NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, GameCube, DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, and now Switch. Given the relative failure of its most recent console hardware, there's a lot riding on Switch for Nintendo. If expectations were jockeys, and consoles were horses, then the Switch has about fifteen little riders clinging to its saddle.
Often, a new machine lives and dies on the quality of its launch titles - and there has been some criticism regarding the Switch launch line-up, not least on this site where it has spilled over into the sort of contemptuous negativity which nobody enjoys.
Originally, Tomorrow Corporation's World of Goo, Little Inferno, and Human Resource Machine were scheduled as Nintendo eShop downloads on day one, but appear to have been delayed. No great loss, given that they've all been knocking around for years now, on far less powerful machines. However, Nintendo's own Snipperclips will instead arrive in their place, earlier than planned. Please... try not to have too strong an emotional reaction to all of this.
Here's a quick "whizz" through everything that'll be available on Switch from Friday.
Though developed originally for the Wii U - and, indeed, also being released on the Wii U on the same day as the Switch version - the sheer size of Breath of the Wild may account for the lack of another Triple-A Nintendo game at launch.
Being charitable, perhaps Nintendo wants to spread out its major releases, and give people the time to have their fill of them, before releasing the next one.
Or maybe they really are too stupid to realise that had - say - Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2 all been available on day one, literally every gamer in the land would've been clambering over one another to get their hands on one. Going back to the horse/jockey analogy, in this alternate version of events, all the other horses and riders would've suffered a fatal heart attack at the starting line.
Ask yourself how much more excited would you have felt about Switch if Mario and another big Nintendo franchise had been there with Zelda on launch day, rather than this limp, drip-feed, approach we're getting instead?
However good Breath of the Wild is, though, there's no escaping that this game will be available at the same time on both the Switch and the console that Nintendo has just ditched because it didn't sell so good. Sorry if that's all a bit overly misanthropic for your gentle palette, but somebody has to be.
Again, you may ask yourself why Nintendo chose to launch with this rather than, say, one of its other almost-ready games, such as quirky beat 'em up Arms or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Splatoon 2, or anything with just a smidge more brand awareness.
Most likely they're aiming for that Wii Sports effect, but it remains to be seen whether pulling a cow's udders, or rattling a box to guess how many marbles are inside, will have the same universal appeal as tennis and boxing. The clue might be in which of these respective activities is televised regularly to audiences of millions.
Whether it's the sort of thing which sells a new console is another matter. Though clearly a significant visual upgrade from the Bombermans (Bombermen?) of old, the gameplay is defiantly old-school. Still, at least it hasn't appeared on five other consoles first, like most of the Switch launch games.
It's a 2D puzzle game where two players can cut bits out of the bodies of each other's character, and use the resulting shape to progress. Note as grisly as it sounds, it's novel and likely very good, but the enthusiastic nihilist in me is forced to question whether anybody exists who is going to rush out to buy a Switch just to play Snipperclips. I suspect the answer to this question is "no... nobody like that exists".
It's weird isn't it? Nintendo must've known for a while now when it was aiming to launch the Switch. Why IS Zelda - a game developed originally for another console altogether - the only major first-party game release on day one? If your hardware is ready before your software... delay the launch. It's really simple. Bad launches are had to recover from. Just ask Microsoft.
It's like sending your kid to school with a couple of slices of bread, because you forgot to buy any filling for their sandwiches.
In case you need it spelling out: that was intended to be sarcasm.
Are any teenage girls - the likely audience of Just Dance - going to even have access to a Switch at launch? The only people Just Dance 2017 is going to sell to are guilty geek parents who bought the Switch for Zelda, but feel they need to lob a few scraps towards their offspring.
Alright, Just Dance was always going to end up on Switch... but should it have been there on day one? Doesn't it - like the similarly ubiquitous Skylanders - send a message that Switch is just like every other machine?
Switch is going to sell out, because of Zelda. There will be shortages, because there always are. Nevertheless, even with one all-time classic on the machine, even with the machine itself looking to be an appealing blend of handheld and home console, there's no question that a launch line-up with so much un-flashy filler, makes it hard for me to get too excited.
What can the Switch really do? What is it capable of? Sadly, the initial line-up of games doesn't really tell us.