Cube

Pac-Man World 2 The ghosts have unleashed the evil Spooky. Pac-Man must save Pac-Land again. NA release: 12th March 2002 EU release: 21st March 2003 JP release: N/A Developer: Namco Publisher: Namco NGC Magazine Score: 70% Mods Used: Widescreen Code With Namco’s dislike of the N64, Nintendo gamers never got the first Pac-Man World. With it being much easier to port between the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, though, Namco not only supported it a lot more, but even developed multiple games for Nintendo. The Pac-Man World games are a series of enjoyable 3D platformers. They don’t quite reach the heights of Mario or Banjo, but aren’t bad. One thing I did like was how much it captured the feel of Pac-Man. There’s an obscene amount of pellets to collect in each level, often laid out in maze-like patterns. Instead of being tedious to collect, there is an oddly compulsive nature to them and I found myself wanting to collect them – even though there’s not much of a reward other than getting a slice of health for every 50 you eat up. There’s also a load of fruit hidden around the level. Like the pellets, these aren’t an annoying way to gate progress, but at the same time, there’s also no reward, it’s purely for a high score. Yet, even though I don’t care about high scores, I still wanted to hunt for them. Pac-Man controls quite well, and the ledge grab helps with some of the more difficult platforming sections. His ground pound is quite satisfying to use as it makes Pac-Man bounce back up, and you can repeatedly pound the ground. You can also charge up a dash, although I found this to be a bit unreliable. The camera works well for the most part, but sometimes it takes away some of your control or gets stuck so you can’t fully turn it around. Still, this only happens on occasion, so it’s still a lot of fun to make your way around the linear levels. Also hidden in the levels are Galaxian keys, these open up mazes to play. These play like classic arcade Pac-Man, but each with its own layout and a visual style based on the level you’re on. They’re a great reward for exploring away from the main path, and you can also try for a high score by replaying them in the arcade in Pac-Village. There are also a few levels that mix things up. The ice skating and rollerblade levels are fast paced and a lot of fun, although the underwater levels are extremely slow and tedious and go on for way, way too long – and they’re all in the row, with two swimming levels where you automatically move forward immediately followed by two slow arcade style shoot-em-up levels. They should have been spread out more to change the pace throughout the game. One additional collectible hidden in levels are Namco tokens, which unlock some classic Pac-Man arcade games. Pac-Man It’s classic Pac-Man, a faithful port that was also used in Namco Museum. Pac-Attack A falling block puzzle game. You place ghosts, fruit and walls, and then put Pac-Man down in a position to gobble it up. It’s an interesting way to integrate Pac-Man gameplay into a puzzle game, but I wasn’t fond of it. Pac-Mania My first impressions of Pac-Mania was that it was a version of Pac-Man that was far too zoomed in with an awkward isometric view. However, this version focuses much more on the chase aspects, and skilled use of the jump mechanic is vital to evading the ghosts. It’s a fun mix up to the classic Pac-Man formula. Ms. Pac-Man Like Pac-Man, this port is identical to what is seen in Namco Museum. It’s a better version of the original Pac-Man. — Overall, Pac-Man World 2 is a very enjoyable game. It looks great and the classic ditties being used for level completion is lovely. The rest of the music is a bit annoying (one level – Butane Pain – I had to check if it was playing wrong due to how bad it was, but it really is that bad), which is the only complaint with the presentation, as it looks lovely and the sound effects are satisfying. Fun Remake or remaster? A remastered collection of 2 and 3 would be nice, as this still looks nice, so it doesn’t need a full remake as much as the first game. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Pac-Man World 2.

Reading your Castlevania stuff, perhaps I should consider doing a franchise that I've barely touched at some point...

Young Jedi Adventures seemed like a decent young kids show when I threw it on for Ollie (although he doesn't watch much TV at all at the moment, although we buy lots of Bluey stuff because we like it).

A USB stick might be better, but they should be able to do that. They may have trouble with the webp, so here's it in its original png https://djcube.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/gexposter.png The resolution isn't great, which is why I suggested a small print.

A local print shop would probably be the best bet for a one-off job.

