already built was scrapped.

Which sport do Mario and friends play in the GameCube's Super Mario Strikers, on pitches ringed by electric fences?

Soccer here is five-a-side with no referees, and its makers at Next Level Games borrowed ideas from their ice hockey title NHL Hitz Pro.

Which Mario villain made his debut in Super Mario Sunshine on GameCube, disguised as the vandal Shadow Mario?

Bowser Jr. kidnaps Princess Peach because his father told him she was his mother, a lie the youngster later admits he had already seen through.

Viewtiful Joe and Killer7 were among five GameCube games announced together in 2002 by which Japanese publisher?

Capcom announced the five to lift the struggling console, but one was cancelled and only P.N.03 stayed a GameCube exclusive.

Eternal Darkness on GameCube plays tricks such as fake TV errors on the player when which on-screen gauge runs low?

Sanity meter effects break the fourth wall, even advertising a sequel that does not exist, and Nintendo patented the concept in 2005.

Which PlayStation stealth classic was remade for GameCube in 2004 under the subtitle The Twin Snakes?

Metal Gear Solid was rebuilt largely by the studio Silicon Knights, with new cutscenes directed by film-maker Ryuhei Kitamura.

Who succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi as Nintendo's president in May 2002, months after the GameCube went on sale?

Satoru Iwata was a former HAL Laboratory programmer and only the fourth president in the company's history.

Which Texas studio made Metroid Prime for GameCube, working with Shigeru Miyamoto and other Nintendo staff in Japan?

Retro Studios had only opened its Austin offices in 1999, and its debut was the first game in the series to use 3D graphics.

A song from Japanese TV adverts, 'Ai no Uta' by Strawberry Flower, became a hit that outsold which GameCube game?

Pikmin sales picked up a little after the single came out, yet the song went on to eclipse the game it was made to advertise.

Which Nintendo composer, the voice of Yoshi, inspired the GameCube-era guitar-playing dog K.K. Slider?

Kazumi Totaka also hides the same 19-note tune, known simply as his song, as an Easter egg in many of the games he scores.

Which composer, famous for the first Super Mario theme, co-wrote the scores for Super Mario Sunshine and The Wind Waker?

Koji Kondo's 1985 theme later became the first piece of video game music added to the American National Recording Registry.

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness on GameCube puts which legendary Pokémon, corrupted into a Shadow form, on its box art?

Lugia is one of 83 Shadow Pokémon that players capture with a device called the Snag Machine and must then purify.

Mario Party 6 was the first GameCube game to use which add-on, plugged into a memory card slot?

A microphone let players speak commands in dedicated minigames, and it later worked with Odama and Karaoke Revolution Party.

The only GameCube games with internet play released outside Japan belonged to which role-playing series?

Phantasy Star Online needed a modem or broadband adapter sold separately, because the console had no network hardware built in.

Pre-ordering The Wind Waker earned a bonus GameCube disc holding which Nintendo 64 classic and its unreleased expansion?

Ocarina of Time came with Master Quest, and the disc proved so popular that some customers placed and then cancelled pre-orders just to get it.

Which arcade mascot starred in a GameCube party game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto to show off handheld connectivity?

Pac-Man is steered by one player on the handheld's screen, while up to three others chase him as the ghosts on the television.

Which Star Wars game, a GameCube launch title from Factor 5, opens with the Rebel attack on the first Death Star?

Rogue Leader then follows the films on to the Imperial invasion of Hoth, as depicted in The Empire Strikes Back.

What name did Nintendo give the GameCube's signature launch colour, the shade shown on its logo and in advertising?

Indigo went on sale alongside a Jet Black model, and a silver version called Platinum followed a year later.

Holding which button on the first controller while powering on a GameCube triggers a hidden audio Easter egg?

Z does it, and a second secret sound plays when four controllers are plugged in and every player holds the same button.

Nintendo's wireless WaveBird controller for GameCube left out which standard feature to preserve its battery life?

Rumble motors would have drained its two AA batteries, but radio signals let the pad work up to six metres from the console.

Which company designed Gekko, the PowerPC-based processor at the heart of Nintendo's GameCube?

IBM based the chip on its PowerPC 750CXe design with copper wiring, and it ran at 486 MHz.

At which trade show hosted by Nintendo in Japan was the console unveiled under the GameCube name in August 2000?

Space World was Nintendo's own annual show from 1989 to 2001, after which the company favoured industry-wide events such as E3.

Nintendo and two arcade partners built a GameCube-based arcade board in 2002 and gave it the name of which Zelda relic?

Triforce suited a venture between three companies, and the board went on to run arcade versions of F-Zero and Mario Kart.

Which mercenary leads the fight to restore Princess Elincia in the GameCube's Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance?

Ike fronted the first Fire Emblem with 3D graphics, full motion cutscenes and voice acting.

Which annual sports game, released in August 2007, was the last retail release for GameCube in North America?

Madden NFL 08 arrived nine months after Nintendo's next home console launched and half a year after the GameCube was discontinued.

Which graphics company bought ArtX, the start-up designing the GameCube's graphics chip, before the console launched?

ATI paid $400 million in stock for ArtX, a firm founded by 20 former Silicon Graphics staff, and built its Radeon line on the team's work.

Which impish companion rides on the hero's back and gives hints in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess?

Midna also attacks enemies with an energy field, helps with long jumps and eventually lets the hero warp across the map.