Cube

@Dcubed @Glen-i is this from a gameplay perspective or story perspective? Because if the former is the problem, I can use cheats to put up with it.

And, if you have a BIOS linked, you get the startup sound as well.

Tales of Symphonia Good lord, this one took a very long time. And there were a load of side quests that I didn't do as well. That said, even though I was ready to be done well before the end, I still very much enjoyed it. The combat not being turn based was a very pleasant surprised and I found manual mode to be the best way to play. It's also interesting that you could have friends join you in the fights, although it would be a lot of doing nothing between the fights (I suppose you could take turns of walking around). I found the combat to be quite enjoyable, although some bosses were crazy with damage. The story and characters I also liked a lot, and there were a lot of plot twist (and a lot of devastation that you end up causing), although also some moments of the main characters not figuring obvious stuff out too late, like when a character mentions that their shop is named after their mother - the shop having the name of a character important to Lloyd and Genis, but thankfully it's just a few little moments. The dungeons had some interesting puzzles, but they were so large with a lot of trekking back and forth to the different parts of the puzzle. And then when you get to the end, you often have to walk all the way back out as well. Some of the later quests are also a lot of ferrying back and forth (that gnome dungeon was horrible) and when you have to revisit dungeons, there's nothing new, you just walk through the completed dungeon. The characters even complain about how boring it is walking through the finished dungeons again... But still, it's a great game and I liked the characters enough that I'm tempted to check out the Wii sequel at some point.

ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 10 amazing events on Ice, Snow, and on Nintendo GameCube! JP release: 31st January 2002 NA release: 4th February 2002 EU release: 3rd May 2002 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami NGC Magazine Score: 37% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack Four years earlier, Konami produced the official Winter Olympics game but this time round, Eidos got the license instead. That didn’t stop Konami from still making a winter sports game without the Olympic license though and, just like their N64 game, it’s a small number of events that aren’t much fun. One additional issue this time round are the control explanations, which are now videos. This means you can’t read them at your own pace and have to wait as it slowly says that you have to go when it counts down and says “go”, and trying to skip to the next instruction skips the entire thing. As there are only 10 events, I may as well go through them. Downhill A basic but fairly promising start. Head down the slope, staying within the flags. It’s not terribly exciting, but it’s the best part of the game, as it controls quite well. Slalom You’d think this would be similar to the downhill, but the turning sensitivity is massively increased so you flail about uncontrollably. You need a ton of luck to finish the event, let alone set a high score. K90 Ski Jumping The instructional video explains that you need to go when the timer starts for every event in far too much detail. But when it comes to explaining complicated stuff, it lacks any detail. This just says “use L and R for balance” without telling you what any of the bars mean. I managed to get it to work once. K120 Ski Jumping This version of ski jumping is more about timing and mashing buttons. It works fine. Moguls Mash L and R to the timer, then push the sticks to perform stunts. There’s little to no feedback on if you’re doing things right. I thought I did OK, but came 8th. Oddly, I also set the 3rd best score in the leaderboard. Halfpipe Since the last Konami winter sports games, stunt based sports games have come along massively, with lots of cheap ones. So it shouldn’t be difficult to have a somewhat decent snowboarding minigame here. Instead, you have no control over movement and just select stunts and push the control stick in different directions. Speed Skating The traditional mash a and b for speed 100m style race. You have to slow down slightly on turns. This one isn’t too bad. Bobsleigh This feels very different to the rest of the sports. The bobsleigh course is quite unrealistic, which makes it more exciting, and there are boosts on the track as well. In two player, you both go down at the same time, bumping into each other. With downhill, these are the two good parts of the game. Curling Boules on ice. Matches take ages and this goes in the opposite direction of the bobsleigh, going into a full on simulation as the ice gets damaged throughout the match and impacts how the pucks move. Figure Skating It’s a simplified Dance Dance Revolution using a controller and with a couple of pieces of classical music. On top of the poor events, the game feels rather lacking in other areas. The game has set characters with different stats, none of which have any kind of personality. These kinds of games really suit creating your own characters, so it’s a shame there’s nothing like that here. Poor Remake or remaster? Mario & Sonic do a much better job. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play ESPN International Winter Sports 2002.

