the nes & snes & pnes were feeble by comparison to their competition with nowhere near the same quality/quantity of games,
???
I loved my SNES. It had some of the funnest games and best graphics ever on it, so I don't even know what you're talking about. SFII, Super Bomberman, Super Mario World, Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, those FX chip games (Starfox/Starwing, Stunt Race FX), Super Metroid, Turtles Tournament Fighters, Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy games of the day were of course on it too (not in Europe mind you, but in the US)... It was like the number one choice platform for some of Capcom and Konami's best stuff for a while, not to mention the RPG choice (yeah, in everywhere but Europe). You were one of those Sega vs. Nintendo people, right? I'm thinking that because that was Nintendo's main competition of the time (sure you had the PC Engine, but that hardly had widespread availability; and the Neo Geo was arcade-level powerful and had cool fighting games on it, but the price tag rendered it "elitists only" at the time). Well, the Sega Megadrive (Genesis) was actually technically inferior, but it did have more games and many many awesome ones too, so really it too was brilliant! I have both consoles; I love them both dearly. You can't truly adore the 16-bit era and not have a place for both of them in your heart.
As for the NES not having many great games... Ridiculous! Here's what was in my collection in 1993 (the year I then got a SNES as well): the first three Super Mario Bros. games, Tetris, Lemmings, Donkey Kong Classics, Excitebike, Paperboy, Monster in my Pocket, Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers, Teenage Muntant Hero/Ninja Turtles, Fester's Quest, Dragon's Lair (okay so that was kind of naff), Kick-off, Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman (because you have to love those aged looking zapper games)... I played a few more than that, but being a child I couldn't buy all the games I wanted to. The point is that most of those were really fun games at the time, even the cartoon tie-in ones... That's not to discredit the Sega Master System either though; they were both awesome consoles (love Alex Kidd).
And as to the Gameboy Advance being a glorified Sega Gamegear... Well, I didn't have an Advance, but I do have a DS so I can play Advance games now. Shut your mouth, boy! The Advance games that I've played and seen are brilliant! Yes, a 16-bit (or whatever it is now, forgive me if I've made a mistake in my old age) colour handheld is a 16-bit colour handheld, but because this is a Nintendo 16-bit colour handheld, it has super innovative, exciting Nintendo software on it as well as all the great stuff by other companies. The first Advance game I got was DK: King of Swing and in my opinion that is super-adictive and different with it's weird "control Donkey Kong's hands" movement system. Well okay, so that wasn't entirely Nintendo's, but they have games on it that are just as good. I'm enjoying owning my DS as much for the Advance back library as I am for the actual DS games; they hold up just fine. Fun and addictive gameplay is just that, however it is packaged.
Anyway, the bottom line is that when Nintendo want to be cool and innovative like they are being now, it should be embraced. Their 8-bit and 16-bit era was awesome, just like Sega's was; and while their 64-bit era was a disappointment in some ways, it was also not a total waste (as Ghostline pointed out, you have Ocarina of Time; but you also have other perfect games like Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64...). Likewise, the Gamecube has had a few great titles, maybe not as many as it could have but possibly enough to make it a must-have purchase if you have the cash, much the the original Mario trilogy made the NES (although it also had a huge library of good stuff). And the most dominant handheld in history was the Gameboy, and now I'd say the
best handheld ever is the DS. Meanwhile the best consoles of the past were the SNES and Megadrive/Genesis (at least for 16-bit lovers like me), while the best console of the future (i.e. 128-bits and beyond) has got to be the Sega Dreamcast (with it's gloriously crispy Naomi graphics... and Soul Calibur...). So... er... there.