I remember staring up at the Saturn demo unit in Toys R Us, trying to play Panzer Dragoon and failing because I was a little kid and didn’t understand 3D games…
I'd say Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast still looks amazing today, and wouldn't need MUCH work to make a modern game of it. Launch games are always a strange one to judge, as there's always that sort of "WOW" feeling when you play a console when it's right out there for the first time. Hard to find games that push past that initial sensation and endure the way Halo or Super Mario Bros. does when you're looking at launch games. IIRC, wasn't Combat a 2600 launch game? One of the best multiplayer games of its day, perhaps THE best.
every nintendo console (in north america, and not handheld) from start to N64 came out with a Mario game that essentially changed everything each time. They're all pretty much flawless. Luigi's Mansion is the first time we didn't get this treatment (which is why the game got such a ???? reception at the beginning, even though people like it now). Sunshine should have continued the tradition but we all make mistakes sometimes.
Gba had an underrated launch. There was f zero maximum velocity which played very similar to the snes one, Tony Hawk pro skater 2 an amazing but different handheld port of an already amazing game, chu chu rocket was a great port of the Dreamcast game, Rayman advance played and almost looked as good as the ps1 and Saturn versions of rayman 1, Fire pro wrestling was just another good fire pro wrestling game, gt advance was as good of a racing game as f zero was, Mario advance super Mario bros 2 was and still is the best port of Mario bros 2 to play and of course castlevania circle of the moon which I’ll say is as good as the other 5 handheld Nintendo Metroidvania games we got.
The first time I watched someone play Super Mario 64 I was blown away. You could go ANYWHERE. At this point we're so used to it, but back in 1996, there was nothing like it! And to this day, there are so few characters that move and control as perfectly in 3D as Mario did in 64.
@@SegaLordX just finished watching... did I miss the Power Stone section? I thought I saw footage of it at the beginning, but I don't recall it being mentioned. I think Sonic Adventure deserved a nod too even with its flaws.
Same here best launch lineup ever Nfl 2k Sonic Adventure Soulllllcaallliibburrrrrr Powerstone House of the Dead 2 Hydro Thunder I dont regret it either and have all (except Powerstone sadly) still
It's the point where I draw the line on "retro." Back in the days of the Saturn and PS1, it was hard to tell what you were looking at. If the textures sucked, even more so. PS2 and Dreamcast come along, and you no longer need prerendered cutscenes to imagine what the character you're playing looks like. I soecifically use an in-game cutscene from FF8 and FF10, or MGS1 and MGS2 as the comparison. Night and day.
As much as people will dog it: Wii Sports, as friends BEGGED to try it!. So glad it was a pack in for the States. Got my Twilight Princess as well lol (think Excite Truck too)
I probably would have loved it if I got the Wii at launch. I waited a couple years though and got Wii Sports Resort which I liked a lot more so I didn't play the first one much.
I remember that too. The Dreamcast was one of only two consoles I ever preordered and I spent a bunch at launch. Shame that only a year later the PS2 would launch with one of the worst line ups.
I only got into it just as Sega had given up - I managed to get a console, all the controllers, keyboards, mice, guns etc for an absolute bargain! all the games I could want - so for me? it was better than the PS2 - top notch gaming at a fraction of the price!
@@dtown-fi5xs I agree. Dreamcast had the best launch lineup of all time in terms of the number of high-quality games available on day 1. PS2 had one of the worst launches in terms of titles but sold mostly on hype and DVD playback the first year (the backward compatibility helped too)
I’d like to throw out Luigi’s Mansion on Gamecube. To me that was one hell of a launch title even if there wasn’t a Mario title available right away. Great video i’m a big fan of your work!
Revenge of Shinobi is an awesome launch title for the Genesis. arcade style graphics and one of the best genesis soundtracks, probably blew away anyone in the late 80s. SMB plus Duck hunt was a great pack in game for the NES. My memory is a bit foggy bout what about F-zero, was it out in time for the SNES launch? if so would definitely include that.
I love the fact that even if he's "marked" as Sega, mr. Lord X focuses his attention on every console available. Nothing beats SMB on the NES but, for my shocking initial effect, "Soul Calibur" for the Dreamcast is very near to that point of excitement: in an era of rough 3-d titles in 32-bit (even more if you've played the original arcade game), seeing something who was so smooth and hi-res (for that time)....maaan, it was a HUGE feeling.
Man, I wish Super Mario Bros. was a launch title! I got my NES (Deluxe Set) in October 1985 (in NY), and ended up not being able to get SMB until February 1986. I had to play Duck Hunt/Gyromite for a couple of months. Luckily I was able to get Donkey Kong, and Kung Fu a couple of months later. Great memories though.
Depends on where you live. 90% of the country couldn’t buy an NES until after SMB had become available. It was a launch game for more Americans than it wasn’t.
@@caseyhayes4590 While that may be true, it doesn't change the history or release date. Many seem to think that SMB was released in 1985, when it was actually released in February 1986. I had my NES in 1985, and would call Kay-Bee Toys, Ward's, and Toys R Us, in several nearby cities in New York. I was on the call list for two stores, and they both called me on that day in February 1986. I remember that day like it was yesterday.
@@videogameobsession The release date in Iceland is as relevant to someone in Utah in 1985 as the release date in New York City. This wasn't when you could just order it online, it was only people in one city. SMB was released around February 1986 ...the NES was released in February in Los Angeles and not in 80% of the United States until SEPTEMBER of 86. This whole thing is just contrarians. Unless someone bought on launch day in NYC Super Mario Brothers was a launch game. For those 1% of US NES owners, yes it was a game that came three months later. Sorry to rant but nothing is more annoying than a contrarian.
This is especially true in the UK, as Sonic Adventure was pretty much the first console game to push PAL60 into the mainstream. Finally, we no longer had to put up with 17% slower versions of games from North America and Japan.
Congratulations on getting to 100K subs! I agree that launch games can have a big impact, but I do think that the quality of a console overall can be a big selling point where people know that there are going to be great games coming out.
For those not around at the time: Mario 64 was literally considered to be the greatest game, ever, at the time. It was worth the price of admission for the N64 alone.
