Let's Play Every GameCube Game, Part 28
One Piece: Grand Adventure (Ganbarion/Namco Bandai, 2006)
I thought this was going to be a sort of open world game, but it's anime, so it legally has to be a 1v1 fighter. This one is at least a little different by having 3D arenas a la Soul Calibur. Interestingly, it did not release in Japan, but that's probably because it's a minor update of a game that did.
One Piece: Grand Battle! (Ganbarion/Bandai, 2005)
It's another fighting game, but I decided to do minigames instead. They're not very good, and the oddly tiny movepool doesn't help. My character looks giant here, but she's actually in the air and close to the camera. It's a confusing perspective.
One Piece: Grand Battle! 3 (Ganbarion/Bandai, 2003)
Here we have another One Piece fighting game. This one only came out in Japan. The rest of the world did not miss anything.
One Piece: Pirates' Carnival (Bandai, 2005)
This time it's a Mario Party ripoff. This particular minigame is great if you want to hear a green-haired guy shout "onigiri!" repeatedly for a full minute. It's not great if you want anything else.
One Piece: Treasure Battle! (Bandai, 2002)
Easily the worst of these. It's an unbelievably ugly series of minigames featuring a UI that covers almost the entire screen. There aren't that many characters, and they're not evenly remotely balanced, with some just being better in literally every way. I get that the characters aren't balanced in an anime, but you can't make a competitive four player game where two characters have flat-out better stats than everyone else just because.
Open Season (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft, 2006)
Yeah, it's another boring Ubisoft licensed game, but it's interesting for two reasons. First, this game has you move the camera up and down or left and right to say yes or no, which I thought was a recent innovation. Second, this came out in 2006, which means some poor team at Ubisoft Montreal was working on this at the same time as everyone else was making Assassin's Creed. What bad luck.
Outlaw Golf (Hypnotix/Simon & Schuster, 2002)
A golf game that is oddly realistic except for the fat that all the characters are either sexy or alcoholics and you can attack your caddie to improve your composure. It's not very good, and really the most interesting thing about it is that Simon & Schuster published it. You know, the same publishing company that puts out books by Jimmy Carter? Yeah.
Over the Hedge (Edge of Reality/Activision, 2006)
An action adventure game based on a movie I'd forgotten about. It introduces a whole lot of strange puzzles to a franchise that I doubt had them, and it has possibly the longest splash screen I have ever seen in a console game. It had me looking at the copyright info while it was loading for a good 45 seconds.
P.N.03 (Capcom Production Studio 4/Capcom, 2003)
I don't think it's at all controversial to say this is the worst of the "Capcom 5" games that actually came out. The games survived a lot of development troubles to eventually produce Killer7, Viewtiful Joe, and Resident Evil 4, but also this mess, which was so rushed that they didn't even catch this typo two minutes in. It's an arcade shooter where you can't move and shoot at the same time, which makes it feel stiff and unresponsive. The bad camera does not help at all.
Pac-Man Fever (Mass Media/Namco, 2002)
Another take on Mario Party, but one that had potential. Instead of rolling dice to move, your placement in minigames determines how far you go and the first across the finish line is the overall winner. Unfortunately, it crashes whenever it tries to load a minigame, so I can't tell you how successful it actually was. The terrible critical response suggests the answer is "not very."
Pac-Man Vs. (Nintendo EAD/Namco, 2003)
A GBA link game where the GBA player controls Pac-Man and the other three players are ghosts. Unfortunately, it's impossible to play without a GBA link, which I can't set up right now. Fortunately, it was ported to DS and Switch, so there are still accessible ways to play what sounds like a very neat idea.
Pac-Man World 2 (Namco Hometek/Namco, 2002)
Turning Pac-Man into a 3D collectathon feels like a natural idea, but it just doesn't really work as implemented here. It's too trivial to get away from ghosts by jumping on top of things, and since power pellets kill them permanently, you end up without any threats in the level quite quickly. Still, the music is nice and it looks better than a lot of 2002 games.
Pac-Man World 3 (Namco Hometek/Namco, 2005)
This was the first time Pac-Man ever spoke in a video game, and I rather wish he hadn't. They gave Pac-Man an edgy smartass personality that just does not fit my image of the character, and the dialogue isn't even particularly funny. Plus, who thinks toxic sewer when they think Pac-Man? It's just weird.
Pac-Man World Rally (Smart Bomb Interactive/Namco Bandai, 2006)
Another game I like the idea of. The character designs are good and the tracks aren't bad. Being able to eat opponents when you collect enough power pellets is great. Alas, five laps is entirely too long for this kind of race and the powerups just aren't interesting at all. It feels like there could've been something here if they'd had more time to flesh it out.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo, 2004)
Look, you all know what this game is. I loved it when I played through it the one and only time, but that was back in maybe 2008. It's definitely time to give Mario's GCN RPG another go.
Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Ubisoft Montpelier/Ubisoft, 2005)
This incredibly long title goes with a game that's often considered one of the best movie games ever, which unfortunately says a lot more about the quality of movie games overall than the quality of this one in particular. It seems fine, although I could do without the long cutscenes.
The list:
1080° Avalanche
Animal Crossing
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Batman: Dark Tomorrow
Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Charinko Hero
Chibi-Robo!
Cocoto Kart Racer
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
Custom Robo
Dark Summit
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
F-Zero GX
Family Stadium 2003
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Freedom Fighters
Freekstyle
Gotcha Force
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing
Jikkyou Powerful Major League
Kirby Air Ride
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario Power Tennis
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
Mr. Driller Drill Land
Muscle Champion: Kinnikutou Kessen
MVP Baseball 2005
Nintendo Puzzle Collection
Odama
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door