It’s all very well debating who will be crowned champion in the next generation of consoles, but it’s also worth remembering and indeed respecting what came before them.

... and the bargains that can be snapped up!

Yes, I am the sort of person who emits insane cackles of glee at having spotted the discount shelf in the supermarket.  Car boots, charity shops and markets are my home.  I take no shame in hurling myself into a mosh-pit of frothing crowds, trying to obtain that twenty-five pence packet of salami, or that eighteen-pence can of sardines with the dent in the side. 

There’s only one thing better than spotting a rare and desirable computer game on a shelf – and that’s spotting a rare and desirable computer game with a 20% off sticker!

So, when it looks like my beloved little Gamecube is on the way out, do I weep?  Do I consign it to the shadows underneath my bed?  Hell no!  I look to e-bay and the local second hand games shop. 

First of all, a confession.  I bought my Gamecube for one game, and for one game only – Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.  I played it and played it and played it until I was having dreams of farming cabbages and pretty girls rejecting my advances in my sleep… Sometimes I’d have dreams of pretty girls farming and being rejected by cabbages, but that’s neither here nor there. 

But then another game came along, on another console.  And another.  And another.  Eventually my poor little Gamecube began to gather dust.  I won’t deny it – I neglected it.  So now, finally, I feel that I can do it justice.  And with plummeting second-hand prices, I’d be mad not to!  Here are just a couple of little gems I’ve picked up over the past few weeks:

Super Mario Sunshine – No doubt this will appal some Mario fans, but Sunshine is one of my all-time favourite Mario games.  I suppose it’s because it always cheers me up – the sun, the sand, the sea.  It’s like a mini holiday you can pick up for a tenner!


XIII – Even now, it’s still looking damn pretty.  Brings back memories of when cel-shading was ‘the business’ in video games – Viewtiful Joe, Jet Set Radio and Klonoa 2 to name just a few titles.  Great soundtrack, great voice acting (Family Guy’s Mayor Adam West - yay!), and thirty-four levels!  What does that work out at with today’s Gamecube prices – 20p a level?


Wave Race: Bluestorm – American pronunciation of the word ‘buoy’ (bwooaay) aside, this is a great game that will always remind me of summer.  Standing in front of a tiny screen in a video game shop many years ago, I remember how amazing I thought the graphics were ... And how often all the water on display made me dash out to the local newsagents to buy a can of cola!  Better than the toilet, I suppose.


...  And there are still so many titles out there I need to buy!  Luigi’s Mansion, Donkey Konga, Pikmin, Eternal Darkness – the list goes on.  So, before we run squealing into the arms of the faster, shiner, more powerful play-things, don’t forget your little handbag – er – Gamecube.  In a time when next generation software releases are still relatively few and far between, you’d be a fool to forget it.