I love how they're moaning about criticism regarding lack of effort by mentioning something they've added that they haven't talked about before. All they've shown is emulated footage with basic widescreen support (which stretches the HUD) that all emulators do. But I wouldn't expect anything different from the con artists running Limited run. Edit @Glen-i you could look at getting a smaller one printed on some nice postcard-size card: https://limitedrungames.com/cdn/shop/files/gex-trilogy-limited-run-games-poster.png

Possibly. The GameCube did have a lot of Bond games. I will point out when we reach the European launch in terms of the first game to be released in any region after it. Still have another 10 or so games before we get there, though.

Agent Under Fire When the world needs a hero, James Bond answers the call. NA release: 12th Match 2002 EU release: 14th June 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: EA Redwood Shores Publisher: EA NGC Magazine Score: 70% Mods Used: Reloaded After The World is Not Enough, EA decided that sticking to the schedule of James Bond films wasn’t suited to them, So instead of making a Die Another Day film, EA instead opted to create some brand new Bond adventures, starting with Agent Under Fire. Another notable thing is the lack of Pierce Bronson, instead using a unique design that kind of blends all the Bonds together. Agent Under Fire still sticks to the first person shooter format, as the game originally began development as a PS2 version of The World Is Not Enough, which would have been the fourth completely different version of that game. The levels in Agent Under Fire are really well made, offering alternative routes through the use of gadgets. The stealth mechanics aren’t very deep, but are quite fun, and the shooting mechanics are well done, along with the introduction of “Bond Moves”, where you can use parts of the level to your advantage to take out enemies in satisfying ways. Vehicles are also brought into the mix, with a few really enjoyable driving sections, taking place on semi-open maps. The handling feels great and I would actually quite enjoy a whole game based around this – unfortunately we just have the atrocious 007 Racing. It’s a bit strange that there are pickups around the map, rather than just something Q installed in the car, but these are still a blast. The on-rails vehicle sections, however, are not much fun. These seem to go on forever, and while there are a few cool set pieces (like blowing up a petrol station with a helicopter near it), they come across as rather bland. The worst of these is the tank section, clearly only included because GoldenEye had a tank, with Bond conveniently finding one after crashing into a random building in the middle of a city. Agent Under Fire has an enjoyable story, with one major oddity. Bond is not his usual suave womanising self in this, but instead comes across as a creep as he gets caught out due to ogling women multiple times, and even R (EA went all in on Bond’s joke, even though this Q is based more on Desmond Llewelyn’s Q) uses this quirk to trick Bond. The overall plot about clones is still good and has some surprise twists. Agent Under Fire set up a good start for EA’s original Bond adventures. Fun Remake or remaster? The reloaded mod is a great fan remastering, but an official remaster and rerelease of EA’s Bond games would be wonderful to see. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Agent Under Fire.

All-Star Baseball 2003 Where The Stars Play NA release: 7th Match 2002 JP release: 8th August 2002 EU release: N/A Developer: Acclaim Studios Austin Publisher: Acclaim Sports NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: Widescreen Hack From what I can tell, this is mostly the same game as last year’s with some slight tweaks. Looking at reviews elsewhere, the AI was apparently the massive change this time around, although I’m not savvy enough on baseball to be able to notice stuff like that. The game did feel slightly nicer to play, and the atmosphere felt more like a sporting event, even if strikes and outs were still very muted, and on close calls you have no idea what’s happened until the next batter comes out. While I was able to actually score some runs, it also turned out that this is one of the downsides of the overhauled AI. I found that if I went long, the CPU would always catch it, no matter how far away they were, while hitting short I could slowly trickle runs by going one base at a time. Every now and then, the people on other bases would mess up and choose not to run on their own accord, which is quite annoying. When checking reviews elsewhere, I discovered that the AI doesn’t target first base and provides leniency for this tactic to work. Fine Remake or remaster? Sports games evolve over time. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get All-Star Baseball 2003.

Getting Split Fiction for my birthday a little over a month after launch is the closest I've had a game to release day in years. Even then, I tend to ask for discounted games for gifts rather than getting them myself. Getting over the hype of playing a game early has been a great thing for me. Having little interest in online (which was further reduced by costs) has also helped. And on top of this, there's also the issues that many games have at launch, with more stuff added over time, so you're getting a better first experience by waiting. When games promise years of content updates, my reaction is more "oh, I can wait to then and play the full thing". Costs are also why I do my lists, playing lots of old games with the occasional new game. And enjoying older games has made me realise that it doesn't matter when I play a game. Also, for using "commercially available technology", Split Fiction is the first game of this generation that has properly wowed me visually.

