The GameCube was like the little engine that could. It pumped out dozens of great games year after year following its launch in 2001. However, both it and the original Xbox struggled to keep up with the massive popularity of the PS2 which had the benefit of launching a full year prior in 2000.
2003 was not the best year for the GameCube. It was a good year for Mario though, with a lot of killer spinoffs worth mentioning twenty years later. The third-party support was also great from exclusives to multiplatform deals. These examples are some of the best, which fans would assuredly be delighted to see on the Switch in some form.
8 Beyond Good And Evil
What if The Legend of Zelda took place in a dystopian society and Link was a journalist? That’s a good approximation of what Beyond Good and Evil is about. Explore the city, uncover its secrets through photography, dive into dungeons, fight some enemies, and repeat.
Will the sequel, Beyond Good And Evil 2, ever come out, or will it be teased until the end of time? While that dream may never come true, at least the original did get an HD remaster, making it easily accessible for both fans and new players today.
7 Enter The Matrix
The events explored in Enter The Matrix take place simultaneously with those in The Matrix Reloaded. The game focuses on two agents that are briefly mentioned in the movie, Ghost, and Niobe, both of whom are playable in the game.
The game was an action shooter with full bullet time physics that mimicked the movies. It was one of the better movie tie-in examples of this era as it gets the vibe of the movies just right. It was also unique since it expanded the lore instead of rehashing the movie's story.
6 Mario Kart: Double Dash
Mario Kart: Double Dash was one of the more experimental entries in the Mario Kart series. It’s the only one to feature two characters riding the same vehicle. This created one of the more fun co-op modes in this franchise since one player could focus on driving while the other targeted rival drivers.
It’s a shame Nintendo didn’t explore this idea further, but Mario Kart 9 has to eventually come out. Maybe then they can try the dual karts again. Another 2003 spinoff worth mentioning briefly is Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour which was another quality golf title starring the lovable jumping plumber and his friends.
5 SSX 3
SSX 3 is a wild snowboarding game from EA back when the publisher was a bit more experimental. This series was the Tony Hawk of the snowboarding world meaning that it was more arcade-like wild sports games. This allowed non-sports fans to jump on board to have a blast alone or with friends.
It wasn’t all easy as hardcore players could have their fun as well as they tried to master the more elusive tricks and tracks in the game. The wild physics, bumping soundtrack, and level variety made SSX 3 one of the better entries in the series.
4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a generic name for a brawler based on these mutated ninjas, but the game is actually pretty good. It’s based on the 2003 reboot series and was a direct tie-in to the show. It features cel-shaded art to make it even more cartoon-like.
At its core, it’s a basic hack-and-slash game that is better with friends. There were three games in this mini-series, but all three remain trapped in this era. Maybe 2003 is the year they’ll get HD remasters like how the classic brawlers got remastered in 2022 with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection.
3 Viewtiful Joe
Viewtiful Joe was an homage to Power Rangers and superheroes in the form of an action platformer. Joe was an avid fan of cheesy movies when one day his movie hero Captain Blue tossed him a way to transform into a hero himself. To stop the movie villains from wreaking havoc in reality, Joe donned his new suit and went to town on these fools.
It was supposed to be a GameCube exclusive along with many other games announced for the system by Capcom. However, Viewtiful Joe did get a PS2 port later and it came with new bonuses like Dante appearing from Devil May Cry. That doesn’t diminish how good this GameCube version is though.
2 Wario World
Wario World is the first and only 3D platforming adventure for the bizarro version of Mario. It was not as tight of a platformer as the Wario Land handheld games, but it still features some wild gameplay. Not all platformer series make the jump into 3D well from the start.
Castlevania struggled for years before finding some decent footing with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. If only Wario could get one more shot too, he’d show the genre a thing or two. Presumably, fans would do anything to get their hands on a Wario platformer in any form at this point since the last one was Wario Land: Shake It on Wii in 2008.
1 The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was first released in Japan in 2002 before making it overseas in 2003. It was a nautical adventure that was a nice change of pace for the series even with the kinks. Ten years later it got an HD remaster on the Wii U.
Rumors of a Switch version have been circulating for years now and maybe, just maybe, 2023 will be the year that the game shows its face again. The original didn’t even need a remaster in the first place since the cel-shaded art style ensures that it holds up next to the more polygonal entries like Ocarina of Time.