The GameCube Archives

Mario Kart Double Dash!! U.S. Release Date: November 17, 2003 The GameCube Archives Score: 6.5/10 Mario Kart is one of the most popular video game franchises in history. Every entry released for a Nintendo console has been a top-five best seller for that respective console. Several have been number one. However, there's a black sheep of the bunch. While Mario Kart: Double Dash is the second best selling GameCube game of all time, it's sold less copies than any other Mario Kart entry...even Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U. On top of that, this 2003 offering seems to have the lowest reputation. Back in the GameCube era, I bought essentially every marquee game for the system but Double Dash . I did play the game once, at my friend Robker's house, but I found that I hated it, disliking the mechanics and tracks.  Double exclamation points be damned! However, in recent years, es...

Resident Evil U.S. Release Date: April 30, 2002 The GameCube Archives Score: 9.5/10 For the entirety of the Playstation/Nintendo 64 run, I had to hear about how awesome Resident Evil games were. As a Nintendo fanboy, I wanted to pretend I was too cool for Resident Evil games, but they just seemed so awesome, I'd let my Playstation-owning friends regale me of their glory for hours. When the Sony/Nintendo battle shifted to PS2/GameCube, suddenly the shoe was on the other foot. Capcom announced three Resident Evil Game's that would, at the time of their release at least, be GameCube exclusives: 2002's Resident Evil Zero , 2005's Resident Evil 4 , and a 2002 remake of the original 1996 Playstation release that started it all, Resident Evil . Director, Shinji Mikami, felt that this first Resident Evil game did not graphically hold up to subsequent Resident Evil releases, but that the powerful Nintendo GameCube could remedy the situation. However, this remake would not j...

Batman Begins U.S. Release Date: June 14, 2005 The GameCube Archives Score: 7.2/10 Baton Rouge has one locally owned video game store, Gameware, which has two locations in town. I've befriended the employees in the mall location because I've got to be one of the only people buying retro video games from them at this point. I enjoy that section of the store mostly being in stasis, as I can plan my game purchases far in advance. However, sometimes, I'll just buy a game on a whim. I'm not sure why my last my last purchase from Gameware before the COVID-19 Outbreak was a movie-licensed GameCube game from 2005. Maybe because I haven't seen Batman Begins since a memorable trip to the theater nearly 15 years ago, and I was looking for an excuse to watch it again. After playing through this game, I did watch the film again, and it is a pretty good flick...but how about it's GameCube adaptation? There used to be an old rule that any Batman game that was released wa...