10 GameCube Co-Op Games That Reward Exploration

The Nintendo GameCube was the patron console of my adolescence, the one that got me through elementary school and most of middle school. It wasn’t quite as cool or fancy as its competitors, but it had some great games, and quite a few that were great for when the buds were over. This was around when co-op multiplayer was really picking up steam in the scene, so naturally, there were plenty of co-op games to enjoy as well.

Of course, while just playing quick pick-up games was nice and all, there was something to be said for co-op games that demanded a little more investment from you, something you and a friend could really spend an entire weekend losing yourself in. It wasn’t particularly hard to achieve; all it required was some rewards for exploration, whether it was extra in-game cash, power-ups, or little bonus collectibles. If you wanted an explore-em-up to enjoy on the GameCube, odds were good it was one of these games.

10 Digimon World 4

Digimon with Swords

The majority of the Digimon World series of games takes primary cues from their namesake franchise: you play as a person with a Digimon partner, and raise them up to be big and strong. A major outlier to that framework is Digimon World 4, which is maybe not the best Digimon game, but a pretty decent co-op dungeon crawler in its own right.

Rather than a human with a Digimon partner, Digimon World 4 has you and up to three friends playing as the Digimon themselves, armed with swords, guns, and other assorted weapons. Together, you navigate dungeons around the Digital World, pummeling other Digimon and the occasional boss Digimon, and collecting items and equipment.

As you’d expect from a dungeon-crawler, looting is a vital part of the experience. You need to thoroughly explore each dungeon in order to replenish your supply of restorative items, as well as source better armor and weapons to keep up with the damage curve. Again, it doesn’t really utilize the specifics of Digimon all that well, but that’s not the point of the discussion here.

9 Shrek 2

Better than it Had Any Right to Be

The sixth console generation was home to a lot of licensed and tie-in games, especially for kids movies. Most of them were baffling and terrible, but a handful of them were a lot better than anyone expected. One such surprising example was the tie-in game to Shrek 2, an arcade-style four-player beat ‘em up.

Each level would assign you a handful of characters like Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, and so on, either to swap between by yourself or allocated to up to three friends. The core gameplay loop was just to smack and smash your way through whatever stood in your way in order to make your way to the end of the level, with occasional breaks for character-specific minigames.

However, if you put a little extra effort in, just about every level had little nuggets of secrets to uncover, from hidden puzzles to amusing interactables. Most of these yielded cash for upgrades, but some of them gave you hidden magic beans or special snapshots, all of which could unlock bonus levels and build up your overall completion rate.

8 Gauntlet Dark Legacy

Classic Dungeon Crawling

Speaking of arcade-style co-op games, it doesn’t get much more arcade than that classic dungeon-crawler, Gauntlet. Gauntlet found a happy home on the N64 in Gauntlet Legends, and that homeownership streak continued onto the GameCube with Gauntlet Dark Legacy, which was arguably even more exploration-focused than its predecessor.

Dark Legacy follows the same basic Gauntlet formula as Legends: you and up to three friends enter a level, beat up everyone, reach the goal, do that a few times and beat up a boss, repeat. One of the twists here is in the level layouts; sometimes you’d have a straight-shot path to follow to the exit, while other times, you’d have to navigate a more elaborate maze to find your way out, which was when exploration would be more necessary.

Even if the exit was in an obvious spot, you could still go off the beaten path, with your travels being rewarded by valuable treasures and powerful weapons that would weaken upcoming bosses. There were also runestones that were required to actually complete the game, so you always had to do at least a teensy bit of exploring.

7 LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game

The Game that Launched an Empire

When it comes to co-op games jam-packed with secrets and collectibles, the many LEGO games made by Travellers Tales are frequent taste-makers, especially for those with kids or younger siblings. The game that started this particular gravy train was the original LEGO Star Wars, which also happened to be one of my favorite GameCube co-op titles.

While not quite to the extent as the newer, open-world LEGO games, the original LEGO Star Wars still maintained its baseline emphasis on level exploration and two-player co-op gameplay. While each level had a linear path to follow to finish it, that linear path was littered with studs to collect and secrets to uncover, some by smashing LEGO walls and objects and others by using characters with specific, contextual abilities.

This was also how the game encouraged replayability, as you likely wouldn’t have access to the characters you needed for full completion on your first playthrough. When you can return to a level with more characters unlocked, you can open locked doors or move away stubborn debris and find all the cool stuff you missed.

6 James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

Secret Agent Solidarity

In a James Bond video game, you would naturally expect to play as James Bond in his various spy adventures. Unfortunately, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing’s Bond adventures are exclusive to the single-player campaign, so you can’t enjoy them with friends. However, there is a separate co-op campaign, and that’s where you can have a little more espionage entertainment.

