Despite sales not quite matching that of its predecessor, the N64, the Nintendo Gamecube has left an indelible mark on an entire generation of gamers. Whether it’s the iconic design of the console, the unique controller or the stellar list of first-party exclusives that the Gamecube boasts, it’s hard to find people who have a bad word to say about the Gamecube. You could probably still find those people on the internet somewhere, but they’re a bunch of fun haters.
Anyway, it seems like Nintendo and other companies generally agree that the Gamecube’s library of titles is one of the best in history, as games like Baten Kaitos, Super Mario Sunshine (as part of Super Mario 3D All-Stars) and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door have all been given modern re-releases. With that in mind, we’re going through the Nintendo Gamecube back catalog to find the games most deserving of a remake.
1. Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg
Sonic Team’s forgotten and underappreciated banger, Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg has been stuck as part of the Gamecube library for two decades now, with no hope of a re-release or remake. Considering SEGA are clearly not against re-releases and remakes of some of their classic games (particularly if they happen to involve a certain blue hedgehog), it definitely wouldn’t be outside the realms of possibility for SEGA to give everyone’s favorite egg roller another chance to shine.
Set in a world overtaken by darkness thanks to some evil crows, you control a chicken themed hero who has to save the world via the power of rolling eggs, somehow. Really, it’s not about the premise or setting for Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg that makes it so special, but the 3D platforming gameplay that’s equal parts innovative and challenging. Unfortunately, despite Billy appearing in a few crossover racing games, there’s been no hint of a Billy Hatcher revival, and we’re still praying that a reboot will one day hatch.
Hey, if Klonoa can get like two remakes, we will never lose hope.
2. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
The chances of Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem ever being remade or re-released in this day and age are next to impossible, as all the legalities surrounding the Silicon Knights brand following the lawsuit with Epic Games have effectively nuked any possibility of games like this returning. It’s a Gordian Knot that no has ever dared to untangle, meaning a genuine whipper like Eternal Darkness has to remain stuck in the Gamecube’s vaults forever. It would be great if someone could change that, especially when horror remakes tend to be a pretty safe bet critically and commercially. Alone In The Dark was an outlier.
A time-hopping, world traveling Lovecraftian horror that’s been considered among the best games of all time, Eternal Darkness chronicles a millenia long struggle of ancient cosmic deities trying to wreak havoc on the world. While that doesn’t sound so far-fetched, the story is told via main character Alex, as she explores her family estate and reads stories of different people across the world who’ve encountered these ancient artifacts and beings. What truly set Eternal Darkness apart though was its sanity meter, which would cause hallucinations and other events to occur in-game, including a fake save deletion. It’s masterful trolling, and the type of game design you don’t see much of anymore, so we’d love to see Eternal Darkness make a comeback.
3. F-Zero GX
Nintendo seems to have racing games covered with the Mario Kart series, and ever since Mario Kart 8 introduced anti-gravity racing, it feels like the chances of ever seeing the F-Zero franchise again in any real capacity have dwindled. We’re not counting that F-Zero battle royale game though, it’s just the SNES game with online multiplayer. Anyway, we’re not asking for Nintendo to simply pull a new F-Zero game out of their keister, as the perfect example of the series already exists in the form of F-Zero GX, even if it is probably the hardest racing game of all time.
Like Wipeout and other futuristic racing games that were released in the late 90s and early 2000s, F-Zero GX’s blistering speed and hard-to-master drifting mechanics made it a fiendishly difficult game, but one you’d be determined to master. Or at least get semi-decent enough to fluke your way through the brutal story missions. Yeah, it was a racing game with a story mode in 2003; take that Need For Speed: The Run. A remake of this with new textures and all the F-Zero AX content would be wonderful, but again, it’ll probably never happen. I guess Nintendo is allergic to making money.
4. Star Fox Adventures
Despite being one of Nintendo’s most recognizable mascots, Fox McCloud isn’t given many opportunities to step out from the Arwing and do some of his own hero work. No boots on the ground for you lad, Andross is doing weird space crap again. While Fox gets his chance to run and jump around in the Smash Bros. games, he’s only had one proper 3D adventure game in the aptly titled Star Fox Adventures. Sure, there was also Star Fox: Assault, but you spent two thirds of that in either an Arwing or a Landmaster, and the on-foot stuff was just a standard third person shooter.
Star Fox Adventures on the other hand felt like a Legend Of Zelda style adventure game, but in the world of furries. Again, this was a couple of years before Zelda also tackled furries with Twilight Princess, so Star Fox was ahead of the furry curve. Anyway, SFA sees Fox traveling to the appropriately named Dinosaur Planet, a planet filled with warring dino tribes and an ancient spirit that needs to be healed in order to save the whole planet.
While Star Fox Adventures being developed by Rare might make this a harder remake to pitch, with Rare originally developing the game as Dinosaur Planet for the N64 before Nintendo and Rare were able to work together, Rare/Xbox and Nintendo have been fairly chummy at the minute, so it’s not impossible to imagine. Plus, anyone desperate for a traditional Zelda-style adventure after Breath of the Wild will find their needs met here.
5. Wario World
Of all the characters in the wider Mario-verse (I hate that I used that term, because you know some exec would pitch a tent in their pants hearing it), none have ever been given a bigger downgrade than Wario. The portlier cousin to the already portly plumber, Wario used to be given his own platforming adventures and was a genuine protagonist in his own right, with those Wario Land games now inspiring indies like Pizza Tower and Antonblast. Nowadays, he’s merely a minigame purveyor who rides bikes and farts a lot. You’re not the only one with a dodgy bumhole, Wario.
