Rank Nintendo's systems by third party library

[The_Liquid_Laser]

NES is objectively the right answer.  It had all of the third party support.  SMS got shut out of support.  Hell, Atari technically had a competing system and was still releasing games on the NES via Tengen.  NES really had all of the games.  SNES had good games, but it split third party support with the Genesis with TG16 getting a bit as well.  Anyway, it's all a matter of taste, and most people didn't really experience the NES era.  Here is my list with some of my favorite third party games:

1. NES (Ultima 4, Mega Man 2, Castlevania 1&3, Blaster Master, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest 1&2, Duck Tales, Life Force, Contra, Double Dragon 2, Gauntlet, TMNT2, Bionic Commando, Ninja Gaiden 1&2)
2. Switch (Puyo Puyo Tetris, Octopath Traveler, DQ Builders, Axiom Verge, Untitled Goose Game, Wargroove, Cuphead)
3. SNES (Final Fantasy 4&6, Actraiser, Super Castlevania 4, Turtles in Time)
4. Wii (mostly Virtual Console, and some ok 3rd party titles)
5. Wii U (Minecraft)
6. Gamecube (basically nothing)

Handheld rankings are a little harder, because my #1 & #2 are close:

1. Switch (see above)
2. GBA (Astroy Boy, FF Tactics Advance, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, lots of great ports)
3. DS (Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Plants vs Zombies)
4. 3DS (Theatrhythm FF)

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 27 April 2020