True. When that came out it was all I cared about. Everything before it didnt even matter anymore. I was hooked. I didnt feel the same way again until Grand Theft Auto 3.
Honestly the first Panzer Dragoon game is still my favorite. I'm sure nostalgia counts for some of it, but the first game had a certain charm and open world wonder that none of the future offerings could match. I remember seeing it for the first time on display as a kid at a Toy's R Us. I had never seen anything like it before and I was amazed. I guess that amazement never wore off. I prefer it even over the recent remake and the other 2 Panzer Dragoon games on the Saturn. I never played the X-Box version. Looking at Mario 64 again just makes me wish all the more that Sega could have made something cool come together with Sonic X-treme.
I think the 1st game had the best music, especially the first level! I overall prefer the second one for the much improved graphics and branching paths. The Xbox version is truly outstanding. I haven’t even tried the enhanced Xbox One X/Series X version of it yet. The only letdowns of Orta are the music, while good didn’t compare to the first 2 games and I didn’t care for most of the bosses on Orta. I never played Saga, as I’m not much of an RPG fan, but I wish I had picked it up when I saw it for only $50 back then!
I remember hooking up my Saturn to the living room tv to show my parents, who had zero interest in games up until then, the intro FMV for Panzer Dragoon. It was the first time they ever seemed interested in any game that I was playing and didn’t look at it like it was for little children. I think they finally understood why I was so obsessed with gaming.
Every time I think of Super Mario Bros coming out in 1985, I think of how fucking insane it is that just 11 years later Mario invented the 3D platformer [without tank controls]
Man I love the nostalgia that you trigger with these types of videos. It makes me want to make a list of things to do, but with only games I need to beat/and or try.
@@IMDLEGEND You're right, only 13 months, I was thinking 18 months. Maybe it's because that first year of PS2 software was ridiculously underwhelming compared to the hype vs the first 2 years of Dreamcast library. I owned a DC for over 2 years before PS2 library had me thinking I needed PS2. My PC had a DVD player so that wasn't a draw for me like some. Eventually I play it all as a retro gamer...but man the people who believed Ken Kutaragi that PS2 in game footage would be identical to a film were suckers, it wasn't even as powerful as XBox/GC and they marketed it as a movie you could fully control.
@@caseyhayes4590 Yes that 1st year of PS2 software was pretty weak. I don’t think that software started to truly pick up for the PS2 until Gran Turismo 3 came out the following Spring. I believe that the Dreamcast had more quality software in its 2 official years on the market than the N64 had in its entire lifetime. I didn’t get a PS2 until the end of its normal lifespan when God of War came out.
Sonic Adventure has to be my all time favourite launch title, it did the same thing as Super Mario 64 but with 6 playable characters, multiple hubworlds to mess around in, so many modes and features to play with and a massive story never before seen in a platformer, all capped off with a lighting system tailored for the Dreamcast and a soundtrack brought by the gods
Man I remember playing Tekken Tag during winter break back in the EARLY 2000’s. That snow forest had that amazing theme music. Still the second best tekken to this day
@@georgeweeman9057 ding ding ding. That’s the only right answer lmfao. Tekken 3 is the best fighting game of all time to me. Up there with Soul Calibur on the dreamcast and street fighter
For me, even though it was technically a year late? The orig Zelda was a launch game for me, and my cousins, too. Once Grandpa was hooked on it, he said we all needed Zelda yeah lol.
Great video! While the Dreamcast probably has the best launch lineup period, I gotta say the best launch games ever have to be Super Mario 64 and Halo: Combat Evolved, unoriginal as those statements may be. It took years, on consoles anyway, to replicate what those two games did for their genres, and the fact they're some of the first games developed for their respective systems is just nuts to me.
Gex 2 was released a year after Mario 64 and was way more better in level design and gameplay. Playing Mario 64 now and it's god awful. Halo 2 single player campaign on the other hand is still epic and fun (playing it for the first time in Halo MCC).
@@Sly2Cooper I've never played any of the Gex games, sorry for the lack of input, though I really don't get why people have so much trouble with SM64, unless they don't play many fifth generation games. Halo 2 though is fantastic, though since it's a sequel by the same developers three years later, it's not too unexpected.
@@Supersayainpikmin level design is awful. Cold Mountain and Clocktower are great examples. Momentum mechanics coupled with narrow platforms is a bad gamedesign. When you need to rotate Mario in one place he will always make some unnecessary steps sometimes jumping off an edge into a pit. The wallkick mechanics is horrible because sometimes you kick wall but sometimes bash head into it. It's all way too overcomplicated. It's not a fun platform game, it's a Dark Souls. I love all Mario platform games except Mario 64. Ofcourse if it was your first 3D platform game you had nothing to compare it to. You had no choice but to master it. But I played it after Gex 2 and Spyro 1 and Crash Bandicoot and Banjo-Kazooie and they all have much better gameplay, controls and level design. Even Jumping Flash 1&2 had better jumping mechanics and level design before Mario 64. I'm replaying Mario 64 now as part of a collection and also have it for Vita. It's absolutely frustrating and not fun. Mario Sunshine was challenging sometimes but at least it was fair and forgiving with excellent level design. Mario64 was the first good 3D platform game with complex levels. But it also has all the flaws of bad 3D platform games of that time (like Croc for example).
This was like watching a brief history of my gaming life! It is interesting, too, that all these games have remained a joy to play to this day. They truly were the instant classics they seemed like at launch.
These last generation releases sucked I miss having that feeling of a game looking and playing amazing. Thanks for the awesome videos as always my friend
Great list! I know these are your personal favs but there's one glaring omission here...Tetris on the original Game Boy! Didn't matter who you were or whether you were old or young, it's the game that made everyone want to pick up and play a GB back in the day!
My fondest video game memory comes from x-mas 1996. I was 9 and 64 just came out. I got the N64, super Mario 64, and pilotwings that Christmas. Over the next few days we got snowed in with ~4 feet of snow. It was the most glorious Xmas ever.
Thank you for highlighting Castlevania: CotM. When the Gameboy Advance was coming out, I had a foldout brochure from Walmart showcasing the upcoming games, and I would stare at CotM's screenshot, waiting for the day when I could play it. I was not disappointed. From the opening title screen with its eerie chanting to it's epic final boss fight, that game delivers.
