The Gameboy was the most innovative, look at portable gaming now with the DS, PSP, Vita, 3DS and smartphones. its bigger than we would have ever imagined

N64 gen when they invented analogue sticks. I honestly can't imagine playing without those.

Nintendo brought a lot of innovations to the table over the generations to their home console market:

NES - dPad
SNES - diamond face button configuration, shoulder buttons
N64 - force feedback, analog sticks
Wii - Motion controls
Wii U - visual touch controls

Only the GameCube really lacked significant innovations. In fact, you might even say that with its abandonment of the diamond face button configuration and it's screwing over the dPad and shoulder buttons, that the GameCube was counter-innovative.

NES - the generation that started modern gaming as we know it

Wii - The revolution

Not coincidentally, also their most successful consoles. Wii U is not innovative. It is merely a controller with a tablet, and the games themselves are really no different from what you'd find on other consoles. N64 merely relied on 3D graphics, which I don't really see as innovation but just a natural upgrade.

That said, I still believe nintendo is at their best when they put their focus on the games themselves, not innovation.

Third gen wins due to the amount of new gameplay mechanics and IPs.

Third and Seventh for me. Third was just revolutionary for the gaming world, and basically set the back bone for the industry. For instance games used to be played in with the settings remaining in one screen. Super Mario Bros introduced the new feature of moving from one spot to another (albeit one dimensional), but that was a huge cornerstone back then and has set the tone for next generations, and still does till today.

That said, Nintendo took a huge risk in the seventh gen, with the DS and Wii. I think people forget that touchscreen back then was still a very niche market. The dual screen + touch screen functionality set a huge trend for gaming that is featured now in every phone and tablet. Motion control also was innovative albeit it didn't have the same longevity, but it did inspire Kinect and Move so there you go, and moving 100 mil units is no easy feat either.

Fifth in third place for taking gaming from 2D to 3D. Even though this particular gen didn't age well at all, it still defined how most games are played now, and many of the big franchises today were inspired from that gen or gave old franchises a quantum leap (Zelda, Metroid, Mario 3D, Goldeneye, etc..).

The rest of the gens have been mostly about a jump in graphics and AI.

Certainly not in recent times.

N64 era, when Nintendo moved to 3d...not necessarily the BEST era, but when they made Mario 64, Oot/majora, waverace, star fox 64 they blew my mind and were at their most innovative...to me at least. With the GC they were merely extending from this while trying to make a console that was more like the competition ( Nintendo always do better both financially and creatively when they do their own thing) and we all know how that worked out ( I preferred the GC to the wii though, cos at least Nintendo were still concentrating on making core games at that time!!! Also the era that gave birth to PIKMIN, the best new Nintendo ip since the good ole days!!!)
Some may argue they were more innovative when making games like brain training, wii fit, wii sports etc as they reached mass appeal with a whole new audience, and created new ways to interact with games yadda yadda but I'm into more traditional video game experiences and largely ignored this period despite owning a wii and several models of the ds

I'd say NES generation because that basically started all. Nintendo decided that you have to play with a controller with a Dpad on the left and buttons on the right side with a Select and a Start button in the center of the controller and it made games like SuperMarioBros and Zelda (first game ever with savegames) etc.
Nintendo also made portable gaming a mass phenomenon thanks to the gameboy.


Then comes the N64 era becaue it came up with rumble analog controls and lay the foundation of how 3D games have to be made (Mario 64, Zelda OOT which invented the lock on system etc)

Then comes the Wii DS era with motion and touch controls for gaming.

8th gen.