Whether you’re gripped in the excitement of owning a new system and casting about for the best games to start with, or you’re an experienced gamer just looking to brush up a little, this Top Ten GameCube Titles list is worth a read. While not every game on the list is a bestseller or runaway commercial success - though some are - every title appears for offering what I consider to be the best experiences that video games have to offer. Every one of them is worth having in your gaming library.
You’re not going to find this one on many other top ten lists, let alone the top spot, but it’s unfortunate. With solid adventure elements and the most enjoyable stealth mechanics I’ve ever played in an adventure game, Beyond Good and Evil simply had too fantastic and odd of a storyline to be well promoted. A classic example of great game directing and design falling on deaf ears, BG&E should have done far better in the market than it did. If you’ve never played it, pick it up.
Role-playing games are certainly not for everyone, but much of my childhood was spent on games like Final Fantasy on the NES and Fallout II or Betrayal at Krondor on the PC. If you are into the genre, Tales of Symphonia offers beautiful graphics, hours of gameplay, and a dark plot that belies its childish exterior. Few games since the old days have hooked me into the characters as strongly as this game does; I’ll be in love with one of the characters long after I’m waaaay too old for her.
As the most recent release on the list, Resident Evil 4 is the best survival horror game on the market. A huge leap forward for the classic series, RE4 is probably as close as I’ve ever gotten to actually being scared by a video game; not a small feat. With an interesting storyline, great graphics, and an unstoppable directing style, Resident Evil 4 is the best game you can own if you’re really into blood, guts, and blowing things up.
Technically not a GameCube game, the N64’s Ocarina of Time was released by Nintendo for the GameCube as a promotion leading up to their Zelda: The Wind Waker title. Sure, it’s dated, and yes, the graphics and sound aren’t great by modern standards, but it has all the gameplay that made it one of the best Zelda games ever made, and therefore one of the best games ever made, period. If you can pick up a copy on eBay, and you’re a Zelda fan, do it, then play long enough to get over the graphics.
The Wind Waker is the reason I bought a GameCube in the first place. More than either Mario or Metroid, the little guy in green claims the prize as my favorite Nintendo franchise, and this GameCube exclusive does the series justice. While some don’t like the cell-shaded graphics of this first GameCube Zelda release, it still has a gigantic world and tons to explore. With fun combat and classic puzzles, it is beautiful to watch and a joy to play.
Like many of the system’s early titles, Eternal Darkness isn’t talked about much anymore. More about mystery than it is about scaring the player, Eternal Darkness leads you through history, connecting the stories of multiple characters across more than two thousand years. As the game progresses, strange things start to happen to your GameCube, including melting screens, imaginary enemies, false game endings, and your TV apparently shutting itself off. You never know what’s real.
More so even than the original, Metroid Prime 2 shows what the GameCube is capable of in terms of first person shooters and storytelling. Dubbed by many to be a first person adventure over an FPS, MP2 is a brilliant translation of the old-school NES and SuperNES games. The second offers a slightly more interesting storyline than the first, and compliments the excellent gameplay with a “Dark Side” version of the world that kills you just to breath the air. How cool is that?
Based on a storybook rendition of the Mario universe, Paper Mario 2 is a different sort of RPG than Tales of Symphonia. Where Symphonia has a dark interior sheathed in a childish exterior, Paper Mario has… well… a childish interior and exterior both. The creativity in its take on Mario, combined with a number of tried-and-true RPG elements, makes The Thousand-Year Door one of the most unique and entertaining RPGs on the market.
Nintendo had the idea of putting animals together in a village … and that’s it. The game has no overall plot and no conflict, merely a house to decorate and fish to catch. Featuring real-time seasons, the game gets dark at night, snows during winter, and grows flowers during spring, all on a real-world schedule that matches your life. Characters celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day, and it offers nearly never-ending gameplay. You’ll never see it all.
With the release of its less extraordinary sequel, I’ve come to realize how good the original Prince of Persia is. Stunning graphics, extremely addictive puzzles, a romance story, time control, castles, zombies, and a giant hourglass, Prince of Persia has everything you can ask for, and a lot of things you didn’t know you wanted. The Prince is just a monarch trying to put things right after trying to prove himself to his father, and the result is a game worth playing many times through.
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