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What is the best launch line up a console has ever had?

Deleted member 17210

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,569
Maybe NES for North America which had a lot of help from the system being over two years old in Japan. There's some debate about the test launch era and what games made it day one but if you count the widespread launch then it's probably safe to say it includes: Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Kung Fu, Ice Climber, and Duck Hunt, among others.
 
Indelible

Indelible

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,668
Canada
Definitely the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur and NFL 2K were some of my favorite games as a teenager.
 
Midgarian

Midgarian

Alt Account
Banned
Apr 16, 2020
2,619
Midgar
PSP for me personally.

Metal Gear Ac!d, Ridge Racer, Mercury and Lumines were all memorable games that I heavily associate with the system and all were there at launch!

WipeOut Pure is worth a shout too, though I didn't play much of that.
 
Kapryov

Kapryov

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,135
Australia
Dreamcast (US) launched with pretty much something for everybody. I think around 18 games? Including:

Sonic Adventure
Soulcalibur
House of the Dead 2
Hydro Thunder
Powerstone

In EU it launched a little later but had these too:

Sega Rally 2
Virtua Fighter 3

(I got SR2 and SA2, eventually SC as well, it was great)
 
werezompire

werezompire

Zeboyd Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
11,358
Vita's launch was great with a number of quality titles in a wide variety of genres. 1st year was great in general.
Wii had Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, and Trauma Center, all of which were excellent.
Wii U actually had a solid launch with NSMBU (forget the haters, it's a fantastic game), ZombiU, and Nintendo Land. It also had the best version (at the time) of Sonic All-Stars Racing which is an excellent game. However, the Wii U had a really dry spell after launch that took a while to clear up.
 
Betty

Betty

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
17,604
Easily N64.

Pilotwings 64 was mindblowing. It probably felt like what Flight Simulator 2020 feels like now, the scale and freedom was staggering.

Then there was Mario 64, nuff said.
 
werezompire

werezompire

Zeboyd Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
11,358
Actually, I'm thinking about it more and NA SNES is a very strong contender (although it's almost cheating since it came out much later than it did in Japan). Super Mario World, F-Zero, and Pilotwings are all great and the other 2 games were fun as well (Gradius 3 & Sim City). So all 5 games ranged from good to amazing and they're all in different genres as well. And there were a ton of great games that came out in that first 12 months including the amazing Zelda:LttP.
 
shinobi602

shinobi602

Verified
Oct 24, 2017
8,347
Probably the 360, for me at least.

Kameo: Elements of Power
Perfect Dark Zero
Condemned: Criminal Origins
NFS: Most Wanted
Call of Duty 2
Quake 4
Project Gotham Racing 3

Damn good gaming right there. I was in HD heaven. Heck even that King Kong game was pretty damn cool.
 
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,119
gigantor21 said:
I haven't seen any better than the Dreamcast.
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Indelible said:
Definitely the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur and NFL 2K were some of my favorite games as a teenager.
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YeahJeets said:
yup

sonic adventure, nfl2k, and soul cal

9/9/99

199.99

what a system
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My Peoples right here.




I love BOTW and it might be my favorite game of all time but that Dreamcast lineup, sheesh!
 
Prophane33

Prophane33

Member
Oct 25, 2017
820
尾張国
Never been a better launch than Dreamcast.
GBA was likely the best handheld launch, but Dreamcast is still hands down the best console launch ever.
 
RAWRferal

RAWRferal

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Oct 27, 2017
1,360
London, UK
Posting this because I'm in shock that it didn't make first page:

k9L81YH.jpg
 
DarthWalden

DarthWalden

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,030
In terms of depth and variety of experiences I really had fun with the launch of the 360.

Kameo, Perfect Dark, Amped 3, PGR, Condemned and geometry wars also Smash TV and then shortly after we saw the likes of Call of Duty 2, Dead rising 2 and Oblivion...

Good times!
 
Doskoi Panda

Doskoi Panda

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,957
NattyBo said:
BOTW was a port...
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BoTW wasn't a port. It started development as a Wii U game, but the decision to release the game on Switch happened halfway through the game's development and changed the shape of the game fairly significantly. After that point, the game was being developed concurrently for Switch and Wii U, as opposed to being a game developed for Wii U first that would then be ported to Switch.
I don't think BoTW alone puts the Switch launch above the rest either way fwiw
 
Detail

Detail

Member
Dec 30, 2018
2,947
shinobi602 said:
Probably the 360, for me at least.

Kameo: Elements of Power
Perfect Dark Zero
Condemned: Criminal Origins
NFS: Most Wanted
Call of Duty 2
Quake 4
Project Gotham Racing 3

Damn good gaming right there. I was in HD heaven. Heck even that King Kong game was pretty damn cool.
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Damn I forgot about how strong the 360 was, I enjoyed all of those games you listed and stepping into HD was such a great memory, felt like gaming was changing forever.

And yeah, King Kong was a fun game.
 
Stefarno

Stefarno

I ... survived Sedona
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Oct 27, 2017
893
My first thought was the Vita but the European release of the Xbox was pretty damn good too - Halo, Jet Set Radio Future, Project Gotham Racing, RalliSport Challenge, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Dead or Alive 3, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Max Payne was a cracking lineup of games.

