Of the Nintendo systems released during Iwata's tenure as CEO (2002-2015) which do you think was the best, and why?

(I know he also played a key role in preparing the Switch, but for the purposes of this particular thread, let's focus on the ones that came out under his leadership)

DS is it for me. That little system was cheap, innovative, and had tons of great games in various genres.

Wii. A very fun system with an insane good library.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wii Sports, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, some great third party games...

Wii for me.
• Brought the hype back to Nintendo in a thunderous way.
• Revolutionized the industry with motion controls and IR pointer as a central feature.
• Introducing the Virtual Console and WiiWare, the basis for the modern EShop. Allowing us to play boatloads of classics as well as new games.
• Bringing Nintendo back from the rubble in the home console sphere. And Nintendo, along with DS, sold more consoles than any other company did in a single generation at over 250 million combined for the two platforms.
• Overall, just making gaming feel fresh for the first time in about a decade on the Nintendo side… maybe 7 years for videogames at large (Dreamcast I’d argue had a freshness about it).
• The first modern feeling console UI.

I voted DS… but I’m feeling like maybe Wii would’ve been the better choice. IDK it’s very close between these two: whereas DS had four really strong Pokémon releases, SM64-on-the-go, Bowser’s Insider Story, NSMBDS, and so forth, the Wii had Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Mario Super Slugger, Mario Galaxy 1+2, Zelda TP+SS, DKCReturns, KirbyRTDL, and GCN backward comparability… tough call.

I didn’t play 3DS much and Wii U only had three years, so the only two competitors are Wii and DS for me.

Wii. Shout out to the Galaxy games and Brawl, plus some other fun games.
After that, the underrated 3DS for its first-party games and I also enjoy DS a lot too. I even enjoy Wii U but it's the weakest system released during Iwata's time.

Wii for me, the gaming library was just insane and such a widely popular console. Get you an HDMI convertor and you have one of the best party systems for special occasions with friends, still to this day. I don't enjoy handheld gaming, my Switch has never left the dock, and my Switch 2 will be the same way.

Well, 4 years 4 months technically, but yeah, it felt like less as support after 2015 was dismal. (Heck, it was dismal in 2013/2015 too to be honest, only 2014 really felt like a decent year)

I'm gonna go with Wii as well; for me it had the two best 3D Marios in Galaxy 1 and 2, two of the best 3D Zeldas, the return of Donkey Kong Country, mainline Kirby, and 2D Mario, a fantastic new IP in Xenoblade, and a bunch of niche but awesome gems like Sin & Punishment 2, The Last Story, Monster Hunter 3, etc.

I think 3DS, its just a better DS which was already great.

Wii U games were better but i never liked the gamepad so 3DS for me. I didnt have wii for long enough but the motion controls were too gimicky even tho i didnt mind it as a child and was fun in Wii Sports resort but thats it

The Wii did the impossible and was so culturally relevant, the queen of England had one. You can't top that.