They don't have to be boring to be "conventional." If they do what Sony and MS are doing. They both have built core gaming platforms and then they are building on that. They have Kinect and move now VR and Hololens. They are able to accomodate third party peripherals etc.

Granted those haven't all been total successes but the point is just becuse the consoles offer a solid core gaming experience first doesn't mean they are any less innovative than Ninty. Nintendo needs to bring a more powerful console with a core gaming approach AND stay relevent with it avant garde approach to input and fun.

Or, they could just go third party and put their games on everything and we wouldn't have to have all these Ninty "doom" threads. :p

Striving for uniqueness and innovation is a high risk high reward strategy. Nintendo have seen both success and failure in that regard. The Wii was a storming success, nothing less. The reasons given in the OP for it being a failure are 100% opinion.

The unique aspect was only one of many reasons why the Wii U hasn't done well. The Wii's uniqueness has not 'cost' Nintendo. The only blame that could possibly be pinned on the Wii for the Wii U not doing well is that it would always have been a hard act to follow.

It has, unfortunately.. really hope that the next console will do well :/

I have to correct you on a few things. Your problem is you're looking at this after it all happened, not as it happened.

NES - The NES came out BEFORE the other third generation consoles and was nothing like the consoles that preceeded it or the consoles it was competing against. First, look at the NES's button layout. It had two main buttons, two sub-buttons and a d-pad. Nobody else was doing this. This was at a time when just pausing a videogame was considered a luxury. Even the Atari 7800, which was released later didn't replicate that controller. So Nintendo did in infact create a revolutionary controller that would go on to become a standard in the industry for the next decade. Then there's the software. Although the hardware made this possible, games like Super Mario Bros. weren't possible before. Yes, there were platformers, but they did not  move that fast. Games like Zelda and Metroid were almost unthinkable and almost nobody else was doing games like that at the time.

SNES - Although the SNES had more similarities to it's competition than the NES did, there were still huge differences. Nintendo and Sega had two very different controller setups. Their approach to an attempt to create more compelling games were different. Sega saw hardware expansions as the best approach (which it wasn't) whereas Nintendo saw the FX chip as their answer. Again, two completely different approaches.

N64 - Nintendo did take more similar hardware approaches to the competition, but their focus was different. Sony wanted nice production values to sell TV's. Sega wanted the ultimate arcade experience. Nintendo wanted to create compelling 3D gameplay. This is why Nintendo had made a controller with an analog stick a standard from the beginning.

GameCube - The GameCube was actually the safest console NIntendo has ever developed. While it's design were radically different from the competition, the customized hardware wasn't much more or less powerful than the competition. The controller layout was pretty much what Sony had done. In some ways, the GameCube failed because Nintendo couldn't be different enough. They offered the same as what the competition had to offer but less of it. Less multimedia features, less online, less games, just less of everything.

Wii - Despite being a so-called hated console, a lot of core gamers still supported the Wii. A lot of Nintendo more traditional games still sold really well. THe Wii was just the right console at the right time. It was inexpensive compared to the competition and whereas the competition were busy creating flashier verisons of 6th generation games, Nintendo had created something the felt new and compelling. 

Wii U - If the Wii was the right console at the right time, Wii U was the wrong console at the wrong time. Because tablet technology had advanced so much between the time Wii U was still in production and after it was released, it didn't seem that new or different. It lacked the intuitive friendliness of the Wii and also lacked the support that the core gamers were looking for. Still, it's a very great system and it's tragic that it's being overlooked.

So if you look at everything from this perspective, Nintendo was on top of their game when they were being unique. If anything, the more safe they became, the less successful they were. Wii U is the only exception to this.

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

You're confusing uniqueness with stubbornness. They didn't make the N64 have carts to be unique, they did it because they were too stubborn to try CDs. Same with the mini-DVD. The Wii used motion controls because Nintendo then felt it NEEDED a gimmick to make up for the GameCube. The Wii U was their attempt to capitalize on what they incorrectly predicted to be the future (tablets). And the Wii U continues to fail because they're too stubborn to try anything to fix it.

One console was an attempt to be unique, and that was almost solely because they got stomped by the PS2. The NX won't be an attempt to be unique either. It'll be their way of trying to be stubborn and have both consoles and handhelds still, while not splitting their Dev teams up and leading to stagnant periods for both, because they're too stubborn to invest more in adding first party teams.

Let's just hope to god they're not stubborn enough to NOT try for PS4 quality so they can finally after 20 years be caught up to the competition.

Yes, they only won last generation by a long shot. Plus had stellar amazing first party sales on the Wii, poor, poor Nintendo./s

Nintendo must make their next console more powerful than PS4 to have a chance at financial success. They also need to hurry and release it by 2016 or early 2017. Otherwise, Sony will likely have the PS5 out soon after and totally outclass it.

This. Pokoko is the only one ive seen who gets it. Wii U is a culmination of this, but they've been doing this for years at various level. Friend codes is still a thing? Why? they made it shorter but the fact it still is there is just Ninty being stubborn, even though near everyone thing its stupid. WiiSpeak, instead of having a headset like everyone else does, they decide on that stupid thing that doesnt even support a lot of games and when it does it barely works. Sad thing is the PS eye has the same feature and works much better.

you could argue the lack of uniqueness cost them. wii u is not innovative. they were trying to cash in on the tablet craze that casuals had flocked to.