DEREK: In November 2004, Nintendo released the DS. It would become one of the most successful products in consumer electronics history, with over 150 millon units sold worldwide! It would be iterated on with the DS Lite, DSi, 3DS, 2DS, New 3DS, New 2DS, and you can even see its inspiration in the Wii U. Its dual-screen setup actually goes all the way back to the late seventies with the Game & Watch games, but it wasn't the only time Nintendo played with the concept: The Gamecube Game Boy Advance Link Cable debuted in Japan on December 14th, 2001, and in North America on February 12th, 2002. Not to be confused with the Gamecube Game Boy Advance Player, which just allowed you to play Game Boy games through your Gamecube, the Link Cable allowed certain Gamecube games to be played with a GBA, using its screen in tandem with your television! According to Wikipedia, there are just shy of 60 compatible games with the Link Cable, and they all use it slightly differently! Unlocking hidden content or items, minigames, demos, even a few games that require the Link Cable to play them at all! Welcome to Punching Weight, the show that celebrates the weird, ambitious and unnecessary, and we're diggin' through our Gamecube and Game Boy Advance collection to see what kind of secrets are hidden behind the Gamecube Game Boy Advance Link Cable! The Gamecube Link Cable, which I'm gonna be calling it just to simplify things a bit, is a six-foot cable that has a Gamecube controller plug on one end, and a wide, gray piece of plastic that plugs in next to the GBA's charging port on the other. It's got these snazzy purple wings that help you grip the system better when you're playing it, and also remove the cable when you're finished. It's compatible with both the original and SP Game Boy Advance models, and either the Gamecube or the Wii. Many third-party cables exist, but we just happen to have two official Nintendo cables, so that's what we're gonna be using for this video, not that it probably makes any kinda difference. The N64 Rumble Pak and the Game Boy Transfer Pak were bundled with Starfox 64 and Pokémon Stadium, respectively. The Gamecube Link Cable was no different, so since it was bundled with The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords Adventures, let's start with that game! Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is a co-op party game where up to four players control their own Link. Players have to work together to get through familiar puzzle situations, like pushing or lifting heavy objects, or standing on switches. Anyone who's played A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo will immediately understand what's goin' on here. But there's no giant overworld, it's more like Mario with different worlds and levels. The game first made its appearance as an extra game on the GBA port of Link to the Past, however, that version could only be played with other players, never solo. The Gamecube version, however, can be played solo! Though the best experience is with other people. The Gamecube Link Cable functionality is basically this: In each level, players are free to go off on their own. I mean, you're in theory supposed to stick together and work together, but what's the fun in that?! If someone leaves a screen by going in a cave, falling down a hole, swimming under a bridge, instead of changing everyone's view on the TV, that happens on their GBA screen. They essentially leave the TV and continue playing on their GBA! The GBA screen also shows up even when you're playing single player, which is a neat touch! Honestly, Four Swords is a pitch-perfect way to show off the Link Cable's capabilities, plus it's a really neat little Zelda spin-off, and has the distinction of being the first co-op Zelda game! I only wish I had four GBA's and four Link Cables so I could really play this game to its fullest, but ask anyone who's been lucky enough to experience this game to its true four-player mode: It's a sight to behold! Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles was a big deal. It was the first original Final Fantasy game on a Nintendo console since the Super Nintendo, man, everyone I knew was hyped for it! But then I remember seeing that it was a party game similar to Gauntlet Legends, and you had to carry around some kinda bucket? "What?! That ain't Final Fantasy!" said young Derek, along with all his hard-to-please friends. Yep, it's a super shitty attitude, but it's the unfortunate truth. So here I am, many years later, the time has come to finally give this game an honest try. So yes, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is a dungeon crawler action RPG. There are multiple classes, multiple jobs, and this mechanic where you write