We are getting dd's a combined birthday gift of a video game system. We keep flipping back and forth between the Gamecube and the PS2. Gamecube has more children's games and is a sturdier system. The PS2 has more games but what we have read is that the system is just not as well built as the Gamecube and there are so many accesories that you have to purchase in order to use some of the games. Not to mention the Gamecube is less expensive and according to our research has better graphics. What do you have and what are the pros & cons? XBox is out b/c of their game selection is not geared toward children and they don't have a big selection anyway.

By Andyjoy on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 07:07 pm:

I can't give you an opinion on the PS2 but I can tell you that my husband and I love our game cube. I don't know if your dd has any gameboy games, but one of my favorite features is that for $50 you can get a "gameboy player" that attaches to the GameCube which allows you to play both old and new gameboy games on the tv. We often pick up used gameboy games for 5-15 dollars.

By Truestori on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 08:15 pm:

We love our Gamecube...LOL

I picked it because it was alot more kid friendly and there are some great package deals.

By Mommmie on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 09:10 pm:

We have both. There are more games for PS2, but more children's games on GameCube. We also use the GameBoy player on our Gamecube to play the Gameboy games. Much better on mommy's eyes! Advance Wars 2 (rated E) is a great turn-based strategy game on GameBoy that we play a lot on Gamecube.

Sonic and Mario and Pokemon are all exclusive to Gamecube. Animal Crossing is a brilliant Gamecube only game that is quite educational.

PS2 you can get games like Chess, Rollarcoaster Tycoon, Worms 3D and Kingdom Hearts - which is a great Disney game.

Our PS2 is our only DVD player in the house.

Good luck deciding! I'd probably do GameCube.

By Mommmie on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 09:14 pm:

Oh, one more thing, out of all the girls we've had through here, only one actually liked video games and she's one of these really gifted kids (7 years old and in the 4th grade). None of the other girls seem to care for them. Anyone else see this or is this just some weird phenomenon here?

By Annie2 on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 10:04 pm:

We have both. I like the feature that the PS2 is a DVD player. I like the feature that the Gamecube can be played with the gameboy. But with every feature, new accessories need to be purchased. Overall, I think they are pretty much equal.

Maybe check out your local video store to see what games they offer for rent. It's very expensive to buy new games, so we rent often. In our area PS2 have more rentals than Game cube for my son's age (the major player in the house, he's 7).

By Cocoabutter on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 11:17 pm:

We bought a PS2 last summer b/c we already had a PSOne and we had a bunch of games and you can play PSOne games on the PS2. But, I was very disappointed because there just are not a lot of games that I felt were appropriate for my son. He is 7. The more time has passed, I see that more and more games have been released for the older game playing crowd.

Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings description

I follow these ratings closely, and they are dependable imo. My son has some games that are rated "T" for Teens, but that mainly seems to be b/c there is a lot to read and details to understand about playing the game, not that they could be violent.

Also, as you said, there are a lot of attachments to buy. You only get one controller (I don't know how many come with the GameCube), and there are not many games that allow more than one player at a time to play. There are some that allow up to four players, but you have to buy 3 more controllers AND, since the game console only has 2 jacks for controllers to plug into, you have to buy a couple of multi-taps, which are Y-shaped wires, the one end of which plugs into the game console, and the other two ends allow you to connect two controllers, one on each. *sigh*

If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten a GameCube. Especially since we got him a GameBoy for Christmas.

By Debbie on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 08:58 am:

Dh and I are looking into buying my ds's a video game system for Christmas. Thanks for all the info. Since my boys are still young (6 & 4) I will definitely be checking into the GameCube. My oldest ds is saving his money for a Gameboy, so I really like that you can buy a Gameboy Player and use the games for the GameCube too.

By Mommmie on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 10:38 am:

You can buy off brand controllers and memory cards cheaper than the Nintendo brand ones.

By Rayanne on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 02:15 pm:

We have PS2 and we love it.

By Momaroze on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 04:16 pm:

PS2 for the older kids 10 and up. Basically you just need a memory card which does not cost much and of course a controller which it comes with. Gamecube, I agree is better for the younger kids.