Nintendo’s Gamecube was belittled in its day as the weakest and most family-friendly console of its generation, and it’s belittled today as just a Wii without motion controls (it’s amazing how game snobbery is backwards compatible, eh?)
Of course, it was hard for the Gamecube’s brightly coloured chassis and adventures not to appear a little unsophisticated when set alongside the PS2 and Xbox, with their Gods of War and Halo, but actually, there were any number of good games on Gamecube, enough in fact, that compiling my Top Ten was quite a task. I can’t quite believe that Viewtiful Joe didn’t make it, nor Metroid Prime, but this is a list built around sheer gaming buzz, and technical proficiency sometimes has to take a backseat to the games that push your buttons while you’re pushing theirs.
Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II
Star Wars flight action games range from the considered pacing of Tie Fighter through to the frantic action of the original arcade cabinets, but all of them are guaranteed to stir something of that same emotion you felt when you first saw the movies. Rogue Squadron II is no exception, and while it’s Briefing/Hangar/Mission structure and comparatively small skies leave it feeling a little bit constrained and arcade-y when compared to modern fighters, it stirs just enough excitement to edge out some of the other contenders for tenth place.
Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II
Star Wars flight action games range from the considered pacing of Tie Fighter through to the frantic action of the original arcade cabinets, but all of them are guaranteed to stir something of that same emotion you felt when you first saw the movies. Rogue Squadron II is no exception, and while it’s Briefing/Hangar/Mission structure and comparatively small skies leave it feeling a little bit constrained and arcade-y when compared to modern fighters, it stirs just enough excitement to edge out some of the other contenders for tenth place.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Ah, Resident Evil, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...or perhaps not, as it will only make me bitter when I think of the travesty that is Resident Evil 5. Still, long before that co-op action game came along, we had a run of four numbered instalments and several spin offs that did it properly: limited ammo, a vulnerable protagonist, a huge environment that balanced a certain amount of retraversal play with a genuine sense that you were progressing towards new environments. Resident Evil III was shorter and less polished than its predecessors, but it had all the right ingredients, and it brought something new to the series in the form of dynamic choices that affected the game’s outcome and, of course, it had the Nemesis. Ask yourself, what could make Resident Evil scarier? How about a giant, lethal bioweapon that can’t be killed and which will pursue you from screen to screen to screen to...er...change of underlinen here please.
Ultimate Spider Man
Most people rate the adaptation of the movie Spider Man II as the webslinger’s finest gaming venture, but for me, Ultimate Spider-Man is the winner. Beautiful cel-shaded art, a huge, engaging story with great dialogue penned by actual Spider Man writer Brian Michael Bendis, great character designs, and a big open world presented in a comic book style. What more could you want? Well, how about bags of guest stars and a genuine sense of swinging, swooping, leaping agility? Ultimate Spider Man makes you feel like a superpowered acrobat, then gives you a giant city to bounce around in. Let’s just not mention the slightly repetitive side missions.
Most people rate the adaptation of the movie Spider Man II as the webslinger’s finest gaming venture, but for me, Ultimate Spider-Man is the winner. Beautiful cel-shaded art, a huge, engaging story with great dialogue penned by actual Spider Man writer Brian Michael Bendis, great character designs, and a big open world presented in a comic book style. What more could you want? Well, how about bags of guest stars and a genuine sense of swinging, swooping, leaping agility? Ultimate Spider Man makes you feel like a superpowered acrobat, then gives you a giant city to bounce around in. Let’s just not mention the slightly repetitive side missions.
Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance
An exercise in RPG simplicity, Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance doesn’t command the respect of it’s un-suffixed siblings, but it was cracking good fun nonetheless. Crack being the operative word - Dark Alliance exploits the fundamental addiction of all RPG players to level up and buy better weapons by simply throwing you into an endless series of dungeons and mazes in which you never stop swinging your sword. It’s like playing Gauntlet, except your annoying colleagues are replaced with piles of lovely loot.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
You could argue that Twin Snakes should place more highly on the list. It is, after all, a graphically polished version of a game hailed occasionally as the greatest game ever made. It’s so close to original, in fact, that you’d be hard pushed to tell the two apart. Sure, you can slip into a first person mode if you want to, but you won’t, so it’s basically the same great game with more pixels. Sneaking around, misusing prescription sedatives, getting peed on by guard dogs, swapping controller ports, and taking part in set-pieces that have been repeatedly ripped off ever since, it’s all here. Alas, so are the bum-achingly lengthy cut scenes and persistently ringing transceiver, but that just goes with the territory.
You could argue that Twin Snakes should place more highly on the list. It is, after all, a graphically polished version of a game hailed occasionally as the greatest game ever made. It’s so close to original, in fact, that you’d be hard pushed to tell the two apart. Sure, you can slip into a first person mode if you want to, but you won’t, so it’s basically the same great game with more pixels. Sneaking around, misusing prescription sedatives, getting peed on by guard dogs, swapping controller ports, and taking part in set-pieces that have been repeatedly ripped off ever since, it’s all here. Alas, so are the bum-achingly lengthy cut scenes and persistently ringing transceiver, but that just goes with the territory.
Part II to follow. Leave a comment...
(Photo credit: drumecho)
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