The Absolute Best Nintendo GameCube Games, Ranked

In our eyes, the Nintendo GameCube was once an underrated online game console.

It is a bizarre one whilst you take into accounts it. With the good thing about hindsight, it is simple to peer it was once an influential console that performed host to a couple of Nintendo’s absolute best ever titles. On the time? It was once continuously painful to be a GameCube proprietor, with sub-standard third-party beef up and painfully lengthy waits between the discharge of Nintendo’s all the time stellar first-party releases.

Nonetheless, whilst you have a look at the rear view reflect, it is simple to peer the standard. There have been an enormous selection of fantastic video games launched at the platform. To have a good time GameCube’s birthday, we determined to rank them.

Right here is going…

1. Metroid High

Not anything like Metroid High existed prior to and not anything love it’s been created since. Metroid High was once and is an anomaly that defies definition. A primary consumer shooter? Certain, you shoot issues in a first-person view, however Metroid High regarded, felt and performed not anything like Halo or its FPS friends again in 2002. An exploration sport? Yeah, more than likely. However it was once set in a universe as intricately designed as a Zelda dungeon writ-large. Exploration was once only the start.

Metroid High’s power was once its global construction. Dripping with main points and distinctive, sticky tactics to discover the ones main points, Metroid High is peerless in how it allowed you to find its intricate areas. It’s essential to scan the surroundings for lore and main points, it is advisable to spider-ball your method up up to now inaccessible partitions and ceilings. There was once majesty hidden in each nook. Even these days, it hasn’t elderly an afternoon. Not anything else comes shut. 

Metroid High is Metroid High. It has no imitators as a result of it is inimitable. Find it irresistible was once dropped right down to Earth unintentionally from some other measurement the place video video games are other, higher. Again in 2002 Metroid High felt love it got here from the longer term. Virtually 19 years later, the entirety else continues to be gambling catch-up. 

– Mark Serrels

2. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

Time has been sort to Wind Waker. 

Roundly criticised pre-release for its stylised “cool animated film” visuals, Wind Waker reviewed smartly as soon as other people sooner or later were given their fingers on it, however in contrast to different Zelda video games like Twilight Princess (or even Ocarina of Time to an extent) Wind Waker has elderly spectacularly.

The sea supplies an excellent backdrop to Hyperlink’s adventures, each on the subject of visuals and the way it feels to discover. However it is the forged of characters that in point of fact makes Wind Waker unforgettable. That and the song… and the dungeon design… and the lovable little cool animated film clouds explosions make.

In reality a large number of issues make Wind Waker unforgettable. It regulations.

– Mark Serrels

3. Resident Evil 4

I might by no means performed a Resident Evil sport prior to Resident Evil 4. By no means have I ever visited Racoon Town. The explanation? I used to be an enormous wuss — and nonetheless am. I scare simply and am utterly bereft of braveness, it is a drawback.

Regardless of all of this adversity, I performed and beloved Resident Evil 4. At a time when everybody had just about written the GameCube off as previous its top, Resident Evil 4 introduced to fashionable important acclaim in 2005. It was once launched simply 11 days into the 12 months, but was once named Recreation of the Yr via many publications 11 months later. 

This proved impossible to resist for me, regardless of the deep worry I had of the rest horror. I used to be scared and terrified all through maximum of Resident Evil 4, and continuously sought after to give up. However the sport was once so just right I simply could not. I did not need to see what was once round every nook, however I needed to do it anyway. 

Now that the sport has been ported to nearly each console recognized to guy, it is simple to fail to remember that it was once at the beginning GameCube-only. It was once probably the most device’s final exclusives and likewise considered one of its absolute best.

– Daniel Van Increase

4. Tremendous Break Bros. Melee

Tremendous Break Bros. Melee was once the primary sport many of us performed at the GameCube. Luigi’s Mansion was once the large release name, however Tremendous Break Bros. Melee got here simply months into the GameCube’s lifecycle. It did so much for the GameCube, however did much more for the Break Bros. franchise. It took the unique’s formulation and sharpened it, making it deeper and extra balanced. 

