The Best Nintendo Game Every Year 1983 - 2024

The Game Boy was released in 1989 and became the Nintendo console with the longest lifespan before being replaced by its successor. However, its not appeared thus far simply because Nintendo’s home consoles were always producing the biggest games year-on-year. That’s not to say that wasn’t the case with 1996, as this year the Nintendo 64 arrived and brought with it the likes of Wave Race 64, Mario Kart 64 and 3D platforming revolution Super Mario 64.

None of these were quite on the same level as GameFreak’s Pocket Monsters, however.

Despite the unstoppable wave of marketing and merchandising, and the fact that creator Satoshi Tajiri made two versions of the same game, the heart of the first generation of Pokémon was undeniably pure. Born from a love of bug collecting and RPG games, Pokémon Red and Blue’s easy-to-understand battle system, which paired up creatures that ranged from adorable to kickass, was not just a stroke of genius but something that truly had a lot of heart.

Its approachability set legions of non-gamers off on an epic journey in which they had total control. Planning and constructing a party, swapping stories and even Pokémon themselves with friends, in order to track down and collect all 150 (or 151, if you believed the playground rumours) and become the ultimate master trainer.

Pokémania was a phenomenon the likes of which gaming wouldn’t see again until Fortnite Battle Royale.