Retro Video Gamer

So I was thinking about launch line-ups, it seems that every time a new console comes out these days people criticise the launch line-up. This is especially true at the moment with the recent launch of the Wii U. But were previous generations any better?

I thought it would be cool to look at some and rate/analyse them.

The only console I have ever bought at launch was the Atari Jaguar so let's look at that first:

Cyber Morph (Pack-in)
Trevor McFur In The Crescent Galaxy
Raiden
Evolution: Dino Dudes

Overal I would rate this 3/10 for a launch line-up. It's very unbalanced with 3 shooters and a strategy puzzle game. Having no platformer at launch in 1993 was criminal, Tiny Toons was supposed to be a launch title, and also no fighting game either meaning the 2 most popular genres of the time were absent. As impressive as Cyber Morph and Crescent Galaxy were at the time they were not enough to draw people to the system. Raiden and Dino Dudes were available on other platforms so also gave little incentive for a purchase, although they were the definitive versions available at the time.

Going off memory, having bought a MCD at launch:

I had Cobra Command, comp.of MD games on CD, Sol-feace? (cart game with intro+CD music), bought Jaguar XJ220 (intro, CD music some scaling on roadside objects) but waited ages for games that really used hardware.


PS1:Bought with Toh Shin Den+Ridge Racer, once the OMG factor wore off, think i picked up Lone Solider and possibly MK3.

PS2, bloody hell, barren times.Timesplitters and Extermination, both looked like PS1.5 games.

Dreamcast:Sonic Adventure, Blue Stinger and HOTD, i think.

Would have to do some research.

What would you rate the Jag launch line-up?

Quote from: "The Laird"What would you rate the Jag launch line-up?

Poor.Only Cyber Morph showed potential of hardware.

The rest?

Trevor got ripped to pieces and rightly so, Ray Tracing might have been big thing on Amiga's, but did'nt scream next gen console.

Dino Dudes, just poor choice, as was Raiden a game SNES/MD etc had years before.

Atari made a lot of noise about the hardware and really should have launched with a lot stronger line up than what we got.

The SNES launch lineup really is hard to beat:

Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings.....

F-Zero and Pilotwings might be showing their age now but they were jaw dropping back in the day and are still pretty playable - though if ever a game needed an update its Pilotwings....the N64 game was nice but it didn't capture the feel of the original for me.

The original F-Zero still has lots of charm and I really like the updates - F-Zero X and GX are among my favourite racers - though GX is too hard for its own good but what a great effort by Sega.

Mario World still sets the standard - wonderful game.

Not 100% sure on these so please correct where wrong (and bound to be missing a few per format, sorry):

SNES UK launch had Zelda, F-Zero, Pilot Wings, Super Tennis, Super Soccer, Super R-Type, Sim City and Super Mario 4.

PS1 UK had likes of:wipeout, Ridge Racer, Rapid Reload, Ace Combat and Toh Shin Den.

Colecovision:Donkey Kong, Carnival, Zaxxon+Smurph (others which i'm really not sure on)

Game Cube (UK) Luigi's Mansion, SW:Rogue Leader:Rogue Squadron 2+Super Monkey Ball.

Dreamcast US launch:likes ofReady 2 Rumble Boxing, Hydro Thunder, Trickstyle, HOTD 2, NFL 2K, NFL Blitz 2000, Incoming, Expendable, Soul Caliber, Powerstone and Sonic Adventure.

Xbox European launch:Halo, JSR:Future, Max Payne, Oddworld:Munch's Oddysee, DOA3 and Project Gotham Racing.


Genesis:

Alex Kid, Altered Beast, Space Harrier 2, Super Thunder Blade, Thunder Force 2, Last Battle and a baseball game.


Game Boy:Tetris, Alleyway, Baseball, Tennis and Super Mario Land.

Bought the Genesis about a year after it came out.

The Genesis had the pack-in Altered Beast. Some of the early sports titles that I bought were Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf, James 'Buster' Douglas Boxing, Joe Montana Football and Tommy Lasorda Baseball. I remember also getting arcade hits like Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Super Hang-On and the Power Base adaptor.

The Turbo took a little more time. TG-16's initial pack-in game was Keith Courage in Alpha Zones. When they offered Bonk's Adventure as an additional pack-in I snatched one up. Not sure about the release titles. I did purchase Final Lap Twin, J.J and Jeff, Pac-Land, Power Golf,  Splatterhouse, TurboTap(multi adaptor), TV Sports Football and Victory Run.

