The Last Game Released For Every Console

Have you ever been sitting and contemplating the absurdities of life when your brain interrupted your thought pattern and asked you, “hey, remember hearing about those weird fringe cases where games came out long after a console was long thrown in the proverbial trash can?” No? Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, I decided to put together a list of all of the last games to be released on every single console throughout gaming history. The rules are that they must be officially licensed games, not random games that people decide to slap on a NES cartridge today and claim it’s the last game for that system. And we’re also talking about games that were released organically in any territory around the world, not fan translations or any other way to worm your favourite games in here. That’s right, I see you. And to be clear, we’re talking home consoles here, no handhelds. That’s a different list entirely. We’ll, what are you waiting for?

Atari 5200 – Gremlins -1987 USA

Made as a tie-in for the Gremlins movie, the Atari 5200 version of Gremlins is entirely different than the one released for Atari 2600. You play the role of Billy Peltzer, a typical teenager who just happens to carry around a huge sword.  Your beloved pet Mogwai have escaped from their pen and are now in danger of turning into evil Gremlins. Your goal is to gather up all the loose Mogwai running around the screen and return them to the pen.  However this is all easier said than done, because your room just happens to be a huge disaster just waiting to happen.  Food, water, TV’s, and inconveniently placed walls are just some of the obstacles you’ll have to overcome to capture them. Gremlins on the atari 5200 was the last game to be released, coming out in the US in 1987, long after the 5200 was discontinued.

Intellivision – Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball – 1989

Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball was an attempt to more realistically recreate the game of volleyball for the Intellivision. Careful  attention was paid to the speed and movement of the game and some basic volleyball rules were followed, such as the first team to fifteen points wins a game as long as they have a two point advantage and best three out of five wins the match. There are 2 main modes in the game. These modes are a two-on-two outdoor game and a six-on-six game in a gymnasium. There is also a special two-player mode to allow player-on-player matches or two players to go up against the computer. 

Spiker Super Pro Volleyball was the last game to drop on Intellivision in the US in 1989. 

Atari 2600 – acid drop – PAL 1992

Acid Drop is a falling block game similar to Columns. The objective of the game is to create a horizontal or vertical line of three or more blocks of the same color, which then disappear. The remaining blocks will fall down, but won’t disappear if they form another line. Every 10,000 points a special block will appear (the titular Acid Drop) which removes three columns of blocks and marks the beginning of the next level.

Acid Drop was only released in PAL regions, and was the last game to release on the Atari 2600 in 1992.

Atari 7800 – Sentinel – 1991 PAL

Sentinel used the XE lightgun and was the last game to release on Atari’s 7800 console. Players take control of a scientist piloting a glowing orb named the Sentinel, which can absorb and store energy. When aliens invade Earth, the scientist journeys in the Sentinel to four alien planets to destroy their power stations, with each guarded by an alien lord. Upon destroying these four worlds. It didn’t come out until 1991 in PAL regions, making it the last official game on the Atari 7800.

NES – The Lion King – 1995 PAL

The Lion King is a side-scrolling platformer where players control the protagonist, Simba, in the events of the film of the same name, going through both child and adult forms as the game progresses and ending with a boss fight against Scar. The game was developed by Westwood Studios in 1994, and was ported to MS-DOS, Amiga, Game Gear, Master System, and Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES version was only released in the PAL region, and it is the final licensed NES game to be released worldwide in the year 1995. 

SEGA 32X – The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire – United States 1996

The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire is a side-scrolling action-adventure video game published by Sega exclusively for the 32X add-on in North America in March 1996. The game is inspired by the long-running Amazing Spider-Man comic book series. In the game, the terrorist organization Hydra and the New Enforcers orchestrate a plot to shroud New York City under an electrical plasma grid, trapping its citizens. Spider-Man must confront each of the New Enforcers members, foil Hydra’s plans, and save the city with the aid of Daredevil.

SEGA Mega-CD – Shadowrun – Japan February 23, 1996

Released exclusively in Japan in 1996, Shadowrun is a cyberpunk visual novel role-playing game for the Sega Mega-CD, which was adapted from the pen and paper RPG of the same name. Unlike other games in the series, this Shadowrun is set in Japan and takes its style cues from 1990s manga. It’s the last game to be released anywhere in the world on the Sega Mega CD, and you can really tell this was what inspired a lot of future cyberpunk games that would come later on. 

