The most influential gaming consoles from 1977 to today
by: Andre Garcia Feature/Q+A
Nintendo has been a staple in many households, having become a brand that many across the world know. Whether it be Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, or even Splatoon; Nintendo has made many games which people love and adore. But in addition to the games, Nintendo creates consoles as well. Nintendo has always been known for their innovative and creative gaming consoles that always bring something new to the gaming world that most other big brands don’t like, for example portability. Here’s a recap of the most influential gaming consoles by Nintendo.
Color TV-Game: The “Color TV-Game” consoles were the very first consoles that Nintendo pushed out. It was a series of five different video game consoles released between 1977 and 1983. Although the exclusives on this console were a little lackluster to say the least, it featured games with dull titles such as Color-TV Game 6, Color-TV Game 15, Color-TV Racing 112, and Computer-TV Game. Even though these games may not be very appealing to consumers today, the consumers of the past were enthralled, with the company selling 3 million units of just the first four consoles. It was very successful in propelling Nintendo into the burgeoning console market.
The NES: The NES or Nintendo Entertainment System was a massive hit as well for the Nintendo with it releasing right after the discontinuation of the Color TV-Game. The NES was a cheap console that ran arcade games on cartridges. A unique thing that they did with this console was along with the normal controller (which was reused from the Game & Watch hardware), they released different hardware for it like the “Zapper” and the “R.O.B”. This is rare to find in modern day gaming consoles. All of this helped it become a huge success for Nintendo and even the gaming console industry as a whole revitalizing the industry after the video game crash of 1983. The SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), its successor, was also widely beloved, becoming the best selling console of the 16 bit era.
The Game Boy: This was the very first handheld gaming console by Nintendo and one of the first handheld electronics in general. This Game Boy was one of the best selling handheld systems ever, with over 100 million copies being sold. Previous Nintendo products doing well overseas outside of Japan were major contributors to the success of the Game Boy. The actual games on the series were also upgraded considerably, with over 1,000 games being developed for the console. These included portable versions of series that are still well known today such as Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda.
The Nintendo 64: The N64, released in 1996, was a home console that was the successor to the SNES. The N64 is regarded as one of the greatest gaming consoles of all time. On launch, the N64 had only two games: “Pilotwings 64” and “Super Mario 64.” Even with only these two games, it broke American records and were even higher than PlayStation and Sega’s sales the year prior. All of this helped it to gain status and be named Times Magazine’s 1996 “Machine of the Year.”
The GameCube: Building upon the success of the Nintendo 64, the GameCube was built as a competitor to the two other big gaming console brands which sprouted up around the time: the “Xbox” and “PlayStation”. Although the GameCube didn’t propel Nintendo past these two companies, it was able to help Nintendo maintain its position as third in the gaming Industry in the West and grasp a market that the Xbox and PlayStation hadn’t at the time with its exclusives. The GameCube wasn’t really a big commercial success for the company: it only sold about 21 million copies before being discontinued in 2007.
The Nintendo DS: Marking the start of Nintendo’s most successful line on consoles, the DS and all the handheld portable DS consoles sold a combined total of 154 million units being the most sold console ever. One thing that contributed to its popularity was he fact hat users could connect to other fellow DS users who where in their vicinity. Separating itself from screenshare 2 users who owned the console could keep their items and not have to play with the items(or none at all) that the other users console had.
The Nintendo Wii: Made in 2006 the Wii played a vital role in bringing Nintendo backup from the failure of this decades previous consoles. Selling less expensive games and being less expensive than its competitors the Wii was beloved by lots selling out even in some regions. That wasn’t all though. The Wii didn’t focus on competing with other companies computational power rather opting to create new forms of user interaction with its controller and the console. The Wii had wireless controllers that tracked movement. This innovative feature s well as the ability to connect with people online lead to the Wii’s success.
The Nintendo Switch: After a couple more successful iterations of the DS in 2017 the Nintendo finally has come out with their most recent line of gaming console, The Nintendo Switch. The Switch was built off of the Wii sporting many of the same features. It combined the tracking of the controllers that the Wii had with the hand held factor that traditional consoles had making it beloved among many households selling over 154 million units worldwide being the second best selling console ever. This is also the only console on this list that isn’t discontinued yet. It should also be mentioned, however, that the Switch 2 has been released as of June 2025, building off of the success of the original Nintendo Switch.