NBA Courtside 2002 Elevate your game. NA release: 13th January 2002 JP release: 24th March 2002 EU release: 24th May 2002 Developer: Left Field Productions Publisher: Nintendo NGC Magazine Score: 79% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack Oddly, the final NBA Courtside didn’t remind me of the previous ones on N64, but rather NBA Jam 2000. Like that, this also includes simulation and arcade modes and, as a result, doesn’t really do either of them too well. Arcade mode is 3-on-3 but doesn’t have much in the way of spectacle other than the court being on top of a building. Circles will appear at various points and heading into one and scoring will net you extra points. But the core game doesn’t feel very good. Defending is far more difficult than the previous Courtside games and your AI teammates seem to just stand idly with their arms downwards. On the flip side, passing is also much easier so you have a higher potential for scoring. For being the only basketball so far, this does the job, but it doesn’t bring anything to the table, either. Fine Remake or remaster? Better basketball games exist. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to play NBA Courtside 2002.

It's the same director, but he founded his own company for A Way Out. Plus, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is designed as a single player game, you just control two people with one controller.

I've heard that the stuttering is also a big issue on PC, but fixable with specific settings, edition ini files and messing with DLLs.

Cel Damage 10 psycho toon tear it up in a wild and wacky drive ’em up adventure. NA release: 7th January 2002 EU release: 3rd May 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Pseudo Interactive Publisher: EA NGC Magazine Score: 60% Mods Used: Widescreen Code Cel Damage is a vehicular combat game with a cel-shaded view. It’s presented as a TV show where these cartoon contestants compete to smash each other to pieces. Screenshots of this game don’t do it justice as everything moves in a stunning way, from well animated characters to the vehicles themselves bending as they turn to capture the brilliant cartoon style. With mayhem flying, it’s quite wonderful. The main mode is all about causing as much damage to your enemies. Dying doesn’t have much consequence other than wasting a bit of time, and respawns are very quick. Because of this, the weapons are immensely satisfying to use – especially one hit weapons like the axe, which causes car parts to bounce around. Because getting back into the action quick, these weapons aren’t even annoying to be on the receiving end of either. It’s pure chaos, in a good way. Another fun mode is the relay race, where you go between two checkpoints multiple times, while still battling it out. Some levels have multiple potential routes, and there are traps dotted around that are very handy for this mode. The third mode has everyone figuring for flags, but that one isn’t very good. To unlock more stuff you have to win matches playing against the computer with more rules, but really the game is just more enjoyable if you unlock everything and just have fun – it is mainly designed for multiplayer, after all. Hidden in the game are also a few different rendering types – I think the “plastic” mode also works really well, and having everyone’s weapons accessible in the game instead of their own special weapon really adds to the chaos and gives you a tun of fun weapons to use. It’s silly, but also a complete blast. Fun Remake or remaster? The game was altered for the PS2 with the name Cel Damage Overdrive. They tried to “balance” things by nerfing the one-hit-kill weapons and adding a health bar. Cel Damage HD is based on that version. I tried that version a few years ago and didn’t think much of it, but enjoyed the original. Official Ways to get the game The HD version of Cel Damage Overdrive is available on Steam, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.

NFL QB Club 2002 Where the stars play. NA release: 20th December 2001 JP release: N/A EU release: N/A Developer: Acclaim Studios Austin Publisher: Acclaim Sports NGC Magazine Score: N/A Mods Used: Widescreen Hack With Madden 2002 finally teaching me some stuff to get to grips with American Football, I figured that I wouldn’t have any issues playing later American Football games. But here comes QB Club 2002 to prove me wrong on that. Once again ,I have no idea what I’m doing. While this year’s Madden not only properly teaches you plays, but also displays how they happen clearly when picking them. QB Club takes the opposite approach: only one play is shown to you, but you can select two more based on just their names. Not only is it a big step back from Madden, but it’s also a downgrade from all the N64 American Football games. The rest of the game doesn’t fare all that well, either, as not much has improved from the N64, as well as lacking features and options. After a few years of being overshadowed by Madden, combined with the issues Acclaim were having, this ended up being the last NFL Quarterback Club game. Poor Remake or remaster? This is just a bad American Football game. Official Ways to get the game There is no official way to buy NFL QB Club 2002.

