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60 |
Rayman 3 |  |
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| Another excellent Rayman platformer from Ubisoft. This one makes a lot of modifications to the series (Rayman himself has gone through some drastic personality changes), and is perhaps a little disappointing in longevity after the classic second game, but still has more than enough good points to outweigh the fairly minor negative ones. The game has some nice art design and graphical touches, with crazy psychedelic backgrounds and effects, and the GameCube version in particular has a bunch of nice extras over the other ports available, such as fun multiplayer GBA connectivity additions. | |||||
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59 |
Resident Evil 0 |  |
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| With this prequel to the popular series of survival horror games (another result of Capcom's deal with Nintendo) the developers decided to try out a new gameplay mechanic where you control two different characters at once. The mechanic has you swapping between the characters and exploring the environment separately with them in order to solve puzzles and progress. Graphics wise this reverts back to the old-style 2D backgrounds, and the difficulty curve can be inconsistent at times, but the new gameplay elements lend a different spin on the usual hallmarks of the series and complements the tension and puzzle solving well. | |||||
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58 |
Second Sight |  |
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| 3rd person shooter made by the old Goldeneye 007 and Timesplitters team with a focus on psychic abilities. You start the game off as a patient with amnesia, and as you play through the game the story unfolds through the use of playable flashbacks. New psychic abilities are also granted to you as you proceed, ranging from telekinesis and energy blasts to things like astral projection (allowing you to scope out areas from safety), and the ability to possess the enemy (which is always fun). The game had the misfortune of being released around the same time as Psi-Ops, a very similar and slightly more focused game that ended up (unfairly) overshadowing it. | |||||
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57 |
Billy Hatcher |  |
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| A memorable platformer from Sega that is somewhat similar to the old N64 game Glover. Much like many of the 3D platformers of this era Billy Hatcher gives you levels with multiple objectives that you need to complete in order to progress (kind of like the Shines in Mario). The gameplay revolves around manipulating eggs that can be used to run over enemies or bounced around the stages over obstacles. The eggs grow as you squash fruit under them, and can be hatched to give you a helper animal that follows you around and can be used to solve puzzles. There's a few niggles here and there but generally this is a fun game that's pretty unique and has a lot of charm, there's even a reasonably fun 4-player mode thrown in for good measure. | |||||
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56 |
Need for Speed: Underground 2 |  |
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| A nice arcade racer from Electronic Arts with a focus on story and car tweaking. Like other Need For Speed games of this era you freely roam around the fully explorable city looking for races to compete in and visiting garages and shops. Completing a set of objectives progresses the story and opens up new parts of the game. This particular Need For Speed goes for more of a Fast and the Furious vibe so fans of those movies should definitely check it out. | |||||
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55 |
Star Fox Adventures |  |
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| Rareware's only finished game for the GameCube, SFA started out as a completely unrelated N64 game named Dinosaur Planet that had been set up as their answer to Ocarina of Time before it ended up being moved to GameCube. In the transition between systems Nintendo forced them to convert it into a Star Fox game (allegedly much to Rareware's chagrin). The developers programming expertise and talent is very much on show here, with the game looking very impressive for its age (still some of the best graphics on the system), with first-rate fur effects and lush environments, gameplay is fun though not without the odd niggle. | |||||
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54 |
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4 |  |
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| Another great release in the trick-based skating series. For anyone who doesn't know, Tony Hawks games essentially put you into an environment with a set number of objectives (such as obtaining points by pulling off difficult tricks, or by collecting a specific number of items). This release was a big improvement over its predecessors, it expanded the environments greatly and offered a lot of longevity. | |||||
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53 |
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles |  |
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| A spinoff of the popular series made especially for GameCube with some phenomenal art design and aesthetics. Unlike the main branch Final Fantasy games this is a real-time Hack N' Slash RPG. The focus here is very much on the multiplayer, which unfortunately requires four GBA's, but this set-up makes for some unique and interesting gameplay (thankfully nowadays getting hold of these old handhelds is actually quite cheap, so its definitely something that can and should be checked out). Bear in mind that the single player (and to an extent 2-player) doesn't quite work as well though, as much of the experience is based on the social and team work aspects. | |||||
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52 |
1080: Avalanche |  |
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| This is a Stylish snow boarding exclusive for GameCube with a focus on racing and tricks. This sequel moved away from the technical, sim-ish gameplay of the N64 original and steered towards more accessible, arcade style gameplay in the vein of the SSX series. One of the more standout elements of the game is the titular Avalanche's, every few levels here you are thrown into a tense and exciting race against the elements, with you desperately trying to stay ahead of the rumbling, cascading snow as it piles up around you. | |||||
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51 |
Baiten Kaitos: Eternal Wings |  |
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| Card-based RPG from Namco with nice art design and a good battle system. The game has you navigating around the static 2D backgrounds (much like those of the previous generation's Final Fantasy titles) exploring, gathering information from people, solving minor puzzles, and looking for cards. The battling is turn-based and has you making a deck of cards filled with defensive and offensive capabilities, bonuses are given if you use only cards of the same number, or ones which follow each other in numbered sequence. The sound quality is a bit poor at times and the plot, whilst enjoyable is not super-original, but the battle system is novel and all in all its a good example of its genre. | |||||
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