I see what went wrong now; I accidentally edited the existing poll instead of resetting it.

I think I have fixed it; can you guys try and let me know if it's working now?

Yeah, working now

Okay good.
Given I messed up the poll, (my bad, sorry) I'll also reset the 48 hours of voting so that it starts now.
May the best game win!

Yes the dial-up available to most Americans back in that era was fantastic for a first person shooter. 

Couch co-op was popular for a reason.  There is an element added with couch co-op that is hard to pin down but is so much more fun than voice chat. Yes split screen is inferior to each person having their own screen.  It is also a fraction of the equipment cost.  1 Gaming unit, 1 TV, 1 copy of the game, 4controllers = a cheap good time. High end graphics are great but consoles delver an experience that is cheap enough to be attainable by the masses.

I very much miss the 90s and having a dark living room full of people while playing though Resident Evil.  Having that chick scoot a little closer to you after the whole room jumped when the dogs burst through the windows for the first time.  Trash talk and smiles as you get eliminated by Odd Job because someone wasn't secure enough in their skills and went for the character with an advantage. Screen watching and waiting for your buddy to take the lead from the NPC so you can launch your blue shell.

rapsuperstar31 (wow really that's your name) is correct.  Shitty information infrastructure of the day combined with the added allure of the couch co-op experience is exactly why people were willing to frequently haul around and set up all that shit to make a lan party happen.  Some games I'm fine playing alone but some games are just better with friends.

Had a very busy day yesterday so missed the deadline here, but time's up and VGC's pick for the best second party Nintendo game is...

A very close second place goes to Banjo Kazooie.

Telling that both games are from Rare; even all these years later their golden age remains legendary.

Thanks to all who participated; hope this was a fun exercise.

Rare, back in the day, was the best developer on the planet. Goldeneye, Banjo, Gemini, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing, Conker, Blast Corps, etc. A shame to see how far they have fallen.

Damn straight. The Donkey Kong Country trilogy on SNES was amazing too.

Their 1994-2001 streak of awesomeness, with banger after banger releasing less than a year apart like a machine gun firing gold bullets, is arguably something no other dev has ever topped, and given how much longer games take to make now, it may never be topped.

And yeah, sucks that they went to shit after the N64.

Ähm... why are Banjoo and GoldenEye called "2nd" party games again?

Because they were not owned by Nintendo (at least not majority stake), so, in the nutshell, they were 3rd party developer that made games exclusively for certain platform holder (very definition of 2nd party developer, IIRC).

Not even sure if a uniform definition exists at all.

But IF

a game is developed, based on an IP the platform holder owns, by the platform holder itself, equals 1st party

AND IF

a game is developed based on an IP that is not property of the platform holder, by a company that is not owned by the platform holder either, equals 3rd party

THEN

2nd party would be something along the lines of

• a platform holder uses an IP which is not theirs (3rd party IP) to develop a game
• a company that is not owned by the platform holder uses an IP of said platform holder (1st party IP) to develop a game

Funding a game based on a 3rd party IP also feels like a 2nd party game, as rights to that game are split.

Maybe

1st party = all rights belong to the platform holder

3rd party = none of the rights belong to the platform holder

2nd party = 1st party and 3rd party share their rights for a game.