Gamecube is 20 years old. I got it for Christmas from my parents with one game: Melee. That was the only game I had for it for over a year. The Gamecube library wasn't quite the densest out there. It must have had at least 20 good games, though right? Let's find out!
List is based on my personal preferences and experiences, not on the objective quality of any given game.
[Under Construction]
Runners-Up: Star Fox Assault, Crystal Chronicles, SSX 3, Battalion Wars, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Super Monkey Ball 2, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Twilight Princess, Wave Race: Blue Storm, every horror game I never played because I was (and still am!) too chickenshit to play them (yes, that includes Resident Evil 4).
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#20 - Soulcalibur II My first 3D fighting game. I still haven't quite wrapped my head around the subgenre, flailing my way through Tekkens, Virtua Fighters, and other SoulCaliburs since. But this one was a good one to flail through! Probably the only game on this list that has a dedicated competitive fanbase of people playing it to this day. What? You thought Melee was gonna be on this list? You must not know me.
#19 - Super Mario Strikers Strikers is a weird one to put on this list as I only ever had a brief affair with the game. I bought it and returned it a week later (the dangers of purchasing used games from Blockbuster back in the day). But the time I did have with it? I enjoyed every second... that was not it freezing mid-match.
#18 - Viewtiful Joe Henshin-A-Go-Go, Baybee! Viewtiful Joe is a fun platform beat-em-up that is way too fucking hard. Like waaaayyy too fucking hard.
#17 - Kirby Air Ride. I will money match anyone here in City Trials. Put up that money.
#16 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door I actually was really down on this game for years. It's got some really low points, some forgettable allies, and is mostly just disappointing when compared to the N64 original. But it's also got vast improvements to the combat system, a fun whodunit on a train, a fantastic soundtrack, and a tournament arc. It's pretty great.
#15 - Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 The peak of the series in my humble opinion. Ditching the two minute time limits allowed for the game both to be more accessible to newer players and create some of the most difficult challenges the series would ever see. Also the soundtrack? Still best in the series. Sorry THPS I&II's remake. You at least made it close.
#14 - Beyond Good & Evil I think it's telling that Beyond Good & Evil wouldn't make my top 50 games on PS2, both of the superiority of PS2's library and that Beyond Good & Evil... may not have aged that well. Does that mean it's not worth checking out? Hell no! It's still an inventive mix of Zelda combat and stealth with great characters and a story worth holding out hope for a sequel to after all these years.
#13 - Harvest Moon: A(nother) Wonderful Life The SNES original Harvest Moon is fantastic, but it always felt like a peak into a more fleshed out and fully realized farming sim. And A(nother) Wonderful Life was exactly that.
#12 - Skies of Arcadia: Legends Best JRPG on the system is an enhanced port of a Dreamcast game. That's how dire the selection of JRPG's was in 2001-06 for Gamecube owners (who stared in envy at PS2's bounty).
#11 - Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Okay I said Skies of Arcadia was the Best JRPG, but that's only because I consider strategy RPG's to be an entirely different genre. Path of Radiance is alright, but it's only like the 7th best Fire Emblem (maybe I'll make that list some day). Its most distinguishing feature is that it could have been the last good Fire Emblem game if Awakening crashed and burned. Because, *woof*, the next 3 games were some really turds. Oh and having the single most busted Lord in the series. Those devs really liked Ike, I guess.