Nintendo Launch Lineup Tier List Ranking w/ Victor Lucas

Spice lovers, are you ready to feel the fire this winter? Heat up the coldest month of the year with new limited edition extra flaming hot walkers. Bringing the heat to Britain's most loved Chris brand. Don't be a denier. Own the fire. Try new Extra Flamin' Hot Walkers. And try the rest of our range with Extra Flamin' Hot Doritos, Walkers Max, and What's It's Crunchy.

Welcome to the All Things Nintendo Podcast. I'm Brian Shea and this is a weekly podcast to discuss all the biggest news and games from the world of Nintendo. That very world of Nintendo is still in a bit of a holding pattern that seems like it will have very few breaks until the Switch 2 Direct in April.

So I decided this main segment will involve looking at all of the launch lineups in Nintendo history and slotting them into tiers. We'll also talk about the greatest Nintendo launch games of all time and cover a little bit of light news.

Joining me for that is the man behind Electric Playground. It is the legend himself, 30-plus years in the game, Victor Lucas. How are you doing, Victor? I'm doing great, man. It's very weird to hear the legend word bandied around up there, but thank you very much.

much that's very kind and uh yeah i haven't seen you in 2025 we talked about getting together a little bit before but our schedules just couldn't line up it's good to see you my friend and thank you for being a part of our rocket and ray gun awards this year you were great

Yeah, of course. I believe you asked me to keep it under a minute, right? And I am very bad at keeping under a time limit. So it took me a few takes, but I did get there and I did talk about my favorite games of 2024 for your award show. I hope it went well. It turned out great, man. Hearing from the community is so special. When we had the TV shows, I had a big team that would work with me and we would get through all of the games in a year just like you when you were working.

game informer and so it was always a really special thing to get everybody together and talk about this stuff but of course you know modern media the way it is it's been a fun kind of pivot to include people that watch our content watch EP and have watched for a long time, a lot of them. And to see those faces and then also some people from the media space and from the game development space, I love it.

I would like to do more, but it always becomes a time constraint. That's why I say, help me out here and just keep it to about a minute because these shows would go on forever if we could get everybody in. Maybe one day. Oh, no, I totally get that. When I started this show, I said, all right, the sweet spot for this show... is between 45 minutes and an hour 15. That was like my desired length. Fast forward to 2024, my longest or my most watched show was when there was like...

recap of like one of the Nintendo directs that happened. And I think we went for three and a half hours, which is the longest I've ever podcast. So don't worry, we are not going that long today. But it was just like, man, I definitely lost that. 45 minute to an hour 15 thread somewhere along the way here. That just says to me, you like to talk about games, man. Oh yeah. That's it. That's it. You're my kind of people.

I've been doing it for more than a decade and a half, which, you know, compare that to yours. You've been talking about games in front of a camera for three decades. That is wild. It is wild, absolutely. I came up with this tagline for EPN, the Electric Playground Network, of Play Forever in 2014, so a little more than a decade ago. And I just thought it fit because we'd already been going.

going for a long time at that point. But that really is my motto at this point. I intend to play forever and it fits. And it's really... you know when people when i sign off from some of the shows and stuff that i do i say play forever and i get that in a lot of the chats and stuff people say it back to me and it's really heartwarming it's it's really freaking cool um i don't know if i've had play i think probably i went to

a few cons last year and i got a few playforevers face to face which is pretty rad but uh this is an incredible privilege to be able to talk about video games you know and it's so gratifying and i would do it anyway and to be able to communicate it you know with the support of people and you know

often with people like yourself and, and, um, uh, for people, you know, that are looking for a little bit of guidance or my point of view, I feel so grateful that that's the existence I have, you know, and, and, uh, it's a, it's surreal. to be doing this decades later. But I also feel like I found the path. This was what I was supposed to do. I actually recommended Electric Playground to a friend just the other day. We were talking and he was like, oh, I've been really in this nostalgia.

Well, where I've just been going and like watching old footage from like the 90s and the early 2000s and like interviews and like. footage from e3 and everything i'm like well do i have a channel for you because my friend victor over here has been doing this for three decades and not only is he doing like new content where he's like reviewing new games like you just published your avowed review on your channel

But there's also footage of you interviewing Hideo Kojima and you're... youtube channel recently from like metal gear solid 2 and it's like man like this is like a deep well of just exciting nostalgic historical footage at this point like i mean there's many options or opportunities to see this type of footage preserved as well as it has been.

Well, and this was through the partnerships that we have with the University of Toronto Mississauga. They're up converting our full archive. We donated the archive to the school as an educational license so they can share it with their students. They have game study students. there. They're digging into the archive, not only the episodes, but a lot of the raw footage and stuff that we have as well. As part of our partnership, they are digitizing everything for-

their school, but also they give it back to me so that we can share it with everybody on our YouTube channel. And I got to tell you. I hope you do this too with your work. I hope there is some way for you to re-examine your work and to dig into it. But there is something so invigorating about seeing younger you. With all of that hope and all that optimism and that goodwill going out and trying to manifest a thing and to feel that.

decades later that there was some achievements there, some success with that. Also, it's really been inspiring for me to have new conversations with people, some catch-up conversations with- people that were on the show before. So I've done some podcasts and where are they now type podcasts. And I love that. But also lots of other interesting conversations about the state of games media and the, and the state of our conversations with.

the audience and also with the developers, because somehow that has been completely broken. We're in a very, I think, a terrible kind of situation right now where it's so... clenched and everybody's so nervous about saying the wrong thing. A studio lives or dies now on the success of one game. You can just feel it. Everybody is just...

ready to pounce and ready to be angry and ready to capitalize and monetize on that anger or they're terrified and developers are scared to say anything. I had this unbelievable access and privilege. that we just crafted with everybody. And PR was always, I think, a little bit hesitant, a little bit nervous because we would get a little bit crazy sometimes. But I think what people understood about Electric Playground...

And me specifically, everybody loved games, but the show really came out of my heart. It was like, oh my God, I love this stuff. I want to know why we care about this stuff. I want to know who makes this stuff. And I want to have that conversation in a way that's going to be palatable to a lot of people. And it took a long time before we kind of found the groove. And we did make it palatable for a lot of people.

You know, there's lots of excellent work out there. I don't mean to throw anybody under the bus, but there is just a lot of, it's rampant negativity and there's a lot of, I don't know. It's like shock radio in a way, you know? Yeah. Or fanzines. Like we went back in time to the fanzines where everybody was just railing about stuff. And it comes from passion, which we can't deny.

But I don't know. I miss that just honest one-to-one kind of conversation with these game creators. And now, you know, if people watch classic EP or EP classic, as we call it. That's what they can get every week. Thankfully, I found an amazing partner with P&P Games, who's a retailer in Winnipeg here in Canada. And they sell classic stuff, retro stuff. I wanted to find a partner that it was a great fit. And they've just been amazing allies. I couldn't have found a better partner for this.

endeavor for this exercise of getting all of this classic stuff out there. That's awesome. Yeah, it's been really rad, man. It is weird, though, to live in two timelines like that at the same time, right? Because every weekend, I'm young me, and then I've gone back to like...

I'm not crotchety or cranky old me, but I'm older me for sure. And I'm playing games again. And God, man, when you're at this, and you've been at this a long enough time too, you start to review the same game again, but it's the remastered game. re-release games oh my god i think there's been games now that i've done three times you know where it's been like and it's it's uh

It's surreal. But then, you know, I was actually quite fond of what Sony just did with their state of play. I think they had a lot of great reveals in that. A lot of new things I hadn't heard of. And that's a perfect segue, Victor, because we're going to cover the news here. And it has been an incredibly slow news week in the world of Nintendo.

So I'd say it's only fitting that the vast majority of the news that we're going to be talking about today came via that PlayStation State of Play live stream. Yeah. I mean, we're not going to be talking about the PlayStation exclusives or anything, but there were several games that were covered that are coming to a Nintendo console. At least we know are coming to a Nintendo console. I'm sure there are other things. All of them will, man. I mean, I think that's the era now, right? Yeah.

Exclusives are a dirty word now. I mean, unless you're Nintendo, in which case, you're never going to see Mario on an Xbox, I don't think. I mean, there was a question there when people were like posing like, oh, the Wii U is failing miserably. Maybe they should put their games on Xbox. It's like looking back now, it's like, wow, what were they? Yeah, that's crazy. So first up, one of the first announcements.

Back at the Game Awards in December was an acclaimed studio's retro reimagining of the classic Ninja Gaiden games with Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. And I was like, all right, awesome. I love the Blasphemous games. I'm very excited for Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. And a series that is very much adjacent to Ninja Gaiden back in the day anyway, back when it was a 2D game, was Shinobi.

And one of the first games shown at this most recent state of play, wouldn't you know it, it is an acclaimed studio's retro reimagining of the classic Shinobi games. The game is called Shinobi Art of Vengeance. And this is Lizard Cube who brought out Streets of Rage 4 and they crushed it with Streets of Rage 4. Absolutely adore that game. Honestly.

Shinobi was the most exciting thing for the whole PlayStation reveal for me. It was the first thing or the second thing. It was very early in the show. And I know it's a 2D game, and I'm also nervous because people didn't show up for Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown, which is crazy to me. That was beautiful, one of the best of 2024. But I know that this probably didn't have the budget of... Prince of Persia. It didn't have the pressures of Prince of Persia.

And that team knows what they're doing with 2D. And Sega's got a lot of smart moving going on right now. They've got a lot of smart decisions. They're looking at their classic archive finally. I love it. Yeah, finding ways to get us these new games or new games based on these characters and these properties. Hell yes. That set a really great tone.

for the whole showcase. I thought that that was a great way to start the state of play, but, and you know, that's coming to the switch too and probably switch one. Why would you not put one? It is. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect.

Yeah. So it has a combo based combat system, amulets that you can equip to enhance your abilities. You can use tools. I'm assuming it's just like cool, like ninja tools, like grappling hooks. I mean, I don't think they've announced any of the tools, but like all kinds of different like gadgets and tools to overcome obstacles.

It also in the press release says there are more than a dozen stages full of platforming puzzles across several different biomes. So yeah, it is coming to Switch and every other major platform on August 29th. Amazing. Very excited for that. As a longtime fan of those 2D ninja games, whether it be Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden back in like the NES Genesis days.

This has me very excited. Well, and what's great about those games is that they're as incredible to play in 2025. And Lizard Cube, who understood that about Streets of Rage. totally gets it for this game. Perfect idea, perfect developer. Man, I love 2D games. If they are done very well, they just resonate and they just matter and they're so freaking fun to get lost in.

Yeah, I've been playing. I finally put... a bow on my playthrough of metaphor re fantazio and absolutely loved it uh the ending i am uh not a fan of not not the ending of the story but the ending of like the the game itself like the the final stretch I think that game could have used an editor at the end of that game and also a little bit of tuning in the final boss because good lord. That's most games, man. That's most games now, Brian. I think about this all the time.