While you and your friend have to play as a couple of nameless agents, you still get to enjoy the multifaceted stealth-action gameplay, shooting out enemy agents and exploring levels. Technically, the two of you can just rush from point A to point B, but in addition to their main objectives, every level has side objectives that may require you to branch out a bit.

For example, you may be required to neutralize every enemy on the map, which could require some thorough searching, or you’ll need to get through the level without being seen, which necessitates finding roundabout paths. It’s a game that plays to a handful of different playstyles, both thorough and impulsive.

5 Serious Sam: Next Encounter

Shootin’ and Scavengin’

For about as long as first-person shooters have been a thing, they’ve had a penchant for hiding secrets in obscure spots. While shooters weren’t exactly the GameCube’s bread and butter, it had a few genuine bangers in that classic format, including Serious Sam: Next Encounter, which also happened to be an excellent co-op game.

Next Encounter offered split-screen two-player co-op, where both players could collect and utilize weapons from Sam’s massive, wacky arsenal at their leisure to atomize enemies in bulk. The main gameplay is plenty of fun in that regard, but if you didn’t mind tamping down on your impulses a bit, there was also a lot of reason to explore. Every level had various secret chambers and secluded nooks where you could find treasures, weapons, and power-ups.

Finding these secrets wasn’t just satisfying in itself, it also contributed to your score and rank at the end of each level. Getting gold medals from high completion rates unlocked additional levels you and your partner could play outside the main campaign.

4 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Just Don’t Leave the Bubble

If you’re playing a co-op game with an emphasis on exploration, you’d probably expect every player to be able to go off on their own and search things at their own pace. Here’s a curveball, though: what if you had a dungeon-crawling game where all players needed to stay close to one another at all times to stay alive? Well, then you’d have Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

Assuming you had the Game Boy Advance Link Cables to facilitate it, up to four players could play this unique dungeon crawler cooperatively. What was unique about it was that at least one player needed to carry a magic vessel around that projected a barrier bubble, outside which you’d take constant damage. Ergo, if you wanted to explore, you needed to coordinate your efforts with your teammates.

It was a worthwhile endeavor, as every dungeon contained helpful items like better equipment and spells and ability-enhancing artifacts. Some dungeons also had side quests that required you to go off the beaten path a bit, which would then reward rare items or large quantities of cash, both of which everyone could use.

All Kinds of Neat Junk to Find

Marvel hadn’t quite become the multimedia powerhouse it is today during the GameCube’s era, but there were still a lot of games themed to Marvel’s various heroes. The X-Men, in particular, got a handful of different games on the console, with the first co-op focused one being X-Men Legends.

This four-player action RPG dungeon-crawler had you controlling one of a large roster of heroic mutants in order to foil Magneto’s evil scheme of the hour. The main gameplay revolved largely around pummeling enemies with your fists and mutant abilities and leveling up, though there were also multiple good reasons to explore thoroughly.

Every level was full of all kinds of secrets, from character-specific challenges to collectables like unique power-up items and comic book covers from the actual X-Men comics runs. You could also find discs for unlocking new challenges in the Danger Room, as well as sketch art for those who like those kinds of little bonus details.

2 Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II

No Internet Connection Required

The GameCube had an optional network adapter peripheral, which you could use to connect to the internet via ethernet cable and play online games like Phantasy Star Online. Of course, neither I nor anyone I knew had that adapter, but in a clever move, you don’t actually need an internet connection to play Phantasy Star Online co-op.

Phantasy Star Online could be played locally via split-screen, allowing you and a buddy to play the game in an offline instance. Once you’ve got your team set up, you’re pretty much free to explore the open world and its various locales, playing the game more or less the same way you would play any MMO: kill stuff, collect stuff, explore stuff, and so on.

Whether you stick together or spread out, there’s plenty of reasons to map the place out, from uncovering rare items to farming experience. It’s all the fun of playing a traditional MMO without a chat full of randos blowing up in your peripheral vision, which is an improvement, frankly.

1 The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

More Gems, More Fun

The vast majority of Legend of Zelda games are single-player-exclusive affairs. It’s not really the kind of game you can split duties on, at least in its full-scope 3D form. However, with a little bit of simplification, it’s not actually that hard to make a multiplayer-focused Zelda game. Just look at Four Swords Adventures.

A follow-up to the GBA-exclusive Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures sees Link split himself into four differently-colored heroes and journey across the land to defeat the newly-released Vaati. It’s more of an arcade-style game than the mainline series, broken up into individual levels with their own progressions and bosses.

Your main means of getting ahead in any given level is to uncover Force Gems, which are hidden and scattered all over the place. While there are puzzles and challenges that require cooperation, for the most part, all four players can go off on their own and hunt down gems to contribute to the total, which helps get the whole party to the goal faster.