Vote: Which was your favorite Nintendo console/handheld?

[Jonnas]

Maybe we can do that just before the NX console comes out?

 

That way we can look back on the finished Wii U and 3DS life cycles.

 

I meant more in the context of this poll, Top 5 favourite Nintendo consoles.

 

What you suggested would be cool, too, I loved that list a few years back, how posts by users were used as part of the write-up for each game.

[Dcubed]

I meant more in the context of this poll, Top 5 favourite Nintendo consoles.

 

What you suggested would be cool, too, I loved that list a few years back, how posts by users were used as part of the write-up for each game.

 

Yeah, that top 10 Wii games list was good fun. We should do one for 3DS and Wii U respectively when they are about to get replaced as well.

 

Doing a tier list for the Nintendo consoles would be interesting to see, but it's not really the right time right now; considering that there are still many games yet to be released for Wii U and 3DS, it's not really fair to compare their unfinished libraries to everything else that has come and gone.

 

(and technically speaking, Wii still isn't finished either until Rodea The Sky Soldier is out )

Edited November 1, 2015 by Dcubed

[Jonnas]

(and technically speaking, Wii still isn't finished either until Rodea The Sky Soldier is out )

 

And Sadness, too. I hear the minecart section is going to be particularly polished.

[nekunando]

F-Zero > F-Zero X

Super Mario Kart > Mario Kart 64

Pilotwings > Pilotwings 64

Starwing > Lylat Wars

Donkey Kong Country > Donkey Kong 64

Super Mario 64 > Super Mario World

Ocarina of Time > A Link to the Past

 

The more I read down that list the more I lose respect for you

 

The only SNES game from that list that was better than it's N64 counterpart was Donkey Kong Country which was infinitely better than Donkey Kong 64! Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 are difficult to separate, as are Super Mario 64 and Super Mario World, but I definitely prefer the N64 iterations of everything else

[Emasher]

For me it's the GameCube, but it was the first home console I owned, so that's definitely skewed my opinion a bit.

Still, the console had some of my all time favourite games including Metroid Prime, Tales of Symphonia, and Wind Waker, and those are only the top few.

[killthenet]

It was a tough choice between Nintendo DS and the N64, but purely based on my age when it came out, I can't vote for anything other than the N64 really. I was 10 years old when I got one so I feel like my experiences with it completely defined my love of video games. So many wonderful memories playing Mario 64, Diddy Kong Racing, F-Zero, WWF No Mercy, GoldenEye, Wetrix, Ocarina Of Time, Lylat Wars, Majora's Mask, Wayne Gretzky, ISS, Fifa 99... Me and my brother ended up owning over 30 titles and we played each of them to death and thanks to the virtual console on Wii and Wii U i'm getting to play some of the games that I missed the first time round (like Sin and Punishment).

 

The DS is definitely one of my favourites though and has probably come closest in recent years to replicating the joy I felt playing the N64 all those years ago.

[Hero-of-Time]

The more I read down that list the more I lose respect for you

 

Apart from his first two, I totally agree with the rest.

 

F-Zero GX is the ultimate F-Zero game, though.

[Zechs Merquise]

My favourite Nintendo console is the Wii, very closely followed by the N64. The Wii may seem like a weird choice, but I loved it and it reinvigorated my love for gaming after the slightly disappointing GC.

 

I think the Wii had possibly the best crop of Nintendo exclusives with a lot of series being brought back from the dead.

 

Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are probably the best games ever made. Nintendo invented and perfected the platformer, first in 2D then in 3D, but Galaxy took things to the next level.

 

There were some classic series like Punch Out, Donkey Kong and Goldeneye that all came back. What's more Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime Trilogy benefited hugely from the addition of the pointer controls.

 

I think Nintendo also brought some great new series out during that era - NSMB moved to home console, Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandoras Tower ranged from amazing to very good. Wii Sports is probably the most fun party game ever created and I spent hundreds of hours on that alone!

 

Nintendo's first real move into online was also a massive thing for me. Mario Kart, Battalion Wars and Smash were all incredible.

 

I also think that Skyward Sword was amazing. I know a lot of people didn't get the motion controls, but I thought they were amazing and made Zelda feel very fresh again.

 

I really enjoyed the third party support too. COD, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Sega light gun games, Red Steel 2, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom and many many more kept me occupied for hours.

 

I spent ours online especially on Call of Duty and Monster Hunter - where I met loads of great people who I still talk to today.

 

The Wii was incredible and a real return to form for Nintendo. It was such a fun and accessible console with such a massive and diverse software library. It really was a golden era of gaming for me and I will always look back on it fondly.

[Ronnie]

I went for Wii U. It may not be the 'best' console Nintendo have put out but it's my personal favourite. The games have just been phenomenal.

 

Mario 3D World is platforming perfection, Mario Kart 8 the best entry in the series, ditto Smash. Pikmin 3 was a joy to play, Wind Waker HD made me fall in love again, Mario Maker, Yoshi, Wonderful 101, Splatoon.......

 

All games that put a huge smile on my face, which Nintendo are undoubtably best at.

[Jimbob]

The Gamecube remains my favorite Nintendo console. It was the first console i paid for out of my own earned money (well, 1/2 of it anyway. I used 1/2 my birthday money on top of it). and it's for the following reasons

 

The controller remains very much perfect to this day. Perfect placement of the control sticks, buttons and overall design of the pad. It fitted beautifully in my hands, and worked wonders in terms of gaming.

 

Then it's the games, and what a collection the Gamecube had. The N64 was great at delivering 3D environments into games, but the Gamecube had the power to make these environments breathtaking (for it's time of course). No-one whom played Metroid Prime can really argue with how great that game looked (Phendrana Drifts made me go "wow"). That game was epic on so, so many levels. F-Zero GX, that looked phenominal (played well, but less said about the CPU the better).

 

Smash Brothers: Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, Rogue Squadron and Wind Waker are great examples of games that outdid their N64 counterparts in terms of gameplay (Wind Waker stands out graphically as it still looks good to this day in comparision to other games. The same can be said about Rogue Squadron really, that game was fantastic (and a launch game as well)).

 

Over the years, i had some great moments on that console, way too many to name them all. And when Twilight Princess came out at the end of it's life (and at the beginning of the Wii's life, it was a fitting swansong for a great machine.

[Dcubed]

Gamecube's making a late comeback it seems!

 

Still got a ways to go before it catches the N64, but there's still a chance!

 

Poor 3DS and GBA though... Not a single vote!

[Fierce_LiNk]

Gamecube's making a late comeback it seems!

 

Still got a ways to go before it catches the N64, but there's still a chance!

 

Poor 3DS and GBA though... Not a single vote!

 

I'm not surprised, tbh. For me, the WiiU/3DS era is definitely my least favourite one and I also don't particularly like the 3DS or GBA. Not a big lover of handhelds, but I loved the DS and what it did. Playing Hotel Dusk was such a fantastic experience and I'm hoping to play Last Window at some point.

 

Not surprised at these results. Both the N64 and GC were fantastic consoles. My one criticism with the GC is that the last 2 years were reeeeeeally slow and laboured.

[Josh64]

I was torn between the N64 and GameCube but in the end... My vote went to the Cube.

 

I LOVE the N64 and its what truly got me into gaming with the likes of Diddy Kong Racing, Mario 64 and Banjo but the GameCube was just so much more for me.

 

The N64, whilst fantastic, felt a bit regimented to me. 3D platformers were all set in the Mario 64 mould and you knew what to expect from each Nintendo franchise, the GameCube however really just went crazy and I loved every second.

 

Starting off, Melee. What a fucking game. Playing it for the first time I was in heaven, all of my favourite characters from the N64 looking FANTASTIC, in the same game together, with amazing remixes and awesome locations.

 

And it grew into so much more than just a fighting game, teaching me about the vast and interesting history of Nintendo and turning me into the fan I am today. Sure I had an N64 over a PlayStation, but I was still pretty casual in the whole gaming scene, Smash Bros and the GC games to follow though, they're what made me the obsessive gamer I was up until a few years ago.

 

Initially the GC suffered a MEGA blow in the loss of RARE, as 90% of why I loved Nintendo up to that point was Rare's output but Nintendo did a fantastcpic job of getting third-party support to match or in some cases surpass the gaps that Rare used to fill.

 

The world of Nintendo was just so exciting back then, as I said, in the 64 days things seemed slightly regimented but it's like all rules went out the window and developers were allowed to go wild for the Cube. The fascinating world of Pikmin, with 100 little creatures running around you battling monsters was not only technically impressive but just looked so NEW and exciting. Bringing Luigi to the forefront in Luigi's Mansion with a totally different play style to the 3D platformers we'd been used to, METROID back from the dead and now a badass graphic powerhouse masterpiece, Zelda with a timeless artstyle and an entire WORLD to set sail in (to this day the sailing is my favourite part, it really is one of the few games that feels like an actual world and not a video game).

 

Starfox was also just MAGICAL to me, I was genuinely shocked years later when I got internet savvy to see the negative reaction it got. The dinosaur planet was so LUSH and exciting to explore and the voice acting - my god, CINEMATIC SCENES AND VOICE ACTING - ON A NINTENDO CONSOLE. I couldn't believe it! And can you see Fox's fur, CAN YOU SEE THE FUR?! Good lord.

 

Then as things got crazier I fell in love even more, the bongos are the best peripheral I've ever used (and believe me I've got a lot of plastic shit over the years) and to play a DONKEY KONG game full of Jackson 5 and Earth Wind & Fire music at that age for me was just mind blowing, I couldn't believe what I was seeing (I later went on to buy all 3 Konga games in English, US and JPN versions cause damn did I love that controller)

 

Wario was suddenly a biker with the craziest minigames I could imagine AND some of the most inventive and fun multiplayer stuff I've experience to this day. Double Dash followed to crazy rule and made what is still the most unique Mario Kart to this day and has Birdo and Diddy Kong - creating the best character roster to date.

 

Paper Mario 2 was also a masterpiece, the story in that game gave life to Mario characters that I never thought possible and it's still a tragedy that they were never able to match that story in later titles.

 

All this and I haven't even started on the third party support but that's one of the reasons I love this console so much - it introduced me to SEGA and god damn, what an introduction. Sonic Adventure and Heroes truly made me fall in love with Sonic as I could never get on with the 2D titles. But... Monkey Ball.

 

SEGA and the GameCube introduced me to one of my top 5 franchises of all time, which is crazy as I only consider the first 2 GameCube games real entries, but that's just how much I loved them - Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2. I can't begin to describe how much fun I has on those damn games, the amount of nights I rushed home from school to play the crap out of arcade mode over and over again to try and beat scores and the constant ass whooping I got on expert mode until one magical day after hours of sweaty palms, monkey squeals and heart palpitations I finally beat expert.

 

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, the DEFINITION of crazy ideas yet beautiful execution and exactly what I meant about breaking the N64 mould with 3D platformers and just letting developers do whatever the hell they want. Running around and hatching eggs dressed as a chicken boy is still one of my favourite memories from that era and is such a game of its time, a game that could only really get a physical release back then, could only really exist on a Nintendo console and could only really be conceived by SEGA.

 

Then there's the non-SEGA stuff such a VIEWTIFUL JOE, another franchise that was born and died in this era yet I still hold as one of my all time favourite franchises. I'd never played a game with such style, the fantastic art, the over the top music, the MAD characters, the fantastic voice acting. It was a defining GameCube game, one of many defining games.

 

There were so many more, I just can't get over the amount of innovative, quality, fresh and technically impressive games we got in that era, it's the one Nintendo console where I did (and still so) truly believe it was miles better than the competition and it's why I fell so in love with Nintendo. It was a perfect mix of the time in my life, the era in which developers could take more risks with retail games, a time when SEGA were at the top of their game and not afraid to release things other than Sonic and Football Manager - a time when TEAM VIEWTIFUL and AV existed.

 

I'm just glad I was able to experience this awesome console as a teen, when I had hours are school every night to pour into these fantastic worlds, when I was first discovering the Internet and forums and finding people just like me to frantically talk about all these fantastic games and what could possibly be in store for us next.

 

Man, I hope I made sense then, I went on an excited nostalgic ramble and I'm on my iPad so god knows if that's readable.

[Oxigen_Waste]

As someone who got to experience most of Nintendo's glory years well after they happened (GBA and the Cube were my first), I'll never understand the affection people have for the 64... I guess it's one of those "had to be there" kind of things. Yeah, it had 3 basically perfect games, but the SNES' library is just so much more impressive. Hell, as far as library is concerned, I'd argue the 64 is by far the worst Nintendo console ever and the only time I've come out of a Nintendo machine feeling severely underwhelmed and disappointed. Mario 64, Ocarina and Majora will always be timeless masterpieces, but everything else is way too unremarkable. Ok, wait, Starfox is awesome too.

 

I do see the appeal it had as a splitscreen machine, but I've always found splitscreen to be very situational in it's relevance and to be quite fair the cube, Wii and Wii U vastly surpass it in that regard.

[markderoos]

I voted NES. My first console AND my introduction to gaming in general. You never forget your first love.

Even when I already owned a SNES, I still used the NES a lot more. So many games that hold a special place: Zelda, Zelda 2, the Megaman games, Kid Icarus, Punch Out, Mario Bros, Duckhunt, Wrecking Crew, Mario 2, Mario 3, Adventures of Lolo, Snake Rattle and Roll, Bubble Bouble, Metroid, Castlevania, Probotector, Tetris, the list goes on and on and on...

[Ronnie]

Probotector and Bubble Bobble, glorious games ! Don't forget Cobra Triangle though

[markderoos]

Yeah, and what about Faxanadu, Chip 'n Dale, a Boy and his Blob, Adventure Island, Kickle Cubicle, Kirby, Ice Climber, Bionic Commando, Dr. Mario, Excitebike, Paper Boy, Ducktales, Gargoyle's Quest, Ghosts and Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, Mickey Mousecapade, Wizards and Warriors, RC Pro Am and Rygar?

[Hogge]

As someone who got to experience most of Nintendo's glory years well after they happened (GBA and the Cube were my first), I'll never understand the affection people have for the 64... I guess it's one of those "had to be there" kind of things. Yeah, it had 3 basically perfect games, but the SNES' library is just so much more impressive. Hell, as far as library is concerned, I'd argue the 64 is by far the worst Nintendo console ever and the only time I've come out of a Nintendo machine feeling severely underwhelmed and disappointed. Mario 64, Ocarina and Majora will always be timeless masterpieces, but everything else is way too unremarkable. Ok, wait, Starfox is awesome too.

Umm... Rare's entire lineup?

Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie+Tooie, Diddy Kong Racing, Conker's Bad Fur Day etc etc

Pilotwings 64 (wipes the floor with Resort in every conceivable way)

F-Zero X

 

Then there's a whole bunch more which were, just like you said, good for their time, but haven't aged as well.

[Hero-of-Time]

I voted NES. My first console AND my introduction to gaming in general. You never forget your first love.

Even when I already owned a SNES, I still used the NES a lot more. So many games that hold a special place: Zelda, Zelda 2, the Megaman games, Kid Icarus, Punch Out, Mario Bros, Duckhunt, Wrecking Crew, Mario 2, Mario 3, Adventures of Lolo, Snake Rattle and Roll, Bubble Bouble, Metroid, Castlevania, Probotector, Tetris, the list goes on and on and on...

 

Probotector and Bubble Bobble, glorious games ! Don't forget Cobra Triangle though

 

Yeah, and what about Faxanadu, Chip 'n Dale, a Boy and his Blob, Adventure Island, Kickle Cubicle, Kirby, Ice Climber, Bionic Commando, Dr. Mario, Excitebike, Paper Boy, Ducktales, Gargoyle's Quest, Ghosts and Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, Mickey Mousecapade, Wizards and Warriors, RC Pro Am and Rygar?

 

 

The lack of Little Nemo and Battle of Olympus from these lists is upsetting. For shame, gentlemen.

[Ronnie]

Haha never played that one.

 

Yeah, and what about Faxanadu, Chip 'n Dale, a Boy and his Blob, Adventure Island, Kickle Cubicle, Kirby, Ice Climber, Bionic Commando, Dr. Mario, Excitebike, Paper Boy, Ducktales, Gargoyle's Quest, Ghosts and Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, Mickey Mousecapade, Wizards and Warriors, RC Pro Am and Rygar?

 

From that list, Chip n Dale, Ice Climber, Dr. Mario, Duck Takes and Rygar stick out. What an amazing time to be a gamer

[Oxigen_Waste]

Umm... Rare's entire lineup?

Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie+Tooie, Diddy Kong Racing, Conker's Bad Fur Day etc etc

Pilotwings 64 (wipes the floor with Resort in every conceivable way)

F-Zero X

 

Then there's a whole bunch more which were, just like you said, good for their time, but haven't aged as well.

 

I firmly believe Rare are the most overrated company ever and the only reason their games got any love was because the N64 player base were desperate for games and theirs were on the right side of average. I played all 4 of their games and while Conker is funny as hell and I mostly loved it, as far as gameplay goes, both it and Banjo are just about as average as it gets. Goldeneye I played at the time it came out and I just don't understand at all... why would you want to play an awkwardly controlled and mostly underwhelming FPS (with admitedly good level design) when you could have been playing stuff that is still very much relevant and playable today like Half Life, System Shock and Quake on a PC? Perfect Dark was quite a bit better than GoldenEye, but it was plagued by the same issues. These games are only good when you consider them in a vacuum... which is something I cannot do, for I was already poisoned by having readily available PC FPSs and by having played Mario 64 before Banjo (I have never been able to enjoy a single non-Mario 3D platformer, though, so take this with a grain of salt). If you ask me, Eternal Darkness by itself is better than every game Rare ever made combined, and the same applies to Xenoblade. Now that's the kind of second party support I like to see! The less we say about third party support on the 64 the better, I suppose.

 

Pilotwings is pretty neat, yeah. Not amazing, but definitely a good game... just not a system seller. F-Zero X is a good game, don't get me wrong... but every single racing game to this day absolutely pales in comparison to GX, I don't think it's even a contest.

Never tried Diddy Kong racing because Kart 64 left a bad taste in my mouth... should I?

[Hero-of-Time]

From that list, Chip n Dale, Ice Climber, Dr. Mario, Duck Takes and Rygar stick out. What an amazing time to be a gamer

 

Chip n Dale was god tier gaming. I used to love playing it in co-op, at my mates house. I always made sure he was Dale. Good times.

 

Never tried Diddy Kong racing because Kart 64 left a bad taste in my mouth... should I?

 

Given your hatred for everything RARE, probably not.

[Ronnie]

Pilotwings on the SNES is one of my favourite games of all time, but Pilotwings 64 never really did it for me. I think I'm in the minority though. I really wish Nintendo would bring it back. The 3DS game was fine but a bit sterile and lacking any sort of character.

[Oxigen_Waste]

Given your hatred for everything RARE, probably not.

 

I don't hate them! I just don't see what the fuss is about... Most of their games were fun (including Starfox Adventures)! Forgettable fun, but fun nonetheless. I'd gladly replay Conker or DKC2.

[punio75]

I've gone for the DS.

Like many before I have soft spot for the N64 (still have it hooked up) but I do acknowledge nostalgia is playing its part to a certain extent.

 

The DS has such a breadth of titles though, I have in my collection around 40 titles still which I can't bring myself to part with. It was region free so I tried some different titles too. (Damn, the Ni No Kuni game not getting a localisation though, I have it and will use the internet to help me plough through it one day )