Best Gamecube games that were not that popular?

[A Black Falcon]

A lot of the games mentioned here are very mainstream, quite popular titles. Zelda (Wind Waker or Twilight Princess), Tales, Skies of Arcadia, Eternal Darkness, Timesplitters, etc? Seriously, you think those are not that popular? Uh... they were popular. Quite popular. Stuff like Baten Kaitos and Fire Emblem were definitely successful as well, though Baten Kaitos Origins didn't do so well. I didn't like the first Baten Kaitos much at all, though, so I've never played the sequel. Fire Emblem's certainly fantastic though. I wouldn't call it unpopular though, it did well for its genre.

Anyway, what would I mention here? Hmm...

P.N.03 - GC exclusive, and a fantastic game! It's basically a shmup on feet, more than anything else. Consider it that and you might like it. It does seem to be love-or-hate, though. I liked it a lot.

Blowout - PS2/Xbox/GC 2.5d sidescrolling action/platform game. This launched very cheap -- I think it was $10 new -- and didn't get much publicity, but actually is a pretty good little game, well worth playing, if you like sidescrolling action/shooter games.

Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat - Nintendo's only sidescroller that generation, but yeah, it's a better game than most people give it credit for. Just be sure to play it with the bongos for the best experience. Note that the Wii version has some additional content, but isn't bongos-compatible, so I'd recommend the GC version over it.

Phantasy Star Online III: C.A.R.D. Revolution - This game definitely didn't get enough press, or success. This is actually a quite good card strategy game, and it's GC exclusive too. It's a good game, well worth playing.

Lost Kingdoms (1 and 2) - Two pretty solid card-battle action-RPGs. They were moderately successful, or at least the first one was, but aren't among the system's better-known titles, so I think they can make this list. I quite liked the first one, it's short but pretty fun. The second is good as well.

Spirits & Spells - This game's somewhat average, but it's a decent game, and it's definitely not something most people have heard of. Only released on the GC in the US, there's also a PS2 version in Europe. It's a railed-path 3d platformer. It's got some oldschool elements like one hit kills that send you back to the last checkpoint, so don't be fooled by how childish the box looks.

Zelda: Four Swords Adventures - The GC's two 3d Zelda games are of course quite popular (and very, very good), but this 2d one flew under the radar, and is one of the less successful Zelda titles. That's understandable, because that gen was probably 2d's low point in terms of success on consoles, and the game requires GBAs with GC-GBA link cables in order to play it in multiplayer (one player doesn't require one, only multiplayer, at least), but it's actually a very fun game. It IS best in multiplayer for sure, but it's a fun enough game in one player that I'd recommend it either way... though do try to get the stuff together to play it in multiplayer too.

1080 Avalanche - Somehow this game got somewhat overlooked at release. It did alright, I think, but SSX3 completely overshadowed it. I can see how that happened -- SSX3 was a very good game -- but this game's great fun as well. It is short, but a lot of fun while it lasts. I actually like this more than the N64 1080 game. A nice improvement for NST; their other GC racer, Wave Race: Blue Storm, wasn't quite as good as Wave Race 64.

XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association (GC/Xbox/PS2) - This game, one of Acclaim's later titles before going out of business, is one of my favorite racing games ever. It got okay scores, and probably sold alright, but in part because Acclaim didn't last long at all after its release, and that it's the last game in its series, I'd certainly call it somewhat unknown now. As I said though, I think the game is absolutely amazing. I'm a huge futuristic racing game fan, and this is, in my opinion, one of the best ones. Everything about this game was designed to be fun. The game's basically the perfect Extreme-G experience, with some of the speed and style of XGIII, but gameplay that returns much more to XG 1 or 2, instead of being another Wipeout clone like XGIII was. I think that change was a very good decision, Wipeout's great but I didn't want XG to be Wipeout. Anyway, XGRA is just a fantastic game. It's got good music (though I always play in Dance only mode, not Rock or Mixed), good graphics, great speed, a good weapons system, great, varied track designs, and more.

I'm sure there are more.

[cheesystick]

I might be alone on this one, but I really liked Space Raiders. It is a simple space invaders type game, but it has an added feature that improved the power of your gun the more times you make successive hits without missing. This adds a new gameplay element the improves what would have otherwise been a pretty bland game. The game also offers a good challenge for us old school gamers. It is the kind of game that you play for 20 mins., put down, and then try to improve at later. The game isn't made of gold by any means, but definitely worth $5 or so.

