I thought it would be fun to see what RGB’s favorite game consoles are, collectively. Favorite could mean a lot of things - maybe the console was your favorite as a kid; maybe its library holds up the best in your eyes; maybe you appreciate its historic impact. All definitions are accepted!
Here’s the format:
Everyone lists their top 3 consoles IN ORDER. This is because each selection will be weighted - 3 points for #1, 2 points for #2, 1 point for #3. Your reasoning for the selections are encouraged for discussion purposes! For the sake of simplicity, systems with add-ons like Genesis/32X/CD will count as one system. Game Boy and Game Boy Color are two different platforms. Which platform you consider black cartridge games to be on is your decision to make. PC isn’t eligible for this.
Let’s give it 3 weeks. After that, I will count the votes and the list will be determined!
My picks:
Nintendo 64 - not the deepest library in the world, but it has the most games in my top 10 or 20 favorite games list. Has some of the best single player and local multiplayer games ever in my opinion. It carved a nice niche for itself that generation by having quality 3D action games and 4 controller ports.
SNES - While I like the N64 more for its top games, the SNES probably has the most “great games” in my opinion. In general, it feels like a polished 8 bit generation system with more depth thanks to its controller having so many more buttons. The good games generally have killer killer music to boot. As silly as it sounds, Donkey Kong Country 2 changed the way I felt about game music forever.
PlayStation - It took me a while to land on PS1 because my 3rd favorite system isn’t as clear cut as the top 2. While I’m not much of an RPG or racing game person, I think the PS1 has a lot of great games. Other than Nintendo and Sega, it had every Japanese publisher’s best games during that time period. I thought about putting the Switch here, but I still think it needs a few more great games to qualify.
PS1- This one is quite a recent change for me, having become pretty obsessed with the console over the past couple of years, digging through psxdatacenter to find out about all the weird and wonderful games that never made it over to western shores has been really fun and convinced me that it has the best library of games of any console. I love the dithering and quirks of how it handles 3D, coupled with a sprite based library that is incredibly underrated in both scope and quality. A a console it had everything I loved about 8/16-bit and arcade games whilst moving videogames forward into the modern era, such a great amount of experimentation. More than anyting it has more games that I enjoy coming back to again and again, games like Ridge Racer and Tony Hawks 2 never get old.
SNES- My main childhood console with a ton of great memories, swapping carts at school or playing classic Konami titles like Sunset Riders, Turtles In Time, Probotector and Buster Busts Loose at my best friends house. Not much more needs to be said about this one, everyone knows why this console is a highly regarded as it is.
SATURN- The console I collected the most games for and one that dominated what I primarily played and was interested in during my twenties. It started with a copy of Waku Waku 7, being a game that I used to play alot in my local arcade, to hoovering up every shmup, fighting game, arcade port and exclusive for the system, all at those lovely cheap early 2000’s prices! I have great memories buying Hyper Duel and Astra Superstars with my first real paycheck, getting a minty copy of Radiant Silvergun for my 21st Birthday or stumbling across a perfect condition PAL copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga for £60 on the day a small gaming store had opened in London, whilst taking a shortcut that normally I didnt take. I eventually got to around 160 games before selling those and the rest of my collection to enable moving forward with other stuff I wanted to get on with in life.
Nintendo Wii - it’s the system that forced me to reconceptualize what I look for in video games. Virtual console was excellent and first party games were absolutely incredible. Everything was simplified and made more accessible. I loved it. GCN backwards compatibility was incredible too. Super Mario Galaxy also felt like a life changing event.
Nintendo Entertainment System - it’s the device that started everything for me. The Wild West of modern game design. So many new experiences that it’s sort of impossible to accurately summarize just how impactful it was for me.
XBOX 360 - I thought about this a lot and was tempted to put a Sega console or PS1 here, but XBOX 360 sort of felt like the pinnacle of so many different things. A watershed system that opened up the industry and ushered in both AAA titles and indie games alike. Everything from mainstream games like Halo 3 , to niche things like Radient Silvergun or Virtual On, to personal experiences like FEZ appeared on it and it felt like it defined what modern systems are today. Everything that Sony and Microsoft has done since has just felt like iterations of XBOX 360’s playbook.
Mega Drive - The first and the best 16-bit system. While this system isn’t home to my absolute favourite 16-bit games, it does have the most games I like to revisit on a regular basis. This system had a productive eight-ish years on the market and that is the product of well thought out hardware that always surprised me with what it could do. Developers were able to create classic after classic by finding new ways to use it. By the time the sun set on the MD, it had an absolutely killer library that was very distinct. For example, games like Gunstar Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog, Alien Soldier, Super Shinobi 2, and Contra Hardcorps are not exactly deep, but they have a depth of gameplay that makes them fun to come back to again and again.
SFC - There are three 16-bit games that I don’t think were ever bettered; Zelda 3, Mario 4, and Metroid 3. I don’t think I loved any other 16-bit games as much as these three - they thing is, for me, very few games on the SFC measure up to these three for me, but they’re so good, so perfect, that the SFC is by default in the top three.
