#1 - OG Zelda
#2- link to the past
#3- link between worlds

- Well, if Nintendo go bankrupt then they can't make games for us any more, so as someone who loves their work I'd rather they stay in business. :P

- Yes, it could have, but it still would've been behind PS4. It's hybrid nature precluded it being on par with the others power-wise.

- Well, there have been multiple instances of three red ocean consoles competing; SNES/Genesis/Turbografx, N64/PS1/Saturn, PS2/GCN/Xbox, PS4/Xbone/Wii U. Never once did all three thrive. Once you start splitting the market between three (relatively) similar systems, there just isn't enough to go around, it's like having three apex predators fighting for the same ecological niche.

Fair enough. But considering that they have a profit of over 100 billion yen... (9 billion~ USD)
I don't think that is a big concern.

Going with a newer pascal chip and higher clocked DRAM wouldn't have suddenly thrown them into the red.

I am not saying it needs to be ahead of the Playstation 4. But it would have been nicer to be gruntier than what it is currently.
I also believe the Playstation 4 is underpowered as well anyway.

Difference between those eras and today however is that the market is much much much much much bigger.

The Wii U floundered for a multitude of reasons... And isn't representative of what "could have been".

Besides, having power doesn't mean your system is the same as the competitions, you can have both power and be unique at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive.

Competitive power and portability are mutually exclusive though.

If instead of the Switch Nintendo had made a system that was basically a Nintendo branded PS4/Xbox One, people wouldn't buy it because they are already invested in ecosystems that offer that kind of experience. To eek out a decent share of the market, Nintendo have to offer something different enough that a PS4 doesn't render it superfluous.

Not really.
Nintendo could have given us more power rather easily as I elaborated prior.

I am not asking for Nintendo to make a Playstation 4/Xbox One clone. I wouldn't want them to do that and nor have I suggested such a thing, they do their best when they are being different.
But that doesn't mean they cannot push power either, they aren't mutually exclusive.

The Wii would have still been possible if it had hardware that was competitive with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, hell for all we know it might have actually given the console longer legs.

The Wii U would have still been possible if it had hardware that would have been competitive with the Xbox One and Playstation 4 and it might have given Nintendo more sales.

The Switch would still have been possible if it had hardware that was a step up from what it has currently, placing it closer to the Xbox one... Having the Dock actually augment the device could have been another approach.

What I mean is, even with a Pascal Tegra X2 Switch still would not have been as powerful as PS4/Xbone. So portability, the core concept of the system, rules out being on par with the competition power wise.

They could have made Wii/Wii U/Switch stronger, (though I still reckon it would've been an unwise risk to make costlier PS3/360-tier Wii) what I'm saying is that it makes sense that they didn't, as their only successful consoles since the SNES have opted for low end parts, while their attemps to be power competitive ended in failure. Experience has taught them that trying to fight Playstation head on always fails, while sidestepping the competition with less powerful alternative concepts usually succeeds.

Somehow a Zelda thread ended-up being about console power.

P.S. Midna is best girl

Ocarina of Time is #1 for me and it's not close at all. I like BoTW but the Open formula is never going to be as beautiful and well shaped as something more confined in this genre, that's reality

1. Ocarina of Time

2. Wind Waker

3. Breath of the Wild

Yup, that somehow happened.

To seagueway back to topic, the horsepower of the Wii and Switch certainly didn't stop Twilight Princess or Breath of the Wild achieving critical and commercial success. Heck, even Skyward Sword is making quite a few people's top 3.

Is that reality or opinion?