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10 |
Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door |
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| Another accessible Mario RPG from Nintendo, sequel to the equally excellent N64 game. The battle system here is easy to get into, with the same focus on timed button presses and badge collecting as its predecessor, and the dungeons are a lot of fun, with a new factor of using your paper-like qualities to solve puzzles (Mario can fold himself into a paper airplane or boat to pass obstacles), each of these new abilities is helpfully "cursed" upon you by bad guys as the game proceeds. Packed with clever little touches and nice appeal. | |||||
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9 |
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time |
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| One of the biggest surprises of the generation for me, the Prince of Persia series came back with a vengeance with this highly polished and influential title from Ubisoft. The game is an action adventure that has you navigating your way through what has to be one of the most dangerous and complicated palaces ever conceived (god knows how anyone ever managed to live there without accidentally getting themselves killed). One of the most impressive things about this game is how intuitive and well-rounded the control system is, traveling through the palace jumping, swinging, running across walls and holding onto ledges is a joy to experience, and the brilliant gameplay mechanic of turning back time (kind of similar to the old Fatal Rewind game) stops you from being penalised too much. This first game in the new series was the best, with later sequels unfortunately pandering to the lowest common denominator in an effort to increase sales. | |||||
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8 |
Twilight Princess |
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| One of the last major GameCube releases, Twilight Princess was a long time coming, in the end being released on both GameCube and Wii at the same time. After the controversial stylistic departure of its predecessor The Wind Waker, this game represents a call-back to the ever-popular Ocarina of Time, aiming for a more realistic fantasy look, as well as a longer campaign with more complicated dungeons. The graphical style suits it well and being such a late game in the system's lifespan it really shows off the GameCube's capabilities in a way that a Wind Waker sequel possibly wouldn't have been able to do to the same level. Taking a cue or two from Capcom's PS2 Zelda-alike, Okami, Twilight Princess has you taking on the form of a Wolf and leaping about areas ruthlessly dispatching enemies or sniffing out clues. Its a very classy release with fantastic art design and is a meatier adventure than the Wind Waker, but possibly less unique. | |||||
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7 |
Eternal Darkness |
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| H. P Lovecraft-inspired horror title from the Canadian developer Silicon Knights, a second party developer for Nintendo at the time. Eternal Darkness is a memorable and mind-bending game that has you taking part in different chapters taken from the "Tome of Eternal Darkness" a sinister book discovered by the main character whilst investigating the death of her Grandfather. Every time the main character reads a chapter in the book you get to play through the story yourself. Watching the plot unfold through the eyes of all these different characters is intriguing, and one of the most accomplished elements of the game. The other big draw here is the "Sanity Meter" a bar which decreases when horrible things happen, if it gets too low it starts to mess with the player in a variety of unsettling (and often funny) ways that are supposed to represent the player going mad. Its a very fun and quirky game. | |||||
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6 |
Smash Bros Melee |
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| Now here's a series that went through a big improvement in the transition from N64 to GameCube. Don't get me wrong, Super Smash Bros was a helluva lot of fun back in the N64 days and was a very unique concept, but it did have a few niggles here and there (juggling was just a little too easy for example). Melee tightened up the gameplay mechanics, making the balance feel a lot more polished, and this coupled with some new advanced techniques like wavedashing (an accidental exploit in the game's physics engine) make the game a far deeper experience. Even outside of that though there's a lot of improvements, the level designs in particular are awesome and very dynamic, with battles taking place in a variety of shifting, high speed environments such as atop a bunch of hot-air balloons, or in the middle of a race with you jumping from car to car! The Single player mode here is also much improved over the original game, which was honestly a little simplistic, there's a lot more content to see here, and its all structured far better. An admirable progression in all areas. | |||||
5 |
Timesplitters 2 |
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| Back in 2002 I rushed out and bought a GameCube, the main factor in this purchase? my excitement at the idea of getting a new Perfect Dark game (yeah... that didn't quite work out). Thankfully the old N64 Goldeneye Team ended up coming to the rescue and filled that void brilliantly with their Halo-killing (yup, I said it) Timesplitters series. Anyone familiar with Goldeneye will know what to expect, mission-based levels which require you to complete a set of objectives, lots of shooting action, and a fantastic multiplayer component are the order of the day. Unlike Goldeneye, Timesplitters has kind of a Quantum Leap-esque set-up, with each level throwing you into a different time and place, one moment you'll be decapitating Zombies, next you'll be taking pot-shots at aliens or robots, this helps to keep the game fun and absorbing. Everything here is really packed with humour and charm (possibly the first and only time I will use that word to describe a first person shooter!), and the game has piles and piles of content and things to do and see. | |||||
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4 |
F-Zero GX |
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| For the GameCube iteration of their classic futuristic racing series Nintendo made the brash decision to hand over development duties to their former rival Sega, and wow was it a match made in heaven! Sega took the classic gameplay of the series, retaining its perfect balance of high speed and precision control, and infused it with the stunning graphics and stylish environments that were required to bring the series to the next level. But Sega's team didn't stop there, oh no, they somehow managed to make the game even more exhilarating and rewarding than ever before and packed it full of nice extras, really going the extra mile. Definitely one of the stand-out racing games for the generation on any system. | |||||
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3 |
The Wind Waker |
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| Definitely a new direction for the Zelda series, Wind Waker decided to go with a more cartoony style and a new focus on sailing, with you playing as the latest iteration of Link who's living after a huge cataclysm has drowned most of his world in water. Its a fun, imaginative and well put together release that will stick with you long after you've finished playing. There's some padding towards the end but the whole thing has so much charm and personality that this is quite easily forgiven. | |||||
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2 |
Resident Evil 4 |
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| A huge departure for the series, this game represented the point where Resident Evil went from being a creepy, slower paced survival horror title to becoming more of an action focused game. Gone were the tank controls and pre-rendered backgrounds to be replaced with a behind the shoulder view and precision aiming. The classic Zombies also took a bit of a brake here with the main fodder enemies instead being victims of a stomach-churning parasite infestation. Overall the changes made for a very dynamic and accessible game filled with stunning set-pieces and a lot of excitement and tension. | |||||
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1 |
Metroid Prime |
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| After missing out on the N64 era Metroid was finally brought back here by new developers Retro Studios, a US company that had its roots in Iguana Entertainment (the company that produced the Turok games). Retro had much to prove when they took on the beloved franchise and thankfully they didn't disappoint, managing to recreate the feel and spirit of the original 2D classics perfectly here in 3D. Everything here is hyper-polished, the environments are memorable and beautifully rendered (with some of the most impressive graphics on the system) and power-ups such as the awesome grappling hook are a joy to use. All in all it just has to be my choice for the best game on the system. | |||||
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