When you mention the GameCube's hardware or graphics, many Nintendo fans hearken back to Space World, a now-defunct E3-like event that featured Nin🧸tendo-exclusive showings. Hype of "Project Dolphin," as it was called, reached astronomical levels when the company showcased a tech demo featuring flashy looking Link and Ganondorf character models sparring. The next generation had officially arrived. Gone were the days of N64-style jaggies, restrictive cartridges, and muddled resolutions.

The results fell a bit shy from where many of our imaginations carried us at the time. The games certainly looked a step above 32 and 64 bit and their gross, blocky polygons. The hardware packed into the small lunch box design, courtesy of the cutting edge ATI "Flipper" graphics card, did display some impressive visuals for the time. Not only had the jaggies been smoothed out, but the draw distances expanded, and textures became crisper and more detailed. The console boasted♎ some of the best graphics for their time, only slightly edged out by the Xbox.

Still, in much the same way we look back on, say, Tomb Raider and Goldeneye, some of these GameCube games don't look quite as epic as we remember. Some still seem to bear the hallmarks of N64 crudeness. And yet, a number of titles have been given new graphical life and vibrancy, thanks to the upre𒐪zzing of emulators like Dolphin. Certain gam🅰es opted for a more stylistic, cell-shaded approach too, which has helped them withstand the test of time aesthetically.

Thus, the GameCube has turned into sort of a mixed bag when it comes to its visuals. With that in mind, let's dive into some of the most notable examples of the most visually poor GameCube games, and some that still look gorgeous today🙈.

30 🌄 Still Looks Amazing: The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Prince♉ss

While Zelda: Breath of the Wild is all the rage these days, at the time, it was Twilight Princess that was catching all the buzz. The E3 20ꦜ04 reveal might be remembered as one of the most raucous reactions from the Nintendo faithful as Link's new epic adventure flashed on screen.

This marked theജ first realistic, mature-looking Zelda title since Majora's Mask.

Considering how nice this game still looks, especially in HD, one can i꧅magine the hype levels generated from seeing this for the first time. It sported massive colorful 3D environments, slick character models, and impre♒ssive lighting effects. Visually, it even held its own against the Wii's library, despite being a direct port.

29 ༺ Bad: Animal Crossing 𝓡

This may be a bit unfair to Animal Crossing for a couple of reasons - it began as an N64 title, and it wasn't particularly meant to look v🧜isually stunning. Rather, it was given a cartoony, almost toy box aesthetic, no doubt as a means to draw 🐈in a mass audience. Still, at the end of the day, this needs to be judged as a game released in 2002. Through this lens, it doesn't hold up too well with its flat and blocky graphics. If anything, the game resembles something closer to an early PlayStation 1 title.

28 Still Looks Amazin♕g: F-Zero GX

Boot up a modern day futuristic racer, and run F-Zero GX right beside it, and you'd be hard-pressed to no☂tice much of a difference graphically. This is especially true in HD, which suits this game particularly well. Everything looks so slick and crisp throughout; the backgrounds are gorgeous, and the particle effects emitted from the ships a🀅nd elsewhere are impressive.

The game also runs at a smooth, steady frame rate des𒀰pite zipping through the tracks at lightning speed. If you're looking for a GameCube title that holds up in the modern era visually, this is it.

27 𓂃 Bad: Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles

Nintendo fans lacking the Sony line of consoles, like myself, were excited following the announcement that Squaresoft would resume making Nintendo games after 🦂a several year hiatus. We imagined some awesome RPGs featuring stunning graphics and epic cutsceneღs.

If the 32 bit PlayStation could pull them off, surely the more powerful GameCube could, right?

Well, not exactly... Th🦄e game didn't feature those slick pre-rendered cutscenes we were hoping for, and the in-game visuals were pretty bland. The character models were crude and everything seemed to take on a muddled and foggy appearance, wrought with greys and browns.

26 Still Looks Amazing: Resident Evil (Rema🐻keꦅ)

When Nintendo fans found out that the Resident Evil series was going to be a major franchis🍃e for the GameCube, we were ecstat🉐ic. Not only this, but the original classic was going to be remade with a shiny new coat of graphical paint and gameplay enhancements.

The only thing more off than these graphics were those awful Crimson Head zombies...

Not only was the gameplay refined, but it truly made the PlayStation original look archaic by comparison visually🎐. It boasted gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds, realistic lighting, spruced up character models, and all new flashy cutscenes with improved voice acting.

25 ꦜ Bad: Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

Much like with Animal Crossing, this game was designed around inferior hardware; in this case, the Dreamcast. So it's a bit of a cheap shot to knock this decent 3D Sonic platformer for its visuals.

For a game that was released in 2002, it sure tends to resemble a mid-90s platformer. Super Mario 64, anyone?

Still, aside from its appreciation of vibrant and colorful environments, the game does take on a blocky and choppy feel. This particularly stands out when it comes to Sonic games, as the players expec🅰t a slick and fluid experience to complement the speedy pacing throughout.

24 Sti༺ll Looks Amazing: Super Mario Sunshine

Although Super Mario Sunshine isn't exactly the cream of the crop when it comes to Mario games, it certainly stands out from a visual standpoi💝nt. The colorful, vibrant tropical environments set the stage for some pretty landscapes that are easy to become enri⛦ched in.

If Super Mario 64 was the breakthrough for Mario in the 3D realm, Super Mario Sunshine polished and refined the aesthetics, cleaning up the jaggies and sprucing up the basic, bland textures. After all, "cleaner's better than dirty, and dirty's meaner than c꧑lean!"

23 🐲 Bad: NFL 2k3

In the early 2000s, football games had already come a long way from the 16-bit sprites that resided in the early 90s era of Madden and other football sims. Yet, this era stands as sort of a ♔strange "in-between" phase for these realistic type games.

You might equate this to the awkward young teenage phase for sports sims.

They didn't hold the nostalgic, stylistic charm of 8 or 16-bit sprites, yet the 3D graphics were still basic and rough around the edges. This made for aesthetically awkward sports games that didn't approach a level of immersion or realism seen today. NFL 2k3 is a prime example of this, with its stiff, blocky character models, and flat fields that resemble💜 a Foosball table more than grass football fields.

22 Still Looks Amazing: Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rꦕogue Leader

As game graphics and console horsepower were revving up at the dawn of the 2000s, one franchise many wanted to see in glorious glitzy next-gen form was Star Wars. Well, Factor 5 and Lucas Arts delivered in a big way, with their stellar effort for the GameCube, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

The force will be with this game, always...

It was one of the prettiest Star Wars games of its era, with its cool explosion effects, 🌱as well as its detailed models and textures. It also made for an immersive, and a♑ll around solid flight shooter that was a blast to play.

21 Bad: P.N.03 𒅌

In the early 2000s, there were meant to be 5 epic exclusives by Capcom to be released on the GameCube. This game stands as one of only 4 of the "Capcom 5" titles for the console to even be released. It's a shame then that it turned out so underwhelming, in terms of its graphics and gameplay.

Another title that looked like it held potential, Dead Phoenix, was canceled.

Potential eye candy from the game's protagonist Vanessa aside, P.N.03 is pretty dull and boring to look at. The majority of the 🌠game takes place inside a monochromatic sci-fi facility that's filled with an abundance of greys and whites. Everything comes off as blocky, bland, and lifeless.