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3) F-Zero GX
Collaborator: Sega
System: GameCube
Shigeru Miyamoto was quoted recently as saying that Nintendo isn’t sure what to do next with the F-Zero series. If it were up to me, I’d give it right back to Sega, who delivered not only a defining F-Zero title, but a defining GameCube one, too. Everything an F-Zero fan could ever want was jam-packed into F-Zero GX: a mesmerizing soundtrack, brilliant graphics, blinding fast speed, tight controls, and more. Sega even developed an arcade counterpart to GX called F-Zero AX that actually interacted with the GameCube version of the game. So much creativity and enthusiasm was on display when Sega took the reins of F-Zero that it’s astounding to think that, so far, GX was merely a one-off. Sega made the series its own back in the day, and it’s beyond time for it to get another shot at F-Zero on Wii U.
Interesting choices, and mostly great games. But Other M will never stop filling me with rage.
I eagerly wait to spend my eShop money on a Wii U version of Mario RPG. I was tempted with that Club Nintendo reward last month, but ultimately didn’t want to buy a classic controller.
Great list. I enjoyed Minish Cap immensely and thought it was quite charming. However I felt the Oracle games were more challenging, which makes them the superior collaboration in my opinion. I was glad you mentioned them in your write-up.
Also, While it doesn’t fit your criteria for making this list since Silicon Knights was a second party developer at the time, I would give an honorable mention to “Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes” for Gamecube. While the bulk of the collaboration was between Silicon Knights and Konami, Nintendo was sure to emphasize Miyamoto’s overseeing of its development. The game turned out great and was an unexpected surprise-addition to Gamecube’s awesome (and underrated) library.
I was within millimeters of plugging in MGS, but it was in too much of a gray area to me as I was writing. In retrospect, I probably should have thrown it on the list. It’s one of my all time favorite games! So good.
Eternal Darkness as well, for that matter. That game led me to buy Twin Snakes, which in turn got me into what is now one of my favorite game series.
Silicon Knights was truly in their golden age when they were close with Nintendo, same as Rare. Damn it Nintendo, you better not ever loosen your ties with Retro! :^)
Glad to see the Silicon Knights games being mentioned in the comments. I understand why they weren’t on the list, but think they are fantastic games – clearly the best games that studio ever made by a large margin. Also some of my personal favorite games on GameCube.