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Silverspoon's Sunday Discussion Topic #9: What is Your All-time Favorite Nintendo Console?


SilverspoonGaming

Favorite Nintendo Console  

41 members have voted

  1. 1. Favorite Nintendo Console

    • Color TV-Game
      0
    • NES
      17
    • SNES
      15
    • N64
      4
    • Gamecube
      0
    • Wii
      0
    • Wii U
      0
    • Game Boy
      1
    • Game Boy Color
      0
    • Game Boy Advance
      0
    • Virtual Boy
      0
    • DS
      2
    • 3DS
      1
    • Switch
      1


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1a. SNES (tie)

1b. N64 (tie)

2. Switch

3. DS

4. GameCube

5. GBA

6. NES

7. 3DS

8. Game Boy

9. Wii U

10. GBC

11. Virtual Boy

12. Wii

Yes SNES and N64 are tied for first but my "official" #1 for PR's sake is SNES because I acknowledge it is the superior console but I can't not have both since they both offer me unique experiences and in my opinion are the absolute best companion consoles for each other. But that's just me!

Switch surprised me and came in 2nd (technically 3rd) because it really is just the ultimate Nintendo experience. There are a few things holding it back like poor online and lack of an actual virtual console but it's light-years ahead of almost all other Nintendo consoles for me except the aforementioned top 2. 

Some people might be surprised but I almost put DS above Switch because it has an absolutely amazing library. Yes there are a lot of garbage games for it but the best games on the system are some of the best they've ever put out. On top of that I truly loved the 2 screen set up, as long as I wasn't forced to use 100% touch screen controls. But this handheld was gimmicky at first but really turned into a serious gaming machine.

GameCube and GBA are fantastic consoles but don't quite have the edge and nostalgia factor of some other consoles for me. GBA would've pulled ahead of Cube, possibly even DS, if there were more original games of Nintendo's biggest franchises rather than just ports/remakes of old games.

NES is incredibly nostalgic but I find it harder to go back to than most other Nintendo consoles. The games are hard. Not all of them obviously but I do find most of the time I can only fire this one up in short bursts than longer game sessions because of the mental acuity and manual dexterity it requires. But overall still iconic and still a fantastic console.

3DS was an overall solid handheld but I find most of the games I played for it were forgettable. Even the big ones like Zelda, Pokemon and Mario. The 3D effect was neat at first but turned out to be nothing more than a novelty and a gimmick.

Gameboy I'll be honest I haven't played an absolute ton of, same goes for GBC, but there just doesn't seem to a ton on either of these handhelds that appeal to me. Game Boy at least has iconic Mario, Wario, Pokemon and Zelda games which are fantastic. GBC had 2 great Zeldas, a port of a great Zelda, some Pokemon games and that's about it. 

Wii U is a console I've given a lot of hate to. Some of it fairly, but some also not so fairly. The best games the system had to offer are some of the best games Nintendo has ever made, no question. But the library is small and not all that interesting and while the 2 screens of a DS and 3DS worked like a charm,it does NOT work with Wii U for me. I also hated being tethered to an outlet to keep it charged. I really wanted to love this console, and it definitely is far from bad, I had a lot of fun with it, but it just doesn't have the staying power of all the other aforementioned consoles.

Virtual Boy is (hear me out) a unique experience. It offers retro gaming in a different way than any other console. Yes it was short lived and had a tiny library, and yes the red and black display scorched many people's retinas. But it had a few great games, and although I would never put it in a category of potentially great consoles, ever, there is still something about it that has held my interest for so many years. No I've never owned one. But I want to. I have wanted to for 25 years. I remember playing one in Toys R Us so very long ago and walked away very impressed and maybe I'm basing my opinion on that one short experience but there had to be a reason it stuck with me all these years. Right..?

And lastly we have the Wii. Oh god I don't even know where to begin. So obviously it had some terrific games. But I cannot state enough how much I hate those Wii remotes. Even when not using the motion controls, they are uncomfortable and unorthodox at best. And holding them sideways for 2D games is enough to give me carpal tunnel. I disliked the controllers so much to the point that I didn't even want to play some of the consoles best games just so I didn't have to suffer through the Wii remotes. I do have a dozen or so games for it that I really like but in the grand scheme of things it's the console I think about the least and would care the least if it just went missing one day.

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To me the NES is the most charming and interesting console Nintendo ever made.

The company has most always been a prevalent force in the video games universe so there's a lot to like about most of their consoles, even if there might be generational preferences. This would explain why the 64 is a favorite to many.

My wife bought me a Wii in its gen and I still have it. I always, always liked it and its library deserves more praise. Shovelware is prominent yes, but no one is forced to play any of it, the good titles are good.

The arrival of babies and children in my life shifted my gaming from the living room TV to handheld gaming and so the 3DS was my first Nintendo portable and it's a very solid little machine with access to an extremely robust library with the backwards compatibility with DS software. The Switch is naturally the best of both worlds, so these days I'm really hung up on DS/3DS/Switch for most of my playtime.

Edited by WhyNotZoidberg
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DS was the system I owned and played the most while it was active. Everything else I played on a more limited basis.

3DS I view it as just a more powerful DS, but it came out as my interest began to wane.

NES I have the most nostalgia for

SNES I have grown to appreciate

Wii is great.

Virtual Boy I got when it was on clearance. I liked it, but just not enough there.

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Sigh...console, but lists handhelds.  Ok 😄  I would have made its own poll for that.

So I discounted my preference for the Gameboy family and chose the SNES but it was by a hair against the NES, they're fairly solid equals all things considered.  SNES just added some more color, better audio, a few new genres while ditching some turds where style died with the era, and of course equally hard but in cases some not because crusty clunky play designs evolved into a standard often still run today.  NES brought us out of the stone age of poor visuals and audio almost anything before it had, so bad you really did have to have an amazing imagination to see it while the NES/FC realized it.  Yet, the SNES did this once more, and with such a boost in flair it's still a standard well tread today on the indie and mobile game markets which is nothing short of amazing.  Coming from the robot farts of the Genesis and the 8bit tried and true sounds before and around it, the SNES delivered audio at near CD quality sound, shocking for a cartridge in 1991.  Hardware aside a book could be and has enough times been written on the game side, and simply put a number of the games are still high ranked favorites from yet more generations of kids and adults who come along, and that too is incredible.

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Administrator · Posted

I chose SNES of the available options - but honestly, depending on how the library pans out for Switch, I am absolutely LOVING the Switch.  I enjoyed games on the Wii and Wii U of course, but Switch has blown those out of the water for me.  I think it's too early for me to mark it as my favorite Nintendo console, but time will tell.

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On 5/15/2021 at 9:12 PM, SilverspoonGaming said:

No love for the Gamecube in here?

I could have put the GameCube on my top as well since it had great games and some gems to make me keep it. Also the controller is one of my favorites since the right face buttons are different shapes making them easier to hit on quick command segments. Also I would say it was Nintendo’s last traditional console before they made the motion based Wii and Wii U.

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On 5/15/2021 at 10:12 PM, SilverspoonGaming said:

No love for the Gamecube in here?

The GameCube has Rogue Squadron II and it introduced me to Harvest Moon. Solid wins for the system in my book but unfortunately I never played much more than that on it. I was too deep in PS2 territory at the time.

Edited by RH
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Gamecube like GBA has a special place for me, it popped up in the 2nd of 3 years I went to the E3 and by far was the most magical and eventful of them.  To be able to enjoy and use the thing before it came out, to see what others had low frame grainy crap REAL player videos of and lower quality photography was mind blowing.  That first moment with Luigi looking like he was going to soil himself going through the door in fear, seeing star wars craft ripped from the 90s re-release movies, the water effects of wave race it was amazing.  I never was huge on optical systems, especially around that time but did it ever wow me and start changing my mind seeing what that Cube was capable of, and a shame the media seemed to still have it in for Nintendo with reviews and write ups that didn't help things.  The game selection was fantastic unlike the N64s and the output was better or par with the other guys too, so other than the odd choice of media size they weren't behind there like most times.

It was only in the last few years though despite what i was awre of at the time from experience on the development side but buyer too, I really had no clue how truly capable the system was being stuck behind low res output of the time.  To throw that system via digital out against an HDMI conversion kit now...stunning, polygon totals lower aside, it fits in well with systems out a decade later depending on the game (star wars rs2 being one.)

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