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Mar 10, 2026 • Was Nintendo's Dark Age Really A Golden Age?

Was Nintendo's Dark Age Really A Golden Age?

Posted on Mar 10, 2026, by sirkorgo


Like a lot of other people, I LOVE my Nintendo 3DS. But During the era of the 3DS and Wii U, many Nintendo fans considered it to be the “dark age” of Nintendo. But others like me consider it as the “golden age”.

But why was that?

On one hand, the console experience was GREAT. On both the wii u and 3ds you had miiverse, and the 3DS had StreetPass. And overall, these consoles had so much personality in their home menus, making it even more welcoming and fun to use.

But not only that, there were some great little games! Some were Tomodachi Life, Nintendo Land, Super Mario Land and World 3D, Animal Crossing New Leaf and Happy Home Designer, just to name a few.

But on the other hand, there were some pretty bad sales. THERE WERE ONLY 13 MILLION WII Us SOLD WORLDWIDE. Now, that seems like a lot, but the Wii was sold 100 MILLION times WORLDWIDE. The 3DS has a similar story. Only around 75 million consoles were sold, compared to the Nintendo DS’s 154 million units sold. And think about it, that many units were sold across 7-10 years, which isn’t a lot, considering that the Switch sold 150 million units in 8 years. Crazy difference.

Marketing was definitely a big factor in the poor sales. Many people thought the Wii U was some sort of add-on to the Wii, not a standalone console. And that point wasn’t made very clear in their advertising for it. The Wii U’s ads were so weird and unappealing, and it didn’t do a good job of selling the Wii U. It just talked about a happy family.

The 3DS on the other hand, had some pretty good advertising in my opinion. And the 3DS’s main gimmick, 3D, wasn’t very appealing to most people, as it was pretty hard to show 3D capabilities through an advertisement, and people who used the 3DS in person would get headaches from the 3D being so bad.

I think the issue was that they didn’t showcase the new features of the 3DS that well, so most people just thought, “I already have a DSi or DS, what’s the point of getting another one?”

Nintendo DID try to solve issues with the 3DS, when they launched the New 3DS line of models. Now at that point, I think it was a bit too late to save the 3DS. The only new features were better 3D tracking and better performance in some games. While yes, there were exclusives, they weren’t that appealing. Leaving 14.74 Million units sold.

But on the brighter side, the community felt really alive. Games with the Miiverse integration had really cool art and you could see people’s Mii’s in games. Giving games a really nice feel.

This really showed on the Wii U, as games like Super Mario World, Splatoon, and even the Home Menu had Miiverse posts and art display throughout. And it wasn’t like the list of supported games were niche, a lot of games had Miiverse functionality.

And on the 3DS, Animal Crossing New Leaf and Happy Home Designer had very unique online features. The games allowed you to publish your designed homes, and your island for others to see! But sadly, now that Nintendo’s online services closed, a LOT of these islands and homes have been lost to time.

And speaking of dead online services, Nintendo really didn’t give a lot of their online services a chance.

Here’s a list! deep inhale

Many of these services were just shutdown because people didn’t use them, or Nintendo just stopped caring.

Let’s uh… move on from the past, and into 2017. Nintendo had just announced the Nintendo Switch, and people are hyped. Now, we know that the switch was a colossal success, and if you think about it, it’s a more polished continuation of the Wii U. As it’s a tablet gaming device that can be played on the big screen with a whole suite of accessories.

But the drastic lifelessness of the Switch is kind of depressing. It’s not just the system, but the games too in a way. Just sequels and constant remasters. Now, don’t get me wrong, the games are good, but where are the fun original titles and the smaller titles like Tomodachi Life, Box Boy, and Rhythm Heaven? It feels like after the what kind of seems like the massive failure that is the 3DS and Wii U, Nintendo was willing to take every necessary so that the Switch wouldn’t fail.

But with the success of the Switch, came an even harder downfall for the 3DS and Wii U. Many people were switching from their 3DSes, and the lack of users became EVEN more lacking. And now, Nintendo has gotten pretty greedy in my opinion. Look how expensive the Switch 2 is along with its games.

But I still kind of have hope. Nintendo is slowing taking more risks again. The quirkier games from the 3DS like Tomodachi Life and Rhythm Heaven seem to be making a comeback, which makes me really happy. There’s also the new releases as well. Pokemón Pokepia seems to be a really fun game, and is something Nintendo hasn’t really done before with the Pokémon franchise before.

And that’s why I think the 3DS and Wii U were the golden age of Nintendo. Nintendo’s quirky game releases and user friendliness really gave the consoles life, and that isn’t really around with the Switch in a way. But on the other hand, Nintendo was a mess, nothing was selling, and they were almost at an all time low of sales for the first time in a while, and they were still falling behind with the specs and are still just barely meeting today’s tech specs.

Anyways, That’s all from me, see ya!
Sirkorgo

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