Cube

They'll probably replace the DK mascot and put the old one's head on a spike.

Driven Inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s hit movie DRIVEN. NA release: 27th March 2002 EU release: 3rd May 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Crawfish Interactive Publisher: BAM! Entertainment NGC Magazine Score: 60% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack The first direct movie tie-in for GameCube, and it’s about a film I’ve never heard of. Driven was a personal project for Sylvester Stallone, who produced, wrote and starred in it. It was about an up and coming racing driver that started losing focus, so a champion is brought out of retirement (to help him out). It was supposed to be about Formula 1, but due to behind-the-scenes secrets, Stallone had to settle on “Championship Auto Racing Teams”. The game is, naturally, a racing game, but there are a few modes inspired by scenes in the film, and a story mode that follows the plot of the film, using the various modes throughout. The most unique mode is blocking, where you have to get behind a teammate and prevent an opponent from overtaking. You have to stay close to your teammate, so you just can’t crash into your opponent (despite having a special crash camera, the crashes are extremely underwhelming). A few scenes in the film are car chases in cities, and you get to play out these as well, dodging traffic, which is decent fun. There’s also a mechanic where if you don’t hit anything, you’ll enter “focus” mode and improve your top speed, acceleration and steering. I really don’t like how it handles, though, cornering is very stiff and the opponents are near-perfect, making each mission extremely difficult. While some of the modes are interesting, it’s not very nice to play. Fine Remake or remaster? The blocking mode could be implemented into F1 games (if not already done). Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Driven.

Donald Duck: Quack Attack Donal Duck is Going Quackers to Save Daisy! NA release: 27th March 2002 EU release: 3rd March 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Publisher: Ubisoft NGC Magazine Score: 32% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack Someone high up at Ubisoft really wanted the Donald Duck: Going Quackers/Quack Attack concept to work. Three different developers had already made completely different versions of the game for PlayStation, Game Boy Color and Nintendo 64 (with the N64 version getting PC and Dreamcast ports), but now it was Ubisoft Montreal’s turn to make a new version for the PS2 and GameCube. At this stage they mainly worked on licensed games and Tonic Trouble, but they would later create Splinter Cell, the Prince of Persia 3D trilogy and a little game called Assassin’s Creed. While the story and level themes are exactly the same as the previous versions, the levels themselves are completely different. They’re still mostly Crash Bandicoot-style levels with a few 2D levels, but they’re designed around the specific mechanics of this version. Throughout each level are sets of five cogs, collect these in quick succession and you’ll get a letter to spell out “SPECIAL”. Once you’ve completed a level with this, you’ll earn a special move. To activate a special move, you need to jump on three enemies without touching the ground, press R, then enter the combination for the various special moves – although all they do is activate a different animation then all give you the same power: invincibility and a bonus to your score for a little bit. While the actual reward for the special moves are fairly rubbish, they still benefit the game a lot: enemies and presents (which hold gears, health and power-ups) are placed within reach of each other, and bouncing across all these is extremely satisfying. I rarely actually activated the special move, but bouncing through the levels made them flow extremely well. Donald is also lovingly animated, looking like he just escaped from the cartoons. He’ll distort as he moves, grab his hat, dance around and is extremely expressive, which helps make the game feel alive. The main campaign is quite short (with fewer levels than previous versions), but there are two bonus ways to play. One is a time trial, and the other has you perform at least two special moves per level, both of which are fairly easy. Still, the mechanics of the game make it quite good fun. Fun Remake or remaster? The various versions of this are worth including in a Disney platformer collection Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Donal Duck: Quack Attack.

I bought this controller. In terms of the controller itself, it feels really nice. In terms of the software, it's a bit disappointing for PC use so isn't quite as versatile as I expected - the back paddles can only duplicate other buttons (rather than letting you map them to a keyboard or use them as additional buttons). It still does the job, though. Apparently some of their other controllers are starting to get full Steam Input support so perhaps there will be an update in the future. Still, I can't complain, the Amazon driver lied about delivery and I got a full refund.

Early days is crazy. Although after a couple of years, they fizzle out due to EA pricing out the competition and other companies ditching the GameCube. So it goes from a ton of sports games to pretty much just EA's ones.

