Which Nintendo console had the best launch lineup?

[DevilRising]

Well, you have to frame this better if you're going to bother asking that kind of question:

1. The NES had far more than just SMB and Duck Hunt at launch. It also had classics like Excite Bike, Kung Fu, Ice Climber, and Wild Gunman.

Super Mario Bros. was, of course, THE highlight of that lineup, and arguably the single most impactful, important, and awesome console launch title of all time. It redefined, in may ways, what gaming could be, certainly established many game design conventions that would continue on through today. Plus it single handedly helped make the NES THE game console of the mid-to-late 80s. The NES became so popular that it survived til the end of 1994, even though the SNES launched in 1991, in large part thanks to SMB1.


2. Yup. The SNES had SMB4/World, a great Sim City port, a great Gradius III port, and F-Zero and Pilotwings to round things out. I don't know about the BEST, but certainly one of the strongest.

3. N64 had Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, two very good games, Mario 64 once again being a game changer much like SMB1 was. But those were the only two games at launch. There were other games to follow in the remaining months of the year, but it felt like slow trickle for awhile. As such, given that it only launch with those two games, I would have to say this was one of the weaker launch lineups, not just for Nintendo, but in gaming history.

4. Listing only Luigi's Mansion for GC launch is incredibly misleading. While it was certainly missing a "killer ap" title at launch like Mario 64, GC absolutely had a better launch. Along with LM, it also had a great Wave Race sequel, an exclusive Super Monkey Ball port, a good Crazy Taxi port, and most importantly, Rogue Squadron II, which was one of the best looking (and playing) games of the entire gen. Again I'd hardly say this was the BEST, but certainly better than N64's launch, at least for variety.

5. Wii had nice variety at launch. Zelda, Wii Sports, Raving Rabbids, Red Steel (ambitious but flawed), SMB: Banana Blitz, and a really solid game that often gets overlooked, Excite Truck, which resurrected the Excite racing franchise.

6. NSMBU, Nintendo Land, Rabbids Land, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Zombi U. NSMB would have had more impact, honestly, if Nintendo hadn't made the stupid decision to release NSMB2 on 3DS just a couple months prior. Bad move, as it felt like the franchise was over-saturating the market, and made people care less about what was otherwise a good launch title. I will also note, that it's ironic that people initially acted excited that after Wii not getting many of those franchises, that Wii U at launch finally got ports of many of those games. But then in retrospect, people pass it off as "just a bunch of PS360 ports"...as if there was anything else to compare it to at the time.



Overall, personally, while I think the NES is the best console of all time (unless we're talking rpgs), I would have to give the edge to the SNES, as it had a bit of everything: A new Mario, a racing game, a shooter, a world building strategy game, and an "extreme sports" title (kinda).