Perhaps Wario’s most underrated game though is Wario World, a 3D brawler/platformer that gave Wario his very own premium adventure on the Gamecube. Was it anywhere near as successful as Super Mario Sunshine was? Of course not, but it does let you hit monsters with spinning piledrivers as you go on a quest to defeat an evil black gem and restore Wario’s castle to its former glory. If anything, Wario World is like the silly mirror version of Luigi’s Mansion, as instead of running round scared holding a hoover, Wario decides that his hands are rated “E for everyone”. It’s a silly, ridiculous platformer/brawler that’s unlike anything with Mario as the main character, and the Switch or its successor could do with something unique.
6. Skies Of Arcadia Legends
One of the most widely beloved and well-remembered RPGs of the Dreamcast was Skies of Arcadia, though you wouldn’t know it by how little SEGA have acknowledged the series at this point. Set in a world of sky pirates and lots of technologically advanced yet somehow still ancient weaponry being used to try and take over the world, you control Vyse and the Blue Rogues crew, as they try to resist a tyrannical empire, making choices and recruiting new friends along the way.
While Skies of Arcadia doesn’t do much differently in terms of the JRPG formula, as you’re still exploring dungeons, buying new gear in towns and completing side quests, the story, characters and world have remained a beloved favorite for many since the game’s original release in 2000. Of course, SEGA would release an enhanced version in 2003 for the Gamecube called Skies of Arcadia Legends, which would include reams of new content, cutscenes and enemies to defeat. It also reduced the amount of random encounters, while buffing the EXP gain, so that’s always a win. Skies of Arcadia deserves to make a comeback just because of how legendary and beloved it is as an RPG, and Legends is the definitive version of that classic game.
7. Lost Kingdoms & Lost Kingdoms 2
It’s the classic Ash Bates move of “shove two games together into one entry, much to the chagrin of Jimmy”, and this time around we’re talking about the Lost Kingdoms games, two titles that would probably be hugely successful in this day and age thanks to some other circumstances. An action RPG where you do none of the fighting, both games let you control heroes who can harness the power of a runestone and a deck of magic cards to summon monsters and other effects into battle. You can even capture monsters and add them to your deck, and all that other good stuff.
The reason why Lost Kingdoms would be successful right now is twofold. Firstly, people love their deck-building games. Doesn’t matter what it is, all you need to do is dangle the Slay The Spire-esque carrot in front of people and they’ll flock in their masses. However, the real reason why Lost Kingdoms would be more likely to take off these days is thanks to the developer: FromSoftware. Give this a new coat of paint and some quality of life changes, and you might have a new smash hit fantasy RPG series on your hands.
8. P.N. 03
When you really think about it, P.N. 03 seems like the perfect game to remake on modern platforms, because the original game on the Nintendo Gamecube is definitely a flawed experience. Critics at the time lambasted P.N. 03 for its repetitive gameplay, but the game’s director, the acclaimed Shinji Mikami, would take some of its ideas and mechanics and apply them to the Platinum title Vanquish. History remembers Vanquish these days as one of the best third person shooters, so perhaps a remake of P.N. 03 would lead to a similar conclusion.
Along with Vanquish, you could make the case that P.N. 03 design and aesthetic, particularly with regards to main character Vanessa Z. Schnieder, would also inspire the likes of Bayonetta with her overtly-feminine presentation. Meanwhile, the game itself saw Vanessa fighting hordes of robots while wearing Aegis Suits, which affected the energy beams and weapons that Vanessa could utilize. It’s not a deep game by any stretch of the imagination, but if you’ve played the most recent Gungrave and you’ve been wondering where all the weird and silly shooters are, then a remake of P.N. 03 would be right up your alley.
9. Chibi-Robo
Taking the crown of one of the weirdest games on the Gamecube is no tall order, so credit where credit is due to Chibi-Robo for being a genuine curio of a title when it first launched in 2005 (2006 in the West) on the Nintendo Gamecube. Of course, by then the Gamecube was on its way out, and the world was on the precipice of being gripped by Wii fever, so it’s not surprising that Chibi-Robo didn’t quite get the love it deserved when it originally launched. It did get a couple of sequels, sure, but it’s been nearly a decade since the last one and the world doesn’t deserve to be deprived of more Chibi-Robo. Look how gosh darn cute he is.
And also look at our retrospective on the series as a whole when you get the chance.
Unlike most games where you play as a robot, you’re a 10cm tall guy designed to help around the house instead of some 8ft tall killing machine. Basically, you’re completing chores as this tiny robot for the Sanderson family in an attempt to win Happy Points, but while completing chores, you’ll discover more about the family’s history and attempt to bring this fractured group of people back together. Also, you can hang out with some frogs and the family’s pet dog, so it’s game of the year, every year until the end of time.
10. Cubivore: Survival Of The Fittest
Arguably the most original and ridiculous game ever released for the Nintendo Gamecube, Cubivore: Survival Of The Fittest is exactly what you’d expect from the game’s name: you’re a cube-based carnivore and you’re eating everyone who is weaker than you. There’s a little bit more to the game than that, as in order to progress in Cubivore, you need to eat other creature’s limbs, which cause you to mutate and unlock additional powers. Collect enough mutations, and you’ll be able to mate and create a stronger offspring as a result. Lather, rinse and repeat until you’ve created a Cubivore strong enough to take on the Killer Cubivore.
Cubivore: Survival Of The Fittest is clearly a game massively ahead of its time, with gameplay mechanics and ideas that have been implemented in games like Spore or Ancestors, but none of these games have taken quite the ridiculous and over the top presentation that Cubivore has. If it were released on modern platforms, Cubivore would still be a far cry from anything else currently on the market, particularly in the AAA gaming space. If Nintendo, Atlus, Intelligent Systems or whoever else owns the rights to Cubivore wants to try and remake something entirely bonkers and unlike anything else, Cubivore is a worthy remake selection.
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