Top 10 Lists: The Top 10 Games Released Near/at The End Of A System's Lifespan

Before I start this list, I want to make something clear, the following games were chosen based on three criteria: One, they achieved graphical and/or musical benchmarks that were unseen on their respective systems. Two, they were actually good games. Three, they were released near, at or past the end of their system's lifespan. With that said, I will resume this introduction to it's original start (boy is this list ever cobbled together)... As most anybody who's played any system until it's death knows, some of the best games made for home consoles, handhelds or pretty much any other piece of hardware, came out near the end of that machine's official manufacturer's support. Developers skills with a particular machine grows as they use it, so logically their best capabilities would come through towards the end of a system's lifespan, which averages out to be around 5 years. Some consoles died much sooner than that (failed add-ons etc) and others had much longer ones (PS1, PS2). In this top ten list, we will look at some of the best games that came out when their system was on it's way out. Games listed must also be among the better looking and sounding games on their systems, not to mention pulling off a neat graphical trick here and there. No, I won't list unreleased games because that would be unfair. Tons of graphically amazing games that could have made this list were unreleased. Only games that had a North American release are being accounted for. Not all of the games on this list were the latest released for their systems, but they are at least 4 years older than their respective hardware (very loosely).

One of the better puzzle games on the NES in my narrow opinion, Wario's Woods was released in 1994. Not only was it the last licensed NES game released on the system, it was the only NES game to have an ESRB rating. Wario's Woods has very well done graphics and sound, not to mention it plays excellently. What separates this game from other worthy competitors in the puzzle genre on the NES is that you control a character in the Tetris/Puyo Puyo-like playfield. Your goal is to carry monsters, bombs and other assorted objects and place them into rows of alike colors to score combos, or set up extensive chains reactions from objects disappearing to automatically move other objects into combo position. You can run up towering piles of monsters, pick up said towers or just grab what you need from the objects you currently have in your playfield. If you aren't careful, you might find yourself near the ceiling rather than the floor, which spells danger just like in Tetris, Puyo Puyo and Panel De Pon. It may not be quite as good as the other puzzlers I just mentioned, it shouldn't be discounted and can make an interesting show piece.

As Kirby's sole entry on the NES, Kirby's Adventure is certainly one of the better looking games on the NES. While the sprites are rather small, they work great towards emulating the same graphical appeal of the Game Boy original. In other words, Hal essentially expanded the resolution of Kirby's Dream Land, added color and introduced copy abilities, which would be used in practically ever single Kirby game to follow. The resulting game is one of the best on the NES. Large, colorful levels with the same great playability and control one would expect from a Kirby game, fantastic music and inventive bosses. Mr. Bright and Shine are one of my favorites in the game. Throw in this game's relatively low rarity and price and you have a must-own title for your NES.

Before I start talking about the game, I realize that yes, Silent Hill wasn't released all that late. It was released 3, maybe 4 years after the PSX came out in North America. I'm sure there's a better looking, sounding and playing game on the PS1 that pushed the system to it's limits that was also released at a later date, but I doubt any of them had the same impact that Silent Hill had. Clock Tower and Resident Evil can go jump in a lake, THIS game sets the standard for survival horror. The original Silent Hill had a great atmosphere to it, good graphics, great sound and fun gameplay (some people don't like it though). They all played a part in building up a sense of disparity and fright as you tried to work your way through the game. Silent Hill has had several sequels and spin-offs/side stories like Homecoming and Origins. In my personal opinion Silent Hill 2 was the best, because it was the scariest... Still, if you like PS1 games and aren't afraid of anything, give Silent Hill a try.

Kirby's Dream Land 3 was released as late as 1998, I definitely couldn't leave this one off the list. To put it into perspective, the N64 was released in 1996, which was meant to replace the SNES, while DL3 was released roughly two years after it. This also means DL3 was released approximately 8 whole years after the Super Nintendo's release. Not to mention the fact that it's a first-party title, goes to show how successful Nintendo's 16-Bit console was (especially in the face of all the 32-Bit newcomers). Kirby's Dream Land 3 certainly doesn't slack on the graphical details either. This entry in the Kirby series uses dithering, which blends adjacent colors together to create a pastel look. It's almost hard to believe that it's still running on a 16-Bit machine, whereas you might see something as pretty on the Sega Saturn or PS1. The music is traditional Kirby, which isn't a bad thing. It has some new music but you can instantly tell it fits the happy-go-lucky attitude of the series. This game introduces more animal friends which help Kirby defeat the bad guy (this time it's Dark Matter), adding 3, which totals to 6 in KDL3. This game shares some similarities with Kirby's Adventure's release date. Said game was released in 1993, roughly three years after the SNES came out. While Kirby's Dream land 3 isn't as good as Kirby Super Star (the other Kirby platformer on SNES), it holds it's own against the glut of platformers which plagued home systems of the era, not just on SNES.

This is without a doubt, the best looking GameCube game ever released. Not by style but by function. No cel-shading or anything like that, this game had 360/PS3 aesthetic quality (I.E. overly shiny textures) and really showed off what the GameCube could pull off, while at the same time showed new Wii owners how underpowered the system was... Oh yeah, it's a great Zelda game too (like every other Nintendo-made one). It's a long game with lots of stuff to do before you defeat [insert bad guy here] and save [insert princess here]. Not nearly as original as Majora's Mask, but it's still fun to play. For all intents and purposes, Twilight Princess is a GameCube game, not a Wii game. Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto is in fact left handed, so is the GameCube version. The Wii version had to be mirrored in order to work better with the Wii Remote (and Nun-Chuck) since people would swing Link's sword with their right hand, not their left like on the GameCube.