PS1 - If the SFC and the MD could have a bastard baby where all the best elements of those respective consoles third party libraries could be combined and upgraded for the 32bit generation, it would be the PS1. I had so many great experiences on this console and while some of the 2D Capcom stuff wasn’t quite as good as the Saturn versions, its not like they were inferior. The PS1 was amazing for 2D as well as a lot of experimentation in 3D. There are too many classics to list, but this was where things like SotN, Resident Evil and Gran Turismo were born.
#3Genesis - This was my first love in gaming. I had played NES and liked my GameBoy, but the Genesis was where I really cut my teeth. Given the place I lived as a kid I didn’t really have many games or even really know what was out there, but I did get some great experiences with real knockout titles. Sonic, SoR, Golden Axe, Splatterhouse 2, Shinobi 3, and X-Men 2. As I returned to the system years later I realized I missed so many more. Monster World 4, Ristar, Sub-Terrania, Contra: Hard Corps, MUSHA, Gunstar Heroes, and Alien Soldier are just insane and all feel right at home on the system. This doesn’t even begin to cover everything including CD games like Snatcher and Lunar. While I think the SNES has more games in a ‘Best 100 Games Ever’ list, the Genesis means way more to me personally.
#2PS1 - This is where I began to play games with the goal of beating them and actually go out and seek new ones out. This meant renting at my local shops. This led to fateful encounters with the likes of Tomba 2, King’s Field 2, and Legend of Dragoon which I would never had seen otherwise. I loved so many PS1 games and I still count many as classics. The golden age of RPGs and 3D platformers, and there was still enough of the explorer’s spirit for off-the-wall titles to be common.
Xbox - I really came into my own on this system. With the Genesis I was barely aware of what video games were. With the PS1 I rented what was available at local shops whenever I wandered in. With the Xbox I had magazines, websites, and word of mouth from all my friends to make me truly anticipate new games and go for them day 1. The hype and BS from magazine articles made it a crazy time for me.
Though smaller than some, games like Halo, Ninja Gaiden, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Jade Empire, KOTOR 1 & 2, the Burnout Games, and great multi-platform representation with top performance meant that the library has some of the highest quality on average. Compilations were also strong on this system and modding really opened up a virtually infinite library plus multimedia features. Surround sound, HDD saves, and 480p on pretty much all titles, plus Xbox Live make it the best bridge between what constitutes ‘retro’ gaming and ‘modern’ gaming. The innovations here are basically the entire industry today.
I’m going to say right off that on a given day I would maybe pick GBC, SNES, PS2, GameCube, or Xbox as a favorite.
Today I’m going with:
Game Boy Color: Probably just right place / right time but between Pokemon, Zelda, and Dragon Warrior there’s a ton of stuff I really love and put a lot of time into.
Super Nintendo: The cumulation of 2D design, the king of RPGs, the home of many greatest of all time Nintendo and 3rd party games.
PlayStation 2: This system has such an incredible, deep library. The highs may not be as high as GameCube and it’s lacking a certain X factor, but it makes up with it with shear volume. If you put a gun to my head and asked me to keep only one console it’d be PS2 because I’d never run out of great games to play.
Sega Megenesis - For true mega drivers. This is the ultimate system for just pick-up and play fun. Whenever I’m bored and have an hour or so to waste, I can turn the system on and have dozens of classics to choose from each of which is infinitely replayable. Like the Saturn, it’s a great system for arcade titles. But, unlike the Saturn, it didn’t quite match the arcade experience in horsepower so many of its arcade games have been changed often for the better. Of course, this is the origin of Shining Force. Speed shock motherfuckers.
Sega Saturn - This likely would be tied or above the Genesis but I’ve been collecting arcade PCBs lately which has made a lot of its titles redundant. Despite this, it is often more convenient to play than my arcade PCBs and has access to a lot of really cool classic Japanese PC titles. This is my favorite place to play Daytona and has the best version of Outrun available (other than the sit-down hydraulic cabinet which I definitely don’t have). It is still home to tons of great titles like Panzer Dragoon, NiGHTs, and Shining Force 3 which is 100% my #1 game ever. I can’t get enough of the Saturn.
SNES - It’s basically just a Genesis that’s inferior in every way. But that still makes it awesome. Slower, less resolution, and less fun platformers. It’s still lovely.
Nintendo Entertainment System - My childhood console. Also, games are better with 2 buttons.
PS1 - A lot of my favorite JRPGs on here.
Super Nintendo - This was a toss up between the Genesis, SNES, and PS2. Decided on SNES because it has some of my favorite games of all time, including ALTTP, which is my favourite.
NES/Famicom - Or maybe I should call it famiclone, as I’ve never even seen a real NES. It was my first console and the one I grew up with so it holds a special place for me. As a kid playing video games on it pretty much felt like magic. Some of my favourite titles are Little Nemo - The Dream Master, Ike Ike Nekketsu Hockey, Bubble Bobble 2, Adventure Island (1,2,3,4), Darkwing Duck, Battle City, Super Mario Bros 2 (Doki Doki), Chip 'n Dale aaand many, many others.
