Favourite Nintendo system?

[Linkachu]

Time for the old timers to get nostalgic. Out of all the major Nintendo systems, consoles or handhelds, which is your favourite and why?

My vote is easy: SNES all the way. While it makes Gary growl, SNES still contains most of my favourite games and is the only older console that I still play (haven't turned the NES or N64 on in ages). It's probably also the one Nintendo console where all the best games WEREN'T Nintendo-made, at least not for me.

Where I'd place the others is a hard choice so I'm not even gonna bother :wink:

Who knows what'll happen once the DS gets more games, though. It has a lot of potential to be great.

 

[Doctor Oak]

I love the DS. It can't be beaten.

I fell in love with it just hearing about it from the japanese press release last January that mentioned oh-so-briefly that there would be a new handheld that had 2 screens. That's all they said.

When it was shown off at E3 however... Gods, I knew I had to have one.

NOTHING has gotten me this excited as I am over my DS. It REALLY helps that the DS I'll be getting by the end of next week is a special VIP one from NOE with a free Exclusive DS T-shirt, Super Mario 64 DS and a Demo version of Wario Ware Touched as well as the DS itself and Metroid Hunters. Oh, and a month before everyone else. ^^

I think the DS can be and IS the greatest thing to happen to Videogaming since the SNES. For the first time in over a decade, people are thinking about how to develop games again. Developers themselves have admitted they love the DS because it gives them a fresh challenge - something other than just "Press Button A to jump, Press Button B to fire and use the D-pad to flick through menus" or "Go to point A to get to Point B by going across the screen".

The DS can avoid the crappy ports that other systems get because even when porting over liscenced titles, you have to actually think about what you're doing to incorperate both screens, the touch factor and if you wish, the microphone. Spider-man 2 attempted this... not greatly it has to be said and it more than likely is a sign of things to come in liscenced games for the DS (But, it's no huge surprise, considering they're liscenced games), but it does show that they took at least a day or two to think.

Thinking is a process long forgotten in many game development companies - they simply churn out games for money these days, forgetting stuff like Gameplay in the process. A lot of developers are looking to the DS to try out new stuff and to actually put a new spin on gameplay.

That fact alone makes the DS one of the greatest systems EVER in the history of gaming as it has been faaaaar too long since companies other than Nintendo focused on Gamplay rather than what's "cool" or easily sold to guillable parents and grandparents.

 

[baratron]

I love the SP.

I never really got into portable gaming before. When I started to get really into console games, I bought a Game Boy Color - but the screen was only visible if I sat directly under a lamp or used one of those stupid worm lights (which only illuminated part of the screen). So it was really too much hassle to use. I got pretty excited by the graphics capabilities of the GBA - but soon after it was released, a friend & I went to one of the big Virgin Megastores in London, and although the GBA was sitting in a hands-on display unit designed to sell the thing, we could barely see the screen well enough to play. It was running Kuru Kuru Kururin, and I kept crashing the spinny thing into obstructions that I couldn't actually see! The Afterburner mod interested me, but despite the fact I live with an electronics engineer, I didn't really fancy buying a brand new games console then invalidating the warranty immediately. Plus, trying to find a spare £100 to replace a potentially fried system didn't really appeal.

So the SP was the answer to a lot of problems. I was pleased to see it'd gone back to the classic, "one-hand" shape rather than the must use two hands shape of the Advance (and I utterly *heart* games like Pokemon that let you set the L trigger to map A, so you can genuinely play one-handed). And although the screen is only front-lit not back-lit (and still a nightmare if playing outside in the middle of summer), it's orders of magnitude better than any of the previous GB incarnations. Being able to play a game anywhere has filled in a lot of the useless moments in my day - it amazes me that I spent 400 hours of my life playing Pokemon last year, but less so when I consider how much of that was in 15 minute bursts on the train. (What else would I have done during that time? Stared out the window? Daydreamed?). The best bit of all is that I can play games in bed, lying on my back if I want, without sitting up the entire night because I'm waiting to get to the end of a piece of plot.

I still walk around amazed that i'm carrying in my pocket a computer more powerful than the one I used for word processing and graph-drawing when I was a teenager. (It directly translates, too, because that particular Acorn computer used an early version of the same ARM processor that the GBA uses).

I'm reserving judgement on the DS. I've held one in my hands, and it's heavy compared to the SP - too heavy for me to easily be able to lie on my back and play it. Also, as someone with crappy joints at the best of times, I worry about the touch screen and new input methods (every apparent innovation in game control can be a PITA to someone with a disability). But... I'll probably buy one fairly soon after it comes out. For Animal Crossing DS, even if nothing else.