Summary
Nintendo has an incredible history of making some phenomenal games, across the many consoles it’s released over the years. Their most recent innovation, theNintendo Switch, has enjoyed a surfeit of major hits, while also bridging contemporary fans to an older generation ofGameCubeclassics.
Since the Switch hit shelves back in 2017, plenty of remakes, remasters, and ports of GameCube gems have made their way to the little console that could. Whether you grew up with these veterans, or are just experiencing them for the first time, you’re guaranteed to have a great time GameCubing on the go.
Updated on July 13, 2025 by Bobby Mills:There’s just something about the GameCube library that’s inherently magical, isn’t there? It hovers in that odd between-realm of not being quite pixelated enough to be deemed ‘retro,’ yet still obviously a product of the mid-2000s. There’s no shortage of sixth-gen goodness on the Switch, so we thought we’d tart up our ranking of the best GCN offerings. Enjoy.
12Asterix & Obelix XXL 2
These Romans Are Down In Las Vegum
Though he’s never quite been able to break through to the American market, the European comic book hero Asterix remains a legend on his home turf. In fact, in France, he’s analogous to Mickey Mouse, complete with his own expansive theme park! It’s fitting, then, that the gallant Gaul has such a wide array of videogame adaptations, with the best arguably being XXL 2 on GameCube.
The Switch’s HD port of this seminal slap-em-up is a QoL dream. It sands off the rough edges of the GCN days, and what we’re left with is pure, unadulterated fun. Switching between Asterix himself and his pal Obelix, you navigate Las Vegum, dispatching horde upon horde of Roman legions with satisfying, button-smashing combat. Platforming and puzzly bits break up the pace, and the game’s irreverent digs at nerd culture (boss Romans dress as famous characters like Mario and Sonic) keep the guffaws coming throughout, by Toutatis.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated
Spyro got reignited, Mickey got rebrushed, and SpongeBob got… rehydrated. Poor guy, he must have been parched. Battle For Bikini Bottom is the very definition of a ‘cult classic’; a nostalgic platforming favourite that took on a booming second life in the speedrunning community. Notable for being a rare case of a licensed tie-in thatdoesn’tsuck, it was only a matter of time before execs took notice of the fan furor.
Enter Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, a ground-up remake that brings this beloved undersea odyssey bang up to date. Making use of the original code, while ensuring SpongeBob’s movement and the difficulty level conform to modern expectations, it’s the perfect balance of old and new. The town’s never looked better – though no amount of TLC could ever make that impostor Mr. Krabs sound right. Or make the Kelp Forest any less aggravating.
10Pikmin 1 + Pikmin 2
Two Classic Games About Little Plants
There’s so much to love aboutthe charming Pikmin games– despite the anxiety-inducing timer on each day, the imminent threat of death with every run, and the hostile world that you have to navigate. Its candy-coated exterior belies the abject horror within.
While losing your little minions can be tragic, the chance to experience the origin of one of the most unique game series in the Nintendo stable is not to be passed up. The first two Pikmin games are available individually or as a bundle, giving you plenty of options on which adventure you want to take. 1 is more of a tech demo (though some may appreciate its simplicity), while 2 adds dungeon crawling.
Resident Evil 0
One of the more creative classic Resident Evil games, Resident Evil 0 explores the origin ofthe viral outbreak at Raccoon City, following S.T.A.R.S. officer Rebecca Chambers and the imprisoned Billy Coen in a terrifying escape that runs parallel to the original Resident Evil game. And parallel narratives are tight.
This game lets you swap between the two characters, as they both have unique skills that help you survive the zombie infestation plaguing the city. The HD remake was designed with the original showrunner Koji Oda on the team, ensuring that the remake is faithful to the original game. It’s a gratuitous gorefest, and it’s a scream.
If you’re looking fora classic RPG epic, then look no further than Tales of Symphonia, a game so huge that it required two GameCube disks to hold everything. While you (thankfully) don’t need two Switch cartridges for the remake, it’s still a colossal experience.
While the remake suffers from some performance issues, as do many Switch ports, Tales of Symphonia remains one of the best role-playing games from the GameCube era. There are plenty of characters to become (selectively) attached to, and the game still lets you play with up to three other friends for some couch co-op adventures.
Epic, 60-hour adventures are great, but sometimes you just need to test your skills with a classic arcade shmup. Ikaruga stands apart from other bullet hells with its polarity system; players are able to switch their ship from black to white, and then back, at the push of a button. Sonic Frontiers would rip this off two decades later for its terrible final boss fight.
The game will unload waves of bullets at you, both white and black. If you’re hit with a bullet of the opposite colour, you’ll be destroyed – but if it’s of a matching color, you’ll absorb it for a powerful special attack. There are not a ton of stages, but that’s okay when the game is as punishingly brutal as this. You’ll welcome the credits roll.
One of the coolest games back in the GameCube’s heyday was Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. While the single-player version of the adventure was fine, the real joy was grabbing a few friends and linking up your Game Boy Advance to the GameCube with a Link Cable in a local co-op adventure. Assuming, of course, anyone in your friend group owned a Link Cable. The chances of this were statistically low.
Each Game Boy Advance would display different information about the game, which was a bit prohibitive for some players, but very fun if you could pull it off (and had the rapid-fire communication skills of a bomb disposal squad). The remake no longer requires you to jump through so many hoops to play with friends, which is great since the game includes loads of new dungeons, voice acting, and online multiplayer to savour.
Strictly speaking, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania isn’t a remaster or remake of one of the GameCube games in the series. However, itdoesinclude all 300 stages from the original Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2, complete with some upgrades to modernise the level design, so it qualifies for our list.
Factoring in the upgraded version of the GameCube games, the roster of playable characters has been bumped up from four to a whopping twelve, and includes faces from other games, like Beat from Jet Set Radio, Sonic and Tails, and even Kiryu from the Yakuza series, all rolling around in the little plastic balls. It’s adorable.
The main Mario game from the GameCube era took several risks and departures from traditional plumber formulae, resulting in one of the most divisive entries in the franchise, Super Mario Sunshine. Speedrunners love it, casuals loathe it, and some folks are in between – but its charm cannot be denied. It can be experienced via the Mario 3D All-Stars collection, in crisp HD and with improved controls.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars was a limited-time offering released to commemorate the Big M’s 35th anniversary. It compiles Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy – but if you didn’t pick it up digitally back in 2020, you’re out of luck as it was pulled from storefronts. Ah, artificial scarcity.
To play it nowadays, you’ll need a second-hand physical copy, which, luckily, aren’t especially expensive.
Super Mario Sunshine sees Mario and Princess Peach vacationing in Isle Delfino, an island in the shape of a dolphin that has been plagued with goo splattered by someone who looks a lot like Mario. You know, if you have the eyesight of a mole and the logical reasoning of a rock – oh hi Piantas, we were just talking about you. Mazza gets framed for the crime; so with the water cannon pack F.L.U.D.D. (and more dialogue than anyone expects from a Mario game), you have to clean up the entire paradise.
What more can be said about Resident Evil 4 that hasn’t been beaten to, er,undeath by now? One of the best horror games on the GameCube has been re-released, remastered, and upgraded multiple times over the years, resulting in tons of ways for players to experience the game. The Switch iteration tops the list by some margin.
Despite the game being almost 20 years old, it remains a banger. Everything from the one-liners, to the terrifying evolution of the T-Virus and other zombie tropes that the series had become known for, makes for a spooktacular outing to this day.