There are games that I know you and I could point to. that we're over too quickly and we lament them. We miss them. We want to go back into them. And I want more games to deliver that feeling, not this feeling of overstaying your welcome, like there's some kind of value. quota that developers have to meet based on a spreadsheet. No. Get us to miss the game and think about it and want to go back.

Yeah. And it all kind of goes back to me. I remember like the moment that I realized that there, and I think a lot of people realized that there was this shift. in the thinking like the the mainstream thinking of gamers of like we don't need a game to be like 500 hours like no Remember when I think it was Dying Light 2 put out a graphic that was like, it'll take you 760 hours to do everything in this game. And everybody's like...

then I guess I'm not playing this game because that sucks. Just like, wait, they're probably like, wait, what? Like I thought you guys wanted bang for your buck. Yeah. I mean, Red Dead Redemption 2 was definitely that for me. I love that game, but it just took me so goddamn long to finish it. It was just so bloody long, and I was like, oh my god, no.

And by the end, it's like you start to question why you're still playing, you know? Like, this has trapped me. And I also kind of felt that for Tears of the Kingdom, which was spectacular. But it was too much. I just felt like, okay, let's go. Let's finish this thing. I did not feel that for breath. Breath, I didn't want to leave. I purposefully held off on the final boss fight because I wanted to... Linger and linger and stay with.

this space, you know? And I think of the first Red Dead all the time because that was a game where I finished and I was morose. I was like riding my horse around going, I don't want to leave, man. I love this place. I love these people. That's how I thought about Ghost of Tsushima.

because I was just like, man, this game is just, I was just absorbed by that game. But all that to say with the metaphor thing, I am so looking forward to, after playing this game that I very much loved, like it was my number four game last year.

definitely holds true even with my qualms about the ending and the the last stretch of gameplay I am very much looking forward to playing something a little bit breezier now, like a 2D Metroidvania or like I was even toying with going back to play Mario 64 or something like that, where it's just like kind of like comfort food.

uh quick into the action no like need to sit through like super long cut scenes or long dialogue options that you need to play through it's just like nope i am jumping around and the most mario is gonna say is here we go

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, Mario Wonder is excellent for that, by the way. What a delightful game that is. But I definitely default to... uh the insomniac spider-man games when i need to just palate quench and they just released it for uh pc spider-man 2 so i've been playing that on the uh asus rog ally x and it's been

working pretty well, which is cool. But the Arkham games are kind of like that as well for me. And the Uncharted games are like that for me as well, where you can sort of jump into a chapter and do some missions and just have some fun. Yeah. There's definitely a list of games that I've considered replaying, but I was like, yeah, after playing this...

long RPG. I think I ended with like 105 hours in it. I was like, yeah, I'm ready for like, maybe like a 10 hour experience. And I said this in the avowed review that I just put up. It's like, we have had just this. cascade of great role-playing games. Diablo 4 and Baldur's Gate 3 and Final Fantasy 16 and then all throughout last year.

we just have had a lot of really, really big games, like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. And I love Mario and Luigi Brothership. I love that game. You know, I feel like it didn't get the respect. it deserved it was just so delightful paper mario was insane um just just this huge grouping of excellent role-playing games and then avowed is just i just found it okay you know i just found it kind of sort of at the the It's kind of mid, which is too bad. That's unfortunate. Did you like Outer Worlds?

I did. I think with Outer Worlds, because of its outer space stuff, there wasn't a lot of flying around. Obviously, Starfield took the crown a little bit there.

But Outer Worlds was kind of unique that way. Certainly, it was similar to a Fallout type of vibe, but not everything was broken. There was still a sense that the world was still thriving, some of these worlds. And it was also... manageable it was contained and i liked that about it it wasn't super super crazy and avowed is kind of that way as well it just doesn't

in this you know it doesn't really elevate the art form it doesn't really sort of do stuff that us i kept thinking about dragon age the veil guard which i think has been completely um overlooked And it's unfortunate because BioWare is in this precarious situation now as a studio because it didn't do well. And Dragon Age of Vilgard ended up being one of the games that I played the most in 2024. It was really freaking fun. The ending's amazing in that game. I don't know if you've...

got to the end of that one. No, I only put about 10 hours into it. And I know it's hand-holdy and it's a little slow and it's not as maybe... mature in some of its writing as the launch Dragon Age games. But God, it's fun. It's just really fun on the sticks. And I liked the... relationships I was building with everybody, and they all come into play as you sort of...

charge into this massive ending for the game. And I really, really liked that game. And I kept thinking about that because you do a lot of the same types of things in Avowed. And I just had way more fun playing Dragon Age. But it's hard to play all of these games, right? They're all so big. It's hard for one human being. Yeah. Especially last year. Last year was just so many RPGs. Yeah. I mean, I love the Like a Dragon series and Infinite Wealth I was having a blast with.

But it's just like I had to move on to something else and I had to like play something else. And I was like, okay, well, suddenly Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out and that's going to be like 70 hours. Yeah, same. And I had to bail on infinite wealth. And so now Like a Pirate's out already or soon.

I don't even know if I'm going to even play that. I'll try, but I've got two other huge RPGs on the PS5 ready to go. I didn't even get to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Oh, my God. There's too many of these... massive games happening all at the same time. 100% true. But that's another perfect segue because if you want a Like a Dragon experience that is a little bit shorter, Dave the Diver is getting new crossover DLC. That's great.

Yes, that's great. So it already crossed over with Dredge, but rather than going indie with its next crossover, it is going so far in the opposite direction, full AAA, but... It's Ichiban's Holiday. So if you are a fan of Yakuza, Like a Dragon, or Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, it is the main character from those games. And it looks like it's adding a beat-em-up gameplay, but that might just be something that's for the trailer.

I don't know. That's so great. That speaks to Sega's brilliance here too, right? They're really shrewd. people handling the deal making and like this new sort of appreciation for what makes this company so special. And they're working their butts off to find ways to reach players. to get people to re-experience a lot of the joy that made them. I think that's wonderful. Plus, all of the Atlas output has just been ridiculous. Just one excellent product after another.

Yeah, so I'm just trying to see what his title is here, because there's one person that I think has done a fantastic job over at Sega. So Ivo Gurskowicz. I don't know if you've interacted with him at all. He came in, I think, around 2016 as kind of like the head of the Sonic the Hedgehog brand. And I was his first interview. And basically, he spelled out like all these ways that he was going to revamp.

the sonic the hedgehog franchise and you know put on fire too right yeah so like amazing fantastic job with the sonic franchise he laid out all this stuff to me back in 2016 about how he's gonna like like work with the team to install these different like marks of quality that are required. And like, you know, largely that has been the case, looking at different partnerships.

looking at all these different ways to make the Sonic franchise so good, bring it back to kind of like the level of quality it was in its glory days.

And those partnerships, I'm sure, were including the deal with Paramount to create these movies and all these other various... uh incredible partnerships that have blown up for the sonic franchise movies are excellent yeah there is this sort of cultural awareness at the company not this kind of like um you know, puffing your chest kind of thing that I think younger Sega might have had.

Because they were still defining themselves. But now it is decades. And what we're definitely aware of is this retro scene is massive out there. I mean, look at how many emulation channels there are. on YouTube and Twitch. And people are rediscovering Genesis games.

specifically genesis i think a little bit of saturn and dreamcast a little bit but genesis was so freaking special and that's when sega really kind of climbed to the top of the mountain and Then they were defining that, but now with all of these years of hits and some lessons, some non-hits that were lessons.

they can really sort of claim that. And like, I don't know about you, but when I saw the Sega logo and all those screens of all those incredible games, which are like core memories for me before Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Well, the first one they did it, I was emotional instantly. Like I, there was something in me. It was like, Oh my God. You know, like, cause I don't know about what it's like for you, but for me.

Being a champion around video games has always been like my thing, you know, even back in high school and people would turn to me for their gaming ideas and suggestions and they come and play games at my house and stuff. And so it's always felt very personal to me. And when I see it- reflected in the wider world and people having emotion around it that's why e3 and comic-con and all these things have always been so wonderful and you know clearly working on the show and meeting developers too but

When I saw it in a big screen like that before this huge blockbuster movie that I love, like Sonic 1 is still one of my favorite video game movies. I just freaking love that movie. Yeah, I got emotional and I feel like, yeah, Sega is really getting to a point of, I don't know. They can do no wrong right now. If they said, look, we're making a new machine. I think we'd lose it. I think, okay, let's go. Let's get back into it. I think we would be ready for that.

It would be crazy. I would be excited. I don't know if it would be a smart business move, though, I will say. I know, right? But the reason I brought Evo up is because I believe it was last year, he was actually moved off of Sonic. and is now just the head of brands at all of Sega. So I wonder if this kind of like more... involvement in these various crossovers and everything has to do with his influence on what he did for the Sonic brand and now bringing that Sega wide.

Something's got to be up there. I know they have a new president, James Milky, who's a friend. He's an old EGM guy and works with Limited Run now, I think, and does a lot. He publishes. He does a little bit of everything. Awesome dude. I don't know if you've heard of him. ever met him before. No, I haven't. He was known as the Milkman during the EGM days, but he-

did an interview and profile, and he's friends with the president of Sega, and they were talking about it. He's a younger guy, this guy, but I think he's been with Sega for a long time. I don't have his name on the tip of my tongue. Clearly, they're doing some great things. And it's surprising to me that the most, like I love Frontiers. I don't know if you enjoyed Sonic Frontiers. I love that game. And I didn't think I would. I just completely obsessed with it.

And I loved Generations, the most recent release. I thought that was terrific as well. Yeah, Sonic and Shadow Generations. Yeah, fantastic. God, it was so much fun. And it's surprising that the 2D one, the Superstars game, was the least impressive of the run in the last little while, you know? But that Sonic racing game from the... PlayStation State of Play, that actually looks really fun. Was it Sonic Racing Overworlds? Cross Worlds. Cross Worlds. It looks so fun.

So, yeah, we'll talk about that in just one second. The Ichiban vacation or Ichiban holiday. What is it called? It is Ichiban's holiday. It is coming to Dave the Diver in April and Ichiban is on vacation, brought his bartender for some reason, and they end up helping Dave bring the restaurant to the next level. So yeah, very much looking forward to that.

I played a lot of Dave the Diver, but it was not, I never got to the end of it. So maybe this will be enough motivation for me to go back. Cause I loved what I played of it. I think I put like. eight or nine hours into it and had a great time too and i i'm in the same boat i didn't get a chance to finish it but i love it hey there i'm hugh from poderation If you liked today's show, why not check out Rolling Dice and Taking Names, the premiere tabletop review show.

