Examining each of Nintendo’s launch titles

With Nintendo’s next console confirmed to be revealed before March 2025, we thought it’d be a good time to examine something that will be very impactful on whether it succeeds or not: its launch titles. Though launch titles don’t always make or break a console’s success, they definitely play a hand in what happens next. Today, we’re going over all of Nintendo’s strongest and weakest launch titles and how they affected their respective systems.

Nintendo Switch launch titles

Starting with the most recent console first, there were two big titles from Nintendo available on launch day for Switch: 1-2 Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Technically speaking, Breath of the Wild started as and was developed as a Wii U game, but since development (understandably) took so long it was eventually shifted to a simultaneous launch on both platforms. The prospect of playing a game like Breath of the Wild truly on the go – and not tethered to a physical console like with the WIi U GamePad – was even more impressive then than it is now. This certainly helped push Breath of the Wild’s sales on Switch, and it’s now the best-selling game in the series with over 30 million units sold.

1-2 Switch isn’t as much of a success story, unfortunately. It received generally mixed reviews, and though it had a few neat gimmicks involving the Joy-Con, it was light on content and grew stale rather quickly. Its $50 price point also drew criticism, given the light amount of content on offer. Though 1-2 Switch wasn’t exactly a huge success, Breath of the Wild luckily did most of the heavy lifting when it came to the Nintendo Switch’s launch. Other options, like Snipperclips and Super Bomberman R, were available on launch as well.

Wii U launch titles

In terms of quantity, the Wii U had lots of titles available on launch day. In terms of quality, that’s sort of a different story. The big two launch titles for Wii U were Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U. Nintendo Land was a fantastic party game, with plenty of content and mini-games available. It didn’t have the same wide appeal as Wii Sports, therefore it didn’t have quite as much appeal to casual buyers. New Super Mario Bros. U, while a good game on its own, was released during a time of New Super Mario Bros. fatigue. New Super Mario Bros. 2 had come out in August that same year, and by all means New Super Mario Bros. U wasn’t terribly different.

Many other games were available as well; things like ZombiU, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, and Epic Mickey 2 being just a few. Nintendo Land and especially New Super Mario Bros. U weren’t quite as impactful for Wii U as Breath of the Wild was for Switch, but unfortunately the Wii U’s launch titles were the least of its problems. The console’s failure is most attributed to other things, such as its name and poor marketing campaign (among other things).

3DS launch titles

The 3DS had an incredibly weak lineup of launch titles. A few solid ones, but nothing that really got people excited to play the new console. From Nintendo, you had Nintendogs + Cats, Steel Diver, and Pilotwings Resort. All decent games, indeed, but when you think about the best 3DS games over the course of the console’s lifespan, you probably aren’t thinking of any of these. The 3DS’ high price point at launch is probably more to blame here than anything else, but the fairly unexciting spread of launch titles was certainly a factor, too. Not to mention key features like the eShop and Internet Browser were missing at launch and weren’t added until June, three months after launch.

There were also some third-party games available on launch. You had things like Super Street Fighter IV, Ridge Racer 3D, Rayman 3D, and more. There were certainly some decent quality titles available, but there wasn’t much that made the 3DS feel like a must-buy on day one. Eventually, Nintendo lowered the price of the 3DS by quite a large number, and the console eventually found success a few years later. The launch titles were certainly a factor in the console’s at-first low sales, but like we said, the high price is probably what had more of an adverse effect.

Wii launch titles

The Wii had an excellent lineup of launch titles, and two notable ones in particular: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which had launched on Gamecube as well, plus Wii Sports. Wii Sports is near-undoubtedly the most successful launch title of all time. It attracted gamers looking for a break between more hardcore games, sure, but it went further than that by attracting (at the time) the biggest casual audience of any Nintendo console ever. Wii Sports was also included as a pack-in title for free, which helped the game reach and expand its audience even further. The game’s success also allowed its sequel, Wii Sports Resort, to be successful as well.

It feels strange to say this about a Zelda game, but Wii Sports almost overshadowed it at launch and in terms of the console’s history. Twilight Princess is a great game, but Wii Sports deserves lots of praise and thanks for elevating the Wii to a level Nintendo consoles hadn’t previously seen. To add to this, many preferred the Gamecube control scheme for Twilight Princess since it had a controllable camera whereas the Wii version does not, plus the addition of motion controls for the latter version of the game.

Other launch titles

Going further back, there are still plenty of worthy launch titles. Super Mario 64 DS was the big launch title for the original DS, and it was the first time a game of that scope (from a home console) was fully recreated for an on-the-go experience. Some might take issue with the D-pad not allowing full 360-degree movement, and that’s fine – but it was still an incredible step forward. The Gamecube launched with Luigi’s Mansion, which graphically was another step forward not just for the Mario series but for Nintendo in general. The Game Boy Advance launched with Super Mario Advance and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, the Game Boy launched with Super Mario Land, and the Nintendo 64 launched with the incredibly influential Super Mario 64.

Earlier this year, news broke that the Switch 2 – or whatever Nintendo’s next console winds up being called – was internally delayed, presumably to give both its launch titles and first-year titles additional time in the oven. We think there’s a non-zero chance that the next console launches with either a new 3D Mario game or perhaps a new Mario Kart game, but maybe not both. Generally, Nintendo only launches a console with one or two heavy hitters – most likely to avoid releasing too many things to buy all at once, thus creating competition between games.

What was your favorite launch title, and for what system? Which launch titles do you think are likely for Nintendo’s next console? Feel free to let us know in the comments down below.