When Was Nintendo In Their Prime?

1985-present

SNES was their best era (given their head-to-head competition with Sega), but they set much bigger gameplay standards with SM64, and Ocarina of Time.

They've always made good games though, but they stick more to proven formulas. Nothing they do makes me go "wow".

Snes was awesome, but I think Mario 64 was the first game to blow my mind. I remember when it came out one of my friends and I would go to Walmart and play it at the kiosk, because we didn't have 64's yet.

snes

NES and SNES era, N64 was pretty good to, though they were rather ignored with the GameCube, came back strong with the Wii, and are once again in GameCube territory

it's the NES and SNES era that built Nintendo's nostalgia base though

commercially their most successful anything would be the Nintendo DS

SNES, now nintendo is just a shadow from what it used to be.

NES - SNES era

I would say N64.

N64 imo

/thread

SNES best console ever.

Snes and then after that they weren't the same anymore.

The N64 was the console that made them lose to Sony, so how can that be a "prime"? lol

TC, Nintendo is still schooling everyone on how to create a proper next gen experience. SNES is overrated for Nintendo, without Final Fantasy and Donkey Kong Country (essentially Squaresoft and Rare), Mario would be lame and irrelevant compared to the cool blue hedgehog.

1986. Get your dates right Nintendo fan. Lol test runs.

Also to the thread, Nintendo was never in their prime. They have always had a few chunks of time where they had some good games put out but never kept the ball rolling.

@Jakandsigz: it came out in north america in 1985 dipshit

No it didn't. Lol test runs.

SNES- has a bunch of classics plus also won the sales war

Super Nintendo Era was their best.

The Nintendo Ds.

Meh, I guess I liked the Gamecube era more than the other so I'll slap that vote. Not sure why the New Wii U era is up though.

SNES.

Each gen they've made something amazing, so in a way, they are still on their prime.

nes / snes

It's kinda true that after snes Nintendo went downhill. Snes era was so good I waited another 2 gens to jump ship.

Relative to their competition, SNES era.

Nintendo's still a great company, but they just have to cope with the fact that Sony and Microsoft aren't as incompetent as Sega was.

They've always been in their prime ever since they released Super Mario World

They were awesome even before Super Mario World.

Agreed, they've always been awesome from the start. I just think Super Mario World is the greatest game of all-time yo

Definitely the SNES generation. Not only leading in sales, but in game library with both first and third party support. All the big developers were backing up that system both for console made series like Castlevania, and having ports of most of the highest profile arcade titles (Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, Streets of Rage, R-Type, the Robocop game, and so much more).

Oh, I don't know, maybe they still released games for it that still made the console and what it stood for catch on? While the PlayStation popularized the use of CD (or disc based storage mediums), the N64 popularized four player multiplayer support thanks to games like Mario Kart (as much as I wasn't a fan of the 64 game), Goldeneye, The World is Not Enough, Perfect Dark, Super Smash 64, and Gauntlet Legends. Sony refused to completely follow that with the PS2 by relying on the clunky multitap while Nintendo, MS, and SEGA adapted to it.

That, and the N64 is held to a high regard compared to the Wii/Wii U.

Would you consider Wii Music still their prime?

SNES was their best console, by far. They have been struggling to keep up with the times since.

One of their few slip-ups? That wasn't even enough to tarnish much of their reputation of still releasing quality games (though the critically mixed-to-positive Other M came pretty damn close to their Sonic 06 for the Metroid fans).

As a dev?

Super Nintendo era. Comparing their impact in that generation to their impact in other generations is completely ridiculous.

They are still writing the book on quality game design and creativity to this day. They're probably the most consistantly good developers this industry has.

The SNES was killer, but it was more than Nintendo that made that console so beast. So many devs were at the top of their game at the time.

I'd say Nintendo has maintained the same level of quality all along. They've always been in their prime.

snes

I think some are confused about what the subject of the thread is. This isn't about Nintendo's best console (that's the SNES), but in what era Nintendo where in their prime.

They where in their prime during the NES era. They not only saved the market, but revolutionized it and completely dominated it. Their market share dwarfed the competition.

They didn't save the market with the Nes, only in Murica , they didn't revolutionize it but licensed mostly Arcade ports for it and then they dominated it because they forced retailers to keep out any other brand of console or they would lose the licence to sell Nintendo stuff holding down the competition .

With the Snes they came to their prime and fighting worldwide competition with the likes of Sega and Nec in Japan pulled the best out of them .

That's not what i read, but if you were a gamer back then and experience all of that, i can't disagree.

As a console maker - NES and SNES.

As a handheld maker - All of them!

As a game developer - SNES and N64 and Gamecube.

Business wise - NES.

Innovation wise - N64 (I think laying out the groundwork of 3 dimensional gaming and giving us analogue control, camera control, and rumble, was far more innovative than motion waggle)

1889-1974. They were best before they were a video game company

Nintendo peaked with the SNES. Their downfall was when they botched relations with both Sony and Phillips, resulting in the N64 having no CD drive, as well as their botched relations with third parties like Square. Had they been a bit less bossy with the other companies they had to deal with, The N64 probably would have been an even bigger hit than the SNES, or at least as big. Ever since then though, it's been a downward trend, with the Wii being the one exception. It was a total fluke, and as soon as the Wii died, they were right back on the same downward slope they left off at with the Gamecube.

@Timstuff: Sony would not have won with the PS1 if Squaresoft didn't jump ship. Nintendo did botch their relations, but it was when FF7 was first announced on PS1 that the entire tide has changed, and that's what we have now.

When have Nintendo ever not been in their prime?

I can't think of a period of time in which Nintendo's games were consistently lacking in quality. They may have some slower patches, sure, and every so often a few titles might fail to meet expectations, but I can't think of any truly bad patches for their games.

their greatest market climb and most innovative period was the NES era. It was downhill from there.

Of course the wii was a huge spike in terms of sales for them.