Often considered one of the best looking games on the NES, Batman: Return of the Joker was also released in 1991, not too terribly late, but it was at least after the SNES came out. Batman: Return of the Joker seriously pushed the NES to it's limits, further changing people's opinion of what the system was capable of. It has parallax scrolling (which wasn't often seen on the NES), detailed sprites and objects, great music and is pretty fun too. RotJ isn't as fun as the original Batman on NES, but it's still pretty good in my opinion. Oddly this game isn't worth a whole lot, so if you want to see one of the better looking games released in North America, give Batman: Return of the Joker a try.

As one of Square's last RPGs (I believe the last in the US) and (maybe) the last Mario game for the Super Nintendo, it was a great way to end a great system. Without explaining too much else, this is how you do an RPG for a popular platforming mascot. A great story, great graphics, easy to learn RPG mechanics and a sense of humor in the dialog. For most of the people I know, their first RPG experience was with Super Mario RPG, even learning some new words along the way. It's not too terribly expensive these days for a cart-only copy so I can't see why you shouldn't buy it for your SNES. If you don't own a Super Nintendo, it's also available for download on the Virtual Console for Wii. Fans have even found ways to make the game purposely harder, for anyone who likes challenge in their RPGs.

One of the last games released for this highly unsuccessful add-on for the venerable Sega Genesis (but it's still a good add-on), Virtua Fighter for the 32X was a port of the popular arcade game of the same name, made by AM2 and published by Sega. As far as ports go, Virtua Fighter made a graceful leap to the evil little mushroom of doom. The sound and graphics quality, while not arcade perfect, still looked and sounded like Virtua Fighter. The game has little to no slowdown and plays beautifully with a 6-Button arcade stick. It even features a Ranking and Tournament mode for extra replay value. While the later port of Virtua Fighter to the Saturn looked and sounded better, it some how didn't have the Ranking and Tournament mode and didn't quite play as neatly as the 32X version. For a failed add-on, Virtua Fighter was a great game. It could even have been a killer app, if the 32X had lived long enough...

Released as late as 2001, Conker's Bad Fur Day was Rare's last game on the N64, and what a last game it was. If you know anything about Rare's earlier ventures, they largely made cutesy-type games, such as Donkey Kong Country, Banjo Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing. They also made more serious game such as Killer Instinct, GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark but it was easy to distinguish between the two. Parents looking for a cuddly platformer for their kids could pick up Banjo Tooie while they bought Killer Instinct Gold for themselves. This changed when Rare took their upcoming Conker game (Twelve Tales: Conker 64), which was going to be like Banjo Kazooie, and turned it into the beer swilling, cursing, hooker infested and poo filled monstrosity it eventually became. As far as Nintendo was concerned, they had gone too far. I think it would be safe to say Conker's Bad Fur Day played a hand in Nintendo selling Rare to Microsoft... As far as the game itself goes, it's one of the best games on the N64, surprising as it may be. Not only is the game engine well tuned and easy to play, but the game is by far the best looking game on the N64. It achieved so much, yet it was still on a cartridge. Conker's BFD has full voice acting (something reserved for CD media usually), light sourcing and shadowing, long draw distances, highly detailed textures, lots of special effects (the water looked amazing) and a sense of humor you wouldn't easily find elsewhere. It is very distasteful and immature, but if you can stomach it you won't be disappointed. Conker's Bad Fur Day does everything it sets out to do right, even if the game itself could be considered a mistake as it certainly wasn't meant to be the game it ended up existing as.

If you bring up a discussion of good Saturn games, you'd be hard pressed not to hear about this game. It costs upwards of $200 dollars for a complete copy on eBay/Amazon, supposedly less than 30,000 copies were made (there are speculated numbers below that mark) and was released very late in the US Saturn's lifespan. This sort of recipe would surely doom any game to a life of obscurity, especially with no re-releases. So why then, does this game command such a high price? Because it's considered one of the best games ever made on Sega Saturn (or the best ever on Saturn, really). It takes the original game-play style of the previous Panzer Dragoon games and turns it into an RPG. Don't ask me how, but it works. The game's plot drags you in and keeps you hooked all the way through it multi-disc story. It has excellent music and great visuals, especially considering the Saturn wasn't exactly the best machine for producing 3D graphics at the time. Surely, this is a treasure no true Saturn fan would be without. The saddest part about this game is because Panzer Dragoon Saga is so rare and expensive (not to mention it's for an obscure US system), almost nobody will ever experience it. None of the 360 and PS3 kids will ever know about this game, let alone play it. Talk all you want about your Fallout 3s and your Bioshocks, but those games are easily accessible while PDS remains buried in the sand of time and obscurity, waiting for that re-release so new fans can enjoy it. That, is something to be upset about.

That then, ends my list. I hope you don't get the wrong idea from this, I chose my games based on three criteria. One, they achieved graphical and/or musical benchmarks that were unseen on their respective systems. Two, they were actually good games. Three, they were released near, at or past the end of their system's lifespan. After I shuffled games around, comparing one to another based on all the factors I listed, I eventually ended up with Panzer Dragoon Saga as the most deserving of the number 1 spot out of them all. If this list gets featured, I can already hear the outcries from other GFAQs users over how their favorite game didn't make the list, probably all being PS1 games. Please keep in mind that this is a purely subjective list, people are allowed to have their own opinions too you know. If this is about Silent Hill, I chose Silent Hill because of it's atmosphere, not necessarily it's graphical achievements. To me, scariness can be a milestone in progression too. If you feel that I completely messed up this list, feel free to make up your own version, it can have only PlayStation released games for all I care.

List by Koopa64 (11/10/2009)