Best first year for a Nintendo console (pre-Switch)

[Salnax]

Focusing on the first years in just Japan:

1. NS: The actual launch day was largely underwhelming, but between Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon 2, and many other classics, there was something for everyone this first year.
2. GC: An amazing first 3 or 4 months, but it petered out a bit in the second half of the year. Still, a large portion of the GameCube's greatest hits came out in this era.
3. Wii: Wii Sports, WarioWare, and Twilight Princess at launch started strong, and although there were the ocassional gaps in 2007, you still had Super Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem, Super Paper Mario, Resident Evil 4, Mario Party 8, Mario Strikers, Resident Evil Chronicles, Wii Fit, Mario & Sonic, and some popular Naruto and DBZ fighters.
4. SNES: Not only do you have Nintendo classics like Super Mario World, F-Zero, and arguably Link to the Past (it released exactly one year after launch), you had big third party hits like Actraiser, Final Fight, Super Ghouls n Ghosts, Mystical Ninja, and Final Fantasy IV. Problem is, a lot of the support was still on older hardware at this point. In 1991, Nintendo was also supporting NES, Game Boy, and even Game & Watch.
5. Wii U: This one is weird. It is not considered an amazing lineup, but you had a large library at launch, two Super Mario games, Pikmin, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Wind Waker HD, and Wii Party U.
6. N64: An anemic early lineup, with months-long gaps between releases at points. At least you had the twin colossi of Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64, along with Star Fox.
7. NES: Only 16 games were released on the Famicom its first year on the market, with literally no third party support. When people talk about the best NES games, they usually aren't referring to Donkey Kong ports, Mahjong, Golf, and Baseball.