I hear what you mean with that and I understand your point.
But with all due respect Zorg, I disagree.
During those days of the SNES, Nintendo's IPs weren't that very well established yet. They hadn't grown and matured to the point they are now. Let's put it in perspective.
Charles Martinet hadn't been hired as the voice for Mario yet.
Donkey Kong Country wasn't a thinkg until 1994.
Ocarina of Time, a game that is widely considered as the G.O.A.T., wasn't made yet.
Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Splatoon didn't exist.
Star Fox and F-Zero had just debuted.
Not even Pokemon existed.
The dedicated, core "Nintendo audience" didn't exist yet, like it does now. It was developing for sure, but it wasn't until the Nintendo 64 were it really developed and became whole.
So if they were to go back to where they were with the SNES, I think their own published software would still do great and do the numbers that they're doing now on the Wii U and 3DS, but even more so because now their are that much more people who bought the system because of all these other 3rd party games that are on the system as well.

maybe, it's hard to tell

It's possible if they wanted to. The question is, do they want to release a console and compete like that again? Also, I'm going to have to disagree with COD being the new Mario. Minecraft is the new Mario.

Replace "3rd parties" with "Genesis" and you're spot on. It wasn't third parties. The NES had third party software locked DOWN and it had 95% of the market. When Sega let their US branch do what they wanted towards the end of 1990, that 95% had fallen below 50% by 1994. They were able to make Nintendo look like it was a toy for kids and nerds and it hurt them dearly. That's why their software declined.

Nintendo is mainstream. Just not the most popular home-console manufacturer right now.

i think Nintendo problem has been the delay of understanding that when they struck gold with DS and Wii that period is quickly faded away and teh next move should have been towards somethign the mass market - mainstream would have relate to.

I think 3DS has done well and no much more we can expect on handheld market - sales of any future handheld console will not go higher than 3DS in my opinion but that market has changed and moved in smart phone directions - however i still want to see handheld made by Nintendo with nintendo games.

Said so - the WiiU wasn't what the market needed and they have not done nothing to create the need - poor ads - poor marketing - they have just hoped for the best on the Wii name.

WiiU should have been and HD version of Wii with no gamepad as it is but stand alone feature for crazy people like me to buy and collect.

2 years after that in 2014 was time to release a more powerful console - studying the market and following XBox and PS4 example.

I am not saying anything bad about WiiU as I loe it and I love teh fact that Nintendo takes risks and act differently in this very same-same market.

I am arguing for the sake of being relevant and win market share - to do so - drop all different controls - create another machine - and have the brand and franchise nintendo as to sell and win market % - third party will then be making gmaes for it - and/or multiplatforming creating games since no special development is needed.

be similar in specs for third parties - be different in content for first party.

Nintendo IPs like mario and pokemon will be mainstream for the foreseeable future, and will keep their handheld platforms afloat for maybe another generation or two. It's early to speculate, but I think it's more likely the NX will be more comparable in its success to the wii U than the wii. I suspect this will urge nintendo to transition to mobile platforms, or even develop as a third party for home consoles/pc. Or the NX could be game-changing and wildly successful. Who knows.

Nintendo may not be the household name it once was, at least at the moment, but as long as it has names like Mario, Pokemon and Zelda associated with it, Nintendo will remain part of the mainstream culture. One somewhat unsuccessful console won't change that.

That is true. I didn't included handhelds in my comment since I didn't think they would fit in here. I didn't even consider splitting the market into regions. If we look at just Japan, Nintendo is still very much mainstream. Everyone there knows about the Nintendo as well as owning a 3DS. The Wii U however... they people know about it, but not so much... Althought, it is probably more mainstream than Sony.

As for other regions, like in EU, it is probably that Ninten is not so mainstream since the PS brand is the primary console, but I am not from EU, so I can't comment on that. And as for the US, it is likely PS and Xbox, with Ninten being on the decline, but not niche... Nintendo can't be niche because they're just too recognizable to be niche. It's hard to answer now. They are mainstream, but... just not the Wii U is mainstream.

I really hope it goes back to Nintendo and Sony being mainstream again. Not that I can blame people this gen. The WiiU just did not have enough. I bought it 6 months after release, played through the backlog, got smash when it came out, and then was bored to death with Mario Party 10 sucking and couldn't wait it out till Zelda U so I sold it.