11 Best GameCube Compilations

Namco Museum 50th Anniversary packs 14 classic arcade hits, from Pac-Man and Galaga to Rolling Thunder and Sky Kid, with Galaga '88 and Pac-Mania to unlock. With games this simple and Namco's commitment to quality, they play, look and sound just like the originals. It is an easy disc to put on when friends come over. Everyone knows how Pac-Man works, so nobody needs a tutorial, and a round of Galaga takes about as long as a snack.

The weak spot is how familiar it all is. Half of its line-up was already on the older GameCube Namco Museum disc. If you own that one, this is mostly a second helping of the same meal, so it sits at the bottom of the list for a reason. Fans of Namco's old arcade games will still have a great time with it.

Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is all racing: eight arcade games, including Hydro Thunder and San Francisco Rush 2049. The GameCube has the best version of it, too, because the PlayStation 2 and Xbox discs suffer from emulation glitches in some of the games. If you wanted loud, fast cabinets at home, this is the volume to buy. Racing games suit the arcade style well, because every run is short and you always want one more go.

The GameCube struggles just a little more with frame rates in S.T.U.N. Runner and Off Road Thunder, though it's a difference that's hardly detectable. Most people will never notice it while they are busy missing a corner. It is the easiest of the three Midway discs to recommend.

The second volume collects 20 games that weren't in the first or third, among them Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3. Many of them are emulated rather than ported, and some, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, Pit-Fighter and NARC in particular, have obvious sound and graphical glitches.

Wizard of Wor got the worst of it. Every sound effect plays at the wrong time, so the shooting sound became the enemy defeated sound and vice versa, which must be very confusing for the enemies. Players still put it on their lists of GameCube favourites, and the Mortal Kombat games are a big part of why. It is a rough, loud and wonderfully messy disc, and the glitches are part of the charm for many fans.

This special bonus disc holds the original Ocarina of Time and the previously unreleased Master Quest, an alternative version with new puzzles and increased difficulty. It was the first official release of Master Quest, and it went out in limited quantities to people who pre-ordered The Wind Waker.

In some regions it was simply sold packaged with The Wind Waker instead. Players still list it among their GameCube must-haves. If you have already finished Ocarina of Time a dozen times, the harder dungeons are the whole reason to come back. It is a short and sweet bonus, and it feels like a thank you from Nintendo to its fans.

The first Midway Arcade Treasures is the biggest of the three, with 24 arcade games including Gauntlet, Joust, Paperboy, Rampage and Root Beer Tapper. It is a huge pile of arcade history, and the classics are fun to jump into for a few minutes at a time.

Its problem is the controls: many of these games used special controls, like a trackball for Marble Madness or handlebars for Paperboy, and the games that rely on analog input feel very loose on a GameCube pad. Players tend to recommend all three volumes as a set rather than picking one. Think of it as the biggest pile of arcade history on the system, best enjoyed with a friend on the couch.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection holds Mega Man 1 through 8, plus the two arcade games, The Power Battle and The Power Fighters. Its handiest feature is the new Navi Mode, which brings the menu from Mega Man 8 to the other games and gives you hints along the way. It makes the old, tough games much friendlier, and that is a real help for anyone new to the Blue Bomber. Eight main games plus two arcade extras is a huge amount of Mega Man for one disc.

The games are ported rather than emulated, and it shows in places: Mega Man 7 lost its ending because the developers had trouble getting the Mode 7 effect to work, and the GameCube version swaps the B and A buttons, so B jumps and A fires. Players who grew up on it still love it.

Mega Man X Collection gathers X through X6, with Mega Man Battle & Chase to unlock. It doesn't have the polish or the emulation quality of the Anniversary Collection, but it's a respectable effort, and the first three games let you save to a file instead of writing down passwords. That alone is a gift. Typing in long passwords was never much fun, and saving your progress makes the early X games far easier to enjoy.

The rough edges are small ones. X5 and X6 lose their rumble support, and X and X2 use streaming soundtracks. Players still recommend it as a great way into the series, and six X games in one case is a lot of action for one disc.

Evolution Worlds puts two Dreamcast RPGs on one disc: the full Evolution 2: Far Off Promise and an abbreviated version of Evolution: The World of Sacred Device. You play Mag Launcher, son of a world-famous explorer, who sets out with his best friend Linear and his faithful butler Gre to make a name for himself.

The abridged first game is the honest weak spot, since you only get a shortened version of it. Even so, players count it among the GameCube's hidden RPG gems. It is the odd one out on this list, and a good pick if you have had enough of arcade ports. Two Dreamcast adventures give you plenty to play, and you will not find this kind of disc anywhere else on the system.

Sonic Gems Collection gathers the odder Sonic games, led by Sonic CD and Sonic R, plus Sonic the Fighters and a stack of Game Gear titles, with Vectorman and Vectorman 2 to unlock. The main attractions look and run great, and Sonic CD is based on the PC version, so it comes with brief, odd-looking loading screens.

Knuckles' Chaotix from the 32X is missing, and the Game Gear games suffer from frustrating frame rate issues. Players mostly buy it for Sonic CD and Sonic R anyway, and it is a nice way to see the side of Sonic that most people skipped. Sonic CD alone makes it worth owning, and Sonic R is a strange little treat for anyone who likes racing.

Sonic Mega Collection was made by Sonic Team and contains twelve to fourteen Genesis games, depending on the region. The core is the run from Sonic the Hedgehog to Sonic & Knuckles, and the unlockables include Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Ristar. It is a great pile of Genesis classics, and it is the perfect disc for anyone who grew up with a Sega controller in their hands.

The emulation is high quality, particularly in the sound department, which was not a given for Genesis collections back then. Players still call it great, and it is the disc most people reach for when they want Sonic on a GameCube.

Collector's Edition puts four complete Zelda games on one disc: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It also carries a 20-minute demo of The Wind Waker and a Zelda retrospective movie. Besides the console bundle and the subscription offer, it was also available through the Club Nintendo reward program.

Players call it great value for Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on one disc, and those two still hold up. Majora's Mask is the weak spot, though: players warn that its emulation stutters and can crash. It was a promotional disc, which makes it all the more surprising that so many players still love it. If you only ever buy one compilation for the system, this is the one that gives you the most for your money.