With the PS4 and Xbox One releasing within the next few weeks, gamers will experience for the first time in nearly a decade a holiday season where all three new next-generation consoles are competing against each other. Sure, price can be an important factor, as can the power of a system; what we cannot forget, though, is that gameplay rules supreme and as such, games must ultimately be compared.

Many consumers will be heading into stores this holiday season looking for a new next-generation console to own. Perhaps they owned all three consoles from the previous generation or maybe just one. They\’ll nevertheless be looking at the games on each console before making their ultimate decision as to which one to buy. Therefore, it is important to consider the holiday lineups for all three consoles.

Now, keep in mind a few things. In this comparison, we will only be including games being sold exclusively on next-generation platforms, so apologies are made to those that are cross-generation games. Most gamers already own a PS3/360 to play those games on. More importantly, we\’ll be including all Wii U games released up until this point, as consumers will still see Lego City: Undercover on the store shelf, no matter its release date. The older games are still a part of the Wii U roster and are directly competing against those on the PS4 and Xbox One.

Let’s begin with the retail offerings.

Wii U

Beginning with the Wii U’s launch, Mario was already out of the door. New Super Mario Bros. U was arguably the \”must-own\” game of the launch and still proves to be that nearly a year after launch. More importantly for the Wii U, though, is that Mario U helps the perception that platformers belong on the Wii U. The PS4 and Xbox One struggle to find platformers naturally whereas on the Wii U, Mario U is just the beginning.

After New Super Mario Bros U is completed, New Super Luigi U can be purchased, proving that Nintendo can handle DLC equally as well, if not better, than its competitors. This DLC pack costs a mere $20, yet packs in a redesign for over 80 levels of the original game. More importantly, the game can pack quite the challenge, only allotting 100 seconds for each level.

Coming out later this year is Super Mario 3D World, the sequel to 2011’s critically acclaimed Super Mario 3D Land. This game introduces several new power-ups, as well as very vertical level design. Newest to the series is the multi-player, which allows four players to simultaneously play through levels together.

When tired with Mario, players can move onto Sonic: Lost World. Although as equally loved as it is hated, it was applauded it for its wonderful level design and platforming. Another equally divisive game was The Wonderful 101. The game was applauded for having a DMC-like combat system, having a re-playable and long campaign and for having an incredibly well-written script.

Another game that contained an incredibly well-written script, as well as an open world, was Lego City Undercover. The game broke apart from its mostly kid-friendly humor and utilized several jokes dating back to 20- to 30-year-old movies. Apart from the main story, the game reconstructed several real-life landmarks and features and included hundreds upon hundreds of collectibles for players to find.

On the more mature side of things, the Wii U has ZombiU, what critics called a \”real\” survival-horror game. With several gamepad features adding depth to the overall experience, ZombiU is the sort of game which would be impossible to play on any other system. Critics were torn in their reviews, but most fans appreciated the hardcore zombie gameplay and came to love the tough-love environment that Ubisoft created for them.

Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate also successfully created a tough-love environment which fans grew to love. Although the game is known for being brutally difficult to get into, people recognize the game even more for being exceptionally long, often taking people up to 1,000 hours to get through.

Before moving on to the family friendly party games, it is important to bring up the game that Nintendo fans had been waiting for the longest: Pikmin 3. Originally announced at E3 back in 2008, the game was delayed several times after finally being released five years later in 2013. The game received critical praise as an RTS and still retained the adorable charm that Pikmin is known for.

As for the casual/party games, Nintendo has several to name. Nintendo Land is easily the most notable, as it not only has the best critical response, but the best fan response as well. The game features the asymmetrical gameplay that the Wii U is known for and contains all the best-known Nintendo franchises. Some other notable party games include Wii Party U, Game & Wario, and Wii Fit U.

PS4

The PS4 will be launched with two pieces of next-gen software, both of which are first-party. Knack is a gorgeous 3D platformer akin to those on the Wii U featuring a lovable robot as its main character. Similar to 3D World, the game features multi-player for up to four players, but dissimilar to Mario, Knack features some brawler-related gameplay in addition to the platforming gameplay. Best of all, the game is supposed to be hard, more challenging than 3D World, something that we can definitely look forward to. Best of all, the soundtrack sounds epic!

Sony also has Killzone: Shadow Fall releasing alongside the PS4. Why is this important? Killzone will be the touchstone title for the PS4 in terms of not only how a shooter plays, but online as well. Launching as the key online title for the PS4, Killzone will be essential to showing how well of an environment the PS4 can foster in the newest generation.

Xbox One

The Xbox One arguably has the best launch out of all three systems in terms of retail exclusive games. For Microsoft, the essential piece in the catalog to show off the graphical prowess of the console is Forza 5. The game is supposed to run at 60fps and 1080p flawlessly. Cars are very highly detailed and the environments are gorgeous as well.

Ryse: Son of Rome is the other game that is supposed to show off the Xbox’s graphical capabilities. When demonstrated at E3, the game was easily the best modeled game at the show. Unfortunately, since then, the game has been scaled down to 900p, signaling that the game will not be as pretty as it once was. Fortunately, the game is supposedly rid of the horrid QTEs shown off at E3, so the title will hopefully turn out to be a very good one.

Rounding out the core Xbox One titles is Dead Rising 3, the open world, zombie-killing game from Capcom. The game features the incredibly fun gameplay from the previous Dead Rising games, but also features even more zombies and a whole new giant world for players to explore this time. Unfortunately, Capcom hasn\’t released very many details or demos about the game, so not much is known about it.

Finally, the Xbox one has The Fighter Within as a launch title. The premise of this game is a very interesting one, because all indication point to the fact that it works. The game is supposed to be a standard fighter on a 2D plane, akin to most of the other fighting games released. The only difference is that the game is controlled by Kinect. Fortunately, it seems like Kinect 2 is a superior piece of hardware than its predecessor. All early play sessions indicate that the game is incredibly responsive and is actually fun to play, even though it is powered by Kinect. The game looks like it will finally give Kinect a chance to shine in the next generation, some PR that Microsoft needs desperately right now.

Conclusion

Overall, just by looking at the sheer number of exclusives, the Wii U completely clobbers any of the competition. Unfortunately, numbers don\’t always translate into sales. Game like Sonic: Lost World, Wii Party U, The Wonderful 101, Game & Wario, and several other Wii U games received mixed reviews around the Internet, ultimately signaling that not all exclusive software for the Wii U is worth owning. Within the next couple weeks, the next-generation Xbox One and Playstation 4 games will be launching and it will be even more interesting to see how they perform.

Here’s a nifty chart to see the lineup of each console for this holiday season. The numbers accompanying the name indicate the Metacritic score for those interested. Scores will be updated as they go live.

Wii U PS4 Xbox One New Super Mario/Luigi Bros U – 84 Killzone: Shadow Fall – 74 Ryse: Son of Rome Super Mario 3D World Knack – 59 Forza Motorsports 5 Sonic: Lost World – 62 Dead Rising 3 The Wonderful 101 – 78 The Fighter Within Lego City Undercover – 80 ZombiU – 77 Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate – 82 Pikmin 3 – 87 Nintendo Land – 77 Wii Party U – 64 Wii Fit U Game & Wario – 61

Digital games to be explored in part 2!