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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Which Nintendo console had the best first party lineup?

 

I think the best is...

NES 9 15.00%
 
Super NES 21 35.00%
 
Nintendo 64 11 18.33%
 
Gamecube 8 13.33%
 
Wii 9 15.00%
 
Wii U 2 3.33%
 
Total:60

Wii for me as it had the best Mario, Zelda, Smash and Mario Kart versions upon release.
Also had new refreshing titles like the Wii series.

Switch versions have topped those versions though.(WiiU as well for Zelda and MK)



tag:"reviews only matter for the real hardcore gamer"

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If we discount Rare as a second rather than first party developer than I gotta go with the Wii.

It had two of the best games ever made in Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, two great Zelda entries in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, Xenoblade Chronicles which combined accessible yet deep RPG gameplay with an unforgettable world and story, one of my top 2D platformers of all time in Donkey Kong Country Returns, one of the most purely fun couch multiplayer games I've ever played in Mario Kart Wii, some of the mind-blowing next-gen experiences I've ever had in Wii sports/Resort, and a wondrously immersive adventure in Metroid Prime 3.



GameCube had Two original zeldas, an open-world Mario, a debut Luigi, a debut pikmin, waverace, 2 original Metroids, plus a GB Advance adapter.



theRepublic said:
curl-6 said:

I feel I should talk this out with those who may know better than me, because this would affect my vote greatly; were Rare's games on SNES and N64 first or second party?

I feel like the answer is pretty complicated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_developer#Second-party_developer

They would technically be considered a second party developer, but Nintendo also owned 49% of them.  That is as close as you can get to 1st party without being first party.  If you exclude Battletoads and the arcade version of Killer Instinct, they exclusively made games for Nintendo consoles from 1994 to 2002.  Developers like HAL Laboratory would also be second party. 

The more I look at it, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to exclude second party games published by Nintendo.  You would have to exclude the Donkey Kong Country games, Earthbound, all the Kirby games, Super Mario RPG, all the Fire Emblem games, and others on SNES.  On N64, there are the Banjo games, Blast Corps, Donkey Kong 64, Goldeneye, Kirby 64, Mario Golf, all the Mario Party games, Mario Tennis, Paper Mario, Pokemon Snap, Sin and Punishment, and Smash Bros, among others.  I didn't even look at any of the other consoles, but I bet it is the same there.

For me, I think it would just be easiest and best to just look at everything published by Nintendo for each console.

I agree with this. It's really difficult sometimes so if we go with everything Nintendo publsished then we would get a better picture, I guess. Think about Star Fox Assault or F-Zero GX from the Gamecube, what are they? They're obviously Nintendo games but they had been developed by Namco and Sega respectively while Nintendo did the publishing.



I can find great games on all of these systems, but I did vote for GameCube. Actually would say Switch is my favorite, but since it is not listed (understandable because the lineup is still growing), I went with GCN.

GCN has my favorite Paper Mario and Metroid games (TTYD & Prime 1). Excluding Switch entries, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Double Dash and Melee are some of my favorites from their series. Also gotta give a shout out to Colosseum & XD. Though I don't like Sunshine as much as other 3D Mario games, it was still a solid entry.



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I ultimately decided on GameCube, but Wii is a close second.
Here's why I went with GameCube

Luigi's Mansion: So short, but I love it so much that I have played through it multiple times.
Super Smash Bros. Melee: I actually prefer Brawl very slightly, but Melee is amazing too.
Animal Crossing: An excellent game, and the first AC I played. It's better than Wild World and City Folk, but weaker than New Leaf and New Horizons.
Super Mario Sunshine: An amazing game
Mario Kart: Double Dash: One of my favorite Mario Kart games
Paper Mario TTYD: One of my favorite RPGs
Chibi-Robo: A fantastic game
Mario Party titles: 6 is probably my favorite Mario Party ever
Mario sports titles

Wii certainly comes close though, especially because it has three Mario platformers and a great game like Xenoblade Chronicles



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 151 million (was 73, then 96, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million)

PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 57 million (was 60 million, then 67 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

Torpoleon said:

Actually would say Switch is my favorite, but since it is not listed (understandable because the lineup is still growing)

Yeah maybe we can do a round 2 at the end of the Switch's life, I didn't think it was fair to include it while it's still a work in progress.

So far, for my personal tastes, I feel like Switch is above GCN and NES but still behind Wii U, SNES, N64, and Wii. Mario Odyssey and BOTW are incredible, and Splatoon 2 and Xenoblade 2 are very good too, but a lot of their published releases this gen are outsourced or recycled from previous systems. Still, they may yet have 2-3 years left to grow.

Last edited by curl-6 - on 03 July 2021

Wman1996 said:

I ultimately decided on GameCube, but Wii is a close second.
Here's why I went with GameCube

Luigi's Mansion: So short, but I love it so much that I have played through it multiple times.
Super Smash Bros. Melee: I actually prefer Brawl very slightly, but Melee is amazing too.
Animal Crossing: An excellent game, and the first AC I played. It's better than Wild World and City Folk, but weaker than New Leaf and New Horizons.
Super Mario Sunshine: An amazing game
Mario Kart: Double Dash: One of my favorite Mario Kart games
Paper Mario TTYD: One of my favorite RPGs
Chibi-Robo: A fantastic game
Mario Party titles: 6 is probably my favorite Mario Party ever
Mario sports titles

Wii certainly comes close though, especially because it has three Mario platformers and a great game like Xenoblade Chronicles

Doesn't the Wii play all those games anyway? Plus it's own library?



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

@Pemalite To be fair, the point of this thread is to look at each system's own lineup of games, otherwise I would have picked the Wii myself.



Torpoleon said:

@Pemalite To be fair, the point of this thread is to look at each system's own lineup of games, otherwise I would have picked the Wii myself.

Exactly. That would be like giving the Wii U your vote because of the combined Wii and Wii U first-party games you can play on it.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 151 million (was 73, then 96, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million)

PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 57 million (was 60 million, then 67 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima