Best Nintendo System

[Daku Rinku]

I think this poll is more "which Nintendo system came out when you were between the ages of 6 and 10?"
If you ran this same poll 10 years ago the N64 would likely have been rated highest, and the SNES highest if run 10 years before that. 10 years from now maybe people will be agree it was the Wii or Switch that was the greatest Nintendo system ever! Wii U might never quite make the cut, sadly...

As much as I love it, I have to note that the GameCube was a really low point for Nintendo, and in many ways for Nintendo fans too. The games came out slowly, 3rd party support was rapidly waning, and the system was in 3rd place far behind the PS2 for sales. Of course, there's some real gems on this platform that were well-loved and undoubtedly defined the childhoods of millions of players around the world, but purely from a, say, dispassionate viewpoint, GameCube sold poorly and had a fairly small game library. Afterall, the blue ocean strategy of the Wii was a direct response to the GameCube's bitter defeat when trying to compete purely on power and graphics.

I was born in the late 1980s, so of course my pick is SNES! It was the big new Nintendo console of the day during that impressionable young age, so of course my dearest childhood gaming memories are linked to it. Had a massive library of games that really pushed the envelope, too. Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island, Mario RPG... what treasures!

This is too true! Though I answered by the games I loved most and would replay a lot. And N64 won the day. I even like older graphics, has a charm that photo realistic Call of Duty and Unreal engine doesn’t have.

 

[Dr.Luigi]

There´s one thing I loved and miss about the Wii U: Couch co - op without splitscreen. I have fond memories of playing Nintendo Land this way.

 

[Daku Rinku]

There´s one thing I loved and miss about the Wii U: Couch co - op without splitscreen. I have fond memories of playing Nintendo Land this way.

I am saddened how co-op has been sacrificed for online play.

I have fond memories of playing with friends on the same screen.

 

[Dr.Luigi]

I have fond memories of playing with friends on the same screen.

I dont mind playing on the same screen like Super Mario Wonder but the Wii U could do better like Hyrule Warriors: Couch Co-op, one copy of the game, one console, each player had his own screen thanks to the gamepad, no Internet necessary.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Really hard to pick tbh.

I ended up going with the Switch because the content in it's library is so good and continues improving.

It was hard for me to pick between it, the SNES, and the GameCube. I would pick GameCube but I feel like that would be a lot of nostagia talking because it was the main console for a majority of my childhood.

 

[Daku Rinku]

Really hard to pick tbh.

I ended up going with the Switch because the content in it's library is so good and continues improving.

It was hard for me to pick between it, the SNES, and the GameCube. I would pick GameCube but I feel like that would be a lot of nostagia talking because it was the main console for a majority of my childhood.

I think nostalgia can be a reason, though honestly Gamecube should have my vote for Sonic Adventure 2: Battle alone, I have to be honest and say its not my favorite of the consoles, something about it and the games which were innovative mind you but a lot of them did not feel like their respective franchises:

Luigi’s Mansion and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door “looked like Mario games but did not feel like them.

Twilight Princess did not feel like a Zelda game, and its not the dark bit, Majora’s Mask is plenty dark.

Even Smashbros Melee, which I played ad nauseam did not feel like Brawl or N64.

There was just something about The GameCube era, a shadow undercurrent to them all that felt like Nintendo Japan had nothing to do with it, since their style tends to have whimsical, upbeat, and even comical aspect in the games.

You’ll notice Windwaker is absent from the list, because it felt on brand and like it had the spirit of the games on SNES, N64, Wii, Wii U, and Switch.

Let me put it this way, most Nintendo games feels like the Lionsgate symbol that opens with pearly gates to heaven, Gamcube felt like the red Lionsgate gates of hades for horror films.

I know I’ll het flake for this.. but its just something I noticed. I enjoyed many games on GameCube, they just all felt like Edgar Allen Poe had a hand in them. When normally the games are like Alfred Lord Tennyson, “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.”