X-Play's Top 10 Gamecube Games

[Nester the Lark]

For those of you who don't get the G4 network, you're not missing much. But the show X-Play has been airing entire episodes dedicated to the top 10 games for each current console, while acknowledging that games were still being released for them.

Here are their top 10 favorite Gamecube games. Please note that they only chose one title to represent their respective series.

10. Soul Calibur II
9. Viewtiful Joe
8. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
7. Animal Crossing
6. Super Mario Sunshine
5. Super Smash Bros. Melee
4. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (mentioning that TP had yet to be released)
2. Metroid Prime
1. Resident Evil 4

And to go with it, they also named a few of the worst games on the 'Cube:

Worst game based on an even worse movie: Charlie's Angels
Worst named game: Tube Slider (They said that the game itself wasn't that bad. They just didn't like the name.)
Worst product placement game: Universal Studios Theme Park Adventures

The Bottom 3:
3. Catwoman
2. Pokemon Channel
1. Aquaman: Battle For Atlantis

[Dances in Undergarments]

A very nice list.

I'd swap Double Dash and Melee, but other than that its pretty spot on.

[Wildcat]

Eh. I don't think Double Dash should be so high, nor Sunshine. Both of those did not live up to their potential to me. Of course, I'd have Skies of Arcadia Legends up there, followed by their #1 and #2. RE4 is fantastic, and MP is also an excellent game. Tales of Symphonia would be #4, Beyond Good & Evil (since RE4, SCII and VCJ are on there), Paper Mario, Zelda: Four Swords Adv., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Incredible Hulk, and then probably Zelda: Wind Waker (I really, really disliked the triforce shard part...). But that's my opinion, of course. For a generalized gaming list, I suppose it's alright...although they primarily went for the big names over some of the lesser known games...

[Fryguy64]

Bah, Super Mario Sunshine is awesome. Deserves all the kudos in the world. Everyone was expecting some innovative new game, and what all we got instead was a solid and thoroughly enjoyable sequel to one of the best games ever made.

Anyone who complains that it didn't live up to its promises should get their head out of their arse.

If I had to make any complaints, it would be that Mario Kart Double Dash is too high up on the list. Better than Super Mario Sunshine? I suppose it could be argued (by a moron). Better than SSBM? Now you're just being silly!

Nintendo's problem is that its high-profile games always do well, but it's equally excellent low-profile games just disappear off the radar completely. 1080: Avalanche, Chibi-Robo, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, Four Swords Adventures... where are they?

And so I submit to you... a plan... (to be posted on the NinDB General board shortly).

[Nester the Lark]

A few comments.

X-Play (and previous incarnations of the show) were always defendants of Super Mario Sunshine. The host, Adam Sessler, is a huge platform game fan. I recall when they first reviewed the game, they ended by saying, "Is this new Mario game better than previous installments? Who cares! It's a new Mario game, and it's great! Just play it! Five out of five!"

They're also huge fans of MKDD, citing it's addictive gameplay. They said that the reason it must've taken so long for a new Mario Kart game to come out was because Nintendo was trying to figure out how to make a Gamecube disc out of pure crack.

For Metroid Prime, they said it was the best update of a classic Nintendo franchise they'd ever seen. That's a complement usually reserved for Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

And, of course, they were all over RE4. They said it was not only the best game on the 'Cube, but also one of the best games to come out on any console ever.

Finally, they ended with some optimistic things to say about the Wii, saying that it could be #1 in the next generation.

The videos for the best X-Box and PS2 games have already been uploaded to the G4 website. They oughta have videos of the Gamecube episode up soon.

[Dances in Undergarments]

We get X-Play here (on the Extreme Sports channel, of all things), and have for quite a few months, and they do know what they are talking about, and they seem happy enough to acknowledge obscure games or games that aren't considered good by others, but of course it is a TV show, so its gonna be more mainstream than say, this website, so its gonna go for the more mainstream games.

To me, Double Dash is alot like Sunshine. Infact, you could pretty much take that quote you just posted, and replace it with DD. Sure, MKDD might not be better than the other MKs, but its a great game. Its also alot more mainstream than SSBM, as you don't necessarily have to play alot of games to get into a round of Mario Kart (I know SSBM is pick-up-and-playable, but non-gamers will have no idea where their character is half the time).

