Excluding the Game Boy Color—which was more like a remodel of the classic GameBoy than a new console—Nintendo has made twelve consoles and handhelds over the majority of almost four decades. How does one rank so many significant systems?
Every single one of them is important in one way or another. Nintendo had usually been pretty spot on with prices, predicting what the market is willing to pay. However, other console releases are a different story. So, for today, let’s take a look from high to low at every single Nintendo console and their launch prices. Just as a reminder, all dates and prices are based in North America.
12 Wii U
The Wii U launched on November 18, 2012 in North America for $350. It came packed in with Nintendo Land. At this time, the PS3 and Xbox 360 were crazy cheap, much lower than this. The pack in plus New Super Mario Bros. U were good launch titles, but not for that price—especially compared to its competitors and the upcoming real next-gen of the PS4 and Xbox One.
11 Switch
The Switch launched on March 3, 2017 in North America for $300. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was up at launch, which was well worth the price of admission for the new console. A home console and a portable for just $300 with a Zelda release at launch? Who wasn’t sold?
10 Wii
The Wii launched on November 19, 2006 in North America for $250. It came packed in with Wii Sports, which was a great proof of concept for the system. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was also a nice get for a launch title, but, more so than that, the price was well below the PS3, which it launched alongside. This made it the must-have system that Holiday season.
9 3DS
The 3DS launched on March 27, 2011 in North America, also for $250. With no killer app, this felt like highway robbery.
It is perhaps Nintendo’s greatest pricing mistake in history. The proof is in them discounting it to $180 six months later with free games to boot.
8 NES
The NES launched sometime in October 1985 in North America for $200. It came packed in with Super Mario Bros., another classic launch title that shaped the industry. $200 in that era is worth way more now so at the time it was expensive, but it was worth it in the long run. It did, however, have a high failure rate.
7 Super Nintendo
The Super Nintendo launched on August 23, 1991 in North America, also for $200. It came packed in with Super Mario World. The original Mario is a classic and a complete game-changer, but many regard Super Mario World as one of the benchmarks in 2D platformers. Plus, it was more open-ended for replay value, thus the whole system was a great deal.
6 Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 launched on September 29, 1996 in North America. It was $200, which apparently was Nintendo’s staple for a long time. Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 were the only two games available at launch, and they remained the only two worthwhile games for quite some time. With Mario though, who needs anything else?
5 GameCube
The GameCube launched on November 18, 2001 in North America for another $200. Luigi’s Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, and Super Monkey Ball were the hottest launch games. It’s no normal Mario adventure, but Luigi rightfully deserved his own game by this point.
4 Virtual Boy
The Virtual Boy launched on August 14, 1995 in North America for $180. There were four games at launch and only about twenty altogether.
The 3DS price was a mistake, but this console overall was an even bigger failure that still haunts Nintendo to this day. It didn’t even last more than a year on store shelves before it was officially discontinued by Nintendo.
3 Nintendo DS
The DS launched on November 21, 2004 in North America for $150. The Super Mario 64 remake for the DS was the hot ticket during the launch window, which was not as exciting as something new. The price was decent, but the first model was hard to get used to thanks to no backlit screen, and Nintendo would later introduce far more ergonomic revisions.
2 Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance launched on June 11, 2001 in North America for $100. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, and Super Mario Advance were all good launch titles. The price was great, too. However, like the DS, the first model didn’t have a backlit screen making a lot of these games almost unplayable.
1 Game Boy
The Game Boy launched on July 31, 1989 in North America for $90. It came packed in with Tetris, which is the best deal of all time. Super Mario Land, another launch game, was also popular, but not as much as Tetris.
This took the gaming populace by storm. There is a reason why the “Tetris Effect” came into existence, and also why a game of the same game came out on PS4. The point is that no deal for a console or handheld will ever get better than this. The Game Boy came out at a perfect time. Sure, the screen was cheap and green, it drained batteries like there was no tomorrow, and it was huge, but it was revolutionary, nonetheless.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply