Greatest console ever?

[Lee]

I am hoping this shall spark debate and see what people think. Now I am going to list consoles from the 3rd generation, and will only list consoles that have been released in all of Japan, USA and Europe. I will not be listing hand held consoles. With this I will do a brief of each and then we'll kick off the debate.

Third generation;

Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom was an 8 bit console produced by Nintendo. The biggest selling game was Super Mario Bros. and the console itself sold 60 million copies.

Sega Master System was also an 8 bit console, although I can't find figures for games sales on it I am pretty sure the biggest selling game was either Sonic or Alex the Kidd. It sold 13 million copies.

Fourth Generation

Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom was a 16 bit console, with the biggest selling game being Super Mario world, and the console itself sold 49 million.

Sega Megadrive/Genesis was again 16 bit with the biggest selling game being Sonic the hedgehog 2. The console sold 29 million copies.

Fifth generation;

Sega Saturn was a 32 bit console, which used CD's. It sold 17 million copies worldwide and the biggest selling game was Virtua Fighter 2.

Sony PlayStation was also a 32 bit console, which again used CD's. It sold 102.49 million worldwide (thanks to the re packaged psone) with the biggest selling game being Gran Turismo.

The Nintendo 64 was a 64 bit, cartridge based console. It sold 32.93 million worldwide with the biggest selling game being Super Mario 64.

Sixth generation

Sega Dreamcast was the first 128 bit console [in my opinion way before its time!] it sold 10.6 million copies worldwide and the biggest selling game was Sonic Adventure.

Sony PlayStation 2 was another 128 bit console, which has sold over 120 million copies (as of January 2008) with the biggest selling game being Gran Turismo 3.

Nintendo Gamecube, was with the rest of this generation was 128 bits, with the biggest selling game being Smash Bros. Melee and 21.74 million sold worldwide.

X box, produced by Microsoft sold 24 million copies worldwide with Halo 2 being the number 1 game.

Seventh Generation

This generation, I won't go into sales figures etc. as they're still newish, but we all know the three consoles;
PlayStation 3
X Box 360
Wii

PS I know there are a few more consoles out there, but the ones listed are ones we all should have heard of/played on...let the debate commence!

 

[Dragonslayer]

Hm nice topic... my cents on this:

3rd Generation: Has to be the NES... Master System was nice, but I believe the NES just had that much more mainstream attention, and it had some true classics. The Super Mario Bros. Series (esp. part #3), the first two Zeldas, you had the Mega Mans, you had Contra etc... and so many more game franchises that still work today.

4th Generation: The same holds true for the SNES. Genesis was not a bad console at all, but I personally owned only a SNES, and loved it - and I am still pissed today at selling it back in the day because I thought I wouldn't play it anymore, and still thinking about getting a used one from somewhere. Tons of great games - Final Fantasies, Super Marios, one of the greatest Zelda parts of all time in "A Link To The Past", The "Secret" Series with Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, and basically tons of great action adventures and RPGs more, plus some really good action and platform games... Pretty much something for everybody.

Fifth Generation: Here in my opinion the PSX takes it. Saturn never managed to really put its foot on the ground, much like the (much better) Dreamcast a generation later. I personally liked the N64 for some really innovative games (Miyamoto of course), and it had what some call the best game of all times in "Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time", but unfortunately the graphics just couldn't cut it most of the times, the module design of the console made for ridiculously expensive games (much like the SNES games used to cost) compared to the much cheaper CD games on the PSX, plus the modules didn't support decent music so you still had to deal with either crappy midi sounds or heavily distorted since compressed music, whereas PSOne games had - of course - CD quality music. Best example for this - Wrestling games! For even if the legendary, awesome "No Mercy" for N64 had original themes, they all sounded pretty bad because of the module sound.

So even if the N64 had some groundbreaking stuff (Mario 64, Zelda, the entire generation of great THQ wrestling games from WCW vs nWo / Revenge / WM 2000 to No Mercy), the lack of any real RPGs (which I personally love) put this one on second place.

PSX takes it for being the most revolutionary console to date - at first I thought the N64 would beat it, but over time the programmers just got out MUCH more of the PSOne, and also managed to deliver some graphically astounding accomplishments (especially in games such as the Final Fantasies on PSX, but also in games such as Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil or Tekken (esp. part 3)) while continually improving controls in the 3D environment. Plus a myriad of games from every genre opposed to the relative limited choice of games on the N64 make the PSOne the best console of this generation for me. Besides, the PSOne was the one console that elevated the entire gaming scene from being some "underground" thing for nerds only to a huge mainstream phenomenon that eventually became even "trendy".

Sixth Gen: I actually got a Dreamcast shortly after it came out, and never regretted the purchase. I still play it today every once in awhile; it's really such a pity that the thing went down in flames as badly as it did. Agreed, ultimately PS2 and XBOX probably had the better technical specs as they were released a good year later than the DC (basically the same mistake SEGA had already made with the Saturn, which was also inferior to the PSOne), but they still had some very good games on that one, such as some nice Resident Evil parts including Code Veronica, which was purely awesome, or the astounding Shen Mue, combined with SEGA classics such as Virtua Fighter and Sonic Adventure; I really think the DC could've existed in that generation longer than it did, even if it could never have outdone the competition - but I think it could've gotten a similar spot to Nintendos Gamecube. Not as many games as for PS2 maybe, but a few select gems that really make a purchase worthwhile.

As for the NGC itself, I also loved that one - only I didn't like the Controllers, and never will. They somehow seem cheap to me compared to the PS2 controllers. But on a technical level, the NGC wasn't that much behind the PS2 (in fact, I believe in some respects it was even better), but in the end it got too little attention from producers in terms of big money game franchises because it was often seen more as a "kids" product opposed to the PS (aside from a few noteworthy exceptions such as the stellar Resident Evil 5).

The original XBOX I never owned; I just never saw the need to as the console just didn't offer me enough exclusive games that I couldn't have had on the PS2 as well anyway. Plus, I'm an RPG-junkie, and in that respect the PS2 is unbeaten in that generation anyway. Maybe the BOX had some marginally better graphics on the same games opposed to the PS2 and NGC versions, but I don't think that alone can put the console on the top of the mountain.

So once again the 1st place goes to Sony with the PS2, followed for me personally by the DC, simply for its "cult" factor - even though the XBOX and NGC probably were by far more successful in the long run.

As for the current generation:

I really don't know yet, but I believe the award will go the the Nintendo Wii this time.

For even though both the PS3 and the XBOX360 are amazing when it comes to graphics, and also have a very nice range of games to choose from - I believe they will be more attractive to the hardcore gamers who have always been playing games, since many of the new games are not really easy to control anymore. I personally don't mind, but I imagine it pretty hard for someone who has never held a controller in their life to still play games nowadays, with what seems a dozen of buttons on the pad.

The Wii on the other hand is extremely innovative as far as gaming concepts are concerned, and so will hold its ground much much better than the N64 or NGC did, simply because it follows a different philosophy and also is tuned to appeal to a different crowd; for while I believe "regular" gamers will ultimately deem either PS3 or X360 there favorite console (with the nod going to the PS3 in the end, simply for the fact that it has the bonus of Blu Ray (btw: I own a X360 and no PS3 yet) and probably doesn't break down as often as the 360 does lol), because the two are really similar in both choice of games and performance; there are really only marginal differences - I think that the Wii will be able to outlast any of those two despite its lack of graphical power simply because the system of gaming is so completely different with many games to the other two consoles.

Personally, I am pretty happy with my X360 right now, and though my girlfriend actually has a Wii, I still prefer the Box - maybe because I am just that old school, but I just don't seem to get along with swinging the wii-mote this way and that way, and jumping around and what not lol... It's definitely a different approach and has a certain appeal, but I love my old school gamepad that does what I want. But I believe that it will be this innovation on the parts of Nintendo this time that will have the longest lasting effects on the gaming scene in the years to come.


And the title of "Greatest Console Ever"? Well... for me, it's got to be the SNES. Maybe it's nostalgia and sentimentality, but if it hadn't been for the Super Nintendo, I probably would never have gotten into games as much as I did. For even though I had also owned an NES before it, I now feel I somehow was too young then to really enjoy it, but the SNES was there at the right timing for me, and I really enjoyed a load of the games that were available for Nintendos most successful home console.

 

[Davi323]

I am gonna go with the original 8-bit NES. It spawned some of the all-time most favorite games in Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Tetris, Metroid, and the single greatest football game ever, Techmo Super Bowl. It introduced American video gamers to MegaMan, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, It was on the NES that we were introduced to the famous Konami code, it was where Metal Gear and Ninja Gaiden were introduced in the United States, it completely revitalized the video game market after Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision etc were laid waste by apathy, and has the largest library of games of any console. Not to mention that the NES Pro Wrestling game is the inspiration for John Cena's T-shirt...I am not certain if that is a plus or a minus though...

 

[klunderbunker]

I'm going to go with a general #1 here and not go into each generation, and say the SNES. Yes, the NES changed the way we looked at gaming, but the SNES blew the doors off the hinges. The idea of being able to have a second dimension was something very new at the time. The games got better, the graphics were a huge upgrade, and storylines got much more involved. Mario on NES, while a classic, is very basic. Super Mario World got more in depth (Yes I know SMB 3 was also) and is to me the best Mario game ever. Zelda went from being great to being nothing short of epic on there, as did Meteroid. SNES was such a massive jump forward that I don't think anything could have made a larger one, save for perhaps the Wii.

 

[FromTheSouth]

I'm going with XBox 360. The media center capabilities make it number one for me. I can download a movie and watch it on my TV without having to make a hard copy. This works well for such classic filsm as Girls Gone Wild: Finally 18 and The DaVinci Load. And with most games coming out for every console, the games category is basically a wash (I hate Halo). I don't like the innovative controls on the Wii. I'm sorry, but if I want to play Tennis, I'll play Tennis. I should not sweat playing video games, as it completely defeats the purpose. I assume that PS3 is graphically superior, but my TV doesn't support 1080i (or is p the better one), so I can't tell. It also seems like games come out for 360 a week or two in advance of the other systems.

I would rank SNES second. I think that SNES Zelda is the greatest video game I have ever played.

I agree with the idea that DreamCast is underrated. DC was the first console I ever played Tony Hawk on, and we sat there for hours and it never got old. The messages in the controller were a cute little idea, but alas, befoer it's time.

 

[Lee]

To me a gamesconsole is for playing games...so baring that in mind;

I'm going with XBox 360. The media center capabilities make it number one for me. I can download a movie and watch it on my TV without having to make a hard copy. This works well for such classic filsm as Girls Gone Wild: Finally 18 and The DaVinci Load.

Ok so you pick the X box 360 as greatest console of all time because you can watch porn on it? Hmm interesting. THe media centre capabilities of the PS3 are waay better in my honest opinion (and the opinion of anyone else who has ever watched a BluRay DVD).

And with most games coming out for every console, the games category is basically a wash (I hate Halo).

So we go onto the games side;
You don't like Halo, and point out that most games come out on all the platforms. So there's nothing to set the 360 apart then is there?

Neither of the current generation is the greatest console of all time, far from it. My opinion, well it belongs to the boys from Nintendo, and whilst the NES saved the games industry, it was the SNES that rocketed it forward. Without the SNES, Zelda would have died a death, Mario would not be driving and I for one would not be writing this post!

 

[Dead Kennedy]

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, henceforth known as the SNES, is the greatest pure gaming console ever made. The control system was easy and ready to use, and the graphics still look good today. Not to mention many high quality games like Super Mario World, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Soul Blazer, Final Fantasy VI, Bahamut Lagoon, the Donkey Kong Country series...need I say more? Just consistently the console making the best use of its now pretty limited capabilities.

Heck, I'd be playing it right now if I hadn't borrowed it away to a friend. Now I wanna get it back.

 

[drwow]

Third generation

Nes is definitaly the winner for me here. How could you go wrong with games like; Super Mario bros, Mega man, metal gear solid. there's just too many great games to name!

As for the sega. The really good I ever played for it was sonic.
But for Sega, I'm really not the best person to ask. My Sega broke into the first few months I had it.

Fourth Generation

Once again, I'm gonna have to go with nintendo on this one and for basicly all the same reasons as before. Games like super mario world, mega man x (which is my second favorite series out of all the consols) and the super scope, you felt like a total badass using it and yet you looked like a fool.

I never owned the genesis

Fifth Generation


I'm gonna go with the playstation this time. with games like crash bandicoot, Spyro countinuing the mega man x series, how could you go wrong?
Sony being the new console on the block, makes it all the more impressive that it came out with all these great games on it's first console.
My only complanit, is the controllers had D-pad rather then a analog stick.
But Sony quickly realized it, and later came out with the analog stick.


Even through The Nintendo 64 was in a no way, a bad system, I always felt that there was more GOOD games for the playstation.
Now, while the N64 had the best game of all time on it's console (The ocarina of time) It still never made up, for that horrible controller.
While it may of had the analog stick, It was nothing but a small piece of plastic that could break within the first week of use.
And to boot, it was hard on the thumbs.

I never owned a sega saturn

Sixth Generation

The gamecube is surprisingly the winner here. While it didn't have as many games as the other consoles. The controller here, is eaisly my favorite controller out of ALL the consoles. The controller made every game fun to play, and speaking of the games, they weren't half bad. It had games like Wind Waker, (which is my second favorite in LOZ series) Super Smash Brothers Melee, Super Mario Sunshine just to name a few.

The playstation 2 Is second place here. While just about all the games were just fantastic, just about all of them were sequals. Now, that's really a bad thing, but it made it feel like you had already played the games before and now you were just playing them with better grapihcs.
The controller is still the same, which isn't a bad thing.
But, come on Sony, how about some innovation?


The xbox and me never really clicked. The games were alright, but the controller wasn't that great, (I'm talking about the first and second generation xbox controllers) While the first generation controller was a just a monster of a controller, it had a certain appeal. The xbox was huge the controller was huge, which I had always assumed that was supposed to make you feel big.
The second generation controller was smaller, but where you grip the controller with your hands, it alwas felt like it was sliding out of my hands because that part of the controller was too big from the rest of the controller.


Seventh Generation

I'm not gonna say anything about these consoles til the dust has settled, and we've seen everything that the contenders have.

 

[FoleyIsGod]

Just a thought about the Dreamcast.

That was a really good system. It had the games that were slightly better than what was on offer for the playstation, it had online compatability(ahead of tis time)

The only thing that let it doen was the pisspoor Sega Saturn. IThat failure led to people abanding thier loyaltys to sega and buying the upstart XBox or going to Sony.

But if I had to pick one console out of them all, it would have to be the Playstation. Excellent games(and they were thousands!), good graphics and vastly cheaper than the Saturn and the N64. It was one of the first consoles to use CD(yea, the Mega Drive had Mega Cd, but that didnt really work as whats the point having a 16 bit game on a cd which can hold loads of data?).

And I think the first console that started the whole "party" phase was Nitendo Gamecube. It had games where it was much more fun to have a few friends round and go banans. Nintendo used this to make the Wii, which was unavailable to buy in the UK for around 6 months due to demand. The Baby Wii, the ds, was also unavailable for months as thouse that couldnt buy the Wii, bought a ds!

