We are THINKING about getting one of these for the kids for Christmas. Would you even recommend either since both Sony and Ninetendo have new updated versions? And if you would recommend, which one?

By Rayelle on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 05:33 pm:

We don't have a gamecube so I can't compare, but we do have the ps2. My 7yr old ds loves it and my 6 yr dd plays but not as intensely. I asked my dh if he thought they would quit making games for ps2 now that the 3rd one is out but he said they should still issue new games for awhile. At my moms they still have my Nintendo and Sega and my kids like playing those too! They are too young to care about graphics and all that techno stuff. When I was little we never got the newest game system, it was always when the price went down becasue of something newer that we did. The ps2 was bought for my dh but now he needs our 7yr to help him sometimes lol!I think it would be ok to get one or the other even with the new systems being out.

By Debbie on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 06:04 pm:

My neighbor has a Gamecube and we have the Playstation 2. I have to say, the kids are at our house playing the Playstation, a lot more then they are at his house playing the Gamecube. They seem to get bored faster with the Gamecube games. They will definitely keep selling Playstation 2 games for awhile. The playstation 3 is soooo expensive, it is not for everyone. I think I read somewhere that for now, they have no plans to stop making games for playstation 2.

By Paulas on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 06:28 pm:

Can you play movies on a Playstation 2?

By Debbie on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 06:34 pm:

No, only on the playstation 3.

By Tink on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 06:47 pm:

Yes, you can play DVDs and CDs on the PS2. Ours just went out after four years and we're going to pick up a new one because we use it for DVDs and games. We love our PS2 and won't get the PS3 for quite awhile.

By Colette on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 07:33 pm:

We play movies on our ps2 and it's been a great way to keep in touch with teens that are interested in video games - they play against dh and I.

By Missbookworm on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 09:52 pm:

You can play movies on a ps2 and ps1 games (if you find any). We have a ps2 and won't be getting a ps3. They're so expensive and the only reason my children have a ps2 is because it was a present! I may have bought one this year though if they didn't get one last year.

I guess if my ds's dad decides to buy a ps3 then we'll have one. I can't imagine paying that much for a video game system.

By Cocoabutter on Saturday, December 2, 2006 - 11:30 pm:

We have had a Gamecube for about 2 years now. While I love the fact that Nintendo has a lot more games for the young kids, (Pokemon and Zelda, just to name a couple) they still don't have anywhere near the game selection that Playstation and XBox do. We have always rented games from Blockbuster (as a way of previewing the games first rather than buying them and finding out later that ds doesn't like them) and the size of the selections is obvious as soon as you walk in. So, ds often gets frustrated that they don't have the games that he wants to play for his Gamecube.

Dh wants to be sure that ds has a good Christmas, so we just bought an XBox 360 this evening while ds is spending the night at my parent's house. It's quite impressive, including the price - we ended up spending about $600 on the console (which includes a hard drive for storing game data and accessing online gaming, and also a wireless controller), a game, a second wireless controller, rechargeable batteries for the wireless controllers (which provide up to 25 hours of play versus about 8 hours with AA batteries) and a charger for the batteries.

The only reason we went with the XBox 360 rather than the original XBox is because the video game guy at Blockbuster said that they will definitely begin to phase out the equipment and games for the original XBox. Sony did the same for the PSOne games about 4 years ago, so they will do it for the PS2 games as well since Sony promised a 10 year life span on the PS2 which came out in 2000.

PS3's also have Blue Ray DVD players, the newest form of high definition DVD formats. It's worth looking into.

By Conni on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 06:49 am:

Honestly, I don't think I would get the Gamecube. Brad bought one a couple of yrs ago with his birthday money and he only kept it 1 yr. He was bored with it after about 6 months. However, Blake and his young friends loved playing on it. Brad and Brandon have had a PS2 at their Dad's home for several yrs now. They still enjoying playing it. I think they liked it more than the XBOX we have. They barely show any interest in the XBOX now. But have asked repeatedly for the XBOX 360. Which we wont be getting anytime. lol

I think at the age of your children I would recommend going with the PS2 or PS3... The Nintendo wii might be even better. Atleast with that system they have to get up off the couch and move to play the games.

I think (correct me if I am wrong)that the HD-DVD player is no good without an HDTV. So if you go with the PS3 and don't have an HDTV that could be a problem...

Do the Playstation Portables get plugged into the PS2 and 3 somehow?? If so that might be another selling point for the Playstation.

