Topic: Your Gamecube gems & favourites

[Aiklund]

I recently got the urge to dig up my Gamecube and relive my youth with the console. Since I'm away from home for a couple of weeks it'll have to wait, so instead I started looking for games I missed out on in the glory days of the cube, on the Web. I realised that I actually have missed a few and didn't recognise quite a few.

Do you guys/gals have any favourite titles I should check out? Naturally I played quite a few of the AAA titles but I'm sure I missed some of them too, never played Baten Kaitos for example (and just missed an auction where it  got sold pretty cheap). Do you have any hidden gems or forgotten favourites?

[Khushrenada]

Do you guys/gals have any favourite titles I should check out? Naturally I played quite a few of the AAA titles but I'm sure I missed some of them too

Probably would help if you listed what you have actually played and then people can recommend things that you don't have listed.

[ejamer]

Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was a lot of fun, and remains one of the best super-hero action games I've played. The different attacks you unlocked were varied and could be combined in a lot of different and entertaining ways. Moving around just felt "right" - making your time running and jumping through the city or countryside enjoyable even if you weren't doing a mission or trying to accomplish specific goals.  The one big downside for me were loading times. They got to be annoying, especially for the mini-game like challenges spread across the map.


I also really enjoyed Beyond Good & Evil. It's a bit of a cult game by now, but I think the variety on display and the fact that (IMO) just about everything it did was done well make it one of the best adventure games on that generation. The story was decent, the characters interesting, and the music was also pretty great.


Most of my other GameCube favorites probably don't quality as hidden gems, since they were all pretty well known, so I won't post further now... but might chime in again later with some discussion.

[ShyGuy]

Baldur's Gate II

[nickmitch]

I always liked Viewtiful Joe.  Although I (shamefully) never beat it (or the sequel).

[ShyGuy]

Here's an obscure one for you that I liked: Future Tactics, the Uprising. I would be surprised if anyone else here played it.

It's a turn based squad strategy action game, maybe a bit like Project STEAM.

[MagicCow64]

I really love Chibi Robo. It's got some rough edges, but it's one of the most imaginative and engaging games I've ever played, and even has my favorite approach to and execution of storytelling in the medium. (And it's kind of fucked up.) There's nothing else out there like it, and I would love to see a true console sequel that expands the scope and polishes the mechanics.

If you haven't played it, I'd also highly recommend tracking down Jungle Beat with bongos. It's hard to explain exactly why, and it doesn't sound that good on paper, but it's one of the best games I've ever played. I've also never had my mind blown as hard as when watching the staff runs during the credits.

[Soren]

My holy trinity of sports games. Oh, all the wasted hours.

[broodwars]

4 Big games come to mind, and they're all JRPGS: Skies of Arcadia Legends, Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, and Baiten Kaitos Origins. Unfortunately, of this batch only Symphonia is playable on modern hardware because SEGA hates Skies & Valkyria fans, and Nintendo refuses to do anything with their GameCube library (outside remastering an overrated Zelda title).

[Aiklund]

Probably would help if you listed what you have actually played and then people can recommend things that you don't have listed.

Oh yeah, sorry haha! I've played Wind Waker and TP (though only the Wii version), sunshine, Luigi's mansion, the two starfox games, Mario Kart, smash, tales of Symphonia, Chibi-robo, animal crossing, Doshin the Giant, harvest moon awl.

I'm sure there are quite a few more. Never got around to play the thousand year door thoug, can anyone recommend it? I love Chibi-robo,  animal crossing and Doshin the Giant, are there more "quirky" games like those? Really interested in Cubivore, would have to get a free loader for that one though since I live in Europe. Anyone played it? Looks pretty weird. Also really intrigued by battalion wars. 

[ejamer]

Did you miss out on Prince of Persia? Yes, that series is multiplatform. But it's still one of the best games I played on GameCube.


Also, you should really try the Pikmin series. They might be quirky enough to catch your fancy.

[Aiklund]

Did you miss out on Prince of Persia? Yes, that series is multiplatform. But it's still one of the best games I played on GameCube.


Also, you should really try the Pikmin series. They might be quirky enough to catch your fancy.

I did, actually! Thanks for the tip, now that you mention it I have heard good things about it.

Totally forgot about Pikmin! I've played 1 to 3, one of my favourite franchises!

How are the rpgs on the GC, like Phantasy Star online 12&3 or Baten Kaitos, besides Tales of Symphonia I haven't really played any.

[Aiklund]

Here's an obscure one for you that I liked: Future Tactics, the Uprising. I would be surprised if anyone else here played it.

It's a turn based squad strategy action game, maybe a bit like Project STEAM.

Awesome! I have to check this out!

Thank you, all of you! It's been a long time since I played Viewtiful Joe and I never played through it either! And thanks broodwars for the RPG tips! And I also have one or two pairs of Donkey kongas so I'll be in the look out for Jungle Beat too, magiccow64!

