Gamecube

[crackdude]

While we usually rave on how the Xbox had amazing SEGA titles like JSRF and Orta. and was the best console for a sad 2002 SEGA fan, many SEGA fans jumped on to the ultimate rival's Gamecube.
In fact, in that era SEGA bonded quite heavily with Nintendo.

So, what does the Gamecube has to offer for a SEGA fan? (other than that volleyball game with chicks in bikini)

[Barry the Nomad]

Some argue the best versions of the Sonic titles (though I found Heroes to be good on the xbox), Monkey Ball 1&2, F-Zero GX, Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus, III: C.A.R.D. Revolution, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Sonic Gems Collection (exclusive to the GC in the USA, only place to find Sonic the Fighters), and as much as people hate on it... Billy Hatcher.

[SOUP]

Barry summed up the SEGA titles quite well.

A non-SEGA game that I think would appeal to SEGA fans would be Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat.

[cube_b3]

There's a base ball game by Uchida on that system.

[Sega Uranus]

Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 are amazing, I think the second one especially is one of the best games SEGA ever made.

As for other SEGA stuff, Barry made a good list, though he forgot to mention how PSO has offline co-op splitscreen, Skies of Arcadia Legends has 15+ hours of new content (all great, too!) and I have no idea how he forgot about Beach Spikers! It even has Ulala in it FFS!

I assume you played the Sonic games already, but they are indeed the better releases out of the bunch. Xbox versions were fine, but had some minor control and speaker issues. Supposedly the surround sound on that version of Heroes is actually entirely reversed! Only Sonic Team.

Avoid Billy Hatcher and Amazing Island like the plague, but check out Virtua Quest if you can. I know the latter gets a lot of negative reactions, but it is really all not that bad outside of generic/lame character art. Near the end of the game it actually gets really cool too I thought!

There are tons of great non-SEGA games on GameCube as well, and while I put my full recommendation behind Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (amazing game), a fun fact is that the the creator of The House of the Dead series actually lead developement of all of the GameCube Donkey Kong games, so you should be required to get them regardless.  8-)

And because I know you love bizarre games, also check out:

Pikmin 1 and 2 - Brilliant and very hard RTS-like games.
Odama - Total War meets pinball action. I was not the biggest fan, but I think you will like it.
Cubivore - Action battle game with cube monsters!
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System - Overlooked game is overlooked.
Wario World - This game gets hate for some reason, but is a pretty cool beat em up. Also, it is made by Treasure, why argue?
Wave Race:  Blue Storm - VERY SEGA-like series, I am sure you would love it.

Okay, the last three are not that weird. Try them all out anyways!

GameCube has dozens of other very good games, but to any would-be collectors, I strongly recommend picking them up sooner than later, GameCube prices are launching upwards fast.

[Barry the Nomad]

Crackdude said "other than that volleyball game with chicks in bikini", so I didn't mention Beach Spikers.

But yeah, I've been curious about Virtua Quest, but not so much Billy Hatcher.

[SOUP]

Good call on Wave Race Sanus :D.

1080 Avalanche was a fun racing game, and Battalion Wars was an interesting take on the RTS genre.
Eternal Darkeness was pretty fun too.

[crackdude]

Yes! Beacj Spikers was the name! I'll look after that one.

Thanks for the excellent advice Sanus!

I've looked up some of these games, and some like Skies of Arcadia (one of the ones I'm most interested in) cost 100+ euro!
F-Zero is from Sega? Thought it was a Nintendo game since the SNES..

I remember the GC also has the sports cult classic Virtua Striker 3.v2002

Anyone here hails the GC as their favorite 128bit DC substitute?

[CrazyT]

Wait, people hate billy hatcher?

[MadeManG74]

I might have to check out Skies Legends at some point. Skies on Dreamcast is probably one of my top 5 games of all time, and I could play legends on the Wii.

[Barry the Nomad]

F-Zero is from Sega? Thought it was a Nintendo game since the SNES..

It is a Nintendo franchise, but GX was developed by Amusement Vision and published by Nintendo. I remember it was a big deal at the time, as SEGA was developing a Nintendo game (and they did an awesome job too, much to the disdain of hardcore N-heads who hate on SEGA).  :mrgreen:

[SOUP]

Anyone here hails the GC as their favorite 128bit DC substitute?

That'd be me. It was my system of choice for most of that generation. A ton of great multiplatform titles, and some really excellent exclusives.
I got the PS2 in the past few years for Yakuza and MGS mainly.  And I've borrowed an X-Box to play the SEGA games that interested me.  They've all got their good points, but the Gamecube was the one that I went with back in the day.

[Sega Uranus]

F-Zero GX is made on the same engine as the Super Monkey Ball series and is also directed by Nagoshi. It was the first game that SEGA co-developed with Nintendo, so in many cases it is a landmark release.

F-Zero AX is the arcade version of the same game designed on the Triforce Arcade hardware SEGA, Namco and Nintendo designed with one another. It has it's own tracks, characters and stuff, but they are unlockable in the GX release as well. Watch out though, it might be the hardest content to ever unlock in a game ever. Be sure to pick up an Action Replay!

And I guess GameCube was my console of choice last gen too, outside of the Dreamcast of course. I played the other consoles more, but I was into GameCube almost every step of the way. I even had multiple GBA to GCN link cables! It had a lot to do with Game Boy Advance being my favorite Nintendo platform at the time, it still is actually!

[Trippled]

Wait, people hate billy hatcher?

Very wacky and fun concept, ended up being an egg brawler with doing the same missions over and over and finicky controls and camera(Heroes Quality kinda). Sound like Sonic Team right.

[Chaosmaster8753]

I assume you played the Sonic games already, but they are indeed the better releases out of the bunch. Xbox versions were fine, but had some minor control and speaker issues. Supposedly the surround sound on that version of Heroes is actually entirely reversed!

Well I definitely say that Heroes and Shadow are even worse on the PS2 due to some sound errors and slower framerate. I think I even recall that Heroes was originally supposed to be Gamecube exclusive, I dunno if it had something to do w/Sony forcing devs to make games for PS2, but I think SEGA made Sonic Team move the game to multiplaform development. I think it had something to do with SEGA and/or ST wanting to make the game appeal to a wider audience, and it's a bit understandable seeing how it was around the time after the Dreamcast was discontinued and they probably had to make more money because of that. And the PS2 versions of Heroes and Shadow do show how inexperienced Sonic Team was with the PS2 hardware.