Looking into it, and it seems that it worked with Tiny Chao Garden which was in Sonic Advance, Advance 2 and Pinball Party.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle High speed battle with Sonic and Shadow! JP release: 20th December 2001 NA release: 12th February 2002 EU release: 3rd May 2002 Developer: Sonic Team Publisher: Sega NGC Magazine Score: 70% Mods Used: Widescreen Code With Sega dropping support for the Dreamcast early, it was only a matter of time until Sonic appeared on a Nintendo console, and it was on an enhanced port of his latest adventure with an improved multiplayer mode and many tiny tweaks to smooth things out (such as removing the Big the Cat Easter eggs). With Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic came over to GameCube during his attitude years. Which means an amazing soundtrack, from Escape from the City to Live & Learn, alongside a snarky Sonic and a gloomy newcomer called Shadow. The story is cheesy but enjoyable, and you play through the story from two angles – the heroes and the villains – before the final part of the story and its epic finale. Each story comes with three main mission types. Sonic/Shadow have the main platforming sections, with Knuckles/Rogue having a treasure hunt and Tails/Robotnik having shooting sections. This does mean that sometimes you can go a bit too long between the proper Sonic and Shadow stages of the game, due to having too much or the other sections in the game. Not that those sections are bad. The Knuckles and Rogue sections are mini exploration levels with you hunting for three parts of the master emerald. They’re kind of like little 3D Mario style levels, where you have to use clues to locate the hidden emerald shards. They’re a nice distraction from the main event, and suit the climbing and flying of the characters well. The shooting sections for Tails and Dr Robotnik are the main issue with the game. It’s entirely focused on lock on, as there’s not really a proper aiming mechanic. These levels also tend to go on a bit too long, and they really make you long for the next Sonic level. Which brings us to the main stages. These definitely feel a bit janky now, but are still great fun. They’re full of spectacle without taking away too much control, with the more automated sections being short bursts. With some wonderful levels, from escaping a giant truck as Sonic to grinding gravity- defying rails as Shadow (who “skates” in a cool way instead of running), it’s an immense amount of fun. In addition to the main game is the Chao garden, where you hatch and raise the little animals you find within levels – a great incentive to replay them. There are some hidden types to unearth as well as training them to compete in fights and races. You can also send chao to a Game Boy Advance for extra training, although this isn’t as handy as the Dreamcast’s VMU, as you can’t turn the device off, but it gets the job done. All in all, Sonic Adventure 2 is rough around the edges but still great for the most part. There’s a lot to love and if you spend enough time perfecting the game, you unlock a neat Green Hill Zone level, a level that is still rarely seen in Sonic games. Great Remake or remaster? This game needs a bit if sprucing up and a remaster with some effort put into it. Official Ways to get the game Sonic Adventure 2 is available on Steam and Xbox, with the Battle features (Chao Karate and multiplayer extras) as additional DLC.

The Simpsons Road Rage Move your keister, Meister. NA release: 19th December 2001 EU release: 17th May 2002 JP release: N/A Developer: Radical Entertainment Publisher: EA NGC Magazine Score: 52% Mods Used: Widescreen Code The Simpsons Road Rage is a shameless rip off of Crazy Taxi. Which makes me feel somewhat guilty because I like Road Rage more than Crazy Taxi. The basic premise is identical: you’re in a taxi, pick up passengers and race to their destination before the time runs out, following the guidance of a large arrow at the top of the screen. There are a few differences. The core driving is much simpler. Spinning around and turning is very easy, but there are no special moves like Crazy Taxi’s dash. Some of the other nuances of Crazy Taxi are gone, such as how parking close but safely next to the person you pick up is important. In Road Rage, the timer pauses when picking people up, so it’s not something you have to worry about. This makes it simpler to play, so it’s easier to enjoy initially, but not as deep. But there are things it has going for it. The game captures the style of The Simpsons extremely well, with loads of references littered everywhere. And as this was made during the golden age of the show, so much stuff was a reference I still remember, even though I haven’t seen the show for many years. The voice acting is also true to the show, and while some lines do get annoying after a while, you unlock new characters at a steady pace, opening up new interactions to listen to. Which is another thing the game does right: stuff to unlock to keep you coming back. On top of the large cast of Simpsons characters, there are also six maps to unlock, covering various locations in Springfield. Some have things in small spaces, others are more spread out, and the Power Plant is just awful. Each map has plenty of shortcuts to discover to help you out, so learning the maps is still vital for a high score. One odd thing is that on the minimap, these maps are all connected, so I wonder if they were attempting having them all available in the Sunday drive mode. There’s also a woeful missions mode, only worth it for the cool extra car for Homer. While the amount of copying is appalling, it’s just so much fun that you just want one more go, especially with the destruction you cause and being able to hit Simpsons characters and watch them bounce around. Again! Fun Remake or remaster? It would be nice to see a re-release of this in a Simpsons compilation. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play The Simpsons Road Rage.

