Originally I was going to use Mario 64 in the title, but then I wondered about Halo, and apparently it was also available at the launch of the Xbox, which I had no idea. Despite of the polarizing views the game can cause in gamers, there is no doubt that it changed the whole of video games forever. Same with Mario 64... but, yeah, I don't want to turn this into a debate between these two games.

Anyway.

I can't remember any games at the launch of the 7th gen consoles that really moved video games forward. Gears of War came out nearly a year after the 360's release, and Call of Duty 4 came out nearly a year after that. Even then the minor advances in both can hardly be compared to Mario 64 for setting the stage for 3D worlds and platforming, or with Halo for bringing FPS games to consoles in an accessible and addicting manner.

There don't seem to be any games being released with the 8th gen that are pushing new boundaries, either. Knack, which made me think of this, is easily a throwback to the Playstation 2 era games. Even in the future we have Watch Dogs, which seems like a natural progression from Assassin's Creed, and Titanfall, which could be argued to be Call of Duty with giant robots.

We done with the idea of hot new release titles that change things up? As a PC gamer I don't mind the idea of innovation being relegated to the PC and lower-budget titles, but you have to miss that "nothing will be the same" experience.

You just wait. in 5 years people will be calling Knack a classic!

No. Mario 64 and Super Mario World.

Sewer Shark.

Come at me.

That doesn't make either one great.

Yes, Halo was the last one.

Arguably, the Wii's launch was really strong, but Twilight Princess was a cross gen game. Wii Sports is weird, because technically it was a launch game that made millions want to get the console and it was the Wii's killer app for at least two years, though I suspect once Mario Kart came out that convinced a lot of people to buy one as well.

That would be Luigi's Mansion. That was a great game. Game of the generation. Game of the decade.

...though, I suppose if you live in Japan, Luigi's Mansion came out before Halo. That original Halo game is pretty good too.

According to Wikipedia:

On its release Halo broke sales records; by April 8, 2002, a little under five months after its release, one million units had been sold: this pace was faster than that of any previous sixth-generation console game.^[82] During the two months followingHalo's release, the game sold alongside more than fifty percent of Xbox consoles.^[83]Halo's retail price remained at US$49.99 until November 30, 2003.^[84] By July 14, 2003, the game had sold three million copies worldwide,^[85] and by January 28, 2004, it had reached four million copies.^[86] As of November 9, 2005, Halo has sold over five million copies worldwide.^[8]

I really don't know of anything that has come close

EDIT: Also, the game is fucking great. It still holds up well, go back and play it if you're thinking about it now.

Would Wii Sports count?

I didn't know Modern Warfare had a cover system.

@viking_funeral: @probablytuna said:

Ha. Steam of consciousness mistake. Fixed.

Dreamcast.

Soul Caliber.

When it comes to launch games, when that game came out there was nothing console or PC wise that looked as good as it. Combine that with VGA out and it was a paradigm shift in gaming graphics.

It certainly doesn't hurt that Soul Caliber was such a great game.

Anybody who doesn't count Halo is an idiot and has no idea what they are talking about.

I was in my sophomore college year when the xbox came out. A feature in a print magazine combined with my dissatisfaction with PS2 is what made me decide to roll the dice on an Xbox. This is when PS2 was still hard to find, and it was spoken of in hushed tones like it was some legendary thing. What most people who didn't have one didn't know, though, was that it took 1-1 1/2 years before anything decent came out on the console (Meanwhile people were trying to convince themselves that garbage like Dark Cloud 1 was really as good as Zelda. Ugh.. console wars.).

I took my PS2 to trade it into the games store. The girl behind the desk immediately called up her boyfriend and in hushed tones said "some guy just traded in a PLAYSTATION 2! COME OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

It was xbox launch day and there were about 30 systems siting in boxes on the floor. I probably could have shoplifted one and nobody would have noticed or cared. IT was a stark contrast to Playstation launch, where there were lines out the door and most people went home empty handed. I picked one up and got a copy of Halo.

That night, over a tiny CRT, my friends and I took turns trading off controllers and playing one of the best games any of us had ever played. In the middle of the night we went to Wal Mart and bought another controller. The next day we bought two more. Pretty soon, word got out that I had an "Xbox" and "some game called Halo". Complete strangers were stopping by my dorm asking to play. I played through the campaign at least two dozen times, each with a new person. (I'm one of those people where playing with someone new makes the whole experience new as I experience it through their eyes). Pretty soon other people were buying xboxs and we were playing on network. The campus was hosting xbox parties and Halo parties. Pretty soon, I was burnt out on Halo and people were borrowing my xbox to take it to other people's houses to show it to other people.

There hasn't been another Halo anywhere close to Halo 1.

Halo was FANTASTIC. And a seminal launch game. It's not even dabateable.