The unique N64 name was once a large number of a laugh, however Melee solidified it into a valid combating franchise, a sport nonetheless performed competitively around the globe these days. That is a tribute to its genius. Tremendous Break Bros. Melee continues to be insanely a laugh to play these days — if you’ll be able to discover a GameCube controller.

– Daniel Van Increase

5. Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing feels virtually ubiquitous after the discharge of New Horizons in 2020, so it is simple to fail to remember how quirky the unique GameCube model felt. It simply dropped gamers right into a lazy little city full of speaking animals and stated, “Do what you need.” No platforming, no taking pictures, only a few just right out of date small-town existence. I used to be no stranger to striking out in old fashioned digital cities, because of all of the hours I spent in Harvest Moon 64, however I had by no means performed a sport that was once as laid-back as Animal Crossing. 

Wish to pass fishing? Plant fruit bushes? Make a tiny lawn? Flip your basement right into a cement nightmare full of the discordant song of a dozen gyroids? Certain, opt for it. The nearest factor Animal Crossing needed to a major quest was once upgrading your own home and paying off your loans, however even that was once not obligatory, and not using a pastime or due dates hooked up to the upgrades. It was once the type of sport to make you rethink what makes a just right online game and I am all the time satisfied for surprises like that.

– Adam Benjamin 

6. Pikmin

Occasionally I feel we fail to remember how completely designed Pikmin was once. 

The unique and absolute best, Pikmin makes probably the most of its delicately easy ruleset. Necessarily a small-scale technique sport the place you employ a military of tiny “Pikmin” to raise gadgets and remedy puzzles, Pikmin stretches its prime idea to absolutely the limits. It is a Nintendo sport, so actions really feel a laugh and sticky, however the meta-game is the actual superstar. The extra you play the extra balanced you realise Pikmin in truth is. Simply a great, gorgeous little online game.

– Mark Serrels

7. Tremendous Mario Sunshine

Possibly probably the most arguable primary Mario launch ever.

Tremendous Mario Sunshine was once derided upon launch, then beloved in hindsight. Not too long ago, as a part of the Mario 3-d All-Stars package deal, it feels just like the pendulum has swung yet again and persons are complaining about it once more.

It is improper indubitably. It by no means achieves the easiest simplicity of Mario 64 or the encouraged kaleidoscopic insanity of Tremendous Mario Galaxy, however Tremendous Mario Sunshine has its personal pleasant aesthetic.

Additionally, I like FLUDD, the water squirting sidekick that upload jetpack genre maneuvers in your common Mario platforming. It is a wild sport. No longer best possible, however extremely a laugh nevertheless.

– Mark Serrels

8. F-0 GX

F-0 GX is among the maximum lost sight of video games within the GameCube library. Wipeout ruled the futuristic racer discourse again then, however F-0 GX was once arguably a greater expression of natural, sci-fi pace. 

It additionally regarded wonderful. F-0 GX was once clean, slick and simply an absolute pleasure to play. The only participant mode was once notoriously tricky, however in hindsight that was once a part of its cult attraction. The reality we have not had an F-0 sport for the reason that launch of this vintage is nearly prison.

– Mark Serrels

9. Metroid High 2: Echoes

Unfashionable Studios defied expectancies with the primary Metroid High, masterfully reinterpreting Nintendo’s atmospheric side-scrolling collection as a first-person journey. Its inevitable follow-up, Metroid High 2: Echoes, expanded at the formulation with extra complicated environments or even larger bosses, leading to some other fast GameCube vintage.

As with the unique, the surroundings itself was once the superstar appeal. In a nod to the Zelda vintage, A Hyperlink to the Previous, Samus traverses two reflect worlds in Metroid High 2: the arid Aether and its darkish counterpart, a murky parallel universe created when the planet was once struck via a rift-forming meteor. This gave Aether an much more ominous really feel than Tallon IV — thank you largely to the darkish global’s suffocating surroundings — and the usage of the power-ups you won to navigate the expertly crafted environmental puzzles felt immensely fulfilling.

