For those of you in the 27-31 age range, what was the best Nintendo console growing up?

I voted N64, but feel like I should divulge that I did not own either console growing up. My fondness for the N64 comes from going to friend's houses and playing 4-player games. That was the first console to do that well. SNES may be the better choice for single-player. Also, some N64 games haven't aged well due to 3D still being new at the time.

Also, I'm 34. Sorry for intruding.

I'm 28, so I can vote!

I'd have to say the SNES was the better system. Once we made the jump to 16 bits from 8, it really enabled a greater level of detail in game design, and the audio improved quite a bit from the previous era as well. I'm still jealous of Japan, because they got lots of great SNES games that we will never get to play the original versions of.

There is a lot you can't do in the 2D space, sure, but with the N64 (and most other systems since), they abandoned the kinds and styles of games that were king on the console until the 32-bit era. Much of that got relegated to the handheld space which, not coincidentally, grew to have libraries of games much different from that which is offered on the console space. We only really started seeing more classic kinds of games on consoles again thanks to downloadable services like XBLA.

Then again, I would love to play this...

im 36

can i vote?

@undefined: n64 and snes and game cube were the best 3

I grew up with an NES first. But the N64 was just something else.

38 old fart ...Super Nintendo. :) N64 is where Nintendo loses 3rd parties games. :P

The SNES I believe is hands down the best video game console ever.

im 36.. i liked the n64 more than the snes. i had more fun with it because i was 17... the world was just blossoming to me. i was driving on my own and partying. my best friends would come over every saturday and we'd play mario kart 64 battle mode all the time. it was one of the best times of my life.

however my favorite nintendo console is the NES. it's what made me love video games. i'll never forget it.

SNES stomps all over N64 but NES was better than SNES in my opinion. More coop time with friends. Granted, I'm slightly outside the age range being 35.

I'm 34 and between the SNES and N64 ... definitively the SNES.

Saddly outside of a few great title for the N64, the rest wasn't fun or great.

I'm the same age as your BF. While the N64 isn't a bad choice, as a kid the SNES always had a special place in my heart. May want to ask him in a subtle way, like "me and this gal (or on a forum, something like that) were debating what was better the SNES or the N64, what do you think? Good luck :).

i think the games on snes have aged better than the N64. N64 games tend to have performance issues and visually, though cutting edge at the time, they are quite dated now. the artstyle of snes games has just held up better imho and the games are still a pleasure to play.

retro nintendo games that i like to play today tend to come from the snes, gamecube and wii (i think we can call the wii retro now...or certainly by march 3rd we will :P).

The SNES was the pinnacle of 2D gaming, whereas the N64 was just getting to understand 3D gaming.

Though I do have more distinct memories playing the N64.

My vote goes to SNES. But personally, I'd try to inquire with your partner first, and see where his nostalgia lies. I'm guessing 30 is actually pretty spot on to have distinct memories for SNES games.

I qualify for the age range.

Growing up I would have said N64 or NES. Super Nintendo is undoubtedly the absolute best, both then and now. When I did something like this a year ago and we laid out all the games, I realized SNES and Gamecube were the best. My point of view changed after going back to the classics, SNES games are better than NES, and GC games are better than N64.

I got this SNES that Christmas, the greatest 2D games are undoubtedly on here, and was last time I only owned just Nintendo, the list of games is too extensive, and the quality too good across the board for NES or N64 to even compete, cause even if NES saw the first in a series or multiple of a franchise, often we saw better iterations on SNES, and N64 didn't see half of these Franchises:

Hard luck naming many Nintendo franchise not on SNES:

Super Mario World

Super Metroid

Earth Bound

Star Fox

F-Zero

Link to the Past

Donkey Kong Country series

Super Mario Kart

Secret of Mana

Chrono Trigger

Super Castlevania 4

Street Fighter 2

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, 4 and 6

Megaman X series

Harvest Moon

Super Bomberman

the original Tales (Phantasia) (JP only)

Breath of Fire

Mario RPG

Yoshi's Island

Wario's Woods

Contra 3

Illusion of Gaia

Kirby Super Star/Dreamland 3

Super Punch-Out

Super Ghosts and Ghouls

Lemmings

Bust a Move

Earthworm Jim

Mortal Kombat 2

R-Type 3

Lufia series

And we saw major tie-ins, arcade ports, and sports, like Super Star Wars, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, NBA Jam, Ken Griffy Jr MLB, NHL Stanly Cup, NCAA Basketball, Sim City, Jurassic Park, Batman, Adams Family, Populous, Spiderman, Captain America, X-Men, Justice League, etc.

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Extra Reading:

NES games were hard, cause they were bad, I wouldn't have understood anything unless I looked in magazine/online where you got info from devs. If you played the best on NES (Mario, Zelda, DK, etc.) everything else just seems half as good. Amazing gems on this system (CV, Zelda, FF) but overall most the rest is just nostalgia, and not many games aged well.

