The GameCube released almost twenty years ago and in true Nintendo fashion, most of the system's best games still sell for full price, and some have even bumped up a few bucks over the years. If you're still waiting for games like Super Smash Bros. Melee and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance to drop even a dollar from their original price points then we're sorry to say you're out of luck.
Some of Nintendo's greatest hits have dropped on the GameCube so it's no surprise that many of these games sit on the top shelves of collectors . But some of these are just ridiculous — especially from a price point — and here's 10 that really take the cake.
10 Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition ($30)
Nintendo doesn't sell compilations too often on any system, but you can bet your boots that when they do they sell like hot cakes. This specific compilation is a real treat for Zelda and Nintendo fans. Here you get the original Legend of Zelda, Legend of Zelda II, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and even an exclusive demo for Windwaker. Talk about value, as you're not only getting some of the best Zelda games, but some of the best games of all time on one reasonably priced disc.
9 Super Smash Bros. Melee ($30)
This is the one that you and you're friends kept waiting day after day, after day to drop even a dollar off it's original price point. But Nintendo knows that while their graphics may not hold up years after release, their games as a whole still age like fine wine. It's why adults and kids of today can still enjoy games like Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart 64 and this classic Super Smash Bros. Melee. Smash's competitive scene perhaps deserves some blame for freezing this game at such a high price point. But we can only blame them so much, as who wouldn't want to keep this highly addicting, great game around.
8 Ikaruga ($50)
Such a classic, and a classically underrated game that every gamer needs to get their hands on. Ikaruga is a top-down-shooters inspired bullet hell game where it takes that concept well past it's limit. It's like Galaga if you tripled the amount of enemies and allowed all of them to shoot screen-sized lasers at you every ten seconds. To say it's a bit overwhelming is a bit of an understatement, but boy is it fun. It sold poorly on the GameCube, but slowly gained the clout it deserved over the years, and now owning a physical copy of the game is going to cost you.
7 Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes ($55)
These were the prime years for the Metal Gear Solid series as the franchise continued to release hit after hit becoming the most popular action/stealth game of all time. Although the GameCube didn't receive a proper sequel, game designer and creator of the wildly popular series, Hideo Kojima gave the system a remake of the original Metal Gear Solid. It was one of the first huge remakes in video games and came packed with updated graphics and controls. It was another game that didn't sell too well despite it's underappreciated quality, but many fans today agree that it's quite possibly the best way to play the original game.
6 Disney Sports Basketball ($75)
Does anyone else get weird Déjà vu when looking at this game? Like you probably saw it many times on the shelves of your local GameStop collecting dust at a price point of $5 dollars. If only you could tell your past self to pick this failed NBA Jam clone to score a crispy $70 dollar profit in the future. Yeah, this game wasn't good, but the GameCube does have a weird reputation for featuring obscure sports games so we'll let it slide. Disney Sports Basketball was a collaboration between Disney and Konami that failed all the way up until 2015 when it became the next big thing every collector of bad games had to have.
5 Zelda Wind Waker & Ocarina Master Quest Combo ($100)
Talk about another package that redefines what it means to give you bang for your buck. Back when pre-order bonuses actually felt worthy of your hard earned dollar, Nintendo offered a copy of Ocarina of Time and Master Quest to early buyers of Wind Waker. What's Master Quest you might ask? (something I was also ignorant to until undertaking this list) Well, it's a reworked version of the original Ocarina featuring the same content, but making it much more difficult. It's basically a new game+ before new game+ was ever officially a thing. This is just another package that reeks of value, too bad it sells for at least $100 dollars today.
4 Fire Emblem Path of Radiance ($125)
The Fire Emblem series is quite possibly one of the strangest series, from a business standpoint in the history of gaming. The now wildly popular and successful series started back in 1990 with unheard of titles like Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Gaiden and Mystery of the Emblem. Even by the time the GameCube came into the picture, Fire Emblem was still deep in the shadows of Nintendo's massive catalog. That is until Smash came along, or as we sometimes call it, the best marketing tool for games of all time. Fire Emblem began to gain the popularity it deserved, and Path of Radiance became one of the most sought out games on the GameCube.
3 Metroid Prime + The Wind Waker Combo ($175)
It's funny, that when these two games are separated their combined price point doesn't come close to breaking the $100 dollar price point. But when Nintendo puts them together, in one box that is, everybody loses their minds. This package received a small release during the holiday season (Nintendo's favorite time to release ridiculously sought after stuff) of 2005 and immediately became a gem worth owning among collectors. Personally, unless you're looking to run up your credit card for no understandable reasons, we recommend sticking to the individual versions of these games which still look great and hold up incredibly to this day.
2 NCAA College Basketball 2K3 ($190)
Now this is what we call a surprise, but one that most collector's probably kick themselves for not seeing coming. With the exception of the Mario sports games, most other sports games on the GameCube sold very poorly. Weird too, because sports games like SSX: Tricky, NBA Street, NFL Street and Sega Soccer Slam are some of my favorites on the system, but I digress. NCAA College Basketball 2k3 was one of the last of 2K's efforts in college basketball, mix that in with a system that already sells next-to-no sports games and you have a recipe for a collector's holy grail.
1 Pokemon Box ($200)
And standing at the top of rare and ridiculously expensive GameCube games is not even a game, can you believe it? Well, I guess we can. On the surface Pokemon Box looks like a combination of classics Ruby and Saphire (which would be incredible, like ohmygosh I wish this happened) but instead it's a system that allows players to store their Pokemon on the GameCube through their Gameboys. Yeah, it's pretty lame, virtually useless now, but was revolutionary at the time. But if there's one group of people that love useless things that were once revolutionary it's collectors, and that's just a straight-up fact.