Wow, that's expensive, and it's not even the full verison.

Animal Crossing Welcome to Animal Crossing, where something happens every day-whether you’re here or not. JP release: 14th December 2001 NA release: 16th September 2002 AU release: 17th October 2003 EU release: 24th September 2004 Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo NGC Magazine Score: 90% Mods Used: Widescreen Code Animal Crossing was a game born from the 64DD. The extra space for saving games led to the idea of a game that not only grows with the player, but also grows on its own, which led to a clock being implemented into the 64DD. As development of the 64DD struggled, many features were cut for the initial Japan-only N64 release. There are a few different versions of Animal Crossing. For the original Japanese release, many of the original plans were implemented into the game, such as the museum and design shop, with the North American release adding some extra features, such as e-Reader support. The Japanese then had another release with massively increased e-Reader support (and some other changes), before finally Australia (and a year later, Europe) finally got the game, based on the North American version. While the E+ version does have an English patch, I opted for the PAL version due to understanding the holidays more and a sensible date format. Animal Crossing isn’t a game you play in a single setting, but designed more for short visits multiple times a week over a long period of time – which is how I’m playing the game to get a close to authentic experience – I’ll be refraining with messing with the clock, which the game can sometimes tell you off for doing. Interactions As you spend time on your island, you’ll meet other residents that you can talk to. These are brief conversations, and you’ll sometimes be asked stuff. One surprising thing is how mean some of the villagers can be, although they’ll likely be nice again the following day. One problem I had was that you can often get the same conversations from multiple villagers on the same day – they’re often lumped into personality types, which will act in the same way. You can also type out letters to send to the residents, where they’ll respond. No matter what, I couldn’t get a single response other than “I can’t understand you”, no matter how simple I made my letters. It just doesn’t seem to work at all. Still, it’s nice talking to them all each day, and new residents will move into your village over time. Events Events are a large part of Animal Crossing. On certain days, like Halloween or Christmas, there will be an in-game event. It’s wonderful being able to attend these events, but if you’re busy in real life, you either have to miss it completely or mess with the clock on your system. While this goes against the spirit of the game, it really is necessary to get the full enjoyment if you can only play it later on at night, as you’ll find many things closed and your residents asleep. The real time aspect of Animal Crossing is both a blessing and a curse, but I believe a middle ground could be found as the game could cater to the user more. Collecting There are lots of bugs, fish and fossils to find in your village, some of which only appear at certain times of the year. Your village has a museum that you can donate one of each animal or item to, and exploring the museum lets you read up more on each object. It’s something that’s great to work towards as the years go by. There’s also a lot of furniture to collect. A few items will be available from Nook’s shop each day, while sometimes you’ll receive some as gifts from animals or events. Sometimes, you’ll talk to an animal and they’ll force you to give up or trade your new item, which can be frustrating. Your furniture can be placed in your home, which you can pay to make bigger or add more rooms, but there’s only limited space for your furniture. Luckily, once you have an item once, you can then re-order it from the catalogue at Nok’s shop and be sent it in the post. Animal Island If you have a Game Boy Advance connected, you can visit a little tropical island. Here you can find some unique fruit and a special villager. There’s not a massive amount of stuff to do while there, but when you leave, you can transfer the island to a Game Boy Advance. Here, you can get them to eat fruit and leave items behind for them to use – they like fishing, for example. Improving their mood will make them leave bells and other surprises. One slight issue with the GBA was its lack of storage, which meant that all data is lost when you turn it off. It does have a sleep mode to help conserve battery, although that probably doesn’t help if you notice your GBA is low on battery and changing them turns it off. Still, it’s a nice little feature. NES games As you play the game, you’ll sometimes discover NES consoles that come with a game. Put these in your house and you’ll be able to play them – as in properly play the full, original games. You can even transfer the games to a Game Boy Advance to take with you (until you turn the power off). Sometimes these are in the shop, some had to be scanned via eReader, one can only be found on the island and one can only be obtained by cheating (or using an unreleased password in the Japanese version). There was also a NES without a game which held an interesting secret that wasn’t uncovered until much later. This special NES can load any properly formatted NES ROM file from the memory card. People found references to this being done in the N64 version (with special Controller Paks with Ice Climber being in a competition), but it was never officially used for the GameCube version. The NES game functionality unfortunately never returned in later games due to services like the Virtual Console. Overall Animal Crossing is a rather wonderful experience. It’s calm and relaxing and something nice to visit occasionally. There are some annoying aspects, as you need to decide if you’re going to miss events or mess with the game. Animal Crossing can also feel depressing to come back to if you leave the game for a while, as animals will leave and weeds will cover your village the next time you return. But these aspects are what makes the game feel alive, so you make do for the good moments. Great Remake or remaster? It would be nice for a version with the e+ content added into the main game, but I don’t think Nintendo will ever re-release an Animal Crossing game. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Animal Crossing.

