Ever since the first elementary school students got into an argument over who’s dedicated Pong console was better during the 1970s, console wars have been a part of gaming. In the internet age, this behavior is seen as taboo. Saying a console is better in every way, especially if you consistently say the same company’s consoles are the perfect ones, will not be well received by most people in the gaming community. Now, the obvious conclusion to reach from this is that there isn’t a perfect console that can carry a generation all by itself. Unfortunately, that message does not seem to have sunk in for a large number of gamers. The desire for a system that carries its entire generation, or more specifically anger at Nintendo systems for not doing that, has gotten a firm hold on the gaming community.

The desire for any system to dominate the console market to the point where you aren’t missing out on much by being a single console owner is simply unrealistic. The last time you could make an argument that it happened was during the Nintendo Entertainment System’s dominance in the third generation (and there are still plenty of Sega Master System fans who would argue this), and those circumstances are unlikely to ever be replicated. The console market had to be burned to the ground for the NES to secure such a strong hold on it, and even if that could happen again, would you really want it to? Recreating NES level dominance wouldn’t be as simple as Nintendo making the best selling console again, the Wii achieved that, and third parties still refused to give it full support. Even strong third party support wouldn’t be enough, as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System had the most third party support of its generation but still fought a close console war where the Sega Genesis managed to get its own lineup of big exclusives. Wii U outselling Playstation 4 would not make it the only system you needed; even changing the timeline so that Nintendo and Sony never stopped working together would be unlikely to.

A healthy video game market requires competition, or rather, it creates competition. If one console is successful, there are going to be other companies who want in on that success. The only way for there to be competition is for the major platforms to offer something the others don’t (the alternative is nearly identical systems throwing money at third parties to inconvenience owners of the other system). If two of the three current video game console manufacturers surrendered and the remaining console got everything, it wouldn’t take long for a new challenger to appear. We are going to have multiple consoles as long as we have consoles, no matter how well Nintendo does.

Now that I’ve hopefully explained why one perfect console (or platform, PC gaming is not exempt from this) isn’t plausible, let’s move onto something a little more Nintendo focused. The idea that Nintendo consoles are submissive “companion systems” has been popular recently, and I think viewing them as such is underselling them. Looking at the current and previous generation, Nintendo systems have a fantastic synergy with your third party machine of choice. As Playstation, Xbox, and Steam become more and more similar in game lineup, the fact that Nintendo relies on genuine exclusives makes them an increasingly obvious choice for anyone who plans to have more than one system during a generation. Nintendo consoles missing out on games that the other two consoles and PC share seems to trigger either bullying or a feeling of victimization (depending on whether you like Nintendo), but once you accept that you need more than one system per generation, there’s really no reason for it to. If you own any two home platforms this generation, you will get most third party games. But nothing besides a Wii U will get you Nintendo’s console games. If you aren’t obsessing over the idea of one master console that can do everything, Wii U is actually playing a vitally important role for multi-console owners. It’s time to stop viewing the glass as half empty: instead of being upset that Nintendo doesn’t provide everything, be happy that they provide something no one else does.

I realize that what I’ve said so far sounds more like I’m defending the idea of Nintendo making companion systems than explaining why their systems shouldn’t be viewed as such. Well, I think that instead of simply giving you some extra games while you play an endless stream of quality third party games on non-Nintendo systems, the Wii and Wii U have actually done a great job of taking the reigns when third parties are adjusting to generational changes, and vice versa. There were severe growing pains in the early seventh generation for developers making their first HD games. During this time period, the Wii’s first party games and more reasonably budgeted lesser known third party games contributed more than a supporting role. When Wii support started drying up while Nintendo prepped for Wii U, and while Wii U struggled with its own HD growing pains near the start of its life, the HD seventh-gen consoles had hit their stride. Right as seventh-gen third party support started drying up and eighth-generation growing pains started to hit third parties, the Wii U came into its own and carried its generation in late 2013 and the entirety of 2014. Even if we assume the worst case scenario for Wii U (barely any 2016 games as Nintendo prepares for NX), it’s just Nintendo and the third party platforms covering each other again. Wii U might feel like a companion system in 2016, but that doesn’t mean it was nothing more in the big picture.

There is simply too much that will be missed for a dedicated gamer to confine themselves to one system. Once you accept this and don’t have to worry about one system satisfying your hunger for games, it becomes much easier to appreciate the role Nintendo consoles play. The gloom and doom that dominates many parts of the gaming community (whether it’s Nintendo consoles lacking third party games, or other systems lacking genres and feel to games that Nintendo specializes in) is much less overwhelming if you have all of gaming available to you. Instead of viewing Nintendo consoles being companions as an insult, embrace that with multiple systems being “companions” to each other, gaming will be a much happier experience for you.