Is there any retro consoles that you never lived up to their potential? where the games fell short of the hardware?.
Personally I feel that the NDS was under-utilized, as it was a fully 3d capable console, that was used mostly for 2d pixel art games, and platformers. When it was able to support full 3d platformers and even a fan remake of portal.
As far as hardware gimmicks go, I agree that the WiiU’s gamepad could’ve done so much more, I can think of so many different unique ways a game could’ve made use of it, like having two different perspectives or mini games like in GTA Chinatown wars.
The Wii U tried to bring the DS to console, but there was one major limitation that kept it from being used the way the DS was: human eyes cannot focus on screens at different distances from the eyes. The DS only worked because both screens were right next to each other.
The one thing the Gamepad could do that worked quite well and deserved to be explored more was asymmetric multiplayer. But at the same time, it felt like it was an era too late to be a big deal - giving players separate screens is something we can already do via online multiplayer.
I remember reading this comic back in the day, don’t remember playing anything like it other than Nintendo Land
The one notable time I can think of a game trying the dual perspective thing with the gamepad was Star Fox Zero at the end of its life cycle, and it was not received well at all because it made the control and aiming way too complicated since it was too much of a challenge to try to look at both screens at the same time. Can’t think of another game that tried something like that, but I did see a good number of games that used the gamepad for inventory, like the Zelda games and Monster Hunter.