The Big Five for 2002
Written By: Roger Taylor

2002 is a make or break year for Nintendo’s GameCube. The console had a strong launch back in November with great games like the near-perfect Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, the visually stunning Star Wars: Rogue Leader and Sega’s strangely addictive Super Monkey Ball. But in recent months, fans have begun to ask an all-too-familiar question: where are all the games? While things aren’t as dire as they were with the N64, the GameCube is certainly in a rut right now, with only a handful of mediocre games lying about until the big guns arrive later in the year. But arrive they will. Below is a list of the five games that, more than any others, will determine whether the GameCube will be remembered as the console that got Nintendo back on track, or the system that continued their recent run of "just barely good enough" work.

5. WWF Wrestlemania X8 (June 11)

I’m sure that putting this game on the list is going to tick off a lot of non-wrestling fans. Nuts to you, because this is an important title. All wrestling games these days seem to sell very well, with recent examples being Royal Rumble for the Dreamcast and RAW for XBox. But as successful as those games and the Sony-exclusive Smackdown series have been, none match the AKI-developed wrestlers for the N64 (WCW/nWo World Tour, WCW/nWo Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and WWF No Mercy). I know people personally that purchased Nintendo’s unduly criticized console for the aforementioned wrestling games alone. The arcade-style of the Playstation wrestling games is fun. The methodical, realistic approach of the AKI games is perfect. While AKI has been ousted in favor of Smackdown-developer Yukes, many of the things that made games like WWF No Mercy special will carry over into WWF Wrestlemania X8 for the GameCube. If this is half the game that it has the potential to be, THQ and Nintendo will have a system-selling series on their hands.

Eternal Darkness will be the first game released by developer Silicon Knights since Nintendo gave them second-party status last year. The game promises to bring the survival horror genre to the next level and has garnered much attention from the gaming press for its innovative, if risky, ideas. Eternal Darkness will prove whether Nintendo helped give themselves some wonderful exclusive games by financing the young development team, or if they wasted their time, money and resources. It will also help show whether mature games are going to sell copies on the GameCube.

Star Fox Adventures (formerly the N64 title Dinosaur Planet) is going to be the first title released by super-developer Rare for the GameCube. Rare received unprecedented amounts of praise early in the life of the N64 for their work on Goldeneye, and later Banjo-Kazooie. However, by the end of the N64’s lifecycle, at which point Rare was single-handedly keeping the console alive, many accused the developer of being burnt out, with arguably mediocre titles like the over-ambitious Jet Force Gemini and the controversial Conker’s Bad Fur Day. In retrospect, many of the complaints made about these games were misguided and nitpicky (Donkey Kong 64 was too large? That’s value, people). And in actuality, Rare’s last few games for the N64, like Perfect Dark and the already mentioned Donkey Kong, were miles ahead of the trash that Rare was releasing just a few years earlier, like the plodding Diddy Kong Racing and the disappointing Killer Instinct Gold. But I’m getting off track. The point is that Rare is one of the top developers in the world today, and any game they work on is going to be important, so their first effort on the GameCube is even more so. Star Fox Adventures should help show the world that Rare is as hot as ever. It will also show whether or not the Star Fox character is marketable without the space-combat. Star Fox Adventures could be the next logical step for the franchise or just an offshoot of it. It seems that for once, Nintendo doesn’t know what it wants to do with one of its characters. How this game is received should tell them just that.

Fact: not a single game yet released on the GameCube has been rated "Mature" by the ESRB. Resident Evil will be the first. It will also be the first of an announced six games in the Resident Evil series to appear on the GameCube. Make no mistake about it: if this game fails, Nintendo has a lot to worry about. Already acclaimed by the Japanese press (including rave reviews by respected magazine Famitsu) and eagerly awaited by most U.S. gaming writers, Resident Evil has the full power of anticipation, hype and name value moving sales forward. But the game has the seemingly impossible task of turning around Nintendo’s "kiddy" image; something the company has had to live with ever since Sega’s Genesis became the "cooler" console. If this game succeeds, it all but guarantees the continued success of the franchise on the GameCube, and an exclusive series of such renown is sure to sell some systems.

Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System absolutely revolutionized the gaming industry. Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 and Super Mario World were logical evolutions for the franchise, and stand as some of the best games ever created. Mario once again revolutionized video games with Super Mario 64, the first true 3D platformer, and still the best, say many. Mario Sunshine is to Mario 64 as Mario World was to the original Mario Bros. That is to say, it’s not going to stand the industry on its head, but it will refine the franchise even more. The GameCube launch was hurt by the lack of a Mario game, but Nintendo has the opportunity to make it up to gamers by releasing this on time and in the best condition it can possibly be in. Then again, it’s a Mario game, so what am I worried about? Unless Sony and Microsoft are praying to the gaming gods for a miracle, Mario Sunshine will be the finest platformer yet seen on a next-generation system. That level of quality already makes it an important game. The fact that it stars the most well known character in the history of video games means that Mario Sunshine is the most important game that will be released this year. If Mario is as good as it should - and likely will - be, it will restore much of the faith that gamers had in Nintendo before they were turned off by the only average N64 and by the past few lackluster GameCube months. If this game doesn’t sell, you can kiss Nintendo goodbye. Thankfully for us gamers, that’s not about to happen.

Please note that The Legend of Zelda and Perfect Dark Zero were not included because, although they carry 2002 release dates, it is unlikely that they will actually be released this year. An honorable mention goes to Metroid Prime, which is important for Nintendo to gain the trust of its fans again, but was ultimately not included on the list due to its unstable release date and rocky development history.

Posted: 4-8-02