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Is August 02-03 Nintendo's Greatest Year in (Overall) Software Releases?
King of Twitch:
Sure I may be sounding like a boomer but we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of the Gamecube's Last Gasp and we should all celebrate or memorialize it. The death of F-Zero and RARE (sold 1 month later)! the rebirth of Metroid! the Capcom Fiv.. I mean Two! a sleeper hit franchise (or 2?) are born! and boy was it a fun ride:
Mario Sunshine
Smuggler's Run: Warzones
007: Nightfire
TimeSplitters 2
Animal Crossing
Star Fox Adventures
Tony Hawk 4
Medal of Honor: Frontline
Metroid Prime
LOTR: TTT
- - -
Wind Waker
Splinter Cell
Ikaruga
P.N.03
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Wario World
Soul Calibur 2
Viewtiful Joe
F-Zero GX
Khushrenada:
What were the GBA releases at that time? I know Metroid Fusion had to be one of them. If we're talking Nintendo then we should also be including that software to get the full picture and not just the Cube.
BeautifulShy:
Personally speaking I tend to favor 2004 for Nintendo not just for the game releases but for the hardware and what that hardware brought to the industry and how it was a launching point for different kinds of games in the coming years.
Linking this full list of games and hardware for thoroughness.
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/2004#North_America
Few hardware and software listed below.
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles releases in NA on Feb 9th. This was the first console release for Square since SMRPG on the SNES and Square coming back to Nintendo after all this time. It also brought the breadth of JRPGs and RPGs in general in the coming years to Nintendo. A genre which was not really there before this release with a few exceptions and all those years from the SNES to the Cube.
March 9th the Cube gets Metal Gear Solid:The Twin Snakes. This release was two fold. It made it so that more games were ported to Nintendo hardware since Twin Snakes was a PS2 game which was the leading console in sales so there would be a market for different types games coming to the Cube. The other reason was that Nintendo had this reputation for good or ill that they only catered to kids. This opened up another audience.
4 Swords Adventures for the GameCube on June 7th opened up co-op local play even if the requirements was not as accessable for a wide audience monatarily but it was a good time and opened up more co-op RPGs which I will get to shortly.
Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green was a step into wireless play for Nintendo and to this day probably the best version of Kanto outside of Soul Silver and Heart Gold on the DS which had wireless play and that started with this GBA game on September 9th in North America.
Paper Mario is probably the best Paper Mario game to date and I would put it slightly above Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga on the GBA and it is just so refined and everything was so excellent about it.
Metroid Prime 2 is the Link to the Past of the Metroid Prime series in that it expanded what could be a Metroid game. It was a huge game when it was released on November 15th.
Also while Prime is probably the better game overall Prime 2 was different enough to make the Metroid series continue to this day. Zero Mission, Prime Pinball, Prime Hunters, Prime 3, Lots of different type of Metroid games, Then today Metroid Dread most likely the best Metroid game or close to it depending on where you put Super, Prime 1 and Zero Mission in your ranking.
Nintendo DS was the 3rd pillar with the GameCube and GBA and it was a launching point for all the different ways to play games not only with consoles but it brought the touch screen tech so that it could be on your phone, your PC or laptop or even tablets today. Things changed on November 21st for all of us.
Few standout games for me in 2004 were these games.
The Classic NES series on the GBA was a step towards the virtual console for the Wii and all the successive hardware releases. Hardware needs backwards compatibility.
Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls was the first step in porting all the early Final Fantasy games to the GBA and I am very thankful for this as I had missed out on some of these titles in the SNES era. It was also this game which really got me into playing and streaming all the mainline non MMORPG Final Fantasy games a few years ago.
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean was made by Namco and was a different type of RPG and it was a masterpiece.
Def Jam:Fight for New York was probably the most versitile wrestling game out there because there was so many ways you could play and it is probably AKI's best work. Yes No Mercy and Revenge included.
Donkey Konga while it was a music game it also brought forth probably one of the best platformer of the era named Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.
MVP Baseball 2004 was probably the most deep Baseball games I have played.
PSO: Episode 1 and 2 Plus and PSO Episode 3 was probably the best entrance to online till Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS and it was so indepth and involved.
Pikmin 2. Probably the best Pikmin game.
Pokemon Colosseum- Back to console Pokemon battling since Pokemon Stadium 2. Not we have console pokemon on the Switch.
Spider-Man 2. Without it there would be no Spider-Man PS4.
Tales of Symphonia- Best 4 player local RPG experience I have ever had and the replay value is so extensive that you want to try out different things each playthrough to challenge yourself or just have a fun run with New Game+.
WWE Day of Reckoning brought about DOR2 which is probably the 2nd best Wresting game on the Cube and it was so fun to play.
Finally the DS.
Sure the launch titles are not all great titles there was some titles that stood out.
SM64DS with 4 players and I learned recently there was supposed to have 2 players in the original N64 title game but was cut.
Feel the Magic: XY/ XX was a fun title and showed off how the touch screen could be used.
The Urbz: Sims in the City was a very robust game and showed that DS games could be more than what the launch library was for the most part. And devs delivered in the coming years with so many different ways to play.
King of Twitch:
Mmm 04 was a good year indeed. Plus it had the first TP reveal and the Reggie Era began.
Mop it up:
For me, the only real standout here is Metroid Prime, though we also played a lot of TimeSplitters 2.
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