I had two link cables, and my friend and his brother had one, so we always did multiplayer. Some of my best childhood memories right there. It was a blast during multiplayer: fighting over drops, coordinating menus, shouting out catchphrases for combo attacks. Ring of Fates was a good game, but I remember being ridiculously disappointed by it. Echoes of Time was a bit better. I didn't even bother with the Wii game or the kingdom ones. I wish it'd get a proper sequel (or hell, even just a remake) on the 3DS.

I actually started a new game up the other day on my old Wii, funny enough. Lost my GBA though, so I ordered one off of LukieGames and I'm waiting on it to continue (dem bonus points).

It actually wouldn't be too expensive to get all the stuff together now (the game's like $15, used GBAs are like $25 each, and the cables are like 10$ each). Assuming you already have a Gamecube/Wii and the game, it'd be about $35-40 a person. Not exactly cheap for a 10 year old game, but you'd get more out of it than a lot of $60 titles nowadays, I'm sure.