Can the DS be considered Nintendo's most experimental era?

[couchmonkey]

DS certainly did have some of Nintendo's most creative output. Maybe not moreso than N64 or NES, though. I'd also be careful about giving too much credit to 3rd parties on DS; yes they had great hardcore output, but I wouldn'ta
gue that they sold more systems than the first party games.

As for the failure of Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo did not continue the DS and Wii strategy with those two systems, so we cannot attribute the failure to the "DS" strategy:

- market expanding software dried up, there were a few sequels to the big winners like Wii Sports, but nothing new
- Iwata even said in an investor meeting that they were not using blue ocean or disruption anymore
- software strategy was distinctly N64 and GameCube flavoured: 3D Zelda remakes, Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion, 2D and 3D Mario battling it out even tho the sales were at least 3:1 in 2D favour on Wii and DS...
- Nintendo tried to lean heavily on third parties for launch games (they literally mentioned it in early Wii U discussions, but also apparent in the crappy 3DS lineup)
- Wii U rearranged gameplay style from "easy motion multiplayer" to "hardcore stationary oneplayer" plus a couple of ho hum multiplayer party games.