Make It So – GameCube Remix

[Make It So takes a look at our favorite games and suggests additions, subtractions, and areas to improve upon for the sequel or next entry in the series.]

Picture this: Sicily, 1912. You’re trying to reach the top of the big windmill in Super Mario Sunshine one moment, only to be solving a creepy as hell puzzle in Eternal Darkness soon thereafter. This general concept is already well at work with NES Remix, a new Wii U exclusive that takes classic NES games and adds special challenges for a very unique experience, but why stop there? Provided NES Remix and the upcoming NES Remix 2 both sell well enough, we can probably expect a SNES Remix, but there’d be so much more to work with by just skipping a few generations. N64 Remix would also be too easy; let’s go beyond even that. Let’s picture a GameCube Remix.

I hope I have your imagination gears shifting and turning in your head while you picture insane remixes to boss battles from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or a race in Mario Kart: Double Dash. Unfortunately, one of the biggest drawbacks to this is that the Wii U Virtual Console does not currently contain any GameCube games. What I mean is that one of the big things about NES Remix was how it also served as a marketing tool, allowing players to check out the actual Balloon Fight or Legend of Zelda by being linked directly to the eShop when hovering over the selection of game-specific challenges. Nevertheless, Virtual Console or not, you know it’d be awesome.

Undoubtedly, on a technical level there would be some hurdles for the developers to overcome when transferring these titles over to the Wii U. Luckily, the Wii U is completely backwards compatible with the Wii, which has WarioWare: Smooth Moves, that does exactly what I’m talking about here; Smooth Moves featured a handful of mini-games ripped straight out of some of the most popular GameCube titles, such as knocking over a set number of objects in a level as Samus Aran rolled up into a ball in Metroid Prime. Sure, I may not know the specifics of what would go into making this game, but what I’ve seen in WarioWare: Smooth Moves alone tells me it’s entirely possible.

GameCube Remix would be yet another chance for Nintendo to spice things up and experiment however they’d like, with the safety of remaining within their own intellectual properties. No matter how many Legend of Zelda games they make, one thing is for certain: many of them are completely different, with merely the Zelda name and standard dungeon-adventure elements at work. The same goes for all of their IPs. The risk is minimal; it’s what they’ve been doing all along.

I’m picking on the GameCube specifically because of its library’s stark contrast from the NES library. From Mario Bros. to Super Mario Sunshine, the changes are gargantuan, and it would be a blast to see what clever and creative elements Nintendo throws into the mix in an entirely different way. Don’t get me wrong, NES Remix has plenty of variety with a myriad of challenges from its selection of 16 classic Nintendo games, but something like the GameCube would be an extreme exercise in versatility and pure unbridled developer talent. I won’t go too much into how there ought to be GameCube games on the Virtual Console here, but this alone would be a perfect reason to send them on over already: Marketing, marketing, marketing.

Stop playing coy, Nintendo; you know you’d sell a ton more consoles with GameCube games on the Wii U. So let’s play it safe and get buck wild, Nintendo. It’s your forté. GameCube Remix would be a beautiful thing. Now, let’s just hope they make it so.