Which Console Had The Best Launch Line-Up?

[Moonface]

If you had to judge any console on its launch line-up, what one(s) do you think had the best? Since the line-ups vary a little by region and also there's a lot, this website has lists of the launch titles for all of the Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo consoles: https://altarofgaming.com/launch-titles/
As a note, European lists on that website are only including games that were not part of the US line-ups, which in most cases is due to the game not being released before the European consoles launches.


I haven't read every list yet, but on the note of differing launch line-ups by region, I found it interesting to see that any game that released on the same day as the launch of the PS1 in Europe (September 29, 1995) did not release in the US until at least a couple of months later:

• Jumping Flash! | US Release: November 1, 1995
  
• Lemmings 3D | US Release: November 21, 1995
  
• Novastorm | US Release: November 2, 1995
  
• Rapid Reload | US Release: Unreleased
  
• Wipeout | US Release: November 21, 1995
  

[Moonface]

Dunno if no one saw this or just forgot/didn't have a reply, but anyway I decided to look at the launch line-ups for PlayStation consoles for now since I have more familiarity with those libraries/games than the other systems to see which one of them I feel is the strongest for what I'd want and if I can decide what one is the strongest from a subjective standpoint too.

• PS1 I'd say is really weak for my tastes, since WipEout is the only game listed I played and have any interest in playing too.
  
• PS2 has three games (Silent Scope, Midnight Club, TTT) that I got at launch with the console when my grandad got it for me at launch as a surprise, and it has a good library in general for the launch too at least in terms of quantity (I don't know a lot of the games to know if they're good or not and don't want to look up each one individually).
  
• PS3 is tied with PS2 for me for both what I'd like and how I think the launch line-up is in general too. A good amount of games across a wide range of genres for anyone in Europe, but the NA library is really bad in comparison. That said I did buy a PS3 at launch and regret it whereas I don't really dislike that I was given a PS2 at launch so maybe PS2 wins, but it's hard to say if I'm being biased because I spent my own money on the PS3.
  
• PS4 is definitely the weakest line-up for any PlayStation home console for my tastes. There's not a single game I really care for in the list even now so buying one of these at launch would be the equivalent of buying a paper weight until a game comes out I'd buy. The earliest game I'd care for in the library (based on what I own currently) would be LittleBigPlanet 3 released in November 2014, although with how that game turned out I'd be disappointed by it even more than I am if that was the first PS4 game I got to own/play. XD 
  
• PS5 has a really good line-up for my taste and I think in general it's pretty solid too.
  

Definitely a tie between PS2 and PS3 for me out of the PlayStation consoles, and it's funny to see PS3 being one of the better launch libraries for my taste considering I think it's by far the worst PlayStation console overall. I actually thought PS4 was going to be more appealing at launch for me since I ended up with a lot more games for that than PS3 and didn't expect it to be the one with the launch library I like the least.

[Mr EliteL]

Didn't have PS1 on launch, and as I only played a Wipeout game on a demo I believe so really not an impressive launch to me.

PS2 had Tekken Tag Tournament which was easily my most played game as a launch title, can't remember if we did buy the PS2 on launch but we definitely did get TTT alongside it to play. The rest I didn't and don't care for.

PS3 had...not much really for me personally. My sister got Marvel Alliance, I did get Resistance Fall of Man but that game I didn't bother to complete and regretted getting so...pfft so much for that line up in terms of myself, but there was a big selection compared to the others.

Oof that PS4 lineup, glad I waited on that no wonder I didn't want the console on release.

PS5 didn't have much, I obviously don't have any of those.

Man I can't decide overall for PlayStation consoles which one was best, my bias goes to PS2 purely for one game but for PS3 myself and my siblings got a game each, my bro got Formula 1: Championship Edition with the PS3 I think.
Then again a lot of the launch games were to do with sport in some way across the board which drops them all in quality unless you were into those types of sports games.

SNES wins by having only two games but probably both worth having, the first F-Zero game and Super Mario World? Instant win. *shot at but missed*

N64 also wins by having Super Mario 64. *shot again* Pilotwings I believe was a notable game too.

GameCube got Luigi's Mansion and Sonic Adventure 2 which I did care for but didn't get on release, I got the console later on. The rest aren't that notable other than maybe Super Monkey Ball, but GC got swarmed by sport games like PlayStation did.

Wii although having the most for Nintendo home consoles looks rather weak other than Twilight Princess of course, remove that and it is, I'm still saying this when I bought 3 of those launch games and no longer think much of them anymore (CoD 3, Raving Rabbids and Wii Play + Wii Sports).

Switch looks better with Breath of the Wild, I am Setsuna and Shovel Knight....has Just Dance '17 though.

On to Nintendo Handhelds...
GBA had a big selection depending on region but nothing too notable, perhaps Castlevania was the main game then. Had Rayman Advance which I did get but I didn't have GBA on launch.

DS looked sad for NA, no point getting the DS that early unless you knew what was on the way later on. Although the rest of the region launches didn't have much either.

3DS similar to DS but I suppose Professor Layton was the one to get in Japan.

To be honest either SNES or N64 were the best in terms of how big SMW and SM64 were and that started them off strong albeit very limited. Switch looked best for Nintendo home consoles, PS2 my personal favourite launch because I played TTT a LOT.

[Moonface]

PS5 didn't have much, I obviously don't have any of those.

Um, actually, *sniff*, you own Astro's Playroom.
🤓

Decided to look through the Nintendo home consoles to see what those launch line-ups looked like, so here's my thoughts:

• Gamecube - Holy shit how did Nintendo release this in North America without a single first-party game to go with it? Even the European launch 6 months later only had Luigi's Mansion which is just really bad.
  
• Wii - If not for Twilight Princess this line-up would be total trash to me, and has really bad support from Nintendo as TP is the only first-party game they even launched the Wii with. I'm not counting Wii Sports because it comes with the console and likely wouldn't have existed if the Wii didn't need a title bundled in that demonstrates the motion controls well, similar to how PS5 comes with Astro's Playroom.
  
• Wii U - Wild that this has the second highest number of launch titles and yet the console was overall just so bad and third-party support dropped like a rock despite being so ridiculously strong at launch. 
  
• Switch - Not bad, but how strong it is depends on whether you're a) into Zelda and b) if you don't own a Wii U to just get BotW on there and wait to buy the Switch later.
  

I'm not going to even bother with anything pre-Gamecube since the number of games can be counted on one hand except for the NES. I haven't even looked at Xbox yet but Nintendo might easily be king of having the worst launch line-ups for their consoles, especially when it comes to first-party offerings.