The Gamecube is doomed. It may be great, but look on the shelves. No games. What games that are there are for children.

Which is too bad, because it's really a sweet piece of hardware. Everything about its design impresses me. The controller (already discussed) is a dream, the console itself is terribly compact and portable (the integrated handle actually gets used regularly in our household as my daughter moves it between her bedroom and the bigscreen TV in the living room), and the graphics hardware is just insane. I mean, boy can that thing push the polygons. Rogue Leader is just incredible when you get a lot of ships on the screen.

Okay, for those who haven't played Rogue Leader on the GameCube... Remember the scenes in Return of the Jedi, where the screen just EXPLODES with ships? You actually get to play that scene in Rogue Leader, just like in the movie. Each ship on the screen is really there, and you really interact with them. There are literally clouds of tie fighters among the capital ships. And when you've managed to nail enough tie bombers, your next goal is to take out two stardestroyers, right there in the same scene. It's one of the most insane space dogfights I've ever played, and the GC graphics hardware is what makes it possible.

And although there's already been a handful of games where you get to play the Hoth battle scene, their version in Rogue Leader is awesome because of the hardware. Every soldier running on the ground is a full-poly mo-capped model which casts a dynamic shadow. Each and every laser blast from every ship is a lightsource, and casts a glow onto the objects around it, including the snow. There's nothing like seeing your laser blasts barely miss your target, and watching the light from the bolt cast a glow onto the hull of the ship as it slides past.