The answer to that is which of those two things is still popular.

The DS no doubt, it literally layed the basis for the entire mobile gaming market of today.

Hard one. I think the DS, Switch, Wii, and Gameboy shook up the norms of the industry more than anything else, but the N64, SNES, and NES all have very powerful arguments.
The N64 really showed the industry how to do 3D gaming. Unlike the Wii it had the glaring weakness of cartridges - which caused a tremendous spike in cost and created a clear development hurtle that didn’t exist on other consoles. 32MB or 650MB, when redbook audio, rendered graphics, and FMV were able to create better looking and sounding games than all that extra power the N64 had, it became clear that Nintendo’s first dynastic rule was over.

The Wii’s weakness of lower horsepower also proved to be a major strength, again, pricing for the Wii, on top of its new interface helping to shape one of video gaming a biggest killer apps in history, made it - for a time - the most compelling home console ever released.

While the Switch will top the Wii’s sales, the Switch is something new and different, first of its kind. It’s a hybrid, basically sells like a handheld and generates revenue like a home console. It might prove to be the most compelling form factor of a dedicated video game console in history. People can own it as a singular console, carry it around, then plug it into a TV and play with friends like a home console. This is why Mario Kart 8 on Switch, a mediocre Mario Kart game on Wii U, is the best game of the franchise on Switch.

GameCube was basically PS2 junior, a clonebox with missing features, a less functional hand-hurty controller, and (once again) an inferior media. it is the most irregular of Nintendo consoles in that it’s the only one which basically tried to be like the competition rather than being what it needed to be. I see it as the least-Nintendoish of any Nintendo console. I also find it’s fans to be only distinguishable from Sony fans in that they like the letter N better than S - they often whine about Nintendo screwing up when they do anything different from Sony. It’s like they want a PlayStation, but only their fanboyism holds them back; they’re not actually interested in the Nintendo lineage of consoles, OUR dynasty, which currently rules thanks in part to great Kings, like the DS, Wii, and currently the Switch.

(Sorry, been watching lots of medieval shows lately)

I'd say the Wii, though now over a decade later there are very few motion control games even on the Switch, which is unfortunate. So while Wii was the most innovative system ever it's innovations have faded from relevancy quite a bit now.

Switch obviously gets a nod, and I think it's creation of the hybrid system will last as it is hard to see why Nintendo would ever go back to a standard home system. It's not exactly revolutionary tech like Wii was, since tablets have been around a while, but its the combination of tablet, detachable controllers, and hybrid-ness that make it stand out as innovative.

N64 brought analog stick and rumble pak to video games, which have both become norms (z trigger was pretty freakin awesome too). Though honestly it was the software and the jump to 3D that makes N64 feel so revolutionary so I'd say the system itself was less so.

NES created the modern video game industry so it definitely belongs up there.
GB pretty much created the handheld industry.

Overall though I'd have to say the Wii takes the cake.

Every single one of them.

I'd say virtual reality is growing and growing, so that's a point for the Wii. 

NES and it's not even close. NES saved the console industry. It was the first to sell over 50 million when there was not a market of 50 million people. It had to carve it out. NES introduced the D-pad to home consoles. NES introduced licensing as a countermeasure to the 1983 crash. Where we got the Nintendo seal. Now a standard practice with all console makers. It's the console where Mario Bros Platformers, Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Castlevania, and much more began. Franchises for the most part not only still around but still some of the biggest around. Having an NES in the 80s was not just another console like these days. Before Wii parties, there were NES parties and sleepovers. NES was where Capcom, Square, Enix, Nintendo, and Konami made a name for themselves. You cannot look at 61 million and just think it didn't sell as well as Wii. That 61 million in context is far more impressive. There was no market for that 61 million. Nintendo created it in a time when SEARS the Amazon of its day at first refused to sell the NES because video games were done. No one wanted to sell them. Entire genres were either created or revolutionized on NES. How we perceive the JRPG genre. Horror. Open world. Mario's movement and Mario himself.


Without NES there is no Wii or PS5. Without NES there is no SEGA in the console business trying to counter Nintendo and without SEGA there is no Microsoft Xbox. It all links back to NES. NES was not the first console but it changed the industry like no other console in history.  Motion controls existed on NES btw with U-Force and Power Glove. Motion controls were on every single console of the 90s and 2000's in some capacity. 1st or 3rd party.

DS hands down

It’s basically the Prelude to Modern Smartphone gaming, its as if Steve Jobs himself took note From the DS when it come to Games on Appstore

NES is up there, but innovation-wise i consider it a more Polished / Improved intellivision / Atari 2600-5200 in terms of controller and Technical Specs but most importantly Quality over Quantity when it comes to Games which led to Gaming to be Mainstream (not to mention saving the industry after gaming crash of 83)

For me personally was the GBA SP. (Unfortunately it's not on the poll)

Nintendo's first to have built-in battery and back lighting. It was the handheld we've all been dreaming of (for those that played since the original Gameboy). Also the clam shell design was perfect, compact and really fits in your pocket without damaging the screen/buttons. The upgrade to the SP was so good it made the original GBA look like a last gen console rather than an upgrade :P

Ah yes, we give the win to the tiny flower of VR next to the redwood tree of mobile gaming.