Hello, and welcome to another one of my blogs, this one finishes up the Gamecube countdown and has some other stuff, like........

Pictures!

Yes, anyone who remembers the last blog knows I went to Disneyland and Tokyo because A) I leave in 2 days and B) my cousin visited for a couple days . So here are pictures from Disney and sightseeing:

I'm the one with the hat, my brother has a red and black striped shirt, sister is in black, baby brother is in green, and my cousin is in blue. Also you may notice that I went to the one and only Pokemon store in Tokyo, I picked up some souvenirs there.

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Games

Well as I said in the last blog I'll be buying those 5 DS games soon, but more importantly, guess what releases the day after I leave for college?

BOO YAH! Layton 2 and it's gonna be awesome!! I am replaying the first one cause I'm so excited for it! The theme for it is just amazing, listen to it even if you never played the first, it's epic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEhxVsDW92w&feature=related

The Top Gamecube Games of all Time!!! (6 - 1)!!!!

And now the moment you all are waiting for, time for me to crown the 6 best gamecube games of all time!! Are you ready!? Wait! If you haven't see the others please read those first!

30 - 25

24 - 19

18 - 13

12 - 7

Are you ready now? Cause HERE WE GO!!!

Ah Resident Evil 4, my first M rated game I ever played and the first Wii game I ever played, yes I know this is a GC list but they're relatively the same. Anyways, I stayed at a friend's house for a week and played this game for lots of the time and it was a blast. Even though it's the only RE I played, I can see why people liked it, the controls are great, the third person thing is even greater, the game does a good job of scaring you (I was scared more than my friend ops, and the graphics and everything just all come together to make 1 incredible game.

#5

Metroid Prime is one of those game sthat is just ahead of its time and is able to do so much that you'll enjoy every minute of it, it takes the Metroid series into 3D and adds a brand new control scheme to first person shooter which works so much better for the game than the typical FPS controls, not to say it's better for all FPSs. Prime brought everything that made the series great into 2D to 3D with great puzzles involving Samus both not as and as a morph ball, bosses that were huge and had tricks to beating, and a great sense of exploration with tons of secret items to find. The game also had incredible graphics for its time and a good soundtrack that fans would recognize. And while the backtracking was a bit too much, all the pros the game has makes it easily one of the best Gamecube games ever crafted.

#4

Ah, Kirby's Air Ride, probably the most unique racing game ever created, which is why it finds itself so high on this list. Kirby's Air Ride offers for a more simplistic control scheme, every single attack, mechanic, ability in the game is all done by either the joystick or the A button. It's hard to say if this changed it from the racing formula, but it definitely made the game more easy to get into and just easier for casual players to become core so you and your friends could have real competitive matches quickly into the game.

But really the thing that makes Air Ride great was that instead of simply making the game all about racing, there were racing minigames and an incredible mode that made racing feel new and fun again: City Trial. City Trial was a racing game where you raced around a huge city where anything could happen, you could find power ups, or even brand new stars you could always switch to, provided your opponents don't take the star before you. You could also hurt your opponents to steal their items, and many events such as Dyna Blade coming or certain buildings catching on fire made every round of City Trial a blast to play. Then having to play a random minigame that you never knew it would be just made it that more chaotic, and once you learned the ways of the city, it became such a blast to play, especially multiplayer.

The game also had tons of checklists for you to complete, that spent tons of time to do, and even the best racing fans would have trouble completing them all. I still haven't completed all the ones in Air Ride. But anyways, the Air Ride and Top Ride modes only added to the great game with City Trial, and with tons of new stars and songs to unlock, the game with so much to do and such unique controls would go down as my personal favorite racing game of all time, and the fourth best Gamecube game ever.

#3

What is there to say about Super Smash Bros Melee that hasn't already been said? It was a game that took the original Smash formula and made it 10 times better and 10 times more fun (okay not that much but you get the point). The addition of Special Melee, Adventure Mode, Event Matches, and trophies offered for tons of stuff to do in single player which was the biggest flaw of the first Smash. The addition of trophies specifically left tons for the collectors and hardcore players to spend hours trying to get.

