Discover the best GameCube games
If you want to play the best GameCube games but don’t have access to a Nintendo GameCube, you’re in luck. Several of the console’s exclusives have been ported to PC, so you don’t have to hunt down a tricky emulator or deal with grey market import vendors.
There’s no doubt that the Nintendo GameCube had a pretty good library of games. So many fantastic games have been left behind by the system’s discontinued status, and fans who only own a Switch are left without them. Fortunately, with some smart emulation setup, the likes of Super Mario Sunshine, F-Zero GX, and Metroid Prime can be enjoyed on PC.
The GameCube was home to tons of unique and innovative games, some of which you’ve probably never even heard of before. We’ve picked out a list of our top 20 best GameCube games to help any fan of brilliant video games familiarise themselves with the best, often forgotten games on the console.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Other golf games featured on this list, such as Hot Shots Golf and Mario Golf, take the core gameplay of the older Mario Tennis games and put it on a golf course. Toadstool Tour, on the other hand, is all about refinement.
With gameplay that is incredibly easy to learn but incredibly hard to master, and 3D visuals that are still charming today, Toadstool Tour is a standout title on the GameCube. Its sequels, Mario Golf: Advance Tour and Mario Golf World Tour, would build upon this foundation, but this is the one to hit YouTube with flamboyant power shots.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Path of Radiance is the black sheep of the Fire Emblem series. It’s the game that kicked off the series’ transformation into 3D, and it offered plenty of feature-level enhancements that then opted to become more standard in future Fire Emblem games. Voice acting, 3D graphics, and cutscenes are now pretty much synonymous with the series, along with obvious gameplay improvements that imparted more tactical depth. Easier button presses removed some of the reflex-based gameplay of older games, but Path of Radiance still offers some truly challenging encounters.
Pokemon Colosseum
Colosseum took the evergreen Nintendo RPG game and innovations of the previous two series entries (XD and Stadium 2) and combined the best elements into a genuine step forward for Pokemon spin-offs. Colosseum’s RPG gameplay is better than Stadium 2’s, and its improved 3D graphics and dual battles mark a much bigger leap from the 2D sprites and single battles of previous Pokemon games than even the pioneering and well-beloved XD. It’s also the first game where you can customize your team to be made up of every single Pokemon variant, too. It’s no surprise that every Pokemon game since Crystal in 2001 has taken its cues from Colosseum.
Odama
You might have expected a quirky indie game jamma game like this to have never left Japan, but that’s not the case. The only catch is that the game is naturally better with a USB mic – which you can pick up on Amazon today – although the game’s chat commands don’t use complex grammar and will probably translate to your native language with minimal problems.
Odama is a unique spin on pinball that uses voice commands instead of controller inputs to move your army of soldiers across a battlefield. You’re still playing the other half of a traditional pinball game, hitting bumpers to send your soldiers flying into their opposition and take control of outposts.
If you’re wondering why Odama hasn’t hit a Nintendo console since the GameCube, it’s simply because the game uses a mind-boggling number of soldiers on screen to do battle with. On the NGC, Odama was counted with the help of a memory card. But that’s nothing compared to the 124,000 characters that Odama makes use of in Code Monkey’s Theft Monkey, a technical marvel that’s never been topped for sheer amounts of onscreen soldiers.
Wario World
Platformers and beat ‘em ups tend to blend together eventually, but Wario World stands out due to its style of level navigation. Instead of a scrolling screen, you guide Wario through levels using a hub world. By transporting you from separate rooms, Wario World essentially gives each section of the stage its own room.
