{"id":49957,"date":"2023-02-16T20:41:47","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T20:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pley2win.com\/nintendo\/which-nintendo-console-has-the-best-first-party-games-lineup\/"},"modified":"2023-02-16T20:41:47","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T20:41:47","slug":"which-nintendo-console-has-the-best-first-party-games-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pley2win.com\/?p=49957","title":{"rendered":"Which Nintendo Console Has The Best First-Party Games Lineup?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gavin Lane, Editor – N64<\/h2>\n
$\"Nintendo$
Image: Zion Grassl \/ Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
“Oof, N64? Weird controller, ugly games, Nintendo heading off a cliff after the 16-bit generation. Sad.”<\/em><\/p>\n
Poor take, Made-Up Contratrian Person! I’ll concede that commercially the N64 signalled a decline in Nintendo’s cultural dominance with Sony in the ascent in the mid-’90s, but you don’t get to dismiss a library of genre-definers as “ugly”!<\/p>\n
Look. Mario 64 is obviously the ace in the hole here, but you can’t hang an entire console on one great game, whether it guided an entire genre or not. So, let’s throw in a little something else like, oh I don’t know,<\/em> Ocarina of Time. One epic Zelda adventure not enough for you? Here, have a Majora’s Mask, too. That’s the best one, anyway.<\/p>\n
Pff, boring! Every<\/em> Nintendo console’s got good Marios and Zeldas. What else is there? Well, how about the best Star Fox, the best F-Zero, and the best Mario Party (not my bag, but that’s what you folks say)? The N64 was the birthplace of Paper Mario, Smash Bros., Pok\u00e9mon Snap, and the first four-player Mario Kart. Wave Race 64 is an all-time piece of software that holds up beautifully today (not the PAL version, never the PAL version), and then there’s the majesty of games like 1080 Snowboarding and Pilotwings 64, just a couple of lower-tier releases that put AAAs on other consoles to shame. There was even a Kirby game, if you like that sort of thing.<\/p>\n
I’ve intentionally not mentioned the Nintendo-published Rare games above in an effort to highlight how the Ultra 64 wasn’t<\/em> just a Rareware machine. But throw just a couple of those in the mix \u2014 say, GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie \u2014 and the quality, breadth, and sheer originality of N64’s first-party output is unmatched by any other system.<\/p>\n
(Shoutout to the handhelds, though \u2014 I love you, too!)<\/p>\n
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Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer – GameCube<\/h2>\n
$\"GameCube\"\/$
Image: Zion Grassl \/ Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It would be pretty easy to say that the Switch has the best line-up of first-party Nintendo games, but in my eyes, a large portion of it is comprised of direct sequels, ports, and revamps of prior titles, so it doesn’t really<\/em> count. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is absurdly good, but it’s built on a solid foundation already found on the Wii U; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as awesome as it is, is very much a “greatest hits” album from Sakurai’s fighting franchise; heck, even Breath of the Wild technically started life on the Wii U.<\/p>\n
For me, the greatest line-up of first-party games was found on GameCube, and it’s also where Nintendo took the biggest risks with its IP. Without listing all<\/em> of them, you’ve got certified bangers like The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, and so<\/em> many more. Not only that, but the GameCube introduced western audiences to the likes of Animal Crossing, while evergreen franchises like Pikmin<\/strong> and Luigi’s Mansion<\/strong> also got their start on Nintendo’s cute little cube.<\/p>\n
Finally \u2014 and I can’t express how important this is \u2014 Donkey Konga. I mean, come on<\/em>.<\/p>\n
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Jim Norman, Staff Writer – Switch<\/h2>\n
$\"Nintendo$
Image: Zion Grassl \/ Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I do have to agree with everything that has been said above: the Switch has a boatload of fantastic first-party titles which did<\/em> start life on consoles that preceded it. That being said, I don’t see this as a dirty mark against the system’s lineup. We are talking about the best first-party games here, and where can you find most of them? On the Switch.<\/p>\n
Seemingly every one of Nintendo’s franchises has a ‘series best’ game on the Switch. Yes, there’s your Mario Kart, Smash Bros. and Breath of the Wild which all technically<\/em> come from other systems, but if we are to put those aside (which, as I say, I wouldn’t do) there is still likes of Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Dread, Splatoon 3, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons \u2014 titles that constantly pop up as one of, if not the<\/em> best games in their respective series. That speaks to something, surely.<\/p>\n
It might be entering its final phase now, but the Switch shows no sign of slowing down either. We just got Metroid Prime Remastered (as our review notes, “a masterpiece has been made even<\/em> better<\/em>“) and we are soon to get the most-anticipated game in recent memory in the shape of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Sure, a lot of these ideas have come from somewhere else, but they are each made all the better on the Switch.<\/p>\n
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Well, there are our thoughts, but do you agree with them? We have thrown our picks and the rest into the following poll which you can fill out to let us know your pick, then take to the comments to back up your choice!<\/em><\/p>\n
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Which Nintendo console has the best first-party lineup? (1,242 votes)<\/h3>\n
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NES<\/strong>3<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Game Boy<\/strong>1<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
SNES<\/strong>22<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Nintendo 64<\/strong>9<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
GameCube<\/strong>19<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Game Boy Advance<\/strong>2<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
DS<\/strong>1<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Wii<\/strong>3<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
3DS<\/strong>4<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Wii U<\/strong>4<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Switch<\/strong>32<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Other (something for you G&W and VB lovers, perhaps)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span> 0%<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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$\"Jim$ <\/p>\n
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Be it rambling about video games or superheroes, Jim wears his passions on his sleeve. Usually found replaying a Zelda title instead of working through his ever-growing backlog, he is a huge fan of all-things fantasy and likes nothing more than to chat about it.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n