Join Marty and Tony as they invite you to their metaphorical kitchen table to talk about all the latest board games, RPG games, miniatures and anything in the tabletop world that takes their fancy. From in-depth reviews to the latest gaming news they make it their mission to find the latest and greatest in the tabletop world and deliver it all wrapped up for your listening pleasure. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Yeah, so now let's get over to the game that you referenced, which is a game that was revealed at the Game Awards. We finally learned more about Sonic Racing Cross Worlds. So this trailer was weird to me because like it showed all this stuff happening, like very cool things. but it only showed Sonic characters. And that made me think like, okay, well, I previously speculated that it would be another like cross-franchise racer where it's like, okay, Sonic and also like...

This character from Monkey Ball and this character from this game franchise and all this stuff. They only showed Sonic characters. So I was like, OK, well, maybe not. And then I guess the press release said that it's going to include. characters from other franchises in the sega universe as well so it's like that's weird they wouldn't show at least one of them

in the trailer. They'll probably have their own sort of direct, I think, just around that. The thing that I was talking about while we were, because I live streamed it with the EP audience there and- The thing that hit me right away is that this is a tough year to launch a cart game. Oh, yeah. Good luck. Here's the thing that I will say about this. They tried Team Sonic Racing a few years ago. Very solid kart racing game, but it was trying too hard to compete against Mario Kart.

And that is a losing gambit, no matter who you are. I don't care if you're PlayStation, if you're Activision, if you're Xbox, if you're Sega, you're not going to take down Mario Kart. Like I had a Kevin Bayless on the show and just right before the holidays. And we were talking about like his time at rare and, you know, from his.

earliest times playing games and then joining rare and then creating diddy and donkey kong and then his love of diddy kong racing and he even said like yeah if you're going to create a race a kart racing game for a nintendo console you're not called mario kart good luck is basically what he said even though like diddy kong racing is beloved to this day yeah yeah um but i will say that you know this

game style works really well for sega when they get weird like sega and all-stars racing transformed one of the best kart racing games of all time and still has a great audience to it and like whenever sega has tried to do that straight up kart racer like with team sonic racing it always falls so short of mario kart by such a considerable margin that it just kind of gets swept under the rug But when they experiment a little bit, like with what they're doing with this, the differentiation...

often makes it so it sets apart and people are like, okay, well I can play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and this game. So this almost feels like Sega and All-Stars Racing Transformed meets Diddy Kong Racing meets...

maybe a little bit of ratchet and clank rift apart because you're going between like these various worlds, like at a moment's notice. The portals. Yeah. Yeah. I hope it's like transformed. I almost feel like they should have just made a sequel to that because it is so beloved. And I think it's got this kind of.

following it's an excellent game to pick up on steam by the way it runs incredibly well on a good pc or even on the steam deck or on the ally x it's like a 60 frames per second experience which you don't get on the other consoles even i know it's backwards compatible i think on xbox but it is a wonderful game to this day in 2025 and it's been surprising to me that the teams haven't gone back to that

And it feels like this is the closest kind of connection to it because we saw the off-road racing and we saw some of the hover racing. There was like a snowboard kind of vibe to it as well. But yeah, I think you're absolutely correct. Like if they don't... open this up to lots of other...

guest stars like that's just shooting themselves in the foot i think any kart racing game from now on yeah has to include character customization you need to be able to build your own stuff and and express yourself in the game but you have to open it up to a lot of other characters. Otherwise, you're dumb. Even if Diddy Kong Racing came back, it would have to...

I don't know, open it up to other rare characters, which would be so cool. They have the Jet Force Gemini cast or something like that pop in. Banjo-Kazooie. Or the dude from Blast Corps. Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo was in Diddy Kong Racing. Yeah, yes. Conker was in Diddy Kong Racing. So yeah, there were other- Why do you think Nintendo hasn't put Diddy Kong Racing on the N64 channel on Nintendo Switch Online? Are they worried that people are going to see that it's way better than Mario Kart 64?

Like, do they not want people to love that game? I mean, I wonder if it's something to do with, like, the Rare thing. But at the same time, they put all the Donkey Kong Country games on the... the N64 cat or SNES catalog. They have struck that deal with Xbox to put a golden eye on, on the N64 catalog. Perfect dark is in the N64 mature app.

It's such a weird thing. There's a few very obvious exclusions in the catalog. I mean, don't even get me started on the lack of Pokemon games in the Game Boy catalogs. This is a show for you right here, isn't it? What's missing on the Nintendo Switch Online channel? Yes, it is. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff missing. Well, I have the perfect one too, which, you know, I...

I think it would just eat people's time because it's so freaking good. And I don't know if enough people recognize it. It's the Donkey Kong 94 for the original Game Boy. Oh, yeah. That's like a perfect game. That's a 10 out of 10 game, no matter how you come at it. And in 2025 or whatever, when they release it, people are going to go like, holy, why did I never play this game before? It's incredible.

Yeah, that is one of the greatest Game Boy games of all time. That's my favorite. Yeah, I mean, Tetris and those two are up there, but Donkey Kong 94. Wow, what a game. You almost can't believe it runs on a Game Boy. It's that good. It's incredible. So Sonic Racing, Cross Worlds, I think that they ditched the Sonic and All-Star Racing just because it feels like it was too clunky. I think that when they did Team Sonic Racing, they saw that like, oh, that's punchy.

gets across what this is sonic is obviously the headliner here so if they just say sonic racing colon whatever the name of the game is people will probably understand like they're not like saying like you know nintendo's not out here being like Mario meets Zelda racing deluxe, whatever. It's like, no, okay. It's a Mario Kart game. We understand what that is.

but also Link is in it and also the Inklings from Splatoon are in it. It's like, okay, we understand there are probably guest characters. So I think that it's probably a smart idea to like make a successor to All-Stars Racing Transform, but then just like make the name not like... take five seconds to say. Right on. Yeah.

You got a marketer in you, my friend. So with this game, basically you're racing, travel rings pop up, transport you to new worlds in the middle of a race. You can play the game solo or as a team online or offline. And then the press release also mentions... Building your ultimate machine and unlocking gadgets. So it does make it seem like they're following your mandate that games in 2025 will need to have some sort of customization elements. Absolutely.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to this. I don't think we have a date yet. I think it just says coming soon. But it has said it will be coming to Switch. You know what would be smart is if... This would be really smart. If Nintendo and Sega did some kind of crossover with the Switch 2 version of the game, like some kind of cart that you can create in Cross Worlds, you can also race in Mario Kart.

I mean, God, we would eat that up. Oh, absolutely. And that would instantly make that the game to buy, that version of the game to buy, right? There are so many collaborations I would love to see Nintendo do. I put this out on Blue Sky.

where i was like man imagine if like there was like a nintendo specific expansion to power wash simulator right you're just you're just power washing like an r-wing or like princess peach's castle or i mean that's a no-brainer do that yeah that's really very good yeah great idea that would be such a cool thing i'm not even the biggest power wash simulator i have friends who are a huge power wash simulator

fans. I've enjoyed what I played, but it's not like I'm going to pour 25 hours into it or whatever. That's therapy for some people. We got kingdoms to rescue, you and I. Other people have terrible jobs they want to come home they want just clean stuff in their day that's why the sims could never do it for me man it's like you know i'm too busy ignoring the housework i have to do because i'm lost in 100 hour games i don't want to do housework in my video game

No, thank you. So the final piece of news that we will cover from the state of play is Warriors Abyss. So it is from the Dynasty Warriors franchise, a little bit of a spinoff. And that franchise is always about a small number of characters taking down thousands of enemies. So it makes sense that this game would kind of take that concept and borrow a few elements from something that seems like vampire survivor vibes to me. Yeah.

I don't know exactly how it plays. I've not gotten my hands on this, but you fight through thousands of enemies as a singular hero, but you can also recruit the souls of past heroes for a total of up to six teammates that you can recruit. It has a roguelike format. and rewards you for choosing the more difficult paths through the game. And it is actually out on Switch and every other major platform right now. They threw it out.

Yeah, it was a surprise launch. Well, I mean, if people on the Patreon are listening to this the day before this episode comes out, it actually comes out on Switch on the 14th, but it was on Xbox and PlayStation as soon as that state of play was over. Wild. I'll have to check this out. I had my fill on the Warriors franchise. My co-hosts and I would joke about, oh, there's a new one out this week. They just made so many of them, and I just felt like...

wow, okay, we have an incremental new edition every single time. But I know there's huge fan base. What's the genre of the Warriors? Musou? Musou, yeah, right, right, right. I never know how to pronounce that properly. Me neither. And, you know, I know that there is a fever for it. And I know that people love roguelikes. So it's smart. It's all smart. I also think that if you just jump into the arcade and just sort of embrace the arcade equality, because some of the...

Warriors experiences had a lot of kludged in role-playing and you'd be chatting and talking and it was all about trying to have some historical connection to stuff, but you ended up- fighting thousands of people and characters are flying and disappearing as you're bashing your 20 foot, you know. Not a sword or whatever it is. Killing all kinds of different characters that way. Got a little crazy.

But I think if you just embrace the arcade thing, like almost make it feel like you're popping a quarter and you're lasting for as long as you can, that could be a good direction for this game. Yeah, I've always kind of... It's been hard for me to find the real depth in the games. Yes. Just because maybe I'm just seeing it at a surface level. It just feels like kind of like mindless slashing and running to the next destination. And the biggest level of experience that I have with the...

is Hyrule Warriors, just because I enjoyed it. I played through that first game. I didn't end up playing all the way through Age of Calamity, the follow-up there. Yeah. Which I think was in reference to the game's frame rate, I think. Yeah, there's a few games like that on the Switch. I will say that.

But yeah, so if you're interested in Warriors Abyss, I did see Digital Trends' Giovanni Colantonio. Sorry, Gio. He posted that he played a few hours last night and it... seemed like maybe this was designed as a free-to-play game at one point and then like they pivoted midwinter development to make it a $25 game or whatever it is because there's some like semi gotcha style design elements. So at least they did that pivot.

I think we're going to see a lot of that over the next few years. We're going to see a lot of games that started out as free to play and are now not free to play. But yeah, I have not gotten my hands on that. But that's all the news from the PlayStation State of Play. We do have a... I guess two other Nintendo adjacent stories that were not from the state of play. We can do these really quickly here. Nintendo added precisely one new game to its Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance library.

It originally arrived in 2001. It is Wario Land 4. Yes. Extremely respectable. 88 on Metacritic. That's a great game. In case you're wondering, Game Informer gave it an 8.5 out of 10 back when that game first came out. I have not played this game because I was not really like super invested in my Game Boy Advance, but you seem like you're a fan. I am a fan. I love these WarioWare games. I have the analog pocket and I didn't like it that much when I first got it because of how expensive it was.

But now I've grown to love it. And I love being able to grab a cartridge off my shelf. And one of the first ones that I did was, I don't think it was four. It was Wario Land 3, which I think is Game Boy Color. And God, I was just blown away. I was just so charmed by it. And I think there's been two recent games. There's been Pizza Tower and Anton Blast. Oh, yeah. Both harken back to the Wario where or Wario Land experience.

you know the the the way that the levels are kind of broken up it's all so strange it's all so weird and hap dash like wario's just busting through walls and obstructions. You don't know if he's going to ram into something, if it's going to affect everything. Yeah. There's a clumsiness to it that I adore. And that's definitely been sort of picked up on in both Pizza Tower and Anton Blast.

