Let's Play Every GameCube Game, Part 7
Charlie's Angels (Neko Entertainment/Ubisoft, 2003)
This is another contender for worst GCN game if you're going by review scores, but playing it now it feels more unremarkably bland than anything else. It's essentially a 3D beat-em-up with very little variation in combat. While I'm sure it gets incredibly tedious by the end, I didn't see anything broken.
Chibi-Robo! (Skip Ltd/Nintendo, 2005)
I took a screenshot of the opening cutscene because I already know I want to come back to this one. You play a little robot who has to clean up the house every night and you learn about all this family's troubles while doing so. I've only every played a little bit of it and always meant to come back and see the rest.
Chicken Little (Avalanche Software/Buena Vista Games, 2005)
The legally required licensed platformer for Disney's chicken movie. It is perfectly functional, but also perfectly bland, which is probably why it got scores right around 7/10 back then. That puts it on the better end of GCN licensed platformers, but it does not mean anyone should play it.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Traveler's Tales/Buena Vista Games, 2005)
Not a platformer! It actually plays almost exactly like (and has the UI of) Traveler's Tales' more famous LEGO games. It's comically over the top in the introductory sequence and I'd much rather be playing as the LEGO games' more memorable characters, but it gets points for at least being something different.
Club Nintendo Original e-Catalog 2004
This is Nintendo's 2004 catalog of upcoming games and systems (including the introduction of the DS!) in Japan. I didn't mean to leave it in my list of games to play, but now that I've looked at it, I think it's interesting enough to warrant a list spot. I have quite a few of these, and there's bound to be interesting stuff in them.
City Racer (Ubisoft Bucharest/Ubisoft, 2003)
It's called City Racer because you race cars in cities. I don't like that it has powerups even though it's 1v1, and I really don't like that the control stick is so absurdly sensitive. I could only get reasonable steering using the dpad. I guess it looks kind of nice, at least.
Cocoto Funfair (Neko Entertainment/Big Ben Interactive, 2006)
This was a light gun game on PS2, but I believe the GCN version just used the regular controller. It's a bunch of shooting minigames you can play in a couple different modes with different ways of scoring. Nothing remarkable.
Cocoto Kart Racer (Neko Entertainment/Big Ben Interactive, 2005)
A kart racer in the same series that's actually pretty decent. I'm still not a fan of the character design, but the tracks all seem to have their own gimmicks and the controls are decent. Seems short, so it won't take long to see the whole thing and I can put it on the list without risking much time.
Cocoto Platform Jumper (Neko Entertainment/Big Ben Interactive, 2004)
This working title of a game sees you climbing up a very long sequence of circular platforms. You can jump, attack, and create little arches of magma that form a path for about two seconds. The magma arch idea could've been cool in a game with more interesting levels, but building a ladder up to yet another circular wooden platform isn't fun no matter how you're doing it.
Codename: Kids Next Door – Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E. (High Voltage Software/Global Star Software, 2005)
Licensed platformer/shooter. It features a lot of toilet humor, bad voice acting, and awkward controls. Reviews at the same were solidly average, but it seems much worse than that from what I played, and I'm not sure I believe Global Star could manage publishing an average game.
Conan (Cauldron/TDK Mediactive, 2004)
Essentially a brawler with swords where you fight a caveman and his dozens of identical twins over and over again. The game shipped on two discs, so you'd really be in for a long haul of repetitive combat if you wanted to finish this. I certainly don't.
Conflict: Desert Storm (Pivotal Games/Gotham Games, 2003)
A delayed port of a game that released on everything else in 2002. It's a generic third person shooter with bad AI.
Conflict: Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad (Pivotal Games/Gotham Games, 2004)
Confusingly, this is actually still set during the Gulf War and has the same cast of playable characters. It's kind of neat that you can swap between them freely, but it's really hard to tell if you're shooting anything when there are so many allies around and they went for realistic non-tracer bullets.
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (Traveler's Tales/Universal Interactive, 2002)
TT's take on the series after Naughty Dog moved on was a commercial, but not critical, success. It was apparently disliked for not shaking up the formula enough, and since the first level seems exactly like what little I've played of the first game, that checks out. I've personally never liked how Crash handles platforming, so sticking to the formula is not a plus in my book.
Crash Nitro Kart (Vicarious Visions/Universal Interactive, 2003)
A kart racer starring crash that has since been remastered. There's not much reason to play the original now, which looks terrible and features some very annoying voice work. I'm in the Mario Kart camp anyway.
Crash Tag Team Racing (Radical Entertainment/Vivendi Universal, 2005)
For some reason the sequel thought it would be a good idea to put long, boring platforming sections in the way of racing. It wasn't, but the game does at least look significantly better than the last one.
The List:
1080° Avalanche
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