Best Nintendo-Exclusive Games Not Developed By Nintendo, Ranked

Of all the major hardware-developing video game companies, Nintendo is especially renowned for developing its exclusive titles in-house. However, from its portable systems to home console hardware, the ‘Big N’ has often approached select studios to develop some of the best installments in their legacy franchise’s history.

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From genre-diverging soft reboots of dormant yet successful franchises and Nintendo-funded sequels to collaborative projects, these outsourced Nintendo games have continually gone on to become astronomically successful.

8

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

The Collaborative Success Story That Has Buoyed Nintendo Hardware

Systems

Released

November 18, 2022

OpenCritic Rating

Fair

While the 1996 release of Pokemon’s inaugural titles is often touted as having prolonged the life of Nintendo’s Game Boy, Nintendo hardware has since become synonymous with the franchise. Nearly 30 years on, and Game Freak’s monster-catching entry-level RPG property has become “the highest-grossing media franchise of all time” — although the Nintendo-exclusive video game software now only accounts for “a small proportion of the franchise’s overall revenue.”

Despite Pokemon‘s seemingly unrivaled success on Nintendo platforms, with Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet reaching great heights for the creature-catching franchise on the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s role in the creation of software for the series is restricted to its physical “manufacture and sale.” This leaves the original creators Game Freak, and joint subsidiary Creatures Inc., to handle the series’ planning & development and the “development of CG models and motion” respectively.

7

Star Fox: Assault

Arguably The Most Revered Contemporary Star Fox Title

Action

Adventure

Third-Person Shooter

Systems

Released

February 14, 2005

Developer(s)

Namco

Considering Fox McCloud’s place within Nintendo’s gallery of most renowned characters, and his Star Fox series being held so close to franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the fact that the franchise has seen so many third-party collaborators in the creation of its installments is arguably quite obscure. From Rare Ltd’s creation of Star Fox Adventures in 2002 and Q-Games’ portable title Star Fox Command to PlatinumGames’ collaboration on 2016’s Star Fox Zero, the series has seen many of its major titles created out-of-house.

However, arguably the most player-revered of Star Fox‘s externally-developed installments is the 2005 Namco-developed return-to-roots Star Fox: Assault. Created before the home of Pac-Man’s 2006 merger with Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai, Namco’s mix of developers across its multiple properties — from Klonoa to Ace Combat — contributed in creating seemingly one of the series’ most praised yet overlooked titles.

6

Bayonetta 2

An Out-Of-Character Collaboration On A Mature Beat ‘Em Up Title

Systems

Released

October 24, 2014

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

With an overt NSFW tone and seemingly gratuitous bloody hack and slash combat, PlatinumGames’ Bayonetta series was once upon a time not only a cross-platform title, but one that explicitly avoided Nintendo hardware. However, with the collaborative endeavor that was Bayonetta 2’s development, the bespectacled angel-killer has since become known as one of Nintendo’s most outlandish contemporary properties.

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As SEGA, PlatinumGames’ original publisher for the Bayonetta series, retreated from the property, Nintendo positioned itself as “a strong, cooperative partner that was willing to create and grow” the Bayonetta IP. This close relationship resulted in the property being revived for another installment, with multiple sequels finding a home across generations of Nintendo consoles alongside spin-off titles and even Bayonetta‘s inclusion in Nintendo’s tight-knit roster of Super Smash Bros. fighters.

5

F-Zero GX

The Standard-Setting Celebrated Futuristic Nintendo Racing Title

Systems

Released

August 25, 2003

Platform(s)

Nintendo GameCube

Developer(s)

Amusement Vision

Despite Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s renown as the developers of the Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza series at SEGA, the 25-year-old team’s acclaimed titles alongside SEGA and Nintendo’s unique working relationship seemingly resulted in Nintendo’s revered F-Zero racing franchise being handed to them.

The end product of this collaboration was 2003’s GameCube title F-Zero GX, an installment in Nintendo’s legacy racing series that has been “universally considered one of the best and most difficult in the series.” Beyond that, the team went on to produce F-Zero AX — an arcade counterpart of the revered GameCube title. Yet the high bar set by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s installment has resulted in the series going effectively dormant with Nintendo themselves not knowing how best to improve on the entry, believing that “careful consideration is needed to produce” a revival of the franchise.

