Which nintendo console had the best first party games?

[Breetai]

Funny how people didn't read the OP. He only wants the newest three consoles.

[isiolia]

By that reasoning, shouldn't it go to the NES? The leap to something from nothing is much greater than the leap to 3D.

The NES wasn't coming from nothing, it was continuing what the Ataris n' such were doing, and bringing home/expanding on Nintendo's arcade titles.

However, I do see what you mean, and do recognize that it's something of a double standard.

That said, my feeling is more that the SNES was a second stage in launching Nintendo franchises. It wasn't just that you had more modern revisions to older properties like Mario, Metroid, and Zelda...but now-staple series were introduced, like Mario Kart, Starfox, Pilotwings, F-Zero... Maybe Mario RPG as a proto Paper Mario. Good Rare titles at the time too, though not all were continued for long (KI, Uniracers). Could probably count Earthbound too, at least outside of Japan.

The franchises continued (and were added to) for home systems. However, Nintendo also dominated the portable space, and the SNES/SNES versions of games pretty well set the bar for portable Nintendo games well up into the DS era.

So, to me, the large expansion, and effectively defining 2D Nintendo titles for 15+ years...gives it the nod. For the three newest, none have served to redefine gameplay the same way that the N64 did - though I'd give the same assessment for the PSX over the PS3.

[flamepanther]

@isiolia

I agree with most of what you've just said. However, after all of that, an incrementally refined and improved game is still by definition better than its predecessor, however slightly. If the question were which consoles had the most first-party effort (and if the OP weren't excluding pre-N64 consoles) I would agree with you more. As it is, I still have to give my vote to the Wii over the N64.

[DinnerX]

N64 hands down. FYI, I'm counting Rare's games as first party.

Too bad they are not.

Nintendo owned Rare back then. Saying Rare's games don't count is like saying Halo doesn't count as an first party Xbox game because it was made by Bungie.

Halo was made while Bungie was totally owned by MS so Halo is a 1st party game. Games made by subsidiaries count as 1st party, such as the games HAL labs makes for Nintendo.

Rare was never owned by Nintendo. Nintendo had a 49% share in the company as I recall. The founders, the Stamper brothers, had the other 51%. Rare games are technically 2nd party games. Although I can see why you might want to count them as 1st party.