What Nintendo series is the best? The question has puzzled scholars for decades and turned forums into vicious flame wars. But today I’ve worked out once and for all what the greatest Nintendo franchises of all time (up to this point) are. Unfortunately, it’s through counting average review scores via Metacritic, so there’s a number of things I need to point out before I go into detail.
“There is so such thing as a distinction between gamers. We hear stories all the time of 60-year-olds walking into stores [in Japan], playing on a demo machine for 15 minutes and proving themselves to be pretty good at the game. They’ve obviously played it before, either at home or on repeated visits to stores, therefore they are obviously fans who know what to do and how to play. So there’s no need to aim it at a certain type of gamer. People of all backgrounds enjoy the game.” – Monster Hunter Tri producer, Ryozo Tsujimoto
Even though Monster Hunter Tri is a pretty hardcore game, I believe it can appeal to everyone. When the game arrives in North America and Europe, though, I have a feeling that many more hardcore gamers will be playing rather than casual gamers, especially online!
Update: The original video was removed because the upload user had spam in his annotations, but we’ve replaced it with an alternative upload (thanks RominThePalader).
DSiWare
1 – Flipnote Studio
2 – Nintendo DSi Browser
3 – Faceez
4 – Extreme Hangman
5 – Aura-Aura Climber
6 – Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again
7 – Arcade Hoops Basketball
8 – Army Defender
9 – Arcade Bowling
10 – Flight Control
11 – Game & Watch: Mario’s Cement Factory
12 – Paper Airplane Chase
13 – Glow Artisan
14 – Bejeweled Twist
15 – MySims Camera
16 – 5 in 1 Solitaire
17 – Dark Void Zero
18 – myNotebook: Blue
19 – Spotto!
20 – AiRace: Tunnel
WiiWare
1 – Cave Story
2 – Frogger Returns
3 – Mega Man 10
4 – Pokemon Rumble
5 – WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase
6 – Family Go-Kart Racing
7 – Triple Shot Sports
8 – Rage of the Gladiator
9 – Tetris Party
10 – “Aha! I Found It!” Hidden Object Game
11 – Dr. Mario Online Rx
12 – My Pokemon Ranch
13 – Reel Fishing Challenge
14 – Max & The Magic Marker
15 – UNO
16 – My Aquarium
17 – Excitebike: World Rally
18 – World of Goo
19 – GhostSlayer
20 – Dart Rage
VC
1 – Super Mario Bros. 3
2 – Super Mario Bros.
3 – Super Mario World
4 – Super Mario Bros. 2
5 – The Legend of Zelda
6 – Super Mario 64
7 – Pac-Man
8 – Donkey Kong
9 – Donkey Kong Country
10 – Punch-Out!!
11 – Mario Kart 64
12 – Castlevania Rondo of Blood
13 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
14 – Super Smash Bros.
15 – The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
16 – Final Fantasy II
17 – Sonic & Knuckles
18 – Galaga
19 – Sonic the Hedgehog
20 – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
“As of February 2010, Chinatown Wars’ unit sales in the US represented nearly 50 percent of the unit sales of all M-rated DS titles in the history of the platform. Piracy is a real and present danger for our industry and must be addressed, especially in the handheld market. The commercial performance of Chinatown Wars has certainly suffered at the hands of piracy.” – Take-Two CEO Ben Feder
Piracy on the DS has been a huge issue for awhile now. Games are leaked online before they’re officially released and unfortunately, a great number of gamers resort to playing without paying. I wonder how Nintendo will address the piracy issue with their next handheld…
Virtual Console
– Super Mario Kart (Nintendo, Super Nintendo, 800 Wii Points)
WiiWare
– Chronos Twins DX (EnjoyUp Games, 700 Wii Points)
– Family Mini Golf (Aksys Games, 500 Wii Points).
DSiWare
– AiRace: Tunnel (QubicGames, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)
– Oscar in Movieland (Virtual Playground, 800 Nintendo DSi Points)
– Puzzle to Go Diddl (Tivola Publishing, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
– Spaceball: Revolution (Virtual Toys, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