I remember the first game I played on my Dreamcast, I'd bought it off a lad I worked with years ago. It had a boot disc and around 150 games, I played soul calibre first because I loved it for ps1 and my jaw hit the deck when I played it, it still holds up more than well today.
The all-time best IMO was Ridge Racer 7 on PS3. I was so excited to have that console and game. I think the PS3 was the greatest generational leap we have seen. Ridge Racer 7 was so good, my expectations were raised very high and few games were able to impress me anywhere near as much. On Super Famicom, Nintendo released Super Mario World which is quite close to a perfect game.
Ridge Racer 7 was 1080p / 60fps, at launch. Very impressive. It's something that many games struggled with_, even years later. Then the stereoscopic 3D DLC was very nice too.
@@videogameobsession It's my favourite game of all time. Graphics, music, longevity - I played it every day for 3 months to clear it 100%. It looks amazing in 4k running with RPCS3. I often just watch the replays. The framerate isn't locked at 60FPS yet though.
It's almost like a chant. Soul Calibur is 22 years old. But it's still a masterpiece and I've heard it is still played at many conventions and game gatherings.
And it's still leagues ahead of all of its many joyless cash-grab sequels. Ok some were better than others; I'm entertained with playing as Spawn / Heihachi / Link in SC2, and the Star Wars stuff in IV was amusing. But for how quickly the game responds, how great the graphics still look (esp with a VGA)...the original Soul Calibur is still the very freaking best.
There's a thing about the original Panzer Dragoon that not a lot of people seem to know or notice: Almost every texture in the game is a scanned painting. Someone went through the effort of painting on a canvas almost _everything_ that would cover a surface in the game, and then it got scanned and digitized. Imagine the amount of work needed to get that done. That told me that Panzer Dragoon wasn't merely a game, but a work of art. The only other game that did something similar was the original Xenogears, though it looked more like they used watercolors or cels (For anything polygonal).
Nintendo always had Killers Launch games... Probably Mario 64, it was like playing toy story in real time. And this game is still very good in 4K with emulator. Classic
I really miss old-school console launches. Each new generation was mindblowing. Plugging in that new console, turning it on and seeing the amazing jump in graphics and sound was so exciting! It really was generation leaps. Sadly, we've reached a point where modern gaming is so advanced that new 'generations' are small upgrades. 80's/90's/early 00's gaming can never be replicated.
Legendary Axe was definitely a feather in the cap for the Turbografx and grabbed my attention but really when comparing to Ghouls and Ghosts as you did the games were released within a month of each other in North America. We also had screen shots and previews in the magazines to gloss over so it really felt like the two games (and all of the other Genesis/Turbografx titles at or soon after launch) were all in front of us and all arrived together. Virtua Fighter for Saturn did absolutely nothing for me as a first introduction to the Saturn and it wasn't until experiencing Panzer Dragoon and seeing some of the other upcoming releases where I became compelled to pick up a Saturn in mid-summer of 1995 and choose it over the Playstation initially.
God damn Panzer Dragoon was such a good game for 1995. Visuals, music, and gameplay were all on point. I can't tell you how many times I played through it back then.
I don't even know of any launch games I've played. Just rarely did I buy new consoles around their launch. I've got my Master System when the Mega Drive was already released here in Europe, a couple of years later I bought the Mega Drive. It took me also some time to buy my first Playstation. And I purchased the Switch, my last console up to now, only this January.
I haven't played Breath of the Wild but I wish I was a kid back in the day and be able to play it. I cherish original nes Mario memories as a little kid but couldn't imagine being the same age but playing BOTW.
Freshman in college in 2002. My roommate always went home during the weekends. He had this new system called an Xbox he left behind and it had one game.... Halo. My friend from down the hall wanted to play. 8 hours later... we were hooked
Great video, as always. I love Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon, so it's good to hear someone else give it some respect. The card system was very cool and gave it lots of replay value. Breath Of The Wild is a strange choice considering it was a Wii U release. I suppose it's still a launch game, it's just you (or I) didn't need to buy that system to play it, which separates it from the other "killer apps" on the list. It kind of annoyed me when "Nintendo fans" praised the Switch's line up of games being ported over from the Wii U, because it confirmed those same "fans" didn't buy the Wii U, which had many of those same games. Why? Most will repeat Nintendo's "marketing" excuse that the company used during a stockholder meeting to explain their lacklustre sales, but that does not explain why "Nintendo fans" didn't support the system. Thanks for your content. Keep up the great work.
For me, Waverace 64 was and still is amazing, the water physics were just so good and I don't think I've seen them ever done better to this day. Coupled with it being a great game aswell makes it one of my favourite ever games
BOTW plus 9 honorable mentions. It's not a dig on the list or on the video, I found both of them great and love the channel. But BOTW is in a league of its own, one of the best games ever released IMO.
I agree with your list, SLX. My favorite modern launch game on is definitely Halo: Combat Evolved for XBox. A ton of great memories, both Single Player and Multiplayer.
as a kid, i was not blessed enough to even dream of getting a console on launch, it took me until the ps4 era to get them first day, also, i am a careful adopter, anw, all i can say, these are the first games i played on a new console i got , SMB 1 for nes, SML for GB , SMW for snes , MARIO KART for GBA , GARGOYLE'S for GENESIS , TMNT for famicom , SSX TRICKY for PS 2 , LOST PLANET for xbox360 , RESISTANCE for PS3 , KILLZONE for PS4 , RYSE SON OF ROME on XBOX1 , WIPEOUT on PSP , uncharted on VITA , SUPER MARIO LAND on 3DS and DEMON'S SOULS on PS5.
I know Sonic is not a launch title, but I remember playing it at Toys R Us on those demo consoles that would let you play for a couple minutes (It was the first time I saw or heard of a SEGA Genesis). I had to choose for Christmas of 92' between an SNES and a Genesis, and even though I had played Contra III, pilot Wings and Mario World at friend's houses, those 2 minutes of gameplay and the Green Hill tune sold me on the Genesis.