Have fun shopping!

By Debbie on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 08:38 am:

Oh wow, I didn't know you could play movies on PS2. See what I get for listening to dh

By Cocoabutter on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 10:27 am:

I think you can play HD movies on a non-HD TV, they just won't look as good as if they were on an HDTV. But, there may be some extra connections that need to be made in the back of the TV, and I am not sure that all TVs have those necessary connectors.

By Hol on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 11:23 am:

My boys (now 18 and 19, and still video game addicts) have a Playstation2. We got it for them for Christmas of 2002 (I think, or 2003. Can't remember). Anyway, they love it. They had a Playstation1 and you could only play PS1 games on it. The PS2 plays both. They also used theirs to play movies until they each got their own DVD player and TV for their rooms. Personally, DVD players are so cheap now, I wouldn't use the PS2 to play movies. It wears the laser out quicker. However, ours gets heavy duty use in gaming and it's still tickin'.

We gave them a choice between that and XBOX and they chose PS2, although XBOX has a bigger selection of games. Our guys buy a lot of their games from Gamestop, and they buy used games. They also belong to Gamefly. It's like Netflix. You keep a queue of games online, and they send you the next one on the list. They have the two game-at-a-time plan and it is $23.95 per month. It is better than paying fifty dollars for a game and have it turn out to be a dud. Shawn has the PlayStation portable (PSP- ridiculously expensive for something that you take out of the house. We have lost one). As far as I know, you can't attach it to the PS2. It is a separate system.

Mike has the Nintendo DS and you can play THOSE games on a Gamecube.

They want an XBOX 360, but at $600.00...NOT!! Even though they work and have their own money, it now has to go to other places like cars and college tuition. My DH thinks that they are too old for the games now, but a lot of college guys are still hooked into gaming. Even the military recruiters have a video game on their websites to attract the young guys. DH would play them, too, except he is NOT tech savvy at all. He doesn't even like the computer.

By Kaye on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 12:06 pm:

We are Nintendo fans here! My kids are also younger. It really depends on what type of games you think your sons will play. Mine love zelda, mario and the likes. For sports games the other systems have better graphics. We love that the game boys can hook up, that they can share games with friends, etc. We just bought a wii, so I can't wait till Christmas! We have had the cube for about 3 years, we will move it to an upstairs tv.

By Hol on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 12:12 pm:

Kaye, I forgot to mention the Gameboys and Gameboy Advances, too, hooking up to the GameCube. Thanks for mentioning that. You can also use the same games, too.

By Mommmie on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 03:28 pm:

We have several systems and here's my opinion for what it's worth - Gamecube is good for younger kids and kids whose parents only let them play E rated games. Mario has an exclusive deal with Nintendo and there are some great Mario related games, like Mario Party or Smash Brothers (which was moved from E to T, but I still consider it an E rated game). An added value is playing Gameboy games on it.

PS2 has a much bigger selection of games but many of them are really really bad. And I don't mean bad as in inappropriate for kids, I mean bad as in quickly thrown together bad quality games.

XBox 360 is the big winner for me (course we don't have either of the 2 systems that just came out). XBox 360 is great because of its Live feature. My son can play games with his friends who are at their house. He wears a headset and can talk to them and they can play together. This is totally not for little kids though because you also end up playing with strangers and they cuss (and that's the only thing inappropriate I've heard). You don't have to wear the headset though. You can play with others in cyberworld without hearing them talk smack. Even better my son doesn't use the headset and instead he has a friend on speakerphone and they chat that way while they play.

Since he got the Xbox 360 last Christmas he spends most of his console gaming time on that, but sometimes he will use one of the other 2 systems. We also have the earlier generations of both and they live under the bed totally worthless.

Actually, my son spends more time playing Runescape and Guild Wars on the internet more than anything. Runescape is either free or $5/month depending on level. Guild Wars is $50 but then no ongoing fee. Both require him to read and write/type which he needs practice on since he's dyslexic.

I doubt I will get him the Wii or the PS3. He's 12 now and growing out of the gaming system thing. He can get most of his gaming needs met from interent based games and he can get his console needs met using the Xbox 360.

He has several hand held systems as well and I haven't seen him using any of them since a car trip in July. I guess he's grown out of that too.

By Breann on Sunday, December 3, 2006 - 05:14 pm:

PS2 for us too And, we can watch DVD's on it as well, if necessary.

Our neighbors have the gamecube, and they don't really care for it too much.