Go Go Hypergrind! is also a game the I really enjoyed a lot. It is a skateboarding game similar to Tony Hawk, except it is all cel-shaded graphics and the art was done by Spumco, the same people behind Ren & Stimpy. The goal of the game is actually to immure the player character as much as possible. You chain together tricks in between purposely running into hazards. People who like more realistic skating games won't like this one. However, I always eventually became bored with some Tony Hawk style games. I always thought that they could make it more zany, and makes more outrageous levels that lent themselves more to gameplay than a real-life vision. This game delivers on that front and I really enjoyed it. Much like Space Raiders though, it did get a lot of hate from people when it came out, so do your research before you buy. The game is cheap as can be though.

Although not too "obscure," I really recommend Alien Hominid. It is a balls hard run-n-gun like Metal Slug. Some of the enemy designs and bosses are really creative, like a literal Russian Hammer and Sickle robot. Bomberman Jetters was pretty decent and doesn't get talked about much. Also, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is an example of a good super hero game done right, especially in a time where everyone was doing ti wrong. There is a great written review for it on this site. Modern day open-world GTA-style super hero games, (think Prototype and Infamous), took a lot of queues from this one and it is always fun to f*ck things up as the Hulk.

Pac-man Vs. is also a great party game if you have 4 controllers, a GBA and a link cable. Miyamoto supposedly helped with its development. Players holding the GBA can see the whole screen as Pac-man, while the other players play as ghosts and can only see a small portion of the screen. Hopefully upcoming Wii-U games will employ similar features. Don't get this one if you don't have friends though.

[Captain_N77]

Yeah, no idea how Zelda and Mario Kart, which are always among the most popular games on Nintendo consoles, can even be mentioned here hehe.

But I'll throw Cubivore out there. I enjoyed the heck out of it, and I know that it sold very little.

Doshin, as has been mentioned, is a lot of fun. I imported the PAL version and played it on a US GC with the freeloader.

I'd like to add some more support for Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2. You can also get them on PS2 if that's your thing. Both games, especially the first, are really fun and challenging beat-em-ups. The aesthetics of the games are top-notch and the games themselves are brimming with personality.

[Arctic Feather]

Megaman Network Transmission

It's a megaman platformer based on the Megman Battle Network RPG series. It starts off pretty slow, but once you get more weapons etc. it's really enjoyable.

[theclaw]

Megaman Network Transmission

It's a megaman platformer based on the Megman Battle Network RPG series. It starts off pretty slow, but once you get more weapons etc. it's really enjoyable.

Speaking of that game, Japan copies have ruined dialog text if run in English console mode. Relevant to the recent ongoing discussion of imports.

[Hawksmoor]

I'll go ahead and throw out Odama since no one else has yet.

[TonyTheTiger]

Wind Waker

Timesplitters 2

Tales of Symphonia

Eternal Darkness

Skies of Arcadia

Bloddy Roar

Wario Ware

None of those are really obscure or out of the mainstream :/

Bloody Roar isn't suuuper mainstream. It's probably a series many people don't realize went beyond the PlayStation. It's always been a somewhat fringe fighting game that ended up falling off the radar for most people.

And Eternal Darkness can sorta qualify based on it having been a textbook case of 'sleeper hit.' There was a period after it launched when nobody knew what it was. It was selling for something like $14 brand new. I guess now it's no longer particularly obscure but it was at one point. There was definitely a time when Eternal Darkness was "not that popular" at least.

[M.Buster2184]

I'll go ahead and throw out Odama since no one else has yet.

Good call Hawks, I thought Odama was fun and creative, and an excuse to use the mic on something other than Mario Party. Some of these might not be obscure, feel free to let me know, I'm just basing it off not many people I knew played it.

Viewtiful Joe

Beyond Good and Evil (who didn't enjoy that game?)

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (I loved this game, but not sure on the actual popularity of this game)

Ware Ware

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

I want to add Ikaruga, but I feel that was a popular game.

Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melle (Friend of mine had this game, not quite as good as Smash, but fun if you're into the Godzilla movies)

Also, I know it's a Mario title, but my brother and I played the crap out of Mario Superstar Baseball when we were living together. To this day we get together now and then to play a best of three series.

[Captain_N77]

@TonyTheTiger: I agree on Bloody Roar. The one on the GC was certainly not a big hit. However, I think you are off on Eternal Darkness.

ED was supposed to be a hit. I'm sure Nintendo didn't think it was going to do gangbusters, but it definitely under-performed as indicated by the pricedrops you mentioned. Everyone on the interwebz was going on about how mature titles wouldn't make it on a Nintendo console and Eternal Darkness was really the one that got the ball rolling for that school of thought. I do remember it sold over 300K in America. So many have fond memories of it because it is a really good game and it kinda ticks everyone off when a good game doesn't get it's due.