Great videos. i really miss the time when new consoles meant anything. Since 2013 console games all play and look the same. The days are gone when new hardware really meant something new and unique. That's why I enjoy playing retro games more than modern stuff. Do not get my wrong i still enjoy playing on my ps5 I got last year at launch day but use the old consoles like the Mega, Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast, Gamecube and the first Playstation way more often than the newere stuff. There just some games I can play forever. And I realised that there are many games I never got to play because they were not available in my home region (I live in Austria which Pal land).
Got a Turbo Duo for Dracula X, a PSP for Dracula X Chronicles, and Japanese Saturn for Radiant Silvergun, PS3 for Metal Gear 4. Totally worth it for me for just those games back then. Edit: I realize that these weren't launch games but they were games that made me want to get the console.
I would add Ghouls N Ghosts for the Sega Genesis. Although technically it came out about a month or so after launch, so I can see why it wouldn't quite qualify. That was an incredible display of system power for 1989. It still holds up even today! Also, Wipeout Pure for the PSP was an amazing launch game.
Soul Calibur and Tekken Tag both absolutely blew me away graphically. Tekken Tag in particular really captured the glossy look of a CG movie and I thought it looked better than basically any game on the market for years
I got a couple of the Dreamcast launch titles, Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur. I wasn't even into fighting games until I got Soul Calibur! And I loved Sonic Adventure because of its anime like appearance, the 2D parts I mean. The game looked great too at the time. I especially enjoyed the music for both games!
Eternal Ring was one of my favorites. I pre-ordered it a long with my ps2 and walked out of the store before anyone else could, knowing I'd be playing another great FromSoftware game. I enjoyed Eternal ring more than King's field 4.
I remember staring up at the Saturn demo unit in Toys R Us, trying to play Panzer Dragoon and failing because I was a little kid and didn’t understand 3D games…
Ah yes toy's r us, what a great store to go to as a kid
Mmm ,seems like toys R us did NOT rejected to sell sega saturn systems,because if they did, then there would,ve been no demo sega saturn.
@@johneymute That's exactly what peeved off so many other retailers, Toys "R" Us recieved preferential treatment.
My brain couldn't think in 3 dimensions yet.
I'd say Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast still looks amazing today, and wouldn't need MUCH work to make a modern game of it.
Launch games are always a strange one to judge, as there's always that sort of "WOW" feeling when you play a console when it's right out there for the first time. Hard to find games that push past that initial sensation and endure the way Halo or Super Mario Bros. does when you're looking at launch games. IIRC, wasn't Combat a 2600 launch game? One of the best multiplayer games of its day, perhaps THE best.
I was like 11 years old when Super Mario World, the greatest launch title in my humble opinion, came with my SNES. What a great game. 🥺
All 90s consoles had awesome launch titles. It wasnt until the 2000s consoles where we had to wait a little bit for those killer titles to come
every nintendo console (in north america, and not handheld) from start to N64 came out with a Mario game that essentially changed everything each time. They're all pretty much flawless. Luigi's Mansion is the first time we didn't get this treatment (which is why the game got such a ???? reception at the beginning, even though people like it now). Sunshine should have continued the tradition but we all make mistakes sometimes.
Not better than Sonic 2!
@@marctoad Nintendo and Mario fanboy alert!!!
@@joyasmusicales603 Why are we comparing? Sonic 2 is also a great game... it's also not a launch title?
Ahh, it's nice to see Castlevania: CotM get the respect it deserves.
One of my first GBA games. So damned good, it and it was portable! Yet it played like the full sized game!
Alex bubble objectively speaking, you can't really include that game on a top 10 list in a world where you have to exclude wii sports. Sorry
Definitely the best GBA game at launch.
I didn't know it was cut from the canon.
Gba had an underrated launch. There was f zero maximum velocity which played very similar to the snes one, Tony Hawk pro skater 2 an amazing but different handheld port of an already amazing game, chu chu rocket was a great port of the Dreamcast game, Rayman advance played and almost looked as good as the ps1 and Saturn versions of rayman 1, Fire pro wrestling was just another good fire pro wrestling game, gt advance was as good of a racing game as f zero was, Mario advance super Mario bros 2 was and still is the best port of Mario bros 2 to play and of course castlevania circle of the moon which I’ll say is as good as the other 5 handheld Nintendo Metroidvania games we got.
First game and system I bought with my own money
The first time I watched someone play Super Mario 64 I was blown away. You could go ANYWHERE. At this point we're so used to it, but back in 1996, there was nothing like it! And to this day, there are so few characters that move and control as perfectly in 3D as Mario did in 64.
Dreamcast HAS to be mentioned here! I bought 8 games on day-1 I was so broke! 😂
Mentioned and props given.
I got mine in 2000 when it still appeared to have a future lol, I was only 13 but RE3 and Mvc2 were my jams
@@SegaLordX just finished watching... did I miss the Power Stone section? I thought I saw footage of it at the beginning, but I don't recall it being mentioned. I think Sonic Adventure deserved a nod too even with its flaws.
Same here best launch lineup ever
Nfl 2k
Sonic Adventure
Soulllllcaallliibburrrrrr
Powerstone
House of the Dead 2
Hydro Thunder
I dont regret it either and have all
(except Powerstone sadly) still
I got my Dreamcast on day 1 w/Soul Calibur, and Sonic Adventure.
The graphical difference between Panzer Dragoon and Soul Calibur is ridiculous! The Dreamcast was such an amazing little console.
It's the point where I draw the line on "retro." Back in the days of the Saturn and PS1, it was hard to tell what you were looking at. If the textures sucked, even more so. PS2 and Dreamcast come along, and you no longer need prerendered cutscenes to imagine what the character you're playing looks like.
I soecifically use an in-game cutscene from FF8 and FF10, or MGS1 and MGS2 as the comparison. Night and day.
Absolutely loved my Dreamcast, perhaps more than my genesis
I can't argue with any of these launch titles. I would add Super Monkey Ball for GameCube as one of my favorite launch games.
SMB was pretty amazing when it came out, but Wave Race: Blue Storm, Rogue Squadron 2, and THPS3 were all better imo. Luigi's Mansion slaps too.
Totally agree on super monkey ball! Still holds up well today. The first two smb games on GameCube have yet to be topped.
Congratulations getting 100K Sega Lord X. Keep up the awesome work!
Thanks. I’ll do my best.
As much as people will dog it: Wii Sports, as friends BEGGED to try it!. So glad it was a pack in for the States. Got my Twilight Princess as well lol (think Excite Truck too)
I had many great moments with the Wii as well, got it with Mario Galaxy and Wii Sports. Spent many nights playing Wii Sports with my friends
I probably would have loved it if I got the Wii at launch. I waited a couple years though and got Wii Sports Resort which I liked a lot more so I didn't play the first one much.
I do believe that Wii Sports deserve an honorable mention. It was way more fun than it had any right to be.
Dreamcast had the best launch lineup. I remember reading EGM and seeing a few games at launch scoring 9's
I remember that too. The Dreamcast was one of only two consoles I ever preordered and I spent a bunch at launch. Shame that only a year later the PS2 would launch with one of the worst line ups.
@@dtown-fi5xs PS1 was pretty okay but PS2 was bad...really bad.
Totally agree too.
I only got into it just as Sega had given up - I managed to get a console, all the controllers, keyboards, mice, guns etc for an absolute bargain! all the games I could want - so for me? it was better than the PS2 - top notch gaming at a fraction of the price!
@@dtown-fi5xs I agree. Dreamcast had the best launch lineup of all time in terms of the number of high-quality games available on day 1. PS2 had one of the worst launches in terms of titles but sold mostly on hype and DVD playback the first year (the backward compatibility helped too)
OMG. All of my childhood games into one video. Great job Mel. Many congratulations on hitting 100K subscribers. So proud of you buddy ❤️🕹🎮
Appreciate the message. Thanks.
I’d like to throw out Luigi’s Mansion on Gamecube. To me that was one hell of a launch title even if there wasn’t a Mario title available right away. Great video i’m a big fan of your work!
Revenge of Shinobi is an awesome launch title for the Genesis. arcade style graphics and one of the best genesis soundtracks, probably blew away anyone in the late 80s. SMB plus Duck hunt was a great pack in game for the NES. My memory is a bit foggy bout what about F-zero, was it out in time for the SNES launch? if so would definitely include that.
The Genesis was out for a few months before Revenge of Shinobi showed up.
Yes F-Zero was along with Pilotwings
The Revenge of Shinobi was released in December of 1989. The Genesis came out (in the USA) in August 1989.
@@videogameobsession We europeans got Revenge of shinobi on the megadrive launch IIRC
@@F4Wildcat I'm not 100% sure about the EUR launch, but I believe ROS was released there in Spring 1990.
Super Mario World, kept me begging for the SNES month and moth
1080 Snowboarding on the N64 - analogue control so sublime, no one improved on it. One of the few N64 games I still play (Goldeneye being the other)
This was great. It was neat seeing something modern mentioned as well. I would love to see one pf these for Swan Song games on different consoles.
I love the fact that even if he's "marked" as Sega, mr. Lord X focuses his attention on every console available.
Nothing beats SMB on the NES but, for my shocking initial effect, "Soul Calibur" for the Dreamcast is very near to that point of excitement: in an era of rough 3-d titles in 32-bit (even more if you've played the original arcade game), seeing something who was so smooth and hi-res (for that time)....maaan, it was a HUGE feeling.
Man, I wish Super Mario Bros. was a launch title! I got my NES (Deluxe Set) in October 1985 (in NY), and ended up not being able to get SMB until February 1986. I had to play Duck Hunt/Gyromite for a couple of months. Luckily I was able to get Donkey Kong, and Kung Fu a couple of months later. Great memories though.
Same here! SMB was NOT a launch title. I played a ton of Duck Hunt, Gyromite, and Kung Fu when I first got it.
I loved my old NES growing up! I have fond memories of blowing into the cartridge to get the games to work!
Depends on where you live. 90% of the country couldn’t buy an NES until after SMB had become available. It was a launch game for more Americans than it wasn’t.
@@caseyhayes4590 While that may be true, it doesn't change the history or release date. Many seem to think that SMB was released in 1985, when it was actually released in February 1986. I had my NES in 1985, and would call Kay-Bee Toys, Ward's, and Toys R Us, in several nearby cities in New York. I was on the call list for two stores, and they both called me on that day in February 1986. I remember that day like it was yesterday.
@@videogameobsession The release date in Iceland is as relevant to someone in Utah in 1985 as the release date in New York City. This wasn't when you could just order it online, it was only people in one city. SMB was released around February 1986 ...the NES was released in February in Los Angeles and not in 80% of the United States until SEPTEMBER of 86. This whole thing is just contrarians. Unless someone bought on launch day in NYC Super Mario Brothers was a launch game. For those 1% of US NES owners, yes it was a game that came three months later. Sorry to rant but nothing is more annoying than a contrarian.
The number 1 launch title for me of all time has to be Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. What a beautiful game; the graphics still hold up today!
This is especially true in the UK, as Sonic Adventure was pretty much the first console game to push PAL60 into the mainstream. Finally, we no longer had to put up with 17% slower versions of games from North America and Japan.
Congratulations on getting to 100K subs! I agree that launch games can have a big impact, but I do think that the quality of a console overall can be a big selling point where people know that there are going to be great games coming out.
For those not around at the time: Mario 64 was literally considered to be the greatest game, ever, at the time. It was worth the price of admission for the N64 alone.
Tell that to Arin Hanson
True. When that came out it was all I cared about. Everything before it didnt even matter anymore. I was hooked.
I didnt feel the same way again until Grand Theft Auto 3.
It was until ocarina of time came out
@@stevesteve0521 The first level of _Bubsy 3D_ is better than both of those games put together
It was my very favorite video game until SoTN.
Honestly the first Panzer Dragoon game is still my favorite. I'm sure nostalgia counts for some of it, but the first game had a certain charm and open world wonder that none of the future offerings could match. I remember seeing it for the first time on display as a kid at a Toy's R Us. I had never seen anything like it before and I was amazed. I guess that amazement never wore off. I prefer it even over the recent remake and the other 2 Panzer Dragoon games on the Saturn. I never played the X-Box version.
Looking at Mario 64 again just makes me wish all the more that Sega could have made something cool come together with Sonic X-treme.