If it has a new soundtrack, I'm in. If not, I'll wait for mods to replace the soundtrack.

Split Fiction Release Date: 6th March 2025 Developer: Hazelight Studios Publisher: EA Originals Platform Played: Xbox Series S Platforms Available: PC, Xbox Series, PS5, Switch 2 Split Fiction is the latest two player co-op from Hazelight Studios. The developers started this journey with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – which was a co-op game designed to be played by a single person controlling both characters with a single controller, and somehow managed to get emotion out of how you control the game. A Way Out started the full on co-op, a game that can only be played with two players. This one also started the trend of their games being played entirely in split screen, even if you play it online. It Takes Two was where their big success was, winning multiple Game of the Year awards and selling extremely well, even with its generous nature of letting player 2 join a friend online without owning the game. It was made up of lots of varied segments which changed up the gameplay and had each player working together by performing different tasks. Split Fiction doesn’t deviate from this formula, but it does refine it a lot, alongside doing a load of new things within the formula. The game stars Mio and Zoe, two aspiring writers who hope to get their work published. They turn up at Rader Publishing and find out that the deal isn’t quite what they expected, as it involves being connected to a mysterious machine. Mio refuses to participate, but ends up getting pushed into Zoe’s bubble and joining her simulation, which starts causing glitches. In order to escape, as well as to save their ideas from being stolen, they must work together to find more glitches by completing their stories. Mio works with sci fi, while Zoe works with more traditional fantasy. The main chapters alternate between these genres, each one telling a story which relates to their lives in some way, you discover their past through these stories. Both characters are likeable with plenty of depth with engaging stories, both their real world tale and their fictional stories that you play though. The main movement mechanics are kept the same throughout the entire game (other than a few specific sequences), the girls both have a double jump and a dash that can also be performed mid air. They also have a grapple to latch onto specific targets. The platforming feels very precise and a ton of fun, and allows for some enthralling chase sequences. The rest of the mechanics differ throughout the game, and are often different for each character. Ok the first main sci-fi chapter, you play as cyber ninjas. Mio has a gravity sword which allows her to use special tiles to shift her gravity to walk on the walls and ceiling. Zoe, on the other hand, has a gravity whip that lets her manipulate and move objects. Meanwhile, the first fantasy chapter gives both players two transformations each. At one part of the game I was even excited because I got to be “Banjo-Kazooie” Quite often, you’ll have to manipulate the world to allow for each other to progress. Split Fiction does err a bit on the easy side, option more for the odd brain teaser or tricker short platforming segment. Chase sequences are nice in that a player will respawn next to the other if they die (although you go back to a checkpoint if you both die) and when in bosses (and other combat scenarios), there’s a short quick time event to respawn to add a bit of tension to it, although bosses are also kind in that they often have checkpoints part way through them. Throughout the main levels you’ll also find portals that lead to side stories. These are short segments based on unfinished ideas of the main character. They’re completely optional, but I have no idea why anyone would willingly skip them (although there is one that is easy to miss, although there’s a handy chapter select to find it after finishing the game). These are filled with magical moments, with some surprising dark turns, beautiful journeys, some playgrounds for a nice change of place or even a bit of competition, such as a level that plays like an SSX game. This all culminates in a final chapter which is just too good to go into detail about, it does amazing things with the dual genre idea as well as with the split screen. This final chapter does things which are so impressive that this is the first game of the Series/PS5 generation which feels like it truly takes advantage of the technology and doesn’t just seem like a slightly nicer looking PS4 game. It also looks stunning without needing to use demanding graphics processes, which means that the only compromise the game makes for the Series S is that it runs in 1080p. It’s truly wonderful how astonishing and advanced the game looks and feels. If I had to give a flaw for the game, it’s that I wanted more. I wish that each chapter and side story was its own complete game. Not that Split Fiction is a short game, each chapter is a few hours long and the side stories are a great distraction, but some of the ideas seem too good to just be used for a single section. It still helps the game feel incredibly fresh the entire time, though, and it’s easily become one of my all-time favourite games. If you can get someone to enjoy the journey alongside you (either locally or online, I immensely recommend it. I’m certainly looking forward to playing the game with the roles swapped around. 10/10

Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure Have a good time at Universal Studios with Woody Woodpecker. JP release: 7th December 2001 NA release: 18th December 2001 EU release: 3rd May 2002 Developer: Nai’a Digital Works Publisher: Kemco NGC Magazine Score: 24% Mods Used: Widescreen Hack Often said to be the worst game on GameCube. I’ll have to see how it compares when I’ve made it further into my GameCube games, but it’s certainly the first terrible game on the GameCube. You’re a boy visiting Universal Studios, with free reign of the park. Well, sort of. Navigating Universal Studios is apparently utter hell. This game features pre-render backgrounds and fixed camera angles, with no care taken on how they flow with each other, as the orientation changes on every single screen. Sometimes even finding your character is a challenge, as they’ll be far in the distance, obscured by other park visitors. ET Adventure Most likely you’ll bump into ET Adventure for your first minigame. This is a terrible Excitebike-style game where you slowly cycle to the right and go over jumps. Actually landing is pretty much impossible, so you’ll fall over constantly – thankfully, the game is so easy that you’ll have no problems beating it while falling over every few seconds. With this out of the way, the next time you go to an attraction, there will be a queue, and you’ll be unable to answer. You can buy hats to access events, using points you earn from completing attractions, meeting mascots and picking up rubbish. To be fair to the game, the amount of hassle from this set-up is nowhere near as bad as I’ve heard other people say it is. From the ET minigame, a quiz and some interactions, I had enough points for three hats and was given an e-pass that lets me access another for a single attempt, so I didn’t spend that much time needing to collect points. That said, trying to navigate the park to find the other events, as well as the immensely tiny hidden Universal Studios letters, makes even that an unpleasant experience. With that said, here’s my rundown on the other events. Back to the Future: The Ride This is the only minigame that’s properly based on the ride itself. You need to chase Biff as he races through the first three locations from the ride: Hill Valley, an ice level and a lava world. You have a surprisingly strict time limit so you can’t afford to hit the walls. There’s not much to the game, but it’s probably the best one in the package. Jurassic Park An on-rails shooter. Kill as many dinosaurs as possible, including the ones that aren’t a danger to you. You can hold A to lock-on multiple times and there’s a needlessly robust points system. The problem is that the minigame is both boring and goes on for far too long. If it wasn’t for the music, you’d barely tell that this was related to Jurassic Park, as it looks and feels like a knock-off. Waterworld Pick a seat and watch a 5 second CGI clip of a prop plane landing into water. If they wanted to discourage people from seeing the actual attraction, they managed to do a great job at that. Jaws The shark from Jaws (which this minigame incorrectly calls Jaws) is attacking the Orca. It’s full of barrels, so many that you’ll think they’ll need a bigger boat. On the top right are two different displays showing where the shark will head over from, so just go there and throw a barrel at him. Immensely simple and easy. The Wild Wild Wild West This is loosely based on a stunt show at the park, not related to the fun Wild Wild West film from Warner Bros. The original show features fun stunts, fights and explosions. Here you shoot cans and targets. Focus on the cardboard cut-out and the bonus targets and you’ll win with zero effort. Backdraft Everyone knows and loves Backdraft, right? the film [googles] where Kurt Russel becomes a firefighter to impress his brother. Apparently it got a Direct-to-DVD sequel in 2019. This is probably the closest to an actual minigame, as you explore a burning warehouse (with bad camera angles), putting out fires and rescuing people to run into. This one also goes on for far too long. And that’s Universal Studios. A game where you get to explore a theme park and play minigames based on the rides is definitely a good idea, but this is just a terrible attempt at doing so, partly from how horrible navigating the park is to how soulless all the games feel. The music from the films seems like the only elements actually used, with zero meaningful interaction with the characters (other than the annoying and deplorable Woody Woodpecker). It’s amazing how this doesn’t just fail as a game, but also as an advertisement, as it makes Universal Studios look like a bad place to visit. The game doesn’t even make it clear that it’s based on the Japan park, not the main one in Orlando. Worst Remake or remaster? This idea would be interesting if it were done well, it could even be an interactive website. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure on Nintendo GameCube, but you can experience Nintendo at Universal Studios.

