Cult Classics: GameCube
Part 3: Ducks, plumbers, wizards, ghosts, pirates.
Star Fox Adventures
- Developer: Rare
- Release: 2002
Was this terrible? In retrospect, yes, probably. But what's so interesting about Star Fox Adventures is why it's not a great game. Everything about it says that it should be: superb developer, exciting new platform, incredible graphics, well-loved but little-known characters just waiting to be creatively fleshed-out, built on a Zelda template straight from Nintendo itself. It's so weird that this game ended up such a completely unimaginative, repetitive, oddly sterile epic adventure, with so much filler packing out its sumptuously rendered world. I remember, at the time, wondering how on earth this could have fallen so short of Rare's previous achievements, and nobody really seems to know. It's a definite curiosity piece, this - its weird and unique blandness is interesting enough to make it worth playing for a Cube historian.
What we said: "Acky wah blah di blah gah GENERAL SCALES!" That rather sums things up.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure
- Developer: Nintendo
- Release: 2004
This fantastic, inspired game is easily the most under-played and under-appreciated Zelda title ever. Why? Because you had to spend in the area of seven hundred pounds to play it, once you've taken into account the game, the four GBAs, GameCube, four special GBP 15 cables and television big enough and pretty enough to show you Four Swords in all its sumptuous 2D glory. As we've said before, Four Swords looks and plays like a series Best Of, melding superb, sharp Link to the Past graphics with gorgeous GameCube effects, and making the whole experience something to share with friends. If you're not a Zelda fan, it's probably not worth the bother getting all the equipment together four years later. If you are, oh my goodness do it now. You and three excitable friends will be switching between GBA screen and TV screen with synchronised Kraftwerk-esque head movements and bickering over the Fire Rod in no time.
What we said: "A genuine step forwards for multiplayer gaming, wrought from some of the best single-player game design ever put out to pasture."
Bloody Roar: Primal Fury
- Developer: 8ting
- Release: 2002
Ask a critic and they'll tell you that Bloody Roar was pretty average. Ask anyone starved for multiplayer action in the first few months of the GameCube's European release, and they'll tell you it was brilliant. Bloody Roar is a fully and unashamedly ridiculous beat-'em-up wherein every fighter can turn into a different animal for massive damage, and this particular instalment in the series was a GameCube exclusive. It's great because it actually looks and feels like you're hurting things, and because it's silly enough for everyone to play (although I'm told by people who are better at beat-'em-ups than I am that the fighting system has surprising depth). The fighters are big, heavy and violent, and the combat is just simple enough to allow both beginner button-mashers and practiced players to rip things apart with animal force. There are few more raucous, amusing and satisfying Cube multiplayer moments than transforming into a massive tiger and ripping someone's head off.
What we said: Not reviewed. What were they doing when the GameCube was released?
Bomberman Generations
- Developer: Hudson Soft
- Release: 2002
This rarely went back in its box over the course of the five years that my GameCube was on permanent standby under the telly, and is the only really superb Cube multiplayer game that didn't require half a grand's worth of Nintendo hardware to play. Unlike preceding Bombermans, the single-player wasn't rubbish either. Generations is one of the only modern Bomberman games to find the exact correct balance for multiplayer - no item is redundant, no game option is unalterable, and no Saturday night for a long time was complete without a good few matches on this. Not many GameCube owners seemed to have it, either, following the streak of poor N64 titles. It's well worth seeking out.
What we said: Never reviewed. Cocks.