Let's Play Every GameCube Game, Part 20
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Traveller's Tales/LucasArts, 2006)
I played this one as part of the collection on Wii. It has some fun space sections around the Death Star, but is mostly the same game again. Which is fitting, because TT has made the same game again many, many times.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Adrenium Games/Activision, 2004)
I was never interested in this series and know nothing about it other than that some people have criticized the movie for changing the plot to give Violet a more passive role than in the books. It's perhaps fitting, then, that the first thing the game does is switch to Klaus and keep it that way. The tutorial writing is actually pretty entertaining, but the accompanying gameplay is dull and generic
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Warthog Games/EA, 2003)
A very confused game that makes you replay sections and changes genres a lot. Apparently the first thing they thought of after "Looney Tunes" was "Frogger." The writing is accurate to the show, at least, and they got the real voices for the characters.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (EA Redwood Shores/EA Games, 2003)
This reviewed really well at the time, but it's just an absolute mess of special effects going off in every direction and a camera that's way too zommed in. I can't tell what's going on and I don't have any desire to keep playing to see if it gets better.
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (EA Redwood Shores/EA Games, 2004)
This only came out a year later from the same dev and opens with a cutscene in exactly the same style, so I was all prepared to write "unsurprisingly, it's almost exactly the same game." Except, well, it's not. At all. This is basically a JRPG and was even criticized at the time for being derivative of Final Fantasy X. I'd consider playing it, but I've somehow avoided learning much of anything about this story, and I somehow doubt this game is the right way to experience it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Stormfront Studios/EA, 2002)
The last game may not have been a clone of the first, but this one (which actually came out first) mostly is. Thankfully it at least doesn't have the same overload of special effects, but it still feels chaotic and would've benefited from a different camera angle.
Lost Kingdoms (From Software/Activision, 2002)
A card battler where the battles take place in real time and cards either summon enemies or cause you to do special attacks. It's a neat idea, but it was criticized for getting repetitive, and I can see the potential from that even from playing it only very briefly. Since this is a From game, I suppose you could call it "the Dark Souls of GameCube games."
Lost Kingdoms II (From Software/Activision, 2003)
It seems like they made some changes to individual cards and gave you a few more options when playing them, but it doesn't feel like a very different game. It certainly doesn't look any better graphically, and I'd almost argue that the main character's stupid costume and bad walk animation push it into looking worse.
Lotus Challenge (Kuju Entertainment/Ignition Entertainment, 2004)
A fairly basic racing game that only has cars from Lotus. It's fine mechanically, but the AI leaves a lot to be desired and it doesn't look like much outside of the car models. Some incredibly basic menus and UI elements give away that it wasn't a high budget title.
Luigi's Mansion (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo, 2001)
Here's another of the GCN classics. I've watched a full playthrough of it and loved the charm, but I'm not sure I'd get anything more out of playing it myself. Or that I'd even enjoy it. At any rate, there's a 3DS port now, so that's the way I'll go if I ever do decide to come back to it. For now, let's just all appreciate how great "Game Boy HORROR" is.
Lupin Sansei: Umi ni Kieta Hihou (Asmik Ace, 2003)
Wikipedia claims this is an action game, but what I saw is at most an unusually well animated visual novel. It's some sequences that look like anime except that you have to press A to advance the dialogue mixed with sequences that actually are anime. Maybe it becomes an action game eventually. I didn't see any evidence of that in around 10 minutes.
Madagascar (Toys For Bob/Activision, 2005)
Generic platformer yadda yadda mixed reviews yadda yadda mediocre graphics yadda yadda. You know the drill. All these games are the same.
Madden NFL 2002 (EA Tiburon/EA, 2001)
We're now entering a section that's going to be really hard for me, because even though I don't play football games at all or even follow the sport, I have to talk about a series of seven football games in a row. This one is ugly, has announcers who can't say anything relevant to the game, and barely has any modes other than quickplay. That's not great!
Madden NFL 2003 (EA Tiburon/EA, 2002)
It has some more modes and there's music in the menus now. The announcers say player names, but everything else is generic and clearly fake. Otherwise the same game.
Madden NFL 2004 (EA Tiburon/EA, 2003)
The same game with different people announcing. They aren't any more believable. It has music from Jet, who, if the Jets fans I know are to be believed, were far more successful than the football Jets could ever hope to be.
Madden NFL 2005 (EA Tiburon/EA, 2004)
I figured I'd give the Jets a chance since I dunked on them for no reason in the last entry. The game matched me against the Patriots, who had a 99 overall rating and proceeded to immediately return my kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. Oh, Jets. Shoutouts to the blatantly 2D team staff on the sideline.
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