choose your nintendo console

Steam Deck OLED

Wii U easily, if you jailbreak it you can play every generation before it

switch can't emulate Wii and GameCube games, and on top of that half of its good games are Wii U ports anyway

I remember when I was kid and the absolute fucking HYPE around the gameboy color. It was gonna revolutionize gaming. Lol, it it was teased for years before it finally came out.

Steam deck lol

Thank you nerds for emulation

GBA cos i spent most of my childhood playing on one. It had teeth marks in after trying to complete rayman 3 and mario kart

Switch. I really appreciate that they let a console generation last a decade, because I'm not a consumerist paypig. The biggest indie games all ended up on it. And Nintendo has really been killing it with their first-party games, lots of them that hold up really well even against ancient stuff that I might be giving the benefit of nostalgia.

In terms of system function and practicality, hacked, probably gonna be Wii U because it can play most other Bintendo systems. Function unhacked is probably a DS phat or Lite, because DS/GBA libraries are pretty good.

I also wanna ask if this includes fan translations, because at that point SNES/SFC is a system that has FF6, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Earthbound etc but also Front Mission, Seiken Densetsu 3, Tactics Ogre, Bahamut Lagoon, all six 2D Dragon Quest games, so on. Also if you factor Super Gameboy/2 in, SNES probably wins.

In terms of the native NTSC/PAL libraries it has to be a dead heat between Super Nintendo and DS. Gamecube is a shit system, N64 is a shitter system, Wii has a loooot of shovelware(although the virtual console was rad), Switch goes in the trash, the NES, GBA and Game Boy were cool but I think the DS probably had the most variety of genres. Plus it has ports and remakes of a lot of classics, so at gunpoint I'd go DS.

The feel of the n64 thumb stick making a permanent dent in my thumb as i cross hyrule field for the nth time will likely be with me forever but honestly it's the DS. The first wireless ad-hoc connected handheld console that my group of friends all owned and we would line the halls playing Mario Kart or tetris in school

The New 2/3DS XL are goated, the emulation support on CFW is great and you can take it anywhere you want.

N64 fight me (goldeneye, complex, golden gun)

The Wii U was my first true love and I will always be its strongest warrior

100% the switch and updating my answer to switch 2 whenever that happens

SNES.

The fact that all the retro indie games try to mimic the SNES style shows how big that era of gaming was.

GBA era is a close second, but that was basically a portable, higher powered SNES.

No GameCube? I guess Wii then, assuming it's the backwards compatible model.

Permanently Deleted

lol I almost made a comment complaining that the N64 wasn’t in the picture, and then I got the joke.

NES. I'm so old.

New 3dsxl every time, the homebrew scene is wildly good.

You can play any game by downloading straight from the device.

For me it's the Nintendo 3DS. Still have my white original 3DS from 11 years ago, jailbreaked it a year ago. I also played on my niece's DS as a kid, moslty Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros. and Mario 64 DS. And Mega Man Star Force, the most impactful game in my life, is a DS game that I played on my 3DS. I'm very fond of the DS aesthetic.

The 3DS has plenty of good games on its own, but it can also play DS and GBA games natively, each with huge game libraries and lots of amazing titles. It can emulate NES, SNES and even Genesis pretty well too. The default UI is very pleasant and calming, it has a charm like the Wii and WiiU that became completely lost in the Switch. And the homebrew scene is super lively and still evolving.

I also just love the DS/3DS as a concept: it's the size of a smartphone and the clamshell design is unique. With stuff like a camera, internet access and other function, it was like a prototypical smartphone in some ways. I want to see a modern take on the DS with a good camera, bigger screens and better hardware, so that it could replace a smartphone.

It of course can't handle more modern consoles, but for retro gaming it's great. And if the screens are too small you can always emulate on a pc or laptop. And it beats the Switch in pocketability.

My first ever console that was definitively MINE was the silver Gameboy Advance SP which my parents got me for my birthday back in 2003 in an effort to stop my eldest sister from beating me up like once a month whenever she'd go looking for her GBA and Pokemon Sapphire, only to find me laying on my stomach in my bunk bed kicking my legs in the air in my frustration as Roxanne's Nosepass pummeled my Torchic. Legitimately don't think she ever beat Sapphire because I would go knock on her door at like 9am every Saturday and go 'can I play your gameboy..?' & she'd just hand me the carrying case she had for it and all her games while half-asleep; only to realize hours later that she never asked what I was going to play and forgot to deliver the usual threat of a swirly if any of her saves were deleted.