The PS3 was let down by the huge price on launch as well as several serious problems like overheating, hence more people bought the XBox 360. This led to less games being released due to the money not being available to create a game, Only now, after GTA4 was rekeased, have people started to buy the console.

 

[Davi323]

drwow, I am inclined to agree with you about the Gamecube. While I chose the original NES as the best console ever, the Gamecube was an absolute joy while I owned one. The controller was very comfortable, the games were out of this world, different from those available on the PS2, but, high quality. I currently own a PS2, and I kick myself every day for ever getting rid of the Gamecube. It was simply more fun.

 

[drwow]

drwow, I am inclined to agree with you about the Gamecube. While I chose the original NES as the best console ever, the Gamecube was an absolute joy while I owned one. The controller was very comfortable, the games were out of this world, different from those available on the PS2, but, high quality. I currently own a PS2, and I kick myself every day for ever getting rid of the Gamecube. It was simply more fun.

Yeah, I'm so glad Nintendo desided to let you use the gamecube controller for the Wii's virtual console, The analog feels so natural for the older games.

 

[Lee]

drwow, I am inclined to agree with you about the Gamecube. While I chose the original NES as the best console ever, the Gamecube was an absolute joy while I owned one. The controller was very comfortable, the games were out of this world, different from those available on the PS2, but, high quality. I currently own a PS2, and I kick myself every day for ever getting rid of the Gamecube. It was simply more fun.

hehe I was waiting for the GameCube debate to come up. Whilst the controllers were brilliant, a few classic games (most AFTER it had practically died) and just that Nintendo magic it was a good console (I'm actually playing on my Gamecube right now). this said however it does not deserve to be named the greatest console of all time, heck it doesn't even deserve to be the best console of that generation!

You can't base a console for greatness by a few games (even the Mario one was poor in comparison), but it would have to be a thorough catalogue of titles, something which the NGC did not have. Nintendo made the silly mistake again; with the N64 they used cartridges as opposed to CD's and with the NGC they used mini disks as opposed to DVD's. This led to a lot of developers refusing to develop games for it [I'm told the reason for this is because with Mini disks it's hard to produce, and Nintendo went with mini disks because there is practically no loading time...I dunno if that's true or not but hey!)

 

[drwow]

hehe I was waiting for the GameCube debate to come up. Whilst the controllers were brilliant, a few classic games (most AFTER it had practically died) and just that Nintendo magic it was a good console (I'm actually playing on my Gamecube right now). this said however it does not deserve to be named the greatest console of all time, heck it doesn't even deserve to be the best console of that generation!

You can't base a console for greatness by a few games (even the Mario one was poor in comparison), but it would have to be a thorough catalogue of titles, something which the NGC did not have. Nintendo made the silly mistake again; with the N64 they used cartridges as opposed to CD's and with the NGC they used mini disks as opposed to DVD's. This led to a lot of developers refusing to develop games for it [I'm told the reason for this is because with Mini disks it's hard to produce, and Nintendo went with mini disks because there is practically no loading time...I dunno if that's true or not but hey!)

I agree with this post, (except I still think that gamecube won that generation) I was always angry that nintendo had those mini-discs. I always felt like I was cheated out of longer games and a dvd player.
I never heard that developers didn't make games for it because of the mini-discs. Do you have a source on that? I'd like to hear who said that.

 

[Lee]

I agree with this post, (except I still think that gamecube won that generation) I was always angry that nintendo had those mini-discs. I always felt like I was cheated out of longer games and a dvd player.
I never heard that developers didn't make games for it because of the mini-discs. Do you have a source on that? I'd like to hear who said that.

No i don't have a source for it, it was something I read a few years back. I thought it was a well known fact that the Gamecube had a severe lack of 3rd party developers for the console. This added to pricedrops in British chains Dixons and Argos, as well as various US ones, led to a rather premature death of the console.

