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[Ailike]

The only group to inflate their own fandom more than Sonic fans are Metroid fans.

 

[ByWatterson]

It's RE4. Arguably the most influential third person game since Mario 64.

And it was exclusive for about a year I think?

 

[darrylgorn]

Star Wars: Rouuge Squadron

 

[35cent]

Considering that I've finished RE1 remake a million times and that I played Metroid Prime for about 30 minutes before returning it the next day I'll have to go with RE1 remake.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I bought the GameCube the day RE Remake was released, so I go with this one. RE4 was then just icing the cake.

 

[onQ123]

Super Monkey Ball. ( Fight Me)

 

[ironmang]

Easily Melee. Still has a huge playerbase over 20 years later.

 

[BlackTron]

GC had a lot of great games but my favorite 2 exclusives were definitely Rogue Squadron II and Melee which were both in the launch window. I can never fully retire real GC/Wii hardware just so I can have these two games natively. Especially RS2 which has no sequels or remakes, is notoriously crappy to emulate and begs for a smooth CRT with all the camera swinging and aiming.

Smash is instrinsically tied to the identity of the system, but it has a lot of sequels and some of them are just about as good or close to it. Prime just got an excellent remake. But to this very day I need to use a real ass GC to play the best arcadey star wars shooter ever made.

 

[Kataploom]

Melee.
I didn't even own a Gamecube, but I rented one a bunch of times to play Melee when I was a kid.
Years later I had a roommate who had a Gamecube only with Melee. Melee was the only game for which I and almost everyone I knew IRL was aware of the Gamecube's existence.

It was so defining it's even played to these days, it's a game way bigger than the console it came out

 

[DKPOWPOW]

Echoes is superior to Prime.
And RE4 roundhouse kicked REmake to the curb. Hell I found RE Zero more enjoyable than REmake.

Also games like:

Smash Bros. Melee
F-Zero GX
Zelda: Twilight Princess

Are quite eligible for the throne.

but if I had to pick between these 2...

Metroid Prime

wins by a fucking landslide.

 

[Sleepwalker]

It was Double Dash.

But Paper Mario TYD, Fire Emblem, F-zero GX and RE 4 were my favorite

 

[SSfox]

I bought GC for RE, Metroid is awesome but even after I'd say Zelda WW is more important

 

[ReBurn]

I bought it for Rogue Squadron and it was worth it just for that. I enjoyed F-Zero GX, too. I'd buy a straight port of both on Switch.

 

[SSfox]

I don't think I've ever seen a Gamecube that didn't have a copy of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
It's literally the game that kept the GCN controller in use and even made Nintendo themselve to make and sell it again after all these years.

Smash Bros disk never entered my GC

 

[CrustyBritches]

For me it was Wind Waker

 

[Neff]

I bought a Gamecube solely for REmake so that.

 

[Lokaum D+]

TTYD

 

[Robb]

Out of those two I’d say Metroid.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

For me it's easily Smash Melee. I still love this game.

But if I had to choose between those, I'd go with Metroid Prime. REmake is great though.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

REmake was an old game with the shiniest fresh lick of paint ever seen, and several downgrades to gameplay.
Metroid Prime is one of the best games of all time and the best time I had in all of the 6th gen along with RE4. Prime literally saved the GC and the whole generation in my eyes. So it wins this poll for me, but at the time it wasn’t certainly seen as the strongest exclusive for the system. It saddens me that so many people preferred Sunshine, Wind Waker and most of all Melee, a game I still don’t see the appeal of when the sequels are so much better in any way.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Is it really that good?

No, Eternal Darkness always was pure jank with a cool gimmick. The “mature” content of the game would have gotten much more attention and praise on the rival systems, which thrived on that kind of stuff. On the other hand, if the game had released on the rival systems, nobody would have turned a blind eye on the jank. ED was a 7/10 and nothing more than that.

 

[GymWolf]

Both, rebirth is still the best remake and prime was just so good.

 

[Exede]

Eternal Darkness
Resident Evil 4
Metroid Prime

Can't pick one

 

[Mr Reasonable]

ReMake isn't one that I think of when defining the GameCube.

Resident Evil 4 defines the GameCube for me - despite me having played and owned it on a bunch of different machines, it's still a GameCube game, imo.

Wind Waker, Pikmin, Metroid, Double Dash, Rogue Squadron, Eternal Darkness, Twin Snakes, Luigi's Mansion all come to mind before Remake.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Eternal Darkness for me.

