What were older consoles swan songs?

[Nintendork666]

Bucky O Hare for the NES

Yes! What an outstanding title. Oh man, I love me some Bucky O'Hare!

Kirby's Adventure would also be a really good NES choice, it didn't come out until 1993, over a year after Bucky.

[TEKTORO]

I'd definitely pick Sakura Wars ~So Long My Love~ for PS2. I had been waiting for years for Sakura Wars to come out in the US and when it finally did, it was too late in the PS2's lifespan to really gain a following.

my picks for other consoles would be:
Sega Genesis - Vectorman 2 (It wasn't as good as the first one, but I still had a lot of fun with it.)
Sega CD - Lunar: Eternal Blue
Sega Saturn - Panzer Dragoon Saga
Game Boy Color - Dragon Warrior III
original Xbox - Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4 (IMO Xbox's DDR games are way stronger than the PS2 titles and Ultramix 4 was fantastic)

Hey wasnt Magic Knight Rayearth the very last Saturn game released state side?

[jfrost]

Did the N64 have a swan song or was it whimper time at the end?

Paper Mario and Conker's Bad Fur Day?

Those are the last notable releases I can think of.

They were both in 2001, so it was after the Ps2 came out. N64 was pretty irrelevant by then.

Lol, poor Nintendo 64. Even I was turned off the brand by that machine.

At least they got Animal Crossing in Japan. It was so good they had to port it to the GameCube.

[casterofdreams]

Paper Mario was IMO the swan song to the N64.

Now with portables:

For the Game Boy Color I feel it was Pokemon Crystal. Only because it was bundled with the GBA at one point. Also the two Zelda Oracle games since it was released a few months in the US before the GBA

Game Boy Advance had two swan songs as well: Pokemon Emerald was released in the Spring of 2005, months after the DS was launched. Second was Final Fantasy VI, released February 2007, well after the DS Lite.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean for the Super Famicom.

Radiant Historia for the DS.

[Nemoide]

Hey wasnt Magic Knight Rayearth the very last Saturn game released state side?

It was, but I think Panzer Dragoon Saga was a much stronger game.

[Reprise]

Dreamcast had a number here in the UK.


Rez, Shenmue 2 and Headhunter come to mind.

[TheyCallMeTheSwede]

NES:
-Bucky O Hare
-Mega Man 5 & 6
-Mighty Final Fight
-DuckTales 2

SNES:
-Donkey Kong Country series
-Marvel Super-Heroes: War of the Gems
-Street Fighter Alpha 2
-Super Mario RPG
-Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Sega Master System:
-A whole lot of Genesis ports
-Sonic games

Genesis:
-Comix Zone
-Vectorman 1 & 2
-Virtua Fighter 2
-Virtua Racing
-X-Men 2: The Clone Wars

Add Ristar to that Genesis list

For NES, add in Little Samson, Wario Woods, Moon Crystal, Crystalis, Metal Storm

You know, I realize something that there are hardly any mentions of PS1 in this thread, I know that the PS1 at the end of its run has been plagued with extremely poor games (ex. Kiss Pinball, Spec Ops) or inferior ports (Tony Hawk 3/4). The only original game I could think of that came out as of late is Twisted Metal: Small Brawl...not much else.

[Flake]

The PS1 and PS2 lasted forever. Hard to pick swan songs for consoles that would not go away.

[Cronozilla]

If "swan song" is the last great game for a system (not just good), then this is what I'd argue:

NES:
Kirby's Adventure (all the good games released after it were just alright)

SNES:
Super Mario RPG or Lufia II

N64:
Majora's Mask

GameCube:
Twilight Princess

Genesis:
Vectorman 2

Saturn:
Panzer Dragoon Saga

Dreamcast:
Shenmue II

PS1:
No idea what came out towards the end.

PS2:
Been good games since, but the last "great" PS2 games was probably Persona 4 back in 2008

Xbox:
Ninja Gaiden Black

What about games that were the signals of the end? Every console has a gap in releases then a sudden burst of fantastic titles (The Wii is going through it right this moment) then a slight dip and those final mementos we call the swan song.

NES:
Battletoads

SNES:
Final Fantasy III

N64:
Super Smash Bros.

GameCube:
Resident Evil 4

Wii:
Skyward Sword