| Wyrdness said: Being unique is the only reason they're still around, NES was unique it was different from every console around at the time of release I don't think you thought that one through as it was the first modern console, SNES was a follow up of what they started with NES. |
The NES was a fairly conventional console to be honest. There's a reason it's still the industry foundation that everything since has evolved from, Sony and MS included.
Aside from flattening the joypad (something that had been around on the Game & Watch for years prior), the main thing the NES had was it was a massive processing leap over the Atari 2600 that most households were used to. Most Atari games were single screen experiences (see: Nintendo's own Donkey Kong, or Pac-Man or Space Invaders).
The NES being much more powerful introduced scrolling, expansive gaming worlds with better animation. Going from this:
to this
Was massive.
The things like R.O.B. and the Zapper even Nintendo admits they just packed those in to get retailers to carry the system since they were wary of dedicated game machines after Atari, but the NES was basically that. It was just a much, much better version of it.
Oh and Nintendo having basically a monopoly on third party content meant that their platform had far and away the most variety of games. What's happened to Nintendo since then, is Nintendo has allowed Sony to take the NES mantle, while they have warped themselves into the modern version of the Sega Master System ... a good system with great 1st party games, but no third party support, hence no diversity, hence very low sales.
