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Thread: Rank the Game Consoles you've owned/played

  1. #1

    Default Rank the Game Consoles you've owned/played

    What it says on the tin, rank every game console system you used (sorry PC people) from your least favorite to your absolute favorite.

  2. #2

    Default

    Oops, I didn't follow instructions and listed from favorite down to least favorite. Read it backwards if you prefer it from least to greatest. :P

    1. PS2 - I think this is the greatest console of all time, but this one takes a bit of explaining, because unlike other consoles on this list, I'm not ranking it only for its particular games library. Rather, for me the PSX has the best games library of all time. However, the PS2 beats it as a console for being able to play essentially all PSX games (I've never run across one it didn't work for and if there are any, I'm sure I don't care about them), play them way better than the PSX (never had to flip the PSX upside down and my copy of FF7 became unplayable past certain FMVs after a few times through, while the PS2 played it fine), and still managed to have the second or third best of all console game libraries on its own. Plus the PS2 was the last console (at least from Sony) to not work like a computer, constantly getting updates, having to worry about memory for installing games even if you have the discs, etc. Yeah there are some advantages to the other functionality later consoles bring and being able to download games digitally and all, but the PS2 just achieves its greatness with simplicity and ease. It's a classic, that's unlikely to be surpassed any time soon.

    2. PSX - As a machine, this probably ranks one of the lowest on the list. It's the only console I had to tilt at progressively ridiculous degrees to play games properly as it aged, and it didn't really take long for that problem to set in. However, what the PSX lacks in reliability, it more than makes up for in the sheer number of absolutely amazing games. At least my three favorite game of all time (FFVII, FFVIII, and Suikoden II) were PSX games and it probably includes at least half or more of my top 10 list with ssuch great as Xenogears, FFIX, and FFT. The greatness doesn't stop there though. This was the most fantastic console for RPGs of all time (the RPG Golden Age). Chrono Cross, Wild Arms, Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire IV, Suikoden, Tales of Destiny, Brave Fencer Musashi, need I go on? The console may not have had as many great non-RPGs as some others (although some, like Metal Gear Solid, were certainly fantastic), but it was the king of RPGs, my favorite genre, and for that it will take some astounding array of amazing new releases to ever see this library surpassed in my eyes.

    3. SNES - The precursor to PSX Golden Age, SNES was also a fantastic era for some of the greatest RPGs ever made and also had some stellar releases in other genres. FFVI, FFIV, Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger are still among my favorite games of all time. Breath of Fire and BoFII don't stand the test of time quite as well, but they were still amazing RPGs at the time and remain solid games. Donkey Kong Country was an amazing platformer with a unique visual style (something that I lament felt kind of lost in the sequels which looked more cartoony and went more for the fantastical than the serene natural environments of the original, but they are still good games). Yoshi's Island remains to this day my favorite 2D platformer of all time (arguably favorite platformer, but 3D platformers tend to be hybrids so it's harder to map out the bounds of that genre and, thus, harder to determine). Link to the Past was one of the best, if not the best, Zelda games ever made.

    4. PS4 - After something of a dry spell, particularly on the RPG front, with the PS3, the PS4 marks a return to form for Sony. It hasn't reached the heights of PSX or PS2, and most likely will not be able to before the PS5 rolls around, but it has seen some fantastic releases including Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, DQXI, MGS5. Also, as more and more genres start adding RPG elements, I've been led to enjoy series, such as God of War, that I would have traditionally avoided.

    5. Switch - It's a bit early to be ranking this console. It could move up or down on this list yet. It's shaping up to be a pretty solid console in terms of games with Breath of the Wild still leading the pack. Furthermore, from a design perspective this is among the best of consoles, if not the absolute best. I like having the option of docking to the TV, but really I don't even need it. This is great as a portable and usually the way I play it.

    6. PS3 - This marked a low point for RPG releases. No Persona, no Suikoden, FF release were bad, Tales games were lackluster. Heck was there even an SMT title for this console? Plus they got rid of backwards compatibility early in the life of this console. There were some solid releases though Last of Us was amazing. New Tomb Raider trilogy kicked off (yeah I know it started on XBox but I never had any XBox console) and was good. Only thing this really had going for it above PS4 was more access to digital library of old PS2 and PSX games.

