Which decade were Nintendo's (as a developer) best in terms of good games?

Which decade were Nintendo's (as a developer) best in terms of good games?

  • 80s -Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros 1-3, Zelda I-II, Metroid, Kid Icarus etc

    Votes: 6 6.5%

  • 90s - Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Yoshis Island, Mario 64, Zelda OoT, SMK, Pokemon etc

    Votes: 68 73.9%

  • 00s - Zelda, MM, WW, TP, SMS, Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime, smash bros melee , PM:ttyd etc

    Votes: 11 12.0%

  • 10s - Zelda BotW, SMO, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Maker, Xenoblade series (not sure it counts) etc

    Votes: 7 7.6%
  • Total voters
    92
SantaC

SantaC

Member
And no, I obviously didn't bother to list every high profile game released.
 
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Born in the 80s, spent my childhood/teens in the 90s so I'm gonna stick for it and the GB & SNES, though I can't recall which games were Nintendo's (as a developer, important) or not.
 
It's confusing cause the options do include Nintendo as a whole so sure Xenoblade would count, Nintendo funded it just like those other games.

While the question refers to Nintendo as a developer but that would be only EPD so no Pokémon (that's Game Freak), no Smash Bros (that's Sora Ltd.) no Metroid Prime (Retro Studios), no Paper Mario TTYD (Intelligent Systems), etc.

Anyway i'd have picked other games for this decade: Xenoblade is surely a good one, but like Splatoon was far more iconic and had a bigger impact than Mario Maker. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is also considered the best Animal Crossing ever in the series, and there are other gems like Kid Icarus Uprising or Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
 
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The problem is you broke it into decades. Nintendo's best stretch was 85-95, but they only ruled the 80s as 'the best.' By the time of the mid to late 90s, they were surpassed by Squaresoft, Capcom, Konami, etc.
 
AlexxKidd said:
The problem is you broke it into decades. Nintendo's best stretch was 85-95, but they only ruled the 80s as 'the best.' By the time of the mid to late 90s, they were surpassed by Squaresoft, Capcom, Konami, etc.
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I don't agree. I think they were at their best well into the late 90's. Their first party N64 games changed the whole medium, and were incredibly well polished. Of course the same is true for Square, Capcom and Konami. But that doesn't mean Nintendo lagged behind, at least not to me.
 
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Azelover said:
I don't agree. I think they were at their best well into the late 90's. Their first party N64 games changed the whole medium, and were incredibly well polished. Of course the same is true for Square, Capcom and Konami. But that doesn't mean Nintendo lagged behind, at least not to me.
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I disagree of course, but no one's opinion is wrong here.
 
Definitely 90s. Started gaming with NES, but SNES and N64 were peak Nintendo for me. Lot of my all time favorite games are on these two platforms.
 
90s easily . The trio of Mario 64 , link to the past and Super Metroid are probably my fondest non fighting game memories and playing LtP and Super Metroid again on switch , they hold up extremely well.
 
Just like for movies it is the 90s. Games and movies in the 90s man that was the best (still is).

No idea if it will ever be topped.
 
Let's see. Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Ocarina of Time, F-Zero X are all in my personal top 10 of all time.

So 4/10 games are 90's Nintendo releases. 2 more from other decades (Majora's Mask and Metroid Prime) but Prime is arguable because it was made by Retro. The rest are from various developers.

90's Nintendo is the peak of Nintendo (if you exlude Mario Kart as the 8th installment is the best). Late 90's being the peak of video games in general IMO, Nintendo being the biggest factor. I was born in the early 80's so it's not even childhood nostalgia (that would be the late 80's/early 90's for me). Plus, i had an Atari 2600/Master System/Mega Drive before i ever got a SNES in 1994. And i'm from Europe where Nintendo was never as huge and didn't invade every aspect of our lives. So i feel like Nintendo earned my appreciation purely by their quality of games alone.
 
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90s and N64 era. Super Metroid is still the best game they have ever made. The 3D reinvisioning of their classic IPs thru GameCube were also excellent

Iwata era Nintendo however was without question the worst and they're still rebuilding from that disaster but it's looking better these days.
 
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Depends on whether you mean in the context of their time, or which would I rather play today.

I think their N64 games were the most groundbreaking, but if you give me the choice today, I think I'd rather play their most recent output.
 
