10 Gamecube Greats

The Gamecube turned ten this week and ten is a long old time in the world of gaming. Very long. In fact, looking back through at some of the screenshots of games from this powerhouse machine makes you realise how far we’ve come and in such a short space of time. Yet, whilst old, the Gamecube is certainly not without merit. Some of the best games ever have been made on the Gamecube and we’ve decided to list a few of our favourites here.

This is not a Top 10 in the sense of rankings, but 10 games that we think are all awesome and need to be replayed this week! Disagree? Let us know in the comments – but keep it happy!

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Every Nintendo fan will be able to recall the toils they were put through with this game. But those who looked passed this and actually played the game were treated with the usual deal you get with a Zelda game – great story, perfect controls and yes, a great looking game that stands up with modern games of this generation. It was the game to own for the console, despite what the haters say.

Star Wars: Rogue Leader

This was a launch game that by the end of the console’s generation, still managed to be one of the best games around. It took the best parts of all four (in 2002 that is) films. Never before were you able to fly the trench and blow up the Death Star in such vivid detail or piloting X-Wings, Y-Wings and Naboo Star fighters. It was every fan’s dream.

Pikmin 2

Pikmin was created as Miyamoto’s love of gardening spilled over into his career in Nintendo. 3 types of Pimin helped Olimar find his pieces of ship. Pikmin 2 improved upon the formula by adding a multiplayer, more types of the little flower people and removing the 30 day in game restriction that held the original back.

Super Mario Sunshine

It’s Mario. What’s more that can be said. Mario needed a rest from rescuing Peach in Mario 64, and while in a tropical paradise Mario was framed for the graffiti that’s appeared. Obviously following up on Mario 64 was no mean feat but Nintendo approached the game with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. Some thought it didn’t work, however it was beautifully rendered with an original setting, and peach didn’t get kidnapped. Straightaway.

Animal Crossing

Arguably it’s one of the games that started the Nintendo casual game approach, but either way, it’s a game that you could sink hundreds of hours into and never actually get anything back from it. From K.K. Slider to talking to a big elephant that you can give horrible names to.

Smash Bros Melee

The surprise hit from Nintendo on the N64 has come to the GameCube, bigger and better than before. More Characters, more collectable and more of everything was coupled with a more defined control system. It was a deeper experience with a balanced AI that meant it was challenging but not impossible. Oh and Roy was in it.

Metroid Prime

The first and to recollection only FPS game that wasn’t a typical first person shooting game. Exploring the environments, scanning everything in sight and going hours up on hours without seeing any hint of a boss was what this title was about. There was a fine balance of action too but Prime was all about isolation – something that the SNES versions encompassed.

Luigi’s Mansion

A launch title that was underrated. Sure it was short (about 5 minutes to be exact) but it had Dr. E. Gadd who knows one really knows if he is evil due to his evil ways. But battling boos with a vacuum cleaner strapped to his back. It reeks of Ghostbusters crossed with privateering.

Eternal Darkness

Eternal Darkness was a strange game. Nintendo were keen on straying into the territory of the Survival Horror genre, with a twist. The Sanity system was implemented and patented by the Big N, which when low enough, your character freaked out and started seeing ghosts and ghouls that weren’t there. If the Sanity bar got even lower, then your TV or Console would even freak out.

Resident Evil

An established third party game on a Nintendo system that was exclusive to the console as well? It did happen believe us! And this time, in a big way. Resident Evil was remade from the ground up, dodgy live action sequences and awful looking zombies were replaced with terrifying visuals and pant wetting sounds to make one of the world’s scariest video games all the more scary.

So a fond Happy Birthday to the Gamecube and lets see how many of these games we remember in another 10 years time.