Major third party games through Nintendo's history?

[dbiersdorf]

Nintendo systems have always been known for their amazing 1st party games? But what about the third party stuff? What were some major game titles that helped move the Nintendo console? Typically this will be either a big name francheise (such as Resident Evil 4, however still multiplatform), or strictly and exclusive title (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes as an example).

So from NES to GameCube, what were they?

[Damaniel]

Back in the older days (especially in the SNES days, but somewhat in the NES era), Squaresoft was probably responsible for at least a few sold consoles. Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana were (and still are) all excellent games.

In the NES era, Capcom was probably the third party that put out the most consistently good games. Mega Man 1-6, Bionic Commando, all of the Disney games (which were almost all very good platformers), and Destiny of an Emperor, which is one of my favorite NES-era RPGs.

I can't really speak for the N64, since almost everything that I remember worth playing for it was made by Nintendo. Third party support for Nintendo consoles really dropped off after the SNES.

EDIT: I forgot Konami! Oops ;) Castlevania 1-3 on the NES, and 4 (plus Dracula X) on the SNES, plus Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge on their 'Ultra' label -- also all good games (well, maybe not Dracula X, but certainly the others... :))

[InsaneDavid]

Back in the older days (especially in the SNES days, but somewhat in the NES era), Squaresoft was probably responsible for at least a few sold consoles.

Yeah, Square was right there on the NES - Rad Racer was the defacto NES driving game for years - probably through the console's entire lifespan. (also the soundtrack was Nobuo Uematsu's finest work in my opinion - he created 8 bit jazz on the early days of the Famicom / NES - I know I'm in the minority on this though)

NES...

Tecmo was huge - the three Ninja Gaiden games were big sellers on the NES and with their cutscenes and mature content it set the NES apart from anything else at the time. Let us not forget the Tecmo Bowl games either, which many still cite as the finest football games ever created.

Tengen - no matter how much Nintendo hated them for illegally creating their own version of the 10NES lockout chip, they made some amazing arcade ports for the time. Follow the link in my signature to Retrogaming Times Monthly and read my "Titles of Tengen" column for more information.

Technos - Double Dragon, Renegade, River City Ransom - if you played beat 'em ups at home on the NES, they were probably made by Technos.

Vic Tokai - a niche developer with a cult following, sure. However the Golgo 13 games and Clash at Demonhead are atop many fan favorite lists.

[SirDrexl]

Maybe Street Fighter II for SNES?

Certainly Nintendo had some great third-party games for NES and SNES, but it was more about a variety of quality games rather than individual ones (unless you happened to be a hardcore fan of a particular series). SFII is the only one I can think of that probably sold a lot of systems on its own.

[CosmicMonkey]

The Legend that is Goldeneye for the N64. And Perfect Dark too. Or were Rare technically a 2nd party at this time?

The original Final Fantasys were Famicom, along with Dragon Quest, and continued into the SNES era.

[tom]

Acclaim, first USA third-party for NES. According to the Game Over book, their first NES releases sold millions.

[kentuckyfried]

Rare seems to have made every 3rd NES game sometimes.

I'll play some random game, and Lo! It's made by Rare :)

[tom]

'Snake rattlle and roll' is still excellent nowadays

[Moo Cow]

Rare, with the contributions of Donkey Kong Countrey, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Battletoads, and the like.

Square, with Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy series, Chrono Trigger, and with their help in Super Mario RPG (they still own the copywrite to Geno).

Konami with Castlevania games, a Ninja Turtle fighting game, and. Gradius (I think they made Gradius, not 100 percent sure).

Tecmo, with Tecmo Super Bowl and Ninja Gaiden series.

Capcom, with Street Fighter games, Resident Evil series for the gamecube, Breath of Fire series, Final Fight games, and, of course, Chip N Dale, Rescue Rangers (God I love that game).

Enix with the Dragon Warrior series.

Ultra, with Ninja Turtle games, thought this was a subsidiary of Konami.

Plenty of others.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

The Legend that is Goldeneye for the N64. And Perfect Dark too. Or were Rare technically a 2nd party at this time?
Well, technically a 2nd party is the person who buys the product, but yeah I wouldn't think of Rare's stuff from 1994 onward as 3rd party.

With Rare eliminated, the only 3rd party i cna think of that was significant on the N64 would be Midway. Maybe Activision, though their releases were multiplatform.


...word is bondage...

[Poofta!]

well during the NES and SNES days, those consoles were all about the best third party games. some of our favorites were made by third favs.

it wasnt till N64+ that nintendo had to really crank the shaft to pump out enough first party games to keep the lack of third parties not so evident.

[vahn401]

I'm suprised that nobody has mentioned natsume with the harvest moon series. I remember buying the first one for snes brand new, and it still is one of my favorites snes games. Not to mention the one for N64, which alot will agree is the best one in the series. I can recall 2-3 of my friends buying a N64 just for Harvest Moon 64. And the Harvest Moon series continues to stay loyal to Nintendo over the years, unlike some other 3rd party companies.

[diskoboy]

Ummmm.... The original poster mentioned a few games from them - Capcom.

Starting with Mega Man and Bionic Commando on the NES, SF2 on the SNES, to RE4, today..

Capcom struck gold with Nintendo several times over.