Melee also was what made the series so popular, its addicting multiplayer and wide variety of characters, items, stages, and modes offered for instant fun and what many consider to be the best multiplayer experience in Nintendo history. Not only did Melee add tons of stuff to the Smash formula, but it practically perfected them all. Adventure Mode was varied and had a perfect length, the event matches were well done with a great balanced difficulty, and the multi man melee modes also contributed to the nonstop modes to do. The characters were for the most part balanced and it was also the first Smash Bros and possibly first Nintendo game ever to use an orchestral soundtrack, which by the way was amazing in every way possible and probably in Top 3 for best Gamecube soundtracks ever along with Paper Mario 2 and some other game but that's for another day.

The graphics were also very well done, and with so much new additions, all perfectly executed, and such a great soundtrack and graphics, and possibly the best multiplayer game on the gamecube, Super Smash Bros Melee earns its right as the third best Gamecube game of all time.

#2

Tales of Symphonia, what a wonderful game, probably my favorite RPG ever (no offence to the Mario RPG fans and Final Fantasy fans), the game that brought the Tales series (mostly) into 3D and was able to succeed in just about every part of a game.

Tales of Symphonia, like the other Tales games, had a great action RPG battle system, but this time it was in a 3D field and allowed for up to 4 - player co-op, which was awesome. Even though it was in a 3D environment, you still moved in a 2D plane while battling, which made it sort of 2.5D in battle, which was fine, and worked great. The world was all 3D though and all the elements of the 2D Tales were brought into 3D perfectly. The battle system was still as fun as ever, I still find it very similar to the Smash Bros battle system which is one reason why I like the Tales games so much.

Not only did Symphonia have an incredible battle system, but, like the other Tales games, had a great story that, like other Tales games, I found to be better than most animes and mangas out there. The voice acting was still a little bad, but it worked, and the few scenes the game had were beautiful and great to watch. The music was also very well done, and each song just fits great with its scenery and battle perfectly, I loved just about every song on the soundtrack.

But another reason that made Symphonia stand from other Gamecube games was its content. Not only was the game very long, but there were tons of sidequests to do both during and after you beat the game, and there are actually different ways you could play through the game that triggered different scenes and could even affect some of the story. It was just one of those games that excelled in everything, music, story, length, difficulty, gameplay, and it remains, in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever created, but wasn't able to take #1...........

#1

Ah Pikmin 2, if you knew me this shouldn't be too big of a surprise to you, Pikmin 2 is just one flat out amazing game in every way possible. The graphics are astounding, the music has its own Pikmin feel to it and both of these have got to be some of the best on the system.

Coming off of Pikmin 1 which was a great concept but had bad length, difficulty, and variety, Pikmin 2 was everything the first Pikmin was, but 10 times better. The game was made much longer then the first Pikmin, yet didn't limit you with days meaning the difficulty wasn't a problem anymore, and there were so many different enemies and puzzles to complete throughout the game, and thanks to caves, the variety was there, and much more than usual.

But it didn't stop there, the addition of 2 new colors and sprays only added more variety and gameplay to the game, as well as the caves/dungeons. Even then, 2 player was added, both in co-op and vs, giving the game tons of depth and the vs mode was possibly one of the best multiplayer modes ever since items were added to the Pikmin formula along with marbles for strategic purposes. And with so much to do, you'd sure to play the game for weeks.

But by far the best part of Pikmin 2 (to me that is) was the addition of the piklopedia. The piklopdiea let you observe every treasure and enemy in the game and read notes written by Olimar, Louie, and the spaceship and learn about the enemies, and the treasures and the lives of Olimar and co, and it was awesome. The notes offered for some light comedy, and some sometimes mind blowing facts, and it was just a great thing to read, it really made you feel like the species were real and getting to read how they did all their attacks and how they grew was a something that you just could not stop doing. Wasn't it cool that every enemy had a reason for attacking the way they did and moving the way they did? Getting to discover why they're underground, who evolves into who, and what caused some creatures to be created was one of the most enjoyable experiences.

All in all, Pikmin 2 added tons and tons of new things to the Pikmin formula to make it much better, had beautiful graphics and music, and was such a fun and addicting game to play, that it would go down as the best game to be put on the Gamecube ever! Thanks for reading this countdown, I'll see you next time.

Also, I told you that list would be unlike all the other Gamecube lists you see out there, it was, wasn't it?

Next Blog is my 3 year anniversary blog!