Would you say the GameCube was Nintendo's most "tryhard" era?

First, let me make something clear. I love the GameCube, I think it's one of the most underrated systems ever, and had some of my favorite games of all time on it. That being said, I can't ignore the problems Nintendo had with it. Sure we can talk about the mini-DVD format, and lack of online, and purple color, and while the decisions Nintendo made in regards to those weren't helping, I think Nintendo had another problem on their hands.

Throughout much of it's life, Nintendo of America constantly tried to portray the GameCube as this "cool", "hip", "edgy" system for young adults. Not only in advertising examples A(https://youtu.be/kIgpuGw168k), B(https://youtu.be/sNmCgOOqh80), and C(https://youtu.be/3C-IRfw5LJ8). But also in the direction Nintendo took some of their franchises, and the games they got onto it. To give a few examples...

* Super Mario Sunshine had fully voiced cutscenes, and a more in-depth story than Super Mario 64, giving the game a bit more of a cinamatic feel.

* Eternal Darkness, an innovative Survival Horror game, marked the very first Mature rated game published and co-produced by Nintendo (Perfect Dark and Conker's Bad Fur Day were both self-published by Rare, Nintendo just distributed them).

* 1080 Avalanche featured almost entirely licensed rock music from artists like Finger Eleven.

* Nintendo constantly tried pushing Sports, Wrestling, and Mature action titles in a lot of their marketing.

* Twilight Princess being darker and more realistic was a response to the contraversial Art Style of Wind Waker

* Nintendo's ill-fated publishing deal with Capcom, The Capcom 5, included exclusive access to the Resident Evil franchise.

While all of these were great games, it all gave the impression that Nintendo was trying to be "hip with da youths" so-to-speak. It felt like Nintendo was trying to mimick Sony's strategy, and philosophy with the original PlayStation, but didn't understand why it worked, and were about 6 years too late. Don't get me wrong, Sunshine, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil are great games, but the pervasive feeling was that of "look, look, were cool and edgy too!", and came off as a desperate attempt to be relevant with more hardcore gamers. It also contradicts with Nintendo's philosophies as a company. To put it in perspective, when the tone of your console's design and some of it's software, clashes heavily with the tone and audience of how you're marketing it, you have a problem.

It just felt like Nintendo wasn't playing to it's strengths as a company, and was just trying to cash-in on the "edgy hipster" gaming fad of the early-mid 2000s. Like I said, the GameCube was a great system, but if I had to sum up Nintendo's biggest problem in that generation, "How do you do, fellow kids?" is probably the first that comes to mind.

It came in multiple colors and had online.. perhaps you could not tell fallacies in your opening statement :)

@dotWithShoes: While multiple colors of the GameCube were released, the primary color marketed in its first few years, was indigo, aka, purple. And the GameCube did have a broadband adapter, but it had no official online service provided by Nintendo, and the only games that used it for online, were the Phantasy Star Online games.

@TheMisterManGuy: That may be, my statement still stands true. The first GameCube I bought, which was within the first few years.(first year I think). was black.

@dotWithShoes: Sure, you could buy the black GameCube at launch, but all the marketing and promotions for the system from 2001, to around 2003, used indigo as the main color, thus giving the GameCube the look of a kids toy. And Nintendo's desperate attempts to pass this Fisher Price color off as "edgy" and "cool" showed just how desperate and awkward they were durring that time. Sure, they phased out indigo later in its life, but by that time, the damage had already been done.

No matter how much you dress up a purple lunchbox, it's still a purple lunchbox, and when indigo is the primary color, people are going to associate the product with that color.

I don't see the purple as an attempt at being edgy or cool - it was an attempt to stand out ans be memorable.

Also, I don't think the Gamecube was particularly try-hard - it featured tons of fantastic games that were marketed to the hardcore gaming audience.

@Planeforger: Purple wasn't an attempt to be edgy, but Nintendo trying to pass it off as edgy was laughable. Their marketing and overall strategy durring that period was just awkward and out of touch. Like you said, the GameCube was a great system with some excellent games. But Nintendo's "How do you do, fellow kids?" mentality at the time was embarrassing.

Don't remember much of that stuff honestly, the 2 main things I remember from my Gamecube were the Awesome Metroid Prime series, and one of the most memorable gaming experiences of my life, Resident Evil 4. That's what comes to mind when I think of the Gamecube.

Is the so-called "edgy" marketing began to become passe but the beginning of the 21st century? It looks like something from the 1990s.

Ehh, they were more tryhard in the 90s.

Shall I continue?

@Maroxad:

yeah nintendo was desperate to shake that kiddie image with which they were imbued starting with sega of america's aggressive marketing campaign during the 16-bit era and continued with the 32-bit era and the ps1. sony didn't actively attack nintendo as often and with as much vigor as did sega but just looking at the n64 and ps1 libraries sent a clear message to the average consumer: nintendo's games were colorful/cartoony, seemed less complex and lacked cool things like the trendy lengthy fmvs and cutscenes. as a result 6th gen nintendo tried to fight the competition on their home turf. that was a mistake as it was far too late by then. childhood nintendo fans had grown into teenage/early 20's sony/ms/sega fans. nintendo was old news to their ever changing tastes. lucky for them they found money printing machines just one gen later by doing the opposite: going full on nintendo with the ds and wii.

Wha? the main color seen in advertisements was the indigo one. and at conferences too. it was known as the square purple purse because of that handle. and no, just because the cube had like, what, 3 online games? doesn't mean it was seen as a viable option for those wanting online multi. your focusing on the most minor of details and not seeing the big picture: nintendo during the cube's era was indeed trying very hard to shake their very well established kiddy image.

hell nintendo themselves said something about gamer's not wanting online

@Maroxad said:

Ehh, they were more tryhard in the 90s.

Shall I continue?

Bit rapey, but at least he gave her a book to read.

I never felt that Nintendo was trying to portray the Gamecube as cool and edgy. I feel quite the opposite. I like the Gamecube, but I feel that the Gamecube is when Nintendo really started being viewed as having a kiddy image in a major way and it's because Nintendo just wanted to do their own thing and didn't care about how they were viewed.

Things like making the Gamecube look like a purple fisher price toy and transforming the realistic Zelda that everybody was excited for into a children's cartoon is not what a company that cares about being viewed as cool and edgy would do. It's what a company that just wants to do their own thing no matter what anybody else thinks about it would do. And just watch this Super Mario Sunshine commercial below; this commercial is the complete opposite of cool and edgy in every single way. If Nintendo was trying to be cool and edgy, this commercial would have never been produced.

Nay, it was one of Sega's core marketing strategies against them.

the gamecube had a handle

@Maroxad said:

Is this for real?

I know it was a Sega marketing strategy going back to the 16-bit gen. That's why I said "in a major way". Sega tried to portray Nintendo as kiddy and it may have worked a little bit, but I don't feel like Nintendo had a major kiddy image problem until the Gamecube. I remember the SNES and N64 still being viewed as pretty cool consoles. If you were in college and had a N64, none of the young adults on campus that cared about being cool would ever say that's kiddy, instead they would think it's cool and be excited to play some Goldeneye 007.

The Gamecube was when Nintendo really started having a major kiddy image to a lot of people and it's because of decisions that Nintendo made during that generation due to them just wanting to do their own thing and not caring about their image.

All you need to show is Nintendo hyping up Geist as it's Go To "M rated game".

Yes Nintendo were try hards.

It gave Sega the lead. It was more than a little bit.

@storm_of_swords: If you look back at much of Nintendo's marketing for the GameCube, including the commercials I linked to, you can see Nintendo was trying to pass it off as an edgy, young adult gizmo. Even in the case of the commercial you linked to, was a edgy satire of cheesy recycling PSAs, further fueling the perception that Nintendo was trying way too hard to be cool.

When GameCube hardware was in development (as Project Dolphin) in the late 90s, the GPU was very high-end, as was the RAM and even the CPU.

I remember following Dolphin's development from 1999 through the 2000 GameCube reveal and got one near launch in 2001. It was a massive leap above N64 in every way.

Also, of the four machines that comprised the 6th console generation (Dreamcast, PlayStation2, GameCube, XBOX) the GameCube was technically the 2nd most powerful.

Tech / performance wise, they ranked like this

1. XBOX

2. GameCube

3. PlayStation 2

4. Dreamcast.

Sales-wise, it was like this.

1. PlayStation 2

2. XBOX

3. Gamecube

4. Dreamcast.

That tied-up-chick thing is surprising and amusing; I'm shocked Nintendo went there.

What does "try-hard" actually mean - it sounds like it's intended to be negative, but shouldn't all of these companies try hard to woo us?

@xantufrog: tryhard pretty much mean you're trying way too hard, to be cool, badass, and dangerous with just about everything you do, mainly to get attention. This sums up Nintendo's strategy in the GameCube era. Much of their advertising and software deals that generation was plagued with the kind of edgy, hipster, emo crap you'd expect from Hot Topic, not from a company who's mascot is a cartoon plumber.

@TheMisterManGuy: gotcha, thanks

@22Toothpicks: He said lack of online, which implies NO online.. that's all I was saying.