Which system had the best launch games?

Was it Dreamcast? Xbox? Nintendo 64? If you need some help, check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_launch_games

Let us know your thoughts, SW. This list reminds me of how bad launches are lol.

What an awful list all around.

I guess I would go with either Xbox (mostly for Halo), Xbox 360 (no one standout hit, but lots of decent games in a well rounded lineup), Dreamcast (killer lineup), or Wii (the three hit combo of Wii Sports, ExciteTruck, and of course, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess). Gamecube, PSP, PlayStation, and Gameboy Advance are also pretty good.

Out of that list?

Xbox 360

The Vita.

SNES>N64>Xbox>Dreamcast

I bought everything for my Vita when it first came out. I remember being amazed at playing Marvel VS Capcom 3 on a handheld.

I would say the N64 just for Mario....but 3 games.....just can't.

I guess I'd go with the Xbox. Halo and Project Gotham Racing were really fun and there were several other games to boot.

Dreamcast and the Xbox hands down.

Seriously?

@charizard1605: Rayman Origins, WipeOut 2048, Uncharted, MvC 3, FIFA, Virtua Tennis, Lumines, etc.

I love WipeOut 2048 the most.

you said wii. it probably has the worst launch lineup. Super Mario 64 was revolutionary and innovative and still one of the greatest platformers of all time.

The original Xbox, heck the original Xbox launched with its killer app, Halo, which without it probably would have meant a short lived venture for MS into the console gaming market. Also was a fan of Amped, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, and Dead or Alive 3.

@Blabadon: I hate your face... I was gonna say the vita.

I don't know. The Vita maybe?

@Blabadon: Only one of those games is remarkable, and that one game can be played on, well, anything else on the market.

If I was using multiplats to judge a launch lineup, something like Wii U, PS3, or PS4 would have been up there as one of the very best, and we all know that is not the case.

The N64 only had Super Mario 64. Like, literally, it was one of two games that launched with the damn thing.

Thats still one more game than the Wii had and its a game people needed to play.

Wii had Twilight Princess, which is a far better game than Super Mario 64.

I don't care. This is legacy or general stuff.

N64 solely because of Super Mario 64, launching with one of the best games ever made is always a plus

lol @ people not understanding handhelds

The 360 had a fantastic launch lineup. I picked up PDZ, Kameo, CoD2 (best CoD), and PGR3.

Curious? If you weren't using multiplats before, why did you select the 360? For Perfect Dark 0? I bought two copies of that turd on launch 2005 for LAN, what a disappointment. We had a big party and ended up with last gen Halo 2 LAN to salvage the party.

Kameo, Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3.

Mostly PGR3, but CoD2 and Kameo were great as well.

Dreamcast easily.

I mean, just to balance out the Vita claims, this is what the Wii U launched with:

• Mass Effect 3
• Assassin's Creed III
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
• Batman: Arkham City
• Darksiders II
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
• FIFA 13
• Madden NFL 13
• Scribblenauts: Unlimited
• Sonic and Sega: All Stars Racing Transformed
• ZombiU
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2
• Nintendo Land
• New Super Mario Bros. U

This is not even all the games it launched with (I completely excluded digital games, as an example), but that looks like a mighty impressive lineup for a console to be launching with... until you realize all but three of them can be played on literally any other system on the market, and of those three, only one is exceptional, really (and even that is arguable).

To Vita's credit, it has more exclusives in quantity in this case, but none of those exclusives reached the quality of NSMBU, and none were compelling enough to buy the handheld for (clearly evidenced by objective metrics, at any rate).

I would pick even PSP over Vita.

I liked COD2 and own it, but it's a multiplat. We did want to LAN that at the party, but it's only one person per 360/no MP splitscreen LAN and there were too many of us whereas Halo 2, although last gen, allowed 4 players per Xbox. What I remember back then about COD2, which I enjoyed, was not the graphics, but the fog effects. I thought those were cool. It's just you disqualified multiplats and that's when I became curious.