And so it's been fun to kind of re-explore, re-examine that. So I'm looking forward to loading this up on my Switch. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Absolutely. I've never checked out Warrior Land 4, so I will have to experience this for the first time. But that is out on the Switch Online plus Expansion Pack subscriber or subscription this week.

February 14th, just in time for Valentine's Day. Yeah, Wario, the most romantic of all the Mario characters. Have a rotten day. I'm sure he smells just wonderful. And the last news story we're going to cover here, Rocksteady Games put out one of the biggest busts of 2024 in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.

But I would say that that was an anomaly in their gamography because most people know them for their work on the Arkham games. And according to a report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Warner Brothers is going through it.

First of all, they reportedly decided to cancel a whole bunch of games this past week and apparently have rebooted their development on the Wonder Woman game that was announced several years ago. I believe that's Monolith that is doing that, the development team behind Shadow of Mordor. And Rocksteady is reportedly going back to its roots and developing a new Batman game. And according to that report, the game is still years away.

Victor, I know you are a big fan of the Arkham games. Enormous fan. There are a few publishers I'm legitimately worried about right now. Ubisoft is up there, but I would say Warner Brothers might be at the very top of that list. You know, they had best-selling games. I think the best-selling game overall a few years ago with Hogwarts Legacy.

But man, I was looking at their games that they've published recently. Talk about a bad run here outside of Hogwarts Legacy, which was definitely the anomaly for them. We already talked about Suicide Squad. Multiversus was killed, brought back, and then killed again. Mortal Kombat 1 fell short of expectations. Mortal Kombat Onslaught, which was like the hero collector mobile game, barely lasted a year before it was shut down.

Harry Potter Quidditch champion seems to have underperformed. It's not looking great for Warner Brothers right now. Not to mention Warner Brothers in general seems to be having a rough stretch here. I mean, that's the core of it, right? It is a... And you don't know how much of that is... Very, very wealthy people playing around with shareholder value and stock price and whether there's acquisitions in the air, you just don't know. Because if you look at Warner Brothers as a...

an archive entity or as an IP entity, I mean, they're second only really to Disney at this point. The amount of stuff that they have in their stable is unbelievable. I saw- Our friend Greg Miller was putting a video out there expressly to...

James Gunn beseeching him to have a powwow in a meeting about the superhero lineup that they have. And I'm right on there with Greg, who is saying that there should be smaller games based on these characters and these properties, and they shouldn't take years.

and years and years and be all chips on the table, risk it all kind of investments. They should be tapping into our- love for these characters a lot of 2d stuff would be incredible with them and i i totally agree with that i think it'd be amazing to play an awesome 2d batman game made by you know maybe Sabotage or something like that, or Tribute or something, or Yacht Club. Imagine like a Shredder's Revenge.

But for like the Avengers, I know we're talking DC primarily here, but like the Justice League, a Shredder's Revenge of the Justice League would be amazing. It would be amazing. Better than that, though, I think would be Batman for the NES. but it's a sequel, Batman 2. That would be awesome. It's the purple Batman. Honestly, we would freak out for that. Did Michael Keaton divorce?

absolutely you know yeah and it's scratchy and it sounds shitty but and there's weird sort of warbled cut sequences and stuff we would eat that up and DC's sitting there and they could and Warner Brothers is sitting there but they could do that for lots and lots of their movie titles. I had this idea years ago because I think Warner brothers was involved with a lot of the, um,

martial arts action movies that were coming over, working with Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and stuff. It's like, you're sitting there on this archive of, I believe, but it's like- make a real enter the dragon like get us into these kinds of you know make a bruce lee versus jackie chan and throw in jet lee and some of the other cool have nether realm you just have them make a amazing like yeah martial artists fighting game

But from the films and they're ripping and tearing from one scene from one movie into another movie. That'd be incredible. That'd be so much fun, right? That's the real multiverses that I want. Right. Multiverses seem so half-assed, so undercooked right from the beginning, so clearly chasing something, as opposed to it being a revolutionary thing with these unbelievable characters.

Even Ready Player One is indicative of the lack of understanding of what they have. Ready Player One as a property is incredible. I keep thinking about that as a great series. but it shouldn't be a Warner Brothers showcase series. The Warner Brothers stuff just felt like it was so projected as we're the studio, so here's all of our IP. And it feels like Warner Brothers keeps doing that again and again, rather than doing what...

Sega's doing and going back to thinking about how they authentically ingrain these longstanding traditional characters, characters that are so embedded in pop culture, but in a way that really works in the video game space. Hogwarts Legacy really did. It was an exquisite game and it subverted all of the negativity around J.K. Rowling. It still was an incredible game. You could not refute it.

You could hate JK and her beliefs and all of that stuff, but you play that game, it's like, wow. My kid is a huge Harry Potter fan, so she just was completely transfixed. And I was so appreciative of that, that there was so much craft in building that. And you can't spend that every time, but you can certainly...

bring the team and all the leaders from that team and go to another studio and have them talk to that other studio about finding the path in and how do you make it feel like that. And if the budget's smaller, you can still find your way to incredible. games and movies and TV shows. But I feel like the... You know, was Zazlaf and the other sort of senior management at Warner Brothers. They're playing this weird chess of... Cutting content and like the Roadrunner movie and the Batgirl.

movie. It's just like, oh, these movies are basically finished and we're just going to ax them because of tax cuts or tax benefits. Right. I feel like they're trying to grow the value and their personal wealth. They're thinking of their parachutes. They're thinking of their exit strategies. They're not thinking of legacy. They're not thinking of the culture. They're not thinking of what kind of-

beautiful work they're going to be attached to and remembered for. They're not thinking about that. They're thinking about truckloads of cash. You know, how do we keep generational wealth for everybody that I know and care about, but, you know, at the expense of all of this beloved kind of opportunity that exists out there. I think that they should do something like what Disney has been doing.

quite frankly, although it hasn't worked every time for them. But Disney has been partnering with studios and letting them... uh kind of run with it like look at indiana jones what an exceptional job bethesda and machine games did there and honestly i would argue star wars outlaws is a wonderful star wars game as well um but maybe but not as good as even EA's Jedi games. Those two have been incredible. I mean, look at Spider-Man, the Spider-Man games. They're fantastic.

Right, and the Spider-Man games, and hopefully the Blade game turns out great, and the Captain America Black Panther game that Amy Hennig is working on. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's a smarter play for Warner Brothers, but that means that they need to have some...

really knowledgeable and passionate management structure at wb games that can work with these studios to make sure that that everything is aligned and that's not easy to do you know that is very hard to do a lot of stakeholders It really is like a sign of the people at the top at Warner Brothers. you don't get a sense that they care about Warner Brothers. They care about huge fat stacks of cash. That's what's emanating off of this, which sucks.

Unfortunately, all too common, especially in the gaming space. But I would just say the tech space in general is just running rampant right now, which is why we're seeing so many pain points across the entire tech industry, not just gaming, but like everywhere. Yeah. It's really frustrating. It's frustrating. And it's like, we are really entering this weird kind of phase right now where...

like what is IP and what's copywritten and who owns what? I was a philosophy minor and this is starting to like- harken back to some of those classes that I took. It's crazy, right? Yeah. What is it? OpenAI is just actively going out there and just scraping anything that they want to and returning. And then they get-

Their data is stolen by a Chinese company, DeepSea. Yeah, and they get upset. Yeah, and it's like, who owns anything anymore? Like, what's happening here, you know? It's crazy. I mean, God, it's indicative even in the video game industry. Like, all of these emulator...

devices that keep popping up there like every week there's like a new thing and they're all loaded with games you know you don't even have to download anything you just buy it on amazon it comes with thousands of games it's like does anybody care about any What is happening? It is a very weird space that we exist in. I'm happy that it seems like Rocksteady might be going back to their roots with a Batman game, if not an Arkham game.

I still don't know if that's enough to save Warner Brothers, but it's definitely a step in the right direction after the obvious misstep that was Suicide Squad. They should not just make it all big gambles, though. We should not just be waiting on a five-year development cycle on a new Arkham game.

I think the more counter-programming, the more kind of short AAA and AA experiences that we get out there, especially in this subscription model that we're definitely moving towards- Being conditioned to- If you're on, yeah, on Xbox and... You want people to jump into these game worlds and experience these things and then talk about them. If you're a subscriber, if you're a subscription service, you want people to play through it and then tell people to play it.

That's how all of these streaming shows are all about. And if you notice all of these streamers, they're not making 26 episode seasons of shows. They're making six to 10 episodes of things and they want that expensive. beautifully crafted. I don't know if you saw American Primeval from Peter Berg. It's intense, and it's so cinematic. The guy is really impressive, the way that he puts his projects together. I.

But it's six to 10 hours. I think it might only be six hours and it's harrowing and it's like, oh my God, it's not a feel good thing. But that's kind of indicative of the risk taking that's happening with the other streaming services. And I think games need to kind of get on board with that. because just what we've been talking about with these 100-hour experiences. If you're doing IP-based stuff as well, it just is a much better...

you know, sort of vertical integration to kind of get you to think about, you know, you finish a game and you want to watch the movie or you finish a game and you want to play the, read a comic book or you want to play another game based on another character. But if we wait five to 10 years for these. games and they're $500 million to finish or whatever, $300 million to $500 million or $2 billion in the case of Grand Theft Auto, that's just too massive a gamble, too long of a wait.

And you're also then, when you finish your thing, you're expecting people to live in that experience. And there's so much competition out there. And the market isn't growing fast enough. You're not engaging enough people. So yeah, I think if you're Warner Brothers or Disney, you got to be looking at shorter, fulfilling, impactful experiences. And that first hour.

especially, and I don't want this to be the only way that games get made, don't get me wrong, but especially in this streaming thing where you're subscribing to stuff and people are just sampling.

A lot of people are probably going to jump into Avowed because it's on Game Pass. If they don't like that first couple hours, they're not going to play any more of it. What's the point of all that effort if people aren't going to be there? I feel like- You know, we could get some killer six to 10 hour, 15 hour, 20 hour games, just killer AAA games that people will play all the way through.

And I'd like to see that happen. And I'd like to see people finish these things and then also say, oh my God, that was amazing. I want to play something else, you know, and hopefully. And all of these subscription services, not just Game Pass, but PlayStation and Nintendo, however they're going to evolve there, are planning for that. And they're going to deliver on that. And that will lead to more people playing games. And it will lead to more...

experimentation. Yeah, I definitely think there is a shift on the horizon for the industry. It's kind of that dynamic in mind. But Victor, we are going to take our only break of this episode. And when we return, we will be looking back at all the launch lineups in Nintendo history. We will be right back.

