Best Console Launch Titles…Ever February 5, 2014

No matter what console you’re planning to launch, any smart game developer knows that a video game console isn’t sold based on its technical merits alone, but by the games it plays that you can’t play anywhere else.  If you want your console to sell, it needs to have a killer app and fast.

Today, we’re going to be talking about some of the greatest launch titles for game consoles in the history of video games.  They could be groundbreaking in their own right, show off the technical capabilities of the system that they launched with, or just provided a great experience you couldn’t find anywhere else.

Game Boy – Tetris

Tetris is without a doubt one of the most addictive games ever made. Even my own father, who never played a video game before in his life (and hasn’t since) played this game on my original NES to the point he would have dreams about it. So it was logical for Nintendo to bring one of the most popular games for the NES to their flagship handheld console, the Game Boy. While this game was not a launch title on the Game Boy’s initial Japanese release, it was ready in time for the Game Boy’s North American launch.  Through a clever bit of foresight, a copy of Tetris was bundled with each new Game Boy and for really good reason.  There was no title at the time that could have better shown off the Game Boy’s 2-player functionality and by bundling each Game Boy with a copy of Tetris and a Link Cable (which was needed for multiplayer), it encouraged early adopters to use all the features the Game Boy offered and set a high bar for the platform that Nintendo’s competitors could never reach.

SNES – Super Mario World

I believe that Super Mario Bros 3 perfected the Mario platformer formula, but Super Mario World cranked it up to eleven.  After the tremendous success of the Super Mario Bros series, Nintendo had one of the most iconic mascots of any medium at their disposal, and they were going to use that momentum to sell their brand new 16-Bit system, the Super Nintendo.  All the classic Mario features were back, but now the Super Nintendo could bring even more.  There were more levels, new enemies, new power ups, and a whole new world to explore.  Nintendo knew that by taking a character we all knew and loved and bringing him to the new system as a launch title, Nintendo could show just how much more powerful their new console was over the NES.

N64 – Super Mario 64

This is the game that defined the 3D platformer, and to this day there are still imitators that aren’t able to do it as well as Nintendo did.  This can be considered by many to be Nintendo’s entry into the first official 3D graphics generation, and Nintendo would set that bar as high as they could.  You could do everything Mario was known for, only now you could do it in 3D.  The control was darn near perfect.  You could run, jump, swim and even fly.  In fact, this game was so good, it transcended its success one more time to one other platform. Nintendo wanted to show off how great their new DS was,  so they ported Super Mario 64 to the DS.  When people saw the DS could replicate the features of a Nintendo 64 by bringing one of its best titles to the new handheld platform, it became a best selling title and contributed to a lot of early DS adoption.

Xbox – Halo: Combat Evolved

The year was 2001.  One of the most successful companies in the world was entering a field they have never been a part of previously.  They needed to sell as many consoles as they could quickly in order to be competitive against the industry heavyweights of Sony and Nintendo, especially in the wake of the overwhelming success of the Playstation 2.  Their answer was to take one of the highest anticipated titles for the PC, buy its development studio, and bring the title they were working on to their new platform.  When the original Xbox launched, there was no title that showed off the console’s capabilities better than Halo: Combat Evolved.  The control was perfect.  The graphics were superior to anything that could be done on their competitors’ systems at the time.  But the most enduring legacy it has is it brought the formerly PC-centric ritual of the LAN Party to console users.  The game continued to be a best seller for years after the console’s launch.  In fact, according to author Steven Kent, years after the game’s release the Xbox continued to be referred to as the Halo Delivery System.  It was only removed from the console’s top 10 sales lists when its sequel was released in 2004.

Playstation 3 – Resistance: Fall of Man

Sony’s first entry into this list was the reason I got a PS3.  The game was hardly considered groundbreaking or revolutionary for its time, and many didn’t think the graphics were even that good, but for everything this game did, it sure did it well.  I’m a huge fan of History Channel and Discovery Channel documentary series, and this game presented its story in a way that felt customized specifically to my tastes.  In fact, I once wrote the game’s opening narration on a High School blackboard and asked a class to identify where it came from.  They all thought the narration was from a real-world event.  True to developer Insomniac Games’s pedigree, it had some of the most unique weapons ever seen in a console FPS.  It also had some of the best multiplayer I have ever played on a console.  Everything felt well balanced, and new players could be competitive against grizzled veterans.  Sadly, Sony has announced their intention to discontinue the game’s multiplayer permanently pretty soon.  Sad, I never could make it to level 60.

Wii – Wii Sports

Nintendo made their entry into the first ever HD console generation a sub-HD game console with a control system unlike anything consumers had ever seen before.  To make it clear to the consumer what their unique console was capable of, Nintendo chose to bundle a game with it that fully took advantage of all the console’s motion control capabilities and their avatar maker (affectionately dubbed Miis).  Their decision was one for the history books as it propelled the Nintendo Wii to become one of the best selling consoles of all time, and made the game that was bundled with it, Wii Sports, one of the best selling titles of all time.

Wii U – Nintendo Land

Nintendo’s first entry into the HDTV world was another unique console which brought the capabilities of the Nintendo DS to the home system.  To fully embrace this unique touch screen control system and pay homage to all of the classic franchises they have produced over the years, Nintendo released Nintendo Land as a bundled game with all of the premium launch models of the Wii U.  The game offered tons of different minigames to explore, each one modeled after a classic Nintendo property.  While the Wii U is currently sitting in last place in this generation’s console war, I still think it’s a great system and I recommend this game to anyone interested in picking one up.