Gamecube gems?

[Talisker]

Picked up a handful of used games at EB this weekend for my Gamecube (which, up 'til now, has been the Animal Crossing console -- I also have Mario Golf, Ikaruga, and WindWaker, but those haven't gotten as much play).

Picked up the following: Super Monkey Ball 2, Pikmin, and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, all $15 each.

MonkeyBall: Extremely easy to pick-up-and-play, even for typically non-gamer types. At least it was for my (usually) non-gamer friend who stopped by (and proceeded to kick my ass at SuperMonkeyBowling, much to her delight). Looks like it'll be a great party game.

Pikmin: played for about half an hour, looks like it'll be pretty good.

Eternal Darkness: HOLY SHIT THIS IS A GREAT GAME. I'm only a couple hours in, but WOW. This may be the best game I've played all year, assuming it holds up the rest of the way through. I'd thought about picking it up a while back, but in all honesty, the stupid title pushed it down my list (they should've left the ": Sanity's Requiem" part off, just called it "Eternal Darkness" instead).

Any suggestions for other stuff I should look for in the used bin? I keep hearing Metroid is good, but it's a FPS, isn't it? Hate, hate, HATE playing those without a mouse.

So... recommendations?

[JD]

You should get three more controllers and grab Monkey Ball 1 (some of the minigames are more fun in that one), Beach Spikers, Mario Party (your wife might really like those two as well) and Soccer Slam (you don't have to be a fan of soccer to enjoy that one). Anf if you're going the party game route, you might as well pick up Smash Bros Melee. Burnout 2 is a great racing game and also works as party title thanks to its Crash Mode. Rogue Leader if you don't mind a fast action game. And then there's Mario Kart: Double Dash, which will be released next month. And while we're at racing games, F-Zero may or may not be a game you want to take a look at. I suggest checking out the two or three threads on the game here to see the debate. :P

[Mark Asher]

Really sucks that the GC doesn't play DVDs. Our PS2 is our DVD player on our nice TV.

[JD]

I think Nintendo/Matsushita definitely should have pushed the Panasonic Q harder. Which would also include an official release outside Japan.

[Theodore Rex DX]

Viewtiful Joe is excellent :!:

[Silverlight]

Any suggestions for other stuff I should look for in the used bin? I keep hearing Metroid is good, but it's a FPS, isn't it? Hate, hate, HATE playing those without a mouse.

It's not a FPS. It'd be better described as a first-person adventure or something. Granted, I too think the game would be better with a mouse/keyboard, but then they'd have to pull out the autotargeting and make all the enemies harder to hit and kill; the game is designed with the movement and autotargeting systems in mind, so IMHO it works very well.

[Mike Cathcart]

I've sort of made it a second job to browse game forums all over the Net and recommend Wave Race: Blue Storm whenever someone asks about GameCube games. It was a launch title that a lot of people forget about, but it's probably cheap now and it's a lot of fun. Wave Race doesn't work very well as a multi-player game unless everyone playing is familiar with it, so don't bust it out at a party or anything, but it's a great single player experience with a lot of replay value. Plus the water is pretty.

Best Buy has Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the Cube at fifteen dollars. Nothing like the PC version, it's more of a hack and slahser that I keep meaning to pick up. Anyway, everyone I know who's played it raves, and it's only fifteen bucks.

I hated Resident Evil on the PSX, but the remake for the GameCube is one of my favorite games of the past few years. The controls still kinda blow, but they add in a new setup (Type C) that makes things a little easier. Also the loading animations between rooms can really get on your nerves, especially when you have to go back and forth through the mansion. For these reasons I rarely recommend the game because it tends to piss people off, but there's something about sticking a knife in a zombie's head, blowing it off with a shotgun, and then trying to find the crest that fits in the hidden panel behind the clock over the fireplace so I can get into the bathroom that kept me coming back for more.

Viewtiful Joe and Metroid Prime are each reason enough to own a GameCube, but I'm sure a million other people will recommend those.

[runesword forger]

The Cube got a crap port of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. If you've got a 2nd console, get it on that.

Let me put in a vote for Smuggler's Run 2: Warzones, especially for the great multiplayer modes. Fun vehicle chaos and combat can be yours for about $10-$12 in a bargain bin. Warzones is a very enhanced port from a good PS2 game, but only Tom Chick and a few other reviewers seemed to notice.