Shame basically no-one picked one up as they were launching against MGS 2 and with the stupidly high launch price of the console at £299/€479 - considering the PS2 was £199/€299 at the time and the Gamecube was to launch at £129/€199 a month later.
 
RandomSeed

RandomSeed

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,634
That Dreamcast swirl. 9/9/99 was the last time I was hyped to buy a console on launch, thanks to the games and price. Feel like most everyone had Sonic and Soul Calibur, and maybe football if you were a fan. I loved that loud ass grinding ass system. Now I have nostalgic Sega Sadness.
 
Gay Bowser

Gay Bowser

Member
Oct 30, 2017
17,707
I'm tempted to give this to Dreamcast but I have to give it to N64. I know two/three games isn't much of a "lineup" but SM64 was a revelation. It was just a completely transformative video game. The Dreamcast launch had some fantastic games but nothing was really quite on that level.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,894
Dreamcast had a lot of good games. NES and N64 had two revolutionary games. Those 3 are the ones that really stick out to me. DC didn't have a single game as good as Super Mario or Mario64 (neither did any other console launch) but the variety and quality at launch was so impressive in 1999. That doesn't even count getting online for the first time for a lot of gamers.

Most consoles have really weak launches though. Switch had BOTW but probably below those three. I think Gameboy has Tetris which was pretty amazing in 1989 or whenever it came out.
 
discotrigger

discotrigger

Member
Oct 25, 2017
561
I sadly never owned a Dreamcast, but I'm so sick of people not mentioning a single game from the launch lineup that I've decided to leave this list:

AeroWings
Airforce Delta
Blue Stinger
CART Flag to Flag
Expendable
The House of the Dead 2
Hydro Thunder
Monaco Grand Prix
Mortal Kombat Gold
NFL 2K
NFL Blitz 2000
Pen Pen Trilcelon
Power Stone
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Sonic Adventure
Soulcalibur
TNN Motorsports HardCore Heat
Tokyo Xtreme Racer
TrickStyle

While there's plenty of 'meh' in there, it really is insane how many noteworthy, classic titles came out on the same freaking day as launch.
 
fluffydelusions

fluffydelusions

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,463
Deadpool_X said:
NES launch was atrocious. Gyromite and Duck Hunt, along with Baseball, Pinball, and a couple other black box titles.
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There were 17 games for NES at launch:
  • Duck Hunt (included with console)
  • Gyromite (included with console)
  • 10-Yard Fight
  • Baseball
  • Clu Clu Land
  • Donkey Kong Jr. Math
  • Excitebike
  • Golf
  • Hogan's Alley
  • Ice Climber
  • Kung Fu
  • Mach Rider
  • Pinball
  • Stack-Up
  • Tennis
  • Wild Gunman
  • Wrecking Crew
I had a lot of fun with excitebike at launch as well as duck hunt.
 
Josh5890

Josh5890

I'm Your Favorite Poster's Favorite Poster
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Oct 25, 2017
23,219
Dreamcast and Vita are obvious picks, but the Wii deserves a mention. It launched with Wii Sports and a 3D Zelda game. That is pretty impressive.
 
Deadpool_X

Deadpool_X

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,104
Indiana
fluffydelusions said:
There were 17 games for NES at launch:
  • Duck Hunt (included with console)
  • Gyromite (included with console)
  • 10-Yard Fight
  • Baseball
  • Clu Clu Land
  • Donkey Kong Jr. Math
  • Excitebike
  • Golf
  • Hogan's Alley
  • Ice Climber
  • Kung Fu
  • Mach Rider
  • Pinball
  • Stack-Up
  • Tennis
  • Wild Gunman
  • Wrecking Crew
I had a lot of fun with excitebike at launch as well as duck hunt.
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Not many people would think of that lineup when they think about the NES. I love the NES. But the black box series isn't that much more advanced than the 2600. The Nes really hit its stride in 1986.
 
Bigwombat

Bigwombat

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
3,416
discotrigger said:
I sadly never owned a Dreamcast, but I'm so sick of people not mentioning a single game from the launch lineup that I've decided to leave this list:

AeroWings
Airforce Delta
Blue Stinger
CART Flag to Flag
Expendable
The House of the Dead 2
Hydro Thunder
Monaco Grand Prix
Mortal Kombat Gold
NFL 2K
NFL Blitz 2000
Pen Pen Trilcelon
Power Stone
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Sonic Adventure
Soulcalibur
TNN Motorsports HardCore Heat
Tokyo Xtreme Racer
TrickStyle

While there's plenty of 'meh' in there, it really is insane how many noteworthy, classic titles came out on the same freaking day as launch.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't know why I didn't buy a dreamcast back in the day. I think I was so disenchanted with my n64 purchase and I was already into Playstation that I'm not sure I could handle another console back in high school.
 
Redcrayon

Redcrayon

Patient hunter
On Break
Oct 27, 2017
12,713
UK
I liked the SNES in 1991:
Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings, Gradius III and SimCity.
 
xir

xir

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,571
Los Angeles, CA
I mean at the time Dreamcast was insane except for all the disc rot games. Maybe a lot of them do t live up today but at the time was way stronger than ps2
 
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