OK, so yesterday I woke up rather early (8 am) to go down to the mall and try to get a GameCube (which launched that day). I knew supplies would be limited, and that my chances were probably slim, but I didn’t care, because it wasn’t like I needed to have one… I just thought it would be a fun diversion… So I got to the mall around 9am, and checked out Best Buy, which opened at 10am. The lobby to the store was jam-packed full of people, and the store was handing out numbered tickets corresponding to the number of units they had for sale. By the time I got there, they were already out of units.

I walked into the mall proper, which opened at 11am, and walked over to Electronics Boutique, where a few power-geeks had already begun to assemble. One of the people who worked for EB showed up and started selling right away (2 hours before the store was supposed to open), but it turned out that they were only selling units to people who had preordered… Thinking I had no chance of getting a unit, I meandered over to KB Toys, which had its gate down but there were some employees straightening up the store and the like… I beckoned one of them over and asked if they had any units, and they said they had 70. I asked for a number, and I got number 4, he told me to come back at 11am to do the deed. I went back outside to Best Buy, and the lobby was still packed, and there were many pissed off people complaining that they couldn’t get a GameCube… It was kinda chilly, so I went back inside, and got some breakfast at the food court. I rolled back to KB at 10:40, and they soon after started letting people in. I completed my purchase, and on the way out I saw the guy giving out the numbers still had a large pile of the tickets… I asked him how many numbers they gave out, and he said 20… 20 out of 70… So I quickly learned that people are stupid, and they didn’t realize that there were stores other than Best Buy which was selling the GameCube.

I got 3 games: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, Luigi’s Mansion, and Star Wars: Rogue Leader. The GameCube is an amazing piece of engineering… It is this tiny little thing that weighs almost nothing, but has some serious graphics power.. The Star Wars games is easily the most beautiful game I have seen to date (and it is tons of fun at the same time). Luigi’s Mansion is very pretty, and has some really interesting new ideas for game play… Tons of fun… Tony Hawk is Tony Hawk, but that game is great for when I need something mindless to distract me from reality… :)

So all in all, if you are considering buying a GameCube, I think it is worth the money… The launch titles appear to be very strong, and I really think that the system will have some staying power.. Considering the last game system I purchased was a used playstation (which I bought with , and before that I owned a 3DO, I am not big into the console gaming… But every once in awhile a console catches my eyes, and this is one of them…