Since a lot of people go on about Nintendo "abandoning the core", and not giving "core titles" to the masses, I decided to check how many big titles Nintendo released during the first 2 years of N64, GC and Wii respectively. Now, all these titles may not be seen as "core", to most of you, but I just took the titles I think are the biggest to Nintendo. Or atleast relatively big in the whole sense of the thing. Of course, it's a bit harder to specify with N64 and GC since the consoles themselves didn't have a universal release date, but I did my best. Enjoy:

Nintendo 64

Super Mario 64
Pilotwings 64
Wave Race 64
Mario Kart 64
GoldenEye 007
Star Fox 64
Banjo-Kazooie
F-Zero X

Diddy Kong Racing

Yoshi's Story

-- 10 titles

Nintendo Gamecube

Luigi's Mansion
Pikmin
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Wave Race: Blue Storm
Animal Crossing
Mario Party 4
Metroid Prime
Star Fox Adventures
Super Mario Sunshine
F-Zero GX
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Mario Party 5

-- 12 titles

Nintendo Wii

Wii Sports
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Paper Mario
Mario Party 8
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mario Kart Wii
Wario Land: Shake It!

-- 10 titles

I personally think this shows that people have merely made up the whole "Nintendo abandoning the core"-debacle, probably because they don't like Wii Fit, or something like that. Considering that Nintendo will continue releasing a lot more core titles to us on the Wii, I think people should get an eyeopener and stop being so critical about it. Now, third-parties on the Wii? That's another story...

1. Even if you count Twilight Princess only for the Wii, it's still a bit unfair
2. Where's Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Wario World for Gamecube ?
3. Where's Killer Instinct 2, 1080° Snowboarding, Yoshi's Story and Diddy Kong Racing for N64 ?

As I said, it's harder with these platforms considering they didn't have synchronized console (or game) releases, but I did my best to draw a pretty fair line considering the release date they had in every region. I didn't count Killer Instinct 2, 1080 Snowboarding because I didn't think they were significant enough, MK Double Dash and Wario World didn't make the cut because of aforementioned reasons, Yoshi's Story seems to have been an oversight of mine, and Diddy Kong Racing as well. I'll add them to the list.

If you're doing what I think you're doing, then I think Mario Party games should be scratched off the list. From what I have drawn from forum-goers here is that Mario Party is part of the problem, not the solution. Also Killer Instinct Gold and 1080 Snowboarding were just as significant as something like F-Zero at the time. I'll redo the list to help out:

American launches and releases used as a reference point(Black is first party, red is second party):

Nintendo 64: September 29th 1996-September 28th 1998

Year-One:

Blast Corps-March 1997
GoldenEye007-August 1997
Killer Instinct Gold-1996
Mario Kart 64-February 1997
Pilotwings 64-September 1996
Star Fox 64-July 1997
Super Mario 64-September 1996
Tetrisphere-August 1997
Wave Race 64-November 1996

Year-Two:

1080 Snowboarding-April 1998
Banjo-Kazooie-June 1998
Diddy Kong Racing-November 1997
Mischief Makers-October 1997
Yoshi's Story-March 1998

Note: F-Zero X actually misses the cut-off by 1 month. Ocarina of Time misses it by 2 months.

Double-Note: I did not include the sports games Nintendo used to publish because it would skew results and plus...it's sports games. I don't mean stuff like Mario Tennis either. I'm not including stuff like Ken Griffey baseball.

Gamecube: November 18th 2001-November 17th 2003

Year-One:

Animal Crossing-September 2002
Eternal Darkness-June 2002
Luigi's Mansion-November 2001
Metroid Prime-November 2002
Pikmin-December 2001
Star Fox Adventures-September 2002
Super Mario Sunshine-August 2002
Super Smash Bros. Melee-December 2001
Wave Race: Blue Storm-November 2001

Year-Two:

F-Zero GX-August 2003
Kirby Air Ride-October 2003
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker-March 2003
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour-July 2003
Mario Kart: Double Dash-November 2003
Wario World-June 2003

Note: 1080 Avalanche missed the cut-off by two weeks.

The Wii: November 19th 2006-November 18th 2008

Year-One:

Battalion Wars 2-October 2007
Donkey Kong Barrel Blast-October 2007
Excite Truck-November 2006
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn-November 2007
Link's Crossbow Training-November 2007
Mario Strikers Charged-July 2007
Metroid Prime 3-August 2007
Pokemon Battle Revolution-June 2007
Super Mario Galaxy-November 2007
Super Paper Mario-April 2007
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess-November 2006
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves-April 2007

Year-Two:

Animal Crossing: City Folk-November 2008
Mario Kart Wii-April 2008
Super Mario Sluggers-August 2008
Super Smash Bros. Brawl-March 2008
Wario Land: Shake It-Spetember 2008

Note: Wii branded games, Big Brain games were all left off the Wii to keep with the supposedly undesirable "casual" games Nintendo is now making. Mario Party is being left off because it seems to get lumped in with that bunch, regardless of Nintendo having this series for over three generations. All WiiWare game are being excluded because some people don't consider them worthy of inclusion on lists with retail games. I'm doing this because I don't want ANY excuses from detractors. Now for the results:

N64

7 First Party
7 Second Party
14 Total

GC

8 First Party
7 Second Party
15 Total

Wii

11 First Party
6 Second Party
17 Total

There you go folks. Nintendo has been gradually increasing "core games" in it's first two years every generation. Nintendo has increased their own first party efforts and is relying less on second party games ever since Rare left. I hope this can end the argument.

Thanks a lot, man ^^ Really helped me out here, I just went for games that I thought most gamers could enjoy :P

^I guess you are counting 2nd party there Onyx.... even then though I thought Rare published Blast Corps themselves (unlike Goldeneye and BK which Nintendo did)

I am. I can give them a funny color if you want on second party games to help seperate. Also Blast Corps was published by Nintendo(IGN and Wikipedia as sources). You're thinking of Jet Force Gemini, which Rare published themselves.

Mischief Makers was published by Nintendo?

I've only been a fan of a small set of the nintendo core games.

Metroid
Mario Platformers
Zelda
Fire Emblem

Other than these, what sold me on nintendo was the third party support (which is why I loved SNES and derided the N64 and GC). Wii is no different.

Whatever the core nintendo gamers say, the bar has already been met considering the previous gen of nintendo consoles. Its the 3rd party support for Wii that has been poor lots of shovelware, just bad games, party games, etc.

I got my wii, its already paid for itself with the core games, but its very unlikely ill get more than a very small handfull of 3rd party wii games.