So it came down to Kameo and PGR3 as the reasons for the 360 for you?

I didn't care for Kameo, but god knows I tried. Lady liked it okay though.

I know Project Gotham has many a fan, so I'm guessing that was the big one for you plus Kameo placing the 360 at an all time best launch lineup discussion?

If I am not wrong (I may be wrong) the only other system CoD2 was on was PC. While I admit the technicality in this case, I also was not even considering PC gaming at the time, which is why CoD2 remains more or less a de-facto exclusive in my mind as far as the 360 launch goes. I understand that this is a tricky area, to be sure- but I will also point, in all the other cases I cited, including PS4, Wii U, Vita, and PS3, all (or most of) the multiplats in question were playable on just about any other machine on the market- for instance, CoD3 cannot similalry be considered a launch 'exclusive' for PS3 (or Wii), because it was also on Wii (or PS3) and also on 360.

As I said, it's a very tricky area. I just think that to someone who was not considering PC gaming as an option at the time (and compared to today, that number was astronomically high back then), CoD2 would have been an alluring reason to purchase a 360.

PGR3, though, yes, definitely. it is a shame what happened to that series, and I wish Microsoft had tried to rescue the developer and the IP. Pity, really. I guess some of the spirit lives on in Forza Horizon, but it is just not the same.

As for Kameo, it was short and could have used more expansions of its ideas (I expected these in the inevitable, but not really as it eventually turned out, sequel), but it was charming, addictive, and had that unique Rare flavor and charm to it- the last time I felt that to be true.

EDIT: Wasn't Dead or Alive 4 a launch title as well? I forgot, I used to be super into that as well. Although, I mean, you know, not for... gameplay reasons.

I see. Thanks for the breakdown. You weren't into PC gaming then.

I remember spending nearly $2000 at the 360 (accessories added up, controllers, play and charge kits, Wifi adapters were $100 a pop, & games) launch and I don't remember it as fondly, but I am not into racers. I know PGR and Bizarre are adored and I recognize that. I wish I could have enjoyed it myself. COD2 was fun, and Kameo was too short, but at the time I told myself it was a launch rush RARE job and the truly great stuff was still coming from them, lol. How could I have known what would happen to RARE or Bizarre for that matter. :(

I agree, I do wish Bizarre and that IP had been saved because I have quite a few friends that had been loving that series even when it was spiritually on Dreamcast as Metropolis Street Racer.

EDIT: I bought DOA4, I had it reserved and it got delayed a month. It showed up right before 2006 hit. So it wasn't a launch title, but it was in that launch window a month later. It was strange, it released AFTER Xmas but right before New Years, a bit like Final Fantasy X did back in 2001 (right before Xmas but barely). I never understood why companies do that. I got the legendary A+ rank in MP which was incredibly aggravating and difficult back then at least and I remember talking to SW members about that feat way back then, lol. The game would award you the points for the victory after the match, but it required both gamers to quit and if the other gamer didn't quit, you just sat there. One hard won match I had to leave my 360 on for like a day because the dick on the other end didn't want to quit and take the loss. He was great at the game and he just met his match, but he didn't want to award me the points. This was back in Late 2005-early 2006 and the 360 was brand new. Dicks were already griefing, lol.

Nes, Mario/Duck hunt

Snes, Super Mario World

Dreamcast, Soul Calibur & Sonic Adventure

lol at mentioning 360, it had a shit line-up of average games. I swear so people will hype anything for their brand. Kameo and PGR 3? neither game is even AAA.

At least the original xbox had DOA3 for graphics, Halo for a must have game and the better original Project Gotham Racing. 360's launch was a joke with no must have games period.

@SolidTy: Okay, I just realized the discrepancy in our experiences- I am remembering the India launch of the system, you are remembering the US one.