I remember picking up a Super Nes when they came out. Only game I think of besides Super Mario World is SimCity. Seems like I had those two games for a while and it must have 1993 before I bought more games for the Snes. I was a big Sega fan.

N64, from Wiki;

    Pilotwings 64
    Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
    Super Mario 64

Those Nintendo games and a Star Wars licence make for a weighty line up.  Is that it or were there others?

I didn't get onboard until Goldeneye was released, only a few months after release I believe.  I played all 3 launch titles and found them to be superb.  So excusing it's short comings, even Shadows! 

Quote from: "Mire Mare"N64, from Wiki;

    Pilotwings 64
    Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
    Super Mario 64

Those Nintendo games and a Star Wars licence make for a weighty line up.  Is that it or were there others?

I didn't get onboard until Goldeneye was released, only a few months after release I believe.  I played all 3 launch titles and found them to be superb.  So excusing it's short comings, even Shadows!

That was it! Just 3 games!

They might have been good games but that is just shocking to launch a console with 3 games, one of which was a pack-in! That launch gets 3/10 from me as well for that reason.

Interesting to note that whilst BOTH the Xbox+N64 had quality games avaiable at launch, they did very little to help shift the hardware in the numbers their parent companies had expected.

MS slashed the R.R.P off the Xbox by £100 after a mere month, Nintendo had done the same with the N64 after 2 months, so guess no matter how 'strong' your launch line up is, unless the price of the hardware is attractive, it's not going to fly.

Plus i'd say Vita had a 'strong' launch line up, but since then? games that it so badly needs been a mere trickle.

Quote from: "The Laird"

Quote from: "Mire Mare"N64, from Wiki;

    Pilotwings 64
    Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
    Super Mario 64

Those Nintendo games and a Star Wars licence make for a weighty line up.  Is that it or were there others?

I didn't get onboard until Goldeneye was released, only a few months after release I believe.  I played all 3 launch titles and found them to be superb.  So excusing it's short comings, even Shadows!

That was it! Just 3 games!

They might have been good games but that is just shocking to launch a console with 3 games, one of which was a pack-in! That launch gets 3/10 from me as well for that reason.

You guys were lucky to get 3 games at launch. Here in NA it was only Mario and Pilotwings.
Guess that made it easy to choose which games you were buying lol

I'd rate the Jag at a 3 as well, its a shame because its now one of my favourite retro consoles

I thought I'd pitch in with the PAL Dreamcast Release Line-up, it was pretty good imo:

Sonic Adventure
Blue Stinger
Dynamite Cop
Hydro Thunder
Monaco Grand Prix
Mortal Kombat Gold
Powerstone
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
sega rally 2
Tokyo Highway Challenge
Trickstyle
Virtua Fighter 3tb

all round I'd say its one of the best ever with an excellent mix of fighting, racing, action and sport, I'd give it 8.5/10. What do you guys reckon? Contender for the best?

Quote from: "dcultrapro"I'd rate the Jag at a 3 as well, its a shame because its now one of my favourite retro consoles

I thought I'd pitch in with the PAL Dreamcast Release Line-up, it was pretty good imo:

Sonic Adventure
Blue Stinger
Dynamite Cop
Hydro Thunder
Monaco Grand Prix
Mortal Kombat Gold
Powerstone
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
sega rally 2
Tokyo Highway Challenge
Trickstyle
Virtua Fighter 3tb

all round I'd say its one of the best ever with an excellent mix of fighting, racing, action and sport, I'd give it 8.5/10. What do you guys reckon? Contender for the best?

I have to agree with you there. As far as console launch line-ups go that has to be one of the best, it's a 9/10 for me. What was the Jap launch line-up?

nowhere near as good, the DC came out almost a FULL YEAR before in Japan in Nov 98 so its release list there was tiny by comparison:


Sonic Adventure
Pen Pen TriIcelon
Godzilla Generations
July
Virtua Fighter 3tb

whats crazy is that the US ine up was even better I think than the PAL one!! Some gem here that for some reason got delayed or dropped from the UK list entirely


Sonic Adventure
Aerowings
AirForce Delta (Deadly Skies in EU)
Blue Stinger
Expendable
Flag to Flag
The House of the Dead 2
Hydro Thunder
Monaco Grand Prix
Mortal Kombat Gold
NFL 2K
NFL Blitz 2000
Pen Pen TriIcelon
Power Stone
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Soulcalibur
TNN Motorsports Hardcore Heat
Tokyo Xtreme Racer
TrickStyle

Wow! The US got it really good!