    7. NES - After that half-hearted take on the PS3, I guess you're wondering how I could possibly decide to rank the NES lower. Well, don't get me wrong, the NES is among the greatest for nostalgia purposes. However, when it comes to playing it today it doesn't hold up quite so well. As a machine, it's not the greatest. The controllers feel rigid and difficult to input in a fluid manner to the point that it almost makes me wonder if "Nintendo hard" isn't just "troutty controller hard." Anyone who's blown into an NES cart or inserted the cart over and over knows that it's not the most reliable in terms of getting your games to start. Furthermore, while many of the games are classics of nostalgia, there's not many that hold up in more than memory today. While a few of the greatest are still kind of fun, I'd almost always choose a later game over playing one. The one exception might be the Legend of Zelda, which still holds up extremely well, but that's the best game on the console (maybe SMB3 too, but again, that controller...). This was before RPGs were really highly story oriented, so it pretty much automatically falls below later gens IMO. I don't mean to trout all over the NES. I loved my NES back in the day. It remains a pivotal entry in the history of consoles and still has some great games, but I can't realistically put it above later gens in my esteem.

    8. Sega Master System - This had some fun games that I played, I guess. Not much more to say about it. I had some fun with it at the time, but I don't even have particularly much nostalgia for any of the games.

    9. Atari - I don't remember the model number, but does it really matter? Either way this console was too basic to go further than the bottom of the list. Yeah, I had some fun with these games. Was addicted to Pacman for a time. However, this console was easily forgotten when Sega and NES came along, so yeah, bottom of the list.

    I didn't list portable (aside from Switch). The portable I've had are DS, 3DS, and Vita. Not sure where I'd rank them respectively, but probably somewhere in the Switch/PS3 vicinity.
    Last edited by Lord Golbez; 05-17-2019 at 06:11 PM.

  3. #3

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    I've only owned a few but they would go:

    6. Wii - Essentially only got it for Wii Sports and Xenoblade
    5. NES
    4. PS4 - Will move up quickly as I've only had this system for about a year; very much enjoyed all the games on it.
    3. PS1
    2. SNES
    1. PS2 - Agreed, that being able to play all the PS1 games plus PS2 just put this on another level altogether.


    Take care all.

  4. #4
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    24. Virtual Boy - If you were one of the unfortunate saps who actually got to play on this thing, you will; know all too well why this is truly the worst console Nintendo ever made. It's not so much the quality of the game, which could be fun if the screen didn't make your eyes bleed and your head spin so much you almost vomited after ten minutes of playing on it. I never owned one, but checked it out as a demo at a store a couple of times to quickly realize that Nintendo made a turd with this one.

    Notable games:

    Mario Tennis
    Virtual Boy Wario Land
    Jack Bros.

    23. Atari Jaguar - Atari's last attempt at the console market in the 90s, the Jaguar was a system that came crashing in during the rise of CD-ROM based consoles and was touted as the true "next-gen console". Unfortunately, the Jaguar suffered from some serious technical issues and may have one of the worst controllers to ever grace a console. Of course what really killed it was mostly the consoles lackluster library of games. The majority of it's titles were from Western developers at a time when Japanese developers ruled the market.Not to say there weren't any solid titles on here but not enough to justify the steep price of the system and keep it alive long enough for Sony to crush it a few years later. I played this at my rich friend's house at a sleep over and sadly, we spent the majority of our time making fun of it, and that was when it was still new on the market.

    Notable Titles:

    Aliens vs. Predator
    Raiden
    Rayman
    Doom

    22. Game Gear - Sega's only true attempt at a handheld (yeah there was the Nomad, but that thing is closer to the mini-console craze we're seeing now) it unfortunately didn't look at the Atari Lynx or TurboExpress to learn the serious hard lessons about the folly of making a handheld too powerful at the expense of quality of life components. The Game Gear was an odd system that I never felt like all the people who developed for it knew what they were doing. Not helped that Sega could rarely get any third party support for the poor thing, and thus a lot of the games on the system are Master System ports.

    Notable Titles:

    Lemmings
    Ecco the Dolphin
    Sonic the Hedgehog

    21. X-Box/360 - My relationship with Microsoft's systems have always been weird. I've never owned one, but tend to play on a lot of them. The issue is that my playtime is always with friends, and it's always just Halo that I play. Anyone who knows me though, also understands that I'm not a big fan of FPS titles, so that's a large part of why these two are ranked so low for me. Not helping matters has also been that I prefer Sony's exclusives over the XB ones. Overall, X-Box has just always been a system that never catered much to my interest. I prefer Japanese developers over western ones, I don't give a trout about multiplayer online shenenigans so the systems better online services really don't matter to me, and the majority of its high profile titles are just not my thing. That's not to say the system sucks or anything, I just see it as catering to a very different type of gamer than me and more power to them. I will say that I really wished I could have played Jade Empire and Lost Odyssey, but not enough to justify a console purchase.

    Notable titles:

    Jade Empire
    Blue Dragon
    Lost Odyssey
    Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
    Knights of the Old Republic

    20. Atari 2600 - You might be surprised to see this so high, but this was my first taste of console gaming outside of being at a friend's house, and so I have some nice nostalgia for the system. My uncle owned one, and one of the few joys I had being stuck at their house for family events was the possibility of getting to play this relic of a machine which was already a relic by the time I did play it. Frogger, Adventure, Asteroids, Missile Command, Space Invaders, Joust and more arcade classics make this a pretty fun system to play. The controllers sucked though, which did make some games more of a headache than I would care for. I was one of the last kids in my class to get an NES, so this console still holds a soft spot in my heart.

    Notable Titles:

    Frogger
    Space Invaders
    Adventure
    Centipede

    19. TurboGrafx-16 - Man, I hanged out with too many rich kids growing up. TurboGrafx-16 or PC Engine everywhere else, was one of the first consoles that really tried to make an effort to have near perfect port quality of arcade style games. Hell most of the games on the system feel like arcade titles. If you loved side scrolling platformers and shooters, this was the system for you. Granted, it's been years since I played on this thing, so I can't really remember how well the system holds up, but many of the games for the system were pretty neat and there are still a few I would love to check out like Cosmic Fantasy 2. I still remember it for introducing me to Bonk and Bomberman.

    Notable Titles:

    Air Zonk
    Bonk Adventure series.
    Bomberman
    R-Type
    Ys series

    18. Nintendo 64 - Probably the first real controversial ranking on this list, I simply never had any real love for the N64. I was honestly more enamored with the Sega Saturn and eventually the PlayStation to ever really give this console a chance. It didn't help that outside of Nintendo's in-house titles, there really wasn't many games for it that I cared about. Most of the third party companies I adored jumped to PlayStation and I followed them. Not helping matter further is that I consider the N64 controller to be the most awful controller Nintendo has ever produced. I never could get use to it's layout and weird design. I also kind of blame this system for killing all of my interest in FPS titles. My friends constantly invited me over to play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark and since I was the only person who never owned these games, I got my ass whooped constantly.

    Notable titles:

    The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
    Mario Kart 64
    The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time


    17. Sega CD - When I think back on the rise of CD-ROM based gaming, the Sega CD is the first system I really think about. I feel it showed both the best and worst possibilities of the technology at a time when developers weren't sure where the future was heading. While I can easily agree that it's one of the weakest consoles/peripherals Sega produced outside of the Game Gear, I feel the good of it did actually survive. Lunar is a large part of why this is so high on the list. Two really fantastic classic RPGs that gave us a glimpse of what the genre was going to be like by the end of the decade with animated cutscenes and higher quality music and graphics.Course we also have our fair share of laughably bad titles like Sewer Shark or the infamous Night Trap that along with Mortal Kombat, created the ESRB. Sadly, like many consoles from the early to mid 90s, most of the real highlight titles seem to have been kept in Japan.

    Notable Titles:

    Sonic CD
    Lunar: Silver Star
    Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
    Dragon's Lair

    16. Gamecube - I've always seen the Gamecube as Nintendo's last attempt to battle Sony directly and win back their third party support after the disastrous N64 days. What I don't think Nintendo expected was Microsoft joining the console war and being a far better competitor than they could be since the Cube was still holding on to many of the elements that made third party developers drop Nintendo to begin with such as a proprietary mini-disk system Nintendo was using for anti-piracy measures that were more of a headache for everyone else. Still, I feel the Cube was a solid if somewhat short-lived system. More importantly, I see this consoles troubles in the market combined with the DS's success as Nintendo finally coming up with a design and marketing philosophy that makes them still relevant. While I still have some reservations about the button layout for the cube controller, it was a huge step up from the monstrosity of the N64 controller. Overall, I feel the Gamecube is likely always going to be one of the more underrated Nintendo consoles. For me, while I played a few friends consoles, my biggest foray into systems library comes from backwards compatibility stuff. I do feel the GBA interconnection element was neat for the handful of games that made use of it. Seems Nintendo agreed.

    Notable releases:

    The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
    Skies of Arcadia Legends
    The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure
    Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

    15. PlayStation Portable - Oh hey, the first system on this list I actually own. The PSP was Sony's first attempt at making an handheld to compete with Nintendo, or more precisely, and excuse to push Sony's new UMD drive that thankfully never took off. In a lot of ways, the PSP embodies a lot of the changes the gaming industry took during the mid 2000s that I actively detest. The PSP was not designed to be a gaming system, but rather a portable entertainment system with a lot of features designed to push UMD movies, being able to play music, and use the world wide web. It was no surprise that many of the people I knew who bothered to pick this thing up mostly used it with Homebrew to turn it into a portable 16-bit console system. Sadly, I don't feel the PSP ever really rose above being a portable classic system. The main reason it's even this high up is because I mainly use it to play old PS1 games on the go. Most of the notable games for the system for me are ports from better eras of gaming and the few original titles had the issues needing to take up massive amounts of the memory stick space to even play comfortably. Sony largely made the same mistakes all competitor make when trying to tackle Nintendo's stranglehold on the portable console market: They made the system graphically better at the cost of quality of life elements. The system has a poor batter life compared to even older GB models, it uses costly memory stick for data management which several of the consoles unique games need in order to cut down on awful load times, and it simply lacked a strong library of original titles that wouldn't have been better served as console titles. The one element the PSP does hold over Nintendo's systems is a more stable and user-friendly wireless play system. Playing Dissidia with friends was easy on this thing, getting the wireless nonsense on the DS to work for 358/2 was a complete chore.

    Notable Titles:

    Dissidia: Final Fantasy
    Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower
    Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
    Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
    Half-Minute Hero
    Persona 2: Innocent Sin


    14. Wii - I will always have a soft spot for this weird ass console. In a time frame where Sony and Microsoft were trying to make their consoles into multimedia entertainment centers that would be the focus of your living room, Nintendo took a chance and instead created a pure gaming console designed for both accessibility and to change how we play games. I know motion controls are a divisive issue for more "hardcore" gamers, but I feel it's important that gaming expand it's horizons beyond just making incremental advancements on controllers and graphics. The Wii ultimately showed that with it's success with the casual market. While the majority of the consoles games are pure shovel ware that would make the Atari 2600 and NES proud, I can honestly say that the Wii fulfilled its investment for me by giving me a unique experience I never got out of the more acceptable consoles. No More Heroes, Zelda, Fragile Dreams, and even Wii Sports were some incredible experiences for me that really broadened my horizons on what gaming could be as a platform. Granted, I would agree the tech was still a few years shy of getting all of the bugs fixed, but I feel VR tech lately has shown that the Wii years helped considerably. Unfortunately for Nintendo, I do feel the Wii made a major misstep on several points. It easily has the worst online capabilities of its console generation during a time when online gaming was really making great strides. Also, unlike the DS which was also noted for its gimmicky control scheme, the Wii was burdened with the idea that the motion controls were a must for any game released on it, and thus they were often poorly forced onto some games. Hell I still believe that the half-assed motion controls on Twilight Princess were a far better use of the technology than Skyward Sword making them the main event. While I feel this console will likely remain divisive for years to come, I can already see the fruits of its labor in todays market as Nintendo continues to compete by novelty over just throwing more power behind everything, while VR and other technologies take advantage of those silly "motion controls".

    Notable Titles:

    The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
    Fragile Dreams
    No More Heroes
    Xenoblade Chronicles
    The Last Story
    House of the Dead: Overkill

    13. PlayStation 3 - More than any other console I've owned, it took me a long time to come around to the PS3. I spent the first several years owning the system regretting the purchase. As mentioned above, I didn't really like the direction that Sony and Microsoft were taking the industry and I still think making consoles more like PCs was a bad idea overall. The PS3 was pretty much the humbling fall I feel Sony needed after the serious high they got off its first two consoles. Not helping it was watching some serious upheavals going on within the Japanese game industry as it just felt like several of the biggest developers not named Nintendo really put out a half-assed effort this generation. Capcom, Konami, and especially Square-Enix for me really had a tough time releasing anything notable. I got to play what I consider to be the worst numbered FF game in the series, watched Star Ocean implode further, saw Silent Hill become a joke, watched Capcom try to bring back the fighting genre glory days with mixed results, and even Atlus largely stayed out of the console market only releasing the awesome Catherine and letting Arksys System make the P4 Arena titles. The few gems of the era were largely multi-platform titles like Assassin's Creed which started off pretty strong before Ubisoft ran it into the ground, we got to finally play a good Batman game in the form of the Arkham Series. We got Mass Effect, which was a nice surprise, even if I felt the series started strong and then ended weakly. In a lot of ways, the PS3 was a much like the PSP for me. A system I got more time out of by just downloading and playing older games on it. I actually consider it's library to be a bit weaker than the Wii's for my taste, but unlike the Wii, the PS3's library was at least mediocre as opposed to garbage. The true saving grace of the system for me has been FROM Software and their Demon's Souls/Dark Souls titles, which were easily the best games of the generation. Konami flubbed on MGS4 and their western released Silent Hill and Castlevania titles, but I do consider MGSV to be a high point even if the next console generation shares it. I think this was the generation that showed me how much I really relied on Japanese developers as only a handful of them really shined this generation and instead it was Western developers who truly rose to prominence. I played more Western developed games this generation than any other.

    Notable Titles:

    Demon's Souls
    Dark Souls 1 and II
    Catherine
    Batman: Arkham Asylum
    Mass Effect Trilogy
    Assassin's Creed II/Revelations

    12. Game Boy Advance - Some may find it a surprise that I would rank this below the original GB, but the GBA, while a strong follow up to the GB/GBC, still feels a bit like the middle child between the successful GB and DS. Not helping things was the system having some serious technical issues such as a lack of a back light for the first generation of the system as well as an inferior graphics/audio card that seriously hurt some of the ports the game recieved. In many ways, the system is touted as a mini-SNES which is a pretty notable feat, but also where those aforementioned technical issues really show their face. Still, being able to play five of the first six FF games on the go is nothing to sneeze at, and the translations and extras make them worth the purchase despite the washed out graphics and audio. The system also had some pretty solid original titles like FFTA, Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, and the continuation of the Igarshi era Castlevania titles. Nintendo also had some interesting successes with Metroid Fusion and the Mario and Luigi RPG series. The system has a really strong library and backwards compatibility going for it as well. Overall, a really great system.

    Notable Titles:

    Metroid Fusion
    Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
    Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga
    Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
    Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
    FF Advance series

    11. Dreamcast - Like many kids from the era, I have a serious soft spot for Sega's final system, and I really feel that had Sega not not dropped the ball, not only would this system been a financial success, but Sega would still likely be in the console market. My only real beef with the system is that I never liked the controller, which always felt awkward, but then again, I don't think Sega has ever made a good controller. For me though, it was really the fact that the Dreamcast was the premier system for arcade port perfect games that made it a stand out. I am still pissed off that I can't get a decent port of Marvel Vs. Capcom 1 without this system. Other highlights was the game being the first to really bring in online connectivity with Phantasy Star Online, was the last real competitor against EA and their sport titles, and personally, I feel Sega was kind of at their artistic peak with this system. It's an absolute shame Sega chose to drop out of the market, especially since I never felt like they ever found their footing as a third party publisher afterwards. Much like what was going on with Square at the time, I feel too much of the company's talent left with the decision to kill the system.

    Notable Titles:
    Sonic Adventure 1 and 2
    Shenmue
    Powerstone
    Crazy Taxi
    Jet Set Radio
    Several prominent Capcom Arcade games

    10. Game Boy/Game Boy Color - The original Game Boy has always been a system I feel I mistakenly always sell short until I really think about it. Its so simple in design and execution, but honestly, there is a really good reason it dominated the handheld market throughout most of the 90s along with its slight upgraded color model. The GB is the template of what a portable console should be, which is easy to transport, long battery life, and games designed for a portable experience. Most of the systems successors follow this formula, most of the competition didn't in one way or another. It had a killer app with both Tetris and later with the insanely popular Pokemon franchise. It had a pretty stellar collection of titles like the SaGa franchise, Super Mario Land trilogy, Link's Awakening, Dragon Quest Pocket Monster, and Castlevania Adventure. The system presented the idea of being a portable NES while still tailoring the games as both new experiences as well as staying inline with the specs of the handheld. Hell, one of my favorite games on the little bastard is a 2D port of Battle Arena Toshiden which actually played way better than the 3D ones. The Game Boy had a remarkable life and a prett ystrong library of titles of its own, its not difficult to see why it became the golden standard.

    Notable Titles:
    Super Mario Land 2
    SaGa 2( Final Fantasy Legend II)
    Seiken Densetsu (Final Fantasy Adventure)
    The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awkening
    Tetris
    Dr. Mario
    Pokemon Red/Blue and Gold/Silver

    9. Sega Genesis - Finally we reach what some consider to be the peak of Sega's console legacy. Growing up in the midst of the Nintendo vs. Sega conflict of the late 80s early 90s, I had a lot of friends who owned one or both systems and for the longest time, I was actually more in the Sega camp for next gen consoles over the SNES. Street Fighter and not wanting to hock an extra $30 dollars for a controller that can play it properly was the deciding factor,. but I still have some real respect and nostalgia for this system. Honestly, the Genesis has a pretty stellar library and I feel it can go toe to toe with it's direct competitor of the SNES for games, especially if we add the stuff that didn't make it over here. Sega was pretty on point at this time, and that's why I feel it was a pretty exciting time with the rivalry for Nintendo because both companies had strong first party support and equally good third party support. I do feel Sega tried to hard to keep the system alive with the Sega CD and 32X attachments but all in all, I still miss the bugger.

    Notable Titles:

    Sonic the Hedgehog series
    Golden Axe
    Vectorman
    Comix Zone
    Phantasy Star series
    Alex Kidd
    The good MK1
    Shining Force

    8. 3DS - It's still up in the air if this will be Nintendo's final venture into the exclusive handheld market as the Switch seems to be an interesting cross system style platform. Still, if this was Nintendo's last pure handheld, it was not a bad way to end. Overall its a solid successor to the insanely popular DS and while I feel the 3D gimmick hardly worked out the way Nintendo hoped, the games for the system are all solid contenders and hey, the system fixed the glaring issues from the DS which was namely its online components that felt more obstructive than sensible. The system get's knocked down a bit for losing backwards compatibility with GBA titles and also needing the upgraded version of the system to even play the games decent selection of download only SNES titles, but overall it was a pretty solid system that actually got some nice N64 ports that Nintendo wisely "fixed" to make them more playable in the modern generation. I also feel like this system was one of the stronger classic RPG systems for those of us struggling through the PS3/360/Wii generation. We also saw Nintendo try to revive a few dormant IPs on this system with mixed results. Personally, I like the little social style game that's built into the system with the Miis. I still drag my 3DS with me to conventions to play through some of those minigames and see what people I meet which was such a clever idea.

    Notable Titles:
    Theaterrythm Final Fantasy
    Kid Icarus Uprising
    Etrian Odyssey series
    Zelda 64 remakes
    TLoZ: Link Between Worlds
    Bravely Default
    Shin Megami Tensei IV and Apocalypse
    Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
    Fire Emblem Awakening

    7. Sega Saturn - Anyone who has ever talked to me about Sega will know that I have an odd affinity for the Sega Saturn, a system that most Sega fans would rank middle to low on the scale of Sega consoles. I think part of this was Sega wowing me with the first good 3D focused game console, especially with stuff like Virtua Fighter and Nights: Into Dreams. It may be difficult for people who remember the PlayStation dominated late 90s to believe, but for awhile there, Sega was really the more forward thinking developer on this path of 3D gaming. The other reason I love it is that it may have one of the more underrated catalog of RPG games on the market. The Saturn was pushing out some interesting RPGs in Japan and abroad before VII ushered in the RPG boon. In fact, I feel if the Saturn had just lasted a little longer before Sega gave up in the face of the N64 and dark horse PS1, the system may have had more success in the West. I feel this was also the system that really started to show the new directions Sega's awesome first party devs were going. We'll forget the awful Sonic 3D Blast, but I would point out Sonic R as a first taste of Team Sonic making Sonic in the style we would see on the Dreamcast with an infectious and highly underrated OST. This system also gave us the highly regarded Panzer Dragoon Saga, and as traditional for Sega, they took strides to make the system's arcade ports as close to the original as best. they could. The real problems with the Saturn come down to a controller that was an improvement over the Genesis in terms of having the right amount of buttons, but felt rather flimsy and was prone to break. Also, much like a lot of early 3D games, many of the platformers or non rail shooter style games have aged rather poorly. Still, I feel it's Sega's most underrated system. Like the Dreamcast after it, the system's failure really comes down to poor management by Sega itself who launched the system prematurely and angered a lot of sellers like Wal-Mart in the process which made the system difficult to find in the mid 90s.

    Notable Titles:
    Nights: Into Dreams
    Panzer Dragoon Saga
    Virtua Fighter
    Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
    Burning Rangers
    Dragon Force
    Grandia
    Guardian Heroes
    House of the Dead
    Langrisser franchise
    Magic Knights Rayearth
    Lunar remakes
    Mystaria: The Realms of Lore
    Marvel Super Heroes
    Marvel Vs. Street Fighter
    A bunch of games you probably remember being on the PlayStation instead

    6. NES - Ah the system that cemented my love for gaming. It has a pretty iconic game library, and I'm always a bit surprised how well the games hold up over time. Personally, I think the biggest testament to the system is it's durability. My NES still works, even when I thought it actually died, it was actually just the cord to the TV that did and once I found an inexpensive replacement, it played like gold. The games were a different matter, as a few did crap out on me. Still, this is the system that saw the launching of several IPs some of us are still playing to this day. I feel its a testament to the system that it was able to hold it's one for two years against Sega's better hardware before the SNES arrived. Its an iconic system, but I feel sitting down to play it every now and again simply proves why people still gush about this grey brick of a machine. It saved the gaming industry and while a lot of its library is shovelware, the good games still hold up incredibly well.

