radiofloyd Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 The Wii-U is the first big home console launch in a while. I was only ten years old when the PS2 launched in 2000, so the current gen of consoles (Wii/360/PS3) was the first time where i was really there from the beginning as a gamer. Looking back on launch titles over the years: Sega Mega Drive: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle Altered Beast Columns Golden Axe Space Harrier II Super Thunder Blade Snes: Super Mario World F-Zero Pilotwings Playstation: Ridge Racer Battle Arena Toshinden Jumping Flash! Rapid Reload 3D Lemmings Wipeout Novastorm Kileak: The Blood Nintendo 64: Pilotwings 64 Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Super Mario 64 Dreamcast: Sonic Adventure Blue Stinger Dynamite Cop Hydro Thunder Monaco Grand Prix Mortal Kombat Gold Power Stone Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Sega Rally 2 Tokyo Highway Challenge TrickStyle Virtua Fighter 3tb Playstation 2: Aqua Aqua Dynasty Warriors 2 Fantavision FIFA 2001 Gradius III and IV International Superstar Soccer NHL 2001 Orphen: Scion of Sorcery Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2 Ridge Racer V Silent Scope Smuggler's Run SSX Tekken Tag Tournament Timesplitters Wild Wild Racing Nintendo Gamecube: 2002 FIFA World Cup Batman: Vengeance Bloody Roar: Primal Fury Burnout Cel Damage Crazy Taxi Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 Disney's Tarzan Freeride Donald Duck: Quack Attack Driven ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 International Superstar Soccer 2 Luigi's Mansion Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader Super Monkey Ball Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure Wave Race: Blue Storm XG3: Extreme G Racing Microsoft Xbox: Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding Batman: Vengeance Blood Wake Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 Dead or Alive 3 Fuzion Frenzy Halo: Combat Evolved Jet Set Radio Future Mad Dash Racing Max Payne NBA Live 2002 NHL 2002 NHL Hitz 2002 Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee Project Gotham Racing Rallisport Challenge Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 TransWorld Surf Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions Xbox 360: Amped 3 Call of Duty 2 Condemned: Criminal Origins FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup GUN Kameo: Elements of Power Madden NFL 06 NBA Live 06 Need for Speed: Most Wanted Perfect Dark Zero Peter Jackson's King Kong Project Gotham Racing 3 Quake 4 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 Tony Hawk's American Wasteland Playstation 3: Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII Call of Duty 3 Def Jam: Icon Enchanted Arms Fight Night Round 3 Formula One Championship Edition Full Auto 2: Battlelines Genji: Days of the Blade Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight MotorStorm NBA Street Homecourt Need for Speed: Carbon NHL 2K7 Resistance: Fall of Man Ridge Racer 7 Sonic the Hedgehog Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent Tony Hawk's Project 8 The Godfather: The Don's Edition Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom Virtua Fighter 5 Virtua Tennis 3 World Snooker Championship 2007 Nintendo Wii: Barnyard Call of Duty 3 Cars Far Cry Vengeance GT Pro Series Happy Feet The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Madden NFL 07 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Monster 4x4: World Circuit Need for Speed: Carbon Open Season Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection Rampage: Total Destruction Rayman Raving Rabbids Red Steel SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab Super Fruit Fall Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Wii Play Wii Sports Which consoles did you get on launch? Did you ever import a console before it launched in the UK? Was there any one console in particular that you think everyone was crazy to get their hands on? Which do you think had the best launch titles? And the worst? Which console do you think had the steadiest stream of good titles in its lifetime, and which in dribs and drabs? Any funny/sad anecdotes from a new console launch period? The only console i ever bought at launch was the Wii, and Twilight Princess has surely got to be up there with the best launch games. I easily spent over 100 hours on it over a couple of plays. When you think about it i suppose the Wii had two periods of particular interest, the first 18 months or so where Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, No More Heroes and Smash Bros. Brawl all came out...and then a mini-renaissance at the end of 2011 with Xenoblade Chronicles and Skyward Sword. I also played Okami, Wind Waker and Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door on the Wii, so i don't regret buying one for a second! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sly Reflex Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I never realised how bad Sony's start line ups were. They are crap, even for launch games they were a bit bad apart from one or two games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I was only ten years old when the PS2 launched in 2000 why don't you go fuck yourself, yeah? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manicm Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I got the Cube on launch and the wii, both xbox and ps3 i was late to the party, i had the snes late into its life as well, but the cube for some reason i thought it only had 4 launch titles?? Luigi's Mansion, Starwars and 2 others i remember only having 4 games for it for ages always waiting for another or any game. Only 2 consoles i imported one from Liksang which was my PSP and my first DS got that from the states. Do like a console launch but not sure the wii u interests me at the moment, i have enough next gen consoles as it is. Jury is out, might get one after christmas but if its anything like my wii doubt i will use it so would be a wasted purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimboxy Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I was only ten years old when the PS2 launched in 2000 why don't you go fuck yourself, yeah? This. Mario 64 is and always will be the best launch title of any system ever. Blew my fucking mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spatular Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 same as manicm I got a us ds before uk launch, that was pretty cool, got some games early from japan too like the Kirby, Yoshi and band brothers games I really liked. got a 360 on launch - pgr3 was awesome but other than that I spent most of the early time on it playing halo2. wii - agree with Floyd - twighlight princess was kick ass, and wii sports with friends, that was a brilliant xmas. had a gamecube quite soon after launch with pikmin and monkeyball - really liked those. looking at the list i'd say the xbox has the best launch lineup for me (pgr, jsrf, halo, ralisport) but I only got one a few years later (and oddly with 3 of those games). also agree with Jimbo that Mario 64 blew me away but I only played it emulated on a pc years later - that's actually what got me into consoles, went out and bought an n64 asap, that was a flipping brilliant console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Dokuro Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 I was only ten years old when the PS2 launched in 2000 I remember the launch of the NES and Master System. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 It's rare I get a console right on launch, I've had a few around launch including the DS, the Gamecube, the 32X (18 years old yesterday) and the Wii, although with the Wii it was because it was sold out I didn't get my preorder for months after release. I got a Japanese Dreamcast at launch, it was awesome. I got Sonic Adventure and Blue Stinger with it, the former being better than the latter, and picked up Sega Rally 2, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Power Stone, Soul Calibur etc as they came out. There was some guy advertising in the back of SSM where you could ring up, leave your name, address and card number on his answer phone, plus the game you wanted, and he'd post the game from Japan for about £25, it was awesome I swapped that for a UK Dreamcast at launch, and then rebought pretty much everything I'd already had. The Dreamcast for me is the console that had the steadiest stream of quality titles, a lot of them have been usurped by sequels and ports, but at the time you could buy a great game every few weeks I got the 3DS at launch, the launch line up was ok, I thought Pro Evo was great, but a lot of my time with it was playing DS games that came out at the same time. I got a NeoGeo Pocket Colour at launch too, that was great, I remember there being a World Cup game that was 2 player via system link, my brother bought himself a NGPC and the game too, it was pretty good in 2 player. I forget what else I had, Sonic certainly and I think Fatal Fury R2 Got to say I agree that the Wii was superb for the first couple of years, it's odd that it used to get as much stick as the PS3 back then for having no games but it had a better run of games than the 360 back then, they were certainly more interesting. Excite Truck, probably all that needs to be said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandsomeDead Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Buying consoles at launch is quite a new thing for me. The Xbox 360 was the first so it was quite exciting, though with hindsight it was a bit of a disaster. I pre-ordered one form Woolworths quite late on when premium models were quite hard to come buy so I got a core pack instead. That's a bare-bones version. No HDD, a wired controller, a composite cable... a shiity package. It didn't even have a silver disc tray. It did come with PGR 3 and a memory card. I got Perfect Dark Zero, too, but I can't remember if I bought that separately or not. I liked PGR 3 but didn't like it as much as PGR 2, and well PD0 is awful. So while I was also shopping for a wireless controller, a HDD (which were like gold dust during launch) and a VGA cable, I also picked up Call of Duty 2 and Kameo, both of which I enjoyed much more and I started to get into the 360 more. But I can't believe how much I spent on peripherals during that time.... Know idea how I had the money to buy all that shit because it was expensive. I think I had no social life during that time. I also got a Wii on launch the year after. Pre-ordered from Woolworths again. Obviously I got Wii Sports as it was bundle game, and I picked up Red Steel and Twilight Princess along with it. Overall, Red Steel is a fairly poor game with a couple of nice