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy The journey into darkness continues! NA release: 6th Match 2002 EU release: 19th July 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Midway Games West Publisher: Midway NGC Magazine Score: 25% Mods Used: Widescreen Code It’s quite amazing how much a control scheme can affect a game. While I enjoyed Gauntlet Legacy for a short while on N64 (it’s a game that’s better with more people), it wasn’t that long until I gave up. Dark Legacy is, for the most part, an enhanced version of the same game, but it plays much better if you pick the right settings. You see, the good control scheme isn’t the default or even the second option. Scroll through the control schemes and there will be one called “Robotron”, this allows you to aim independently of moving. Not only does this make aiming feel much more comfortable, but it also grants you the ability to move and attack at the same time, with a reduced rate of fire and a slower walking speed. These simple changes open up the gameplay a lot for positioning and defending yourself, and thus makes the enjoyment last much longer. I do think that not picking this control option is partly responsible for NGC’s magazine’s rather unfair 25% review score of Dark Legacy. The rest of the game is similar to Gauntlet Legends, you shoot your way through levels destroying enemies and their spawning generators, kind keys to unlock chests and doors, and looking for secrets. Crystals are needed to open levels, golden icons to open parts of the hub world, runestones are hidden and used to open the final portal, and legendary weapons are used to help defeat bosses. On top of all that, there’s a manner of special weapons, magic potions, and gold to find along the way. There are plenty of annoyances, though. The biggest is the camera, which is far too zoomed in, so you’re often shooting at things off-screen. There also isn’t a chance to mix up the gameplay slightly by using different classes, as swapping your character means starting the game from scratch. There’s even some outfits that are only unlocked by cheat code (which also means starting from the beginning), it would have been nice to unlock these and swap without having to reset everything. When playing with three others, some of the players could play around with picking different characters and swap to unlockable ones, as long as there’s a single designated player to keep to the same character and allow for keeping progress. Playing on my own, I made it as far as the 6th world (out of 8). While I still had no trouble getting to the end of the levels, the game had grown too tedious to continue. Enemies streamed out of generators at a rate that took multiple minutes to get through, and the stronger enemies took ages to kill. With four players, this would be much more manageable, but it’s still a lot of fun. Fun Remake or remaster? A cleaned up version of this game, with the ability to change characters and use bonus outfits without resetting progress, online multiplayer and a zoomed out camera would be a ton of fun. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get Gauntlet: Dark Legacy.

Randomly mentioned in an Xbox article, remakes of the first two Ecco the Dolphin games plus a new one is in development with the original team. Looks like the full reveal is a year away, though.

More of the latter. I don't want to do too many. Some are sequels to popular N64 games (like this, I don't think there were any plans for GameCube), but I will be covering a few that were in development for GameCube (like the Rare ones). Although only within the period of GameCube game releases (Too Human took a bit too long). So it's more ones that have a connection of sorts to Nintendo/the GameCube, but there's no strictness to it.

Both Australia and Canada were trending to the right until a month ago. Enough people don't want a repeat of America.