It's really close between 90s and 00s to me. This thread only reminds me that we should make a new best Nintendo games ever vote.
 
any period... Except Wii Generation... i really hate Nintendo in Wii Generation..

For me the simple word WII= Piece of shit

Thanks God, Nintendo is still amazing and the best prove is Nintendo Switch
 
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Heimdall_Xtreme said:
any period... Except Wii Generation... i really hate Nintendo in Wii Generation..

For me the simple word WII= Piece of shit

Thanks God, Nintendo is still amazing and the best prove is Nintendo Switch
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I can understand the hate for the console, but Mario Galaxy (among others) being flat-out magic makes it impossible for me to hate on their software output during that gen. The Zeldas were certainly a mixed bag though.
 
SLoWMoTIoN said:
How so? Sega was catching up to Nintendo until Sony came in.
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Off course this is just my opinion.
I never felt that Sega was really offering anything en par with what Nintendo delivered that generation.
SMW, Super Metroid, Zelda:alttp, Killer Instinct and much more..
 
I don't remember exactly when but it was that decade where they put out Super Mario World, Super Metroid, A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time.
 
Maybe this is a fresh perspective, from someone who has ignored consoles for 8 years:

As far as i can tell, when i last looked at Nintendo consoles they were the Wii, with a crap gimmick and almost universally panned games lineup. Now i look at it and it is considered to be beside/close to Sony as the dominant provider in the consoles market, renowned for great titles and even a revolutionary one in Breath of the Wind... And i don't even know that much about this stuff.

Let's look at this:
90s generation market dominance:
I dunno, en par with Sony? Ahead?
00s market dominance:
Behind ps2 and far behind xbox, then once more behind ps3 and xbox 360
10-15s market dominance:
Behind ps3 and xbox 360, then considered to be above the xbox at least.

I reckon this latest generation has seen Nintendo regain its rightful place in the consoles market. As such i think you have to say it's either the 90s or indeed this generation.

I guess, all things considered, you'd have to say the 90s, and I'm basing a lot of that guesstimate off their international success with Pokémon.

EDIT: OP I personally would say 00s, because Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, SSB:M and the like we the best console games I'd played in my life up to that point. Arguably Wind Waker and Metroid Prime retain that position.
 
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Mid-80s to mid-90s, with occasional high points beyond. For instance, Super Mario 3D World being my favorite Super Mario game since Super Mario World.

I guess one could say that my favorite days with Nintendo were synonymous under the leadership of Hiroshi Yamauchi.
 
80's for me but it may be my childhood talking - although there really is something to be said for all those series that started then from nothing. Everything since has had the 80's games as a base but in the actual 80's the creativity to come up with all of what they did is crazy.
 
Born in 84 and to be honest, for me, they have never had a bad run. Ever. Even their worst decades there were utter gems...

I have to say it may be 90s for me, because nothing will ever beat DLC2, LTTP, Super Metroid etc
 
Difficult. 80's and early 90's for me. In my opinion the last truly great game they made was Super Metrood in 1994.

Yoshi's Island marked the start of the decline for me, horrible game and with all the Nintendo magic lost. Don't even get me started on the Nintendo 64... 🙄
 
90s, I would also like to add the best racing game ever: F-Zero X.

I liked all decades starting the 90s though and both my favourite Mario (Galaxy 2) and my favourite Zelda (SS) were 10s games.

Urprobablyright said:
then once more behind ps3 and xbox 360
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No, Wii and DS were the best selling console and handheld respectively.
 
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Yoshi said:
.


No, Wii and DS were the best selling console and handheld respectively.
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Well A that's nice to know, but B i reckon i was drawing conclusions from my own ideas of how good the games were on the various visions, so yeah i was talking out of my ass with the tone of my rankings, cheers
 
The 90s! Super Metroid, Mario World, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, holy motherfucking shit balls. If you count Rare as well then that's just insane.
 
SNES > NES > N64 > Everything else.

So 80's is when they started testing the waters, then they knocked it out of the park in the 90's especially if you include both SNES and N64. They set the bar so high though they'll never replicate it ever again, despite fanboys wishful thinking by staying loyal to them. Today Nintendo is a shell of their former selves, such as shame...
 
The 90s hands down. The 80s was the foundation. The 90s perfected the foundation of the 80s and also took it to 3d. The 00s was about taking the franchises in new directions. The 10s tried to perfect the new direction sometimes succeeding others failing.
 
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