We are back, and since we're in this weird limbo period with the Switch 2, where we know what it looks like, and we know there's a Mario Kart game, but we don't know much else, we have been speculating a whole lot about what that launch lineup might look like. And that's why... For today's episode, I want to look back at the launch lineups of the first games that came to Nintendo consoles and handhelds to this point.

So, Victor, do you make a habit of buying new gaming systems right when they launch or do you usually wait a second? Like, do you go to midnight launches and brave the crowds or what's your strategy here? I absolutely do. It hasn't always been the case. I think since PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Saturn, those were all launched. So when those came out... And ever since day one, I've had all the new machines. And that includes the mid-gen refreshes. Wow.

PS5 Pro and the PS4 Pro, Xbox One S, I think was one of them. Yeah, I've been pretty consistent and pretty... You know, often I've been working with game companies all this way, all the way along, and I've got friendships and relationships with game. hardware manufacturers. And so often they have sent us review devices and devices to be able to play all of the software on. But I also buy them when they don't, you know, when they have a smaller inventory or a smaller...

or whatever, then I'll go out and get them. But way back in the day, I didn't worry so much about that. I worried more about the collection of games that came with each of the hardware pieces out there. But now, yes, I'm very on it. And I love it. And the new obsession is getting these bloody handheld PCs, which are getting better. And the Steam Deck was amazing. And the Ally X is great. But they make too many of them. And so now it's like, wait a second.

This is nuts. They're like cell phones at this point. Every six months, there's a new one. So that's perfect that you were always more fixated on the games that came alongside these consoles and handhelds because that's what we're talking about in this segment. And so I'm going to run down all of the launch lineups. And for clarity, we're going to go by the US launches during this segment, which I would imagine are pretty close to the Canadian launch lineups as well. Yep. Yep.

So let's get started here with the one that started it all, the NES. It launched in 1985 in New York and then came out to the rest of the country in early 86. 17 games. So 10-yard fight, baseball, clue clue land, duck hunt, excite bike, golf, gyro might, Hogan's alley, ice climber, kung fu, pinball, soccer. Stack Up, Super Mario Brothers, Tennis, Wild Gunman, and Wrecking Crew.

What a... Pretty solid. It's pretty solid. Salvo, though, to 17 games. It's pretty... And they're diverse as well. Like, lots of different tastes there. That's pretty solid.

And this was right on the heels of the gaming crash of the 80s. So this was Nintendo kind of saying, no, there's going to be a lot of appetite for these disparate experiences. This is not just a fad the way a lot of people thought. I think a lot of people- early 80s were like oh yeah video games that was a cool like toy fad and now it's gone exactly

Right. So we are going to be putting all of these launch lineups into tiers. There's an S tier, A tier, B tier, C tier, and D tier. Where does that lineup land for you? As a total launch lineup with 1980s technology, I think that's a pretty damn good one. I mean, especially with Mario Brothers. I would say that's a B, at least a B. Yeah, I was in between B and A. Yeah. I mean, you have three, no fewer than three iconic games in there. Excitebike and Tennis.

Amazing. Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Wrecking Crew is a well-liked game. I mean, not on the level of those other ones, but- No, you're right because they're so seminal. We still reference them. We still play as them. We still buy- amiibo based on these characters and these ideas.

They're in Smash. Yeah, I think it's an A, man. I think you're right. Let's slot that into the A tier. So we have our first ranking. The NES launch lineup goes in the A tier. And hold on. We have to stop and thank Nintendo. for this whole hobby because it was dead, right? And it was this bloody machine. that said, no, it's not. It's not over. It was this system right here that convinced the entire world's population, hey, we should get a Nintendo.

We should play video games again. It was this, and it was this cool launch lineup. And I think that it was kind of lost on us at first where we were just like... Oh, yeah, the NES launch lineup like those games haven't really aged particularly well. But in the context of when they came out, I think that was an A tier for sure.

Yes. You know, I was more impressed when they did the minis of the Super Nintendo and the NES mini. I was more impressed with the NES mini because, and I told you this in private combos, I wasn't really consuming every game. when the NES was out. I was acting at that point. And so to see these games, and now most of them are on NSO as well. A lot of the great ones are on NSO.

to see them in context and to see the imagination and the creativity when they had so little horsepower. Basically, it was like a slightly more powerful Atari 2600, I feel like they got to make these games on. But they're so... freaking cool there's so much beauty in the design you know i even had my daughter look at uh final fantasy 2 i think on the nes mini and she identified the the uh

the white witch. And she said, I want the girl one. And it's just a bunch of blocks. And she, and she was like three or four or something like that. And it's like, I want to play as the girl one. And it's like, wow, man, you can. still see the artistry when they had so little technology to make that art. The NES is very special. It's amazing, especially the gaps that your imagination will fill in, especially as a child. Right. So NES lands in the A tier. That brings us to a...

pretty noticeably smaller launch lineup, but still has a couple of iconic games in there. The Game Boy. In 1989, the U.S. launch lineup was five games, Alleyway, Baseball. Super Mario Land, Tennis, and of course, Tetris. Now, I think I did buy this on launch day. Wow. Do you know what the launch day is for the Game Boy? I don't. Do you have that?

Because what I remember of buying the Game Boy, maybe it wasn't, but it was the same day that Stevie Ray Vaughan passed away. And that's super tragic. But I was playing the Game Boy that I had just bought. And I remember Stevie Ray Vaughan's plane crash happened on that day and it was on the radio as I was playing the game. So they're indelibly kind of linked.

There's about a year gap between when the Game Boy came to the US and Stevie Ray Vaughan passing away. Okay. All right. So I know it was early on, but I was certainly like... obsessed with that machine and playing Tetris. Tetris is one of the strongest releases. Period. Ever. And what an amazing launch game, man. That's so crazy. I mean, I'm leaning kind of towards a B tier with this one. And the reason is it's very small, but...

with the context of history and having a handheld device that can play a full on Mario game is kind of mind blowing. And then also obviously Tetris being what Tetris is. So what was it? It was alleyway, Mario Land. Yes, baseball. Tetris and baseball. And tennis. And tennis is okay. I'm going to throw out B tier. Yeah. All right. Still, an A in terms of progressing the industry forward and sort of showcasing what is achievable and what's possible, but not the strongest launch.

lineup sure but what an impressive piece of kit that was though too man the game boy was Still is. It's still so freaking cool. Lasts forever on two AA batteries. I love it. Yeah, Game Boy was a truly fantastic device. I'm glad they iterated on. the hardware over the course of like the next decade, basically. But yeah, Game Boy's launch lineup lands in the B tier. This next one is very near and dear to my heart. The Super NES 1991.

We got, once again, five games. F-Zero, Gradius III, Pilotwings, SimCity, and Super Mario World. Awesome. This is another tough one, but... Legendary games, F-Zero and Pilotwings and Super Mario World. I mean, this is an A. It's tiny, but it's an A. These are legendary. And even SimCity on SNES was really rad. Yeah, I mean, I was even like thinking maybe this is the first S tier, but...

I think it's too small for that. Yeah. The concentration of greatness is unmatched. Gradius is excellent too. They're all great games. Oh man, I'm tempted, but I think we're going to keep it in A. Yeah, I agree. All right. I mean, Super Mario World, obviously one of the greatest games to ever be created. F-Zero, we're still playing as Captain Falcon in Super Smash Brothers. Not much else, but I guess F-Zero 99. Which was awesome.

Yeah, that was a nice out of nowhere gift surprise from Nintendo. But yeah, we want a real one. Yeah, exactly. We want something brand new. Absolutely. And speaking of something brand new, the next one, 1995. You know it. You love it. It's the Virtual Boy. Oh, yeah. And four games on this one. Maybe not the level of recognition. I have two of those. I don't know. And I think this was the first machine that Nintendo... sent to Electric Playground. Wow. I don't know if-

Because we were working with them. We launched our website in 1995 and we were reviewing stuff. And I don't know if I bought one and they sent one or if they sent two because they weren't selling, which is possible. So I have a small library of the games for it. What were the games though? What were the launch ones? Galactic Pinball, Mario's Tennis, Red Alarm, and Tellero Boxer.

yeah i mean i mean is this a d tier yeah this is i think it has to be i mean it's more to do with the hardware i think the games were kind of neat and and uh The idea was kind of cool, but it was just way too soon, you know, and too primitive. Yeah. So, yeah. It also, like, none of these games had any historical impact whatsoever.

No. Although I have to say I'm a sucker for video game pinball games. Like I'm playing, I'm currently playing on my analog pocket, Mario Pinball Land from the GBA. And it's really fun. Like, I don't know. I just, I love. that idea. I do too. I like Pokemon Pinball a lot back in the day, back on Game Boy Color, Sonic Spinball. I love playing.

Exactly. But I also love playing pinball levels in 2D Sonic games. I always love that. That's super fun. That was always a fun one. The smallest launch lineup is next. 1996, the Nintendo 64. Only two games. We had Pilotwings 64 and Super Mario 64. Crazy. So I bought the Japanese version of the N64 and I bought it in LA. I'm based in Vancouver in Canada, but I bought it in LA and we were on a marketing trip. This was

96, I guess. I think it came out in 96, but earlier in the year in Japan. I'm not sure. I played Super Mario 64 in Japanese and I played it. I couldn't wait. This was the first import console I'd ever bought and the first import game. I couldn't wait to play it. We were road tripping. We were driving back from LA and we were staying in hotels. And the hotels back then didn't have the right connectors. You couldn't just take your N64 and plug it into the TV.

And so I was like, and what I ended up doing was playing it on our video camera that had a little black and white screen that you could put the input into the video input. So I was playing it on my bloody. camcorder like this and it was so dumb but i i couldn't wait to play the game i was so excited to play super mario 64 and for the longest time that was my very favorite game of all time now it's breath of the wild

Same. Yeah. And it's perfection and it's forever perfection. And it was so profound, like every other 3D action adventure game. had to live up to that. And if it didn't in terms of the way Mario controlled and everything, then it wasn't as good. Like everything, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, everything else that we were talking about, especially for me, less so for Tommy, my old co-host. I always say that back in that era, every single 3D platformer was chasing Mario 64.

And every single just 3D action game in general was chasing Ocarina of Time. Right. That's just how big of a trailblazer Nintendo was not only in the 2D space, but also the 3D space. And I always point out that things that were established in Ocarina of Time are still used in like the best 3D games today, like Elden Ring.

allows you to lock onto an enemy while you're fighting them. That was something that was pioneered with Ocarina of Time with the Z target. They figure out the language. And what's amazing about Nintendo is that they start from play first. They start from... Before they put any story or art or whatever, they just in their R&D, you know this, they just work it out so that it just feels right. And they create the language that everybody borrows from always. And I really iterate on that forever.