[Jobe]

I've gone into the other room twice now to make sure that the horrible game I played on the Xbox was indeed BG: Dark Alliance. I'm about to check a third time. I had a game on my Mac when I was 5 called Office Attack, where various equipment would fly around the screen and if you clicked on it you earned points. It was much deeper (and more fun) than BG:DA.

Viewtiful Joe is a good time until "now you get to fight all of the bosses thus far encountered back to back!"

[Old Rooster]

I've used this kind of listing to research what reviewers-at-large (weighty writers) have thought were the best, and have rarely been disappointed.
http://www.metacritic.com/games/cube/scores/

O.R.

[Auzette]

Personally, I've tried several times to get into Metroid Prime, but haven't successfully sustained interest. I'm quite alone in that, however, as almost all the GameCube owners I know praise it highly.

I've been pleased with Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance as well, for its price. Certainly a decent game to throw a few hours into.

SSX Tricky and Aggressive Inline were $14 titles I picked up as well. Both have earned back the money spent in spades.

[Brian Minsker]

Like you, I can't stand to play an FPS on a gamepad, but Metroid didn't bother me in that respect.

I'll also second the votes for Super Smash Brothers: Melee, Super Monkey Ball 1, Mario Party 4, and Smuggler's Run: Warzones.

[Talisker]

Thanks for the pointers!

Viewtiful Joe and Mario Kart: Double Dash, well, I'll wait on those until they've fallen off the new-and-cool list. I'm finding the buy-a-year-behind-the-curve approach to be very satisfying (aside from the handful of games-that-I-must-have-NOW) -- it's tough to beat walking out of the game store with three or four titles for your $50, instead of just one.

At this point, I'm putting Metroid Prime, Monkeyball1, MarioParty4, Smuggler's Run: Warzones, SSX Tricky, Wave Race, and F-Zero to my list of titles to watch for in the used bins. BG:DA I'll look for on the PS/2 or xbox (yes, I'm in the one-of-each console camp, although I waited until this past summer to pick up the xbox & cube).

Super Smash Bros, however, I've played it at a friend's house -- well, it's the first game that made me feel old. Found it more frustrating than fun, there was way too much happening for me to track. Lots of chaos, no sense of control. But then, that's just my decaying reflexes, I guess.

Anyway, it'll be a little while before I buy anything else, since Eternal Darkness is kicking so much ass. (Did I hear a rumor that they're working on a sequel?)

[BDGE]

SSBM is a game with a lot of technique and finesse to master. Not really all that different from your Virtua Fighter's or your Street Fighter's or your Soul Calibur games. The core mechanics differ, SSBM simply cuts down on the bizarro combination inputs in favor of a systematic and organized way of utilizing your core abilities in comparison. The appearance is possibly very misleading, but there is offensive and defensive layers to unpeel, not to mention the unique variances among movesets. It really isn't that much of a different experience, the mindgames are in full effect during multiplayer, whilst the AI is amazingly competent in single player.

It's highly recommended that you spend time doing single player event challenges and turning on slo-mo if you are new to the game to get acquainted with the pacing. Just mashing start button and jumping into the chaos will likely just lead to confusion and irritation for the uninitiated. That is if you even care to become enveloped in one of the most frantic and well paced melee extravaganzas the videogame world has seen. Truly a gem.

[Talisker]

It's highly recommended that you spend time doing single player event challenges and turning on slo-mo if you are new to the game to get acquainted with the pacing. Just mashing start button and jumping into the chaos will likely just lead to confusion and irritation for the uninitiated. That is if you even care to become enveloped in one of the most frantic and well paced melee extravaganzas the videogame world has seen. Truly a gem.
Oh, all right, if I see it in the $15 pile, I'll pick it up too. Nyah :)

[Andrew Mayer]

It's highly recommended that you spend time doing single player event challenges and turning on slo-mo if you are new to the game to get acquainted with the pacing. Just mashing start button and jumping into the chaos will likely just lead to confusion and irritation for the uninitiated. That is if you even care to become enveloped in one of the most frantic and well paced melee extravaganzas the videogame world has seen. Truly a gem.
Oh, all right, if I see it in the $15 pile, I'll pick it up too. Nyah :)

My guess is that if you're a fighting game fan you might be confused because it's sort of a "less is more" game in my opinion. The depth hides in different places than it does in other fighters.