Metroid High 2 additionally ramped up the trouble, that includes probably the most tensest boss encounters within the collection’ historical past. Those battles had been as a lot a check of wit as of reflex, as just about each foe had some kind of trend or puzzle to determine. It might not be remembered rather as fondly as the unique — only a few video games are, in the end —  however Metroid High 2 was once some other riveting journey that additional proved how smartly the Metroid collection labored in first-person.

– Kevin Knezevic

10. Soulcalibur II 

Soulcalibur II is among the few GameCube video games in this checklist that would possibly no longer essentially really feel like a “GameCube” sport. Certain it was once multiplatform, however given the addition of Hyperlink as a playable persona at the roster, Soulcalibur II all the time felt very Nintendo to me.

Additionally: It dominated. It was once virtually definitely the height of the 3-d combating style again then and it hardly ever were given higher than this. Within the subsequent technology we went again to Boulevard Fighter IV and combating video games modified on us — perhaps for the simpler? However for this technology of consoles, Soulcalibur II was once king.

– Mark Serrels

11. Viewtiful Joe

The primary sport from Clover Studio, the quick lived group answerable for a slew of significantly acclaimed video video games like Okami, Viewtiful Joe, in lots of, was once the prototype for the Clover genre. A slick, fluid 2D beat ’em up, increased via a novel artwork genre, Viewtiful Joe was once a elegant homage to video video games from a bygone generation.

– Mark Serrels

12. Everlasting Darkness

There are few video games that make gamers frantically go searching and beauty “what the hell is happening” like Everlasting Darkness. At its core, the sport is not a lot other from Resident Evil, however the large distinction had been sanity results. Those little occasions had been designed to immediately mess with the participant’s head. From the controller being unresponsive to a display screen announcing your stored sport was once deleted, gamers by no means knew what was once going to occur, which was once a part of the joys. 

Everlasting Darkness was once additionally heavily-inspired via H.P. Lovecraft. It required those that completed the sport and gained all the endings to take a look at the writer’s tales to piece in combination the deeper subject matters of the sport. 

For me, Everlasting Darkness offered me one thing contemporary even if how the sport in truth performed was once par for the direction.

– Oscar Gonzalez

13. Resident Evil

Seeing the primary screenshots of the Resident Evil remake satisfied me to shop for a GameCube at release. Just about twenty years later, this 2002 sport nonetheless appears astoundingly just right and stays completely terrifying.

Capcom did not accept an insignificant visible improve; this remake added such a lot of new mechanics, spaces and puzzles that it felt like a fully other sport to the 1996 unique. It stays without equal expression of the vintage Resident Evil formulation and it was once unique to Nintendo programs for years (a very good HD remaster is to be had on each platform).

Simply make sure you decapitate or burn the zombies, you do not want them coming again.

– Sean Keane

14. Pikmin 2

I’m going to by no means forgive Pikmin 2 for leaving behind the point in time that made the unique Pikmin so anxious and rewarding, however Pikmin 2 continues to be value your time.

The multiplayer part was once the actual standout for me. Prior to on-line gaming was once in point of fact a factor on consoles, I spent many hours with my female friend, gambling frantic multiplayer Pikmin suits. We were given frighteningly just right. Neatly, she were given frighteningly just right. I were given my ass whooped. Excellent instances.

– Mark Serrels

15. Mario Kart: Double Sprint

Mario Kart: Double Sprint is more than likely the most eldritch Mario Kart ever. Is {that a} just right factor? The jury’s out, in particular at the gimmick that allowed two gamers to experience at the similar kart. 

Nonetheless, Mario Kart is Mario Kart. There hasn’t been a nasty one but. Double Sprint is not any exception. The observe design is slick, the visuals had been daring and the controls had been as tight as ever.

