A lot of that was necessary for Nintendo get away from the "it's a video game console" comparison after the video game market crash. That's why the NES looks like a VCR too.

Also NES appeared before the US as a VCR design because well, American's loved VCRs

When you try weird shit you’re bound to have failures. Nintendo has a remarkable success rate with their weird shit, though.

Don't forget Stack-Up! :P

Indeed I forgot Stack-Up!