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THE GREATEST CONSOLE LAUNCH TITLES OF ALL TIME

2/3/2017

21 Comments

 
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If you, like me, are just sitting around waiting for your Nintendo Switch and copy of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to be pressured through your door-hole, why not try filling the hours by compiling a list of the most important, significant and impactful console launch games of all time?

That's what I've done, and if you don't believe me... well... just take a look below. Hello... no Super Mario Bros. for the NES? Urrrrnh! It wasn't a launch title, probably. Don't have a go, yeah?

If this idea doesn't "pat your whimsy" then you could select from this list of alternative activities:

  • Take a bath with your eight sons.
  • Use a hard rod to destroy all of your existing consoles and computers, in order to make space for the Switch.
  • Recall your favourite cloud.
  • Trap a cod in a harp.
  • Colour in a rhombus.
  • Rhombus rhombus rhombus brrrrhombrrrusss!
  • Do some research, okay?
  • 12345678910!
  • And so on.

Come on now... let's take a look at that sweeeeeeet list...!
GOLDEN AXE - MEGA DRIVE
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Truth is, there wasn't much to be happy about the day the Mega Drive was released. You'd just oozed out almost £200 of your inheritance in order to play the malformed folly that was Altered Beast. You big eejit. You repellent cretin. You lurid imbecile.

But wait!

​The Mega Drive version of Golden Axe might not be the most fondly-remembered game of all time, nor even the most fondly-remembered Mega Drive game, but... it was near as dammit as you could've imagined to the arcade version. Indeed, without the benefit of a YouTube side-by-side comparison, most Mega Drive owners would've thought they were playing the original.

​Then again, most Mega Drive owners probably struggled to remember their own names, and would frequently turn up to work having forgotten their trousers.

Were it not for Golden Axe, there wasn't much about the Mega Drive on launch day to suggest that it would become one of the most important consoles of its generation. And yet... it gave us hope.
TETRIS - GAME BOY
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This goes without saying. Not only was it bundled with the Game Boy, and therefore a freebie of the most banging-est order, but Tetris was arguably the best game ever released for the Game Boy. And there it was on day one! Indeed, it was the most perfect civil partnership of software and hardware imaginable - potentially until the Wii and Wii Sports.

Tetris was a game that spanned social and societal lines - played as much by presidents as it was by paupers/porpoises. Furthermore, it was as addictive as your daily downers - the epitome of "one last go" dependence.

​It has become a cliche to describe it as easy to play but difficult to master, yet that was precisely its appeal. One minute you were struggling to get a line... the next week you'd been racking up triple figures on a regular basis. Tetris is the main reason the Game Boy was a phenomenon.

"From Russia... WITH FUN" indeed.
F-ZERO - SUPER NES
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Wot no Super Mario World? Look now... Super Mario World is a classic. I'm not going to argue with you about that. But it isn't a million miles from Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. It looked a lot nicer, sounded a lot nicer, and was tighter and more polished in every area. Nevertheless, it was still sticking to a well-trodden thoroughfare.

F-Zero, though, was unlike anything else. It showed off what the Super NES could do in a way that Super Mario World could never have done - and had one of the greatest soundtracks of all time to boot. Indeed, it also shone a light on the reality that not all 16-bit games consoles were created equally.

​In fact, F-Zero was so exciting that some players lost all control, and shaved one... two... three... four parts of their father's body!

​What does the F stand for? Father's Body..
VIRTUA FIGHTER - SATURN
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It's a real big shame that Sega turned the Saturn into a lavatory party, because Virtua Fighter promised so much.

Another almost-perfect arcade conversion from a company which made its name in arcades, the impact of seeing a game like this running in your own home was - at the time - as significant as discovering the ghost of Jim Henson hanging out in your pantry with his trousers down.

​Like Third World famine, the Internet, and David Walliams, we take 3D graphics for granted nowadays, but Virtua Fighter was a proper quantum leap. When the Saturn booted up, and you saw all that spinny, polygon nonsense actually happening on your TV for the first time, it was staggering.
WIPEOUT - PLAYSTATION
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This might be a controversial thing to say, but Wipeout wasn't actually that good. Maybe its steep learning curve put me off, but I never really got to grips with those "wobblers" (wobbly hovercraft). It was basically a new version of F-Zero, in which you spent your whole time bumping along the edges of the tracks, like a myopic mongrel feeling its way around a freshly-fitted kitchen.

