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Honestly? I don't think it would have taken off like it did.
One of the biggest appeals of the series has always been the trading/battling with your friends aspect. It was very much a series designed around the ideas that were only possible on the Gameboy. I don't think you really realize how fundamentally different the series would probably be in this scenario, but I digress.
So in this world, after Nintendo takes a gamble on this new, untested concept, it ends up only selling modestly. It falls into obscurity, becoming a fondly regarded, yet ultimately niche NES JRPG. The American localization (if we even get one) butchers the game in an attempt to appeal to western audiences. The most the series gets after this is maybe a playable character in Smash.
Oh yeah, and Nintendo's portable game systems aren't nearly as successful, and the race between Sony and Nintendo in the handheld market is very much an even thing, if not in Sony's favor iff on that though because most of the PSP and Vita's failures are due to Sony being fucking idiots. The lack of dominance within handhelds hurts Nintendo's profits and we probably don't see a console like the switch ever come out due to lack of faith in hand held consoles.