MLS ExtraTime 2002 Major League Soccer action for the 2002 season. NA release: 25th March 2002 JP release: N/A EU release: N/A Developer: Konami America Publisher: Konami NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: Widescreen Hack North America didn’t get International Superstar Soccer 2, instead, Konami got the license for America’s football league, Major League Soccer, and let their American division adapt ISS to their needs, while also licensing ESPN to make it feel like a TV airing of a football match. This means that this version has a lot more content in terms of clubs, modes and stadiums. It also has a slightly different feel to it. The main difference to me was the passing, it felt much more reliable than in ISS2, making the game more enjoyable to me. This is a fun, decent football game. The series ended here as MLS gave an exclusive license to FIFA after this. Looking into this game, this is seemingly based on Winning Eleven 4/ISS Pro Evolution, and not Winning Eleven 5/Pro Evolution Soccer. Fun Remake or remaster? There are other football games to look at. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get MLS ExtraTime 2002.

By August 2003 (in Japan), the GameCube had five Resident Evil games. It's really strange how they didn't spread them out a bit more. I don't think that Eternal Darkness controls would have worked with the amount of camera cuts within rooms, though - Eternal Darkness had a moving camera, which meant no disorienting cuts (which would re-set the controls) inside rooms (the Scooby Doo N64 game I played is pretty much how ED style controls would work in Resident Evil). On another note, in terms of playing the games, I had to dig out my actual GameCube to play a game that my PC couldn't handle (even expensive gaming rigs these days can't run it properly). It is significantly worse (in terms of emulation performance) than every other GameCube game, though, so I shouldn't have an issue with anything else.

Resident Evil Turn out the lights. Lock the doors… Live the Nightmare. JP release: 22nd March 2002 NA release: 30th April 2002 EU release: 13th September 2002 Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom NGC Magazine Score: 89% Mods Used: Texture Pack With the GameCube, Nintendo wanted to appeal to mature gamers more than they had done previously, and part of this was striking up a strong partnership with Capcom. Nintendo managed to get them to not only make new Resident Evil games exclusive to the GameCube, but also bring over the previous main games to their platform. For the first Resident Evil, Capcom weren’t happy with just porting it over, and wanted to see what graphics they could get out of the GameCube, so decided to completely make the game from scratch – REmake, as fans call it. On top of the graphics, they added cut areas, made tweaks and readjusted the dialogue (which sadly means they got rid of the wonderful “Jill Sandwich” line and replaced it with something that is more awkward and less amusing). And they managed to make something absolutely gorgeous. Even when I turned the mod I used off, it still looked great (just pixelated as it was made for standard definition). A lot of this isn’t just the pre-rendered backgrounds alone, but how well they managed to sell them as fully 3D environments that the characters were actually walking around. This was achieved by some masterful lighting and shadow techniques, with flickering electric lights, dancing flames from candles and lightning all having an effect on how each “scene” looks, with realistic looking shadows completely selling the effect that this is a living, breathing world, and not a painting. With how much effort was put into the graphics and the knowledge that this is a beloved classic, I’m really sad that I really can’t get into the game itself. I’m not a fan of the fixed camera angles or the tank controls, but what made me tear my hair out was the inventory. I fully understand that a limited inventory (six or eight slots, depending on your choice of character) is vital for survival horror, and that managing weapons, herbs and ammo is a big part of the series. Those things I don’t have an issue with, as balancing what you take with you is a vital part of the game. They even adjusted things for the REmake, making things like defensive items not take up inventory space. I really think they went the wrong way round with this, though. Those defensive items should use up inventory space. Instead, the main thing that shouldn’t need inventory space are quest items. As I played, I got more and more frustrated with the extra backtracking because I didn’t have the right puzzle items in my inventory, or that my inventory was full and you can’t throw stuff away to make space. In these instances, you have to backtrack to a save room to adjust your inventory. It’s a shame, as I know there’s a brilliant game hidden here. I can see the greatness myself, and there’s so much wonderful stuff. I just personally can’t get over the movement and inventory, and that fault is on me. Fine Remake or remaster? It’s a shame that Capcom lost the original renders, because the original work in a higher resolution would likely look better than upsacled backgrounds, and they could properly render them in widescreen. It would also be interesting to see a full remake in the style of the newer remakes. Official Ways to get the game The HD version of Resident Evil games are available on PC, Switch, PS4/5 and Xbox One/Series. The lighting and colours look a little bit off and the widescreen mode is just horribly zoomed in.

The name 2K Games came around later, when Take 2 bought the rights (and developer) off Sega, so it probably did start off as a way to shorten it (although from 2K10 onwards it isn't exactly shorter).

