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Ready for launch
In some respects, a consoles launch titles are among the most important that will ever grace its disc tray/slot. While a great game can highlight the potential of the new console, making you genuinely feel as if you're witnessing the future, a duff launch title (and there are plenty of them around) can make your new box of tricks seem like an embarrassing lump of plastic, mocking you from underneath your TV.
Super Mario Bros. (NES, 1985)
Where would gaming be without Mario? The tubby plumber stormed onto the scene some years before 1985 as a fairly oblique rip-off of Popeye (as Miyamoto couldnt afford the license), named Jumpman, in Donkey Kong. For the NES, though, Mario was the quintessential launch game; blending revolutionary graphics (for the time), creative gameplay, and a sense of endless replayability.
Tetris (Game Boy, 1989)
Portable gaming was a bit of novelty before the Game Boy came out. Although not specifically a Game Boy original (it was developed in 1984 and featured in arcades and on home computers before its handheld debut) Tetris wrote the rulebook on how to fit a genre around the hardware, and became an instant hit with 80s kids around the globe. Tellingly, Tetris is still as compulsive today as it was back then, and has been copied to within an inch of its life for more recent handheld devices--that's how well it fits 'gaming on the go'.
Virtua Fighter (Saturn, 1994)
These days, if you want the best graphics available for your games, you just need the beefiest of beefy PCs (to which the new consoles will be close). But in 1993, not even top-end home PCs could compare to arcade games, which had moved away from sprites and into the third dimension with triangular things called polygons. And the great thing about polygons is that they can be viewed from any angle, which made 1993's polygonal video games look EXACTLY LIKE REAL LIFE. Stop laughing, we were easily impressed, OK?
WipEout (PlayStation, 1995)
When Sony burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s, it came with an ethos. It was the plucky upstart that had sass and pizazz, and the energy of the disenfranchised youth (at least thats what the marketing department of the multi-billion dollar technology giant wanted us to think). It launched in the UK with the perfect game to marry up with this strategy: an edgy sci-fi racer that came packaged with dance music and neon lights everywhere. It was basically the gaming equivalent of driving a hovercraft through a rave. Sony even had WipEout pods at nightclubs.
Super Mario 64 (N64, 1996)
Introducing the world to 3D platforming was one thing, but doing it well proved astoundingly difficult. Tech was advancing, but game design was lagging behind. However, when the familiar plains of the Mushroom Kingdom where recreated in glorious 3D, Super Mario 64 neatly took this difficult new tech and used it as a shining example of what the N64 was capable of. It introduced a number of factors now common place in most games such as a hub world, a reactive camera (which worked) and the revolutionary analogue control system--utterly vital if 3D gaming was to take off.
Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast, 1999)
When everybodys used to the graphics of PlayStation and N64, its easy prove your 128-bit new wonder machine is the hottest thing on the planet. All that Dreamcast needed was a graphical showcase and that job fell to Sonic Team. The poor hog mustve been chomping at the bit to show off after so many years in the wilderness. And in graphics at least, he delivered. Big time.
SSX (PS2, 2000)
Expectation was high when the PS2 was announced and Sony looked to EA to show off its new consoles graphical grunt. Among the annual sports titles and shooters was SSX, a colourful, fast and fun snowboarding game in the same vein as 1080 Snowboarding and, which had proved popular on the N64 two years earlier.
Halo (Xbox, 2001)
How best to announce your arrival on the scene than by redefining shooters? Halo managed this, and the Master Chief became a figure head for what started life as an ugly, unpopular console. The game was just astounding. Fresh, handsome and hugely entertaining, it was a bold statement of intent from Microsoft. In fact, it almost became a problem, as other early Xbox games struggled to match its popularity.
Call of Duty 2 (Xbox 360, 2005)
It was just four years after launching the original Xbox that Microsoft rolled out its vision of the future. The future was vast swathes of follow ups, sequels and yearly updates, with a smattering of half-assed original titles. Kameo: Elements of Power was the pick of the bunch. Yeah. However, those who picked up the relatively low-key Call of Duty 2, and had their new console connected to the internet, were in for a treat.
Wii Sports (Wii, 2006)
Nintendo had a massive potential problem on its hands when it released the Wii. It was one of the most revolutionary systems the world had ever seen, and the unique motion sensing controls were alien to a generation of gamers who had grown up pad in hand. Nintendo parried this potential alienation by packaging the Wii with a title that softened the edges of the Wiimotes motion control, making it feel both intuitive and accessible.