There were at least 3 different backyard brawls specifically about me deleting her Pokemon saves that I can remember and one of them resulted in me having to drink a 'fear factor' shake (I can still remember the literal episode we'd watched the night before and gotten the idea from....) she created, which was literally just pool water, mud, grass clippings, and a bunch of other stuff like ketchup/salt. Unfortunately, for those wondering, the fear factor inspiration was not brought to a halt by any adult until the next summer when I was made to climb onto the roof of our neighbor's tool-shed and retrieve our basketball from under the hornet's nest that happened to hang from a branch right above the roof of the shed.

Yes, seven year old me was confident while standing on top of my sister's shoulders and climbing onto the roof - I was an avid climber of trees and whatnot as a kid. Yes, confident seven year old me saw the hornets flying around/perched on the basketball and proceeded to LOSE his shit. Imagine a young boy standing on the roof of a shed with tears in his eyes, rubbing his palms to mimic how hornets & other insects rub their forelegs together, and screaming "they're doing THIS with their hands" at his sisters, younger brother, and family friend on the ground while they're shouting back at him "they won't hurt you just grab the ball and jump off we'll catch you!!"

I was up there crying and refusing to climb/jump down for thirty minutes because I was convinced the hornets were gonna sting me if I moved. Eldest sister had to climb up and grab me down. Parents were amused when they heard the story at dinner that night but ordered all four of us to stop playing Fear Factor. To this day, over 20 years later, if my parents or siblings notice a hornet there's a solid 30% chance they'll exclaim 'THEY'RE DOING THIS WITH THEIR HANDS!!'

Anyways, I got the Gameboy Advance SP and sunk like over a thousand hours of my youth playing shit like Golden Sun and Hamtaro on the SP. I got the Wii for Christmas the year it released and it remains my favorite gift I've ever gotten because my elderly 70yo grandmother, in secret, went to the Toys R Us midnight release for it because she was so afraid they would sell out and my parents wouldn't be able to find one by Christmas. Didn't tell anyone except my eldest sister. Well, two weeks before Christmas my parents sit me down in their room and are like "Santa's having trouble finding the Wii because so many kids asked for one...we know it was the only thing you put down and know you told Santa you'd share it with your siblings, but is there anything else he can bring you in case his elves can't find one???". So I was completely crushed and under the impression I wasn't gonna find the Wii under the tree. My parents got me a new bike & a few books for me and I was happy but disappointed because I had a perfectly fine bike. Only for Grandma to go "oh, I forgot about the gift Santa dropped off at my house last night. It had your name on the tag, abc. Let your sister go get it out of my car." Cue me going " A NINTENDO WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" and bursting into tears as I unwrapped it. Last Christmas gift she gave me before she died; still have the Wii and will never trash it or give it away.

Anyways I didn't expect this to turn into a whole ass nostalgia post but funnily enough the Gameboy - Wii era of Nintendo is tied to a lot of core childhood memories.

2DS for laughs

SNES gang rise up

When I was a kid, my granddad had a Nintendo 64 (we got that N64 for ourselves after he died when I was a teen) and we had a Wii at home, and we had one of those early DSes that let you play GBA games; when we got rid of that old DS, we replaced it with a 3DS; and I used emulators (often those free online ones that don't let you save your progress) to play NES and SNES and old-school Game Boy games (and we also had a neighbor with a real-life Game Boy Color), and after we got rid of our classic DS I started playing GBA games using online emulators, too; and when I lived in a school dorm I got the chance to play a little Switch in the common area with the others on my floor.

...Which means that the only two Nintendo consoles that I never really got to experience either IRL or through an emulator were the Wii U and the GameCube, and of those, I don't really remember the Wii U having any particularly noteworthy games — whereas even as a kid I was definitely always curious about the old GameCube games like Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime and all that, I still am curious about them now. And so if I have to choose one single Nintendo console, whatever that "choosing" means, I'm honestly going to go for the one that I always wanted to play but never got the opportunity to.

