Switch 2 The Past

The only real online game for the GameCube, the Phantasy Star Online series came over from Sega's failed Dreamcast console to become a mainstay in the cube's library for the past 20 years. Mike & Neil interview guests and PSO enthusiasts Luigi (of Chat of the Wild and Need For Speedrunning podcasts) and Kayak (who runs the GC side of development for the private pso server Schtserv). The boys learn a lot about this game that refuses to die who's community of honestly just really nice people have helped Phantasy Star Online Episode 1, 2 and even C.A.R.D. stay relevant today. Also on this episode are two more Sega creations: Skies of Arcadia Legends, an updated RPG port from the Dreamcast, and Amazing Island, a wacky mix of custom Pokemon type monsters with Mario Party gameplay. Breakout your GameCube keyboard controller and join Mike and Neil on this Sega-filled episode.

This week the boys cover a hodgepodge of games on the GameCube starting with the Power Rangers series: Power Rangers: Dino Thunder where the player controlled dinosaur mechs. They continue to Dinotopia The Sunstone Odysssey (clearly a Dino theme in this episode) as well as the classic arcade game turned to 3D cel shaded gem Dragon's Lair 3D with artwork by Don Bluth (yes, Land Before Time! more dinosaurs). They finish the episode off with Cubix: Robots for Everyone and another underrated gem of a franchise Kao The Kangaroo (pronounced K-O) which is actually getting a new game this year!

The GameCube era was a time where Nintendo put their name behind a multitude of games that resulted in some great titles, and others that have been lost to time. In this episode Neil and Mike look back on two Nintendo published, GameCube exclusive "robo" games: Custom Robo; a Gundam style mech game where the robots are very small, and Chibi-Robo; a charming genre-less game of playing as a little robot and trying to make everyone happy. Both games have been largely neglected by Nintendo since their arrival on the cube and the boys want to try and rectify that. Jake, Brian, Matt, and Kira (@toonietwirls) join the episode to share their memories of these games and their frustration that it costs 400 dollars to buy Chibi-Robo today.

Gotta catch 'em all! Mike & Neil dive into two Pokemon games for the GameCube that have achieved near legendary status over the past few years. Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness are two games that were polarizing on release but have since found a following as two of many great pokemon spin off series games. The boys are joined by enemy of the pod and friend of the show Ramon and Harrison as well as newcomer Megan to talk about the franchise as a whole and why these games do still hold up today. All this and more on this Pokemon Arceus launch day celebration episode!

3D platformers ruled the industry in the early 2000s. Spyro, Crash, Mario, the genre was omnipresent and the population ate them up. Though the formula was fading, the GameCube played host to countless platformer games with franchises such as Frogger, Tak and the power of Juju, and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Neil & Mike talk about 3 games from each of these franchises for a total of nine game for the cube, that range from okay, to surprisingly very good! Frogger: a classic arcade game that failed to fully make the leap to home consoles in this generation, Tak: a game that eventually became a Nickelodeon cartoon, and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: a unique foray into the Australian eco-system that recently had two of it's games remade. All this and more on Episode 81 of The GameCube Was Cool Podcast.

Shhhhh. Sneak by the guard and check out today's episode all about stealth games. First up, the first console release of the Hitman series comes in the form of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin that made it's way to the GameCube 20 years ago. Neil & Mike discuss this beloved franchise and how the games somehow seem to keep getting even better as time goes on. Friend of the show Dylan makes an appearance to talk about Silent Assassin as well as his involvement with "Extra Life", a 24 hour gaming session every year to help raise money for Childrens charities. The boys also cover two more stealth genre games: Rogue Ops and Second Sight, the latter is a game made by New Radical Design, makers of TimeSplitters and former Rare employees who created the legendary 007: Golden Eye. All this and more on the stealth episode of The GameCube Was Cool Podcast.

In the early 2000s franchises were guaranteed three things: a kart racer, a 3D platformer, and of course, a party game. In this episode Mike & Neil look back on party games such as Monopoly Party, Shrek Super Party, Muppets Party Cruise and Disney's Party, many of which were simply Mario Party clones (no Mario Parties covered today). However Pac-Man makes another appearance with Pac-Man fever and Pac-Man VS, the latter was a Nintendo developed game that enables a multiplayer Pac-Man experience! Enjoy this episode celebrating Mike's birthday month with a 7 game party!

2021 is wrapping up and Mike and Neil want to celebrate the new year by looking back on all the things they accomplished this year and all the things to look forward to in 2022. All their favourite games, albums and movies are wrapped up here. Not our regular GameCube content, but we want you to get your weekly fix of Mike and Neil (: Did Mike complete a full cartwheel? Did Neil land his first kickflip? Find out in Side Mission Part 8 of The GameCube Was Cool Podcast! 

Thank you to everyone for supporting The GameCube Was Cool Podcast this year, on a new year!

To celebrate the release of Matrix Resurrections Neil & Mike are looking back at Enter the Matrix, an extremely ambitious 2003 game based on the second movie with tons of new footage that acted as a companion piece to the films. They also cover 8 other movie tie-ins from the 2003-2004 era including Terminator 3: Redemption, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Mission: Impossible: Operation Surma, and the greatest gangster film of all time, Shark Tale. Tune in for some memories, laughs, and even some fun facts before the year wraps up.

It's been exactly 20 years since Peter Jackson's movie adaptations of this great series hit screens and the movies still hold up so well. Of course there were also four games that came out to go along with these movies, two of them, The Two Towers and Return of the King being direct movie tie-ins. EA who owned the film video game rights also created their own LOTR RPG titled The Third Age which is a favourite of both Mike & Neil. Sierra Entertainment who had the book rights for the video games published The Hobbit, an early take on the book that definitely missed the mark but is still interesting to discuss nonetheless. Join the boys as they journey to Middle Earth to find the one game to rule them all.