Topic: Nintendo's Golden Age and Dark Age

Nintendo has had many highs and lows as a company. But which of those periods would you consider to be a true golden age, and which would you consider to be a dark age.

Here's my take.
Golden Age: SNES era. Even though I wasn't alive for part of it, I can definitely see how this was when Nintendo really hit their stride as both a game maker and a console maker. Other great periods in Nintendo's history would be the late GC/early Wii era, and the current era, but I just don't think those had the same impact as the SNES era, which cemented many franchises as industry staples

Dark Age: This was a challenge to decide between the N64/early GC days, and the late Wii/Wii U days, but ultimately I think I have to say Nintendo's dark age was 2010-2016, because unlike with the N64/GC, the problem wasn't just with console sales, but with the games themselves. Xenoblade Chronicles and Splatoon were really the only two 1st party home console games that came out in this period that made significant impact to their genres or franchises (on the handheld side, I'd say Fire Emblem Awakening filled this role). Everything else pretty much seemed content to refine and iterate, if even that. There were lots of games that weren't even that great from a redefine/iterating perspective, from Wii Play Motion to Game & Wario to Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival.

What would you consider Nintendo's Golden age and Dark age?

I don't know enough about sales and things to speak from Nintendo's perspective, but from my perspective the Golden Age was definitely the N64. That was the only time we would have huge parties revolved solely around playing games (namely Smash Bros. and Goldeneye). Maybe that could be happening now for teenagers with the Switch or back with the Wii, but I was older by then and while I love those systems the sheer spectacle wasn't there. And there will never be a game again that touches the pure magic of seeing and playing Mario 64 for the first time when you had never seen 3D games before.

Dark Age for me would have to be SNES simply because other than Chrono Trigger, I didn't do much with it. I really have no other memories of any games other than Tetris Attack until I was older and able to play them on Virtual Console.

THIS is Nintendo's Golden Age.

Yes, the SNES era had some absolute gems, but they've never had the sheer quantity of amazing and varied IP that they currently do.

In just the last generation they've added 3 new franchises to their permanent AAA-level roster, in Splatoon, Xenoblade and Fire Emblem (yes Fire Emblem has existed since forever but it sold hardly anything pre-Awakening and therefore could never justify a AAA sized budget). And possibly Mario Maker, if that becomes a permanent franchise (which it might not)

They've basically got a successful franchise in every major gaming genre now.

The Dark Age for me was probably the Wii. Yes it was a huge commercial success, but in terms of quality games, it was pretty barren. The only games from the Wii that I ever replay are the Galaxy games, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Skyward Sword.

For me Nintendo had more than one golden ages.

1st Golden Age was the NES.
2nd Golden Age was the Gameboy.
3rd Golden Age was GBA.
4th Golden Age was DS.
5th Golden Age was 3DS
and 6th Golden Age in the Switch.

All of those had grand success and one could argue that the Wii was also very successful.

Dark age was definitely Wii U. Such a disaster.

I disagree that 2010-2016 was a "dark age". If Nintendo had their home console division alone at this time I'd be more inclined to agree - but the 3DS was too good of a system to place in a "dark age" imo.

That said, I think the console industry is competitive enough that any dark age would be the end of a console manufacturer. I'd say that Sega had a dark age with the Saturn (in the West, at least), and...we know the end of that story. The current manufacturers have had low points (Nintendo with Virtual Boy and Wii U, most recently a very dead 2016, and Microsoft with a shoddy XBO launch), but these have been short enough to recover from.

I won't disagree that SNES was a golden age, but I'd also argue that we're experiencing a Nintendo Renaissance right now.

I'd say Switch is Nintendo's Golden Age because of the device itself being a hybrid and the games available. 3rd party games are flourishing, even Microsoft is supporting the Switch outside of Minecraft meanwhile plenty of 1st party franchises have some of their best games on the Switch.

Nintendo's Dark Age is easily mobile. Nintendo's mobile games' monetization have gotten increasingly questionable with Mario Kart Tour's monetization being absolutely disgusting.

Golden Age for me : NDS, 3DS, Wii, Switch

Dark Age for me : N64, Gamecube, Wii U, Nintendo games on mobile

This^

But I would add the SNES in there.

Nintendo hasn't had a "dark age" unless you only stick to their home consoles or are insanely picky about what games you play.

With that said, I have no love whatsoever for the N64. If I had to pinpoint a "dark age" for Nintendo in terms of what period had the games I was least interested in, it would definitely be the GBC/N64 era.

My second choice would be Wii/DS. The NDS had way too many games that were almost entirely focused on touch controls, and the Wii, outside of a few really amazing games, never particularly appealed to me.

On the positive side, I do think, for primarily handheld-oriented gamers, the transition from 3DS to Switch/Switch Lite was mind-bogglingly cool. It's like Nintendo skipped an entire generation of handheld devices.