I didn't actually notice that DK wasn't a launch title because it seems too absurd for it to not be a launch title.

SSX Tricky Resist gravity. NA release: 27th November 2001 JP release: 27th December 2001 EU release: 12th July 2002 Developer: EA Canada Publisher: EA Sports BIG (NA/EU), EA Square (JP) NGC Magazine Score: 87% Mods Used: None When it comes to basing your game’s identity on a single song, it has to be a good one. Thankfully, “It’s Tricky” by Run-DMC is up to the task and the song shines through at just the right moments, successfully making it feel special when you hear it instead of getting annoyed by its repetition. The SSX games are snowboarding racing games that focus on tricks and my only prior experience is SSX Blur. I didn’t even realise this wasn’t the first game until the commentator kindly pointed out how many tracks were brought back from the previous game (albeit with changes). While the snowboarding games on the Nintendo 64 featured tricks, including Nintendo’s own 1080° Snowboarding, they didn’t usually gel with the racing itself, often being more of a liability than anything else. The SSX games have two ways to help the two aspects fit together. The first is leniency. You can land at some odd angles without much issue and falling over still has you tumbling downhill and getting up at a decent pace. The second is tying it into a boost system. However, if you hang onto your boost and continue tricking, you’ll fill up the bar and “It’s Tricky” will start playing. During this, you have infinite boosts and can prolong it by performing uber tricks – and pulling off six will give you infinite boosts for the entire race. Another neat feature is how the other racers develop as you play. Attacking or not attacking other racers during races (which nets you boost) will impact future races – rivalries and friendships will form, adjusting how aggressive they are towards you. The tracks themselves all manage to both feel and look unique, and are a good length with a ton of fun segments. SSX Tricky is a game chocked full of the style and attitude of this era of sports games, which makes it a ton of fun to go back to as I kind of miss all this today. It’s still hugely enjoyable to play and the art style still holds up quite well. Great Remake or remaster? An SSX collection would be great. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play SSX Tricky. -- The GameCube really did have a great start to it, with plenty of great games and nothing particularly terrible.

XGIII: Extreme-G Racing Beyond Speed. Beyond Combat. Beyond All Racing. NA release: 27th November 2001 JP release: 15th March December 2002 EU release: 3rd May 2002 Developer: Acclaim Publisher: Acclaim NGC Magazine Score: 85% Mods Used: Widescreen Code Alongside Rogue Leader, Extreme-G 3 was the other game I got with my GameCube on launch day. An immensely stunning futuristic racer that also manages to be a little soulless at times. The Nintendo 64 had lots of great futuristic racers, and Extreme G, F-Zero, Wipeout and Episode 1: Racer all managed to feel completely distinct at the same time. Instead of improving upon what worked well for previous games, XGIII instead borrows from others. The biggest change in XGIII is how the shields and boosting work. Boosting uses up your shield, and strips at the edge of the track will recharge your shield if you go over them. Exactly like F-Zero. The weapons also work differently, no longer items you pick up on the track that bring down pods that hover over the bike, but upgrades you buy in your shop that subtly pop out of your fancy looking motorbike. The style of Extreme-G is just gone, not just by copying F-Zero, but the design of the world and vehicles as well. What XGIII does have in spades, though, is spectacle. The tracks look amazing, weaving through wonderful and unique looking parts of the world. The woosh sound when you go through the rings that hold the track up is a wonderful sound and when you reach a certain speed, you’ll break the sound barrier with a bang followed by silence. It’s wonderful the first few times you hear it, although at the fastest speed, it starts to get a bit annoying. With these things going for it, it’s a shame it didn’t have a bit more personality to go alongside it. Fun Remake or remaster? An Extreme-G collection would be nice. Combining mechanics and tracks form different games would be great. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play XGIII: Extreme-G Racing.