Shadow Man: 2econd Coming Beyond the grave begins the battle for deliverance. NA release: 28th February 2002 (PS2) EU release: 8th March 2002 (PS2) JP release: N/A Developer: Acclaim Studios Teesside Publisher: Acclaim NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: None When I was playing through All N64 Games, I came across a few interesting games which I’d heard a lot about that all happened to have next-gen sequels that I had never heard about, due to not being released on the GameCube (and not being well remembered on other platforms). As I’m intrigued about these few games, I decided to include them as a bonus – did the GameCube miss out on not having them? The first up Shadow Man: 2econd Coming, the horrendously titled (what’s wrong with 2nd Coming?) PlayStation 2 sequel to the beloved N64 Shadow Man. I absolutely adored the first game, so how does the sequel stack up, and why is it not fondly remembered? Quite simply, it’s probably because it’s not a very good game. One big change is that it no longer feels like a big interconnected world – the metroidvania aspects are gone. Instead, it feels like a few individual levels with backtracking, just following a single path with no exploration. When I reached the hub world, which seemed to be a decent size, I was hoping for those elements to come back, but it was just a small dungeon and the hub is just a round room. The levels themselves also lack the rich storytelling and horror of the first game. Everywhere in the original felt like it had an horrific purpose, and it was something you had to figure out based on what you saw. It made each location eerie yet wonderful to explore. The game is nowhere near as dark in terms of tone, although it is dark in that it is often difficult to see anything. There’s also a day and night mechanic that is just annoying. At night you get to be Shadow Man, but in the day you turn into Mike LeRoi’s human form. Which means that at night, you can use your special voodoo weapons, don’t take damage from falls, can’t drown and produce some much-needed light. In human form, Mike can push blocks, which feels like they created this day/night mechanic and needed at least one reason for people to play as Mike, so took a basic thing Shadow Man could do and gave it to his human form. In the first dungeon you do get a pocket watch that lets you switch the time of day, but this still means that you have to go through the very slow menu to change the time every 5 minutes to keep playing as Shadow Man. The character designs have also been drastically altered. In his human form, Mike being ultra buff makes it look like he and Shadow Man aren’t the same entity, and Shadow Man now being a skeleton instead of a zombie just looks naff. The side characters also look pretty bad, with Nettie now just wearing underwear and Jaunty going from an Irish man to an actual leprechaun. Even his snake form is utterly ridiculous looking. With all that said, Shadow Man 2nd Coming isn’t a bad game (awful character design aside), it just lacks everything that made the first game so special. It’s a shame to see as you can see little peeks of something that could have been special, but they seem to have been buried under troubled development. Fine Did the GameCube Miss Out? In the long run, I don’t really think so, however, it had come out at the same time as the PS2 version, it would have provided a decent action adventure game to pad out the console’s library. Remake or remaster? With the same effort as the first Shadow Man remaster, some of the annoyance could be sorted, the original character designs brought back and some much needed atmosphere to the game. There are some design documents with some cut content and other potential things to use. But without drastic changes to the level layout, it wouldn’t reach the heights of the first. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to get the game. You also have to do some hex edits to the game file if you want to emulate it properly.

An updated version of Gears of War Ultimate (now called Reloaded) is next

Jeremy McGrath Supercross World Race as or against Jeremy McGrath in this, the definitive Supercross racing and stunt game. NA release: 26th February 2002 EU release: 7th June 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City Publisher: Acclaim Max Sports NGC Magazine Score: 20% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack If you were to take screenshots of this alongside screenshots of the N64 motorbike games and ask people to guess which one was a GameCube game, they’d probably vote for Excitebike or Top Gear Hyperbike, with Supercross World getting dismissed outright. Hell, even if this was on the N64, I would be criticising the graphics due to the shoddy textures, low poly models and how none of the objects look like they’re part of the world they inhabit. Supercross World has four main modes. Baja gives you open world levels where you have to follow a giant arrow to the next checkpoint, which all seem randomly placed on the map. On more than one map, the very first jump is a large one that’s flat out impossible to make from the starting line. They’re all bland and just a horrible mishmash of textures. Indoor is the next one, taking place on small tracks inside stadiums. As the arenas are smaller, the graphics look slightly better, which really adds to how mismatched the entire game feels. With actual corners to make, you’ll also quickly realise how little control you have over the bikes and, just like the graphics, it never feels like your bike is actually on the track. The outdoor tracks kind of have the opposite problem with the graphs. Objects still look out of place, but now the off-road and track all merge together and it’s extremely difficult to tell which direction the track is going, or where the edges are. Veer off and you have a three second countdown to get back to a place close to where you left before being reset. It’s a truly horrible form of racing. The freestyle stunt mode doesn’t really have anything terrible about it, other than the wonky steering and physics, but there’s no fun or joy in pulling off stunts. To try and get some entertainment from this game, you’ll have to look outside the box. In many games, if you try to go off the map, there will be ways of stopping the player. Either there will be a natural barrier, some fences or blockades stopping your progress, some have invisible walls and others fade you to black to reset you. Supercross World has its own special way. You see, if you try to drive off the map in Baja, you and your bike will get flung back across the map at high speed, as you hurtle in the air for miles until you crash, and then reset close to where you landed. It’s really silly and doesn’t gel with the rest of the game (a common theme), but it’s still by far the best thing about the game, even if it does get boring after the first time. Worst Remake or remaster? Remaster the good ones like Excitebike 64. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play Jeremy McGrath Supercross World.

Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest Be the King of Cubivores! Got Meat? JP release: 21st February 2002 NA release: 5th November 2002 EU release: N/A Developer: Saru Brunei, Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo (JP), Atlus (NA) NGC Magazine Score: 76% Mods Used: Widescreen Code Originally an N64 title called Animal Leader, Cubivore is a very strange game where the objective is to bring wilderness back to the land and defeat the Killer Cubivore to become the King of All Cubivores. The animals are made up of cube-like heads while their limbs comprise of squares in many different layouts to create different forms – called mutations – you can use to your advantage. You start off as a little piggy with one limb. As you battle and eat other cubivores, you’ll gain their colour, which alters your form. Throughout the game you’ll get more limbs, and specific combinations for colours will create new mutations. These various mutations affect how you move, how you attack and how much health you have. There’s also some special type of colours – such as ones with streaks of dark colour – that provide additional benefits. In order to get more limbs, you’re going to have to mate and produce a child, which always has an extra limb. You do this by entering a heart-shaped cave and, based on how many mutations you have, you’ll attract a certain number of female cubivores (which you never see out in the open). Some of these will give birth and you’ll be able to select a new “e-z mutate” form for your offspring, which will then let you morph into that shape whenever you want. These love caves are placed at specific places throughout the game, so you always have to advance at the same places for each playthrough. To progress, you’ll also need to create special parts called “Raw Meat”, which are usually held by powerful bosses. These bosses have rather bizarre names like the “Shoplifter Beast”, “CEO Beast” or “Neighbourhood Watch Beast”. Combat is simple, but also extremely tough. You hold L to charge your lock-on and press A to pounce. Enemies are really good at dodging and you need to get good at it, too. Evading attacks is especially important when you’re up against multiple foes, as they can essentially stunlock you and you’ll be unable to compete. I found the combat rather frustrating by the end. The structure of the game is also a bit strange. You’ll improve your Cubivore before getting killed off as the next “animal”, starting from a single limb again and going through the same set of levels (although with large changes) multiple times. It’s still nice to discover the new mutations, and the bosses and new groups of enemies you face still keep things interesting. The fact that Cubivore was mainly developed for the N64 is very evident in the final product. While the cube and square nature of the animals look great, the environments are all a bit drab. I really don’t like how they’ve used textures with detail on the cube-like environment, it’s an odd mishmash where something much simpler would look much nicer. The camera is also stuck in its N64 form, clearly made for the c-buttons, as a press moves the camera a set amount. The camera also tends to leave your cubivore out of frame in battles, and it adds to the frustration. Cubivore is a frustrating game that still manages to have a lot of charm, in both the character designs and the rather bizarre text in the game. It’s such a strange game that it’s definitely worth trying out, even if you don’t finish it – especially as the task of doing so requires you to discover 150 mutations, which is a bit difficult for me due to mixing up some of the colours. It’s an absolutely fascinating game. Fun Remake or remaster? A remake would be wonderful. Improve the camera, make the graphics more coherent and add a bit of flair in terms of particle effects and water, then it could look magnificent. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest.

18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker Join the convoy! NA release: 20th February 2002 EU release: 31st May 2002 JP release: 12th September 2002 Developer: Sega, Acclaim Publisher: Acclaim NGC Magazine Score: 48% Mods Used: Widescreen Code Another arcade port for the GameCube, this time another fun Sega arcade game that had previously had a Dreamcast release. At its heart, it’s an arcade racer, but having to account for the large load behind your vehicle does add a surprising amount of weight to the gameplay. You have to deliver cargo across four routes, although you can go for a higher score by selecting heavier and more difficult cargo. Along the way you’ll smash through traffic and take some alternate routes. Most cars will slow you down but taking out a fireworks van will net you extra time. You also have a rival that ploughs through everything like a madman, but is also handy for getting you a slip stream boost. You don’t have to beat them, but you do get bonus points for doing so, as well as access to a parking minigame that gets you an upgrade. While some new tracks would have made this port more worthwhile, there’s at least a few additional stuff beyond the main arcade mode. There’s an expanded version of the parking minigame, where you have to park in multiple stops in a small arena, which requires getting used to reversing. There’s also a race mode where you smash into bonus cars for extra points. While there’s not much to it, it’s still fun while it lasts. I think it’s a shame not much was added for this version to make it more substantial, but at least there’s a few little things to make the game last a bit longer. Fun Remake or remaster? A Sega arcade collection would be great. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker.

