It means that every console since N64 was a gimmick ridden toy compared to the rest of the console industry, where Nintendo has focused on said gimmick instead of pushing hardware capabilities.
Because graphics and RAM are the end all, amirite?!?
At the time when N64 came out, it was literally the head of the pack for gaming.
Nah, it was still behind the Sony Playstation at the time
The games were both visually superior and had a distinct development touch by all the developers who were making them.
But then they came out with the GameCube, where the focus was making a small system that could be taken to a friends house without having to lug around a bunch of stuff. So they sacrificed game quality and hardware performance for tiny form factor. Then they came out with the Wii, sticking with the motion control technology (and the ultra portable form factor again) to promote 'more interaction' between gamers and their games. Now they've released the Wii U where it has a sub par tablet for a controller. Once again, they sacrificed performance and quality to deliver on a gaming experience which could be shared between a TV and a Tablet screen.
You would think Nintendo would learn by now
Learn what? How to keep making money hand over fist?
, and maybe go back to their roots of making powerful gaming machines that can compete with the likes of Playstation and Microsoft.
Again, nostalgia is a bitch... Nintendo hasn't had a "powerful competing gaming machine" since the SNES era.
Nope, instead they keep throwing gimmicks at their fan base in hopes that kids keep driving sales. What's even more saddening, is that their games are nearly all rehashes of previous titles, where they slightly increase graphics and add a couple more features, then call it a new game.
I loved me some old school Nintendo games, but the newer ones just don't do it for me anymore.