 

[Tams]

Kirby Air Ride. I will fight people over this.

Okay, seriously, it has to be Super Smash Bros. Melee without a doubt. Zelda: Wind Waker comes close, maybe Super Mario Sunshine, but Melee is just so closely associated with that controller that it has to take the cake.

 

[RoadHazard]

Out of those Metroid Prime. For RE I would say RE4 was a more "defining" exclusive than RE1R (even though RE4 was rather quickly ported to PS2).

 

[EN250]

Never would have bought a GameCube if not for the whole RE franchise, especially REmake, RE0 and RE4

 

[cireza]

I'd pick Metroid any day. Resident Evil was great of course, but the gameplay was old-school (on purpose) and I find that the tank controls did not age well. While Metroid Prime 1 & 2 still have excellent gameplay and controls, on top of being excellent.

Gamecube has a ton of great exclusives by the way. I really like PSO Ep3.

 

[Iced Arcade]

Metroid Prime was the opener And Resident Evil 4 was the closer.

The cube was such an amazing box

 

[Camreezie]

Id say :

Super smash bros melee
Windwaker
Super Mario Sunshine
Mario Kart Double Dash

All before Prime or resident evil.
Fantastic games though dont get me wrong

 

[grfunkulus]

The two games that come to mind are Super Mario Sunshine and Resident Evil 4. Seeing kiosks and panels of those games in a store was mind blowing. Metroid franchise just does not have as much mainstream appeal and the remake of the original Resident Evil took several misteps while not innovating enough.

RE 4 is one of the most overrated games of all time. Escort simulators have not held up well.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Resident Evil Remake is still the best RE game to date.

Amount of cap in this thread is unreal. But it's not the #1 choice to own a Gamecube.

 

[Elysion]

Even though there are other games on the system that sold more, I would argue that Wind Waker is the game that defined the Gamecube more than any other – and mostly to the Gamecube‘s detriment, imo. I mentioned this before, but I think the reveal of Wind Waker with its ultra cartoony artstyle is what doomed the Gamecube to its status as the kiddie console, and let to it being left behind in third place in that generation. The early 2000s were the worst possible time for Nintendo to do a ‚kiddie‘ Zelda; at that time everything and everyone tried to be ‚dark‘, ‚edgy‘ and ‚mature‘. Especially after Nintendo had already shown with their Spaceworld 2000 tech demo what a next-gen Zelda game with OoT-style graphics could look like:

I genuinely believe that if Wind Waker had looked more like that tech demo, the Gamecube would‘ve been perceived very differently, and would’ve sold quite a bit more early on. This early momentum could’ve carried them through the rest of that generation, and the Gamecube would’ve probably outsold the XBox by a comfortable margin.

 

[Apocryphon]

P.N.03 obviously.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Even though there are other games on the system that sold more, I would argue that Wind Waker is the game that defined the Gamecube more than any other – and mostly to the Gamecube‘s detriment, imo. I mentioned this before, but I think the reveal of Wind Waker with its ultra cartoony artstyle is what doomed the Gamecube to its status as the kiddie console, and let to it being left behind in third place in that generation. The early 2000s were the worst possible time for Nintendo to do a ‚kiddie‘ Zelda; at that time everything and everyone tried to be ‚dark‘, ‚edgy‘ and ‚mature‘. Especially after Nintendo had already shown with their Spaceworld 2000 tech demo what a next-gen Zelda game with OoT-style graphics could look like:

I genuinely believe that if Wind Waker had looked more like that tech demo, the Gamecube would‘ve been perceived very differently, and would’ve sold quite a bit more early on. This early momentum could’ve carried them through the rest of that generation, and the Gamecube would’ve probably outsold the XBox by a comfortable margin.

I think you're giving to much pull to Zelda of all games for the Gamecube. The Gamecube was already cutting prices and having some difficulties by the time Wind Waker came out at the end of 2002, and 2003 was Gamecubes worst year. Sure, Wind Waker added some slat but I doubt things would have changed much at that point. Remember, they started out with a more balanced library and were already losing what they (Nintendo) started with and were making mistakes quite fast I doubt thing would change much.

 

[Stuart360]

I'd say Resi Eil 4 is the game that defined the Gamecube. Sure it eventually came to PS2 and PC later, but its the game i always think of when thinking of Gamecube.
Its also one of the mose beloved games of all time.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

most of all Melee, a game I still don’t see the appeal of when the sequels are so much better in any way.

