Okay. Now you have no excuse. For various reasons, the Nintendo GameCube is now $99.99.

That puts the console at nearly half the retail cost of both the Xbox and Playstation 2. Please take advantage of this offer by purchasing what is always wrongly considered a childish system.

True, there are more games for all ages on the “Cube,” but most of these games are also on PS2 and Xbox. No one complains when Rugrats or Spongebob Squarepants pops up on either of those consoles, so what’s the difference on GameCube?

Is the problem that there aren’t any Grand Theft Auto games for it? You know, video games did exist before, and eventually it won’t be the hottest thing around to emulate.

So remove it from your mind. What you have left for PS2 is, admittedly, an excellent selection of games. Any genre you can fathom is covered:racing, role-playing, first-person shooters; all of them are handled quite well. The Xbox has significantly fewer games, but overall, it too has a broad range of games to choose from. However, most of these games are available for both systems, if not all three.

Medal of Honor:Frontline, Madden 2004 and Soul Calibur 2, three of the biggest games in the past year and a half, are on GameCube, too. So are all the James Bond games, Hitman 2:Silent Assassin, Tony Hawk and two WWE wrestling titles.

Your choices are not as limited as you think.

Actually examine the GameCube games before brushing them off. What you should buy the system for is the impressive list of exclusive games. Who cares about games that are on all three? What really sets a console apart are the games you can’t play anywhere else. Any fan of racing or solid techno music absolutely must play F-Zero GX.

The game is insane.

There has yet to be a girl that can resist the allure of Crossing, so pick it up and together create a town filled with gossipy critters. There is so much to collect, so much to do, all packed on one tiny disc that comes with a free memory card!

Worried about the dearth of role-playing games? You are aware Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles is coming out early next year, right? Namco’s Tales of Symphonia will appear around then as well.

For right now, you should check out Skies of Arcadia:Legends, a port of a Dreamcast game no one played in 2000. And of course there are still piles of Legend of Zelda:The Wind Waker that need homes.

Another massive selling point is the Game Boy Player. It plugs into the bottom of the system and lets you play all Game Boy games on your television. Now you can actually see what’s going on in Castlevania:Circle of the Moon. Strategy buffs owe it to themselves to play Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as well. Both games combined could probably destroy a solid month of your life.

Many stores offer bundles, so you could get the system and

multiple games for less than an Xbox or PS2 would cost on its own. Granted, you’re not going to get complete coverage from the GameCube, but if you truly value good games, then you have no reason to pass it up now.