In India, Xbox 360 launched in October 2006- almost a full year after the system had launched in the US and Europe, and it came with a hell of a lot more games than it did in other places. For instance, Dead or Alive 4, which you just pointed out was not a launch title for the 360, actually was one in India. There was also a cricket game that it got as exclusive (even when I used to play sports games, I was never into cricket video games, the sport seems singularly unsuited to being a video game to me, but I do remember it being promoted pretty aggressively), and there were some other things as well.

I think it launched with nearly 40 games right off the bat, which is a bit crazy, and that might be why I remember the launch so fondly. The actual American launch may not have corresponded to my experience at all.

PS fans being offended at the 360 being mentioned? There, there. Maybe the PS5 will launch with some decent games, maybe. Don't lose hope!

Oh...wow.

That would do it.

Sure, an extra year to rack of software should have provided a nice and more enticing later "launch" in Oct 2006 for 360. I'd imagine later launches for consoles for the Wii and PS3 (I have no idea when they launched in India) would have also benefited from a later launch, but perhaps you moved out of India by that point or maybe Nintendo and Sony didn't want to wait until 2007 to launch their machines there.

lol no, the wolf segments alone keep twilight princess from being better. SM64 is one of the greatest games of all time. TP is the 2nd worst Zelda console game.

@SolidTy: PS3 launched in March 2007, which was right when it launched in Europe, and with the same launch lineup the system got there (which, as I recall, was a bit better than what it had in North America). The Wii? never officially launched in India. Nintendo has never officially launched its products in the country. With the Wii, I was prepared to import at launch, instead of waiting for it to hit the grey market with inflated prices a few months later (the delays would have been further exacerbated with the stock shortages the system was facing at the time), so I think I just hit Play-Asia and bit the bullet. I did not buy it at launch- it came down to between Oblivion and Twilight Princess for me, and I (foolishly, in hindsight) chose Oblivion (i.e. 360), but yeah, there you have it.

But yeah, the Wii's prices in the grey market were ridiculously inflated. Whereas the 360 or PS3 could be had for about INR 30,000 or INR 40,000 respectively (at the time, this translated to $750 and $1000), the Wii was crazy- INR 60,000 and beyond ($1500). I made the right choice in just importing it.

@Slashkice: Fair enough. I can certainly accept that. Whereas I still would not personally agree to portability alone making the Vita's lineup at launch the greatest of all time, I can see the argument for it adding and enhancing the value of multiplats in the lineup (as opposed to with other consoles, where, you are right, they really add nothing and are more often than not, inferior, rushed ports with no redeeming or compensating factor added in).

Unrelated, I just now realized what the center picture of your sig is from. Since I had not played the second game until Saturday, it kept eluding me as to when I might have missed that scene in the first game lol.

@Slashkice: I can imagine :P

I ended up going digital. As it turns out, I had $10 in my PSN Wallet (how, I do not know, but I don't look a gift horse- or bear- in the mouth), and $30 seemed to be more than reasonable for the game.

And I know, you show up in the game's activity feed :P It looks like I've left you far behind, so you better catch up soon lol

PS2.

@charizard1605: That's neat history. It's something else Nintendo doesn't launch in India. Peculiar. It's good that importing it worked out well for you, because those shortages were quite nasty in those early years.

SNES all day.

<b>i ain't gonna lie it was ninty got both so I know wassup. I own both but it ain't all about lunch games its bout library n slaystation got the best i own them so that doesn't me bias at all or a fanboy because I own them so people that doesnt own all doesn't have better opinions than us who own both n all n I know slaystation got the best games imho facts</b>

@mems_1224: Which is the worst?

fucking wind waker. is there any other horrible console zelda games? skyward sword maybe

Awwww yeah

For the US I'd say either Dreamcast, PS2, or Xbox for combination of quality/quantity. A lot of those had awesome games at launch but only a few games day one(like SNES with SMW and F-Zero).

Dreamcast or Xbox 360.

Xbox 360

Xbox with Halo.