2006 for a calendar year - even if just for the launch of the DS Lite and Wii alone and the combined excitement Nintendo fans had. I know this is for single systems, but it’s difficult to separate those two, they went for the sleek, innovative, and intuitive approach. It really was a Renaissance for Nintendo, and I don’t think any year has topped it since. I find it hard to split the two since I was a big fan of them both - by the Gamecube era I was probably 40% a handheld fan and 60% a classic games (mainly SNES and Mario Kart 64) fan when it came to Nintendo. But the Wii and DS Lite blew that to pieces. It was the modernization of a Nintendo that had been dying since the launch window of the N64. As I said, it’s difficult to separate the two, my memories of that period are extremely positive for Nintendo’s reawakening, no matter which system I look at. The DS Lite felt like the biggest turning point for Nintendo, but I think the release of the Wii solidified it, and a lot of the excitement and confidence in the Wii at launch surrounded how well the DS Lite went. Both DS Lite and Wii were two very product focused launches, rather than the old “here’s some hardware… it’s kinda like everything else on the market… this is more powerful and plays new versions of the games you’ve played before… except weird and designed for people a lot younger than you… our most attractive is that if your hands are tiny, the controller is VERY comfortable…”
If we’re talking a year that amounts to any span of time, so long as it’s a consecutive year, then the launch of the Wii at the end of 2006 until the release of Super Mario Galaxy can’t be rivalled… except by the first calendar year of the Switch.
I’m very much looking forward to the Switch 2 launch year potentially beating both of these. We’ll see.
Last edited by Jumpin - on 06 August 2024
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