Every Nintendo Console Ranked By Their Launch Lineups
Not counting the Game Boy Color, since it was more like a hand-step with not many games to even speak of at launch or exclusive in general, Nintendo has made twelve dedicated console and handheld systems. The company has been going strong for over a hundred years now with almost forty years of that being dedicated to video games.
They aren’t going away any time soon and will continue to help shape the future of this industry. In terms of launch lineups, how have they done? Sometimes only one game is needed for victory so everything from quality to size will be taken into consideration for these rankings.
12 Virtual Boy
The Virtual Boy launched with four games on August 14, 1995 in North America. These titles include Galactic Pinball, Mario's Tennis, Red Alarm, and Teleroboxer. The system itself didn’t have more than twenty titles over its lifespan which was less than a year. Between them and this lineup, the system is a hard pass.
11 DS
The DS launched with six games on November 21, 2004 in North America. The only real game of note is the Super Mario 64 port, but even back then it wasn’t much to write home about. The DS would go on to have an impressive library, but out the gate choices were minimal and poor.
10 3DS
The 3DS launched with eighteen games on March 27, 2011 in North America. It also didn’t have a great start like the DS. The exorbitant price of $250 and no killer app made it a pass for the first few months.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars was an undersung tactical RPG, Super Street Fighter IV looked good in 3D, and Pilotwings Resort was okay to mess around with, but not a real system seller. It became a better deal a few months later when it dropped to $180.
9 Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance launched with seventeen games on June 11, 2001 in North America. Some notable titles include Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, and Super Mario Advance, which was a port of the second game. Those three are good games, but the hardware itself made the system a hard sell thanks to no backlit screen. Playing Circle of the Moon, for example, was almost impossible.
8 NES
There is no solid, exact date for the NES’ launch, but most sources seem to point out that it falls around October in 1985. It came packed in with Super Mario Bros. and had sixteen other titles to choose on the side. That was the standout title, though there is still some nostalgia for Excitebike and Duck Hunt. Super Mario Bros. was a game changer for the video game market and should be respected even though it is not as tight as future Mario titles.
7 GameCube
The GameCube launched with twelve games on November 18, 2001 in North America. There are some real forgettable titles in there, but among the best are Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, and even Super Monkey Ball. Luigi’s Mansion gets a bad rap for not being a proper Mario title at launch but it was, and still is, a good launch game.
6 Wii
The Wii launched with twenty-one games on November 19, 2006 in North America. It came packed in with Wii Sports which was critical to its success. Besides that, some other notable ones include The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and even Trauma Center: Second Opinion. All it really needed though was Wii Sports to show off its motion capabilities.
5 Wii U
The Wii U launched with thirty-four games on November 18, 2012 in North America. It came packed in with Nintendo Land. Besides that, some other notable ones include New Super Mario Bros. U and ZombiU.
It also had a lot of notable ports of good games that were maybe too little too late including Batman: Arkham City and Mass Effect 3. Know what they say. If one hasn’t played it, then it is new. So, for a Nintendo audience, maybe Batman and these other ports were a revelation.
4 Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 launched with two games on September 29, 1996 in North America. Those were Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. Super Mario 64, of course, was an instant classic. It redefined platformers in a new space. Pilotwings 64 wasn’t as groundbreaking and it would be a long time before anything else really killer would come out for the system.
3 Game Boy
The Game Boy launched with five games on July 31, 1989 in North America. It came packed in with Tetris and the other titles on the side included Alleyway, Baseball, Super Mario Land, and Tennis. Among those extras, Super Mario Land was strong as was the pack-in of Tetris. That game in particular reached an older crowd of parents. Tetris was, and still is, addicting.
2 Super Nintendo
The Super Nintendo also launched with five games on August 23, 1991 in North America. It came packed in with Super Mario World. Besides that, the other titles include SimCity, Pilotwings, Gradius III, and F-Zero. All of these extras were, and still are good games, but compared to Super Mario World, they are but specks of dust in the SNES’ library. This game is often contested as one of the best Mario games ever made, if not the best.
1 Switch
The Nintendo Switch also launched with five games on March 3, 2017 in North America. These titles include 1-2 Switch, Just Dance 2017, Skylanders Imaginators, Super Bomberman R, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s hard to put into words just how explosive the Switch’s debut was because of Zelda. It didn’t come packed in, but a Zelda game being available at launch, for the first time since Twilight Princess, was a huge deal. The new, open-world nature also helped.
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