I think the 1st game had the best music, especially the first level! I overall prefer the second one for the much improved graphics and branching paths. The Xbox version is truly outstanding. I haven’t even tried the enhanced Xbox One X/Series X version of it yet. The only letdowns of Orta are the music, while good didn’t compare to the first 2 games and I didn’t care for most of the bosses on Orta. I never played Saga, as I’m not much of an RPG fan, but I wish I had picked it up when I saw it for only $50 back then!
Can’t argue with much of this list tho
Ridge racer on PlayStation was a wow moment.
Ridge Racer is the best launch title period...played that to death
I remember hooking up my Saturn to the living room tv to show my parents, who had zero interest in games up until then, the intro FMV for Panzer Dragoon. It was the first time they ever seemed interested in any game that I was playing and didn’t look at it like it was for little children. I think they finally understood why I was so obsessed with gaming.
I showed Flashback on Genesis/SMD to my family expecting that reaction and got a shoulder shrug.
Every time I think of Super Mario Bros coming out in 1985, I think of how fucking insane it is that just 11 years later Mario invented the 3D platformer [without tank controls]
Just when I lose hope with the world, SLX drops a video. There’s a reason for everything. Thanks man. I feel whole again. 😊
OMFG the Panzer Dragoon music is amazing 😍
Man I love the nostalgia that you trigger with these types of videos. It makes me want to make a list of things to do, but with only games I need to beat/and or try.
People who saw Soul Calibur then waited almost 2 years for PS2 were the greatest suckers in gaming history.
I agree. Although to be fair, PS2 launched only a year after the Dreamcast in North America.
@@IMDLEGEND You're right, only 13 months, I was thinking 18 months. Maybe it's because that first year of PS2 software was ridiculously underwhelming compared to the hype vs the first 2 years of Dreamcast library. I owned a DC for over 2 years before PS2 library had me thinking I needed PS2. My PC had a DVD player so that wasn't a draw for me like some. Eventually I play it all as a retro gamer...but man the people who believed Ken Kutaragi that PS2 in game footage would be identical to a film were suckers, it wasn't even as powerful as XBox/GC and they marketed it as a movie you could fully control.
@@caseyhayes4590 Yes that 1st year of PS2 software was pretty weak. I don’t think that software started to truly pick up for the PS2 until Gran Turismo 3 came out the following Spring. I believe that the Dreamcast had more quality software in its 2 official years on the market than the N64 had in its entire lifetime. I didn’t get a PS2 until the end of its normal lifespan when God of War came out.
Sonic Adventure has to be my all time favourite launch title, it did the same thing as Super Mario 64 but with 6 playable characters, multiple hubworlds to mess around in, so many modes and features to play with and a massive story never before seen in a platformer, all capped off with a lighting system tailored for the Dreamcast and a soundtrack brought by the gods
Agreed
Don't forget being able to play it at 60Hz in PAL territories. Nothing like it back then.
Man I remember playing Tekken Tag during winter break back in the EARLY 2000’s. That snow forest had that amazing theme music. Still the second best tekken to this day
What's your number 1? Mine is Tekken 3 for the PS1.
@@georgeweeman9057 ding ding ding. That’s the only right answer lmfao. Tekken 3 is the best fighting game of all time to me. Up there with Soul Calibur on the dreamcast and street fighter
Sonic 2 for the Genesis 2. It was unique at the time. The music was special.
For me, even though it was technically a year late? The orig Zelda was a launch game for me, and my cousins, too. Once Grandpa was hooked on it, he said we all needed Zelda yeah lol.
Great video! While the Dreamcast probably has the best launch lineup period, I gotta say the best launch games ever have to be Super Mario 64 and Halo: Combat Evolved, unoriginal as those statements may be. It took years, on consoles anyway, to replicate what those two games did for their genres, and the fact they're some of the first games developed for their respective systems is just nuts to me.
Gex 2 was released a year after Mario 64 and was way more better in level design and gameplay. Playing Mario 64 now and it's god awful.
Halo 2 single player campaign on the other hand is still epic and fun (playing it for the first time in Halo MCC).
@@Sly2Cooper I've never played any of the Gex games, sorry for the lack of input, though I really don't get why people have so much trouble with SM64, unless they don't play many fifth generation games. Halo 2 though is fantastic, though since it's a sequel by the same developers three years later, it's not too unexpected.
@@Supersayainpikmin level design is awful. Cold Mountain and Clocktower are great examples. Momentum mechanics coupled with narrow platforms is a bad gamedesign. When you need to rotate Mario in one place he will always make some unnecessary steps sometimes jumping off an edge into a pit. The wallkick mechanics is horrible because sometimes you kick wall but sometimes bash head into it. It's all way too overcomplicated. It's not a fun platform game, it's a Dark Souls.
I love all Mario platform games except Mario 64.
Ofcourse if it was your first 3D platform game you had nothing to compare it to. You had no choice but to master it. But I played it after Gex 2 and Spyro 1 and Crash Bandicoot and Banjo-Kazooie and they all have much better gameplay, controls and level design.
Even Jumping Flash 1&2 had better jumping mechanics and level design before Mario 64.
I'm replaying Mario 64 now as part of a collection and also have it for Vita. It's absolutely frustrating and not fun. Mario Sunshine was challenging sometimes but at least it was fair and forgiving with excellent level design.
Mario64 was the first good 3D platform game with complex levels. But it also has all the flaws of bad 3D platform games of that time (like Croc for example).
Meh!
@artemfotokaliningrad
You sound like you're trying way too hard, to the point that I can't take you seriously.
This was like watching a brief history of my gaming life! It is interesting, too, that all these games have remained a joy to play to this day. They truly were the instant classics they seemed like at launch.
#1. *SoulCalibur* 🥰
I've really loved watching this channel grow. Great content.
Really great video and list, love you threw in the handhelds. Smb64 and soul Calibur were jaw-dropping for their time.
All SNES launch title games were good but i'm surprised you didn't mention F-Zero or SimCity.
F-Zero was ridiculous. Still one of my favorite SNES games.
Pilot wings was good?
@@joyasmusicales603 It was a fun and addicting game, its main job was to showcase the power of the SNES, but it did have some flaws.
Star Wars Shadows of the Empire was incredible for its time, even rivaling Mario 64 for me as a launch title
It's the sole reason I bought the N64 in the first place. A fully 3D Star Wars action video game was brand new and definitely unheard of at the time.
@@maximillionroivas3893 Definitely dude, I recommend you and everyone to get the PC version, its the better version has cinemas and more. Its a blast
Not a launch title in the USA. Only Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 were launch titles.
These last generation releases sucked
I miss having that feeling of a game looking and playing amazing. Thanks for the awesome videos as always my friend
I played Super Mario 64 for the first time on the DS, and it was fantastic even as a handheld game thanks to the short levels.
Congrats on getting 100K subcribers. ive loved your videos for a long time. thank you for the great times
Great list! I know these are your personal favs but there's one glaring omission here...Tetris on the original Game Boy! Didn't matter who you were or whether you were old or young, it's the game that made everyone want to pick up and play a GB back in the day!
My fondest video game memory comes from x-mas 1996. I was 9 and 64 just came out. I got the N64, super Mario 64, and pilotwings that Christmas. Over the next few days we got snowed in with ~4 feet of snow. It was the most glorious Xmas ever.
Thank you for highlighting Castlevania: CotM. When the Gameboy Advance was coming out, I had a foldout brochure from Walmart showcasing the upcoming games, and I would stare at CotM's screenshot, waiting for the day when I could play it.
I was not disappointed. From the opening title screen with its eerie chanting to it's epic final boss fight, that game delivers.
I remember the first game I played on my Dreamcast, I'd bought it off a lad I worked with years ago. It had a boot disc and around 150 games, I played soul calibre first because I loved it for ps1 and my jaw hit the deck when I played it, it still holds up more than well today.
The all-time best IMO was Ridge Racer 7 on PS3. I was so excited to have that console and game. I think the PS3 was the greatest generational leap we have seen. Ridge Racer 7 was so good, my expectations were raised very high and few games were able to impress me anywhere near as much. On Super Famicom, Nintendo released Super Mario World which is quite close to a perfect game.
Ridge Racer 7 was 1080p / 60fps, at launch. Very impressive. It's something that many games struggled with_, even years later. Then the stereoscopic 3D DLC was very nice too.
@@videogameobsession
It's my favourite game of all time. Graphics, music, longevity - I played it every day for 3 months to clear it 100%. It looks amazing in 4k running with RPCS3. I often just watch the replays. The framerate isn't locked at 60FPS yet though.
Soul Calibur is 22 years old...let me repeat that. Soul Calibur is 22 years old.
It still crushes 90% of most fighters.
It's almost like a chant. Soul Calibur is 22 years old. But it's still a masterpiece and I've heard it is still played at many conventions and game gatherings.
An instant classic.
And it's still leagues ahead of all of its many joyless cash-grab sequels. Ok some were better than others; I'm entertained with playing as Spawn / Heihachi / Link in SC2, and the Star Wars stuff in IV was amusing. But for how quickly the game responds, how great the graphics still look (esp with a VGA)...the original Soul Calibur is still the very freaking best.
Doesn't fully count, but it was technically a launch title, and was originally intended to be a launch title. Dead or Alive 4. Amazing game.
There's a thing about the original Panzer Dragoon that not a lot of people seem to know or notice: Almost every texture in the game is a scanned painting. Someone went through the effort of painting on a canvas almost _everything_ that would cover a surface in the game, and then it got scanned and digitized. Imagine the amount of work needed to get that done. That told me that Panzer Dragoon wasn't merely a game, but a work of art.
The only other game that did something similar was the original Xenogears, though it looked more like they used watercolors or cels (For anything polygonal).
A week from now the Super Nintendo Entertainment System turns 30 on August 23rd!!
We used to have an old joke back when Halo came out: the Xbox was just a Halo adapter. 😎
We called it the original X-Box, The Halo Box.
Nintendo always had Killers Launch games... Probably Mario 64, it was like playing toy story in real time. And this game is still very good in 4K with emulator.
Classic
Meh!
Kerbal Space Program is my favorite launch game.
lol I see what you did there!
Great review sega! These titles are some great games and I truly enjoyed this video journey! Keep producing great content 👌
When I had a PS2, one of the launch titles I got was Madden NFL 2001. Back then it blew my mind on how the graphics became nearly mind blowing.
Great list! Another one of my favorite launch titles was SSX for the PS2
The perfect video for that new 100k subs, good Job Mel!
Love watching these videos!!! Only thing I wish is that the amazing music intro wasn't so ear breaking loud compared to the rest of the video
Great video, great topic... Also, I'm looking forward to you talking about Wild Woody again in your upcoming vid about Sega CD FMV...
Pretty much nailed it in my opinion. All of those titles blew me away at launch, being absolutely enthralled for months.
I really miss old-school console launches. Each new generation was mindblowing. Plugging in that new console, turning it on and seeing the amazing jump in graphics and sound was so exciting! It really was generation leaps. Sadly, we've reached a point where modern gaming is so advanced that new 'generations' are small upgrades. 80's/90's/early 00's gaming can never be replicated.
Congrats on reaching 100k subs, well deserved, keep up the great work
Legendary Axe was definitely a feather in the cap for the Turbografx and grabbed my attention but really when comparing to Ghouls and Ghosts as you did the games were released within a month of each other in North America. We also had screen shots and previews in the magazines to gloss over so it really felt like the two games (and all of the other Genesis/Turbografx titles at or soon after launch) were all in front of us and all arrived together.
Virtua Fighter for Saturn did absolutely nothing for me as a first introduction to the Saturn and it wasn't until experiencing Panzer Dragoon and seeing some of the other upcoming releases where I became compelled to pick up a Saturn in mid-summer of 1995 and choose it over the Playstation initially.
My favorite Sega launch games are:
1. Virtua Fighter 2 (Sega Saturn).
And 2. Sonic Adventure 1 (Sega Dreamcast).
Launch titles and killer apps are different but some class choices here.
Keep up the good work fella and stay safe.
It’s really cool hearing first impressions from people who were actually there to remember it
Hell yeah, should have finished before commenting. Tekken tag was one of my favorites. Unlocking the bowling mode and playing it was so much fun!