Smashing Drive The fare’s waiting, step on it! NA release: 18th February 2002 JP release: N/A EU release: N/A Developer: Gaelco , Point of View Publisher: Namco NGC Magazine Score: 29% Mods Used: Widescreen Code Smashing Drive is an arcade game that advertises itself like it’s some kind of Crazy Taxi competitor, talking about fares and having you drive a taxi. It’s actually an arcade racing game, one where throughout the course of the game you’ll race on top of burning buildings, jump through a helicopter, smash through offices and drive up the Empire State Building chasing King Kong and knocking him off. What’s extremely impressive about Smashing Drive is just how boring it manages to make all those moments. Everything feels like it’s “on rails”, like a Star Fox 64-style of game where all you do is drive left and right. Your objective is to make it to the end of the course before the time runs out while also beating your rival racer. Your rival seems to vary in speed based on if you take shortcuts. Stick to the main roads and you’ll probably make it to the end with time to spare, but your rival will beat you. Take shortcuts and it seems to take longer, but with your rival far behind you (so you’ll be more likely to run out of time, even though you’re in front). It just feels artificial. There’s also no spectacle to the game. The graphics would have been considered poor when the arcade game originally came out in 2000, and the sound effects lack punch. Couple this with a soundtrack of three songs composed of someone singing with zero emphasis, and it makes for an incredibly muted experience. Making things worse is how slow your car is, so there’s no sense of speed. This is also just an arcade port without anything new brought to the table for the home release, so you can see everything in half an hour. A few years after the GameCube release, it was also ported to the Game Boy Advance. While the graphics were blocker (and pedestrians removed, although they have zero impact on the game and you can’t hit them), it’s the entire arcade game in 3D, even with the terrible songs included as well. It still doesn’t make it a good game, but it’s interesting to see how they put the full experience on the GBA. Worst Remake or remaster? It’s something Arcade Archives could have. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play Smashing Drive. (Here's the GBA version if anyone is interested)

People have started receiving this and there's a suspicion that Limited Run have overwritten some old cartridges.

NBA Street Bring it! NA release: 17th February 2002 JP release: 22nd March 2002 EU release: N/A Developer: NuFX, EA Canada Publisher: EA Sports BIG (NA/EU), EA Square (JP) NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: Widescreen Hack With this generation of consoles, EA definitely wanted to spin off to attract the “cool” demographic, which meant more “hip” versions of their sports games. First up was basketball. While the style and atmosphere of the game is new, EA looked backwards for inspiration for the gameplay, most notably NBA Jam (which, incidentally, EA would eventually own), even going as far as implementing the same icon-based cheat system. While there’s a ton of overexaggerated moves in the game, it feels somewhat lacking. I think a lot of this is there’s no visual flair to the moves, no flames or fancy light effects. This seems to be to keep the game fit the “street” style, but it comes across as unfocused. The game is also heavily balanced in the favour of who has the ball, due to the trick system. When you have the ball, you can hold the shoulder buttons and press a button to perform a trick, which knocks down any nearby defenders. There’s no counter to these, so being close to someone with the ball is just a way to give them more trick points. I found the only strategy was just running to your hoop and trying to jump up at the right time to catch the ball, and you’ll easily work out a method to score every time you have the ball. Performing tricks and earning trick points builds up a “gamebreaker”. If you score while this metre is full, you’ll also deduct points from your opponent. NBA Street has a singleplayer campaign where you can rank up a created player (which has extremely limited options), unlock special teams and some new courts. The court designs are rather nice, taking place in rural locations. Hopefully the sequels add a little bit more to the gameplay. Fine Remake or remaster? It would be nice to see these games return. They’d be perfect as smaller, downloadable titles. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play NBA Street (For games that NGC Magazine didn't review, I've started trying to find other reviews for a quote)

