9 Launch Games That Singlehandedly Made Their Consoles Worth Buying
Defining a generation.
There's no period in a console's lifecycle more detrimental to the health of your wallet than its launch window. Jump on the bandwagon too early, and you could find yourself stricken with a severe case of buyer's remorse and an expensive piece of dust-gathering plastic.
Brand loyalty and past consistency don't make you immune to such poor decisions, either.
At one time or another, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have struggled to justify the asking prices of their latest and greatest machines - an issue that can often continue on well into its twilight years - but there's always a flipside. Rare the occasion may be, but sometimes manufacturers have the foresight, talent and/or luck to pair their product with one singular game of such stellar quality that slapping cash down on the counter is a safer bet than day turning to night.
Stretching as far back as Mario's dominance of the SNES and N64 with defining entries to Bungie's modernisation of the console FPS with Halo and everything in-between, these are special, lovingly-crafted games responsible for coaxing a day-one purchase out of you without allowing any opportunity for second thought.
9. Luigi's Mansion - GameCube
A Nintendo console launch where its main man Mario wasn't present? Madness, we all thought - that is, until the brilliance of Luigi's Mansion washed over early adopters of Nintendo's royal purple cube, proving that Mario's svelt sibling had the chops to carry a console launch by himself.
Armed with the Poltergust 3000, Luigi mustered the courage to infiltrate his newly-owned mansion, promptly getting to work hoovering up the ethereal undead with the sort of gusto that would make Peter Venkman and his band of Ghostbusters proud.
That Mansion's small-screen sequel (Dark Moon) on 3DS managed to rack up so many sales and heaps of critical praise more than a decade later is a testament to how many Luigi fans hold a fond remembrance of the series.
Bring on the original's 3DS remake penned in for later this year. It'll be a corker.