Nintendo: Old vs. New

A recent tweet by one of the people I follow on Twitter got my attention the other day.

If you split the eras of Nintendo into two:
- NES, GB, SNES, GBC, GBA, N64
- Gamecube, DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, Switch

What would you say is the better Nintendo era as far as 1st party publishing output goes? I honestly think I would take where we are now.

— Stealth (@Stealth40k) April 10, 2019

It's interesting to think about, because the first place my mind goes is the SNES. It has some of my favorite games of all time, but just how many are there? Are those games worth it enough to carry that first category on their own? How many more "recent" Nintendo games are good enough to be considered all-time classics?

As it stands now, the newer category is carried for me almost entirely by the DS and 3DS, which both outdo the GBA for me. I could probably count on one hand how many Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U games I would consider very good. The Switch has a lot of potential and several good games already, but even it isn't there yet either.

Let's do some unfair comparisons and compare them side-by-side, starting with the NES and the GameCube. The NES is a very important and influential console in that it almost single-handedly birthed a resurgence in home console gaming, but the important question to consider is whether a lot of those games stand the test of time. For me, a lot of them don't. I'm very glad the console exists and was a great starting point for many fantastic series, but most of those series got a lot better by the time they hit the SNES. Even so, there are some great first-party games, particularly the Super Mario Bros games and Kirby's Adventure. My favorite titles are the third-party ones, though, like Mega Man (all six of them) and the SNK RPG Crystalis, which I played recently and still enjoyed.

The NES had a glut of decent games and a few really good ones. On the other hand, the GameCube suffered from having very few games in general. To this day, I only have a handful of them. I would feel pretty comfortable in giving the win to the NES here if I could take third-party games into account, but in the case of the GameCube, it has a handful of really great options like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Other great games that I didn't play when they actually came out would be titles like Wind Waker and Metroid Prime, which I still need to get around to. Even so, the three titles I mentioned alone give the win to the GameCube in my mind.

I don't have to do too much analysis to say that the Nintendo DS destroys the original Game Boy in terms of quality and quantity, even without discussing the huge number of high quality third-party titles it has. Sure, the Game Boy had the original Pokémon games and Kirby's Dream Land, but the DS has probably the most solid and consistent lineup of any platform out there. To this day there are still a ton of DS games I'd like to get to, but it has a few great Kirby games, a whole pile of Pokémon games, and a pair of great Mario & Luigi RPGs.

At first glance, SNES versus Wii is pretty one-sided too, but it's interesting to consider how the two consoles vary in trajectory. Both were overwhelming successes in terms of sales figures, but in the case of the SNES, it was a follow-up to another very successful console and ultimately did not reach the same sales numbers. The Wii was more a comeback story, in that it was developed as a response to the somewhat disappointing GameCube and then went on to become the best-selling console of all time.

But when I think back to the Wii, it's hard to remember games that actually stood out. It's a testament to the arc of that console, in that it defied expectations but then gradually fizzled out as it was deluged by dozens of mediocre third-party titles. Then again, this is a discussion of first-party titles only, which means that dramatically affects the position of the SNES in this argument, too. After all, the vast majority of games I loved on SNES were third-party titles, including games like Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI, as well as Breath of Fire, Dragon Quest, etc. That still leaves incredible titles like Earthbound, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario World, but it does make for a harder decision. The Wii has Super Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land. In many cases, these were not the best entries in these series, so for that reason I'd still give the win to SNES. If we take third-party titles into account, it's a landslide victory.

Once we reach the Game Boy Color, the comparison starts to break down a little bit. The Game Boy Color is mostly an extension to the Game Boy despite having games that are exclusive to it. Also, the Game Boy Advance doesn't really feel like an analogue to the Wii U in any way, but it would be difficult for the Wii U to win against any other console on the list. I would take the 3DS over both the GBC and GBA combined, because of three (technically five?) great Fire Emblem games, some solid Pokémon titles, and the excellent Super Mario 3D Land.

On the other hand, if we compare the Game Boy Advance to the Wii U, it's of course a pretty one-sided victory for the GBA. It has Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, the first and probably best Mario & Luigi game, and again, some great Kirby titles. The Wii U has maybe 3 or 4 games worth playing at all, and a couple of those are third-party. Super Smash Bros. 4 was great and an improvement to Brawl, but I definitely did not care for Super Mario Bros. U and wasn't as engaged with Super Mario 3D World as with Galaxy from the Wii. I missed games like Splatoon that might have colored my opinion a bit, but I still think I'd be pretty comfortable giving the win to the GBA.

I honestly think it's a little early to compare the N64 and Switch, but it's interesting to think about the arc of the N64. It had a slow start and never quite crystallized the way it needed to, whereas the Switch is really taking off already. The N64 was always a disappointment to me because it had very few RPGs, which has always been my favorite genre. Especially in those days, it was about the only kind of game I wanted to play. Even though I had very few N64 games, I really loved the ones I had and still feel they're very memorable to this day. Those games are Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, StarFox 64, and Super Smash. Bros. Kirby 64 gets an honorable mention as well.

The Switch is off to an amazing start with Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which some consider to be the best entries in their respective series. One of its biggest strengths is that it has curried a tremendous amount of third-party support, but in this discussion we can only take first-party into account. Even so, I'm tempted to give the win to Switch already, but it's close when you consider just how much time I spent with those N64 games back in the day. But there's more first-party support on the way and I still haven't even tried the Xenoblade series. Fire Emblem: Three Houses may comfortably push Switch over the top unless it's a huge disaster.

So, to recap, GameCube beat NES, DS beats Game Boy, SNES beats Wii, 3DS beats Game Boy Color, GBA destroys Wii U, and Switch is very likely to comfortably beat N64 soon. Despite the Switch's uncertain future, there's still a clear indicator that Nintendo is doing some things right, which is nice to see since the Wii U was a disaster. It'd be interesting to examine this same topic again when taking third-party titles into account, but I'm honestly not sure if that would necessarily change the result.