Until the Switch I'd argue Nintendo had got pretty good at backwards compatibility over the last two decades, even more so when their consoles were hacked.
- GBA is backwards compatible with all GB / GBC games.
- DS / DS Lite are backwards compatible with all GBA games
- 3DS is backwards compatible with all DS games and has hardware to natively play GBA games via homebrew (without emulation)
- Wii is backwards compatible with the GameCube unless you buy the models released towards the end of the Wii's life
- Wii U is backwards compatible with the Wii and can play GameCube games without emulation via homebrew.
Certainly in the 3DS era I did quite like some of the VC re releases Nintendo did also, the Gen 1 and 2 Pokemon games got fixed up pretty well, WiFi trading and even IR support for the Gen 2 games. With the ability to bring all Pokemon caught over to the current Gen 7 games on the 3DS.
The Switch merged the home console and handheld consoles lines with zero backwards compatibility. Sure we have Switch online which can emulate some past consoles, however I personally find this a poor effort and don't want to subscribe to play old games. I'd sooner buy the few I wish to play out right and own a digital copy packed up nicely for that console.
This is where I do think Nintendo dropped the ball and could have released past VC titles on the Switch, allowing past purchases to be brought to the Switch. I can play digital games I purchased on my 360 in 2005 today in 2023 on the Xbox Series consoles via emulation. With that in mind Nintendo could have done a lot better. Backwards compatibility was very low effort, the same as their current online functionality.
The Switch 2 really needs to be backwards compatible as Nintendo have no reason to start again, I don't think backwards compatibility will be a sure thing this time however.
