I’ve been playing Resident Evil 5 lately, which reminds me a lot of Resident Evil 4. Which made me think of Nintedo’s last console. Well, I’ve done SuperNES and N64, and the GameCube has been dead for a while, so why don’t we dust off that old handled box and look back at the games that defined Nintendo’s worse console generation.
10. Soul Calibur II
While this game was released on all three consoles, the GameCube version was the one to get. Why? Because Namco decided to give each version of the game an exclusive character. XBox got Spawn (for reasons unknown), PS2 got Heihachi (since Tekken was a PlayStation game) and GameCube got Link. That was so cool! They then went on to make Soul Calibur III a PS2 exclusive that was focused on character creation and then Soul Calibur 4 came out for PS3 and 360 with Darth Vader and Yoda as console exclusives. But lightsaber vs. sword doesn’t really make sense, does it?
9. Viewtiful Joe
Now this was a neat little game. You play as the plucky, comic book-style super hero who goes through movies to save (what else) his lady. What set Viewtiful Joe apart was its time-control gameplay, where you could beat up dudes in fast forward or slow down to dodge attacks. It was pretty sweet. It was also crazy hard. It eventually got a sequel and a Smash Bros.-ish game, then the series faded away. But we’ll always has that first game.
8. Super Mario Sunshine
Frankly, I was never too big on this game. I mean, when I’m rolling Mario, I wanna smash some fellas, not clean up their mess. But a Mario game is still a Mario game, and this title does not disappoint. Well, it kind of does. That camera was a little tricky. But the platforming was strong and the game was pretty to look at. Good times.
7. Pikmin 2
Wouldn’t it be nice if they made another Pikmin game? They were so fun. You play as Captain Olimar, a little astronaut dude who crash lands on a strange planet inhabited by weird creatures called pikmin. He exploits those colorful, little plant people to repair his ship or something. I can’t really remember. Oh, and the reason I chose Pikmin 2 over the first game was because that’s the one that I owned.
6. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Gotta have some Star Wars up on this bitch. I remember going over to Remy’s house and playing this game and being blown away by the graphics. It still looks pretty good. The only problem is those damn tie fighters are fucking hard to see in space. You need to use that targeting computer like the whole time. No wonder it was such a big deal when Luke switched it off in the Death Star trench. The sequel technically is better, since, I mean, it includes all of Rogue Leader as multiplayer. But it just didn’t make the impact this game did.
5. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
This is the cult classic of the console. The one no one played. The one the people who did play it treat like its the best thing ever. This game is all about creeping you out, and it does a pretty dman good job of it. Nothing will be as legendary as when it pranks you into thinking your memory card is corrupted. That’s messed up, dude. If you get the chance, check this one out.
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Link’s a kid again! He’s also a cartoon. And remember that sweet ocarina you had a couple games ago. Gone. Now you get to conduct the wind. And ride around on a talking lion ship. Wind Waker looked great, played great, and got grately confusing when you had to go exploring. The sea is big!
3. Super Smash Bros. Melee
One of those games that I can’t even imagine how many hours of my life I spent on. That first Smash game was so fun, and this game fucking kicked everything into overdrive. A much bigger roster. A sweet adventure mode. Tons of challenges to complete. Awesome. This game was so much fun, when the sequel came out a year ago my friends realised they didn’t like video games anymore.
2. Metroid Prime
To date the only Metroid game I’ve beaten. I had to buy a GameCube so I could play this game. First-person action quite unlike anything I’ve ever played. Now, sure, the backtracking might wear you out, but that’s what GameFAQs is for. The second game was probably better, but, like Rogue Leader, it would be impossible to match the impact this first title made. I mean, before this, Metroid was an exclusively side scrolling series. What a revolution!
1. Resident Evil 4
Remember that chainsaw controller I talked about a while ago? This is the game that goes with it. RE4 pretty much revolutionized how third-person shooters are played. It is the one responsible for putting the player on the side of the screen like that. It invented pressing a button to zoom in and aim. It had quick time events back when it was still cool. Seriously, RE4 is an incredible game, whether you play it on the Cube, PS2 or Wii. Just get it.