My Top Ten Favorite Gamecube Games

The Gamecube came out of the last generation of Video Games on the bottom end versus the Xbox and Playstation 2. It had its faults, but certainly had its share of plusses. I will say this about Nintendo, and having owned more consoles by them than any other company, their consoles are worth owning even if they were the only ones that made the games, which was almost the case for the Gamecube actually. Their franchises, from Mario to Zelda to Metroid make their consoles must own by themselves alone.

So inspired by ScrewAttack's Farewell to Nintendo's Gamecube, I give you My Personal Top Ten Favorite Gamecube Games:

10. Bomberman Generation - the ultimate party game. You don't mess with the classics, and thats what they did with Bomberman 64, turning everybody's favorite party game into a complete mess by bringing it into the 3D realm. But they learned from their mistake and just gave us classic Bomberman, pure and simple.

9. Soul Calibur II - great fighting game, with great graphics. Sure it was released on the other systems too, but each one had an extra character exclusive to that system. Gamecube had the best - Link.

8. Burnout 2: Point of Impact - My very first taste of Burnout, and I've been hooked ever since. So good, I bought this twice, first on PS2, then again on Gamecube. It looked slightly better, and the same tight controls, but gave us double the crash junctions, the best part of the game itself.

7. Super Monkey Ball 2 - great game where you had to get a monkey in a ball (hence the name) through a certain level with many obstacles. The twist? You didn't move the monkey in the ball, you moved the level itself. Add in some great mini games that were party favorites (Monkey Bowling anyone??) and you've got a great game.

6. Tales of Symphonia - following the disappointing Final Fantasy X, I was getting pretty tired of those Japanese style RPGs with their stale turn-based combat systems and random battles. But this game was different, you could avoid or take battles at your own whim, but with its different real-time combat system, you actually wanted to do the battles! Now you could blow through this game's main story in about 40-50 hours, but this game had so much else to do that I doubled that, and spent 80+ great hours with this game.

5. Metroid Prime - like everybody else alive, I was skeptical when I heard Nintendo was taking their Metroid franchise into the 3D arena with a first person shooter. Now back then, I was more of a PC gamer, so for a FPS, a mouse and keyboard was a necessity, whereas a controller was the complete opposite. Not to mention Japan has typically shunned first person shooters. Nintendo had the intelligence to employ the Texas based Retro Studios to make this for them. Texas is of course, home of many of the great FPS developers (id, 3D Realms, Raven, etc.). This game had everything going against it. But how wrong I was, and how wrong many of us were. This game was absolutely balls to the walls. The graphics were phenomenal, the controls were very well done, the levels large and expansive with many areas to explore, and despite the move from 2D to 3D, kept much of what made everyone love the older Metroids in the first place. I bet not even Nintendo themselves thought that this would be as good as it turned out to be.

4. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year-Old Door - Well placed among their Mario franchise, but deviating from the standard platforming by adding RPG elements and turn based battles. The gameplay was very refined, giving you extra boosts if you did things a certain way, such as certain button presses at the right time. Finding out those perfect timings and trying to replicate them each time was half the fun. And not only was Mario battling, but you had a half dozen teammates there to help you, each with their own unique set of actions and even more of those timed button presses. It was over too quick for my liking, but that's because I had such a great time.

3. Mario Kart: Double Dash - I love this game. Adding in two riders to one kart really gave this franchise an innovative new twist. It had some great maps, and was best played with others. Looking forward to see what Nintendo has up its sleeve for the Wii installment. Nothing's been said so far, but you know it's coming.

2. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - it is unfortunate that many overlooked this game because of its cartoonish graphics. Those who didn't were rewarded with a game that fit into Zelda canon nicely, serving as a prequel to all previous Zelda games and telling us the whole backstory of the great Zelda universe. I absolutely loved the cel shaded art story of this film. Stylistically, it helped convey emotion and gave more depth to the story. One of the problems of 3D graphics even today is its inability to realistically portray emotion in human faces. It just never looks right, no matter how powerful the hardware you have because we know that it's not real. The art style in Wind Waker sidestepped this by using celshading, and not going for the realistic look. Add in one of the greatest end boss fights of all time and you have one of the best Gamecube games ever. I like Twilight Princess very much, but am disappointed that they forgoed the cel shaded style, fortunately they are using it in their DS game, The Phantom Hourglass, so all is not lost.

1. Metroid Prime 2 - Metroid Prime was amazing. A complete classic in every way, but this game was even better. It improved every single aspect of the first game, the graphics were even better (probably the best of any Gamecube game), the storytelling was more refined, and it was tough as all hell, but not in an annoying way. It's one of those games where you beat a certain part or boss and you really feel a sense of accomplishment. The first Metroid Prime was a successful hit, swaying all naysayers and universal praise across the board. While Metroid Prime 2 was a hit, it didn't come close to the first as it had the unfortunate circumstance to be released alongside Halo 2 for the Xbox, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the PS2. Ouch. It didn't stand a chance against those juggernauts. If you have a Gamecube or Wii, and haven't played this, then you owe it to yourself. It's one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had, and I am eagerly anticipating the upcoming third installment.

Honorable Mentions:
Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat - one of the few games that used that neat little Bongo accessory. I usually hate games that require accessories (save Guitar Hero), but I got this for cheap so the price was right. And you know what? It's innovative, but most of all, it's fun.

Pac-Man Vs. - this neat little gem was packaged with Pac Man World 2 (an unspectacular but competent platformer), and it was all about Multiplayer. It required a Game Boy Advance and the GC to GA cable, but it was worth it for this. Take classic Pac Man, but this time, instead of fighting computer A.I. ghosts, humans become the ghosts. More fun than it had any right to be.

Best Gamecube Game I Haven't Played:
Resident Evil 4 - I'm not really a fan of horror games, and the Resident Evil franchise has kinda been running on autopilot, but the universal acclaim for this title even from those who dislike the franchise put it over the top. I've had this game for a while but haven't played it just yet....soon enough though, soon enough.

Most Disappointing Gamecube Games:
Super Mario Sunshine - Mario 64 is one of the greatest games of all time, bar none. This game isn't bad by any means, it was good, but for a Mario game, good isn't good enough. It just had a very lame story, even for Mario standards, and the controls were not precise enough for a game that needs precise control. People say this game is hard, but I don't think that's by design, it's because of that horrible camera. How many times would you screw up and lose progress because you missed a jump because the camera screwed up and you jumped to a position relative to the new camera angle? Horrible, just horrible. I couldn't stand to finish this game.

Mario Party Franchise - did we really need 4 installments of this game for the Gamecube? If it wasn't getting tired by #4 (the first Gamecube iteration), it certainly was by #7 (the last iteration). It was still fun in small spurts, but the slow and boring gameplay had me itching for the WarioWare series, which was much more fast-paced and frenetic, and most important of all, fun! Each game was essentially the same just with new minigames, all of which are hit or miss, usually miss. Among a game's 70 or so minigames, there were usually just a handful worth replaying. Here's hoping they give us something new and fresh for Mario Party 8 on the Wii. They better.