    Notable Titles:
    Super Mario series
    The Legend of Zelda
    Punch-Out
    Duck Hunt
    Final Fantasy 1-3
    Dragon Quest 1-4
    Metroid
    Ghouls and Goblins
    Mega Man series
    Castlevania classic series
    Capcom's Disney Afternoon series
    Your 80s childhood

    5. PlayStation 4 - After the lukewarm PS3, I was honestly surprised to find myself really loving my PS4. It just felt like some developers I liked finally got out of their gloom stage from last gen and finally started to make a real effort agin. What also helped was that most of the high profile games I was looking forward to in the previous gen got pushed back to this one. While I'm annoyed Sony decided to follow Microsoft's example of putting a paywall behind most of their online services, and I feel the system has a bad habit of letting developers push remasters onto it, I feel the PS4 overall has been a pretty solid contender. It's been helping that there are still some interesting games on the horizon to watch out for as well despite all the current industry murmurs of a PS5 being on the horizon.

    Notable Titles:
    Bloodborne
    Dark Souls III
    I am Setsuna
    Final Fantasy XV
    World of Final Fantasy
    Street Fighter V (now at least)
    Resident Evil 7
    Persona 5
    The Last Guardian
    Nier Automata
    Kingdom Hearts III
    Devil May Cry 5
    All the good crap from last gen that got simultaneously released for this gen or remasterd for it

    4. Nintendo DS - This kind of surprised me, you would think the nostalgia factor alone would have allowed the original Game Boy or GBA to trump the DS, but at the end of the day the DS won out for me. In fact, when this system was getting ready to tackle the PSP, most people felt it was going to get slaughtered and yet here we are now, and the DS is the second best selling console system of all time and Nintendo's most successful product. I feel the real strength here is that while the touch screen added some interesting novelty to the system, it was the fact it never forgot it's traditonal roots that helped it. Some of the best DS games I know barely used half the features the system had to offer, and while it was a gimmick at first, developers eventually figured this out and stopped trying to shoe horn in all the features hen they didn't have to. The DS still has some strong backwards compatibility with the GBA which helped but honestly, the system had several standout titles of its own, inclduing some fantastic remakes by Squenix for both FF and DQ, as well as the last of the Igarashi Era Castlevanaia series. It was a solid system overall, and I still play on it today for both as a GBA system and for a few pesky games that do still require the full features of the system because the 3DS version isn't as user friendly with the mic and using the blowing mechanics.

    Notable Titles:
    Feel the Magic XX/XY
    The World Ends With You
    Dragon Quest IV-VI remakes
    FF III and IV remakes
    Radaint Historia
    Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
    The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
    Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
    Etrian Odyssey
    Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
    Kingdom Hearts: 358/2
    Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow/Portrait of Ruin/Order of Ecclesia
    Digimon World: Dusk/Dawn

    3. PlayStation 2 - The darling of the thread currently, he ranks in third for me four about three specific reasons: 1) hile backwards compatibility is a great feature, I don;t feel it's fair to judge a game's library with them added to it. I tend to stick to games specifically released for the system. 2) This system has had the highest failure rate for me over any other system. I'm still playing on my original NES and PS1, but I'm currently on my third PS2 (which I've had to take a part a few times to fix) and my fifth controller for it. The system is just not that durable for me. 3) I pretty much connect this system to the death of Square for me. It just feels like the generation Square-Enix gave up on creating games that would go onto define the genre. I saw FF fall apart with sequels and heavy use of fan service, Mana was taken into a series ending direction, and I got one lousy entry from Front Mission despite three games being released for it. Square made the previous two generations for me, watching the PS2 era SE is like watching your grandparent you love get dementia. It's just sad... Okay Gripes aside, the PS2 is still a smurfing fantastic system, and I would never fault anyone for making it their top choice because SE aside, the rest of the system was pretty stellar. Konami and Atlus especially had their golden age with this system as MGS, Silent Hill, and even Suikoden made Konami one of my favorite companies especially with new IPs like Zone of the Enders. Atlus finally brought MegaTen to the West, and while I can talk about how great Persona 3 and 4 are, I'd rather mention how awesome it was to get Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga and the Raidou Kazunoha series over here. Capcom also had some ups and downs with trying to drag Mega Man X into 3D with disasterous results, but making up for it with Command Missions, Monster Hunter, and Devil May Cry series.Not to mention, I finally got Street Fighter III 3rd Strike and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for a console that wasn't a dead Sega system. We alos got introduced to the fantastic Team Ico with their two breakout art hits and well frankly, even if you don;t count the PS1 library, the PS2 does debatable have on eof the best gaming libraries of all time short of PC emulation. Stellar system all around.