What I liked about the Gamecube so much was it was basic, no DVD drive, no flashy graphics, just sheer game play. Something Nintendo has really picked up on with the wii (as much as I hate about 75% of wii titles, it still has some fantastic games that just go back to simple game play). It was a shame that the online facilities of the Gamecube never took off, as Nintendo definitely had experience in this field.

 

[drwow]

No i don't have a source for it, it was something I read a few years back. I thought it was a well known fact that the Gamecube had a severe lack of 3rd party developers for the console. This added to pricedrops in British chains Dixons and Argos, as well as various US ones, led to a rather premature death of the console.

What I liked about the Gamecube so much was it was basic, no DVD drive, no flashy graphics, just sheer game play. Something Nintendo has really picked up on with the wii (as much as I hate about 75% of wii titles, it still has some fantastic games that just go back to simple game play). It was a shame that the online facilities of the Gamecube never took off, as Nintendo definitely had experience in this field.

I knew that Nintendo Had really poor thrid party support, I never knew it was because of the mini-disc.

as for the wii. I actually prefer having a bunch of crappy games come out.
I look at it as a situation where there going to eventually going to release a couple of good games from some third party developers, kind of a like finding a diamond in crap sitution. This is is also getting them some of there older third party devolupers back as well. they really only have square enix back now, but I expect some more to come back.

 

[Davi323]

To be fair, I didn't list the Gamecube as my top console of all time...I was just agreeing with drwow that it was incredibly fun. I enjoyed my GC more than I currently enjoy my PS2 (with the exception of when I am playing God of War), and while the GC lagged behind both the PS2 and Xbox in sales (by a good margin) I still prefer it as a console to either of them. I care less about graphics capabilities than I do playability, and nobody makes consoles as user friendly as Nintendo does.

 

[FoleyIsGod]

In terms of the allround package, the ps2 has to win here. It has DVD support, which is a godsend if you havent got a seperate dvd player. There are a stupid amount of games available(Sony likes its 3rd party developers!)

It also has the capability to play the old games from the other game-changing console, the playstation.

I cannot think of one gamer who hasnt owned a playstation/playstation 2.

 

[drwow]

In terms of the allround package, the ps2 has to win here. It has DVD support, which is a godsend if you havent got a seperate dvd player. There are a stupid amount of games available(Sony likes its 3rd party developers!)

It also has the capability to play the old games from the other game-changing console, the playstation.

I cannot think of one gamer who hasnt owned a playstation/playstation 2.

The only thing about the ps2's dvd player is that it can wear out the laser disc reader quickly. That's what happend to my first ps2.

 

[Lee]

In terms of the allround package, the ps2 has to win here. It has DVD support, which is a godsend if you havent got a seperate dvd player. There are a stupid amount of games available(Sony likes its 3rd party developers!)

It also has the capability to play the old games from the other game-changing console, the playstation.

I cannot think of one gamer who hasnt owned a playstation/playstation 2.

NES
Gameboy
SNES
PSX
PS2

Five consoles that have shaped the history of gaming. We know what I think of the NES and SNES and frankly I don't really need to go into the sheer brilliance of a hand held console that let you play Tetris on the toilet!

Now Sony's attempt, I must admit I was pretty pissed off with Sony for many a year, and have finally succumbed to a PS1 and a PS2...but back onto track.

Whilst Nintendo may have brought gaming into homes, Sony did what had been lacking....making games affordable! Instead of paying £70 for a game, you were paying half that price...then PS2 with that genius move of having a DVD player built in...revolutionary! Now I'm not a fan of games consoles being media machines, other than for gaming, but you cannot deny that this had an effect on sales, am sure it's the biggest selling console of all time. A huge range of games, and so many classics, internet connections and affordable gaming...Sony really almost stole the market here...good job Nintendo have been about for over 100 years and know what they're talking about with regards to change!