>>314837295SNES-Gamecube era.
NES was a good system and had some great games, but they were clearly held back by the technology at the time. And the system was plagued with a ton of awful games alongside their good ones.
SNES was where it started to really get good. Nintendo took all the good things about the NES era and amplified them while ironing out most of the issues it had.
N64 was mindblowing when it came out, and they successfully adapted major franchises into 3D. It also boasted Rare's lineup of games (Rare was GodTier in the late 90s/early 2000s).
Gamecube did much of the same as the SNES did with the NES, but there was a discernible drop in quality. However, the games were still very good.
Wii was the beginning of the end and it was what really opened up Nintendo to casuals.
Wii U is crap and I'm not optimistic about the NX.
Nintendo was once the company that you knew would always deliver. When a new 3D Mario or Zelda came out, you knew it was going to be phenomenal. And even their spinoffs and lesser-known games were still excellent (such as the Wario Land series). For the longest time they were the only one out of the "Big 3" that didn't pull any bullshit. No DLC, no pandering to casuals, no gimmicks, no pre-order crap. When you bought the game, that was the game. It was complete, and you got extra content by beating the game and unlocking secrets and cheats.
I don't know how they fell this far.