Imagine being in charge of launching a new game console. Once the really hard work is done — thinking of a cool name, capitalizing a letter somewhere in the middle, drawing endless controllers, and disseminating them to game’s sites — you’ve actually got to convince studios to make games for it. At a time when the user base is zero.
Sometimes you get a Battle Arena Toshinden, and sometimes you get one of these Hall of Famers, who can take at least partial credit for their entire platform’s commercial success. In fact, they’re still worth playing now, even though their associated hardware may be out of production, and found only in attics and pawnshop windows. Not bad for a shot in the dark on launch day.