However...! What Wipeout did was set the stage for the PlayStation to become a lifestyle accessory. With its slick visuals, iconic branding, and soundtrack featuring number one groovyboys The Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, and Orbital, it succeeded in making the PlayStation appear cool to people for whom such a meaningless, subjective, social aesthetic is important. 

Also, with far more tracks than that other PlayStation launch day drive 'em up, Ridge Racer, you actually got your money's worth.

What is rarely recalled these days is that Wipeout was also released for the Saturn. The Saturn version was faster and had more songs, but suffered from a rubbish frame rate, and the Saturn's inability to handle transparent graphics. Somehow, when it turned up on Sega's machine, it was like watching your dad trying to breakdance at a funeral.

The fact that the Saturn version is rarely remembered, demonstrates just how important Wipeout was to establishing the PlayStation narrative.
SUPER MARIO 64 - NINTENDO 64
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This is a no-brainer. Super Mario 64 established what a platform game could - and should - be like when transformed into 3D. Looking back at Super Mario 64 now, it might've aged somewhat, but it was so stuffed with gameplay and ideas that it had to wear a truss.

Whether you were a Nintendo fanboy or not, there was no way of ignoring Mario 64; it changed everything... EXCEPT YOUR POOEY UNDERPANTS!!!!!

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL...?
HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED - XBOX
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The original Halo reset the agenda when it came to first-person shoot 'em ups, but suffered through its isolation as one of the only reasons to bother with the original Xbox. By dismantling all that had become the norm for the genre, and rebuilding it from the ground up, its influence extended beyond any conceivable horizon.

I confess to not being the biggest fan of the Halo series - it's hard to take a paramilitary sci-fi shooter seriously when you're shooting at what amounts to a race of shrieking, alien Munchkins - but its hard to argue against the impact of the game which kicked it all off.

"Halo - is it me you're looking for?"

Yes... yes it was.
SUPER MARIO 64 DS - NINTENDO DS
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Yes - he's here again! Less than a decade after being released on the Nintendo 64, Nintendo somehow managed to squeeze the entirety of Super Mario 64 into a teeny-tiny DS cartridge, with upgraded graphic textures (albeit without the N64's anti-aliasing), and brand new mini games.

​It's these mini games, rather than the main game, which justify Super Mario 64 DS's inclusion in this list, for they helped to sell the potential of the new handheld's double touchscreen capabilities. Pre-dating Apple's iPod Touch by around three years, there had never been anything like the DS.

​Indeed, Angry Birds - one of the smartphone era's biggest games - owes an enormous debt to Nintendo.
WII SPORTS - WII
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Like Tetris, Wii Sports was bundled with its host system. Like Tetris, there's a case to be made that no other game came close to justifying the system to which it was exclusive. And also like Tetris, Wii Sports was a game for everyone capable of swinging their arm around. 

By giving this game away for free, Nintendo was able to position the Wii as much as a family toy as a games console. How many people never bothered buying anything else for the system? As a business strategy it might not have paid dividends for Nintendo, but there's no denying that it was, once again, a case of software and hardware soulmates - and ensured the company shifted a ton of the latter.

I'm not convinced that there's a Tetris or Wii Sports available in the Nintendo Switch launch line-up, but already some are calling Zelda: Breath of the Wild one of the greatest console launch titles ever.

I'll let you know what I think in due course - right after I've coloured in this rhombus.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
A TRIBUTE TO THE ATARI VCS - BY MR BIFFO
​
A TRIBUTE TO THE SUPER NINTENDO - BY MR BIFFO
HALF-LIFE 3 AND THE GULF BETWEEN CREATOR AND FAN - BY MR BIFFO
21 Comments
Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
2/3/2017 10:20:03 am

Super Mario World.
Nuff said.

Reply
DEAN
2/3/2017 11:45:30 am

Yep - I mean I loved F-Zero, played it a LOT but Mario takes the crown for me too.

Reply
Alastair
3/3/2017 12:48:28 pm

Bad enough that SMW doesn't make the cut but that the awful SM64 is on twice is a bit much (sorry Mr Biffo).

Maybe it's just that SMW aged comparatively well whereas SM64 on either machine hasn't at all.

Reply
Darren
2/3/2017 11:16:05 am

Super Monkey Ball on the Gamecube. The only console I've bought at launch. (OK, maybe the day after.)

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Steve
2/3/2017 11:26:49 am

Pretty comprehensive list, the only thing I'd add would be Motorstorm RC on the Vita. A great little game in its own right, but also hugely important for introducing the idea of cross-buy and cross-save. Would we have the likes of XBox Play Anywhere, or indeed the Switch itself, without it?