    Notable Titles:
    Final Fantasy XII
    Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3
    Silent Hill 2-4
    Ico
    Shadow of the Collosus
    Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne/ Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2/ Raidou Kuzunoha 1 and 2
    Persona 3 and 4
    Suikoden III and 5
    Kingdom Hearts
    Yakuza
    Gitaroo Man
    Dance Dance Revolution Max 1 and 2
    Devil May Cry 1 and 3
    Fatal Frame 1 and 2
    Too many more games to mention, I mean it's library really is one of the best in the market.

    2. PlayStation - While I can possibly agree that nostalgia ranked this higher than its more successful predecessor, I also feel that the PS1 simply broke more gound than the PS2 did. Like, I love my PS2 as a consumer, but I can't help but feel a bit giddy thinking about how magical the PS1 era was and all the titles coming out and how much gaming did feel like it was changing. A lot of games on this system have not aged well but I'll be damned if there is anyone on this forum who grew up in the era that doesn't get chills watching the opening to FFVII, fighting Psycho Mantis, finading the first zombie in RE1, or wandering the fog in Silent Hill. I mean it was just a great time to be alie if you were a gamer and that level of nostalgia has just never been matched by any successor. There are some stellar titles on this system, and several franchises still going strong, Hell the most anticpated game on this foruma at the moment is a remake of a game from this era. This game marked what I see as the second half of Square Golden Age, one of Capcom's better time frames with little turbulence, Konami's rise to the fame and we still had stellar companies like Eidos and Working Designs churning out Legacy of Kain, Tomb Raider, and importing quirky JRPGs. Overall, it was just an awesome system that saw some sweeping changes within the gaming industry.

    Notable Titles:
    Final Fantasy VII-IX
    Final Fantasy Tactics
    Xenogears
    Silent Hill
    Resident Evil 1 and 2
    Suikoden 1 and 2
    Metal Gear Solid
    Breath of Fire III and IV
    Street Fighter Alpha 3
    Legend of Dragoon
    Wild Arms 1 and 2
    Mega Man X4-6
    Persona 2 Eternal Punishment
    Gran Turismo
    Um Jammer Lmamy
    DDR Konamix
    Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
    Too many more to talk about, but you know the one.

    1. Super Nintendo - Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to see this on top. Part of this is pure nostalgia, part of this is due to the system having two of my top three favorite games of all time, part of this is me emulating a bunch of awesome games we never got to see showing the system actually did have a fantastic library. Though I feel part of my love for this system is that more than any other system of the time, we really got a serious showcase of what the future would show. I feel we can see the evolution and birth of the JRPG in this generation, most of Nintendo's gaming properties found their formulas they would stick to for the end of time, a serious attempt at innovation wihtin most genres, and the serious attempt to bring the arcade experience to home with better port quality. A lot of franchises that survived the jump to 3D largely did so by borrowing some of the wacky ideas designers were doing in this gen. This was also the generation where Square entered its Golden Age with one of the best gaming lineups in their history only next to the PS1, we saw the rise of Matsuno's Quest company with the Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre series, Konami and Capcom delivered on some of their best arcade ports with Strret Fighter II and TMNT: Turtles in Time, Nintendo soldified all of their main franchises and we even saw Rare take a successful crack at one with Donkey Kong Country. Capcom itself also branched out and did some in house cleaning by updating Mega Man with the X series while also venturing into RPGs with Breath of Fire. We also witness ed the birth of Mtroidvania with Super Metroid. Overall, I feel some of the best ideas and formulas for gaming really stem from this generation, even if some of those ideas needed the better horse power of later generations to come through. Call me a nostalgic old fool with my nostalgia goggles firmly super glued to my face, but I really feel like gaming, in terms of just excitement and wonder was at its peka in the 90s with the SNES vs. Genesis war in the early part segueing into the Sega vs. Nintendo vs. Sony battle to shift the genre to 3D in the last half. It was a magical time to be a gamer.

    Notable Titles:
    Super Mario World
    Super Metroid
    The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
    Donkey Kong Country
    Yoshi's Island
    Street Fighter II franchise
    Mega Man X1-3
    Final Fantasy IV-VI
    Dragon Quest V and VI
    Teranigma
    Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
    Battle Ogre: March of the Black Queen
    Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals
    Shin Megami Tensei I and II/ ...if
    Secret of Mana
    Seiken Densetsu 3
    Chrono Trigger
    Front Mission
    Contra 3
    TMNT IV: Turtles in Time
    Mortal Kombat II
    Romancing SaGa 1-3
    Bahamut Lagoon
    Rudra no Hihou
    E.V.O. The Search for Eden
    Soul Blazer
    Castlevania IV
    More that I'm likely forgetting...

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