|
 On 03/13/2026 at 12:13 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
I put away the modern consoles to focus on my retro journey. So all I have up is the GameCube and its Game Boy Player. I put the most time into Metroid Prime, Pikmin, Advance Wars 2, Metroid Zero Mission and Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, but here's everything I played.
GameCube
This is what mine looks like without the GB Player.
Metroid Prime 1 and 2 - I got much farther than ever before in the first game. The weird choice for looking vertically by holding R and moving the C-stick got to me, eventually, and I had to take a break. I almost wanted to trade these but my experience with Zero Mission later changed my mind. See below.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II and III - I had originally bought the GameCube to play these games, but today I really couldn't get into them and ended up trading them.
Xtreme-G Racing 3 - The feel of the tracks makes this my favorite of the series, but I didn't do very well my first time in this game and took a break from it. But it's staying in my collection for another try at another time.
Army Men RTS - This was a favorite of mine from back in the day. I was always looking for games with RTS mechanics like my favorite PC game WarCraft II. This does an admiral job at copying that game. I played a lengthy mission and enjoyed it pretty well. I'll play it again sometime.
Pikmin - I put a good long time into this. My only issue is the day length, which is too darn short. I need at least twice as long to figure out these levels and fight off all the pikmin gobbling enemies. I used to have Pikmin II but sold it years ago. I have both on Wii anyway, but I still want it back.
GBA Player
Since I was done with my physical NGC games, I used the GB Player to go through my GBA games. I'm still not done after playing the following.
Zelda Adventures of Link [Link to the Past/Four Swords Adventures, I meant] - I, honestly, just can't help zapping every plant with my torch and using up all my magic before needing it to get the secret door open to the castle (at least I think I need it). Can I sleep to get my magic back? I couldn't immediately figure it out, so I stopped. Why does Zelda games always throw me a mystery right from the start? I was in no mood for it, but I'll return sometime. I've entered the castle before, I just don't remember the solution and had no patience for it.
Advance Wars 1 and 2 - I spent a lot of time in AW2 this time around. The great music stood out this time. I'm finding AW2 easier than AW1 for some reason. I cruised through a half dozen missions before getting beat on the fog of war mission, and only just beaten. Fog of war is annoying. I encountered it to my dismay in Fire Emblem Sacred Stones later on too.
Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission - I got stuck on that first eye monster in Fusion again but made seriousl progress in Zero Mission. I got so far in Zero Mission that it revived my admiration for the series, and I decided not to trade any of my Metroid games. Somehow I got used to the mechanics using the GameCube controller, I think.
Fire Emblem and FE Sacred Stones - I vetoed replaying Fire Emblem because I had just played a lot of it on Switch a few weeks ago, but I dug in deep with Sacred Stones and got very far in it (at least for me). I feel like I read a whole novel worth of text boxes between battles. I do like the story, but it's a bit much clicking through all that after a while. One mission was nothing but text boxes! I began reading the text out loud with full voice acting just to relieve the monotony, much to my buddy MK's annoyance (an excuse to keep doing it). I really enjoyed the game for almost a whole day but needed a break. This game just expands as it proceeds. After the first Sacred Stone is broken, the world gets infested by undead and you can battle them as they appear on the map. Also a training tower opens where you can level your characters between story missions. I had to stop there as I was getting fatigued.
Tactics Ogre - After mega Fire Emblem time, I couldn't last more than a few missions before needing to stop. Battles are slow to get through and there were more text boxes to click and read through. I was all text boxed out at this point.
Klonoa Empire of Dreams - I cleared a level or two and was tired, and didn't want to jump, grab, dash and... die. I love the sounds in this game - cute and repeatable out loud for fun.
Namco Museum - Four whole games: Ms Pac-Man, Pole Position, Galaga and Galaxian. That's all? Seems they could've put quite a lot more on this cart.. Ms Pac-Man seemed to play much faster with shorter power pellet time than I remember it.
Lunar Legend - A RPG with a simple cartoon style. It's The Silver Star PS1 game adapted to the GBA. I could never get that game even back in the day because it was always too expensive. So I guess I'm glad I have it, only, I'm stuck in the Weird Woods. You get a map, but I don't see where you can look at it. I kind of enjoy the battles though.
I've discovered that some of my GBA carts are fakes. I have only GameStop to thank for that when I got a lot of these many years ago.
Traded For
Army Men Sarge's War (NGC) - It was the highest ranked Army Men game for the NGC on Metacritic but still in the 300s. I couldn't find anything else that I was looking for that I was higher on my list. It's a third-person shooter that might be some fun.
Fable (Xbox) - I needed a hard copy for my collection again.
Metroid Prime is so good. When I first got it, I didn't think I would like it, but I did.
I could never get into Pikmin, though. Not sure why.
I can't figure out which Zelda game you're talking about.
I think the reason why Namco Museum on GBA has so few games is that there's also a Pac-Man Collection. Only good thing about it is that was the first time Pac-Man Arrangement was on a home console.
I remember playing Metroid Prime after having played a lot of Halo and was really uncomfortable with the controls. It still bothers me but I get farther each time I return to it.
Link to the Past/Four Swords Adventures I meant. Whoops. I kind of combined those two titles went I wrote this. I'm often rushed in writing these.
I saw that Pac-Man collection for GBA the other day. I was wondering if it was worth getting.
The GBA Pac-Man Collection is one of the only ways you can play arcade Pac-Man Arrangement.
Well, I'll keep my eye out for it. Maybe it'll turn up at my game stores.
One of the home console versions has it, too, and it's better, but I can't remember which one it is.
I'm glad you didn't get rid of the Metroid Prime games. I would have had strong words for you! But don't bother with MP2 if you haven't clicked with the first game. It's more difficult and unforgiving. I think there is a lot of enjoy about the second game but you need to be fully onboard with the series first.
I'm onboard. I have 3 and Other M I'm going to get to later in the year. I wonder about the Metroid Prime remake. Are there improvements to the control scheme?
First of all, how dare you imply that the original Metroid Prime control scheme had problems! The nerve! But also...yes, you can use typical FPS dual stick controls if that floats your boat (or gunship).
Well, coming off a lot of Halo play at the time, it was different enough to cause me problems. I'm getting over it slowly. So, you can change up the controls in the original or the remake? I really should just check settings when I play a game.
The remake has the original controls, dual stick, and motion controls that hail from the Prime Trilogy release on Wii.
Oh ok, I'll probably go with dual stick when I play that. I just saw that Prime Trilogy for Wii at Game Junkies. I remember almost buying it when it came out. I guess I should have. It goes for a pretty penny these days.
Comments