Yep. It was the best launch game, not only because it was a good game, but because it was a game that brought people together to play. It was really an industry changing game. Without Halo the Xbox brand would never have got off it's feet and became so huge.

I don't think that Wii Sports deserves to be excluded from this conversation.

Wii Sports - like it or not - was probably the most influential game of the past generation. Last time I checked, the Wii had still outsold 360 and PS3 almost solely on the merits of that game alone. And both Sony and Microsoft ended up introducing their own gimmicky motion controls just to try and get in on the action. It is really a whole lot of fun with the right group of people.

I would say Forza 5, but won't be a surprise. Those games have always been amazing so people won't be blown away by 5 because they will already have high expectations.

So Halo is best launch game in recent years.

It's not the last great console release title, it is the greatest console release title of all time. Sorry Mario 64, Soul Caliber, and Super Mario World, you got moved down the list.

I miss rushing the middle of Blood Gulch for that Rocket Launcher, and running people over with my Warthog.

Also guys, Wii Sports nor Mario 64 inspired a group of people to make a show as great as Red vs Blue with a studio that was in a closet.

@jazgalaxy: That's a pretty cool, personal anecdote, sir. Thanks for sharing that.

I just wrote a big text block talking up Halo, but I didn't mean to suggest it was the last great launch title.

Wii Sports is very much that.

I personally thought Dead Or Alive 4 was also a really fantastic launch title.

It annoys me when people like Brad, on the podcast, say things like "launch games are never any good" because that's actually the exception, not the rule. For Nintendo especially, their launch titles are frequently some of the best content that will hit the console. Super Mario Brothers, The Legend Of Zelda, Pilotwings, F-Zero, Super Mario World, Mario 64, Waverace, Pikmin, Wii Sports, etc.

Just because Sony has classically had terrible, terrible launches doesn't mean everyone does.

While it was hardly revolutionary, I fucking loved Resistance: FoM.

I suppose Wii Sports counts, otherwise I think Halo is the last chronologically. As in people bought the console for that mind blowing game instead of buying a console for the prospect of the mind blowing game to come.

Super Smash Bros. Melee might as well be considered a launch "window" title. Came out less than a month after the GameCube which puts it after Halo: Combat Evolved.

EDIT: Also, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader was a hell of a launch title.

Twilight Princess in my book. Halo CE is extremely boring and repetitive although people will say the same thing about TP so to each there own.

Undoubtedly so. I have neither seen a single title sell a console better than Halo has. It was literally the revolutionary title of any and recent generations. It COMPLETELY changed how we play first-person shooters and brought their prevalence to consoles. Saving the best for last, NO SINGLE TITLE has ever produced such an influx of LAN parties.

I can't even put words to it. It only moved forward as Halo 2 paved the way and set the standard for online multiplayer on consoles from there on out.

@deranged: I'd still argue that Mario 64 is greater and just as influential as Halo, but we'll probably not agree there. I agree that Halo was an amazing game though. I remember reading about it and seeing screenshot in some game magazine before it was launched, and getting so freaking hyped! And when I played it...my God. People forget how clunky all console shooters were before Halo, it literally revolutionized that genre on consoles. The only two other times I can remember getting blown away by a game in that way were with Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Bleh. Halo 1 is incredibly rough, and I wasn't even that much of a fan when it first came out. Ghosts has been far more enjoyable for me so far, and I figure Killzone will be as well.

Mario 64 was AMAZING! I cannot disagree that it is arguably just as influential! I just feel like Halo had more of a lasting impact on everything that followed in regards to shooters, multiplayer and even changing the way people thought about consoles. Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time undisputedly did the same for their genre as well though.

No love for Call of Duty 2. :'(

Condemned and CoD 2 are pretty damn good.

The answer to questions phrased and framed like this is often: No.

Yep, Halo: CE was THE killer app for xbox and a system seller. I'd say Wii Sports did the same most recently.

It depends.

If you played PC shooters you maybe didn't give half a shit about Halo, though it was still pretty good. Frankly I was more into the 360s Condemned than any Xbox or 360 launch title (again, CoD2 was on PC).

Mario 64 is on another level than any of these games, but it's also patently unfair. It's the blueprint for 3D games.

GC's Rogue Squadron II is a classic, so there's that.

Mostly I find this line of thinking kind of silly, I enjoyed a lot of launch titles over the years. Tekken Tag Tournament, played with a bunch of friends during those first few PS2 months, was one of the best gaming experiences of my life.

Resistance is like a top 25 game on PS3 or thereabouts, Super Mario World and Mario 64 beat the shit out of Halo in general.

@amyggen: Mario 64 is the most influential game ever so yeah. Maybe if Indy games become pre-eminent it'll eventually be Super Metroid but until then.

Wii Sports.