Graphically Impressive Gamecube Games

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Even though the Nintendo Gamecube is several years old now, some games that released for the 128 bit console are still graphically impressive to this day! Join TVGS as we take a look at some gameplay of the best looking and visually impressive GC games the system ever received!
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Metroid, RE remake, SW rogue leader, Mario sunshine, wind waker, RE4 are one of the games from the video.

My choice is RE4, I was blown away when I finished the game.
 
Starfox Adventures, game looks amazing, can run progressive scan too. It's a really solid game, not enough people give it credit.

GCN had some damn good looking games.
 
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I remember playing the Gamecube for the first time and remarked how whatever Hockey game my friend had on it looked far more impressive than I'd seen on xbox or ps2
 
Rogue squadron 2 was legit the best looking game for a little bit. That game was pushing so many effects all at 480p 60, really impressive stuff considering it was a launch title.
 
Inb4 Xbox vs. gamecube.

But yeah man... gamecube was a really efficient machine and powerful too. the embedded framebuffer was a huge asset for games.
Naked Lunch said:
The correct answer is F-Zero GX.
Looks better than many games released today.
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No joke. Playing it on a proper Crt and it feels like it's a game from the future and these ps4 games on my flat screen seem older.
 
Rogue Squadron. Games are insane. Still.

I remember RSII blowing my mind looking like the movie, and reading wild facts like each little stormtrooper running around on the ground on Hoth as you were flying around had more polygons than the entire scene in Shadows of the Empire.

then RSIII hit and they bumped it up to 11. And included the whole game of RSII with the improved light scattering and rendering, but now split screen coop, and threw it in for fun.

I'd do anything for a remaster of these games.
 
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fart town usa said:
Starfox Adventures, game looks amazing, can run progressive scan too. It's a really solid game, not enough people give it credit.

GCN had some damn good looking games.
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The fur looks so good.

From launch: I remember the water in Wave Race being impressive and of course the Rogue Leader games were awesome.
 
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A classic. Not the most technical, but I don't care.
 
Eternal Darkness.
I dead set couldn't believe how good the graphics were.
The church scene at night, with the lightning flashing through the stained glass windows particularly sticks in my mind.
 
I was actually quite impressed with RE4 back then. It hasn't aged as well as some other games, but back then - it was pretty impressive looking one.
 
Luigi's Mansion was a GCN launch game and looked better than most games that came out on the Wii, still looks incredible to this day
 
Most of these games are not graphically impressive but graphically expressive. That's just as if not more than valid.

RE4 on Gamecube.

Can anybody just show that this game was running in a window? Really, that's how it was on Gamecube and when you don't have to draw the whole screen you can make it look better. But of course every video shows this game full screen when it was not. I had a widescreen CRT at the time and I could adjust and zoom in to fill the screen, it looks great that way. Most people did not have the hardware to do that.
 
When I was a kid, I first saw RE REMAKE, I thought we reached the highest point of next gen graphics. I was blown away followed by Metroid Prime and RE4

I love Nintendo, got a Switch and play it every other day. Let's be honest here, the GameCube era was the last time they really cared about horsepower and graphics.
 
Nickolaidas said:
Yeah, I guess butt animations could be a reason for someone to consider this thing a 'classic'.

Me, I'm a wee bit more demanding.
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Oh, I've never played it actually haha, it's more a classic as in that gif was in almost all GameCube discussions on this forum years ago.

I'm just a butt fan.

booty drum GIF
 
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Metroid Prime still looks great. Nothing more to say. The reflections in the visor, the water droplets. Everything has aged remarkably well.
pWpJlCF.gif

Starfox Adventures blew my mind back then. The fuzz on Fox's tail and body. And the WATER! It was the first game I saw that made me go "that looks like real water".
V4LJ0yI.jpg
 
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*bends over to look at my gamecube games and sees they are all just the ones already mentioned, except one*

Twilight Princess? 🤷‍♂️

The enviroments, like Hyrule field is a bit chonky these days but it was amazing at the time. Its kind of a "dirty" looking game, especially coming off WW which is a super clean.
 
Kuranghi said:
*bends over to look at my gamecube games and sees they are all just the ones already mentioned, except one*

Twilight Princess? 🤷‍♂️

The enviroments, like Hyrule field is a bit chonky these days but it was amazing at the time. Its kind of a "dirty" looking game, especially coming off WW which is a super clean.
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Every time I think about Twilight Princess, I think about the color brown.
 
Yes, Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube at the time was just... it was next level. Proper jaw dropping visuals.

As others have said, Viewtiful Joe, Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, Crazy Taxi and Pikmin were also delightful.

Controversial opinion: Super Mario Sunshine was overrated.
 
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A bit of a tangent, but I remember this generation of hardware being the gen where I realized I'd always be satisfied with visuals if they never improved. (I've never been a graphics-first type of gamer anyway.) And while I certainly appreciate many of the hardware/tech strides that have come since, I still feel that way, generally speaking.

So many games from that generation (including Gamecube) that still look phenomenal to me today. Granted, I still love and appreciate low-poly, PS1 era stuff, so maybe I'm not the best measuring stick, lol.
 
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