@M.Buster2184: Ikaruga is a niche title by virtue of it being a shmup in this day and age(or even the GC's age). I think it performed well enough, considering it's genre and that it was on the third place console of that gen. But I think it falls into the category of being "not so popular".

FF:CC was a modest hit(I'm speaking about American region). If I recall, it had a debut total of something like 250K in its first month. I believe the last time I saw NPD numbers for it it was over 400K. I think it's fair to say that Nintendo and Square were hoping for more than that, as they really pushed the whole "Final Fantasy returns to a Nintendo console"-thing.

Godzilla: DAMM was a decent performer as well. Unless I'm mistaken, I do recall seeing NPD numbers having it just over 400K. I'm not sure what expectations were for the game, but if I had to guess I'd say it might have over-performed a bit.

[M.Buster2184]

@TonyTheTiger: I agree on Bloody Roar. The one on the GC was certainly not a big hit. However, I think you are off on Eternal Darkness.

ED was supposed to be a hit. I'm sure Nintendo didn't think it was going to do gangbusters, but it definitely under-performed as indicated by the pricedrops you mentioned. Everyone on the interwebz was going on about how mature titles wouldn't make it on a Nintendo console and Eternal Darkness was really the one that got the ball rolling for that school of thought. I do remember it sold over 300K in America. So many have fond memories of it because it is a really good game and it kinda ticks everyone off when a good game doesn't get it's due.

@M.Buster2184: Ikaruga is a niche title by virtue of it being a shmup in this day and age(or even the GC's age). I think it performed well enough, considering it's genre and that it was on the third place console of that gen. But I think it falls into the category of being "not so popular".

FF:CC was a modest hit(I'm speaking about American region). If I recall, it had a debut total of something like 250K in its first month. I believe the last time I saw NPD numbers for it it was over 400K. I think it's fair to say that Nintendo and Square were hoping for more than that, as they really pushed the whole "Final Fantasy returns to a Nintendo console"-thing.

Godzilla: DAMM was a decent performer as well. Unless I'm mistaken, I do recall seeing NPD numbers having it just over 400K. I'm not sure what expectations were for the game, but if I had to guess I'd say it might have over-performed a bit.

Thanks for the clarification Captain. Didn't realize the number for Godzilla were that high. I imagine the developers were happy with that. I remember being excited about a Final Fantasy game coming out for the Gamecube, and I honestly enjoyed the game. Though probably not the numbers Square expected.

[Tron 2.0]

Viewtiful Joe

I don't think viewtiful joe was obscure for the gc,the game was very well know.Heck it was released again as a players choice for the gc.

[Captain_N77]

I don't think viewtiful joe was obscure for the gc,the game was very well know.Heck it was released again as a players choice for the gc.

And it was also an under-performing game. Capcom threw a lot into making VJ a success, but it just wasn't the big franchise they envisioned. And I forget exactly what the supposed threshold was for Player's Choice games were(250K or 400K), but meeting either doesn't necessarily mean a game is disqualified from being "not that popular". It's definitely not an obscure game, if that is what the topic creator meant.

[Tron 2.0]

And it was also an under-performing game. Capcom threw a lot into making VJ a success, but it just wasn't the big franchise they envisioned. And I forget exactly what the supposed threshold was for Player's Choice games were(250K or 400K), but meeting either doesn't necessarily mean a game is disqualified from being "not that popular". It's definitely not an obscure game, if that is what the topic creator meant.

That's why i assume it wasn't obscure because it came out again as a players choice 'much as it got a PS2 port.Unless it did better in japan then the u.s i don't know,heck the game even got a cartoon go figure.

[wiggyx]

I hated VJ. Don't understand the appeal :/

[wingzrow]

I'm going to have to say Gotcha Force.

[kedawa]

That Sphinx game is supposedly pretty good.

[maxpacker]

Sphinx is good, but has a game breaking bug at one of the save points where you can't continue further, and have to start the game over.(details about this can found on amazon reviews)
This unfortunately happened to me before I knew about it, and I didn't want to start over.

The ps2 and xbox versions don't have this bug I believe.

I'll add Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, don't really know if it's that obscure though.

Gladius is very unique for a console release.

[Schiggidyd]

What about Cubivore?
It's very hard to get now, it must have not sold well!

[djshok]

Marvel Nemesis Rise of the Imperfects, this game gets no respect and it's a shame because it's a truly fun game. Also, it's better on the GC than the PS2.

[RCM]

Did anyone mention Beach Spikers? I remember buying it for $10 and def. enjoyed it.