What about the Atari Lynx then:

Chip's Challenge
Gates Of Zendocon
California Games (pack-in)
Blue Lightning
Electrocop

Gauntlet 3 was delayed slightly and missed the US launch but was available at the full European launch in early 1990.

Quote from: "dcultrapro"Sonic Adventure
Dynamite Cop
Hydro Thunder
Powerstone
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Tokyo Highway Challenge
Virtua Fighter 3tb

When you take out the lesser games that's not a bad little lineup looking back. I was on board for the JP launch which was a massive watch of cash, crap. Even these games aren't amazing though but certainly decent quality.

I think the best lineup in terms of amount and quality surely go to the Xbox.

Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding
Dead or Alive 3
Fuzion Frenzy
Halo: Combat Evolved
Jet Set Radio Future
NBA Live 2002
NHL 2002
NHL Hitz 2002
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
Project Gotham Racing
Rallisport Challenge
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions

These were the best but that is a lot of good to brilliant games.

Other lineups a weird. The PS2 was certainly a bit weak but I still play Ridge Racer V today. SNES only had a couple of games but one of them is Super Mario World which again I still play today.

What's better from a launch? Lots of mediocre games or two or three absolute classics?

Of course you need to like these classics!

are we counting consoles from the 5th generation? I wasn't going to mention the xbox as I thought people would frown but yeah it did have an excellent release line up. Still by then consoles kinda had to if they were going to make the money the companies wanted to see. PS2's launch was just like the console in general... many shades of dull grey low res... its just one big meh for me lol

Of course the PS2 was far from dull greys and all that. Stunning lighting adorned Ridge Racer V for instance. You had the lovely blue hues of the morning and the warm orange glow of afternoon races too.

Namco need shooting for not anti aliasing the game though. They did with Tekken Tag.  >:(

obviously I was being sarcastic the playstation 2 had some colourful games, but that doesnt change the fact that its widely known for its washed out and bland colours in most of it ridiculously large library. Just makes me sick that the ps2 did so well even though its most of its games looked like you were looking at them through a misty rainy pane of glass compared to the gorgeous crystal clarity of the 60fps on the dc...

I'm surprised that Soul Calibur wasn't in the release line up in the PAL region, I think it was literally only 2 weeks later though

Any other good line ups i dont know about? Nice line up laird, bit small but what year did it come oit?

Quote from: "dcultrapro"Any other good line ups i dont know about? Nice line up laird, bit small but what year did it come oit?

As I said the European launch was early 1990, US launch was September 1989.

The Lynx launch line-up was only 6 games but they were all bloody excellent.

Slightly biased to shooters, especially as Zarlor Mercenary followed just after launch along side Slime World.

I would give it a 7/10 down to the quality of the actual titles.

Quote from: "The Laird"Computers are difficult, that's why I am concentrating on consoles.

Just wondered as often heard A8 'Star Raiders' as being THE 1st 'Killer App', wondered IF it was a launch title, know lot of 8 Bit developers would often wax on about importing an Atari 800 just to play this game, it got them into gaming etc.If it was a launch game, could it have been the most important one, ever?

Also things like Starglider on the ST, just wondered just where in it's life it appeared.

Seen as you lot couldn't behave I have split the arguing off into a new topic.

Let's keep this one on track please and not de-rail it any more.

sorry dad

so anyway as this is in retro consoles I'm guessing we aren't really supposed to be considering PS2/xbox are we? I mean I think everyone agrees they aren't considered to be retro right? Personally I'd be interested to know what the TGX launch line up was like

Quote from: "dcultrapro"sorry dad

so anyway as this is in retro consoles I'm guessing we aren't really supposed to be considering PS2/xbox are we? I mean I think everyone agrees they aren't considered to be retro right? Personally I'd be interested to know what the TGX launch line up was like

I will let them slip.

NEC TurboGrafx - U.S. launch: August 19, 1989

Alien Crush
China Warrior
Dungeon Explorer
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones
Power Golf
R-Type
The Legendary Axe
Victory Run
Vigilante

some nice ones there, Alien Crush, Legendary Axe, Dungeon Explorer and R-Type. Pretty good for 1989

Quote from: "dcultrapro"some nice ones there, Alien Crush, Legendary Axe, Dungeon Explorer and R-Type. Pretty good for 1989

Yeah I would say that is a pretty strong line-up. China warrior is a bit crap but the rest are mostly good.

Solid 8/10 for me.

Alien Crush is the business. The PC-Engine is a brilliant console that punches way about its weight - it would have been mind-blowing to have back in the day.