So if you added a bit to a S2E game to push down the button, it would boot it up as the Switch 1 version (not that there would ever be a reason to do so)? Also, there are some fantastic games in the launch line up (Split Fiction is probably the best game of the PS5 generation), but many are games already out elsewhere.

So after multiple contradictory and confusing statements from Nintendo, Marvelous Games are the ones to finally explain the Switch 2 Edition cartridges with Rune Factory. The S2E of Rune Factory will come on a red 64GB cartridge. However, it will work on both the original Switch and the Switch 2. The upgrade patch is on the cartridge and will load if plugged into a Switch 2, or it will just load the original version when plugged into a Switch. All in all, a really good way to do it, which makes the bizarre communication from Nintendo even more confusing.

Super Smash Bros. Melee Nintendo’s all-stars are ready to do battle! Let the melee begin! JP release: 21st November 2001 NA release: 3rd December 2001 EU release: 24th May 2002 Developer: HAL Laboratory Publisher: Nintendo NGC Magazine Score: 95% Mods Used: Widescreen Code While the N64 Super Smash Bros was a wonderful novelty, Nintendo realised what potential the game had and decided to go all out with Smash Bros Melee, bringing more characters into the fold and adding in a load of extras to make it a love letter to Nintendo’s history. Melee solidified Super Smash Bros as an important franchise for Nintendo, with each game getting bigger and bigger. Singleplayer has gained a few new features, including Adventure mode, where you play through a mixture of different kinds of stages. Some are platforming levels created specially for this mode, while others are fights on regular stages. The platforming levels do feel a bit odd using the control style of Smash Bros, but they’re still immensely enjoyable and set the stage for more to follow in the next game. There’s also the more traditional fighting mode, event fights and some minigames, like Home Run Contest, which are initially simple but are made quite deep due to the mechanics of the game. There’s plenty to do here when friends aren’t over. There’s also a ton of options for multiplayer as well, there are stock or points based matches, add special features like making the game slower or faster, making all the characters invisible and you can adjust how frequently items appear and turn specific items on or off. All this means you can come up with your own ideas for matches. A personal favourite of mine was setting items to high, Pokéballs only and everyone had to be a Pokémon character. It’s pure chaos and an absolute blast. Melee also introduced a compulsive form of collectible: the trophies. Some are earned by completing specific tasks in the game, while others spawn as items during other game modes. I would always dart towards one whenever I saw one. Once collected, you can view it as a 3D model and read a little bit about the character, offering some background on characters that many had never heard of, including some characters who had never left Japan. What made the trophies extra special in Melee was the amount of trophies that were new depictions of characters. There are a few Custom Robo trophies that bring the art style of the N64 games into more detail, we also got our first 3D version of Pit from Kid Icarus, whose description interestingly ends with “Will pit ever fight again?” and just a ton to discover. It gave weight and meaning to the collectables, which made them so compulsive. Melee just had a ton of lovely touches all around. The music is wonderful (you can’t go wrong with the DK Rap) and the game scores you at the end of matches in many different ways, with some amusing ones thrown in for being cheap or comedic. Even the menus get some love as you can use the C-stick to tilt them around, just because. It’s a wonderful package. Fave Remake or remaster? A “complete edition” Smash Bros game with the gameplay styles of each previous one would be wonderful. Official Ways to get the game There’s no official way to play Super Smash Bros. Melee.

DK Jr's grandson, perhaps? Cranky (original DK) -> DK Jr -> DK -> DK's inbred son?

With playing them on the open world, I meant the option for your and your friends to go to any location and just turn on battle mode, use anywhere as the arena (perhaps set a distance limit or something to keep people contained). Also, with the power up things for costumes, it would be nice if there was a trophy viewer for those foods, they look cute, I like them more than the costumes they unlock.