I'm not going to go in-depth, but my first console was a Nintendo 64. Extremely fun times with
Super Mario 64 (first console game I can recall playing),
Super Smash Brothers 64,
Rocket: Robot on Wheels,
Pokemon Stadium 2,
NFL Blitz, not to mention the likes of
StarFox 64,
Pokemon Snap, and
Bomberman 64. :D When I finally got to play
Super Smash Brothers Melee, that experience greatly augmented my Nintendo experience. Though my first handheld was actually a
Sega Game Gear, my
GameBoy Advance SP has been with me through thick and thin, even surviving a few scratches and drops.
Pokemon Sapphire Version reeled me back into the Pokemon universe, with
Pokemon FireRed and Emerald Versions being excellent follow-ups and providing adequate replay value. I've logged in seemingly countless hours on all three versions, and they have me eager to join the ranks of Generations IV and V in the near future as well.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past garners mention as well. I lost the cartridge before I achieved completion, but I managed to venture into locales of the Light and Dark Worlds, which were filled with epic swordplay and enjoyable experiences. :)
And with the Nintendo Wii...epicness ensued upon its release. Though not as graphically powerful as the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360, who cares? Graphics don't make a game; gameplay and enjoyability do (and replay value, to an extent). The system is not as costly as the PS3 or 360, either.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has earned itself the award of being the best action-adventure game I've ever played to date (and I haven't even finished the game; I'm still traversing the City In The Sky). Link, Midna, Zelda, and many other characters have made for a fantastic epic experience, and I'm already eager to play
Skyward Sword and
Ocarina of Time 3DS later on!
Wii Sports was a nice entry into the system, and can still provide a fun experience on occasion, despite not necessarily being as robust as other sports games. And
Super Smash Brothers Brawl...best fighting game EVER (yeah, it still has some shortcomings, but hopefully those can be rectified in the fourth
Smash Brothers videogame installment). Even the Wii Virtual Console and WiiWare hold a lot of promise with offerings of retro and innovative games. No other console or handheld has come
close to providing me as much fun as the Nintendo ones have.
Plus, for the current generation, Nintendo has been the pioneer in changing the way we play. The Nintendo Dual-Screen (DS) ingeniously utilizes
two screens (unheard of!)
and incorporates touch controls, while Sony's PlayStation Portable still struggles with one (coupled with excessive loading times). Not to mention how the DS Phat and the DS Lite provide backwards compatibility with GBA games!
The Nintendo Wii, on the other hand, could be said to have revolutionized motion controls. While some games may feature gimmicky controls, it seems that there are several that innovate the way players play games. I know that swinging a sword in
Twilight Princess is
much more enjoyable than a simple button press, and if I have the chance to play previous
Legend of Zelda games, the transition to the old playing style of strictly buttons, D-pads, and analog sticks will be awkward...
Furthermore, Nintendo games seem to provide a more unique experience that cannot be found on other consoles. The only thing I really recognize the 360 for is being
Halo-exclusive and
Gears of War-exclusive. That's it. Aside from online functionality, IMO it's basically the same thing as PS3, which has
Metal Gear Solid,
Tekken, and
Jak and Daxter, and the
Sly series. Compare that meager amount of franchises to the slew of ongoing franchises Nintendo still has.
Furthermore, it's very annoying that both the PS3 and 360 are constantly getting the same games with essentially the same controls on the controllers (i.e.,
Final Fantasy XIII and
Street Fighter 4), while the Wii's intuitive interface gets
shafted. Just because the Wii has "last-gen" graphics and a different playstyle, it cannot enjoy third-party support. Even with the Wii and DS
blazing in terms of sales, the PS3 and 360 still manage to get all the "killer apps" which I feel is
extremely unfair to Wii players (and not very sensible, at that).
Lastly, the Nintendo Wii is so innovative that Sony and Microsoft even feel the need to
imitate their controller with the PlayStation Move and Microsoft Kinect, respectively, which I feel is robbing the Wii of its uniqueness and proper credit. The Wii was the first out of all the current-gen consoles to reveal and implement extensive motion controls in the controller, and now Sony and Microsoft want to leech of the Wii's apparent success. If gamers have any respect for what the Wii introduced first, I do not think they will buy such imitating accessories. I agree that Sony and Microsoft can implement such controls next-gen, but not in the gen where the Wii was originally the only console to pioneer such a playstyle.
In closing,
Nintendo all the way for me. :D (I don't really want to be all fanboy-ish and start a generic "console war," but the PS3 and 360 have it coming to them, considering how they are blatantly copying another console's controls and receiving more third-party support than
the leading console of the current generation - the Nintendo Wii).
EDIT: hmm...looks like I
did go in-depth. Sorry for the long post!