Reply
DEAN
2/3/2017 11:51:19 am

Wipeout is the reason I bought a Playstation... well, that and the super cool looking joypad but I prefer Ridge Racer.
As you say, Wipeout is a right bastard to get to grips with, it punishes harder than a scorned dominatrix. Ridge Racer is just a joy, though! I always loved Outrun but Ridge Racer took the addictive feeling of drifting to a whole new level - it perfected it, I'd say.
Christ, I mean I even bought a Vita just to get more Ridge Racer and loved that too, and that wasn't an easy thing to do.
Ridge Racer needs to get back to its roots and appear on the PS4 -
RIIIIIIIIIIDGE RAAAAAACER

Reply
Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
2/3/2017 12:17:59 pm

I'll add Ridge Racer too.
Back in those days I only ever bought import machines and games and I played RR to death. I loved the Galaxian load screen as well.
I think I got the PlayStation the day it got released in Japan from Raven Games in Beckenham.
You know you're a saddo when you're on first name terms with the owner.

Reply
Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
2/3/2017 01:15:01 pm

I've a feeling Botw might be up there.

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Floaty
2/3/2017 04:11:18 pm

Wipeout and F Zero are both great games, but don't writeout (write off) Wipeout as lad-fodder - superbly stylized and soundtracked it may be, but the game itself was also a blinder in it's own right

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PeskyFletch
2/3/2017 06:29:26 pm

HALO THE ONLY REASON TO BUY AN XBOX FOR??????

I'm outraaged, and my friends morrowind and Knights of the old republic are , too.

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DEAN
2/3/2017 07:10:41 pm

Not to mention both Project Gotham games!

BLACK was unbelievably cool - definitely one of my all-time favourite FPS games. Sure, available elsewhere but the Xbox joypad was better (not massive one, but even I'd grab that instead of the Dual-Shock II any day!)

I loved mine :O)

Reply
Kara Van Park
2/3/2017 07:44:43 pm

Back in the day, I bought an Xbox on launch day, and Project Gotham was way more impressive to me than Halo; especially playing my own music as I was playing.

Reply
Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
2/3/2017 07:58:40 pm

No wish to be rude to fellow gamers but I always thought Halo was one of the most overrated games ever.

Reply
DEAN
3/3/2017 08:59:34 am

I know what you mean.
I thought the first was very good. The weapons made you feel empowered, even the pistol had a set of bollocks on it. And playing it in co-op was a lot of fun.
The sequels lost something, though, felt generic and less ballsy.

Did you ever play BLACK? That game had some cojones..

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Thrillso
2/3/2017 08:12:06 pm

"What does the F stand for? Father's Body.." made me do a proper LOL.

So there you go.

Virtua Fighter seemed so amazing and futuristic when I first saw it. I still think it looks good, they should have made the blocky characters into a stylised series trademark instead of going down the "sort of realism, sort of" graphical route.

I've never had a console on the day of release. :( I am one of life's big losers.

Reply
Willy Fog
2/3/2017 08:12:10 pm

Don't forget 'Super Battered Sausage Simulator' by Codemasters. Which, if I remember correctly, was a launch title for the ZX81.

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Gordon Ramsay's furrowed brow
2/3/2017 08:19:11 pm

Phew! I thought I'd get strung up if I said Halo was soooo over rated, but someone else finally agrees with me.

Ridge Racer - sure it was only one track, but, it was a ten grand arcade machine sitting in the living room.
You CANNOT convey the jaw drop effect when people seen that arcade machine on a home console.
The hours me my brother and my mates put in to shave literally tenths of a second off our lap records......
Ah those were the days, now, where's my sherry....

Reply
Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
3/3/2017 08:45:26 am

I bought the Negcon controller on import and played Ridge Racer all over again.
It's one of those games where I still the music. Like Outrun, SMW, ZooT etc.
Blimey, I'm a saddo!

Reply
Bruce Flagpole
3/3/2017 09:05:03 am

Pretty much agree with all this, echo my sentiments on Halo and Wipeout too.
However, I do think SMW on the SNES was special enough in it's own right to be counted.

Reply
Roy (Stuart N Hardy fan)
3/3/2017 09:19:45 am

Of all the launch games Super Mario World holds particular fond memories for me.
My lovely old mum used to watch me playing it.
I used to offer her the controller to have a go but she never took it. She just used to love watching me play it. She loved Mario.

Reply
Bryan
3/3/2017 11:13:30 am

I came to post my glee ZELDA RELEASE DAY WOO! That is all. I felt Digi was the most appropriate place.

Reply



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