GBA SP

Loved that era of gaming, loved the gorgeous pixel art for those games, and the console is incredibly portable

One of these days I'll get one of those modern restomod versions with USB charging and all that, and jam a flashcart full of emulators into it

Anbernic is getting ready to release the 35XXSP and I know my ass is gonna buy it. So I'll go with the SP. If I ever get a job in my field again, it would be nice to be able to game on the go without worrying about the screen when I toss it in my bag.

Probably wii u

GameCube or gba-sp.

NES, it was my greatest escape as a kid.

I probably have spent the most time with the snes so I'll go with that. Runner-up is the gamecube, played a lot of biohazard remake and 4 on it when it was exclusive.

My hacked psp 3000 is all the gaming I will ever need in my life

The answer to these questions is usually "the one you had when you were young and life was easiest". For me that's the SNES; I love everything about that console and even painted my office in its two-tone grey.

Despite that, the Switch is just the best. It's a home console that you can take on the go (or on the couch while someone else has control of the television). You can play with friends on a big screen or take it on the bus. It's had a long lifecycle that has seen some of the very best games ever made across all of Nintendo's franchises, plus tons of third-party and indie games.

The 3DS is in second place, mostly because it's the one portable-only system that Nintendo got right on the first try.

I never owned an Nintendo 64, but most of my earliest video game memories were playing N64 at other people's houses--Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart 64, and GoldenEye (plus the required Blockbuster Pokémon Snap kiosk experience). It really wasn't all that much time in total, since it was more a sporadic encounters rather than a friend whose house I'd go to regularly, but I still have a few specific fond memories.

The Game Boy Color has a special place in my heart because it was my first console, and I actually still have my original one nearly 25+ years later (although I lost my cute Pikachu carrying case, sadly). I actually only ever had two games for it because my mom confiscated it and lost it (or "lost" it perhaps); I found it years later behind some cookie sheets in the kitchen. Even though I only had it for a short time, it was my first real taste of video games and it grabbed hold of my imagination. It evokes that deep nostalgia that kinda makes me want to curl up into a ball and cry.

Never had a Game Boy Advance, but while the GBA SP is the more practical pick I honestly prefer the original GBA in purple aesthetically and ergonomically. If I ever get one it'll be one of those with a modded screen (I remember my friend trying to play dark-ass Castlevania: Circle of the Night on an original GBA and holy shit was it impossible to see anything).

The GameCube was my first home console, and easily the one I played on the most out of any console to this day. It's the one I had the most games for and has so many cherished memories--playing Pikmin with my dad on Christmas morning (I think the only game we've ever played together to this day), countless afternoons and sleepovers playing Melee and Soul Calibur II with the boys, yahooing my way through Sunshine, learning how relaxing games could be with Animal Crossing...this is the console that really made me into a gamer, seeking out new experiences and reading Nintendo Power cover-to-cover.

If I had to pick a console for pure aesthetic and ergonomic perfection, it'd be the Nintendo DS--specifically the DS Lite (the OG is pretty ugly, let's not kid ourselves). It's got an incredible library, of course (some of the games I enjoyed the most at the time were SM64DS, all three Castlevanias, Nintendogs, and Animal Crossing: Wild World, to name a few), one that I'm still working through to this day, but even apart from that the DS Lite is a work of art and a joy to play with. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

I've had other Nintendo consoles since then, but none of them have nearly as deep a place in my heart as the three I had in my most formative years. If I only had to pick one, my mind says DS for the endless library, but my heart says GameCube for the comfy nostalgia...

(oh yeah, and if we're talking pure modern practicality I'd go Wii U for the perfect GC+Wii compatibility plus emulators for most of the other stuff I'd want to play. PC/phone can handle the remainder)

I pick the 3ds with the multicolor buttons (thats the one I have)

SP all the way.

I liked the TV theme of the Wii, and when I would visit my cousins in NJ, I would spend hours just going through the news and weather channel of all things.

But seriously, thank god for emulation. Just a nice reminder to Nintendo that they can try making PC ports for their ROMs at any time. Literally easy money.

I still have my old Game Boy, DS, SNES, and Wii. Unfortunately my GBA kicked the bucket this year

This is 3DS erasure wtf. And yes the 3D feature was awesome. Shut up.

3DS or Wii U. I have four Nintendo DS family consoles and that numbers only gonna grow >:)