Nintendo has been creating consoles for almost as long as consoles have existed. Even though it was not the first company to create a console, it remains the oldest intact gaming company. A lot of really amazing franchises had their start on a Nintendo system. This list aims to expand on the best video game franchises that first started on a Nintendo console.

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These are franchises that have persisted through time and have continued to evolve. These games have changed how their respective genres are played and have continued to release quality entries.

10 Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Running And Diddy Kong On Back Of A Rhino

Donkey Kong Country is a platformer that was made for the SNES based (very loosely) on the Donkey Kong arcade machine. The plot of the game is very different as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong serve as the game's main protagonists in search of bananas.

The platforming is a wonderful challenge as it tests the player's hand-eye coordination. As the Donkey Kong franchise has evolved, so too did a lot of the gameplay as mechanics were taken and changed in its newest iterations like Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.

9 Metroid

Metroid Zero Mission Gameplay

Metroid wasn't only the start of Samus Aran and her iconic franchise, but it also started the Metroidvania genre of gaming where players must explore a large map and find different upgrades to progress. The Metroid games were all initially locked on the 2D plane, but as technology has advanced, the franchise branched out into fantastic first person 3D games with the Metroid Prime series. Despite this evolution, the 2D Metroid scene has persevered, continuing the story and mechanic in new ways, like in Metroid: Dread.

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Metroid revolves around players becoming more powerful and unlocking new abilities while the game keeps upping itself in its challenge. The games tend to have plenty of secrets worth discovering in the labyrinthine levels; this exploration is a large part of the fun that the game provides.

8 Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden Ryu Unsheathing his Sword

Ninja Gaiden has a similar come-up story as many games on this listl; it is another game that first started with basic 2D pixel art graphics and has now fully evolved into the 3D realm. The first game released on the NES, and it followed a lot of the same core principles as the Castlevania games. The player has a basic attack and can unlock different secondary weapons.

The game garnered a lot of acclaim as it increased in challenge drastically as the game progressed. The games that came along later in the series managed to keep a lot of that challenge, though some offer different difficulties for those who don't have time for the struggle.

7 Star Fox

Star Fox Adventures Beginning Planet With Dinosaurs

Star Fox is a short-lived series that is long past due for its triumphant return. The game started as a 3D rail shooter with graphics that resembled interesting polygon-type shapes and blocky gray structures. As the franchise progressed, the graphics improved and the gameplay evolved.

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In the series' last rendition, Star Fox Adventures, the game went from being predominantly a rail shooter to turning into an adventure game with some space shooting combat areas.

6 Kirby

Kirby And The Forgotten Land: King Dedede Smashes The Ground With His Pillar

Kirby started in a Gameboy game called Kirby's Dream Land. The lovable character was a lot more ghost-like as he appeared to be mainly white on the cover of the game. He also did not have his copy ability he's now famous for. Instead, Kirby would swallow enemies and throw them out as stars. The NES game, Kirby's Adventure, is where things started to get more interesting for Kirby as he gained his copy ability as well as some other upgrades.

Kirby has since evolved into a 3D character, and though the graphics have remained consistently cute, there are a lot more post-apocalyptic themes in Kirby and the Forgotten Land. The franchise continues to stay fresh and exciting, even offering unusual entries like Kirby's Dream Buffet.

5 Final Fantasy

FinalFantasy14

Final Fantasy has taken the RPG genre and made it into something much more cinematic since the first game was released. The game introduced showing the player's party in-game and giving them different attack animations when fighting against monsters. The initial game was still heavily turn-based, but as the genre has evolved, some games in the franchise have opted for a more action-oriented combat style.

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The newer games have enormous boss fights and--instead of the bosses being turn-based--a lot of the time players will have to prepare heavily and learn the game's interesting dynamics. It creates a much more interactive experience with bombastic combat sequences.

4 Pokémon

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Miraidon Flying Around Mountain And Ocean

Pokémon first released on the Gameboy, and the first two games were initially titled Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green. The games were initially launched in Japan and then began to be released in different parts of the world as the years went on. It's safe to say that the turn-based battle monster collecting game exploded in popularity and has continued to evolve over the years, albeit slowly at times.

The franchise has come a long way with the transition to fully 3D entries. The series also introduced an open world entry with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which offered the players even more freedom in how they could approach different challenges on their journey.

3 The Legend of ZeldaThe Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most iconic dungeon crawling games, with every entry subsequent entry offering their own unique adventures. The franchise started as predominantly a top-down dungeon crawler with a lot of discoveries to be made. It has evolved over the years, transitioning from 2D to fully 3D environments, far passed its initial scope.

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild increased the series' sense of scale even more as it included the ability for players to scale and glide through the massive landscape freely, tackling the world in whatever order they chose.

2 Animal Crossing

Villagers and players at the beach of the island

Animal Crossing was first released on the N64 in Japan in 2001 as Dōbutsu no Mori, and that same year it received a GameCube port. Over the years since, the Animal Crossing formula has continued to work. The franchise offers players a relaxing social simulation wherein they can meet new villagers and build their own community. Players can sit back and collect money to unlock different store sizes as well as--in later renditions of the game--new buildings.

The franchise has and will most likely continue to grow over the years as its aesthetically cute formula is one that's not going anywhere anytime soon.

1 Super Mario Bros.

The Most Expensive Game Ever Sold Super Mario Bros

Super Mario Bros. is one of the most iconic original game series that has ever been created. The face of Mario is tied into the Nintendo brand itself as he basically serves as their premier mascot. Super Mario Bros first came out on the NES, and it completely revolutionized the gaming world with its platforming mechanics.

The game franchise has, since its creation, taken these simple gaming mechanics and turned them into something much grander. The fairly basic platformer that was first created all of those years ago has expanded into so many iterations--dabbling in turn-based strategy shooters and almost any sports game you can think of--while also continuing its 2D roots and adventuring into the 3D space.

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