– Mark Serrels

16. Steel Tools Forged: The Dual Snakes

Flooring up remakes of vintage video games are standard now, however Steel Tools Forged: The Dual Snakes was once distinctive upon its launch in 2004. 

The Dual Snakes took the unique Steel Tools Forged and carried out the controls and QOL upgrades from the nice Steel Tools Forged 2. Extremely all of it holds in combination. The Dual Snakes additionally performs host to perhaps the wildest cutscenes in any Steel Tools Forged sport.

Making an allowance for how bizarre issues get in Steel Tools Forged, that is announcing one thing.

– Mark Serrels 

17. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door

Mario’s starred in a handful of role-playing video games over time, however 2004’s Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door continues to be arguably the most productive of the bunch. A sequel to Nintendo 64’s Paper Mario, The Thousand-Yr Door doubled down on all of the sides that made its predecessor so fascinating, leading to probably the most best RPGs at the console.

Like the unique, The Thousand-Yr Door’s maximum unique function was once its visible genre. Whilst the sport global was once polygonal, the characters who inhabited it had been all flat, giving the sport the feel and appear of an interactive pop-up e book. The Thousand-Yr Door leaned much more closely into this paper aesthetic than its predecessor, even incorporating it into the gameplay. Since he was once paper skinny, Mario may just now acquire the power to slide via crevices or even fold himself up right into a paper plane and boat, including a better stage of exploration and environmental puzzle fixing to the combination.

However what made the sport so fascinating was once its humorousness. The Thousand-Yr Door stays probably the most funniest titles Nintendo has ever launched, with a pointy, self-referential script and a splendidly quirky forged of characters. Few video games are as if truth be told side-splitting as The Thousand-Yr Door, and there is a just right explanation why it stays many lovers’ favourite Paper Mario sport, even just about twenty years after its unique launch.

– Kevin Knezevic

18. Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Chief 

One in all my favourite console release titles ever. Rogue Chief’s visuals and song made it probably the most immersive Megastar Wars gaming enjoy I might had on the time. I bear in mind being blown away via the sense of scale in its sport of Go back of the Jedi’s Struggle of Endor, as waves of TIE warring parties swarm the rebels.

It was once additionally extremely a laugh to play, choosing an arcade-style enjoy over a simulation one, with a variety of ships and a ton of replay price if you wish to recuperate medals. Doing so unlocks bonus missions through which you play as Darth Vader in his superior fancy fighter, in the end letting me sign up for Empire.

– Sean Keane

19. Stories of Symphonia

Symphonia is more than likely the primary of the Stories collection to hit large outdoor of Japan. It is nonetheless considered probably the most absolute best within the collection and probably the most few to ever get a right away sequel (even supposing the fewer stated about that the simpler). The Stories video games have all the time been an oasis of actual time struggle inside a sea of turn-based JRPGs. Having direct keep an eye on over your persona, inputting combinations with a purpose to combine smartly with the remainder of your social gathering was once a blast and with the ability to take at the enemy encounters in multiplayer was once a pleasant addition. If fighting monsters via menus wasn’t your factor then those had been the video games to play.

Symphonia was once completely stunning having a look with its complete anime cutscenes that had been lovely unprecedented again at the GameCube. The tale and characters had been wealthy and the sport’s period actually gave you one thing to get invested in. It was once an especially just right sport that became this RPG fan right into a Stories participant for years later on.

– Sean Booker

20. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

You almost certainly bear in mind Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as a Wii name, proper? It was once at the beginning introduced from the GameCube, however suffered a protracted stretch of delays prior to launching along the Wii, an indication of the wild new movement controls. Here is the object: Twilight Princess was once in truth higher to play on GameCube, with the keep an eye on pad a tighter option to dungeon move slowly than the Wiimotes. Twilight Princess was once supposed to move the torch from one technology to the following, but it surely ended up a reminder of all of the good things in regards to the GameCube.

– Daniel Van Increase