So it's incredibly important, both of these games, because Pilotwing 64 really... brought home this idea. And I think that was made by Paradigm Simulations in Dallas, which had done a lot of military simulations like flight sims and stuff and work with the US military. And there was just a professionalism around Pilot Wing 64. Both incredible. And Wave Race wasn't a launch game?

I think that was very shortly after the launch of... Because if we're throwing Wave Race in there, if it is a launch game, that's an A for sure. But I don't know if it was or not. That was November 4th. And the N64 came out about a month and a half earlier. Oh, okay. So, yeah. It should just be just those two games, Pilotwings 64 and Super Mario 64.

Oh, it's a B plus then. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking it lands in that B, but like it's on the cusp of A just because both those games, especially Mario 64, are so great. Yeah, and honestly, like sometimes lessens more, right? Like when you have a game, and Nintendo knew this, anybody that played, and I did, anybody that played Mario at E3 in 95 or 96.

You could just like, it was another era. Like we were moving to a new century, you know, like things were changing. It was a new way to communicate. Oh, it was just 100% a new language being established, essentially. Everybody just kind of figuring out, look, wait, how do I do this? Exactly. That's why going back to that era, oftentimes those games are just so clunky feeling because there were no best practices at that time.

No, it's like early VR. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's profoundly important. Yeah, it's brutal. I think if Wave Race was a launch game, this would absolutely be an A, but because it came out a little bit later. It's in between a B and an A. That's tough, though, because both those games are bonafide classics. It's just very small. Game Boy Color is the next one. 1998. Only two games on day one, Pocket Bomberman and Tetris DX. And then we did get Game & Watch Gallery 2 just two days after launch.

That's kind of indicative of what the Game Boy Color... It was a stopgap. There is some cool stuff on that machine, for sure. And it was cool to be able to play your existing Game Boy title. I think the Super Game Boy was even cooler than the Game Boy Color, to be frank. That was amazing. But I liked it because it was great to finally have color on it from a Nintendo handheld. But yeah, a little disappointing, a little thin. It just felt like a...

a step towards something and not a great launch lineup at all. I think that's a C at best, maybe a D. I was thinking D. I was thinking that this- It's just such an anemic launch lineup. Pocket Bomberman and Tetris DX and just like, you know. Handheld adaptations of beloved franchises and then Game & Watch Gallery 2. Even if you want to lump that in coming out two days later, that's not doing much for it. I'm pushing for D. Tetris still, though.

it wasn't as saturated then as it is now and like over oversaturated it was still like the you know the business you know it was still like oh my god you know let me play tetris forever you know that was absolutely the uh the thinking back then and bomberman also was a top dog kind of franchise you know it was still there was a steam around it and multiplayer bomberman was still a big thing i remember uh

was the Saturn had 10-player Bomberman as part of their game library. I think you've swayed me. I think I'm going for C as well on this one. Yeah, those were big... big titles in their day. But now in retrospect, they mean a lot less right now, just because we don't have the current kind of versions of those that matter as much as they did back then. So I have dropped that into the C tier. So just as we're exiting the 90s here, let's recap where we're at so far. S tier is completely empty.

A tier has the NES and the SNES. B tier has Game Boy and N64. C tier has Game Boy Color and D tier has Virtual Boy. Virtual Boy. Or Virtual Boy. So that brings us to 2001 Game Boy Advance. We are in the 21st century officially, and they are not messing around. 17 games. At launch for the Game Boy Advance. Some really good ones. Yeah. Here's what we got. We got Army Men Advance, Castlevania Circle of the Moon, Choo Choo Rocket, Earthworm Jim, Fire Pro Wrestling, F-Zero Maximum Velocity.

GT Advanced Championship Racing, Iridium 3D, Konami Crazy Racers, Namco Museum, Pinobi Wings of Adventure, Pitfall the Mayan Adventure, Rayman Advance, Ready to Rumble Boxing Round 2, Super Dodgeball Advance, Super Mario Advance, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. S. Yeah, that's a very strong launch lineup. Game Boy Advance was, it's still incredible. You know, like I think.

All of us lifers, if Nintendo said we're going to put a Game Boy Advance adapter on our switches so you can play those old cartridges, we would lose it. Or on the dock so you could plug in your old Game Boy Advance games. There's still so much freaking fun. Like I... dive in because of the pocket and because of, I got this great device that I'm able to plug into my Steam Deck and I can take my cartridges and import them right into the Steam Deck. It's awesome.

They still hold up. There's so much good content on the Game Boy Advance. It was an excellent machine. One of the best 2D games. 2D systems out there. The 3D is pretty... pretty wonky. Anytime you try to play a 3D-type racing game on Game Boy Advance, it's a little excruciating. But all the 2D stuff, oh my goodness, so much good stuff.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. I've said many times, I am not the biggest handheld guy. I prefer to play my games up on a big screen. There is no denying, at this point in history, that was their best launch lineup they'd ever put out. That was superb. Yeah. I love that machine. The Game Boy Advance games hold up so well to this day. Even going beyond the launch lineup that we're talking about, the Metroid games from that era hold up extremely well. I think that is the pinnacle of what...

Pokemon graphics look like and a lot of the mechanics are at their pinnacle in the Game Boy Advance catalog. Tony Hawk on GBA was such a big deal as well. I don't think that they were able to figure that out. It's a completely different gameplay style. It's like isometric, but... Yeah. Now, what's that studio? Oh, God. They're out of New York. VLAN is the new company that those guys did. I forget the name of the company now. Let's look it up.

They're working on Call of Duty. They're part of the Activision brand now at this point. Tony Hawk on GBA. Well... Google is very unhelpful as it has become. So we'll just move on. Okay. I forget the developer. Oh, Vicarious Visions. They're amazing. They also worked on the Guitar Hero franchise for a while. And they did awesome Spider-Man games. And one of the best ones ever made is Mysterio's Menace for the GBA. And that's them. They're terrific.

So that same year, Victor, we got another Nintendo console. And that was 2001's GameCube. 12 games on day one. All-Star Baseball 2002. Batman Vengeance. Crazy Taxi. Dave Mira Freestyle BMX 2, Luigi's Mansion, Madden NFL 2002, NHL Hits 2002, Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball. Tarzan Untamed. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. Lots of extreme sports representation because then the last one was Wave Race Blue Storm. So many extreme sports.

And then FIFA Soccer 2002 Major League Soccer also arrived three days after launch. So if you want to count that, you can. But how are you feeling about this launch lineup? I mean, this was absolutely a... Nintendo working with the 3D console manufacturers that had already been, I think, enjoying. I think had the PlayStation 2 launched already at that point? I believe so, yes.

Yeah. Okay. So this was like them shaking hands. I think, right. And the Xbox was about to launch. So Nintendo was doing the multi-platform deals and getting a lot of third party. content makers to bring stuff to their powerful little machine, their underappreciated little gem of a machine.

But I wasn't a crazy fan of the Wave Race game on GameCube. I thought it was not as good as the N64 game. Didn't have the magic of the N64 version. No, it didn't. I loved Rogue Leader though. That's one of the best. gamecube games those old rogue squadron games were so good they're all good but rogue leader was like oh my god i'm playing the movie it was it was so so stunning to look at it was absolutely amazing

Extreme sports games are cool, but they also were ubiquitous and they don't really represent the flavor of a launch title. And Batman Vengeance was disappointing, although it had some great art. Monkey Ball is a classic, absolutely. A total surprise jam of a launch title. I mean, this is solid. It's solid. I'm just not excited about it. Even Luigi's Mansion was disappointing. It was a great tech demo.

Yeah. It showed off some of the physics engine capabilities and the higher resolution of everything, but it wasn't as- cool as that franchise has become. It was pretty thin back then. I'm between a B and an A. Where are you at? I'm the same. I'm okay with it living in a B. Just because it's not... It's good, but it's not unique and vital enough. It's also not Nintendo enough. That's very true. That is the key detractor, I think, is it's not the most Nintendo.

Now, do you think there's too much here? Is there too much filler? Like, is it weighing down? Like, say the launch lineup was just Luigi's Mansion. Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball, and Wave Race Blue Storm. Say it was four games, would that be of the value?

I feel like we are missing eras like this where there is a lot of consumer choice right out of the get-go and there's this constant stream of content. Part of it is we've moved over to these games that play forever, like not just-

rpgs but also live service stuff and that seems to be everybody's like all in and they want people to just be completely enraptured in their gaming worlds and i think this is representative of a healthier industry where the risks aren't existential on every title that gets published. And there's a lot of diversity and choice in the entertainment experiences. And that's what a consumer wants. But this also is representative of walking into a storefront, which nobody does anymore.

either. I think some of this is being supplanted by the indie. development that's happening right now and the risk taking that's happening there. It's a discoverability issue that everybody has right now. But in terms of a 2001 or 2000 era launch experience, that's pretty good. And I think if you're a GameCube buyer in 2001, you've got a lot of fun in that collection. It's just not enough of a uniquely Nintendo experience, which is too bad. I almost feel like if...

In retrospect, if I'm Nintendo working with all these 3D partners is how do I include Nintendo characters or Nintendo bonuses in a bunch of these? Like how do we get Mario and NHL hits or how do we get, you know, Zelda has his own skateboard and Tony Hawk's pro. Skater 3. Yeah, it'd be awesome and more incentive to choose this path. I think the GameCube was a pretty cool machine. I think it was.

It was. So it lands B alongside Game Boy and Nintendo 64, which is interesting because Nintendo 64 was kind of for opposite reasons. It was like small. but to Nintendo, right? Like it wasn't like, like there was no third party support whatsoever. Right. Yeah. But all right, we are moving on. There's five consoles left to talk about here. Well, you're going to say something or. Well, yeah, and I feel like it only needed Wave Race to get into S tier. One more Nintendo for N64. That's funny. So DS.

2004, we got seven games. We got Asphalt Urban GT, Feel the Magic XY slash XX, Madden NFL 2005, Metroid Prime Hunter's First Hunt. Spider-Man 2, Super Mario 64 DS, and The Herbs, Sims in the City. Yeah, this wasn't very good. No, it wasn't. I mean, there's names in there. Like you see Madden, you see Spider-Man, you see Mario, you see Metroid. The Sims was one of the biggest things ever. But yeah, it's the worst versions of all of them.

All of them. Kind of cool to be able to play Super Mario 64 in handheld. But you didn't have a joystick, even the Nub at that point. It was just a D-pad trying to control the Mario 64 characters. Yeah, this is a D. That's where I'm leading too. Yeah, it's a D or a C at best. That's a D. I'm cool with a D. Yeah, I'm putting it in D with Virtual Boy.

I mean, the DS, obviously a massive success. It is Nintendo's highest selling system of all time to this day. The Switch is coming up on it, but like the DS is still the king of Nintendo consoles or Nintendo systems. in terms of sales. Awesome. It is a great machine. There's so much good software for it. It's also very weird, but it's great. It is. Yes, it is. 2006, two years later, we got the phenomenon that is known as the Nintendo Wii and 20 games on day one.