N64 games did not age well at all. I have fond memories of N64 as a teenager, so much I grew up rating N64 over everything. And its all cause of the great 4 player local co-op, which was nearly as good as an arcade, but in your house. The gameplay is fun and we saw some of the revolution with Mario/Zelda but we saw the downfall or disappearance in a ton of franchises, or didn't see many new creations (like no Metroid, CV left to PlayStation, and best new creations were all from Rare, a lot of them now on Xbox).

A lot of the stuff on N64 went onto Gamecube, and I think Gamecube did things better overall. I was knee deep in PS1 by N64, and mostly did multiplayer stuff like Guantlet, Goldeneye, and Sports. N64 is cooler than GC and maybe SNES, but i'm mostly in love with the idea of N64-style games. The sad part about my choice, Ocarina, Goldeneye and Mario 64 were probably greatest games ever, but Gamecube saw all the same franchises in just as good games, yet we got revival and renaissance in Nintendo gaming, like Metroid Prime, Pikmin, Fire Emblem, and everything like Rogue, BGaE, Eternal Darkness, and the best versions of RE1 and Metal Gear Solid 1. Plus Gamecube controller and stuff with GBA were revolutionary.

If you look at the bottom of NES and N64, it goes very, very low, while the peak of SNES and Gamecube is sustained for longer. The weakest of the SNES are no where near as bad. I just feel SNES and Gamecube were too cool for their own good. The gaps between them and NES/N64 and SNES/GC aren't that big, the SNES and GC just have the edge. Of course there are really good arguements that say N64 and NES are the greatest things to happen, which I agree with, SNES and GC just took that legacy and improved upon it.

christmas '92. a super nes with streetfighter 2, super mario world, f-zero, pilotwings and super mario kart.

greatest. christmas. ever.

christmas peaked way too soon :(

I'm 31 and the SNES and N64 are easily my two favorite consoles of all time. It's really hard for me to choose between these two, but I think I would give a slight edge to the N64.

The thing that makes the N64 so special to me is the 4-player multiplayer. The N64 is the greatest party machine ever and many of my greatest gaming memories come from all the fun and laughs I had playing games like Mario Kart 64, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, Mario Tennis, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Bomberman 64, NFL Blitz, and WWF No Mercy with my friends on the N64.

SNES, because it had Super Mario World, (which is, to this day, my favorite game of all time).

32

SNES was definitely my favorite console ever. Still have my original one actually. So many great games.

@born2runak: I played some SNES games last night to make sure I'm still confident in my pick, and the games are too good. Now I'm like too in love with SNES right now.

I played Castlevania X, Yoshi's Island, Breath of Fire, and Earthbound. I often can't play too many NES games cause I'm an audiophile, and I can't stand the sound. But on SNES, the graphics are great and the sound is exquisite. I could literally sit down and play any of these games all the way through. Plus they all have good save systems.

I actually missed out on a lot of SNES games, cause I got a PS1, that Christmas, so I didn't even know Super Mario World 2 existed, and knew of Mairo RPG but never played it. So despite having years with it, and being first console I got at Launch, there is so many games I never finished on it. With BC PS2 and PS3 Store, I've relived a ton of PS1 and PS2 in the last 5 years. Even so, PS1 and PS2 have always been the classic games I like going back to, (Not counting arcade). However, in last 3-5 years that has changed a lot back in PC classics, and now Nintendo classics with my 3DS and my Sister's Wii that had hundreds of dollars worth of VC she bought.

But with Nintendo, I went like 10+ years not playing NES and SNES games, not until I got a Wii and played some of the greats in late 00's and not many til I got my sister's Wii. I went like 15 years not playing N64, and I only played the games on it cause of my PC/PS3/Xbox/3DS, but most of them were non-Nintendo games, mostly Rare and Square Enix, Mario 64 DS that I got Summer 2016, was first time I played a Nintendo made N64 game, in like 15 years easily.

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It is weird cause I want to say SNES or N64 or GC or NES are the most nostalgic system, but all 4 have distinct games, and I experienced them at varying times in my life. So I couldn't possibly gauge them.

We need someone who is young, who wasn't playing games til Wii U and 3DS, and go back and play NES, SNES, N64 and GC games and tell us which is best. And I bet the answer would be, SNES is best for 2D and GC is best for 3D.

SNES was the better console, but I voted N64. Among the fondest memories of my childhood was playing Banjo-Kazooie.

SNES... because I didn't have N64.

My best friend did though, and I happily played with him almost every day.

NES till this very day. Check this out:

This was a hard choice... I was just listening to a rendition of the Zelda: OOT soundtrack... brought back so many memories.