Rank Nintendo's systems by third party library

[The_Liquid_Laser]

spurgeonryan said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

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)

Wii was full to the brim of 3rd party games, same with DS. I have been trying to buy every crazy third party game for the DS for years and just have a pile of games that just never ends.

Now if you are going good games, then the Switch. They have a healthy line up. I just saw that they have Turok and Turok 2 as well which never would have happened in the past.

Wii and DS definitely had lots of third party games, but then again, so did their competitors.  NES had ALL the third party games.  Sega and Atari were basically shut out.  NES was more comparable to the PS2.  Go back to Generation 6 and look at the % of third party games that had a PS2 release.  Now make XBox and Gamecube lose every third party game that was also on PS2.  That is NES third party library.  It basically had all the games that were available, and the competitors had nothing.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 02 May 2020