21. Metroid Prime – Kane
“…” – Samus Aran
The Metroid Prime games by Retro Studios marked the start of a revitalisation in the franchise that is still being felt today. The series had completely skipped the Nintendo 64, with Nintendo unable to come up with any ideas they deemed worthy of production. I can only imagine they must not have considered the change in genre that would be at the core of Metroid Prime. The change in perspective to 1st person creates a whole new level of immersion for the player, allowing them to explore the alien landscape as Samus Aran in a much more personal and in-your-face way.
A defining feature of the Prime series was the inclusion of a scanner built into your helmet, allowing you to scan and catalogue your surroundings. Scanning terminals and documents may turn up a journal entry or an experimental log, while scanning the flora and fauna directly will give you data that may help you navigate them safely or provide some world-building.
Prime 1 laid the groundwork for the series, introducing players to the 1st person controls and scanning mechanics. Prime 2 expanded from there with a more in-depth story and lore than previously. Both are well worth your time.
22. Super Monkey Ball – Kane
Keep rollin’, rollin’, rolling… — AiAi, probably.
Have you ever played with those cheap balance maze puzzles? Yes? Awesome, now imagine that, but instead of seeing it all from above, you’re actually a funky-looking monkey floating inside the ball, and as you make your way through the maze, you need to collect specifically Dole-branded bananas.
That’s pretty much what the Super Monkey Ball games are, and it’s glorious chaos. The fun doesn’t end with the maze-like single-player stages either, Personally, I spent most of my time in this game playing the multiplayer party and minigames, which are endless fun if you have enough controllers to have 4 players.
23. Ikaruga – Dave
It, in fact, does matter whether you’re black or white
An arcade and Dreamcast classic, Ikaruga was also released on the GameCube (GameCube box art not pictured because it isn’t as cool). It is a bullet hell shoot’em up where you play as a lone spaceship that must battle against an enemy nation’s hordes of mechanical monstrosities that come in black and white flavours. Your ship’s shield can switch between two polarities: black and white. Projectiles and lasers that are the same colour as your shield are absorbed. Projectiles and lasers that are a different colour will kill you dead. Your weaponry does twice as much damage to enemies of the opposite colour. Bosses are invariably black and white and will switch their weaponry on the fly. That’s the game, enjoy.
Besides the fun gimmick, the game also stands out for approaching the shoot ’em genre with a Buddhist lens (like Treasure’s previous game Radiant Silvergun did before it, and Erasure’s ZeroRanger would do after it). Between each stage there are words of introspection and wisdom that recontextualise all the continues you’ll be using. Perhaps most poignantly, it’s also possible to beat the game without firing a single bullet. If you’re looking for a game that will challenge you physically, mentally, and spiritually, Ikaruga‘s got you.
24. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem – Dave
Make Lovecraft not war
Eternal Darkness is renowned for being the first game to employ sanity effects. Sanity even has its own meter to manage like hp. The horror game is so committed to manipulating the minds of all those who beheld it that millions of people in the early 2000s were convinced that the Nintendo GameCube only produced kid-friendly titles.
The Lovecraft-inspired (and very elaborate) story is played from multiple points of view across different timelines and locations as twelve characters discover, use, and be used by the dark forces that connect them all. You’ll have opportunities to learn and apply eldritch languages, combine items, and dismember monsters. There are three different story paths with their own endings, and a further secret ending. So, er, enjoy getting repeatedly GameCube, gaslit, godbossed, I guess.
25. Resident Evil 4 – Dave
You could probably buy this at a fine price
Set in a nondescript part of Europe with British weather, French rudeness, and Mexican Spanish speakers, you play as special agent Leon Kennedy. You’re tasked with retrieving the POTUS’s kidnapped daughter, Ashley, from a village rife with unnaturally aggressive, kinda mutant-y locals. It’s going to be a long day…
Resident Evil 4 might very well be one of the most influential games on this list. The over-the-shoulder perspective that many third-person shooter games would adopt was popularised by this entry in the long-running horror franchise, and perhaps none utilise it as effectively as this title does. Fully 3D movement and aiming affords you more freedom than in previous RE titles, but the proximity to Leon’s model fully immerses you in the danger.
Leon’s extremely capable, but his equipment is limited to what he can fit in his intuitive attaché case. There’s a sense of isolation and urgency as you have to protect yourself and Ashley from enemies that are more proactive and resilient than the zombies of past games. You’ll be attacked by never-ending legions of brainwashed villagers, cultists, bioweapons, supervillains and quick-time events in increasingly complex and deadly locations. Yet, after a few playthroughs, you can walk through it all with ease and land yourself an S rank.
Resi 4 is legitimately terrifying at points, and there is a heart-rending tragedy behind the context of the setting. Yet Leon will shoot, roundhouse kick, suplex, and quip his way through everything with the kind of B-movie bravado that invites the player to also rise to the occasion. The merchant’s voice will cut through the darkness to offer you respite and weaponry. A dog might save you in your time of need. It’s got everything.
