Salnax 1 day ago
Strong Candidates:
- Xevious (NES) - Easy to overlook nowadays, but the success of Xevious in Japan led to the Famicom actually selling reasonable numbers in Japan, along with attracting lots of third party support for possibly the first time for a Japanese game console. The Famicom started with a couple of Nintendo arcade ports and reached the big leagues with Super Mario Bros, but Xevious was what bridged that gap.
- Dragon Quest I/II/III (NES) - Made Nintendo the home of the most popular genre in Japan for a decade.
- Street Fighter II (SNES) - Adding up the various SF2 versions on SNES, the game sold over 12 million copies, an attach rate of roughly 1 in 4 SNES owners. This was what kept the Genesis from completely defeating the SNES in America during the window of 1992 to 1994.
- Just Dance 2/3/onwards (Wii) - In the Wi's latter days, as well as during the Wii U's lifespan, it was the Just Dance series that kept casual Wii owners playing every so often. Just Dance 3 was the best-selling Wii game released after NSMB Wii, and according to old VGChartz estimates, new entries sold at least a million each year until the Switch era.
- Monster Hunter 4 (3DS) - This was the game that killed PlayStation's handhelds, albeit indirectly.
