Tag: gamecube

The 5 – Gamecube – Part 2

Continuing last week’s look at the 5 must play exclusives for the Gamecube.

Donkey Konga

This is a music game series that includes songs like the DK rap and the Pokemon them to play, do I need to bother making much more of an argument for the game?

If there’s one thing that Nintendo have proven themselves great at it’s taking some weird idea or concept and turning into a super fun game case in point long before the Guitar Hero & Rock Band plastic instrument craze swept the world Nintendo had their own go at it and thus the DK bongos were born.

The bongos have the two pads to hit either separately or together and also contains a built in microphone to be able to detect claps. It doesn’t sound complicated and that’s because it isn’t, but that simplicity is what makes it so easy to draw somebody in and get them to have a go, in fact the first time I played it was on a demo unit at Toys R Us as a child and that quick go was enough to sell me on it.

They key to any music game is unsurprisingly the music, I’ve already mentioned that it has Nintendo songs in the soundtrack, however that’s not all the soundtrack it has a bit of a mix of songs but something that shouldn’t come as a shock for Nintendo fans is that it is a decidedly family friendly choice of songs, you aren’t going to find anything like Slayer in the soundtrack. But there is some variety to the song choice, in fact I always found it strange but interesting that you’d have something like All the Small Things by Blink 182 alongside classical pieces of music.

The bongos may not have had a long life; only seeing 2 Donkey Konga games (3 in Japan) and a platformer game, but they are a sturdy piece of kit and a lot of fun in you can get your hands on some.

F-Zero GX

Here’s my impression of me if I was in a real life F-Zero vehicle: “AAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” While Mario Kart might be Nintendo’s flagship racing series for good reason, it does not hold a candle to F-Zero in terms of speed and intensity in a way designed to appeal to a more hardcore audience.

And hardcore is definitely the correct way to describe it, GX is one of the best games that I know I’ll never beat, its story mode is notoriously difficult and I think getting a couple of chapters through it is the best I’ll do. Races are brutal the other racers give no quarter forcing you to push yourself against a constant sense of risk; if you fall off the track or your vehicle explodes that’s it game over and this is all happening during a constant intense sense of speed that puts even other futuristic racing games.

The other thing that wows me about the game is how technically impressive it is, that extreme sense of speed I’ve mentioned is pulled off at a constant 60 FPS with 30 racers on a track at once, and it feels like this is the first F-Zero game to pull this off without having to make sacrifices to do it; the original on the SNES had to utilise Mode 7 to do a kind of pseudo 3D, then with X on the N64 they made the jump to 3D while impressively also having 30 racers at 60FPS but to manage this the tracks were basically built in barren voids. GX does not have this problem with the increased power of the Gamecube they manage to have plenty of background detail that cause the tracks to have their own personalities making them feel unique and distinct from each other, this game is probably the one that pushed the Gamecube hardware the most.

Unfortunately we haven’t had a new F-Zero since as Miyamoto doesn’t want to do a new one until he has some innovation to change and “improve” it. Which is ironic because despite their prior history this game was actually given to Sega to develop and it ended up as the best game in the series, maybe the series should just fully be passed to Sega so we can get a new one.

Star Fox Assault

If there’s one thing this list has shown me it’s that I take issue with Miyamoto nowadays; for Paper Mario he stripped out a lot of its personality to make it more like the main series but with a gimmick, he won’t make a new F-Zero until he has a new gimmick, and he’s a large of part of why Star Fox Zero just ended up as Star Fox 64 with a controller gimmick. Now full disclosure I’m one of the weirdos who actually didn’t mind Zero’s controls for the most part but what really frustrates is that Star Fox Assault made changes and improvements to move the series forward that instead of being built on were just ignored and forgotten.

I’m not going to pretend it’s Shakespeare but the biggest leap forward for this Star Fox game is the writing, There’s story & character development, events of previous games have actually had an impact and the universe no longer feels static. The main way it does this is that Andross is not the main enemy (I believe this is the only game in the series that does this) a new species is introduced called the Aparoid which are insect race that assimilate other species and tech (think of the Borg from Star Trek and you have a decent idea). By changing the status quo characters can be approached in different ways for example take Star Wolf there’s times when you fight against the rival group while others where you team up against a common enemy something which is not possible in previous games where you are on opposite sides.

As I mentioned there’s an impact of previous games as if time actually moves in the Star Fox universe, Andross is not the enemy because you’ve already beaten him, Krystal is now part of the team following Adventures and Peppy is no longer on the front lines dog fighting as his age catches up with him.The characters have grown and changed from the events they’ve been through. The game also takes a more linear approach compared to the branching paths of previous games this is combined with cutscenes and conversations that actually have characters animated and expressive in a way three squares on a screen just doesn’t manage. It’s strange to think but this might actually be a Star Fox game you can get interested in for the story.

The gameplay has 2 main parts there’s the usual Airwing flying sections that maintain the quality Star Fox is known for, but the other half is ground combat which is where a lot of the divided opinion of the game comes from. Before anything else if you are going to play the game change the settings to the dual stick control option for the ground sections I have no idea why this wasn’t the default but it will definitely improve your experience. Now I’m not going to lie the Airwing sections are better and I would prefer more of them in exchange for less ground sections, but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as people make out Fox moves and handles pretty quickly and there is a combo tracker for chaining kills together in a short period that gives it a fun & frantic albeit simple style.

Even though it was rough around the edges I’ve got a real soft spot for Star Fox Assault, if somebody had took the ideas from it and further developed the gameplay I think there could have been a new contender for best Star Fox game, which is why Zero disappointed me so much it tried so much to be like what 64 was that it didn’t stand out and raised the question of why not just play 64, even if it had its detractors Assault stood out in a way that makes it worth checking out for any Star Fox fans.

Thank you to anybody who’s checked out my first attempts at writing, I’ve got a real soft spot for the Gamecube and given Nintendo’s reluctance to port Gamecube games could probably even do another of these lists in the future

The 5 – Gamecube

If I’m going to tell somebody to buy a console there needs to be at least 5 great games exclusive to the console to make it worthwhile. When I say exclusive I mean exclusive, if a game has seen a port, remaster or remake; basically if I can play it elsewhere it is not eligible for this list (the exception being actual backwards compatibility as it would make some consoles literally impossible to do). With the rules established let’s look at what games you should buy a Gamecube for.

1) Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

I debated whether to include this first entry in the list as it’s hard to tell people to buy it with the price it goes for nowadays, but given that price is in large part due to it being exclusive that makes it pretty appropriate for the list.

Part of what makes the game stand out is the main character of Ike by being a lot closer to a regular person rather than the usual chosen lord whose family is destined to fight off a great evil that we normally see in the series, this part of Ike’s character is executed well to the extent that when Ike takes over the party some characters leave the group as he’s not important or impressive enough for them to follow. By being on the same status level as the rest of the cast you encounter Ike has a more natural understanding and willingness to learn and listen to all the characters and races in the game that causes him to develop into a respected leader for the party rather than that being something given at the start of the game by the character’s birthright. On the opposite side is the enemy the Black Knight who is an imposing and looming threat through most of the game, partially because (in this game) you learn so little about him, in stark contrast to how Ike learns about the rest of the characters in the world by leaving the Black Knight so mysterious it makes him almost feel like a force of nature separate from regular people, and that’s a real powerful way of creating an intimidating antagonist.

In terms of gameplay it maintains the series’ great SRPG gameplay with the old punishing perma death combining with mechanics like the weapon wheel preventing a character from becoming too overpowered and removing the risk to your choices. The big addition in this game was the Laguz, people who can transform into beasts and they are successfully integrated into the system adding some more depth without messing with the balance, they are highly powerful when transformed but the limitation on how they can stay transformed and their vulnerability when they are not keeps them in check.

What I like about the Laquz so much is how their addition was not just for gameplay it was a crucial element in the story with the racism and prejudice they face being key and that by Ike coming to understand them and overcome the racial profiling of them they join his side for the war being a big boon that leads to victory, like if you don’t blindly hate people and work together you can do great things, though it’s sad that is still a necessary message to tell.

I did not enjoy the direction Fates took the series so I would highly recommend for people to go back and play this game to see the series at it’s best if you can stomach its price tag.

2) Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door

Two entries into the list and I can already feel myself turning this into an old man rant about how games were better back in my day, but if you’ve played Sticker Star or Colour Splash and don’t understand the love people have for Paper Mario you have not played the right games.

The surface level appeal of the game is how dedicated it is to the paper theme; as an example right at the start of the game the boat you arrived into town on has to turn around so it literally just flips to show the other side of the paper so it’s facing the right way, or how Mario unlocks new traversal abilities that are things like folding into a paper aeroplane to glide.

They don’t just rely on the paper theme and call it job done, every chapter has its own fun and unique personality separate to the paper theme or the usual Mario trappings that makes it stand out from other Mario titles, with my personal favourite being the chapter where Mario has to infiltrate a corrupt wrestling organisation.

What’s also great is how a lot of the usual main Mario characters that are now just side characters get the chance to shine in their own unique ways, Peach is inevitably kidnapped but doesn’t just sit around and wait to be rescued and you control her investigating what is going on, Bowser frustrated with being upstaged as a different villain kidnapped Peach has his own broken parody versions of classic Mario platforming levels, and Luigi bless him will tell you stories of his own totally real adventure he is having parallel to your own which is why he’s fine with being left out of the main game (it will never happen but I would absolutely love it if Nintendo did actually make his adventure as a spin off game).

Back to the main game though the main combat gameplay can best be described as your traditional turn based JRPG but with a real added sense of flair. Every battle takes place on a stage with an audience watching with all the attacks you do or recieve having some kind of timed button press that successfully pulling off gives extra damage or reduces the damage you take and impresses the audience into charging your super meter, this if further added to with stylish moves where additional timed presses (that don’t have the indicators of the main attack presses) cause the character to pull off tricks or pose to dazzle the audience even more. All this adds together to give a greater sense of direct engagement that some people feel is lacking for turn based combat.

The Thousand Year Door is one of my favourite JRPGs and a great entry point to introduce somebody to the genre. The best argument I have for the game’s quality is how embarrassingly excited I was when I found a copy to add to my collection and allow me to replay it.

End of part 1

I actually ended up way more for each game than I originally attended and I’m sure you are getting bored, so I’ll split this into two parts tune back in next week to find out the exciting conclusion of what the last three games will be.