NBA 2K2 This Dynasty is for Real. NA release: 20th March 2002 JP release: N/A EU release: N/A Developer: Visual Concepts Publisher: Sega NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: Widescreen Hack Outside of EA’s FIFA and Madden, the biggest name in sports games these days is 2K Games, who have even branched out and publish non-sports games like BioShock, Mafia and X-Com. But they weren’t always part of publishing giant Take Two – they were originally part of Sega, with the 2K and Sega Sports branding being used for more simulation-like sports games, separate from their more arcade-like titles. After they lost the NFL license and sales of other sports games (like NBA 2K) started dwindling, they sold the developer and brand to Take Two. NBA 2K2 definitely nails the simulation type of basketball, which means that, even with all fouls turned off, I could not figure out a way to defend at all, and matches just end up being taking turns to score. I’m sure those who are much more into basketball can perform much better at this, but it’s not for me. There are an impressive amount of options and modes, and the creation tools allow for inventing your own team fairly easily. There’s also an additional “street” mode, which features outside courts and lower player counts (you can choose how many per team). The gameplay itself doesn’t change, but it’s still a fun little addition. NBA 2K2 is probably a great game for those fully into basketball, but isn’t friendly to those that aren’t that knowledgeable about it. Fine Remake or remaster? I’m not sure what the current games are like. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get NBA 2K2.

Rave Master An all out slugfest featuring allies, rivals, Rave and even Shadowstones!! JP release: 20th March 2002 NA release: 8th March 2005 EU release: N/A Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami NGC Magazine Score: 69% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack Rave Master (or The Groove Adventure Rave for a direct translation of the original Japanese name) is an anime all about a kid that saves an old man and inherits the powers of “Rave” and sets out on a journey to collect special stones. I’d never heard anything about it, but with all the music-related terms, I was expecting something a bit more musical – perhaps that’s something that was lost when adapting it into a game. The game itself is an arena fighter, a trend started by Power Stone, and something that was a trend at this point in time. I’ve only played a few terrible ones (Tom & Jerry and Powerpuff Girls) so it was nice to find one that was quite enjoyable. What makes this work well are the items available, with you having weapons and three slots for powers (which, with the right combinations, allow for some powerful attacks). Each weapon has a very different feel to it, which really helps the basic two kinds of attacks and creates some much needed variety. In story mode, you get text-based dialogue between each mission, enhanced by portraits and stills. The main character’s story (Rave Master Haru) is what seems to be an adaptation of the overall story of the show, while the other four are side adventures, such as Elie, who sets off on a humorous mission of trying to find out who took a photo of her while bathing. The graphics are also colourful and capture the 2D artwork quite well. While it doesn’t take long to see everything, it’s all still good fun, and wonderfully frantic when four people are on the screen battling for their weapons of choice. Short and sweet. Fun Remake or remaster? It’s fun, but I imagine there are better games in the genre. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Rave Master.

Home Run King Going, Going, Gone! NA release: 19th March 2002 JP release: N/A EU release: N/A Developer: Wow Entertainment Publisher: Sega NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: Widescreen Hack With the fun sounding name and Sega at the helm, I was expecting something much closer to Sega Soccer Slam. Instead, this is a fairly regular baseball game. It does, however, have one big difference to all the other baseball games I’ve played: I could actually perform well. One big difference is that the CPU isn’t perfect, they won’t catch everything you hit, and they won’t hit the ball into the perfect gaps in your fielders every single time. Batting is more lenient and a lot of fun, with home runs being easier to perform. When fielding, there’s a nice target to help you get your players to the right place, and it felt like I had good control over what they did. The time the ball spends in the air seems to be a bit longer than other baseball games (and players seem to run to bases slower), but the game still feels fast-paced and the additional time allows you to plan what you’re doing. The visual flair when strikes and no balls happen also makes it very clear what is happening in the game, and there are multiple effects for the home run text, which may seem like nothing, but it’s a little thing that just makes it look so much nicer. It may not be as in depth as other baseball games, but I enjoyed this far more than any other. Fun Remake or remaster? I don’t know about current Baseball games, but this seems like a good balance between seriousness and enjoyment. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Home Run King.

Thanks, I've ordered one. Looks nice with plenty of extra buttons for various screenshot/emulator functions.

Are 8-Bit Do controllers still good? I'm looking at getting a controller more suited for 2D games, but still with plenty of features for lots of remapping if needed. I'm looking at this one at the moment:

Sega Soccer Slam Are you tough enough? NA release: 18th March 2002 JP release: 26th September 2002 EU release: 18th October 2002 Developer: Black Box Games Publisher: Sega NGC Magazine Score: 67% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack As I’ve been playing through N64 and GameCube games, I’ve played plenty of over the top arcade style sports games – but it’s surprising that this is the first Football one I’ve covered. Sega Soccer Slam gives us a very small amount of 3 player teams (although there is a cheat for some fun costumes) for you to launch into each other. One big problem with Sega Soccer Slam is that tackling is far too easy, so you can get the ball off your opponent with zero problems. The CPU is nowhere near as aggressive, so you’ll end up having high scoring one side games with no issue. The flashy effects also don’t feel like they have much weight to them, the super special shots (down by shooting while in a spotlight) seem to be saved more than regular goals, and the crazy glowing special moves don’t seem to change gameplay much. After the GameCube version came out, Sega Soccer Slam was then ported to PS2 and Xbox with upgrades, which were then included in the European version of the game. One significant addition is the challenge mode. Here, you can mix and match characters from any team, along with a colour so they still all match. Complete a few matches and you’ll win a new character to build up three additional teams. It’s a fun mode and it’s a shame the “pick any three characters” mode isn’t an option for multiplayer matches. Another addition are a couple of minigames, one is a “hot potato” where you have to dribble the ball as long as possible, but get rid of it before it exposes, and the other is a surprisingly fun fighting game using the mechanics of the main game. It’s’ far better than some licensed arena fighters I’ve played, and a fun little addition. These extra things give you something to work for while on your own, and some nice extra modes to play between matches. Another neat idea that Sega Soccer Slam has is a way to team up: instead of controlling a team, you can control individual players, so you and two friends can take on the quest as a squad, or it can be used to spice up a four player match, making this something great for multiplayer. I definitely know that there are at least two much better arcade-like football games on GameCube. Fun Remake or remaster? Mario did this much better. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Sega Soccer Slam.

It's a load of fun, especially Dennis Hopper.

It's from the a writer whose most recent games are Forspoken, Battlefield Hardline and Uncharted 3.

NFL Blitz 2002 Real Teams, Real Players, Real Attitude! NA release: 18th March 2002 EU release: N/A JP release: N/A Developer: Point of View Publisher: Midway NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: Widescreen Hack Another American Football game, retaining the arcade action of the previous games. Well, mostly, the gameplay is simplified, yet this doesn’t seem to have the frenzy of some of the previous games, feeling rather sluggish instead This version also doesn’t have many features. The fun creation tools of NHL Hitz haven’t made an appearance here, and the minigames have not made a re-appearance. This is a bare bones update. Fine Remake or remaster? This kind of silly sports game should come back Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get NFL Blitz 2002

International Superstar Soccer 2 Victory pass line shining on the pitch! JP release: 14th March 2002 EU release: 3rd May 2002 NA release: N/A Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami NGC Magazine Score: 83% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack When International Superstar Soccer 2000 came out on N64, over on PS1 and PS2,Konami decided to start the naming from scratch, giving the games numbers instead of dates. I can only guess that this was done to try and get more long-term sales, as people don’t want a sports game from an older date, so someone may see this on a store shelf and not know it’s older. The “next gen” versions also seem to have given up on clubs, reverting back to only having international teams, giving far fewer options to the teams you can play as and the kind of tournaments you can have – even if they didn’t use the name Manchester United, fans still want to be their off-brand version. As for the core gameplay, I’m not a huge fan. Passing seems very temperamental and I found myself passing in the completely wrong direction to nobody. Players also hate trying to get into space, and seem afraid of going into the box unless you dance around in there for a bit to egg them on. This doesn’t come close to the enjoyment of the games on N64. Fine Remake or remaster? I think ISS 2000 is still the best ISS game for Konami to look back on. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get International Superstar Soccer 2.

Nobody has really tried. There was an indie game that was working in a nemesis like system (before the parent), but couldn't get it to work. Not even Monolith could get it to work in another game - the concept is kind of dependant on both the player character and enemies respawning in-universe. Many parents are very specific implementations. Like Nintendo's sanity effect patent, it requires a visible bar that increases them as it depletes.

