Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A2. Funnily enough, they are still GBA and NDS exclusives after all these years.

Zak & Wiki for the Wii. Exclusive, built entirely around the Wiimote, had a bunch of staples of Nintendo charm like vibrant and colorful characters in a time where the rest of the industry was leaning toward more realistic graphics and edge, character grunts with no voice acting*, and family friendly humor.

I'm also throwing Okami in too. The best Zelda game on the Wii, and this is coming from someone who really enjoyed Twilight Princess and didn't hate Skyward Sword as much as others. Not an exclusive, but the Wii version really gave the game an extra dimension with pointer and motion controls that no other version has been able to accomplish before or after it. I really wanted a Wii-exclusive sequel that further improved upon them and allowed you to use brush techniques in real time.

*EDIT: I meant no voiced lines of dialogue. Character grunts and oral expressions of reactions and emotions are still voice acting, and I don't want to minimize any voice actor's hard work.

Mina, Celeste, Snipperclips, among many other indies have that Nintendo quality that so many devs try to replicate but always come short of. I guess it’s just the simple “gameplay first, polish next, and then everything else second” design philosophy that really makes these games stand out? Not sure.

Also: Any Rare game from the 90s, Grezzo, NextLevel, Good Feel, and Mercury game from the Wii U/3DS/Switch generations… though I feel like that’s more because Nintendo allowed these partner studios to use classic IP e.g. Zelda and DK. Same can be said about Platinum Games’ Bayo and Astral Chain, but instead because they are exclusive to Nintendo systems.

Layton is banging

Playing BAKERU right now. I swear it feels like something the Kirby team made.

Great pick. Bakeru is amazing. And it definitely has Nintendo vibes.

Death's Door
Journey to the Savage Planet
Timesplitters 1 & 2

2D Castlevania, Contra, Mega Man, 2D FF, Tetris, 2D Ninja Gaiden... man. Now that I think about it, NES was basically a 2D PS2. Even the SNES couldn't compare with their first home console when it came to third-party dominance.

Yeah Rare's non-Nintendo published titles like Perfect Dark and Conker, (in spite of the latter's content lmao) felt like de facto first party titles to me also, same with Turok.

The two de Blob games on Wii also felt very "Nintendo".

Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie on the consoles
Professor Layton and Ace Attorney on the handhelds
And, of course, my beloved 'Henry Hatworth in the Puzzling Adventure'