The GameCube Games Worth the Most Money Today

The GameCube may have finished behind the PlayStation 2 and Xbox during the sixth-generation console wars, but it has become one of the most beloved retro systems of the early 2000s. Its compact mini-DVD format, distinct library, and lineup of unforgettable exclusives helped give the console a lasting collector appeal.

CheatCC looks at the GameCube games worth the most money today. While first-party classics like Super Smash Bros. Melee, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and Super Mario Sunshine remain fan favorites, some of the system’s rarest and most valuable games come from smaller releases, limited print runs, and titles that became harder to find over time.

• Release Date — October 17, 2005
• Developer — Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Price (Loose) — $159.89
• Price (CIB) — $213.94
• Price (Sealed/New) — $376.07

The Fire Emblem series never really gained much footing in the West until Fire Emblem: Awakening arrived for the 3DS, which meant that earlier entries were typically subject to smaller North American print runs. In turn, that made obtaining copies of the game pretty hard after a time, which is certainly the case for Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Path of Radiance is a great mainline entry in the series that deserves the value attached to it now, even though most of its exorbitant cost can be attributed to its limited availability. That even just a loose disc copy of Path of Radiance can cost up to about $160 is almost hard to believe, and a sealed copy can easily go for $350 or more.

• Release Date — October 30, 2002
• Developer — Sonic Team
• Publisher — Sega
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)
• Price (Loose) — $210.87
• Price (CIB) — $210.93
• Price (Sealed/New) — $965.99

From one great GameCube RPG to another, the next game in the system's library to fetch an insane price on the secondary market is Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus. This 2002 release came about during a time when Sega, having just shut down its hardware manufacturing division after the dual commercial flops of the Saturn and the Dreamcast, began focusing on putting out software, with the Nintendo GameCube being one of its primary customers thanks to how similar its architecture was to the Dreamcast.

As such, several great Dreamcast games got GameCube ports, and the untested validity of Sega's publishing division meant the company played it safe with print runs of some of the titles, driving up their prices in the years since their launch. A sealed copy of Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II Plus will run you about $1,000, and that's without the servers even being live anymore.

• Release Date — March 24, 2003
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 96% (Universal Acclaim)
• Price (Loose) — $218.83
• Price (CIB) — $219.58
• Price (Sealed/New) — $941.43

After promises of a darker, more mature Zelda game at the GameCube's unveiling gave way to the bright and cartoonish Wind Waker as the system's franchise debut, fans were understandably upset, but Nintendo helped to soften the blow with one of the best pre-order bonuses ever devised. Those who purchased their copies of Wind Waker in advance were treated to an included bonus disc that had both Ocarina of Time (in its first ever port), along with the previously unreleased "Master Quest" version of the game that had been intended for the cancelled Nintendo 64DD. Today, even a loose copy of Wind Waker + Ocarina of Time (not to be confused with the Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition disc) can net upwards of $200, and a still-sealed, new copy goes for almost $1,000.

• Release Date — December 5, 2003
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Review Aggregate Score — 56% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $238.80
• Price (CIB) — $424.08
• Price (Sealed/New) — $750.00

Capcom had a bunch of strange and experimental games on the GameCube, but Gotcha Force has got to be one of the strangest. At its core, Gotcha Force is a third-person shooter (familiar territory for Capcom, to be sure), but it also centered around collecting various gacha (toys from Japanese gashapon vending machines) and battling with them. Crazy to think that Capcom had the idea for a Gacha game decades before the genre became insanely popular thanks to titles like Genshin Impact. Gotcha Force was mostly critically panned at the time of its release and relegated to the bargain bins of game stores, but today it can fetch as much as $400 for a complete-in-box copy.

• Release Date — November 5, 2002
• Developer — Saru Brunai, Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo, Atlus
• Review Aggregate Score — 71% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $289.65
• Price (CIB) — $484.17
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,404.00

Another outlier in the GameCube library that has since taken on cult status as one of the system's more sought-after games is Cubivore, a curious blend of action-adventure and simulation that came to players from a collaboration between Fire Emblem developer Intelligent Systems, Nintendo, and Atlus. Interestingly, Cubivore is yet another GameCube game that was originally developed as a title for the doomed Nintendo 64DD peripheral, and its unique gameplay certainly didn't endear it to a mainstream audience, resulting in it having a fairly small print run. Thanks to its rarity, and its unique place within the system's library, Cubivore can net almost $1,500 on the secondary market for a brand-new, sealed copy.

