The 25 Best Launch Games of All Time
We are a mere few weeks from the launch of a new Nintendo console, the Switch, and people are hotly anticipating some of the games coming out. A new Legend of Zelda and the first Bomberman game in 6 years are just two of the games I’m personally excited for. With this being the eighth videogame console generation, we’ve had plenty of good launch games to look back on as we look forward to The Switch. Here are twenty of the best games to debut alongside a new system.—Terence Wiggins
25. Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (3DS)
A pared down version compared to its console brethren, it was a good showpiece for the 3D capabilities of the new handheld. It featured different control modes from the traditional use of the d-pad and face buttons or the touchscreen had four spaces set to various combos.
24. Killer Instinct (Xbox One)
A free-to-play reboot of a 20-year-old fighting game wasn’t exactly something to be excited for but the game had rock solid gameplay and continues to be supported every year. It brought back the greatest videogame announcer for a new generation whose fierce roars are sure to hype anyone up.
23. R-Type (TurboGrafx-16)
The TurboGrafx (known outside America as the PC Engine) might not have been as powerful as the Genesis, but when the 16-bit war kicked off in 1989 it had the best looking game on either system. R-Type was easily the best home version of the arcade favorite at the time, capturing almost all of the visual splendor and wanton brutality of the original on a tiny credit card-sized cartridge.—Garrett Martin
22. Duck Hunt (NES)
Shooting ducks, clay discs, and getting mad at and possibly attempting to murder a dog was a fun time with this light gun game. Unfortunately, if you have an original Nintendo Entertainment System, this game is no longer playable due to display lag. But you can still find it on Wii U eShop.
21. Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2)
The first Tekken game with no story mode, it was more a who’s who of fighters from the series’ first three entries. It implemented the tag system where you could tag in a partner fighter if and do team-up attacks.
20. Panzer Dragoon (Saturn)
Even the troubled launch of the Sega Saturn had a couple of bright spots. One of them was the first game in the Panzer Dragoon series. It introduced all of its defining features, from the core rail shooter action, to the fact that the thing you’re shooting with is a giant magical dragon soaring through the air all majestic-like.—Garrett Martin
19. F-Zero (SNES)
Years before Captain Falcon was yelling his own name while throwing fists and attacking, he premiered in this futuristic racer. Awesome music, awesome car and track design, and plenty of racing to be found! Now if only Nintendo would give us a new one.
18. Daytona USA (Saturn)
Visually impressive with tight gameplay, this racing game started as an arcade game and was ported to the Saturn upon launch. Featuring the best theme song to ever grace a videogame console, it’s still receiving sequels to this day. The car, Hornet, was a unlockable fighter in another Saturn game, Fighters Megamix.
17. Super Dodgeball Advance (GBA)
The first Kunio-kun game released in the US since River City Ransom, Super Dodgeball Advance had to facing off other teams from across the world where you could throw a ball so hard it would turn an opposing player into an angel and they’d float off to Heaven.
16. Condemned: Criminal Origins (Xbox 360)
It’s very rare for a survival horror game to be a launch title but Condemned did it and had you playing as a crime scene investigator hunting down a serial killer who is killing other serial killers you’re also looking for.
15. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita)
A good entry to the Uncharted series, Golden Abyss took advantage of the Vita’s touchscreens while also striking a good balance of not making itself too over reliant on the touch features. It not only controlled well but still had all the high adventure beats of a traditional Uncharted game with Nathan facing off against mercenaries and looking for ancient treasures.
14. TimeSplitters (PlayStation 2)
As the 21st century dawned, every new console needed a first-person shooter at launch, and TimeSplitters more than capably filled that role for the PlayStation 2. Made by some of the designers behind GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, it injected a shot of co-op and multiplayer thrillpower into the PS2 at launch. You know a game’s made a deep impact upon the culture when a pro wrestling tag team steals their name from it.—Garrett Martin
13. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GC)
Giving fans a chance to fly a variety of Star Wars vehicles, it was fun to control and added plenty of replayability with completing levels for medals and plenty of unlocks. It continued the tradition of the ludicrously long naming conventions of Star Wars games such as by Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force.
