Video game publishers offer pack-in games to get people to buy consoles. This allows the consumer to buy everything in one package and not have to shell out a fortune for the console and then a game.
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Pack-in games are generally first-party entries, and most are very good. You wouldn't want your introduction to a console to be with a bad game, so many pack-ins became the iconic must-have for a particular console.
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8 Wii Sports
When the Wii launched, some of us troglodytes needed help figuring out the motion controls. Why was the controller a TV remote? Do we need a wrist strap? Wii Sports was partly a tech demo but captured the sports of Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing well.
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Tennis will cause you to get into shouting matches with friends; Boxing will exhaust you. Bowling has never been topped as the ultimate bowling experience and was played in senior centers across the country. Baseball was a fun showcase of the motion controls, and Golf was one of the most relaxing game experiences you could have.
7 Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Mash Bros. Melee was packed in with the Gamecube, which had the greatest controller ever designed for a fighting game. SMBM followed up the N64's Super Smash Bros., with better graphics, finely-tuned gameplay, and fantastic multiplayer. It was the best-selling game on the Gamecube with seven million copies sold, and was a competitive e-sport game into the 2010s and well past the Gamecube's lifespan. Some saw this as the reason you would get a Gamecube, and it remains one of the best Smash Bros. out there today.
6 Mario Kart 8
The WiiU didn't set the gaming industry on fire, but Mario Kart 8 was packed in with the console and serves as the benchmark for kart racers. Mario Kart 8 took the best elements from Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7. It still feels like a recently released triple-A title today, even if it was released back in the WiiU time period.
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The number of tracks, racers, and vehicle types are exhaustive, and the graphics are bright, colorful, and satisfying. No wonder it leaped onto the Nintendo Switch and has also become the defacto-kart racer for that console.
5 Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet
Back in the NES days, you could get one of the best video games of all time, the granddaddy of rail shooters, and a game that requires physical effort. The Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet pack-in for the NES was epic. You and your friend could use the power pad to compete in four events in World Class Track Meet, meaning the NES was the first Peloton workout machine. This might be the best bang-for-your-buck pack-in for really any system.
4 Super Mario Bros. 3
Packed in with the NES later in the console's life, you could look forward to playing the best Nintendo had to offer with this pack-in. While the original Super Mario Bros. sold over 58 million copies, Super Mario Bros. 3 is considered the superior game due to expanding on nearly every single gameplay aspect of the original. It would finish as the third-best-selling NES game and has been re-released numerous times. Super Mario Bros. 3 was even featured in a full-length movie, "The Wizard." It also introduced the raccoon suit, which causes+ Mario to have a flying mechanic in each subsequent entry.
3 Super Mario 3D Land
When Super Mario 3D Land was packed with the Nintendo 3DS, it brought new energy to Mario games that had begun to feel a little old hat. Before this, Nintendo had been pumping out the Super Mario Bros. Wii and U games that felt a bit derivative.
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Not Super Mario 3D Land, however, as it was able to meld 2D and 3D gaming aspects together and gave everyone an excuse to buy a 3DS before it was ported to the Nintendo Switch. While some said this game was too easy, it was enjoyable to play and caused people to keep coming back to it with its sheer depth of gameplay.
2 Zelda Wind Waker + Metroid Prime
Want to get a Gamecube? How about a Gamecube with two of the best games made for the console? The Metroid Prime and Zelda Wind Waker pack-in was available with the Gamecube during Christmas 2005. Wind Waker's unique art style, open-world and gameplay are beloved by gamers to this day, while Metroid Prime was the first in the series since Super Metroid on the SNES. If you're going to do a pack-in game, putting the very best together to urge people to buy the console is a great move.
1 Super Mario World
When the SNES came out, people were interested to see the follow-up to the masterpiece Super Mario 3. Nintendo didn't disappoint, and many kids got their new shiny 16-bit console with one of the greatest platformers ever. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto said this was his favorite game, and probably a bunch of us have this same feeling. It's that special.