XBOX 360 - Spent thousands of hours playing this one, and my unit still works without any problem. Used to take it with me when we gathered at someone’s place and played alot of Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur, Naruto Storm and other fighting games. Best titles for me were Dark Souls 1 and 2 (which really made me enjoy video games like never before and gave me hope for the future, and since then From Software have been the best developers for me, by a huge margin), NieR Gestalt (another absolutely great game that is ofter overlooked), Castlevania - Lords of Shadow, GTA V, Final Fantasy XIII (yea, I know… but I really enjoyed it), Valiant Hearts - The Great War and many more.
PS2 - This is the console that I’m always drawn to for some reason, always finding out some really great titles that I didn’t play before. The library is enormous and there’s so many games I still want to play on it. Amongs the best games I played on the PS2 are Shadow of the Colossus, Kingdom Hearts, Silent Hill 2, Prince of Persia trilogy, GTA San Andreas, Armored Core series, Berserk Millennium Empire Arc, Valkyrie Profile 2, Blood Will Tell, Gran Turismo (3+4) and others. Lately I’ve been playing the Neo Geo collections that include the Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown and The Last Blade series and I’m really enjoying them.
This has been my top three for years, and it’s not changing anytime soon.
Nintendo 64
(Tie) SNES and Genesis
Nintendo DS
The Nintendo 64 is in first because of course it is, it will always be my favorite console. Having the best games is what matters the most for being a great console and the N64 has the best games. It has one of the best controllers ever as well. The N64 does look best connected to a CRT as opposed to how N64 games look on a modern display, but it’s still the best no question.
For second, I have long refused to choose between the SNES and Genesis for second and will continue to do so. These two consoles are similar and yet different, they complement eachother perfectly and have some of the best games ever in many of my favorite genres – platformers, shmups, action-adventures, and such. I don’t see something saying you can’t have a tie so it’s staying.
I’ve never liked the idea of skipping a position after a tie, which is why I also have a third place system. The Nintendo DS is the greatest handheld ever, a landmark console which took everything wrong with handhelds before and fixed all of the problems. Only some games have saving? Solved, all DS games save. Batteries in carts are going to die and disable your ability to play? Solved, only flash memory saving on the DS. You don’t have the time right now to play to the next time you can save, if you even can save at all in this game? Solved, you can suspend the console by closing it. I love the original Game Boy and its game library is one of the greatest of all time, but for all of its hardware features, and a pretty amazing game library as well, the Nintendo DS edges it out. The DS is absolutely amazing. (I prefer the original model of the system over the Lite, for the record.)
Fourth and fifth, respectively, are the original Game Boy and the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. They are both richly deserving of being top five platforms.
As for all of you people voting for the PS1, play a good system like the Atari Jaguar instead of that junk.
Wii - for the completely new way to play. It felt totally fresh and brought with it an amazing library of games. Host to most of my all time favourite games.
Games: Wii Sports & Resort, MaBoShi, Excite Truck, MotoHeroz.
DS - again, such a new way to play and the start of an amazing lineage from DS through DSlite, DSi to New 3DS.
Games: Pang DS, Polarium, True Swing Golf.
PS1 - just for the library of games, from the time before everything became standardised. This library of games is just so daring, inventive, or random.
Games: Runabout 2, DigitalGlider Airman, T&E Soft golf games, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Speed Punks, Tomba series, Wipeout series.
Notable mention:
SNES my first love.
Games: Super Mario Kart Battle Mode winner stays on, Pilotwings, F-Zero, Yoshi’s Island, Winter Gold.
GBA your handheld SNES.
Games: Polarium Advance, Kuru Kuru Kururin, Kururin Paradise, Guru Logi Champ, Mario Golf Advance.
This was the first console I bought by saving up all my money from doing paper rounds, baby sitting and whatever odd jobs I could get. I was always into gaming but seeing Alisia Dragoon being Demo’d in my local Dixon’s store captured me and then there was Sonic.
2. Playstation 1
This is the first console I bought after I left school and started a full time job for £299 (the most I have ever paid for a console) from Blockbuster. I did intend to originally buy a Saturn but with the PS1 being a little cheaper and seeing titles like Ridge Racer running totally blew my young mind and I walked out with a PS1 instead.
I stand by I made the correct choice but I later also bought a Saturn after not being 100% happy with the slow loading and missing frames in the PS1 Street Fighter Alpha 2 port.
One of my fondest gaming moments was when I found out that a colleague of mine was also really into PS1 and one summer he used to come over and pick up my CRT and PS1 and we’d go over to his to have a BBQ and play link up PS1 games almost every weekend.
3. Dreamcast
This was essentially my last time as a console gamer. The Dreamcast’s online community was an amazing thing to discover and I lost so much sleep playing PSO, which resulted in a few VERY expensive phone bills until an online friend pointed out a way to be able to change to a set fee ISP using a US version of Unreal.
Still in contact with a fair few people from this time and we used to arrange meet in person meet ups every once in a while.
The death of the Dreamcast and especially SEGA practically giving up on the system a bit too early left a sour taste in my mouth and I moved over to PC.