Let's look at the launch line-up for the Atari 7800 Pro-System:

Ms. Pac-Man
Pole Position II
Centipede
Asteroids
Joust
Dig Dug
Desert Falcon
Robotron: 2084
Galaga
Xevious
Food Fight
Ballblazer

IMO this is actually a very good line-up, it would have been even better if the machine had got a full release in 1984 as intended and not 1986. All but 2 of those games are arcade conversions and bonafide classics too. I think I would give this a 9/10.

Quote from: "The Laird"Let's look at the launch line-up for the Atari 7800 Pro-System:

Ms. Pac-Man
Pole Position II
Centipede
Asteroids
Joust
Dig Dug
Desert Falcon
Robotron: 2084
Galaga
Xevious
Food Fight
Ballblazer

IMO this is actually a very good line-up, it would have been even better if the machine had got a full release in 1984 as intended and not 1986. All but 2 of those games are arcade conversions and bonafide classics too. I think I would give this a 9/10.

The 7800 launch titles were indeed a good set of arcade ports and even included the original Desert Falcon.  Asteroids was a nice update to the original game that showed what the system could do.  Ballblazer was also a great launch title and demonstrated what a game with POKEY could do.  I always lamented that Atari never released a Pac-Man port for the system.  It would have been another nice launch title.

Quote from: "TrekMD"The 7800 launch titles were indeed a good set of arcade ports and even included the original Desert Falcon.  Asteroids was a nice update to the original game that showed what the system could do.  Ballblazer was also a great launch title and demonstrated what a game with POKEY could do.  I always lamented that Atari never released a Pac-Man port for the system.  It would have been another nice launch title.

You had Ms. Pacman though, which I personally think is the better game.

Quote from: "The Laird"

Quote from: "TrekMD"The 7800 launch titles were indeed a good set of arcade ports and even included the original Desert Falcon.  Asteroids was a nice update to the original game that showed what the system could do.  Ballblazer was also a great launch title and demonstrated what a game with POKEY could do.  I always lamented that Atari never released a Pac-Man port for the system.  It would have been another nice launch title.

You had Ms. Pacman though, which I personally think is the better game.

True, which is most likely what they also thought.  But I knew they could do a better job that even on the 5200 on the 7800.  We got the game eventually, though, in Pac-Man Collection. 

Speaking of the 5200, this was that machines launch line-up:

Centipede 
Defender 
Galaxian 
Missile Command 
Pac-Man 
Qix 
Realsports Baseball 
Realsports Football 
Realsports Soccer 
Space Invaders
Star Raiders
Super Breakout

That's another good list of games and RealSports Baseball is probably the best version of the game on any Atari console.

It's not a bad list but the problem I have with it is that most of those games were also on the 2600.

They should have had more exclusives lined up for it.

Quote from: "The Laird"It's not a bad list but the problem I have with it is that most of those games were also on the 2600.

They should have had more exclusives lined up for it.

I think they believed showing off what the system could do by launching with titles that already existed on the 2600 would entice folks to buy the 5200.  Of course, that logic doesn't always work as was the case here. 

The Sega Mega Drive launch line-ups:

Japan: Space Harrier II, Altered Beast, Super Thunder Blade.

North America: Space Harrier II, Altered Beast, Super Thunder Blade, Alex Kidd & The Enchanted Castle, Last Battle, Thunder Force II, Tommy Lasorda Baseball.

Europe: Space Harrier II, Altered Beast, Super Thunder Blade, Alex Kidd & The Enchanted Castle, Last Battle, Thunder Force II, Columns.

The Japan launch is very sad, only getting 3 games. But the line-ups for Europe and North America were pretty decent and offered plenty of variation. This line-up gets a 7/10 from me.

Tommy Lasorda Baseball was a very good sports title for the time. I think most of the early Sega sports games were really fun and easy to play.

And the line-up for the Mega Drive's older brother, the Sega Master System:

Japan: Hang-On, Teddy Boy

North America: Hang-On, Teddy Boy, Safari Hunt, Snail Maze (built-in)

Europe: Hang-On, Teddy Boy, Safari Hunt, Transbot, World Grand Prix, Fantasy Zone, Choplifter, Black Belt, Action Fighter, Snail Maze (built-in)

Japan launch was in October '85, followed by North America in June '86 and Europe a couple of months later.

The Japanese launch really sucked with just 2 games but seen as they had the SC3000/MK3 instead that was also a computer they probably had more software that was not on cart/card.

The NA launch line-up is very poor too but Europe got a respectable 10 games with a few real classics in there. So that one gets a solid 8/10 from me while North America and Japan are a 3/10.

We got Snail Maze  :21: