Happy 5th birthday to the Switch! Back on March 3rd, 2017 Nintendo had released the Switch in America alongside the popular title The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild. During the time of release, I was down a bit on Nintendo after the Wii U didn’t appeal to me whatsoever. However, after seeing how incredible Breath of the Wild was, and travel was starting to ramp up for my job, I now had to get my hands on a Switch. I couldn’t find one anywhere, they were sold out at every store, I was starting to get flashbacks of when I was trying to get my hands on a Wii for months until I found one, but one freezing cold day when I happened to be driving through St. Cloud Minnesota, I dropped in to a Wal-Mart to see if they had one and wouldn’t you know it, I got the last one! Since the first day I had it, the Switch has been an absolute joy for me to play, and easily my favorite Nintendo console, but is it the best Nintendo console? Let’s discuss.
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is what started it all for the multi-million dollar company. Heck, at the time of its launch, video games in general weren’t all that popular. Nintendo even established the concept of a licensing program on the NES. Although it set the standard for gaming, and even though I grew up playing hours upon hours of Tetris, Super Mario Bros, and Captain Skyhawk, it ranks low for me for Nintendo systems. Having to constantly clean the cartridge loader, blowing in to it to make the games work, games just resetting in the middle of playing for reason were all issues that dampered my time with the NES, even as a kid.
Super Nintendo (SNES) on the other hand, fixed a lot of the issues that NES had. Not only that, they improved the quality of games incredibly. I’m a firm believer that Donkey Kong Country single handedly changed music in gaming for the better. The games on SNES did a lot for the future of gaming, but the console itself didn’t do much more than just play the games. With all that being said, the SNES ranks as probably my fourth favorite console that Nintendo made. My original SNES is still living with me, it’s turned a gross yellow color, which I’m sure yours has as well.
Next up, the N64. I’m sorry for hurting everyone’s nostalgia here, but this console was just such a turn in the wrong direction for Nintendo. Enter Sony into the video game market with their flagship console the Sony PlayStation. PlayStation had epic games such as Final Fantasy VII that spanned across multiple disks, and CGI graphics that at the time blew everyone’s mind. Yet here’s Nintendo, rolling out cartridges again. Nintendo 64 games were limited due to the small amount of space on these cartridges, and not only that, they made you play these limited games on ridiculous three handed controllers. Sorry N64 fans, but this console is bottom of the barrel for me.
GameCube was a fun one for me. The small purple lunchbox had these odd little disks that I’ve never seen before the GameCube, and never saw them again after. Nintendo cleaned up their controller act by giving us my favorite controller to date. It’s still such a popular controller (especially in the Smash community) that they released GameCube controllers for the Switch. Even though Nintendo shot themselves in the foot by limiting space on these little disks, GameCube produced some of my favorite games from popular series such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Mario Kart: Double Dash. Even though I never tried it, GameCube was the first Nintendo console that was able to hook up to the internet.
Motion controls galore! Until recently, the Nintendo Wii was the highest selling console for Nintendo. They really went out on a limb to try something new and innovative with the Wii and their motion controls. Although I did love Wii Sports, Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Xenoblade Chronicles, I quickly became sick of games forcing motion controls into every game. I love what the Wii did for the future of gaming, but I’m glad it’s a thing of the past now. I still have nightmares of trying to connect my wiimotes to the TV.
After that came the Wii U, which was poorly advertised, sold worse than it was advertised, and was overall a gigantic flop. There was little to no third-party support, so you were buying a Nintendo console to play Nintendo first party games or retro games on the virtual console. Which wasn’t enough to make Nintendo more appealing than a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. Unfortunately, there’s many incredible games trapped into a system that not enough people bought.
Last up, the Switch. What more can I say about the Switch that I didn’t before? It’s the best selling console, it has the pro controller, it’s easily portable, it switches from docked mode to handheld with incredible ease, and has produced games like Pokemon Legends Arceus, Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which have all brought these series to a new level that we didn’t expect, but thoroughly enjoyed.
Well, I had fun looking back on Nintendo’s consoles, and I can safely say that the Switch is easily my favorite. What about you, which console do you think is the best? Let us know in the comments section, or use the QR code below to join our discord!
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