A huge number of rare Nintendo GameCube games exist out there in the wild, from Japan-only exclusives to sad commercial flops, but which are most worth seeking out?
Looking for a list of rare Nintendo GameCube games? In five years’ time, the Nintendo GameCube has been retroactively deemed “retro” by 2021 law, meaning in some cases, you can get a Nintendo Entertainment System Flashback for your dorm room. Longtime Nintendo fans who cut their teeth on these storied series during the GameCube heyday, and newcomers looking to go on their own journeys of self-discovery can find gold in them thar hills. Here are some of the rarest GameCube games you could unearth in your quest to seek out gaming treasures.
Whether a game didn’t release outside of Japan, it was received poorly, or some other reason, some titles on the GameCube are suddenly a lot rarer than others. Acting as a sequel to Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness kicks things off five years after the events of Colosseum, bringing players back into the Orre region where everybody’s favourite burgeoning trainer, Mark, is still battling his way through the ranks.
Developed by the series’ new GameCube-focused development team, Chibi-Robo is something of a success story of the modern age – despite the game not selling particularly well upon its release, and being relegated to the backs of TV cabinets everywhere, its quirks, charming visual style, and lovable main character have since made the game an iconic collector’s item.
Another iconic, tenured series that remains much-beloved today, but has become increasingly hard to afford, the GameCube’s 2006 dual release of Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero saw a new, younger Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield at the series’ forefront. Though the games themselves were received poorly, if you want to go back to the golden days of this tenured series, you’re going to need to cough up quite a lot of cash.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is the ninth ongoing game in the series, but only the third to see release in North America, giving veteran fans from outside of those territories and newcomers seeking the series’ genesis an increasingly expensive obstacle to overcome.
Another exclusive for the Nintendo GameCube’s first-party software development team, K-Mart carried a version of Wario World with an official Nintendo Power player’s guide inside. We imagine anybody lucky enough to own one of these would keep it carefully catalogued, just in case resale value ended up being astronomical.
Taking a different approach to the concept of battling and shooting featured in games such as Battle Arena Turbo Dynamics and Gotcha Force, this is a fighting and shooting game focused on collecting gachapon toys, and then using them to battle throughout the game. The anime aesthetic of this game doesn’t suit every taste, but those interested in collecting toys that might one day go on to be retro gaming collectors’ items should seek it out, despite its middling critical reception.
College Hoops 2K5 is much-revered in retro basketball circles. That said, only 2,500 copies of the 2005 EA Sports release were ever printed, making it a scarce title. Unfortunately for some, the game uses the term “college hoops” throughout – a phrase that has since been deemed racist by law, resulting in purposely discontinued copies.
This is probably one of the less obscure heavens on our list, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t becoming increasingly expensive – the Japanese skateboarding game that never was, Gotcha Force is a cult classic among fans seeking a challenge that isn’t quite offered by similar series, such as Lip Service, Rusty, and SK8.
If you want Pokémon Colosseum’s Relicanth, with which you can capture all of the Uber (or Ultimate) Pokémon, you are either going to need to raid an old copy of Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest, or pay a lot more for one of the rarer GameCube Pokémon games out there.
A hilarious concept, all the various Disney characters we all grew up with are, naturally, pitted against one another in friendly games of basketball. The best basketball game on the GameCube without a shadow of a doubt, it’s a real shame this one never did find its way to the Wii Virtual Console.
If you do happen to have Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, it doesn’t hurt to keep it close to your copy of Resident Evil Zero – if, like us, you consider these games to be underrated, Capcom could pull them both, slap ‘em on the Switch, and rake in a
