It’s 2025, and we’re still seeing plenty of video games releasing on “outdated” hardware.
Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game whose development took so long that it became a meme, is now available not just on current-gen systems but also on the Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch as well. Though, to be fair, the Switch 2 era just started, so I feel like we’ll be seeing Switch 1 games still for a while.
Sadly, Wii U owners, who were promised a release after the Silksong Kickstarter, won’t be seeing the game release on their console. A moment of silence, if you will.
With that being said, it is as good a time as any to recap the history of iconic consoles from our past and find out what the final game was on every major console. We’ll be taking a trip down memory lane and remembering the final days of every major Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft home console that is no longer seeing new games released, along with some other big systems along the way.
Hope you like sports games!
14 Atari 2600 – Klax
April 1990
My introduction to gaming wasn’t from the NES, it was through an Atari. I can’t quite remember if it was the 2600 or a 5200; my parents dug it out of the attic one day, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I did learn about the unfortunate truth that when an outdated gaming system didn’t work, you couldn’t just go out to the store and buy another one; it wasn’t supported anymore. Thankfully, I would wake up one morning with a Sega Genesis in the living room where the Atari used to be, so it all worked out in the end. More on the Genesis later.
For now, we’re going to talk about Klax, the last officially licensed game for the Atari 2600. While the Atari would still see releases as recently as 2024, thanks to the resurgence in retro gaming, Klax is officially the last game ever released for the iconic system.
It was a major hit in arcades, but by today’s standards, it’s a relatively simple puzzle game that’s nothing more than an interesting footnote in gaming history.
13 NES – Wario’s Woods
December 1st, 1994
You’d assume that the final game for the NES would be a Mario game. Wario’s Woods is close enough.
It’s a spin-off where, instead of playing as Wario, you’re actually playing as Toad. And instead of platforming through levels taking place in, presumably, woods owned by Wario, it’s actually a Tetris clone where Birdo is watching you for some strange reason.
Honestly, it feels like another game that had the Mario franchise slapped on it to help sell some copies before signing off on the NES as a system. It’s on the Nintendo Switch Online library, but it’s not worth your time.
This is also the only NES game to be rated by the ESRB. One thing I want to clarify here is that Wario’s Woods is the final licensed game for the NES. There have since been several indie games released that are playable for the NES, but are not officially licensed.
12 Sega Genesis – Frogger
1998
Okay, so by the time 1998 rolled around, the Sega Genesis had clearly fallen behind the Super Nintendo, despite a promising start. It’s unfortunate that its final game was a port of the 1997 remake of the original arcade classic.
I’ve actually played this one as a kid on PC, and it was pretty fun for what it was. Ironically, I spent more time playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s multiplayer with my sister, though. Yeah, that frame rate was rough at times, but it was still a blast.
Wait, hold on. I’m being told that it’s a straight-up port of the old-school arcade version and not the game that was released a year prior on PlayStation and Windows. Well then…
Look, Frogger is Frogger. It’s great, but also, by the time 1998 came around, we wanted something new.
November 29th, 2000
You may know HAL Laboratory for their work on the Kirby franchise, but by the time everyone’s favorite pink puffball came around, they already had plenty of experience under their belt.
One of those titles includes the very last game ever released for the SNES: Metal Slader Glory: Director’s Cut.
It’s an adventure game taking place in the year 2062, in a future where humans have colonized the moon and are living in space.
One interesting footnote is that the game was one of the most expensive Famicom games ever made, with director Yoshimiru Hoshi even calling the game his life’s work.
10 Nintendo 64 – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
August 14th, 2002
Hello, and welcome to the “Wow, that’s a lot of sports games” section of our list.
At least we’re starting with a legitimately great game, even if it’s gimped by the Nintendo 64 hardware.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 manages to strike the right balance between the tight, compact, and well-designed stages of the original two games and the expansive, somewhat open-world layouts of the 2001 sequel.
Having played through Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, this may be a bit of a hot take, but it feels like this is where the games started to get a little too much for their own good. Still, Tony Hawk 3 still offers enough fun to keep me coming back for more.
9 Sony PlayStation – FIFA Soccer 2005
October 12th, 2004
Here in the United States, the popularity of soccer didn’t really take off until recently. Even then, it’s still lagging well behind the “big four” sports in this country: American football, basketball, baseball, and hockey.
So if you’re wondering why the original PlayStation was still seeing FIFA Soccer released into the mid-2000s, let me remind you all just how popular soccer is on the world stage.
It’s just a smart business decision to keep releasing games on a beloved, widely adopted system, especially if people keep buying said games.
Ironically, it’s something that’s still utilized today. Do you know why people kept releasing games on PS4 and Xbox One for so long? Because people kept buying them!
8 Sega Dreamcast – Karous
March 8th, 2007
On February 12th, 2002, the final licensed Dreamcast game in North America was released: NHL 2K2. It would continue the trend of every major console’s final game being a sports title.
However, I said North America for a reason. You see, in Japan, they refused to let the Dreamcast die, because they had vision. They knew how great this system was.
Anyway, for years, Japan saw countless Dreamcast games released until March 8th, 2007, when Karous finally marked the end of the road.
The vertical shoot ’em up was released in Japanese arcades in 2006, and was brought to the Nintendo Wii in the MileStone Shooting Collection: Karous Wii (known locally as Ultimate Shooting Collection) alongside Radrigy and Chaos Field.
7 Nintendo GameCube – Madden NFL 08
August 14th, 2007
The good news here is that Madden NFL 08 was the GameCube’s best game for 2007.
The bad news is that there, well, wasn’t much competition.
Having said that, this specific year’s version of Madden wasn’t bad. It was actually an impressive title, far more impressive than the disappointing career of its cover athlete, Vince Young. There are far worse ways to go out as a console. The most ironic part here is that, arguably, the Madden audience was, for the most part, not playing on the GameCube.
It’s certainly better than this year’s release, that’s for sure!
6 Xbox – Madden NFL 09
August 12th, 2009
Funny story about Madden NFL 09.
Brett Favre was the cover athlete for the year, initially appearing in his iconic #4 Green Bay Packers jersey. Fun fact: Brett Favre made his first appearance for the New York Jets shortly after the game was released.
EA Sports would later release new cover art, but let’s be honest: who really remembers his tenure with the New York Jets? I mean, a lot of people do, but for all the wrong reasons.
Aside from all that, this year’s version of Madden was infamous for people realizing that maybe EA Sports is rushing these games out to make a quick buck before they’re ready for prime time. At launch, there were countless issues with the game freezing up on users. Worst of all, it wasn’t the outdated Xbox and PS2 versions that had these issues; it was the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.
5 PlayStation 2 – Pro Evolution Soccer 2014
November 8th, 2013
We’re back to soccer, but this time, it isn’t FIFA.
Pro Evolution Soccer is Konami’s answer to the long-running EA Sports franchise, though like the FIFA series (now called FC), it looks a little different today.
Back then, though, this was a very valid competitor to the FIFA throne. It just goes to show how far things have fallen in the sports genre: there’s little to no competition in these games.
As for PES 2014 itself, it was yet another solid entry in the franchise, and one that serves as a worthy send-off for the PS2 console.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
