1994-98: Nintendo's Peak Years

[CladInShadows]

Soundwave said:

Dannythegamer said:
Nintendo's Peak Years are: NES and GB era and Wii and DS era.
SNES is is a lot of good too.
N64 is only good for playing Ocarina of Time and games from Rare. (and a few more pearls).
GameCube is a disaster. And the Wii U is an even bigger disaster.

Objectively speaking I don't think you can find a 4/5 year stretch that beats 94-98. 

94-98: Donkey Kong Country 1/2, Earthbound, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Killer Instinct, Super Punch-Out!, Super Mario 64, Wave Race 64, Mario Kart 64, Blast Corps, GoldenEye, Star Fox 64, 1080, F-Zero X, Banjo-Kazooie, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Diddy Kong Racing, Pokemon, Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 

1988-1992: Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA), Super Mario Bros. 3, Kirby's Adventure, Super Mario World, Zelda II, Zelda: Link to the Past, Tetris, Super Mario Land, Super Mario Kart, F-Zero, Pilotwings. 

1999-2003: Super Smash Bros./Melee, Pikmin, Pokemon Stadium, Metroid Prime, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Sunshine, Zelda: Wind Waker, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Luigi's Mansion, F-Zero GX

2004-2008: Nintendogs, Brain Training, Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros., Smash Brawl, Zelda: Twilight Princess. 

I might be a bit biased because I started with the NES and then moved onto the SNES, but if you use North American dates (which I will, since I'm Canadian), and going on first party titles only, the stretch from 1989 to 1994 would have been my pick for the golden era of Nintendo gaming.

You have two of the best Mario Games (SMB3 and SMW), Star Tropics, Metroid 2, Super Metroid, arguably the best Zelda game in A Link To The Past, Donkey Kong Country, and not to mention a whole boat load of third party exclusives like Ninja Turtles, Willow, Final Fantasy, the Ninja Gaiden series, Castlevania 3&4, etc. That was a great time to be playing on a Nintendo system.  Completely destroys the N64 years, in my opinion.