Let's Play Every GameCube Game, Part 29
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (Sonic Team/Sega, 2002)
PSO is pretty famous as the first big console MMO, but it's predictably not playable in 2021 when the servers are down and I don't have a way of connecting it to the internet. There are private servers if you can solve the second problem, but there are also newer and more accessible versions of this game, so I don't know why you'd bother.
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus (Sonic Team/Sega, 2003)
An expanded version of the original release that is similarly not playable today without going out of your way.
Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution (Sonic Team/Sega, 2003)
It sounds like this card battling take on PSO actually was playable offline, but for some reason it also doesn't start. Here's a nice loading screen.
Piglet's Big Game (Doki Denki Studio/Gotham Games, 2003)
Our latest entry in forgotten games about forgotten movies is an adventure game starring Piglet. It's very slow and boring, and you almost jitter while walking. I don't like it.
Pikmin (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo, 2001)
I hadn't played the original in this series before. It has some clever/silly writing to explain where all the names come from, and you can't deny that this series is always very cute. It's one I prefer to appreciate from a distance, though, because the quasi-RTS gameplay doesn't really gel with me. More importantly, the sequel has giant bugs, and I can always do without those.
Pikmin 2 (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo, 2004)
I played through most of this game many years ago, but then it introduced giant drop spiders and I decided it wasn't for me. You get some cool Pikmin powers and there's a good variety of biomes, so I see what everyone else loves about it. The pace and size of arachnids aren't quite what I'm looking for.
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection (FarSight Studios/Crave Entertainment, 2005)
As mentioned a few times in the GBC series, video game pinball is just not appealing to me at all. It would've been even less so back then, when it was easier to find a real table. It seems like this game has a decent selection of tables if this is what you're after, though.
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (Edge of Reality/Activision, 2004)
If what you always wanted out of Pitfall was fighting a giant fire leopard, this is the game for you. It's a slightly edgy action adventure remake that involves a lot of kicking and jumping over giant mouths in the ground. If you want a good game, you should look elsewhere.
Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire (Nintendo, 2003)
As the name implies, this isn't really a game. It's a storage system for Pokemon from the GBA games that also gave you another way of managing breeding and to access event Pokemon. It's unplayable without a GBA Link, but I doubt there'd be much to see anyway.
Pokémon Channel (Ambrella/Nintendo, 2003)
It eventually becomes a sort of Tamagotchi/simulation game, but it opens with a long and unskippable anime episode that I eventually got bored of watching. I can't tell you if the game that presumably shows up at some point is any good, but if you'd rather watch anime instead of playing a game, this is a great way to do that.
Pokémon Colosseum (Genius Sonority/Nintendo, 2003)
A Pokemon game in which, instead of having encounters to catch your own Pokemon, you battle other trainers and snag theirs. It also features "Shadow Pokemon", which sound like something out of Kingdom Hearts, and features a protagonist who is dressed like he just got rejected for a role in Digimon. I have no interest at all in the story mode, but the free battles are at least okay. Not better than what you could get in the handhelds, though.
Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (Genius Sonority/Nintendo, 2005)
It doubles down on the Shadow Pokemon nonsense and has a protagonist that looks like a lost Kingdom Hearts character now. The UI is an absolute disaster, as you can see, and it gives you all the information about the opposing teams items, abilities, and moves for reasons that can only be described as baffling. I think this is the worst reviewed game ever in which you can have a (mostly) normal Pokemon battle, but there may be one slightly worse I'm forgetting about.
The Polar Express (Blue Tongue Entertainment/THQ, 2004)
Anyone who played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 at launch will be familiar with the auditory nightmares that happen when enemy voice clips are set to play too often, and this game is trending towards that territory. That's the only interesting thing about it - otherwise you just have an ugly licensed action adventure with dreadful voice acting.
Pool Edge ( NDCube/Media Kite, 2002)
I don't know if this game had a special peripheral needed for play, but none of the buttons or sticks do anything once I start a game. Still, it has some great voice clips in it. It sounds like they got a native English speaker to read lines that never went through a translator, so you get stuff like "Options! Feel free to change a few and enjoy the difference!" This studio went on to make Super Mario Party and the upcoming Mario Party Superstars.
Pool Paradise (Awesome Developments/Ignition Entertainment, 2004)
A pool game that realized character models are expensive, so you play against disembodied hands instead. It has incredibly convoluted controls and I couldn't figure out how to take a shot. It does have a mode that lets you play on weirdly shaped tables, so that's cool, but it's also the only thing really distinguishing what's clearly a very low-budget game.
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