Panasonic 3DO – Interactive Multiplayer Ide Yosuke Meijin no Shin Jissen Mahjong – Japan June 28, 1996

Many people forget about Panasonic’s ill-fated 3DO console, which was the brainchild of EA founder Trip Hawkins. It was their attempt at getting into the CD-Rom based video game console market, but they were beaten out by the likes of Sony’s PS1. The last game on the 3DO was, and excuse my terrible pronunciation, Ide Yosuke Meijin no Shin Jissen Mahjong. Released only in Japan, it’s a mahjong game where you take the role of a mahjong gambler that arrives at a town and wants to become the mahjong champion.

SEGA Master System – Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge – Brazil 1998

Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge is a puzzle game where players must complete various challenges. To beat the game, players tackle a series of challenges in various rooms of the castle in order to collect magic beans and items. What’s interesting about Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge is that while it game out for a whole bunch of systems in 1994, it was the last game to be published on the Master System because its Brazilian version didn’t hit store shelves until 1998. 

Atari Jaguar – BattleSphere Gold – United States 2002

set during a future war between seven alien races, the warring factions agree to confine their hostilities to a tournament where the whole galaxy is at stake. A space combat simulation, Gameplay in Battlesphere Gold consists of five modes, each featuring distinct scenarios and objectives. This gold version of the game was an enhanced version of the origin and was the last Jaguar game to come out in the late year of 2002 in the US. 

Philips CD-i – Solar Crusade – United States 1999

Solar Crusade is an on the rails shoot’em up, which takes players through stunning settings from the far-flung corners of the galaxy to the very heart of the earth itself. It was the follow-up to Chaos Control, and it was published by Infogrames Multimedia solely on Windows and Philips CD-I in the USA in 1999, long after most of the world had forgotten the CD-I even existed. 

Neo Geo CD – The King of Fighters ’99: Millennium Battle – Japan December 2, 1999

The King of Fighters 99 is famously one of the best fighting games to release on systems like the Sony Playstation and Sega Dreamcast, but it was also the last game to be available commercially for the NEO GEO CD, coming out in Japan in 1999. It is the sixth installment in The King of Fighters series and introduces a new story arc known as the “NESTS Chronicles”. 

Super Famicom – Metal Slader Glory: Director’s Cut – Japan November 29, 2000

Metal Slader Glory is an adventure game developed and published by HAL Laboratory. The game is set in 2062 after humans have colonized the Moon, when a bunch of mysterious events plunge players into a galaxy-wide conspiracy. It was originally released for the Famicom in 1991, and it had Satoru Iwata as its producer, who would later go on to be head of Nintendo Japan. The game was remade in Director’s Cut guide a decade later and became the last game to release on the Super Famicom in Japan in the year 2000. An English fan translation didn’t take place until 2018, however.

SEGA Saturn – Yuukyuu Gensokyoku Perpetual Collection – Japan December 7, 2000

Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku Hozonban Perpetual Collection is a compilation of five of Starlight Marry’s Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku games for the Sega Saturn. It was released on 7 December 2000, it was the last officially released Saturn game.  These games were early visual novels centred around romance, but don’t ask me more than that because I don’t know. Honest.

SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis – Show do Milhão Volume 2 – Brazil 2002

Hailing from Brazil again, this one is a super deep cut. Show Do Milhao Volume 2 is a follow-up to a game based on a Brazilian quiz-based gameshow of the same now, where contestants answer questions to hit it big. What’s really interesting about this one is that it was so popular in Brazil that it boosted Mega Drive/Genesis sales in the country by 20% in the extremely late year of 2002, when much of the English-speaking world had moved on to the PlayStation 2. 

Nintendo 64 – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 – United States August 20, 2002

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is considered one of the best video games ever released and received critical acclaim. The game was the final official release for the Nintendo 64 in August of 2002, with the N64 having been discontinued 3 months prior. It was the only game that was released for the system in 2002, and would go on to be a launch title for the GameCube and PS2 consoles. 

Neo Geo – Samurai Spirits Zero Special – Japan July 09, 2004

Unsurprisingly for the Neo Geo, its last game was a fighting game called Samurai Spirits Zero Special, which was released in Japan in mid-2004. It was the ninth entry in SNK’s Samurai Shodown series, where 28 samurai duel it out in a 2D style similar to early Street Fighter games. The game is best known for being delayed a week so that some of its gruesome finishers could be removed in an act of worldwide censorship.

