Cult Classics: GameCube
Part 3: Ducks, plumbers, wizards, ghosts, pirates.
Pac-Man Vs.
- Developer: Nintendo
- Release: 2003
Pac-Man Versus is the best ordinary, non-co-operative multiplayer game on the Cube, and practically nobody's played it - partly because it only came free with R-bloody-Racing and Pac-Man World 2, and partly because it needs a Game Boy Advance link cable. But nowadays neither of these things is a problem, because GBAs are everywhere and Pac-Man World 2 can be had for less than a fiver. Hurray! Pac-Man Versus is an inspired idea. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, it takes good old-fashioned Pac-Man and simply makes it multiplayer. One player controls Pac-Man on the GBA screen, running around nibbling pills, and the other three players control ghosts on the maze on the TV screen. Thing is, ghosts have a limited field of vision, so you can only see Pac-Man if he comes within range, at which point complete and utter chaos breaks out as the ghost players start yelling instructions at each other and the Pac Man player tries desperately to run the hell away. Every time anyone catches the slightest glimpse of Pac-Man there's a mad, screaming rush to catch him, and whenever someone does, there's a massive 'Aaaaaaargh!' from every other player before the controllers are switched around and the whole thing starts again. The GBA link-up really did have its moments.
What we said: 6/10, but only because you had to buy R:Racing to play it at the time. Can probably be revised upwards considerably now.
P.N.03
- Developer: Capcom
- Release: 2003
P.N.03 is kind of like a rhythm-action third-person shooter. Or a bit like The Club. Or Space Channel 5 with guns. It's balletic and difficult, and quite old-fashioned, putting you in a series of futuristic rooms with a sequence of enemies to destroy with a mixture of guns, dancing and special moves. What's interesting about it? The clean, minimalist style, the purposefully restrictive control and the rhythm and flow of the shooting. It's almost a 3D transposition of the traditional 2D vertical shooter, in addition to all those other things I just compared it to. It's worth hunting down if, as Tom said back in '03, you're patient, dextrous and in need of something new.
What we said: "Perhaps what's missing is a little inventiveness beyond that initial spark of genius."
Skies of Arcadia Legends
- Developer: Overworks
- Release: 2003
Skies of Arcadia filled the same hole in the GameCube's line-up as it did in the Dreamcast's: the one shaped like an epic, modern-yet-traditional JRPG. And yet Skies of Arcadia is completely unique in that role. It's set in a bright and unexplored world, wide open to your pirate protagonist and his party, filled with floating islands to be discovered in your own airship. There's no over-serious, near-mute main character, no distressingly involved back-story, no taking itself very seriously at all, in fact. Skies of Arcadia is exuberant, likeable, funny and a bit camp, as well as deep and involving and incredibly long-lived. It was genuinely exciting to play - you put up with the random battles because you wanted to get back out into the airship and go exploring the next unknown world. Its story was a mix of swashbuckling and politics, taking you and your party to the end of the known world and back. The sense of significance in its story doesn't feel self-imposed, as is so often the case with JRPGs, but instead you feel like the world is your own, and the sense of urgency and excitement and adventure that involves you in the game is also your own, genuine, not orchestrated by laboured set-pieces and clunky epic dialogue.
What we said: "If you're looking for an enjoyable but fairly traditional RPG with a cracking storyline and likeable characters, Skies of Arcadia Legends comes about as highly recommended as any game can."