So, all right. Take your sip of coffee as I go through this because it's going to be a second. Avatar The Last Airbender, Call of Duty 3, Cars, Dragon Ball Z, Budokai Tenkaichi 2, Excite Truck. The Grim Adventures of Bill and Mandy, 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. Rampage Total Destruction. Rayman Raving Rabbids. So I guess we have the we to thank for the Rabbids. Red Steel. SpongeBob SquarePants Creature from Krusty Krab. Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, Trauma Center Second Opinion, and Wii Sports, of course. And then three days later, we got Rappella Tournament Fishing. Okay. A lot of lesser than ports and games that weren't best showcased on this machine and a lot of-

kludged in motion controls that didn't work. Gimmicky stuff. I did love the ambition of Red Steel though. I thought that was so cool that Yubi was trying something so big. there. I love Marvel Ultimate Alliance anywhere I can play it. I never played the Wii version. Is it any good? I mean, I'm sure I played it

but I liked it somewhere else more. I was probably a bigger fan of it. Had the 360 launched at that point? I can't keep all of the dates straight in my head. I think the 360 was one year later. Okay, and PS3 was another year. Actually, the 360, I think, was out. Now you're confusing me. I mean, I know I played Marvel.

Ultimate Alliance on the 360. The 360 was out a year prior to the Wii. WarioWare was one of the launch titles? That was fun. No, WarioWare was not. Oh, it wasn't, okay. Trauma Center, Second Opinion was.

That was great. That was a great one. So the highlights for me are obviously Wii Sports, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, even though I played it on GameCube and I prefer to play it without the motion controls. Yeah. Let's see what else. Excite Truck was kind of... of cool that was um ultimate alliance i shout that out even though i played it on like 360 um super monkey ball banana blitz again not as good as the gamecube ones but uh still good

Yeah. This is a C. It's a C launch. You think so? I was going kind of, yeah, I guess, I mean, the Wii Sports one. Wii Sports and Clubhouse Center are holding a lot of that up. And Twilight Princess. And Twilight Princess, yeah. Let's go B. Yeah, agreed. Yeah, Wii Sports is almost enough to raise it a level for sure. So it joins the B tier alongside Game Boy, N64, GameCube. Okay. All right. I'm feeling good about this, Brian.

This is a fun exercise. And it's not easy. The final three Nintendo systems to this day. All right. 2011, the Nintendo 3DS debuts with 12 games. Yes. Asphalt 3D. Bust a Move Universe, Combat of Giants, Dinosaurs 3D, Lego Star Wars 3, The Clone Wars, Madden NFL Football, Nintendogs Plus Cats, Pilotwings Resort.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D Rayman 3D Ridge Racer 3D Samurai Warriors Chronicles The Sims 3 Steel Diver Super Monkey Ball 3D Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars. Oh, that was a great game. There's, I mean, there's a lot of names in there, but also like, I, I feel like I zoned out while I was reading that list. I know. It's just like a whole noise.

Yeah, they're all ports. I did like, I'm forgetting it now though, like Steel Rain. Steel Diver. Steel Diver, yeah. That was cool. I remember that being the highlight thing that they showed us off at E3 and I was playing it and Reggie came behind me and said, see, the 3D really works.

It was gimmicky. It was very gimmicky. It was. A lot of those games just had the 3D and the touchscreen mechanics just shoehorned in. Yeah. I'm kind of leaving C on this one. Neat to be able to play Street Fighter 4. away from a console. But definitely the worst version. Definitely, yeah. But I remember feeling that was pretty cool. And also Metal Gear Solid 3 when they ported that to the 3DS was pretty awesome too. But you're right. Those aren't the games that matter on that platform. Yeah.

where they're squeezing them onto there and trying to slam in all these effects and things. Yeah, you're right. I'm a C. Yeah, I agree. All right. Well, we agree there. It goes in there with the Game Boy Color. Yeah. All right, we're down to the final two. Oh, my God. The Wii U. Comes out in 2012. 29 games. Oh, my Lord, brother. 29 games. All right. Deep breath. Every port. Assassin's Creed 3. Batman Arkham City Armored Edition. Ben 10 Omniverse. Call of Duty Black Ops 2. Darksiders 2.

Epic Mickey to the power of two. Good Lord. ESPN sports connection. FIFA 13. Funky barn. Game party champions. Just dance for Madden NFL 13. Mass Effect 3 Special Edition, NBA 2K13, New Super Mario Bros. U, Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge, Nintendo Land. Rabbids Land, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Sing Party, Skylanders Giants, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, Tank Tank Tank, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition.

Transformers Prime, The Game, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper, Wipeout 3, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013, Zombie U, and of course, New Super Mario Bros. U. What a mess. Too much. Way too much. Too many ports, but some gems in there. Playing Batman was pretty cool on the Wii U. I loved Zombie U. I thought that was really cool and maybe the best use of the touch screen. Was it Ninja Gaiden 2 or 3 that launched? 3, unfortunately. Oh, that sucked. But I also realized I said New Super Mario Brothers.

you twice in there. Yeah, you did. But that is the standout. yeah i mean that was the only game i bought alongside it you know i bought my wii u day one i went to the actual the midnight launch with reggie uh for in new york And I didn't even buy anything then. I waited until I got home from New York because I didn't want to have to transport a Wii U back from New York to Maryland. So I ended up just buying it at the local game store.

Of the 29 games that I looked at, I just said, nope, I just want New Super Mario Brothers U. Right. Which I think speaks a lot to- I was curiously viewing a lot of these back then. And I remember playing Batman. with the gimmicky stuff on the, what did they call that thing? What did they call it? The game pad. Gamepad, yeah. It was pretty cool. I mean, there was definitely some interesting things. Zombie U was very, very impressive. It was a cool idea. Mass Effect had some good ideas.

I enjoyed Sonic on Wii U, the Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed. But yeah, I played so many of these games somewhere else, and the sports games really didn't. didn't matter that much there were so many sports games back then um but they're not needle movers yeah it's weird like assassin's i played all of these somewhere else already and then We saw little bits and pieces added to the Wii U version. I remember being at...

I guess it was like a PAX or something. And they had the Wii U's there before the game came out. And all the developers were like, oh yeah, come check out this game that like came out two years ago on Xbox 360, but we're bringing it to Wii U. And I'm just like...

hey like i already beat arkham city i don't need to play this at like what limited time i have at like pax west like i don't need to spend my time doing that so it's like frustrating because there are a lot of great games in here but it's like To what end? Do you think we're going to see a repeat of that with the Switch 2? I do think we are. I think a lot of the games that developers weren't able to put on Switch 1 because of the power disparity.

is going to be, they're going to be coming to Switch 2. And do you think it will be similarly underwhelming? Like, will people just go, eh, I already beat that, I don't need it? I think as long as... I mean, having it on the go is going to be a big thing. Like the Wii U, it was like, okay, it has a touchscreen, but like, who cares? I think people enjoy having their games on the go. Yeah.

I remember it being a pretty big deal to get The Witcher 3 on the Switch 1. That was a pretty cool thing to be on an airplane playing a game of that magnitude on a handheld. It's a little less impressive now with the Steam Deck and the other... portable pcs and stuff but yes getting ports of huge games that you could carry anywhere with you and darksiders was in there and assassin's creed and the borderlands and and uh bioshock

it's been impressive to be able to access that stuff. Um, but, uh, yeah, it's going to be interesting, right. To see, like, I really want Sony to put Spider-Man on. switch and xbox i mean they have less incentive on on xbox but i imagine how well that would do on the switch it would be so cool spider-man games they'd be huge i'd be like they're turning away millions of dollars you know at this point and they should

Just do it. But with the Wii U, I think we're at a C. That's where I'm leaning to. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff, but also a lot of static as you read through that list. And not enough Nintendo. Games that came out on other platforms. New Super Mario Brothers U is like the, I guess, Nintendo Land, if people liked that. Those are like the sole Nintendo standouts. Yeah.

Everything else is just kind of stuff that was already on other consoles and nothing really special. And a lot of shoehorned in, uh, touchscreen controls and second screen controls. Zombie you was another standout, but yes. Yeah, I guess we'll put it in the C alongside Game Boy Color and the 3DS. Right. I almost feel like, I mean, I think it's more impressive than those other two. because of the sheer amount of titles. Do you want to move it to me? That is Game Boy, N64, GameCube, and Wii.

No. Yeah. It's in there. It's like a C plus. It's tough. This is a tough exercise. This is my first time making this tier list here. Yeah. There's plenty of other topics we could do this on in the future. So if you like this, leave a comment or reach out to me and let me know. You know what's next, Victor? It is the game that we are, or the system we are currently on, the Nintendo Switch. Came out in 2017. 10 games. Much more manageable here. Not a novel that I have to read. So, 1-2 Switch.

Fast RMX, I Am Setsuna, Just Dance 2017, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Shovel Knight Specter of Torment, Shovel Knight Treasure Trove, Skylanders Imaginators, Snipperclips Cut It Out Together, and Super Bomberman R. And Fast RMX, you said? Yes, Fast RMX. That's the kind of like F-Zero proxy. Yeah.

I liked that game a lot. I enjoyed that game. It was all about Breath of the Wild, though. That was all that we were enamored with and playing. I remember there was like a 100% attach rate at one point. Yeah. Why would you buy the machine without getting that game? There would be just no reason. It was the Breath of the Wild system. I kind of dug Snipperclips. Yeah, Snipperclips is awesome.

That was a cool game. Superman R was rough when it launched. I gave it a very low score at Game Informer when it first came out. I played it this past week with a group of guys, and it was so much fun. So it has come around. They've done a good job of improving that. Shovel Knight Rules. Oh, those were great. Yeah. That was a great fit on this. Like all the indie stuff. Like think of the Switch as this, just this.

funnel to indie game development and that kind of imagination. It's just such a beautiful fit, right? Yeah. These very low file size games to download to your Switch to take with you anywhere you go. Perfect fit. Absolutely. And I think kicked off with Shovel Knight just in a wonderful way right there. It really did. Yeah. I'm leaning A on this. Yeah, me too. Not quite as good as the Game Boy Advance. But it is a very good...

lineup that really brought us into this era where Nintendo was going to be like, hey, look, this is what happens when we combine our stable of developers. It's not just like, oh, this developer is making a game for 3DS. This developer is making a game for Wii U. This is what happens when you just have all of them focusing on the same platform. And I always talk about how the 2017, like if you were just ranking like first years.

which might be another future episode. Oh, 2017 was insane. 2017 was legendary for the Switch. Yes. Oh, man. And just gaming in general, just to kind of define what was achievable for the industry, you know? What a high watermark. That first year of the Nintendo Switch was ridiculous.

ridiculous man just like an unbelievable amount of incredible experiences it was ridiculous um so let's run down the tiers that we got here now that we are finalized uh and you let me know if there's anything you think we should change In the S tier, we have Game Boy Advance, and that's it. In the A tier, we have the NES, SNES, and Switch. In the B tier, we have Game Boy, N64, GameCube, and Wii.