PlayStation – Schnappi: 3 Fun-Games – Germany March 1, 2005

Leave it to the Germans to make the last PS1 game a game about a crocodile to be released in 2005. Schnappi is based on a viral song that drove German parents crazy around the same time, similar to something like what we now know as Crazy Frog. The game, as you might expect, isn’t very good, but features the aforementioned crocodile in 3 questionably fun flash games. It’s barely a game, more of a cash grab, but that doesn’t stop it being the PlayStation 1’s last game to officially be released. 

GameCube – Madden NFL 08 – United States August 1, 2007

Leave it to sports games to be the last hold-outs when it comes to moving on and upgrading consoles. Madden NFL 08 was the last game to ever release on the GameCube and came out in summer of 2007. You’d expect that Nintendo’s infamous GameCube console deserves a better send off than a bunch of hulking dudes touching each other up on a giant field, but here we are. Madden 08 also came out on Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as the Nintendo Wii and practically every other console known to man. Shame on you for disgracing the Gamecube like that, John madden. 

Dreamcast – Karous – March 8, 2007

We all know that the Sega Dreamcast, as good as it was, didn’t last for very long whatsoever. Shockingly though, the last official game on the system didn’t come out until 2007. Karous was a vertical scrolling shooter released exclusively in Japan. It had a weapons system based on the game Radio Allergy, and also saw an arcade as well as Wii release too. 

Xbox – Madden NFL 09 – United States August 12, 2008

Much like the Nintendo GameCube, the last official game to release on Microsoft’s original Xbox console was john bloody madden’s NFL 09 in the year 2008. 7 years after team green’s debut console, which graced the world with games like Halo, the legacy of the Microsoft’s Direct x box ended with a few guys throwing around the pig skin. 

PlayStation 2 – Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 – European Union November 8, 2013

Okay, what’s up with these sports games? Well, at least this football game is actually played with your feet, so that’s a plus. Pro Evo Soccer 2014 just happens to be the PlayStation 2’s last official game release, hitting the store shelves in Europe in late 2013 – that’s just days before the PlayStation 4 came out! I’m not even going to explain what it’s about, just know that some poor schmuck bought this for his 11 year old PS2 console in 2013. 

PlayStation 3 – Shakedown: Hawaii – United States August 20, 2020

Shakedown: Hawaii is an open world action-adventure game with a top-down view that draws inspiration from 90s classics like the original Grand Theft Auto, and acts as a sequel to Retro City Rampage by the same developers. While it came out on a bunch of modern systems, it was also officially ported to the PlayStation 3 console both physically and digitally in 2020, making it the last game to come out on Sony’s hit PS3 system. What a wild ride this list has become. Who is holding on to their old systems for that long!?

Xbox 360 – Just Dance 2019 – European Union October 25, 2018

Nothing says Xbox 360 like flinging yourself around a room to make the dance moves on your television. And that’s why Just Dance 2019 was the Xbox 360’s last ever official game release in October 2018. The whole premise of the game is that players must mimic the on-screen dancer’s choreography to a chosen song using the Kinect on the Xbox 360. Frankly, I didn’t even know people bought that thing. HURGH.

Wii – Shakedown: Hawaii/Just Dance 2020

The Wii’s official last game anywhere in the world is Shakedown Hawaii, which was released in Europe in 2020, but that’s boring because it also came out on PS3. So, we should also take into account the last game to release in the US, which was just Dance 2020 in 2019. Look, I don’t make the rules and Ubisoft loves a cash grab. 

Wii U – Captain U – December 16, 2021

And that brings us to our last console – The Wii U. Yes I know many consoles have been released since, but publishers are still bringing games out on those systems even though it might seem like insanity to you and me. Anyway, Captain U was the last official game released on the Nintendo Eshop for the Wii U console in the year 2021 anno domini. In a strange parody of Super Mario that Nintendo somehow didn’t find offensive, Captain U asks you to locate a missing princess in a platformer similar to the Mario games – except this time the Wii U’s tablet controller is a Power Pad. 

Phew. That was a lot of games, and a lot of them came out unexpectedly late in their consoles lifecycles. Frankly, I expected more of them to be sports games, too, but there were some strange retro games thrown in there that I’d never heard of until I did the research to compile this list of last games released for every console.