Fans like it because it's faster, and apparently is among the best balanced without having too many characters. That's what I've seen around anyway.

 

[Elysion]

I think you're giving to much pull to Zelda of all games for the Gamecube. The Gamecube was already cutting prices and having some difficulties by the time Wind Waker came out at the end of 2002, and 2003 was Gamecubes worst year.

Wind Waker was revealed in August 2001, before the Gamecube was released. I remember articles in gaming magazines at the time, saying they weren’t sure what to think about the new artstyle, and the reaction of fans was pretty hostile (some calling it ‚Celda‘ due to its cell shading). Combined with the Gamecube‘s lunchbox design it certainly cemented Nintendo‘s kiddie image, at a time when ‚kiddie‘ was decidedly out of favor with the masses.

I’m not saying without Zelda‘s cartoon look the Gamecube would’ve outsold the PS2 or something crazy like that, but I’m convinced a Zelda game that looked more like OoT would’ve helped Nintendo outsell the XBox at least.

 

[Aesius]

The two games that come to mind are Super Mario Sunshine and Resident Evil 4. Seeing kiosks and panels of those games in a store was mind blowing. Metroid franchise just does not have as much mainstream appeal and the remake of the original Resident Evil took several misteps while not innovating enough.

What were those “missteps?”

It honestly didn't need to innovate. It released only 6 years after the original while dramatically improving upon it. The visuals are still amazing to this day. IMO it's the definitive classic survival horror game.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Wind Waker was revealed in August 2001, before the Gamecube was released. I remember articles in gaming magazines at the time, saying they weren’t sure what to think about the new artstyle, and the reaction of fans was pretty hostile (some calling it ‚Celda‘ due to its cell shading). Combined with the Gamecube‘s lunchbox design it certainly cemented Nintendo‘s kiddie image, at a time when ‚kiddie‘ was decidedly out of favor with the masses.

I’m not saying without Zelda‘s cartoon look the Gamecube would’ve outsold the PS2 or something crazy like that, but I’m convinced a Zelda game that looked more like OoT would’ve helped Nintendo outsell the XBox at least.

I mean, this doesn't really go with how the Gamecube performed at all before it collapsed. I think again, you're putting way too much pull on Zelda, especially pre-release. Gamecube started out strong with decent third-party and managed to hold up with exclusive offerings and then started falling apart quickly.

People were already making fun of it for being a purple lunchbox and other such things, but people were attracted the the console and its games more during the earlier times, the Gamecube by end of 2022 was not able to continue to convince buyers to pick it over the competition, so it crashed and burned to where in 2003 people were suspecting it was going to be the Dreamcast, another 3 fire sales, and they stopped production of the console for awhile. Xbox cutting back in preparation to rush out the 360 was the best thing to happen to the Gamecube in hindsight.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Kirby Air Ride. I will fight people over this.

Okay, seriously, it has to be Super Smash Bros. Melee without a doubt. Zelda: Wind Waker comes close, maybe Super Mario Sunshine, but Melee is just so closely associated with that controller that it has to take the cake.

Metroid Prime was literally designed around that controller. It uses every single input for a different function and the combat is specifically designed to overcome the lack of dual analog controls.

Melee could be played with any standard controller, exactly like all of its sequels. If I were Nintendo I’d said fuck you to all the smelly Melee nerds of the world a long time ago. But Nintendo has more commercial sense than me and they keep selling that otherwise useless piece of plastic to all those dumb fanboys who somehow really think it’s still the best way to play any Smash game. Amazing how a lot of those people will also blame Nintendo’s greed about much more valuable products.

 

[Business]

Not full exclusive.

But the best part about this is you posted the PS2 box.

To be fair it ended up not being exclusive, but it was to be when it was announced and launched.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Metroid prime, between those two. I would say Melee is still the reason to own a GameCube for most people. It's still played religiously.

 

[vodka-bull]

Metroid Prime. And Wind Waker sucks!

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

To be fair it ended up not being exclusive,

That's what I said in what you quoted lol

 

[UnravelKatharsis]

I read this entire thread so I can confidently say, with respect to the guidelines set forth in the OP: Ape Escape, PS1.

Also here is a list of some of my favorite games, and one soundtrack, in no particular order:

71: Team Buddies
52: Tenchu Stealth Assassins
224: Mischief Makers
3eleventy6: Peggle
Ampersand: Super Strike B-ball
Magenta: Tekken Tag Tournament
3. Metal Gear Solid 3
1,226: 8 Eyes