UK publication Stuff Magazine has taken it upon itself to list their all-time favorite Nintendo platforms, which, as you can imagine, is no easy task. Each individual system has its merits and libraries of excellent games. Some platforms were more innovative than others, but the main thing is the games. So without further ado, here are their most loved Nintendo systems:
- Super Nintendo
- Game Boy
- NES
- Nintendo 64
- Switch
- Wii
- Game Boy Advance
- GameCube
- Nintendo DS
- Nintendo 3DS
- Wii U
- Virtual Boy
Why Stuff believe the Super Nintendo is the best system Nintendo has ever created:
“If forced to pick any one game console to bring on a desert island with its entire library of games, we’d be hard-pressed to turn down the SNES. Bumping up to 16 bits unleashed the creativity of developers, taking decent and so-so 8-bit genres and elevating them to greatness, and the Super Nintendo has an all-time-amazing lineup of games. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, and Final Fantasy VI are just the tip of the iceberg. This was Nintendo – and some traditionalists would argue, gaming on the whole – at its peak.”
Oh boy, I can’t wait for yet another heated argument over which consoles are the best in this comment section.
I’m sure it’ll be as polite and mature as it always is on this site.
In the end it just boils down to which library of games the authors enjoyed the most during their formative years. ..
Not heated but a deserted island your best bet is a switch and a 3ds their portable and the 3ds has a better battery life plus ds backward compatibility
Switch and 3DS are probably my personal top two Nintendo systems, so that sounds good to me lol
I love old nintendo systems :)..
Hard high quality plastic. No complicated menus. No stupid system ulgrades every month. Tough unbreakable controllers. Full games on physical medium, without dlc trash and microtransactions.
Old games is easy, fun and with heart. I own ps5 but last two years i play most dead cells on mine oled switch. This year i play with joy only new mario rabbids.
I do miss how durable NES, SNES, & N64 controllers were.
My list.
Switch.
Gamecube.
Super Nintendo.
Gameboy.
Nintendo 64.
Gameboy Advance.
Nintendo DS.
Nintendo 3DS.
NES.
Wii.
Wii U.
Virtual Boy.
Personal top 5
1) Switch – Handheld/Console hybrid is a phenomenal idea. Also the library is no joke.
2) GBA – All around excellent library of games. Special shout out to the RPGs on this thing.
3) N64 – Some of these games are my favorite games of all time. Can’t wait for an official Mario 64 remake! Come on Nintendo, make it happen.
4) Wii U – Yeah, laugh if you want, but this was better than its given credit for. Some of the best games on Switch are just ports of Wii U games including the Switch’s best selling game Mario Kart 8. Mario Maker was amazing and was tailor made for the unique Wii U Game Pad. And the Virtual Console is 100 times better than the literal joke of the Online Service way of preserving classic games.
5) 3DS – Still use mine to this very day! It had an excellent library, the clamp shell design protects the screen, the Circle pad was a welcome addition to the handheld line of devices, and the games were comparable to Wii games back when that was impressive.
You’re all wrong. The best Nintendo system ever made was the Color TV Game 6
SNES is def one of my favourites, but I’d put the switch in the top spot and then SNES and the gameboy 3rd as portable gaming with loads of games was pretty cool when I was at school. ( nice rhyme ).
The thing with these lists is there gona be totally different for someone in their teens/early 20s compared to someone like myself in 40s due to nostalgia.
Why does everyone put the Switch so high? It’s a fantastic console, but it doesn’t really compare to the charm of the N64/GC/Wii days. I personally love the Gamecube the most.
3DS should be higher… or, at the very least, higher than the DS. It can play DS games after all and it still has a great battery life.
The DS is the best selling Nintendo device of all time. Also its the 2nd best selling platform of all time. And it has a pretty decent line-up of games. Personal opinion, but Mario Kart DS is the second best game in the series. Can’t let 3DS overshadow it just because its backwards compatible.
Of course you can. It can do everything a DS can do except play GBA games and… iirc only the original DS could play those.
Plus, the 3DS had it’s own Luigi’s Mansion, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, 3D Mario game, New Mario Bros game, 2D Metroid, ALttP sequel, 2 fantastic Kirby games, the most popular Animal Crossing game, bunch of Pokemon games, Fire Emblem games, a new game in the Kid Icarus series, a Mario Maker…. and, for ports, it had Xenoblade, OoT, Majora’s Mask, Donkey Kong Country Returns, 2 of the Mario and Luigi games, Starfox 64, Captain Toad… and the fantastic indie games and the VC…
I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff but the 3DS library was pretty incredible in the end. It’s really amazing considering how poorly it started.
I’m not discounting the 3DS, heck if you scroll up I made a top 5 list of my own and the 3DS is on the list where the DS is not. All I’m saying is the DS was a phenomenal success and the 3DS isn’t better simply because it can also play 3DS games. You also have to consider when the DS originally came out before the 3DS and what it accomplished during its time. Otherwise, every device that has backwards compatibility is immediately better than its predecessor which is a very silly and unfair way of looking at how to rate generational devices.
*DS games
I added a 3DS by mistake and this website forces you to look at your failure to realize it before posting.
Slow news day, okay lets make a list of are favorite Nintendo systems and then publish it… In other news water is wet.
For me
1. Snes
2. Cube
3. Switch
My list from low to high:
Game Boy / Color
Game Boy Advance
GCN
N64
SNES
Honorable mention: NES
5 options is all I need. Any list that includes Virtual Boy is stretching it, lol.
My all time favorite consoles list are.
Switch
3DS
Super Nintendo
Gamecube.
I can’t imagine anybody over about the age of 35 choosing anything but the Super Nintendo.
The Super NES will always be my subjective favourite, given my age and the sort of games I first experienced on the console, namely first and second party too-tier games, arcade conversions that were breathtaking, and JRPGs.
(I’m British, and the 8-bit NES wasn’t a popular thing over here at the time, incidentally. Had 2% of the UK games market at its peak.)
It’s gonna have to be the Gamecube. Baten Kaitos + Origins, Wind Waker, Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime 1+2, Pikmin 1+2, Super Mario Sunshine, Geist, Ocarina of Time Master Quest (this is sort of a cheat), Star Fox Adventures, Four Swords Adventures, Resident Evil 0+1+4, Smash Melee, Paper Mario 1+2, Animal Crossing (even though I played that by my lonesome), FFCC (also alone), Phantasy Star Online 1+2 (again, alone; wish I’d gotten some closure from a lot of the side quest storylines, though), FE:PoR, MGS:TTS, Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (no way in hell was I missing out on Hogwarts Legacy because I wanted to play something like that after playing CoS), Shadow the Hedgehog, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, The Haunted Mansion (way better than the movie starring Eddie Murphy; sorry, Eddie), The Hobbit, LotR: The Third Age, Lego Star Wars, PKMN XD: GoD, & The Simpsons Hit & Run, & Medal of Honor: Frontline.
I’m pretty sure I played Scooby-Doo Mystery Mayhem on GCN. I wish I hadn’t missed out on Chibi-Robo!, and that I played NFS:MW on the GCN instead of PS2. As for PoP: Warrior Within, I can’t recall if I played it on PS2 or GCN; I WANT to say GCN but shrug. Sadly played Vexx & Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy on a friend’s XBox in ’05 or ’06.
Probably the most enjoyable time of my life in spite of my parents’ constant separations. (Had a ton of great friends so that also helped make it bearable.)