4

Luigi’s Mansion 3

The Third Entry Of Nintendo’s Spooky Mario-Adjacent Franchise

Systems

Released

October 31, 2019

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

While Next Level Games has since been brought under Nintendo’s umbrella of developers, the Vancouver-based studio created video games for nearly 20 years before Nintendo’s involvement. Despite not being held in-house, the developers of Next Level Games created many Nintendo software products before the 2021 acquisition. From Nintendo sports titles like Super Mario Strikers and Punch Out!! to 3D FPS titles like Metroid Prime: Federation Force, Next Level Games has been a close collaborator with Nintendo for decades.

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However, it seems as though their critically revered focus on developing every Luigi’s Mansion installment since its inaugural 2001 title — including the Nintendo Switch breakout hit Luigi’s Mansion 3 — was what forced Nintendo’s hand in procuring the studio. Specifically, in Nintendo’s acquisition notification for the 2021 purchase, Nintendo explicitly stated Next Level Games’ specificity “in developing software titles for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch systems, including titles in the critically acclaimed Luigi’s Mansion series” as a reason for the acquisition.

3

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

A Cross-Franchise Collaborative Series That Nintendo Has Happily Delegated

Systems

Released

December 7, 2018

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Masahiro Sakurai may be a familiar face to many, considering his repeated placement at the forefront of Super Smash Bros. development, his creation of the character of Kirby, and the airing of his YouTube channel Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games. However, despite all these Nintendo-focused accolades and accomplishments, he hasn’t ever explicitly worked for them.

Being the brainchild of Sakurai, Nintendo’s platform fighter franchise Super Smash Bros. has never been developed by Nintendo themselves. As such, although the series’ earlier entries were created by Kirby studio HAL Laboratory, Sakurai’s private company SORA Ltd. and Bandai Namco collaborated to develop arguably the best entry in the franchise in 2018’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. However, considering Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s “tight fighting mechanics” being praised alongside its broad roster, its success could arguably have been just as great even without the property permissions and marketing power provided by Nintendo itself.

2

The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Arguably The Best Handheld Entry From Nintendo’s ‘Big Three’ Franchise

Systems

Released

January 10, 2005

Despite being ultimately subsumed by Capcom in 2007, Resident Evil & Street Fighter 2 producer Yoshiki Okamoto’s independent studio Flagship had a steady run of developing high-profile titles for multiple publishers. While Nintendo is notoriously reserved when presenting its properties to outside developers, Flagship’s work on the Legend of Zelda and Kirby series has resulted in some of the respective franchise’s most revered entries.

With 2004’s collaboration with Capcom resulting in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Flagship’s original Game Boy Advance title provided a uniquely framed story in the early years of Hyrule that employed narrative ramifications and mechanical diversity that arguably influenced one of Nintendo’s biggest IPs more than any other handheld offering.

1

Metroid Prime

The Inaugural Entry In A Series So Revered The Studio Has Been Recalled To Make More

First-Person Shooter

Metroidvania

Systems

Released

November 17, 2002

As a Japanese video game company, Nintendo has been slow to collaborate with Western developers. However, it has found great success in the times when it has done so. From Rare’s Donkey Kong Country series on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System to Next Level Games’ consistent output of Luigi’s Mansion titles, Nintendo has increasingly trusted its most influential properties to Western studios. Before contributing two commercially and critically acclaimed installments to the Donkey Kong Country series, Texas-based Retro Studios’ first title was not just a soft-reboot of Nintendo’s Metroid franchise, but one that adjusted Samus Aran’s perspective into a 3D First-Person Shooter.

While Jeff Spangenberg’s burgeoning studio ultimately struck gold on its first try, with Metroid Prime being revered as “the best game of the GameCube era, as well as one of the best games of all time,” the developer continued to support Nintendo by creating two sequels in the next five years. However, despite Metroid Prime 4: Beyond‘s development originally being handed over to an internal developer, the title was ultimately handed back to Retro Studios after a prolonged development to “reach the standards” of an entry in the series, showing the degree of trust and respect that such a landmark title commands.

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