With the sixth generation of consoles we saw local multiplayer begin to fade away from the focus. That’s not to say there aren’t tons of titles on the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox that focused around getting a room full of people together to play. Developers just seemed to place less emphasis on it here. It makes sense what with the emergence of online play. For me playing with someone over the internet isn’t as fun or personable as gaming with your buddies on the same couch. That’s why today I’ve decided to highlight some of the best Gamecube multiplayer games. It had a lot so this list was difficult to narrow down. Either way let’s get started. These are the top 25 best local multiplayer games for the Nintendo Gamecube.
#25. – Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
Sonic Adventure 2 was one of the last big releases for the Sega Dreamcast. Thankfully it was given a second chance on Gamecube with the new ‘Battle’ subtitle. This refers to the new multiplayer modes. The base game is completely intact and it’s a decently fun time. Because we’re talking about Gamecube multiplayer games however we’re going to focus on the battle modes. My brother and I spent an absolutely ridiculous amount of time here. What’s interesting is that there’s a lot of gameplay variety in multiplayer. You can compete with one another in the opening San Francisco based stage called City Escape as you race down the street grinding on makeshift skateboards. Hitting those jumps just right takes a lot of practice, and it can get really heated. You can also do basic kart racing, treasure hunts, etc. City Escape was the stage we kept returning to however.
#24. – Kirby Air Ride
I can’t help but feel this was one of the big Gamecube hidden gems. In my opinion it feels like critics at the time didn’t really understand it. They were expecting a Mario Kart game, and this certainly isn’t that. Kirby Air Ride is a fast and furious racing game with a very simple control scheme. The best part of it however is the multiplayer. You can play the main races and compete against friends. It’s fun, but that’s not the main draw. HAL Laboratories included a mode called City Trial and that’s what I love most. Here you and the other players explore a large city on their vehicles and gather items that increase your stats, new vehicles, etc. After this you duke it out with all your upgrades. It’s really open ended which is super unique. You can basically focus on anything you want in the city sequences.
#23. – Pikmin 2
Pikmin isn’t a franchise generally associated with the term great multiplayer. With more time to polish the experience for the sequel Nintendo threw in a few different modes for friends to tackle with one another. The bad part is that you can only play with two players total. I’m willing to forgive this because the experience is so fun. First of all you have a challenge mode where you work together against a time limit to complete tasks. This one is fairly entertaining and serves as a good diversion from the main game. The real highlight however is the battle mode. Here you can win in several ways. Either by stealing marbles from your enemy, or forcing their army of Pikmin into extinction. This mode is surprisingly addictive and will absolutely destroy friendships. If you have two Pikmin fans in the same room this is an excellent choice.
#22. – F-Zero GX
Leave it to Sega to make the single best F-Zero game. It’s a Nintendo franchise, after all. In single player it’s a blistering race to the finish. This is one of the fastest racers that has ever been released. I sat there in awe the first time I watched F-Zero GX in motion. It’s absolutely insane. This title holds no punches. It’s an incredibly difficult racer that allows for very few mistakes. It also has a multiplayer mode. You can compete with up to four different racers in a traditional match. It’s kind of limiting hence the low placement on our list. Yeah the game is pretty limited in this regard. It’s not tough to see why though. The engine is obviously very demanding on the hardware. Few other games from this generation regardless of platform look as good as this one. F-Zero GX is still quite fun in multiplayer.
#21. – Mystic Heroes
The term ‘Musou’ had not yet been coined back when this game was released. Sure, Dynasty Warriors was fairly big back then but it had not yet hit mainstream audiences. Well, this is a musou game but for kids. Developers still treated Nintendo consoles like they were just for kids back then after all. Mystic Heroes is full of fun 3D hack and slash action. What set this one apart from its contemporaries is that you can play the main game with a friend. Actually, ‘friends.’ This is one of those few titles where you can play from start to finish with a total of four players. It’s amazing, and considering no Dynasty Warriors game at the time offered this Mystic Heroes was really special. It’s a fantastic title, and easily one of the best Gamecube multiplayer games of all time.