• Release Date — November 25, 2005
• Developer — Nintendo EAD, Retro Studios
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 97% (Metroid Prime); 96% (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker)
• Price (Loose) — $300.00
• Price (CIB) — $625.00
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,467.70

Interestingly enough, it's not single games in the GameCube library that ended up becoming the most valuable titles on the system, but instead the incredibly limited "2-pack" compilations that became increasingly common in the platform's later years. As part of a 2005 holiday season promotion, Nintendo released a special 2-pack containing two of the system's (and the era's) best games with both Metroid Prime and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker in a single package. But while you may have been able to get both games for a reasonable $50 21 years ago, today this collection will cost you a lot more. A sealed copy is predictably expensive at roughly $1,500, but even an open complete-in-box copy can regularly sell for over $600.

• Release Date — November 25, 2002
• Developer — Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka, Polygon Magic
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 37% (Generally Unfavorable)
• Price (Loose) — $349.99
• Price (CIB) — $1,045.34
• Price (Sealed/New) — $2,999.99

Now we're getting into the major leagues. And it's for a game that's not even good. One of the GameCube's many third-party launch titles was a licensed sports game from Konami featuring Disney characters, and thanks to licensing issues, Disney Sports Basketball became hard-to-find and incredibly rare even when the console was still active. Just the loose disc of Disney Sports Basketball is worth around $350, but that price pales in comparison to what a complete-in-box or sealed copy goes for. Expect to spend upwards of $3,000 for a still-sealed, new copy of Disney Sports Basketball; one that you'll hopefully leave sealed, because the game itself definitely isn't worth playing.

• Release Date — March 22, 2004
• Developer — Genius Sonority
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 73% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $788.57
• Price (CIB) — $948.00
• Price (Sealed/New) — $2,749.00

Similar to the high cost of the original pre-order versions of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the initial pre-order versions of Pokemon Colosseum are significantly more expensive than just your average copy of this GameCube classic, netting upwards of $800 for just a loose disc without any case or manual. The reason for its value? The North American pre-order versions of Pokemon Colosseum came with a special bonus disc that allowed players to obtain a special and unique Pokemon (Jirachi) in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire via the use of a Game Boy Advance link cable. Otherwise, it's the same version of Pokemon Colosseum that you can find for much less, though even that version is still around $180 for a complete-in-box copy.

• Release Date — July 12, 2004
• Developer — Game Freak
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 50% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $1,721.24
• Price (CIB) — $2,409.73
• Price (Sealed/New) — $5,499.00

One of the GameCube's most unique and hard-to-find oddities is the Pokemon Box, which is less of a game and more of an early proof-of-concept for the Pokemon Home app long before smartphones and apps were even a thing. Essentially, Pokemon Box allowed players to link a Game Boy Advance to their GameCube (via a GBA link cable, of course) and store Pokemon for breeding and trading, as well as carrying that data over to a friend conveniently on a small GameCube memory card. There's not much actual gameplay, but it is an incredibly hard-to-find piece of Pokemon paraphernalia that's worth an astonishing amount of money, to the tune of roughly $5,500 for a sealed copy.

• Release Date — December 8, 2005
• Developer — Sonic Team
• Publisher — Sega
• Review Aggregate Score — 72% (Sonic Heroes); 89% (Super Monkey Ball)
• Price (Loose) — $1,760.42
• Price (CIB) — $3,237.50
• Price (Sealed/New) — $3,850.00

While it doesn't net nearly as much as Pokemon Box for a sealed copy, the technically most expensive game in the GameCube library, based purely on the cost for a loose or a complete-in-box copy, is Sonic Heroes & Super Monkey Ball Duo Pack. This is yet another of the GameCube's "2-pack" compilations released in 2005 as part of a holiday promotion, and that limited print run of the physical discs is a large part of why it remains one of the most expensive games on Nintendo's 6th-gen console. It doesn't hurt that both Sonic Heroes and Super Monkey Ball are great GameCube classics that are practically essentials in the system's library. Whether looking for a new, sealed copy or one that's been opened and pre-loved but still has the case and manual, expect to spend over $3,000.