In Mourning

I recently read this news tidbit from the Guardian computer games blog it seems that production has stopped on Gamecube games and consoles. It’s to be expected with the continued success of the new console Wii, but I still felt a pang of pain when I read it all the same.

I have a lot of great memories in front of my little silver cube, most notably the times I spent trying (and in most cases succeeding) to get one over on Adam on any game I could. My particular favourite ritual of humiliation was putting Timesplitters on and squeezing off head shot after head shot, every now and then I would throw him a bone and let him edge in front, but it wouldn’t be long until my lead was too strong for him to come back.

A little aside about driving

Take that corner nice and slow
And now you’re in last place
Take that corner at break neck speed
With daring, with guile, with grace
You’re on your way to the finish line
About to win the race
But then, aghast, it’s all over
You got a banana skin in your face

Then there were the two (count them 1…2…) times that I played games with girls I was courting, Mario Party with Lynsey on New Years night and Legend of Zelda with Sarai. Sarai wasn’t impressed but Lynsey and I had a great time… didn’t get any, um romance, on either occasion though.

Great solitary moments with the cube included in no particular order:

☛ Ikuragua
☛ Killer Seven
☛ Legend Of Zelda
☛ Paper Mario 2
☛ Viewtiful Joe
☛ Animal Crossing

An impromptu poem about Monkeys

Little Monkey in a ball
How’d you end up there?
You lil’ fool
Look! Banana’s plentiful!
Get a-rolling n’ collect them all

But the best memories have to be of continuous play, both multiplayer and single, on Soul Calibre II. That game was beyond belief. I mastered Voldo, a blind contortionist who dressed in a purple leather gimp suit and had a story that eluded to a homosexual master and sub relationship in which Voldo was the sub. How often can you say you donned your leather bondage wear and then went toe to toe with some hot blonde who thought she was the descendent of a Greek goddess?

Oh happy days. RIP Gamecube.