The GameCube is not the first console people think of for puzzle games, and its shelf of them is short. What it has is good, though, and a lot of it came from Sega, which had just stopped making consoles and started making games for Nintendo. Tetris and Puyo both made the trip as well. One of the best picks here is barely a puzzle game at all, and you need a Game Boy Advance to play it.
Here are the 6 best GameCube puzzle games. The first five are the ones players recommend most, and the sixth is a bubble shooter that retro reviewers recommend on the GameCube.
6. Bust-A-Move 3000 (2003)
Bust-A-Move 3000 is the GameCube port of Super Puzzle Bobble, which first came out on the PlayStation 2 in 2000. It reached the GameCube in 2003, named Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars in Japan and Super Bust-A-Move All-Stars in Europe. The port adds new backgrounds and remixed music and otherwise plays the same. You launch colored bubbles from the bottom of the field, and once three bubbles of the same color touch, they pop. Clear the field and you move on.
Retro reviewers put it on their list of the best 2D games on the GameCube, and they are honest about it. It has just three modes of play, and the loose analog aim will likely have you using the D-pad. What it does have is sharp 2D graphics and plenty of bright, happy characters. Ubi Soft picked this one to port instead of Super Bust-A-Move 2, which had some ugly 3D character models.
5. Tetris Worlds (2001)
Tetris Worlds was THQ's first Tetris game. It started on PC and Game Boy Advance in 2001, and the GameCube version followed in 2002, made by Radical Entertainment. Every version except the GBA one has a whispering female announcer, which sets a mood you do not expect from Tetris. Next to the classic game you get other modes, such as one where 25 connected blocks of the same color form a Critical Mass and clear from the Matrix.
Critics did not love it. Its rules let you keep moving and rotating a piece after it lands, and GameSpot said that "broke Tetris". The GameCube version made that Easy Spin feature optional, so you can switch it off and play it straight. One player summed it up well: "Tetris worlds is chill and fun." That is the right way to come at it.
4. Puyo Pop Fever (2003)
Puyo Pop Fever is the fifth main game in the Puyo Puyo series, and the second one programmed by Sonic Team after the series' original developer, Compile, went bankrupt. Sega published the GameCube version outside Japan itself. You match four or more Puyos of the same color to pop them, and every clear drops nuisance Puyos on your opponent's screen. In Fever, the pieces come pre-assembled in as many as four Puyos, which opens up new ways to build chains.
The big new idea is Fever Mode. Chain enough and the game hands you a board that is waiting for the final couple of pieces to set off a massive chain reaction, and you have a time limit to find them. Retro reviewers say it has the perfect balance of strategy and simplicity. It is best played with a friend, though there is no four-player mode. Players who list their favorite GameCube games still name it.
3. Pac-Man Vs. (2003)
Pac-Man Vs. is closer to a maze game, but retro reviewers file it with the puzzlers, and it earns the spot. It was a project of Shigeru Miyamoto, first shown at the Games Convention in Germany as Pac-Man for Nintendo GameCube before Namco agreed to publish it. One person plays Pac-Man on a Game Boy Advance, while the other three play the ghosts with controllers. The ghosts have to work together, and their only hint is a color trail that briefly appears behind Pac-Man.
The ghost that catches Pac-Man becomes Pac-Man, so you end up hunting the player you were teaming up with a minute ago. Mario is the announcer, voiced by Charles Martinet. One retro reviewer called it "a great rollercoaster of gameplay emotions". Players still recommend it, as long as you can find a GBA and a link cable.
2. Super Monkey Ball 2 (2002)
Super Monkey Ball 2 is the first game in the series with a story. Dr. Bad-Boon, an evil scientist, steals all of the bananas from Monkey Island, and AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon and Baby chase him through booby-trapped stages. The story runs over 100 levels split between ten worlds. You get an infinite number of lives and can play each world's ten stages in any order, so newer players get to see most of the game.
The challenge mode is another story, with a more spiked difficulty curve and a hidden set of Master floors for anyone who never uses a continue. There are also 12 multiplayer mini-games, half of them new, from Monkey Tennis to Monkey Dogfight. IGN's Matt Casamassina called it "just as simple as the original, and also just as addictive". Retro reviewers say the GameCube versions of the first two remain the best games in the series, and players still put this one on their lists of GameCube games to own.
1. Super Monkey Ball (2001)
Super Monkey Ball began as Monkey Ball, an arcade cabinet on Sega's NAOMI hardware with a banana-shaped analog stick. When Sega stopped making the Dreamcast, its studio Amusement Vision ported the game to the GameCube as a launch title, and it became Sega's first game for a Nintendo home console. You guide a monkey in a transparent ball to the goal, but you never move the monkey. The analog stick tilts the whole floor, and the ball rolls along. The Expert level alone has 50 floors, and secret Master floors wait for anyone who clears the Extra floors without a continue.
It scored 87 on Metacritic, and some journalists called it the highlight of the GameCube's launch lineup. Retro reviewers say the GameCube's perfectly-tuned analog stick still gives the best playing experience. Players recommend it more than any other GameCube puzzle game.
Which one to play
There you have it, the whole list of the best GameCube puzzle games. It is a short list, and every game on it has earned its spot on the shelf.
If you are not sure where to start, play Super Monkey Ball. If you want a story and a lot more stages, go for Super Monkey Ball 2. For a party with friends, Pac-Man Vs. is the one, as long as somebody brings a GBA. If you like head-to-head battles, pick Puyo Pop Fever. And for something to play alone and unwind, Tetris Worlds does the job.