Virtua Striker 2002 Win the Road to International Cup, and create your own best team. JP release: 14th February 2002 EU release: 20th May 2002 NA release: 24th May 2002 Developer: Amusement Vision Publisher: Sega NGC Magazine Score: 55% Mods Used: None Virtua Striker 2002 is a home port of the arcade football game Virtua Striker 3. Unlike many arcade ports, this has a lot added to it – including a comprehensive 4-years “road to International Cup” management mode where you have to train your players, play practice matches and try to make it to the next totally not World Cup. Get a high enough score in the ranked mode (or download a save file) and you can also play as some fun bonus teams, and there’s a really good training mode there as well. What really lets the game down, though, is the gameplay itself. You don’t have full control of the game, as the CPU “helps” you a lot, from always choosing your selected player, deciding on the strength of your tackles, and sometimes doing stuff on your behalf. To make matters worse, controls are stick, partly due to the lack of full analogue controls as players only move in 8 directions, and passing feels disjointed. There’s also some annoying arcade “features” still in the gameplay, such as only giving you a few seconds to decide on how to take a free kick. One strange oddity is that the AI gets extremely aggressive towards the end of the match, getting their players sent off. Although with how footballers like to big up any tackle against them, it was amusing to see Amy Rose grab her leg, get up and carry on after a vicious tackle from England. This is all a shame as clearly a ton of work has gone into all the modes and features, but the matches themselves are just frustrating to play, as it feels like you’re fighting your own team more than your opponents. The arcade version of Virtua Striker 2002 was also the first game to be released on the Triforce arcade hardware, which was built from GameCube technology. I will be looking at a few select Triforce games. Fine Remake or remaster? A Sega arcade collection would be great. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play Virtua Striker 2002.

The new update also deletes the DK profile icon and replaces with whoever it is you play as in Banaza.

Dark Summit Unlock the mystery! NA release: 5th February 2002 EU release: 24th May 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Radical Entertainment Publisher: THQ NGC Magazine Score: 51% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack One thing I love about playing through games from a particular console or franchise is being surprised by a game you never expected. Dark Summit is another “edgy” extreme sports game that got middling reviews. When I first started playing, I kind of got the same vibe, but the more I played, the more I loved it, and in the end I was absolutely enthralled by it. Unlike other extreme sports games that went into the edgy direction, it didn’t do it by being rude or crass, instead it did something more unique. Dark Summit takes place on Mt. Garrick, a ski resort that has been taken over for the military, with a dark secret being hidden by them. All the skiers seem to be part of keeping it covered up, and snowboarding is massively frowned upon. You play a new snowboarder in the area, who quickly gets wrapped up in the snowboarding resistance fighters. The story is only told in a few brief cutscenes and you get some snippets from the challenges being described to you, so it never gets in the way of the game, but gives it its own feel. This also extends to the slopes, which all take place on a single mountain, with you unlocking more paths as you go on. Each area feels like its own thing – different paths focus on elements like a ski jump, stunt track and half-pipe – while still being part of a connected world, with danger and keep out signs everywhere, a distressed look and a dark and foreboding atmosphere, which is oddly appealing to skate through, especially as you smash through things and watch everything snap and fly down the mountain with you. When you reach a starting point for an earlier part of the level, you can choose to get into the chairlift. You can also do this from the pause menu at ant point (one handy feature is you can also return to the start of your last challenge). Despite it, I went all the way down to the bottom of the mountain every single time – even after I’d gotten the required points to unlock all the equipment and outfits (most of which are minor variations of each other). There’s lots of different paths to take and I was still discovering newthings near the bottom towards the end of the game. The secrets of the mountain are dumb in an amusing way, but the game does kind of end abruptly, barely even having a final cutscene before going to the credits and back to the main menu. You then unlock the other snowboarders you meet as playable characters. These control extremely well, as they start with the best equipment and have no outfits. They don’t change the game, although at the very least the original character takes their spot. There are also a few oddities surrounding the game. The GameCube version seems to be a slightly earlier build than the PS2 and Xbox versions, despite being released later. It also has an “only for” sticker on it in North America indicating it was a GameCube exclusive when it wasn’t. I also found someone discussing the cheats on GameFAQs, which has had incorrect cheats for decades. It’s difficult to describe just how compelling I found Dark Summit. It was bashed and ignored when it came out and is barely remembered now, so I wasn’t expecting much from it, but from the moment the controls clicked to the game ending, I absolutely loved it. Fave Remake or remaster? I’d love a more cleaned up version with a bit more of a finale. Perhaps add in a character creator as well. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play Dark Summit.