10 Worst GameCube Games

Bionicle sends the Toa across the island of Mata Nui to stop the evil Makuta, and some of its levels swap platforming for snowboarding or lava surfing. Every Toa was meant to be playable, but deadlines cut much of the game, and only the Game Boy Advance version lets you play them all. The best idea in it is the elemental energy: you refill it by shielding yourself and soaking up the attacks enemies throw at you. It averages 52 out of 100.

Critics disliked its short length and its camera angles, and one pointed out that you could finish it in less time than it takes to watch the film it's based on, Bionicle: Mask of Light. It sold poorly enough that Argonaut never saw any royalties. It never comes up when players talk about the GameCube.

Traveller's Tales swapped the series' puzzle stages for a 3D platform world, where the monkeys roll around Monearth doing chores for its citizens, such as delivering sandwiches. The story is a royal wedding between two rival kingdoms, Monkitropolis and Kongri-la, and AiAi has to make peace first. Sega wanted the plot to matter more than in the earlier games, to take its characters "into the next sort of iconic level". It averages 50 out of 100.

Critics derided its controls and difficulty, and some called it the worst game in the series, though the soundtrack was praised. Fans of the first two games bought it with high hopes and remember it as a letdown. The old puzzle stages are still on the disc as a Challenge Mode.

You ride a mount instead of a kart in Smash n' Crash, picking one of twelve Shrek characters and knocking your rivals off their mounts to get ahead. Eight of the twelve have to be unlocked, and each one has its own ride: Gingy gets a cupcake horse, while Shrek drives the Swamp Smasher. Up to six racers share a track. It was the last game based on a DreamWorks Animation film to come out on the GameCube. It averages 51 out of 100.

The GameCube version actually reviewed best of all of them, with an aggregate of 59% against 43% on the DS. Players never mention it. The most memorable thing anyone has found in it is a leftover text file in the Game Boy Advance version that reads "No need to translate."

Mutant Nightmare is a Konami brawler for up to four players, and the Turtles nobody is playing still fight at your side under the computer's control. It is based on the 2003 cartoon, and its episodes run from a Triceraton invasion of Earth to Shredder being sent into exile on a distant ice asteroid. Finish the first episode and it unlocks a slightly altered version of Turtles in Time, the 1991 arcade game. A bold thing to put next to your own game.

Reviews were mixed on every platform, yet it sold 1.5 million copies by 2007. It averages 47 out of 100. The co-op is the point of it: friends who team up get Cooperative Attacks, and the effect changes with how many of you join in. It only comes up in lists of GameCube games people own.

Sarge's War was started by The 3DO Company, the series' creator, and finished by Global Star Software after 3DO went bankrupt. It is much darker than the earlier games: holes get blown into soldiers, and the weapons are made of metal. Early on, a bomb at a peace ceremony destroys Greentown with Sarge's squad and both armies in it, and the rest of the game is his revenge. The ending then reveals that the squad he lost were clones, and the real ones are still alive somewhere in the plastic world.

A review at the time called its graphics sub-par and its gameplay repetitive. It averages 48 out of 100. Players hardly talk about it, and one who does recommends it anyway, as the kind of bad that has you rolling on the floor laughing.

Before it was Pac-Man World 3, this was Pac-Man Adventures, with Don Bluth drawing concept art for it. The project was reworked without him, and Blitz Games made what came out. It is the third and final game in the series, and the only one of the three that never came out in Japan. It is also the first time Pac-Man speaks in a video game outside the cartoon. It gives Pac-Man new moves, such as a superstomp and an electric shock.

Critics liked what it kept from the earlier games but criticized its repetitive gameplay and lower difficulty. It averages 50 out of 100. Players barely mention it, good or bad. The story starts at Pac-Man's 25th birthday party, and the museum on the main menu includes a playable port of the original Pac-Man arcade game.

Battle Stadium D.O.N is a crossover fighting game by Eighting, and the D.O.N in its name comes from the Shōnen Jump series it brings together: Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Naruto. Up to four players share the screen, and instead of draining a health bar you knock glowing orbs out of each other. Collect them all, or hold the most when time runs out, and you win. If nobody sets a time limit, a fight can last indefinitely, which is a long time to spend as Usopp.

It came out only in Japan, in July 2006. One review praised how easy it is to pick up but found little depth under it. It averages 48 out of 100. Hardly anyone talks about it, and the ones who do recommend it to anyone willing to import.

Patrick Stewart narrates Next Dimension, back as Professor Xavier from the films. It is the third game in the X-Men: Mutant Academy fighting series, and it adds 3D stages and a story mode, loosely based on the comic story Operation: Zero Tolerance. In the X-Mansion, an opponent can be knocked from the Hangar to the Hallway, then to the outer courtyard.

Some critics called it the best game in the series, while others criticized the GameCube and Xbox versions for borrowing from Dead or Alive 3. The GameCube version got the best reviews of the three, 63 out of 100 on Metacritic. It averages 44 out of 100. The few players who bring it up have nothing bad to say about it, so it is the low score that puts it this high.

Vendetta began as an original shooter called Muzzle Velocity and turned into a Speed 2: Cruise Control game when Fox Interactive came on board. After that film flopped it became Die Hard 64, and the studio finally moved it to the GameCube. McClane takes on Piet Gruber, the son of Hans Gruber. Hero Time slows everything down but him while Beethoven's Ode to Joy plays. It averages 39 out of 100, the lowest score here.

It ends with McClane punching a film developer who offers him a starring role in a movie about it all. Players who played it back then still defend it, and the voice acting is part of the charm: they find it hilarious, sound-alike McClane included. That goodwill is what keeps it out of the bottom spot.

Happy Feet follows Mumble, a penguin who is just about the worst singer in the world but can tap dance. Elijah Wood and Brittany Murphy came back to voice their penguins from the film. The console versions have three modes, and one of them is Dance Dance Revolution with penguins. Two players race each other in the dancing and swimming games and work together on the belly slides. Shake Your Booty by KC and the Sunshine Band plays when Mumble hatches.

Critics gave it mixed to negative reviews on every platform. It averages 41 out of 100, the second lowest score here after Die Hard: Vendetta. No game here gets more criticism from players, and the ones who bring it up call it shovelware, when they're being polite.