Retro|Spective 196: The Final Tour of Gamecube

[Neon Ignition]

Stick these in your SteamDeck!


Battalion Wars
For a moment it looked like Nintendo had adapted Advance Wars to the big screen with some success. Played in live action from a third person view, the player commanded multiple vehicles across a campaign tackling several objectives and in a tale not told often enough was actually well received and performed well enough to see a sequel made for the Wii, however this has never seen a rerelease elsewhere.





Bomberman Generations
In a similar story, this entry covered six worlds with five levels in each. Players would take on a mixture of puzzles, mini-games and classic Bomberman action. The game was well received and a sequel eventually produced but also became another example of a Cube success story remaining bound to the system.





Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
Never released in the EU, this was one of the systems planned N64 projects that made its way on to the system. An action adventure game with a simplistic art style, the approach of the gameplay is that of natural selection, with you attacking bigger prey and on defeating it you would evolve. This pattern applied to the whole game till you evolved enough to tackle the final boss of the game.





Did or would you gobble up any of these prey?

[charlesr]

Cubivore! That was great. I must play that again.

[Mayhem]

Yeah, a bit f'ed up but I found it fun. Probably a bugger to get, it didn't have huge sales (it WAS an Atlus title now) and when I sold up the majority of my Cube set, it was still holding its value (I did keep the game).

[danstan21]

I remember I sold Cubivore to someone on this forum when I was doing a massive 'cube clearout several years ago. Truth be told the game never hooked me, but I probably should've at least seen it out to the end to fully experience its wackiness before passing it on - chance firmly missed as I'm certainly not about to pay its current market value.

[Neon Ignition]

Custom Robo
The fourth entry in the series, this was the first to release outside Japan and sees players act as a Commander who customises small robots and battles them in a holo-arena in this action RPG. The game is better thought of now than it was on release but other than a DS based title it remains the only one on Gamecube or any format.




Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
You could pad a book out just from the titles of the number of DDR games that have been released and this entry was an attempt to marry the popular series with that of Mario. Despite the long history of the series this was developed using the engine for Mario Party 6 instead and recreated the series gameplay in Mario settings. Players work through a story mode with Mario attempting to retrieve Music Keys stolen, for once, by Waluigi.




Disney's Hide and Seek
A simple action adventure game, this was a poorly received swansong to Capcom made Mickey Mouse titles.




Disney's Magical Mirror starring Mickey Mouse
Prior to the above game this simple point and click game with Mickey being led to find pieces of a mirror that will let him return home. Mini-games break up the simple action.




Where any of the above a magical experience for you?

[Dogg Thang]

I had no idea there was a Mario DDR game.

[charlesr]

WTAF. I just looked at prices for cubivore.

[Neon Ignition]

Time for the next batch of GC exclusives:


Donkey Konga, Donkey Konga 2, Donkey Konga 3
This trilogy from the team behind Taiko no Tatsujin used bongo peripherals to replicate the gameplay against shortened licensed tracks and Nintendo themes. The third entry featured twice the number of songs but only released in Japan.




Dragon Drive: D-Masters Shot
Developed by Treasure, this was a third person action shooter based on the Dragon Drive franchise and only released in Japan. The game largely saw players in arenas tackling waves of enemies.




Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
From Silicon Knights, the survival horror spanning centuries and seeing players take on several roles to uncover mysteries whilst fighting to retain their sanity. This was a rare mature Nintendo title and was incredibly well received on release but failed to translate that into sales leading Nintendo to axe a planned sequel and to keep this entry buried in the Gamecube's history to this day.




F-Zero GX
The final F-Zero game, this one co-developed with Sega and part of a two title project along with the arcade entry F-Zero AX. The key difference between this and the previous generations entry other visuals was the inclusion of an overly difficult story mode. Either via game completion or by taking their memory card to the arcade players can unlock the AX tracks within GX.




Better played by all or better left in the past for these GC only titles?

[Nu-Eclipse]

F-Zero GX
The final F-Zero game, this one co-developed with Sega and part of a two title project along with the arcade entry F-Zero AX. The key difference between this and the previous generations entry other visuals was the inclusion of an overly difficult story mode. Either via game completion or by taking their memory card to the arcade players can unlock the AX tracks within GX.

You mean the final F-Zero game on a home console, right?

[Neon Ignition]

I think because of the GBA's power levels I had it in my mind that those came before AX/GX lol

[importaku]

lol i only bought falcon densetsu because i had all the ereader cards for it. GX is still an amazing game even in 2021 it runs blazingly fast and silky smooth 60fps

[Soundwave]

You mean the final F-Zero game on a home console, right?

Still want those GBA titles

On the 'Cube itself I love it
After feeling let down by the N64 going around my mates house after he got his Jon machine & seeing Wave Race running & those startlingly amazing water effects I was blown away
Then we fired up Luigi's Mansion which was an absolute blast but lastly nothing prepared me for seeing Star Wars on it
I've always been a Star Wars nut but hearing that Tie Fighter in surround sound as it fired up had me grinning like a child & I knew I would be getting one...I waited until UK release but grabbed one as soon as I could

Such a great little machine with some great games & a lot of niche titles that are really good

Also the Jpn game packaging is still my favourite game packaging period
Those cute tiny boxes & the slipcases are just too cool

Neil

[Nu-Eclipse]

Still want those GBA titles

I do too.

I'd love to have physical copies of Climax and GP Legend to complete the GBA F-Zero set as I already own Maximum Velocity/Advance.

No way in hell that I'm paying current Flea-Bay prices for them though, so ROMs will have to suffice for now.

[charlesr]

FzeroGX. Astonishing to look at, even now. I found it too hard though.... You needed to be an actual ninja.

Eternal Darkness. Played through once and loved it, but wasn't going to play twice more to see the real ending. Who came up with that idea?

[Nu-Eclipse]

I STILL love the fact that the GC BIOS menu music is the Famicom Disk System startup music slowed to ¹⁄₁₆ .

One of the great videogame console easter eggs IMO.