RE4 is so polished and offers up a brilliant gameplay experience, thats not only different to the previous installments, but better than similar games on the market. Ditto for Metroid Prime.
Wind Waker was the first Zelda I played, so its gonna hold a special place in my heart anyway, but the game is great - way it all fits together is lovely, the graphics are fantastic, and the gameplay, save for some tedious sailing and triforce searching, is brilliant.
MKDD, as I discussed above is a non-gamer's multiplayer dream, SSBM is a gamer's multiplayer dream.
Sunshine is polished and a hell of alot of fun.
AC I haven't played for Cube, but if its anything like the DS version its gaming crack.
Eternal Darkness, I haven't played much of, but its wonderful, got a great story, and the sanity effects are great.
Viewtiful Joe is a game I love, the gameplay is wonderful, the graphical style is suberb and the voice acting is magnificent.
And finally, Soul Calibur II is a hell of a fighting game.

I think these are the best the Cube has to offer, to be honest, but if you disagree, you should at least be able to agree they are great games.

[Wildcat]

Ooooh, I seem to have incensed the board a bit with my comments. ^^;

Look, I personally thought Sunshine wasn't as much fun as SM64. I love SM64, and therefore was disappointed. I felt some of the enemy designs were unimpressive, disliked the secret stages and how they were set up (if they give you a waterpack to help you hover and do platforming, why take it away?), the camera was more dodgy and I was just not happy with the overall experience. That doesn't make me a guy with his head up his arse - it makes me a person who wasn't happy with a game. I'm aware that you liked it fryguy, and I'm happy for you. Everyone's got a different opinion.

As for MK:DD, alas, my multiplayer days are quite limited. My fiance doesn't like racers too much, my old gamer buddies moved away, and I didn't think the track design was as good as the earlier (or later, in MKDS's case) games.

As for disagreeing, I never for a moment said they weren't good or even great games. They just didn't click with me as much as some other games did. *shrugs*

[Fryguy64]

I'm not saying you have to think it's great, I'm not saying it's as good as Super Mario 64...

But what you are doing is comparing a damn good game with one of the best games ever, which is making you disappointed with it. I didn't expect Sunshine to usurp SM64, but try comparing it to nearly any other 3D platformer and it's probably in the Top 2 (guess what's at No.1!)

It's like Flamedude here... he hates Metroid Prime because it's not as good as Halo. Thankfully he's in the minority, but it's the same mindset... comparing something good to something (arguably) better will distort your opinion unfavourably.

[Wildcat]

I understand your point...quite well, might I say. Still, that being said I didn't like Sunshine as much as quite a few other games I've played on the Cube. That's how I feel. It's hard (for me anyway) to look at a sequel of a particular game or franchise and not compare it to its older cousins.

For an example, I love Resident Evil 4 a lot more than the earlier RE's. The way Capcom overhauled the gameplay was fantastic, and to me it rendered the older games as rather clunky in comparison. I enjoyed RE2 and RE:CV back in the day, but trying to replay RE:CV was quite difficult when my fiance and I decided to give it a go a few months ago because of the gigantic leaps RE4 made for the franchise's core gameplay. Is it wrong for me to compare the gameplay of RE4 to the earlier RE's? If RE5 reverts back to the static camera placement, drops all of the action commands, loads the game full of unintelligent zombies and controls exactly like RE2 (including pressing a button to go up stairs!), I will probably be upset over the design choices Capcom made and still love RE4. It may still be a good game (in fact, the best old-style RE ever made), but it's wouldn't be as enjoyable to me as RE4 was for that reason.

Back to the topic at hand. I didn't like the way SMS's secret stages were set up with losing FLUDD and the way you were booted completely out of the stage if you lost all your lives (if they put in a Wario World-like method of simply dropping and restarting with no penalty outside of doing it all over again, I'd probably be happy. But having to climb back up to some of those entrances were not very fun...in my opinion), and I thought the "blue coins for shines" were a poor replacement for additional levels. That's primarily why I didn't like SMS as much as other games on my above list. Otherwise, I did like the game's ideas with FLUDD and enjoyed myself on quite a few levels. I just didn't like those two design choices. If they're in Galaxy, then they are and I'll deal with it. Maybe they did it more to my liking, or maybe I'll dislike them more. I don't know. Maybe I'm just too picky.

I can say I like Psychonauts more than SMS for its unique and quite awesome level design that rarely frustrates me. But for 3D platforming, SMS is up in the top 4 for sure. I like PoP:SoT's platforming a lot too...more than SMS (how are you doing with that, btw? I'm curious to hear other's opinions), personally.

There's something that grabs you as a gamer when you play games, and it's different for everybody. Sunshine didn't grab me, but it grabbed you and a lot of other people and you had a great time with it. I had a good enough time, but I didn't like the experience enough to say it's in my top 10. And that's what's great about game forums - you get tons of people with many different opinions together and they share what they think. Sometimes egos get bruised, but sometimes you learn something new and exciting. I love this place. It's got a great bunch of people that all love Nintendo like I do...willing to defend what they love and what they feel. ^^

[mrblonde]

Resident Evil 4 is #1?