26. Super Mario Strikers – Riley
Absolutely none of these players are passing a drug test
As you probably know, Mario is no stranger to random sport-related outings. From golf and tennis to karting, most of these are pretty tame but with a Mario flair. But Strikers is different, it’s viscerally violent and visually edgy. You can assault the other players and use items to get an advantage, before slamming an overpowered ball at their goalie.
This isn’t your average football game, though; it’s a 5-a-side street rules romp. Your team will consist of a Mushroom Kingdom main character, three sidekick characters with different abilities, and a Kritter in the goal. Football isn’t for everyone, but anyone can enjoy the insanity of Super Mario Strikers.
27. Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness – Hollyman
D times the Gale. D times the Darkness.
Just looking at the cover of this game should immediately tell you that this game isn’t messing around.
While Pokémon Colosseum is probably more well-known as being the edgy, somewhat more mature 3D Pokémon game that you remember playing as a kid, its sequel brings enough of its own spice to the table to make it every bit as memorable as its predecessor.
First, it fixes several of the issues Colosseum had. The process of purifying Shadow Pokémon was long and tedious, forcing players to either spend hours grinding on the side or to use Pokémon they don’t particularly want to in battle, which could have a negative effect on team building. XD introduced the purification chamber, which allowed Pokémon to be passively purified in the background, which was a much more streamlined system.
Colosseum did not feature the series’ main staple of being able to catch wild Pokémon, so XD added special zones where wild Pokémon could be encountered. Granted it wasn’t an incredibly diverse range of wild ones but still. Along with a wider range of Shadow Pokémon on offer than its predecessor, XD allows for a far greater amount of team-building potential to encourage replays.
28. Beyond Good and Evil – Kane
Not quite Rayman
Unlike its philosophy book namesake, Beyond Good and Evil is a fun time pretty much from start to finish. You play as Jade, a martial artist photojournalist, and her adopted pig man father figure Pey’j, as they investigate the conspiracy surrounding the DomZ, an invading alien force and their connection to the military dictatorship that’s taken control of their home.
Gameplay is simple yet fun, it’s essentially an action platformer similar to the Jak games but with less focus on different weapons and platforming and far more focus on exploration, stealth and martial arts. Jade isn’t your usual run-in guns blazing type, she prefers to sneak in quietly, take her photo evidence and get out. But she’s not above knocking heads when she needs to. And she will need to.
29. Starfox Adventures – Kane
Not as bad as you’ve heard
The hate this game gets has always felt kinda unfair to me. Starfox Adventures started as an unrelated 3D adventure game starring a fox protagonist being developed by Rare called Dinosaur Planet. Nintendo saw this game with a fox protagonist and figured, why not make it a Starfox game? That should boost sales, right? Except Starfox, to that point had always been an on-rails space shooter. So, fans of Starfox were bound to be disappointed since it wasn’t remotely what they expected from the franchise, and the game received massive fan backlash as a result.
My problem with that is that it’s not actually a bad game. It’s a pretty fun action-adventure with a wide range of environments and characters, and decently varied gameplay. I’m not going to pretend it’s perfect. Some of the voice work could have done with a second or even a third opinion, and the sound effects feel like they came from a royalty-free asset pack, but neither of those is a reason I would write a whole game off. Give it a go if you have the chance.
30. Soulcalibur 2 – James
Transcending history, and the world, a tale of souls and swords eternally retold
My personal favourite fighting game on any console. Released in 2002 by Namco on all major 6th-generation consoles, it was a step up from the masterpiece that was Soul Calibur on Dreamcast.
Soul Calibur, at its core, is a 3D fighter with 3-dimensional movement. Not only can you move back and forth, but you can move into the stage and towards the camera. This lends itself to its fighting system and easy-to-understand button layout. Waylaid are the complicated three different punch and kick buttons. You simply just have a horizontal attack, vertical, kick and guard. These buttons can be combined in simple ways to create satisfying combo strings that even beginners like my 8-year-old self could handle.
Soul Calibur 2 boasts a grand roster of 24 characters, with three guest characters depending on the platform. PS2 had Heihachi from Tekken, Xbox had Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, and in a stroke of genius, the GameCube version had Link. Soul Calibur 2 has a variety of game modes, your standard arcade and time attack modes, versus, ‘extra’ modes where you can use unlocked weapons and finally the greatest of all ‘Weapon Master’ mode. Weapon Master mode could be an RPG in itself, you travel from location to location completing progressively more difficult challenges, unlocking weapons, characters, stages and concept art along the way.
What makes Soul Calibur 2 special is its short time to death. In later Soul Calibur games, matches feel like weak punching matches. In SC 1 and 2, however, the inherent danger you’re always in brings a feeling of intensity you don’t get anywhere else.