[NWR_insanolord]

Since you didn't mention it I have to recommend Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, one of the best space combat games I've ever played, especially on consoles.

[Khushrenada]

You didn't mention the Metroid Prime games in your list so that is an automatic recommendation if you haven't played them.

If you want a hardcore tough game, F-Zero GX gets my nod. To me, it is the best F-Zero game one can play and every time you win on a harder level of difficulty, you feel like you've just accomplished something amazing.

I second a recommendation for Chibi Robo. Graphically, it may not look as good as the Metroid Primes or F-Zero but it's got great characters and story and it's just kind of neat trying to explore every nook and cranny of the house. It's oddbeat, quirky and great.

Rogue Squadron 2 is to Star Wars what Goldeneye 64 is to Bond. One of the best licensed games ever made and is the standard I hold all aerial combat games to.

Wario World is a game that doesn't get talked about too often but I'd recommend it. It's short. You could probably beat the game 100% in 3 days depending on how much you play it each day but it is enjoyable. It's sort of like Kirby 64 and is a 2.5D platformer. The combat of Wario may also get a bit repetitive but since it is a shorter experience, I didn't have a problem with it.

Paper Mario: TTYD is a pretty good experience. If you played Paper Mario 64, then there is a lot of stuff that is the same as that game. We've talked about it on here before but there is a Koopa Troopa town where you meet a member of your party just like in 64. For that matter, a lot of your party members have similarities to party members in 64. There's level with an unbeatable boss until you discover his secret like in 64. You'll travel to a tropical island like in 64. There is a Penguin detective mystery just like in 64. The levels and worlds feel a bit smaller in scope than the 64 game and thus some levels feel like they backtrack a lot in order to stretch them out. Yet, it's still a good game with a lot of humour and takes the concept of a Paper Mario by using more ideas that reflect this paper status. Bowser steals the show.

[Phil]

The Viewtiful Joe games (1 more than 2, 2 more than Red Hot Rumble) are awesome for the most part. I remember getting all Rainbow V's back in the day when I had more time to devote to mastering games.

I-Ninja is a cool action platformer from Namco.

Definitely check out Super Monkey Ball and its numbered sequel. I prefer the latter since you can accumulate more extra lives and continues. That's how I beat all of the levels in the game!

Ultimate Muscle (I don't remember the full name) is a great cartoon wrestling fighting game made by the same team that made several WWF wrestling games on the N64. Correct me if I'm confusing devs here.

Speaking of cel-shaded games (Ultimate Muscle is), Bomberman Generations and Jetters are classic Bomberman games with enjoyable adventure aspects. No dreaded bomb jumping like the 64 games, thankfully!

XIII is a stylized cel-shaded first-person shooter with some great production values and fun, if not unbalanced gunplay.

Finally, my last suggestions since I don't want to name too many are TimeSplitters 2 and Future Perfect, its sequel. Both games are basically the heirs to the Perfect Dark throne in campaign, multiplayer, and unlockable content. Great games!

[Ian Sane]

I believe Twilight Princess is the most recent Gamecube game I bought.  I haven't gone back and bought titles I missed the first time around.  Though I bought a lot of Gamecube games when it was current so the stuff I missed was usually stuff I skipped on purpose because I wasn't into them.

At the time none of my favourite Cube games seemed like hidden gems because we were talking about them all.  But then Pikmin's Wii re-releases suggested that the series had been largely skipped and Pikmin 2 was an expensive Cube title until the Wii version was released here.  Who knew?  I bought Pikmin 2 the day it came out because I loved the first game.  It was a Nintendo first party release so I figured every Cube owner knew about it.  I guess most people skipped it.

Pikmin 2 is probably my favourite Cube game.  Some other ones I really recommend are Skies or Arcadia Legends, Ikaruga (though both of those are Dreamcast ports) and Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.  Four Swords is pretty damn obscure simply because the requirements to fully play the thing were ridiculous and today when your friends long ago traded in their GBAs for DS's it's near impossible.  I played through the game mostly two players with my brother and had some sections done three players by adding one of my friends.  I don't believe I ever played it with a full four players.  The issue wasn't even so much the GBA requirement but the damn cables.  You needed one for each GBA.  Yeah, the GBA was very popular so it wasn't hard to find friends that had one but the Gamecube was not very popular and there was no reason to own the cord if you didn't have a Cube.  So you had to find four people who owned both a GBA and Cube and thus had a reason to own the damn cord?  Yeah, good luck with that.  The game did come with a cord but only one so that wouldn't account for the other three.