Sometimes I think I'm the only one who doesn't like this game. It was a good game, but nothing special compared to Melee, Metroid Prime, or Sunshine. When is the media going to end their love affair with Res 4? Just because its "teh adu1t" on gamecube doesn't make it great.!

Ahh.... I feel better now.

[Fryguy64]

Wildcat, glad we've come to a consensus.

I'll be honest, I like Metroid Prime, but I don't think it compares with the 2D Metroid games. But I set them aside from each other, treating them as two different entities.

I will defend Super Mario Sunshine though...

The "special" levels were necessary. Using FLUDD during the main game it was possible to save yourself in pretty much any situation, sapping the challenge needed in a platforming game. By stripping you of FLUDD, the special zones gave the game tough areas that challenged you. Otherwise the game would have all been a bit easy. If you've played through the special zones again with FLUDD, you'll see how stupidly easy they are.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Blue Coin challenge at first, but after you've collected the easy ones, you end up exploring the levels completely. Without them, would you have tried walking along the tightropes on Gelato Beach? Or visited every nook and cranny in Noki Bay? That's what I think they were there for.

[Smashchu]

I one of the few ppl who likes X-play. They are more mainstream but they usually know what there talking about.

I liked the list. Every game one there deserved to be on there. The only thing I would have changed was put Melee #1 and keep it that way. I expected RE4 to be #1.

Now if obly G4 would go back to videogames insted of making all this stupid crap.

[Nester the Lark]

I have a love/hate relationship with X-Play. I started watching them way back when they were Gamespot TV, and I really loved Extended Play. I agree, they're very good at keeping their reviews and game coverage non-political, but with X-Play, there's too much of an emphasis on comedy, which is very hit or miss, and annoying characters.

I'll admit, I kind of like Johnny Extreme and Drunk Link, but even they wear thin pretty fast. What really starts to bother me, though, is when the comedy starts to take over the game reviews. When a review consists entirely of lame poetry, or they insert a parody into the middle of a review, it's more like watching a bad comedy skit with a rating tacked onto the end.

I guess that's why I sometimes go months without watching it before drifting back for a while. They do know their stuff about gaming.

[Wildcat]

admin said:

I'll be honest, I like Metroid Prime, but I don't think it compares with the 2D Metroid games. But I set them aside from each other, treating them as two different entities.

As do I. Super Metroid is a very different beast than Metroid Prime. I love both games, but both are so different to the point of being uncomparable outside of the Metroid trappings.

The "special" levels were necessary. Using FLUDD during the main game it was possible to save yourself in pretty much any situation, sapping the challenge needed in a platforming game. By stripping you of FLUDD, the special zones gave the game tough areas that challenged you. Otherwise the game would have all been a bit easy. If you've played through the special zones again with FLUDD, you'll see how stupidly easy they are.

Hm. Valid point, there. I still dislike the idea of removing a game mechanic for certain sections (I also disliked a certain part near the end of PoP:SoT when you lose a certain gaameplay mechanic, so it may just be me...), but that does make sense.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Blue Coin challenge at first, but after you've collected the easy ones, you end up exploring the levels completely. Without them, would you have tried walking along the tightropes on Gelato Beach? Or visited every nook and cranny in Noki Bay? That's what I think they were there for.

Another valid point, but I'd still would have loved to have a few more stages over blue coin collecting. But I do agree - the worlds in Sunshine were larger than SM64, so I imagine some sort of motive might be needed to get players to find everything.

Wildcat, glad we've come to a consensus.

Me too. ^^

As for G4, I wish they'd quit trying to outspike Spike TV. I liked it more before it picked up oddball shows like the Man Show and Banzai. Cinematech was pretty cool last E3, offering me a chance to view trailers that my dial-up can't handle very well. I wish they'd do more of that kind of stuff. And Icons is a great retrospective show. G4 needs to do more stuff like that. More strategies, more focus onto what gaming's pulse is. Not girls on trampolines.

[Smashchu]

wildcat said:

As for G4, I wish they'd quit trying to outspike Spike TV. I liked it more before it picked up oddball shows like the Man Show and Banzai. Cinematech was pretty cool last E3, offering me a chance to view trailers that my dial-up can't handle very well. I wish they'd do more of that kind of stuff. And Icons is a great retrospective show. G4 needs to do more stuff like that. More strategies, more focus onto what gaming's pulse is. Not girls on trampolines.

Agreed. But Spike isn'a a gamer channel. Its more like a whole lot of stuff channel, I guess. G4 isn't Spike, nor can they fill that position, ever. I just think they need to return to the way they were before. They were good last year.