12. Lumines (PlayStation Portable)
Much like he did for shooters with the game Rez, Tetsuya Mizuguchi made sound a vital component of puzzle games with Lumines. It unites sound, time and color into a single mindbending whole.—Garrett Martin
11. Soulcalibur (Dreamcast)
This fighting game almost certainly destroyed friendships with it’s fast-paced weapon combat, Soulcalibur is considered one of the best, if not the best, Dreamcast to come out. Full of colorful fighters, from a contortionist BDSM nightmare man, to a samurai, to a sentient pair of breasts wielding a whip sword, Soulcalibur had something for everyone.
10. The Legendary Axe (TurboGrafx-16)
This hack’n’slash cult classic was one of the few launch titles to win a game of the year award from a major publication when VideoGames & Computer Entertainment called it the best game of 1989. It still holds up today, too.—Garrett Martin
9. Resogun (PS4)
An exemplary voxel-based side-scrolling shoot-em-up, Resogun did a good job at displaying the PlayStation 4’s particle effect abilities with everything on screen being destructible. It was also an audio delight featuring a lively techno soundtrack and quality in-game noises.
8. Power Stone (Dreamcast)
A great 3D arena fighting game, the game featured a diverse cast, weapon pickups, and cool powerup system involving the titular power stones, the game would be expanded upon with the release of its sequel. Both can be now found on the PS Vita.
7. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (Xbox 360 Arcade)
Starting life as a minigame in Project Gotham Racing, it was so well regarded as an excellent twin-stick shooter it went on to be a full fledged game and even spawned two sequels and a spin-off.
6. Super Mario World (SNES)
Taking everything about the previous games and improving upon it, Super Mario World also added everyone’s favorite green dinosaur, Yoshi. It was also packed with ninety-six levels of top notch platforming and enough secrets to shake a stick.
5. Wii Sports (Wii)
Everyone played Wii Sports. In my own household, my parents who never touched a videogame got into it and they were numerous news stories of retirement homes using it to get their tenants up and moving. It heralded the start of the era of motion controls and inspired plenty of imitators that flooded the Wii’s library.
4. Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)
The first truly great console first person shooter, Halo was considered the original Xbox’s “killer app,” and lead to many LAN parties for years to come. It originally began life as third person action game for Windows and Mac, but after Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000, the game was changed to a first person shooter.
3. Super Mario 64 (N64)
Mario’s first foray into the third dimension went on to sell eleven million copies and is generally considered one of the best games of all time. Outside of the Windows version of Mario Teaches Typing, it was the first game where Charles Martinet voiced Mario. This game also featured Yoshi but he wasn’t even rideable so what was the point.
2. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Though not the first game with Mario in it, or even his brother, it was the first Super Mario Bros. game, and definitely the one everybody remembers the most. Especially pausing the game while playing two-player and watching your sibling plummet into a pit. It’s even gone on to be ported to practically every Nintendo console and even getting it’s own version on Japanese computers.
1. Tetris (Game Boy)
No launch game ever meant more for its system than the Game Boy version of Tetris. It was the killer app of all killer apps, and without its phenomenal success the entire handheld market might have turned out very differently. As good as the computer, arcade and NES versions were, it was all those late nights on car trips and under the covers where the green-tinted Game Boy screen burned these blocks into our dreams.—Garrett Martin
Terence Wiggins is the co-host of the podcast Whatever We Call It, the creator of the videogame online zine We <3 Video Games, the cookie wizard behind The Black Nerd’s Baked Goods, and the Internet’s best friend. He’s on Twitter @TheBlackNerd. Garrett Martin is an editor at Paste Magazine.