#20. – Bloody Roar: Primal Fury
If you’ve followed our reviews at all I’m sure you’ve noticed that we are big fans of the Bloody Roar franchise. This is a series of 3D fighting games wherein you play as a bunch of fighters who can transform into hulking humanoid animals. Despite the title this is actually an enhanced port of Bloody Roar 3 which originally came out on the PlayStation 2. This one released in a time when Gamecube owners were starving for good fighting games. Thankfully this one fit the bill. The graphics are really good with a smooth framerate and some seriously memorable characters. It’s two players max, but that’s pretty standard for the genre. I won’t hold it against Primal Fury. If you want a good traditional fighting game and love gimmicks then this one is a great choice.
#19. – Pokemon Colosseum
I’m embarrassed to admit that Pokemon Stadium was one of my favorite games for the Nintendo 64. It was such a treat to finally see all of my pocket monsters rendered in full 3D. Even the follow up, also released for the N64, was one of the best N64 games around. Especially when it came to multiplayer. Nintendo took a strange turn and made this one into primarily a single player adventure. There is however a battle mode wherein you can connect your Game Boy Advance systems and use your critters from Ruby/Sapphire/Fire Red/Leaf Green to battle with friends. It uses all the creatures you’ve found in the portable games and it’s really neat to see these fights play out in high fidelity graphics. It’s quite a bit of fun with a buddy.
#18. – Sega Soccer Slam
I’m not a big sports games fan. It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching or even playing sports. Rather I just can’t get into competing in these via a digital format. With that said if I suddenly get the itch odds are I’m reaching for a Sega game. When it comes to soccer (which is actually my favorite sport) this is no different. Sega Soccer Slam was one of the early original games the house of hedgehog released as a third party developers. It’s soccer, but with a very casual approach. Did I mention you can fight your foes? That’s kind of important. You have two options for multiplayer. Either you can do two player co-op which is fun, or four player versus which is an absolute blast. I really love the over-the-top nature of this title and the bright colorful graphics are great to look at.
#17. – Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
Gauntlet Legends was an absolute mainstay for my friends and I on the Nintendo 64. Everytime we hung out it was a sure bet that we would wind up playing it at one point or another. Gauntlet: Dark Legacy serves as kind of an expansion to it. The game plays largely the same but with more options for attack. In addition there are new stages, enemies, etc. The graphics have also been significantly upgraded and controls are a lot better as well. Here you can play with up to four total players as you fight through hordes of fantasy creatures all the while gathering items and experience points. It’s kind of an arcade style RPG. It stays true to the franchise’s roots but I think this might just be the best installment. It’s definitely one of the best Gamecube multiplayer games around.
#16. – TimeSplitters 2
I trusted reviews when the original TimeSplitters launched on the PS2. Claims were thrown around that it was the next Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. It certainly wasn’t that. It wasn’t until TimeSplitters 2 that I finally liked the franchise. The single player mode was finally interesting. So was the multiplayer. You had so many options to choose from with lots of bots, stages, and weapons. The graphics were also much improved. I absolutely love TimeSplitters 2 and feel like this was the time when Free Radical finally understood what kind of game we wanted. In my opinion this is the single best first person shooter multiplayer Gamecube game. That’s even taking into account the sequel; TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.
#15. – Super Mario Strikers
When it comes to sports games I don’t want something serious. I’m not a hardcore fan. I know I said earlier that I prefer Sega’s sports titles but in the case of Super Mario Strikers I have to hand it to Nintendo. They managed to capture the essence of the sport while injecting the classic Nintendo mayhem into the package. Multiplayer only made things more fun. The basic premise is sound here. It’s soccer with most of the usual rules intact. There are however items and power-ups from the Mario series here. These serve to shake up the action a lot. Fans of Fifa won’t be happy with this release because of how much this one is based on arcade gameplay. For those that just want to play some casual and chaotic soccer Super Mario Strikers is an excellent choice.
#14. – Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D Revolution
Phantasy Star Online was relatively big. So much that Sega saw it fit to release a sequel. To this day episode III remains a Gamecube exclusive. With good reason though. They took a departure from the previous installments by making this a card battling game. It was a hard pill to swallow for fans of the franchise. I picked this one up out of curiosity and instantly fell in love. Building a deck of thirty cards was fun, and implementing them in battle was even more entertaining. The high point for me however was working together with a friend to beat battles using our collective decks. Even fighting against each other was really cool. It’s a unquiet take on the genre, but the fun in multiplayer is absolutely undeniable.