letters and send packages back to your family, and you need to keep them happy. But the story is that a miasma - basically an evil fog - renders the world uninhabitable without the strength of crystals to push it back. So, in order to explore dungeons, someone needs to be on bucket duty. It's a concept that doesn't really sound that great on paper, and playing solo, I found it kinda boring. Unfortunately, you NEED GBA's and Link Cables to even play two-player, and it's not the best party game, really? It's a lot to take in when you just jump right into it, the menus are a little confusing, but the base game is pretty simple, and a lot of fun with other people! The intended way is for everyone to already have characters and import them into the game from separate memory cards, and I bet that's a lot of fun! It's a pretty good lookin' game for the system, with a striking art style, but requiring the GBA and the Link Cables to play multiplayer probably limited its appeal. But here's another reminder that just because something is different doesn't necessarily mean it's bad! MARIO: "Pac-Man VS!" DEREK: Pac-Man VS. is a separate game bundled with the Player's Choice version of Pac-Man World 2. I was bamboozled into thinking that there was a standard box for it on eBay, and if there is, this ain't it, it's just a cover printed on normal printing paper in a standard DVD case. So I've not ever actually played Pac-Man World 2, but that's not why we're here! Pac-Man VS. is a game where one player plays as Pac-Man, and three people play as ghosts. The gimmick is that the three ghosts can only see a portion of the board, whereas Pac-Man, playing off of the GBA, can see the entire board. It's harder than you'd think to track Pac-Man down, but he paku-pakus a trail of light behind him, and the ghosts can collect the fruit, which widens their field of view so they can spot him easier. If Pac-Man gets caught, the ghost who caught him gets some points, and they swap controllers and get to be Pac-Man next. First to either 7, 10 or 15,000 points wins. Mario gives narrated play-by-play, which is kinda weird until you remember that yeah, this is a Nintendo exclusive... MARIO: "Pac-Man ate the power pellet!" DEREK: There's a wide variety of boards, overall it's an amazing party game with a lot of replayability. While I was playing this, I was thinkin': "Wow, why didn't this come to the WiiU?" and then I remembered Luigi's Ghost Mansion, a minigame in Nintendo Land, is extremely similar! But let's be real here: Luigi's Mansion is great and all, but it don't beat no Pac-Man! Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion; I think this one's pretty well known! By linking the two games together, you can unlock the ability to play the original classic NES Metroid, and once you have a completed game, that snazzy teal-colored Fusion Suit! I thought this was interesting: The look of the Fusion Suit changes color in the game! Here's Fusion Suit Samus at the end of Prime, and here's Fusion Suit Samus at the beginning of Prime. Fun fact: The Fusion Suit unlocks automatically on completion in the Metroid Prime Trilogy version for the Wii, but the original NES Metroid was removed. I mean, why give it away for free when they could charge you 500 Wii Points on the Virtual Console? Now here's the weird part: Neither follow-up, Metroid Zero Mission or Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, have extras linking to the Gamecube. Linking Zero Mission and Fusion via GBA cables unlocked a picture gallery in Zero Mission, but I guess by the time those Metroid games came out, Nintendo was moving on to other things. Like we said at the top, there are dozens of games that use the Gamecube Link Cable, like Animal Crossing, Phantasy Star Online, Mario Golf, Fire Emblem, lots of Pokémon games... Maybe one of these days I'll figure out what the hell that Tingle Tracker thing in Wind Waker is, and finally see what them Sonic Adventure Chaos are all about. So many games, never enough time! And this is just one of many fascinating Nintendo peripherals! We could talk for hours about this stuff! Well hey, let's wrap this up: If you have any weird, ambitious or unnecessary games or peripherals you'd like to see on Punching Weight, let us know in the comments below, or hey! If you'd like to donate anything, we've got a PO box! We will gladly take your weird video game stuff off your hands! Stop Skeletons From Fighting is a Patreon-supported show, and is made possible with every one of the radical people here! If you would like to join their ranks, click the Patreon logo and pledge what you can! Be sure to check out our other videos and the Punching Weight playlist, thank you so much for watching, stay powerful!
