How to keep your Gamecube warm...

With the release of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess still far from imminent, many GameCube owners whose boats aren't floated by Mario Party have been left wondering what to do with their handled fun-box. So here at GamesRadar we've compiled a few suggestions for what to do with your existing games collection and a little imagination.

Get four GBAs and three friends

As Microsoft and Sony were beating their respective chests about the wonders of competing with other gamers online, Nintendo was sending out a much more cuddly message: playing co-op games with people sat in the same room as you: laughing, joking and basically not hating on one another.

The only problem was that the two games that best lent themselves to this required you to not only have three friends (tricky), but three friends with Game Boy Advances and the same game(never going to happen).

The unlikelihood of these conditions being met meant that the true potential of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was only experienced by a criminally small number of gamers.

Four Swords plays like a thinking elf's Gauntlet that requires plenty of teamwork, but also leaves plenty of room for needless in-fighting and spitefultreasure-hoarding. The ability to pick each other up and hurl one another is obviously there to help you negotiate various chasms, yet is so much more satisfying when used on a childish whimthat ends up withanother Link getting hurt.

Crystal Chronicles, on the other hand, is a careful examination of cooperationbecause the four members of the freaky-haired group have to stay under a protective forcefield at all times. ImagineP. Diddy's entire possetrying to keep dry under one umbrella and you're almost there.

Anyway, back to the point- now's the time to play these games. There's not much coming out for GameCube at the moment which means there are many Nintendo gamers out there looking for company. Just cruise around the streets at night and you're sure to round up enough to play Four Swords. Just go out there and make the dream a reality.