#13. – Mario Party 4
Come on. I had to include at least one Mario Party title, right? I mean Nintendo single handedly invented the mascot based party game on the Nintendo 64, and they continued the legacy on the Gamecube. Of all the sequels from this generation part 4 is my favorite. It has the most interesting mini-games. Sure the boards are the weakest, but the mini-games are by far the most fun. Basically Mario Party 4 encapsulates the best aspects of board games while still staying true to its video game roots. Your ultimate goal is to gain enough stars to victory but you have to do so by rolling dice and competing in mini-games. True to its name Mario Party 4 is an excellent party game, but it’s only good when you’ve got people that are going to stick around for a while.
#12. – Star Fox: Assault
Remember when Star Fox was a premier Nintendo franchise? That feels like so long ago. This is another case of Nintendo outsourcing their series to third party developers. In this case Namco took the helm. While the single player mode is pretty decent the highlight for me was always multiplayer. Here you and three other players can compete in a series of matches using various vehicles. The arenas are really interesting with a lot of hiding places as well as vantage points. It’s a really interesting multiplayer experience. This definitely feels like an expansion of what was established in Star Fox 64. Despite the awkward camera angles I would definitely say this is one of the best Gamecube multiplayer games of all time.
#11. – Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
It was huge news when Squaresoft announced a Final Fantasy game was coming to the GameCube. None of us could have ever predicted that this was what they had in mind however. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is a 3D multiplayer based action RPG. You guide a party of up to four characters in real-time through dungeons full of poisonous miasma. The only thing that can keep it at bay is a magical vessel that one player must carry. This means you have to rely heavily on teamwork. The main reason this game wasn’t more successful was the fact that it required each player to play on a Game Boy Advance via the link cable to the Gamecube. This set the bar of entry too high. If you had the right equipment then this was an amazing multiplayer experience in its time.
#10. – SoulCalibur II
SoulCalibur on the Sega Dreamcast was the premier fighting game in its time. Namco went above and beyond here and made an experience even better than what was in the arcades. With the sequel they kicked things up several notches. The experience is extremely polished, fun, and has a super entertaining multiplayer mode. As a weapons based fighter SoulCalibur II plays quite differently from your typical fighting game. You had to focus more on distance and weapon range, and couldn’t rely on projectile attacks to cheese your way through. This Gamecube edition even has a really cool bonus. Link from the Legend of Zelda series was a playable character. The two other console editions had their own exclusive character but no one cared about those. It was all about Link.
#9. – Mario Kart: Double Dash
In my opinion this is one of the weaker Mario Kart titles. It released in the time when Nintendo was experimenting in some pretty major ways with their biggest franchises. Mario Kart: Double Dash was a victim of their approach. It uses a dual character system. You can switch freely between the two racers at any point. This doesn’t sound major but it has some big changes on how you play. Each character has their own racing stats and special items. At first I thought the concept was neat but it overly complicated the formula. Additionally the speed the franchise was known for just wasn’t there. Multiplayer was fun but this too suffered. The courses and modes just weren’t as fun as they had previously been. Mario Kart: Double Dash is still an excellent choice for multiplayer however.
#8. – Super Monkey Ball
This was a really unassuming hit from the Gamecube’s launch. On the surface Super Monkey Ball doesn’t look or sound like anything special. This is a video game wherein you roll a monkey in a ball to the exit of a stage after all. The single player modes are a lot of fun, but it’s the multiplayer that will keep you coming back. There are several different mini-games and they’re all entertaining. You have diversions like monkey fight which is an all out brawl from an overhead perspective. Then there’s monkey bowling which is a really over-the-top version of the sport. The highlight however is monkey target. Here you fly over a target and land on it. This sounds simple but it takes a lot of finesse. It’s an absolute blast to play when you have friends over.
#7. – Pac-Man Vs.
It’s funny looking back that Pac-Man was one of the games Nintendo used to really showcase the connectivity between the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance. This was also the obvious precursor to the Wii U. At its heart this is a simple game of Pac-Man. The major difference is that the first player controls the action on the Game Boy Advance. From here it looks like the classic arcade game. Players using the Gamecube controller view small 3D playfields on the television as they control the ghosts and hunt Pac-Man down. The limited view of the ghosts means players have to coordinate to even figure out where the yellow guy is hiding. It’s a really neat concept and I enjoyed it tremendously with friends at the time of release.