Very recent, but Astro's Playroom should be here. It does an excellent job of showing what PS5 is capable of
God damn Panzer Dragoon was such a good game for 1995. Visuals, music, and gameplay were all on point. I can't tell you how many times I played through it back then.
Man, I loved circle of the moon. Didn’t realize it was a launch title. Fun!
I don't even know of any launch games I've played.
Just rarely did I buy new consoles around their launch. I've got my Master System when the Mega Drive was already released here in Europe, a couple of years later I bought the Mega Drive. It took me also some time to buy my first Playstation. And I purchased the Switch, my last console up to now, only this January.
I haven't played Breath of the Wild but I wish I was a kid back in the day and be able to play it. I cherish original nes Mario memories as a little kid but couldn't imagine being the same age but playing BOTW.
Just started watching the video and as soon as I heard that Panzer Dragoon theme, man it just became epic . Ready to commence watching,
Good list! A couple of other launch games I love that weren't on the list are Luigi's Mansion (GameCube) and New Super Mario Bros U (Wii-U).
Freshman in college in 2002. My roommate always went home during the weekends. He had this new system called an Xbox he left behind and it had one game.... Halo. My friend from down the hall wanted to play.
8 hours later... we were hooked
I think star wars rogue leader for GameCube was pretty great, if for nothing else, the visual presentation was near flawless
It was awesome as fuck
Great video, as always. I love Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon, so it's good to hear someone else give it some respect. The card system was very cool and gave it lots of replay value. Breath Of The Wild is a strange choice considering it was a Wii U release. I suppose it's still a launch game, it's just you (or I) didn't need to buy that system to play it, which separates it from the other "killer apps" on the list. It kind of annoyed me when "Nintendo fans" praised the Switch's line up of games being ported over from the Wii U, because it confirmed those same "fans" didn't buy the Wii U, which had many of those same games. Why? Most will repeat Nintendo's "marketing" excuse that the company used during a stockholder meeting to explain their lacklustre sales, but that does not explain why "Nintendo fans" didn't support the system.
Thanks for your content. Keep up the great work.
For me, Waverace 64 was and still is amazing, the water physics were just so good and I don't think I've seen them ever done better to this day. Coupled with it being a great game aswell makes it one of my favourite ever games
BOTW plus 9 honorable mentions. It's not a dig on the list or on the video, I found both of them great and love the channel. But BOTW is in a league of its own, one of the best games ever released IMO.
I agree with your list, SLX. My favorite modern launch game on is definitely Halo: Combat Evolved for XBox. A ton of great memories, both Single Player and Multiplayer.
as a kid, i was not blessed enough to even dream of getting a console on launch, it took me until the ps4 era to get them first day, also, i am a careful adopter, anw, all i can say, these are the first games i played on a new console i got , SMB 1 for nes, SML for GB , SMW for snes , MARIO KART for GBA , GARGOYLE'S for GENESIS , TMNT for famicom , SSX TRICKY for PS 2 , LOST PLANET for xbox360 , RESISTANCE for PS3 , KILLZONE for PS4 , RYSE SON OF ROME on XBOX1 , WIPEOUT on PSP , uncharted on VITA , SUPER MARIO LAND on 3DS and DEMON'S SOULS on PS5.
Obviously not a launch title but it's amazing how BotW runs great on Wii U too!
@matt alan yes I know LOL
Still remember playing super Mario for the first time. Ah the wonder of the NEs and its revolutionary controller.
I know Sonic is not a launch title, but I remember playing it at Toys R Us on those demo consoles that would let you play for a couple minutes (It was the first time I saw or heard of a SEGA Genesis). I had to choose for Christmas of 92' between an SNES and a Genesis, and even though I had played Contra III, pilot Wings and Mario World at friend's houses, those 2 minutes of gameplay and the Green Hill tune sold me on the Genesis.
Great videos. i really miss the time when new consoles meant anything. Since 2013 console games all play and look the same. The days are gone when new hardware really meant something new and unique. That's why I enjoy playing retro games more than modern stuff. Do not get my wrong i still enjoy playing on my ps5 I got last year at launch day but use the old consoles like the Mega, Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast, Gamecube and the first Playstation way more often than the newere stuff. There just some games I can play forever. And I realised that there are many games I never got to play because they were not available in my home region (I live in Austria which Pal land).
Gorf , Avenger (Space Invaders) , and Omega Race on the Commodore VIC20..All excellent examples of their arcade counterparts.
Got a Turbo Duo for Dracula X, a PSP for Dracula X Chronicles, and Japanese Saturn for Radiant Silvergun, PS3 for Metal Gear 4. Totally worth it for me for just those games back then.
Edit: I realize that these weren't launch games but they were games that made me want to get the console.
I would add Ghouls N Ghosts for the Sega Genesis. Although technically it came out about a month or so after launch, so I can see why it wouldn't quite qualify. That was an incredible display of system power for 1989. It still holds up even today! Also, Wipeout Pure for the PSP was an amazing launch game.
Destruction Derby and Jumping Flash were absolutely amazing launch games for the PS1. Still 2 of my favs of all time.
Jumping flash was amazing at the time, still holds up pretty well when you get into the controls.
You explained what Mario does in the game. And even though we all know by now what that entails… you make it sound good.
Soul Calibur and Tekken Tag both absolutely blew me away graphically. Tekken Tag in particular really captured the glossy look of a CG movie and I thought it looked better than basically any game on the market for years
Never expected to hear a reference to Moebius in a game channel. Good stuff!
Time hasn't treated this game well, but I remember Battle Arena Toshinden being the reason I got a PS1 back in 95
I got a couple of the Dreamcast launch titles, Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur.
I wasn't even into fighting games until I got Soul Calibur!
And I loved Sonic Adventure because of its anime like appearance, the 2D parts I mean.
The game looked great too at the time.
I especially enjoyed the music for both games!
I have such fond memories of staying up till 6 AM playing halo with all my friends getting drunk
Eternal Ring was one of my favorites. I pre-ordered it a long with my ps2 and walked out of the store before anyone else could, knowing I'd be playing another great FromSoftware game. I enjoyed Eternal ring more than King's field 4.