Unleash the Horde
- NA release: 16th December 2003
- EU release: 16th July 2004
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Jaleco Entertainment
- Publisher: Jaleco Entertainment
- NGC Magazine Score: 72%
- Mods Used: Widescreen Hack
A real time strategy game made specifically for consoles. I’ve played N64 conversions of both Command & Conquer and Starcraft, and Nintendo made their own unique take on their genre with the wonderful Pikmin. Jaleco Entertainment wanted to do a more traditional RTS game but seemingly didn’t think that console users could cope with it, so they decided to dumb it down. A lot.
The core gameplay is the same. You use a cursor to direct troops, uncovering the map as it’s hidden by a fog of war, buying troops and other things with resources you gather. It’s just that each aspect of this is scaled back. At the start, you only have one group of 10 units at your disposal. These move as one, and generating new troops will send them to join the rest. So when you’ve issued a command, you have no other tasks you can be doing. Over the course of the campaign, you can eventually get three groups of 10 units each.
Your troops are also in charge of gathering resources, either by smashing rocks or killing enemies. There are some “soul wells” which generate points for new units, but once you’ve reached it, it will just do everything automatically. You can get some turrets and a large golem (which you have to control directly, no issuing commands), but there really isn’t much to it, and really isn’t enough to engage you with how long each mission takes.
You can take direct control of any unit, but the controls and camera are pretty bad. There’s not really any precision that makes doing it more effective than letting the CPU sort them out. This really simplifies the genre far too much.
Fine
In the world of Warcraft and Cossacks, Goblin Commander might seem as light an insubstantial as sitting down to a meal of air, but we don’t live in that PC-dominated world and RTS games are in short supply on GameCube.
Alex Cooke
Remake or remaster?
A re-release with a better camera, draw distance and a few more QoL features.
Official Ways to get the game
There is no official way to get Goblin Commander.
Europe
Japan
North America
GameCube Games by Date
2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