However the game is still playable single player and remains quite fun, even if multiplayer is superior.  It's a 2D linear level-based Zelda and in single player mode has a certain puzzle element in controlling four Links at once.  Any fan of 2D Zelda will get a real kick out of it and it remains a Gamecube exclusive so that's the only way to play it.  On eBay it seems to be about $45 which is perfectly reasonable.  The game is really the killer app for GC-GBA Connectivity but ironically is also a great example of how impractical and niche the concept was, particularly as a substitute for online gaming.  The same game online with voice chat (Ho ho!  I'm picking on Nintendo some more without even trying!) would have worked just as well but would have been much more accessible to the average gamer.

[ShyGuy]

Wait, I don't see Resident Evil 4 here. GET RE4.

[Mop it up]

Battalion Wars! There isn't as much strategy as in the Wii sequel but it's still a fun action title.

4 Big games come to mind, and they're all JRPGS: Skies of Arcadia Legends,

Yeah, it's a bummer this one has become so expensive. I'd like to give it a try, but I can't justify the prices it fetches.

Here's an obscure one for you that I liked: Future Tactics, the Uprising. I would be surprised if anyone else here played it.

I have not played it, but I do own it. Do I get any points for that?

[Louieturkey]

I will definitely recommend Four Swords Adventure.  Ian is right that it was insane to be able to have the full experience, but it is still a decent game as a single player adventure.  It was fun that way, but was absolutely amazing in multiplayer.   I played 2 player and 4 player and the fun we had showed this game may have been the best party game I ever have played.

I'll also highly recommend Jungle Beat.  Maybe the best DK game I've ever played.

Pikmin 2 is also one of my favorites.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Super Monkey Ball 2! Such Classic!

[ejamer]

I want to echo recommendations for Four Swords Adventures (preferably with friends, but solo still ok) and Jungle Beat (with the Bongo controller). Both are unique and really entertaining.  And I'd argue that Rogue Squadron 2 remains one of the best console-based Star Wars games available, although the controls will take some getting used to.

Some games that nobody (edit: except ShyGuy... oops!) has mentioned yet are the X-Men Legends series. Both can be found cheap, and are fantastic games.  Action based, with a reasonable amount of character customization/leveling up to enjoy. I definitely recommend that you check some reviews to see if they would be up your alley. There are also two Baldur's Gate games on GameCube that offer a similar experience with more of an RPG-based setting - if you see either for a reasonable price, they are worth grabbing.

...
How are the rpgs on the GC, like Phantasy Star online 12&3 or Baten Kaitos, besides Tales of Symphonia I haven't really played any.

In my opinion, there are three must play RPGs and a few others that are still worth playing despite flaws.

Must play games:

Tales of Symphonia, Paper Mario Thousand Year Door, and Skies of Arcadia. All are great experiences and these games (in my mind) are clearly the best RPGs on the console.

Others:

Baten Kaitos has a pretty good story and a really neat battle mechanic using card combos. People gush over the graphics, but I don't feel they hold up that well today. Voice acting was pretty lame, and the overall pace and game design felt kind of plodding... but I happily played to completion once and would recommend it for fans of the genre.

Baten Kaitos Origins is supposed to improve on the first game, but I haven't played it yet. (However, I enjoyed the first game enough that I would feel comfortable recommending this to most people on reputation alone.)

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is similar to Four Swords Adventures in that it's an action-RPG where you work together with several friends who have GBA systems connected to your console.  If you have all of the required hardware and a few friends interested in playing together, then I would recommend trying this game - but that's a pretty high set of requirements for many people. Not as good as Four Swords, but still interesting and (mostly) enjoyable.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is worthwhile for any strategy RPG fans. My personal favorite game from the series - although I haven't played Awakening yet. I always struggle to consider strategy games like this actual RPGs though, and don't really think it's good enough to justify current second-hand pricing trends. (Great game... just not $100+ great.)

Lost Kingdoms (and the sequel) are worth trying if you can find them cheap, but I wouldn't pay too much for either game personally. They also use a card-based system for combat, very different from what Baten Kaitos uses though.

I have no experience with Phantasy Star Online but have heard a lot of good word-of-mouth.  Kind of wish I had given them a shot... but already have too many games on my backlog to look back now. 

[Shaymin]

Sonic Mega Collection
Sonic Gems Collection
Mega Man X Collection
Mega Man Collection (though you should probably get this on PS2/Xbox because of how they frigged up the controls)
Animal Crossing with all the NES games hacked to be unlocked
Zelda Collection
Midway Arcade Treasures

...you get the picture.

[NWR_insanolord]

Don't make me take your mod powers away.

[Evan_B]

Wow, it's kind of hard to get a word in considering people have covered most of the best titles on the system. However, I will attest to Paper Mario, Rogue Squadron, and Pikmin. All amazing titles.

The last things I would recommend are third-party titles, however there doesn't seem to be much left to discuss. If you can find cheap copies of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, 007: Agent Under Fire or Nightfire, or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, I'd heartily recommend all four. The Clone Wars had an amazing horde mode for multiplayer, and both 007 games had great co-op capabilities with their multiplayer bots.