| Nogamez said: Nes- same as competition very successful console SNES - same as competition success N64- unique for generation but still regonizable to previous gens. Moderately success Gamecube- unique discs unique look. Moderate success Wii- totally unique makes Nintendo billions. Complete failure as it has cost Nintendo there reputation as a GAMES console. Most gamers hate this console. Wii u- totally unique to competition. complete failure Reputation with gamers destroyed by previous wii. |
Your list makes sense, but only in retrospect. At their respective releases, Nintendos consoles actually had quite some things to set themselves apart:
The NES was actually VERY different to the other consoles when it got released: No Joystick, no Numpad-like buttons, only 2 buttons (plus start and select), restrictive hardware, hugely different cartridges (and insertion system in the West), marketed as a Toy instead of a console, different business model (making their money on the software licenses instead of the hardware. Atari and the like sold the cartridges proper, not their licences)
The SNES also was very different in some ways: huge amount of buttons for the time (especially the L and R buttons where revolutionary back then), special graphical modes unseen in any other console design to this day (Mode 7)
The N64 had, apart from the cartridges (which is a result of 2 CD deals with SONY and Philips failing, not something Nintendo really wanted) had also the Rumble Paks, Memory extensions and of course the Thumbstick to set them apart
Gamecube: I'll agree here
Wii: Their name for Gamers was already tainted since the very first Pokemon games (deemed as kiddy back then) and got ever worse from there. But it's true that the arrival of the casuals from the PS2 (Singstar and the like, I know loads of people who only owned one for these titles, but interestingly this didn't taint the PS2's name at all unlike in the Wii's case) really wasn't helping. Not sure if so many of the haters actually tried the console, but that's another story
Long story short, the Gamecube was the only console before the Wii U which didn't have anything to really set itself apart. And guess what, until that point it was Nintendo's biggest flop (apart from the Virtual Boy, but that one was initially meant to be a handheld, and the 3DS proved the idea by itself right). So naturally, they chose to innovate like they did on the other consoles. It just didn't pay out this time
Edit: damn, ninjaed