#6. – Tales of Symphonia
This was easily the biggest Japanese RPG on the console. It also served as the first fully 3D installment in this storied franchise. Tales of Symphonia is traditional in most aspects, but features a heavily action based battle system. The best aspect of this title is the fact that you can connect additional controllers to the console and human players could each control one character during combat. It’s pretty complicated with the amount of coordination you have to do with your team. It’s worth it though. The battle system is not menu based so it’s surprisingly intuitive to jump in with some buddies and save the world. It also helps that this one has fun storyline, amazing soundtrack, and smooth gameplay. Multiplayer RPGs are rare, and Tales of Symphonia stands out as one of the best ones.
#5. – WarioWare, Inc: Mega Party Games
The original Wario Ware on the Game Boy Advance was a super unique title. It had you completing a series of mini-games that lasted only a few seconds apiece. It was a runaway hit. Personally I loved the pure chaos and the unprecedented variety. Then Nintendo released a Gamecube version. It doesn’t seem like the formula would fit a console as well, but they made it work. While a lot of the mini-games are either based on past ones or direct ports they’re still hilarious and a lot of fun to play. The best part however is that you can play with four total players. This makes the micro games even more hectic. Whenever my friends and I played this one the room would be filled with shouting and laughter. You wouldn’t think the game would lend itself well to multiplayer but that’s not the truth at all.
#4. – Animal Crossing
So this one is an unusual pick. You see, there’s no direct multiplayer in Animal Crossing. There’s not even any action. Instead you are thrust into a town full of anthropomorphic animals, and your goal is basically the befriend them while building up your home. There are hundreds of pieces of furniture, wallpaper, etc with which you can decorate. The game has passive multiplayer. What this means is that players cannot directly play with each other, but can play in the same space. Up to four players can move into one town. This is a ton of fun as villagers will reference past things everyone has done, and you can even look into each others houses. For those who want to be more independent from one another you can even start your own town and visit someone else’s. Provided you each have a memory card and game save, of course.
#3. – Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
Since the very first time I played the Legend of Zelda I dreamed of the possibilities of multiplayer. Nintendo apparently saw the same potential I did. That’s where Four Swords Adventures comes in to play. Up to four players can join forces to save Hyrule. While the structure is a bit more simplistic than in your basic Zelda title (it’s level based) the classic Zelda puzzles and enemies are still in place. This was yet another title that required the use of Game Boy Advance units and link cables. To play multiplayer you absolutely needed these. That’s because characters can go into caves and holes in the ground. When they do the action shifts to the Game Boy Advance screen. You could play single player with just the controller, but what’s the fun in that? We are talking about the best Gamecube multiplayer games, after all.
#2. – Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II
I was big in to Phantasy Star Online. It was one of my first experiences playing with others over the internet. That’s why I was overjoyed when a port was announced for the Nintendo Gamecube. Even better was the fact that you could now play multiplayer offline via split screen gameplay. This was incredible, and I preferred this even over playing online when all was said and done. Sega even took things a step further by including an all new section of the game, or ‘episode’, complete with new enemies, new levels, as well as weapons/armor we had never seen. This really was the complete package back then. Even if you didn’t have the capabilities to play this game online PSO Episodes I & II was still one of the best Gamecube multiplayer games. I still have the urge to fire this one up from time to time.
#1. – Super Smash Bros: Melee
It’s absolutely unavoidable. If you’re talking about Gamecube multiplayer games then Super Smash Bros. Melee is going to be at the top of any list. On the N64 Smash Bros was a huge hit. It let you and up to four total players duke it out as Nintendo’s classic characters. Melee expanded this to absolutely insane heights. The character roster was now absolutely huge. So was the number of courses. Gameplay was sped up which makes the action more chaotic. Some liked this but I prefer the slower more methodical gameplay they started with and eventually returned to. There was an absolute treasure trove of options too. Super Smash Bros Melee had so much in it the game literally will never get old. I mean people are still regularly playing this well over twenty years later.
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