image: lukiegames.com
This is the last entry to my GameCube Library, and if you followed along with this series, I would like to thank you for reading along and going down this trip to memory lane. It has been a fun ride and I really appreciate each and every one of you that like and comment on these posts. That being said, let’s get on to the finale.
The story of I how I got the GameCube when I was young is a great one. My family had just moved from San Diego to Reno and we had a ton of things that we needed to get rid of, so my parents put on a garage sale with all of the things my brother and I grew out of. Our old cribs, infant toys and strollers were all sold off to the neighbors and people who passed by. My parents knew that my brother and I really wanted a GameCube, so using some of the funds from the garage sale, My mom bought my brother and I a used GameCube from eBay that came with two controllers and a copy of Super Mario Sunshine.
I think it was around Christmas-time when we got the GameCube and the very first game we played was Sunshine. This was the first video game I ever played. I didn’t know who Mario was, I didn’t know who Peach was and I didn’t have any clue how to play a game. When we got the GameCube, my dad told me to read the instruction manual to Sunshine while they tried to hook it up to the TV. I remember sitting on the top bunk of our bunk-bed and trying to read the instruction manual only to run into bigger words I didn’t know how to read. All I got from the manual is that Mario was going on vacation. I didn’t care that much about the story because I was going to play a video game for the first time in my life and it was going to be awesome.
My brother and I play Super Mario Sunshine and cruised past the tutorial airport area, although we took many detours by going places that didn’t matter for the sake of the tutorial. We made it to Delfino Plaza after the court cutscene that confused my brother and I and we were playing our first video game. To this day I know all the music and beginning stages by heart because my brother and I didn’t know how to save a game and we had to replay the first couple of stages over and over again because our progress was not saved.
For those who have never played this game, Super Mario Sunshine is the second 3D Mario game, where the plot centers around Mario as he tries to save Peach from Bowser while he was on vacation. He is given the F.L.U.U.D. pack that helps him spray water and clean up sludge that is all over Delfino Isle. Over the course of the game players need to use F.L.U.U.D. in all sorts of creative ways to defeat sludge monsters and traverse difficult platforming levels.
I never really made it too far into the game as a kid because this game is very difficult. Some of the Shine Sprites needed to progress further in the game are insanely difficult to get to and can cause many a huge headache. As a young kid, it was difficult for me to get more than three Shine Sprites because the platforming and the level design was way too frustrating for my 5 year old brain to handle. Even as an adult when I played this game, I would constantly get frustrated at all of the platforms I missed by mere inches, making me start the level all over again and wasting another life. Lives are somewhat uncommon in the game, so their is very little room to make a mistake.
This is a fantastic game despite all of its difficulty, and I consider it to be my favorite GameCube game by far and away. The tropical Island setting is a very cool idea and can make for a very cool and unique platforming stage. Bianca Hills is the first level the player goes to, and it is designed so beautifully and intricately with all the cool little nooks and crannies the developers put in to make the level feel alive. There are so many other levels that are also very unique and fun like the amusement park and the Harbor to name a few.
I am not alone when I say that this might be the best GameCube game, as I see many people online demanding Nintendo re-release Sunshine or make a sequel to the Switch. This game is so unique and a blast to play, that anyone who played the game should really check it out again, though getting a hand on this game can get pricey.
As this is the last edition of this series, I would like to make a definitive ranking of all the games I have covered and put an asterisk next to the games that I highly recommend.
My GameCube Library Final Definitive Ranking:
- Super Mario Sunshine*
- Spongebob Squarepants: Battle For Bikini Bottom*
- Mario Kart: Double Dash*
- Kirby AirRide
- Donkey Konga*
- Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
- Disney Extreme Skate Adventure
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Sonic the Fighters (Sonic Gems)*
- Sonic R (Sonic Gems)*
- Pac-Man Fever
- Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island
That GameCube that my brother and I poured hours into while we were growing up is now at the bottom of a junkyard somewhere, smashed to pieces thanks to my brother who was going through a violent stage in his life once we got a Wii. Wherever that GameCube lies now, I hope it knows that it made me the person I am today. I don’t know if I will do a Wii library series, but for now, thank you for reading my silly opinions.