Doshin the Giant Be a giant, do what you want! JP release: 12th March 2002 EU release: 20th September 2002 NA release: N/A Developer: Param Publisher: Nintendo NGC Magazine Score: 62% Mods Used: Widescreen Code Originally released on 64DD, Doshin the Giant is a game that I enjoyed but didn’t quite understand. Luckily, the GameCube version was released in Europe, so I know more about how the game works, which is definitely a good thing, although the game is also not as deep as I was hoping. Doshin the Giant is a “god” game where you control a yellow giant and help a bunch of villagers construct buildings by bringing them trees and adjusting the height of their land. You can also turn into the evil Joshin to smash stuff up, or to ward away natural disasters. Doing good or bad deeds will make you grow stronger – although only for one in-game day. The main thing I struggled with was building monuments, but the game hints at what you do a bit more here: for them to build a nice monument, you need to give them a flower, obtained by putting around seven trees close together, those trees will die but more will take their place, along with a flower – although there can only be one flower at the time. This tree mechanic is also needed to keep areas green and alive – as all the trees will die over time, you need to keep things refreshed for the villagers. Building the different monuments is also quite simple, the flags in a village indicate the group living there, with different tribes having different colours. Getting the different monuments built (which is the main objective of the game) is a case of smashing the old one, moving some villagers around, getting a flower, waiting for them to build the new monument and repeat. I had envisioned in my head a system where they would build different ones based on the actions you perform, but the reality is far simpler. There aren’t that many ways the villagers need your help, either. They either want a tree, want an object moved from where they’re building (usually the tree you just placed) or want the land levelling, which can be a massive problem, especially if lots of villagers need stuff adjusting, as fixing one area will make the others unhappy. Luckily, you do get a massive amount of hearts, although the bigger you get, the more difficult it is to avoid trampling and killing the villagers. For Doshin’s transition to GameCube, there are a few changes. First of all, nothing from the rather strange expansion is included, which is understandable. The map is also smaller, probably so the game doesn’t eat up an entire memory card. There are some enhancements, though, as the game (especially the water) looks much nicer and there are more animals and building designs to make the world much more vibrant, with the villagers having cattle and birds flying around and hunting fish. The camera controls also let you more closely look at what the villagers are doing. As it stands, Doshin the Giant is the only 64DD game to be remastered or re-released in some form, although a few portions of the Mario Artist series did inspire other things like Miis and WarioWare. While shallow, it’s still an extremely charming game that’s well suited to giving it the odd go every now and then. Fun Remake or remaster? A remastered version would make for a lovely little downloadable title that you can open up every now and then. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Doshin the Giant.

SpyHunter Prepare to be Hunted NA release: 12th March 2002 EU release: 28th June 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Paradigm, Point of View Publisher: Midway NGC Magazine Score: 55% Mods Used: Widescreen Code The original Spy Hunter took the concept of James Bond games and made a fun arcade game about it, which got its own sequel. This version, SpyHunter (no space this time) is kind of a reboot, but does mention that the person inside the car is the same as the original arcade game. However, in the previous few years, James Bond games had ramped up, including its own vehicle based game in 007 Racing. Can the homage do a better job than the original? Well, sort of, as 007 Racing was abysmal and SpyHunter is just bad. The biggest problem by far is that there’s no sense of speed and that there’s no spectacle. Destroying enemies doesn’t feel satisfying. If those things had been done right, then you can kind of forgive a game for shallow gameplay, but shallow gameplay is all there is. The 12 levels (plus two training levels) are all linear affairs where you have to complete a main objective (usually blowing up stuff) and some side objectives (blow up more stuff or collect stuff). None of them are much fun to complete, and it’s very easy to completely miss an object as everything in a level just merges together. I also discovered a handy trick for the few escort sections: rush forward and completely ignore them, as enemies will only attack them when you’re close. The GameCube version also has awkward controls. The game was designed around four shoulder buttons and they were adjusted to the GameCube’s three without much thought. Originally the bottom shoulder buttons fire offensive (right) and defensive (left) weapons, which match the HUD, and the top shoulder buttons swap between the different offensive/defensive weapons. For the GameCube, R is to fire offensive weapons, L is to change offensive weapons and you need to hold Z to do the same for defensive weapons, which feels very awkward. I think it would have been slightly better to have L and R to fire, then holding Z to change. SpyHunter also faced an additional problem on GameCube: it came out after Agent Under Fire, which featured a few Bond vehicle sections that are far better than anything offered by SpyHunter. Overall, SpyHunter is a fairly dull but functional driving game with a bit of shooting involved. The levels all feel the same, and even all the music is similar throughout the game – oddly, almost every bit of music is based on the theme tune of an American detective show called Peter Gunn, which ran from 1958 to 1961. The GameCube never got the two sequels to this SpyHunter (the third of which lets you play as Dwayne Johnson). Poor Remake or remaster? A complete collection of the Spy Hunter games wouldn’t be bad. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get SpyHunter

I was going to make a comment about him being surprised about the Braid remaster selling poorly, but that's a different asshole indie developer.

I'd be doing the PS1, Saturn and PSP versions of Symphony of the Night. The collections collection doesn't seem badly priced, so I'll keep an eye out for an offer. Edit: oh, I already have the Anniversary Collection.

I still have a while left with GameCube gsmes, but I've started sorting out my list, and I've added a few fun extras. With the GBA/DS ones, would you recommend the originals or the collections? (Some games I will play different versions of, like full remakes or significantly different content, I've sorted out all the versions of SotN).