touches but I'm with Floyd with Twilight Princess; it is one of the strongest launch titles ever. At the time it had this reputation as one of the weakest Zelda's but I think it's slowly getting more appreciation with time. In some ways Wind Waker is like that, too. Anyway, I think the next day I went to pick up and extra controller but they had none left but plenty of Wii Plays bundled with one which only cost a fiver more so I got one of those. I used to play Gears of War online a lot during that time and other games I would buy were barely getting a look in but TP expanded my gaming habits again. I've bought a load of Handhels at launch. The original GBA I got for Christmas but the SP I bought on launch (or the day after) in Carlisle's GAME. I'm fairly sure it launched alongside Golden Sun 2 and I picked them both up together and just marveled at the very concept of playing my GBA anytime I wanted thanks to the front-lit screen. It blew me away. I'm sure I bought a DS at launch but I can't remember where. I got the WarioWare game, Mario 64 DS and Yoshi Touched or whatever it was called. I wasn't won over by the DS at first but when the DS Lite came it was accompanied with some of the best games for the system so buying that on launch really reinvigorated my appreciation for the system. I'm not sure exactly what I picked up with it, though...I wanna say Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, but I'm sure there was others. I think I got a DSi on launch, too, for DSiWare games but they didn't really do much with that; not like they are with the eShop on 3DS. I know it's shallow, but it's great being involved with a console's launch just to be part of the zeitgeist and stuff. Despite it not being the most smartest things to do, both practically and financially I still like being involved with a console launch. I'd do all the previous again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendo Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I was there for these: Nintendo Gamecube: 2002 FIFA World Cup Batman: Vengeance Bloody Roar: Primal Fury Burnout Cel Damage Crazy Taxi Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 Disney's Tarzan Freeride Donald Duck: Quack Attack Driven ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 International Superstar Soccer 2 Luigi's Mansion Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader Super Monkey Ball Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure Wave Race: Blue Storm XG3: Extreme G Racing Nintendo Wii: Barnyard Call of Duty 3 Cars Far Cry Vengeance GT Pro Series Happy Feet The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Madden NFL 07 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Monster 4x4: World Circuit Need for Speed: Carbon Open Season Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection Rampage: Total Destruction Rayman Raving Rabbids Red Steel SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab Super Fruit Fall Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Wii Play Wii Sports Plus the PSP which I felt had a pretty good launch with Mercury, Ridge Racer, Burnout (maybe came a week later) and Lumines. The Wii's line-up wasn't great - after your boxed copy of Wii Sports and Zelda, there was little else to recommend. I did really enjoy Wii Play but I think I'm in the minority. The GameCube had a great launch line up. I went for a deal where you could pick two games and Rogue Squadron was always going to be one of them so it was originally going to be Sonic Adventure 2 but in the end I took a chance with Super Monkey Ball because I'd heard something about it being pretty good. I went back for a second pad the day after and I had to force myself to change the disc to play Star Wars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberpunk Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 I was only ten years old when the PS2 launched in 2000 why don't you go fuck yourself, yeah? This. Ditto! I'm so fucking old, the first console I can remember playing is the Atari 2600 (which launched with Air-Sea Battle, Basic Math, Blackjack, Combat, Indy 500, Star Ship, Street Racer, Surround, and Video Olympics. Great titles all, lol.) The first console I owned was a Commodore 64. Ok not really a console, but the gaming machine of the day. I played Hellcat, R-Type, Test Drive, Ghost Busters, and loads of other great games on it. Even with the 20 minutes plus load times. I did have an import console, but it wasn't imported by me, and not for launch either. I've still got it too. A Sega Genesis, which is what the Megadrive was called in the States for copyright reasons. It plays all region cartridges without adaptors, and I think it runs at a slightly faster speed than it's UK counterpart. I went to a SNES when they launched the Mario All Stars package. And as Ed would say, I saw the light. All Stars was a great game collection to start Nintendo gaming with. And to this day F-Zero is rated as one of my favourite games. A few consoles later (N64, Playstation, Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance) and a very lengthy and ongoing spell of PC gaming, and I currently own these. Gaming Spec PC Nintendo DS phat Nintendo DS lite Sony PSP 2000 Xbox 360 Nintendo Wii (which is really not mine, but the family console.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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