In the C tier, we have Game Boy Color, 3DS, and Wii U. And then in the D tier, we have the opposite sides of the spectrum here in terms of overall sales, the Virtual Boy and the DS. Wild, right? Yeah. So I have a few statistics that I've pulled out here. Biggest launch lineups overall, the Wii U with 29 games, then the Wii with 20 games, and then the NES and Game Boy Advance with 17 each. The smallest launch lineups, N64 and Game Boy Color with two each, Virtual Boy with four.

And looking at that, and I mentioned how the D tier has both the Virtual Boy and the DS, there is no correlation between success and a huge lineup or small launch lineup. Also timing as well, like timing on when you release these trailblazing products and these ideas, because Nintendo always has tried to innovate. This is maybe the least innovative launch.

system that we're about to enter into with the Switch 2, although we don't know much about the machine yet. I haven't seen it run its full paces, but it feels very iterative. And Nintendo hasn't really done that maybe since... the Super Nintendo. But even that, that leap from NES to SNES was quite... remarkable. The Genesis represented that as well, but that was a huge turning of the knob to higher fidelity visuals and much more cool scrolling and stuff.

But the Switch 2 feels like less of that. But every one of these game systems was quite innovative in its time and quite ambitious and could have, I mean, and many of them did, been... tremendous failures for the company and it is a i think a big question of when they launched this you know like i almost feel like if you took the gamecube

And that philosophy and that kind of development output, and you moved it to a different time, it may have done better. Like maybe a pivot from the switch to a cube that's at home.

where the focus is on more higher resolution 4k visuals on television sets might have been an interesting pivot for nintendo to do i'm happy that they're doing the switch too don't get me wrong but um it is interesting like the virtual boy Everybody always talks about that being the failure, but had it come out in a different time, maybe it would have been a remarkable smash success for them.

It may have just been ahead of its time. The technology wasn't quite there yet. We're seeing certain successes and failures in the world of VR right now. Totally. But I also pulled out the most common franchises. that appeared in these launch lineups. The first one, obvious Super Mario Brothers was seven. Right. Madden with five. I heard Madden a lot. I was surprised by that. Super Monkey Ball with three. Okay. And Tony Hawk's Pro Skater with three.

Wow. Meanwhile, the legend of Zelda has only appeared as a launch game twice, which is the same number of times as both pilot wings and the excite series. So excite bike and excite truck being the examples there. Okay. Which is wild because you always think about the Zelda franchise. It's like, oh, yeah, they should launch with the Zelda game. And it's only happened twice. Twilight Princess on Wii and Breath of the Wild, both of those were simultaneously shipped to the previous generation.

as well. Right. So that was interesting. Yeah, that's wild. Or it was the last game for Wii U. Yeah. That way, right? It closed out that console generation. And more or less closed out the GameCube generation as well with Twilight Princess. Normally we would take a break before going to definitive ranking, but I unfortunately am on a...

On the clock right now, I have to step away to catch a screening of a movie that you could probably guess what that movie is. It's Captain America. Yeah, I'm seeing that today too. We're just going to jump right into definitive ranking. It is a recurring segment where we take a Nintendo topic and give our own... personal top five lists. Since we were talking all about the launch lineups this episode, Victor, I want to get your top five

launch games on a Nintendo system of all time. So just start at five, count it down to one, give me a quick sentence or two about each. Okay. I'm going to say The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was so... I think transformative and such a great reinvention of something that we're all familiar with and there was anticipation and expectation and subverted it and exceeded expectations. Is that your number five? That's one.

Oh, you're starting. Okay. I'll start. That would be number one. So can I, can I. Invert, we start with five normally. Hey, you already said that Breath of the Wild is your favorite game of all time. So I think that's just saying like, hey, look, obviously that's number one. So now go to five and let's go down from there. Okay, cool. Number five. Oh, my God. There's so many to choose from.

I think Rogue Leader might be number five for me. Star Wars for the GameCube. I remember the game being hyped up on big screens at E3 and just like I couldn't believe what I was seeing and it was such a huge... leap forward visually from the n64 games i was so excited for that so i and i love that game still so rogue leaders up there um on the we um Nope, on the Wii U. Looking at lists of games right now.

What was the big game for the Game Boy Advance? I can't remember. That was Super Mario Advance was like one of the big ones. There was also Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Yeah. Those were the big ones that I... recall seeing okay okay I would say Super Mario World then for my fourth one. Just an incredible Super Nintendo title. Also a massive leap up from what we had seen visually on the NES, although those games were also incredible. well but yeah beautiful tuned um

And just showing off the musical and visual prowess of the studio, of the company. So that's number four. Number three would be, oh boy, this is tough. Some of these lists are enormous. The 3's Tetris for the Game Boy Advance, or for the Game Boy, the original Game Boy. That is seminal. And I don't know, there's something so... primal and perfect of the black and white shapes coming down on that very primitive architecture but it just was it was the perfect home for it it really clicked it felt

It felt like a gift every time you played it, you know? It really did. Yeah, it was such a special, symbiotic, you know... like eternal kind of connection there. It just felt like it was meant to be, like it was chiseled together. There's a reason that it's still so wildly popular, even in its most basic forms. Yeah.

And then two is Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64, which was my one for a long time. And I think, as we discussed, it changed the language of video games. We had turned a corner and we had grown up.

a little bit and it was one of the games that I was using to sell the idea of our television show I would talk to broadcasters and I would show them footage of Super Mario 64 and I would say this is not your You know, the game system that you have at home with your children right now, we are shifting and we're going to be playing.

you know, in full 3D in real time. And it's going to be like playing a movie. We're going to have control of the camera even. It's really a profound difference. And it certainly was that and more. It absolutely was. And then you already said number one is Breath of the Wild. We have some overlap on our lists. Number five for me is going to be Tetris.

just a timeless classic that really redefined a lot of things. Got a lot of gamers who are a lot of people who weren't gamers into gaming. Yeah. One of the greatest selling games of all time. Number four, Wii sports. Oh, that's great too. Speaking of things that got non-gamers to play video games, I mean, Wii Sports might be the best example of that ever. My grandmother has a Wii to this day because of Wii Sports. That's great. Number three for me is going to be Super Mario 64.

You know, they designed the controller around this game. That's why the N64 controller is how it is because they wanted to make sure Mario 64 played perfectly. And so they created the N64 controller just for Mario 64. And there's, you can pick that up at any point and it still plays phenomenal. It is every single action that you do in that game is just unbelievably fun. And it's.

Just the simple act of jumping and running around. That's why they open up with him out in the courtyard instead of in the castle and in a level because they just wanted you to understand like, oh, it's fun to just run around and climb trees and triple jump and all these other things. It's one of the greatest, most influential games of all time. And it's only topped by two games in my top 10 games of all time. Number two is Super Mario World. I think it's the greatest platformer of all time.

And then number one, my favorite game of all time, your favorite game of all time, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Yeah, man. Coming out of that cave in Breath of the Wild and just feeling like we've stepped into a Miyazaki movie. It was just so profound.

I think what happens too with this industry is we feel like we've seen it all. We have these waves of like, okay, I get it. And then there's a lot of iterating on a concept and a lot of things that feel like a derivation or some kind of kludging. together of a couple of ideas and it's re-represented, but it's familiar. And here was a game that was innately familiar, but everything was adapted and changed for this new philosophy.

We had no idea where we were going to go. And I'm sure as you played it, like when I was playing, it's like, okay, when are we going to get to the touch points that we know from all the other Zelda games? And they don't. They subvert them. They change them all the way along. amazing i mean that's my justification for why it overtook ocarina of time as my favorite game of all time was that like i felt that like okay well when ocarina of time came out there was this sense of wonder that i felt

And then I was so desensitized by future open world games like the GTAs of the world, the Red Deads, Assassin's Creed, all those games. I thought I had seen everything that open world games had to offer. And I was like, okay, well that sense of wonder that I felt playing Ocarina of Time back on the N64, I'll never feel that again. And that's a bummer, but it's why Ocarina of Time has such a special place in my heart.

And then Breath of the Wild somehow subverted all the things that open world games had taught me to that point.

to give me that sense of wonder and that sense of wanting to explore and everything. But yeah, that's another- I feel bad for people that just will not open their mind to games. They just do not understand what we are talking about right now. And I hope that- My hope is that more people will, you know, and hopefully who's ever watching, listening, talks to the people that they know in their life and they get them to have an experience like that because it is.

It is superb. It's fantastic. But Victor, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of All Things Nintendo. This is fantastic. Loved it, man. Love talking with you. Congrats on the success of the show and excited to come back and talk again anytime. You are welcome anytime you want. And thank you so much, everyone, for listening. As you know, my Patreon and the Associated Community...

Discord server are the best ways to get any questions or comments in, but you can also get in touch with me at brian at allthingsnintendo.com or hit me up on Blue Sky or Instagram at brianpichet. That's also my YouTube channel name, and please subscribe to it. It helps out the show a lot. Victor, where can people find you online?

I'm on Blue Sky, Victor Lucas on Blue Sky and Batwing on Instagram and Victor underscore Lucas. I'm still on Twitter, although it's not nice over there most of the time. I'm on YouTube. YouTube.com slash EPN TV. And that's where you can watch classic episodes of EP premiering every Saturday at 9 a.m. Pacific. And I stream all the time on YouTube and on Twitch, which is twitch.tv slash EPN.

And I would love for you to come and join our community, which is filled with lots of awesome people that many of them have been watching EP for a very long time. And I'm always just blown away by their... their graciousness, their kindness, and their knowledge. God, I...

I communicate to and with a lot of very, very smart people that know this space very well, as I'm sure your fans do too. Yeah, amazing community around this show as well. And I'm grateful for each and every one of them. But that is our show for this week. you again to everyone for listening. Take care. We'll see you next time. Before we wrap up this episode of All Things Nintendo, I just want to give a special shout out to the $10 patrons to the show.

Ian T. Clark, Jackal, Jason Thompson, Jawar Hello, Jill Grote, Johnny Five, Jordan Sloat, Jose Villalobos, Joshua Duproy, Cody Gibson, Creeper 207. Mad Genie Confused Koala, Megan S, Pradible, Rob McCann Bobby 265, Robert Sousa, Russell Sayre, Smithy Poo, Tux DC, Wham Bam Sam the Gaming Man, Zachary Pliggy, and Zek3SwordSama, thank you so much for your continued support of this show. why not check out Dungeons & Dragonfruits, the bizarre, strange and queer in every sense of the word D&D podcast.

Join five friends as they laugh, learn and adventure their way through the weird, wonderful world of Widdishins, where dragons hatch from trees and have adventures of all forms in every shape and size. Available wherever you can get your podcasts.