Nintendo announced last week during their Nintendo Switch 2 Direct that they would be bringing GameCube games to their Nintendo Online Service and one of the first games available will be the legendary Soul Calibur 2.
This will mark the first time we see a re-release of the GameCube version which is notable for its inclusion of Link from The Legend of Zelda as a fighter, something that was very exciting for players at the time of release. While the GameCube itself may not have been a major fighting game powerhouse, there are some titles on it that would be cool to revisit if they return via Nintendo’s service. Let’s have a look at a few of them.
The most obvious omission so far from Nintendo’s GameCube library is of course Super Smash Bros. Melee which is conspicuously absent not just from the launch lineup, but it also wasn’t shown in the additional titles Nintendo showed that were coming later which featured most of their first-party successes on the console.
Given that we already have GameCube controllers set for release and the Super Smash Bros. series even now, more than 20 years later, predominately is played competitively on said controllers or variants of them, it’s a very strange omission.
I’d be surprised if Super Smash Bros. Melee doesn’t show up eventually, but the fact that it isn’t an early priority truly does seem strange, but perhaps they’re trying to time it with a later release for the Super Smash Bros. series to do some kind of cross-promotion. Fingers crossed, I guess.
There’s also one of the most beloved fighting games ever released, Capcom vs. SNK 2 which actually did see a release on the Nintendo GameCube, though in a different version than the PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast saw.
The GameCube version is called EO (Easy Operation) and has a specific control scheme you can select which is optimized for the GameCube controller, as well as having some minor changes from the other versions including removing the roll cancel glitch, which is a pretty central part of high-level play in the game, therefore making this version quite the different experience.
It’s very doubtful we’ll see Capcom vs. SNK 2 appear partly due to the rights issues associated with it which Nintendo likely aren’t too keen to dig in, but also because right before the Nintendo Switch 2’s release date, Capcom are releasing their Capcom Fighting Collection 2 which happens to include specifically Capcom vs. SNK 2.
When trying to sell the game, it seems unlikely that they’d be okay with Nintendo putting it up for free for their online subscribers, so this one is probably just a pipe dream… and honestly, it doesn’t matter since we’ll be getting it via the Capcom Fighting Collection 2 soon anyway.
One interesting fighting game that I found while digging through the Nintendo GameCube library is Bloody Roar: Primal Fury (also known as Bloody Roar Extreme) in Japan), a GameCube-entry of the predominately PlayStation 2-centered franchise.
When talking about fighting games it’s quite common to see people asking for Bloody Roar to be back, which used to be owned by Hudson Soft before their intellectual property rights were absorbed by Konami who now own the rights to the franchise.
Having stayed dormant since 2003, so more than 20 years, Bloody Roar fans have been waiting a long time to get their humanoid-beast hybrid fighter back in the spotlight and while having Bloody Roar: Primal Fury available on the Switch 2 isn’t necessarily a revival, it’d still be cool to see it shown to a new audience.
I think this actually has a pretty okay shot to get put on the service, but it’ll probably mostly rely on whether Konami okay it or not. Since they haven’t really done anything with the franchise ever since they got it, hopefully they wouldn’t mind if Nintendo asked.
Finally, there are a bunch of anime-based fighting games which actually were pretty cool on the Nintendo GameCube, with the standouts being the Naruto: Clash of Ninja franchise.
A surprisingly robust fighting game based on an intellectual property which was very popular at the time and still endures today, these games were actually made by Eighting, the developers of the Bloody Roar franchise, so there’s a connection there as well.
The hurdle here is that we haven’t really seen many games based on other intellectual properties appear on Nintendo’s online service emulators, likely due to the rights issues that have to be sorted out before going through such an endeavor, so it doesn’t seem too likely that these games would appear even though they’re quite beloved by Naruto fans and fighting game enthusiasts alike.
Other fighting game titles which appeared on the Nintendo GameCube based on anime properties include the fondly remembered Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series and Digimon Rumble Arena 2 and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t start either of those up for pure nostalgic purposes if I saw them.
However, much like the Clash of Ninja games, rights issues are likely going to keep these off of the service unless Nintendo see particular incentive to go the extra mile for them.
Having Soul Calibur 2 up at the console’s launch is a good start, but it would definitely be nice to see some more fighting games show up from the GameCube library.
Super Smash Bros. Melee and Bloody Roar: Primal Fury both seem fairly likely to show up at some point, but are there any other titles I might have forgotten that you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Event Hubs
