I am probably going to get hate for this, but I don’t think too highly of this console.
Sure, some of the games at the time were astonishing and well regarded classics, but man oh man do I dislike the controller, it just feels so… alien to hold you know?
Another thing too, the cartridge format whilst snappy, suffered from making too many cutbacks compared to the disc format of PS1 and Saturn which gave you pretty much the full scoop.
I am sure Nintnedo had their reasons at the time, but to me it was almost like it was a death by a thousand cuts scenario, a really powerful machine let down by not using what is literally the next gen medium at the time.
Let me know your thoughts, it is fine to disagree as the console is well respected with both nostalgia and entertainment, I’m just an outlier here.
Cartridges actually have much faster load times than discs. Notice how the Switch has reverted back to cartridges? They’re faster.
As for the controller… It is pretty odd. Though, at the time, we didn’t have the same standard for controller design we have now. So it makes sense that Nintendo would try something bold. Then after they had committed to the design, the world decided the PS1 controller made much more sense, and that became the benchmark for future controller designs.
The controller was so you could use it as a d-pad or as a joystick controller
Our current format has the assumption you will use both at the same time
Cartridges were faster but held less data, currently there is no reason to use cds/dvds/blurays over sd cards
Handhelds all use cartridges (the only exception being the PSP) because they are smaller and do not require mechanical parts.
I’m willing to bet the revert to carts had something more to do with the switch being handheld and it’s small form than load times. Still a beneficial side effect though.