What Are Your Top Five All-Time Game Consoles?

[poofyhairguy]

Game consoles have been a staple for the last few decades. Which ones out of the two dozen plus released make your top five? For me:

1. DS Lite: First of all the hardware is very nice and clean and portable. Secondly the library access was amazing- you got all the DS games plus every classic SNES game thanks to the GBA port. Oh and how hackable it was/is. It deserves to be Nintendo's best selling console.

2. SNES: Was the best console ever for the type of game I like the most, plus it has some of Nintendo's all time best games. Only reason DS Lite beats it is because so many of its classics were ported to GBA and then improved in the GBA versions.

3. NES: Sure it was the console of my childhood and everything. But it honestly had a lot of amazing classic games. I would rather be locked in a room for a year with the three Mario games than all of the console games released before the NES put together (sorry 2600).

4. Gamecube: Seriously. I have had more fun with my Gamecube than I EVER have had with my PS3, Xbox or Wii. This underrated system had some AMAZING titles, heck the Gamecube Smash Brothers and Metroid Prime are more fun than any game ever released on a more recent platform IMHO. Plus the Gamecube has a second life for me in 2014 as I play my games on my PC at 1080p, and they look AMAZING. Heck the Dolphin emu basically killed any chance I will ever buy a Wii U. I just made the HD Wii/Gamecube that Nintendo wouldn't sell me.

5. Fat PS2: A pretty amazing lineup of games, and holder of the last decent Final Fantasy game (and JRPGs in general on non-portable consoles). Plus the fat one gets bonus points because of its ability to almost perfectly play PS1 games, and nowadays I will admit I liked the PS1 more than the N64 (hated to admit that then). I mean FF7 sealed that deal. Heck Sony's only chance I buy a PS4 is if a FF7 remake ends up on it.

What is your lineup?

 

[dank69]

Genesis
NES
PS2
Coleco Vision
5200

 

[shortylickens]

the ones in the correct forum.

 

[smitbret]

1 - Sega Genesis
2 - Atari 2600
3 - Xbox 360
4 - Playstation 3
5 - Everything Else

 

[Jodell88]

^^

He/she didn't grow up playing Nintendo games.

 

[Majcric]

NES
Super NES
Genesis
Playstation
Playstation 2

 

[Ichinisan]

For simplicity, I'm going to ignore portables. I've sunk more money into that than anything else.

Also, OP: some of those GBA remakes of SNES games were really watered-down. All of them had the viewable part of the screen chopped to fit in the GBA's resolution and all of them had inferior sound without the SNES' dedicated sound processor (SPC700). "Earthworm Jim" was awful all around. "Yoshi's Island" had inferior sound and "morphmation" effects were missing. Most had annoying voice stuff added for no reason. Many were re-made to be WAAAY too easy.

For home consoles, NES and SNES gave me the most hours of entertainment. GameCube, PS2, N64, and Genesis after that.

-NES-
Ninja Gaiden series
Castlevania series
Ghosts-n-Goblins / Ghouls-n-Ghosts
Megaman series
Super Mario Bros. series
Double Dragon series
Battletoads
Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! / Punch Out!!
Metal Gear
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Batman (Sunsoft)
Final Fantasy series
Dragon Warrior series
R.C. Pro Am

-SNES-
Super Mario World
Yoshi's Island (Super Mario World 2)
Super Mario Kart
Stunt Race FX
Star Fox
Tetris Attack
Killer Instinct
Donkey Kong Country series (I preferred the first one)
Super Mario RPG
Final Fantasy 3 (aka Final Fantasy 6)
Illusion of Gaia
Megaman X series
Super Metroid
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Punch Out!!
Street Fighter II
Mortal Kombat series
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Earthworm Jim
The Lion King
Sparkster
Other epic games from Square, Enix, Capcom, and Konami.

-N64-
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Goldeneye 007
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Banjo-Kazooie
Diddy Kong Racing
Killer Instinct Gold
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
F-Zero X
Super Smash Bros.
Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Beetle Adventure Racing
Mario Party series
Star Fox 64

-Gamecube-
Super Mario Sunshine
Smash Bros. Melee
Pikmin series
Eternal Darkness
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 1/2/3 ("REmake" series)
F-Zero GX
Zelda: Twilight Princess
Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (MGS remake)
Mario Party series
Mario sports series

-PS1-
Megaman X series
(I didn't play PS1 very much and still don't find the system to be very appealing)

-PS2-
Final Fantasy series
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
(I didn't play much other than these)

...I just realized I have to be somewhere, so I can't finish fleshing-out my list. Oh well.

-Genesis-
Sonic the Hedgehog series
Vectorman series
Rocket Knight Adventures
Earthworm Jim
The Lion King
Mortal Kombat series

 

[Pacfanweb]

Original Atari

NES

Sega Genesis

XBox 360

PS2 (although I never had one, but my PS3 plays any PS1 or 2 games)

 

[norseamd]

holy shit am i pissed off. i had this all the way to 1. now i have to start all over.

5. atari 2600

the console that started it all. games like frogger and pitfall. also MASH!

the snes or ps3 could have gone here also

4. n64

shadows of the empire! also rogue squadron, super mario 64, goldeneye, and mario kart 64.

3. ps2

well rounded and polished console. tons of amazing games like summoner, gt4, socom, mortal kombat, san andreas, battlefront 2, dave mirra 2, crazy taxi, and battlefield 2 modern combat, lego star wars, medal of honor, kessen, star wars bounty hunter.

2. nes

all time classics like zelda and mario. excitebike, hogans alley, duck hunt, life force, tecmo cup, metal gear, chrysalis, willow, bayou billy, swords and serpents, wizards and warriors, and link.

1. sega genesis

road rash! bubsy, sonic, alladin, mortal kombat, tmht, desert and jungle strike, jurassic park, double dragon, and lion king.

sega made the top console for the time. the playstation may be considered the most powerful consoles around today but sega was more. if sega were making consoles today they would be stronger and more powerful than the ps4.

 

[Away]

3DO
Neo Geo
NES
PS1
SNES

 

[BoomerD]

I haven't played any console game since the mid-90's when my son brought his Playstation to the house when he came to visit. Before that...SNES was the last one...and it was stolen in a burglary in the early 90's.

 

[TheSlamma]

Atari 2600
NES
SNES
NeoGeo
PS1

 

[Soundmanred]

I haven't played any console game since my mid-90's when my son brought his Playstation to the house when he came to visit. Before that...SNES was the last one...and it was stolen in a burglary in my early 90's.

Man, that's horrible.

 

[NetWareHead]

Super NES for the simple reason of being able to play Super Mario Kart. What a fun game!

 

[HeXen]

I have more reasons than just the games made available. These are not my favorite in terms of the fun I had playing them but a variety of other aspects.

1. Sega Master System....arcade ports, sleeker looking system with the red and black going on, less kiddy marketing than Nintendo had.

2. Sega Dreamcast...small, 4 player ports, unique game designs and good marketing.

3. 3DS XL Zelda edition...3d screen looks good and no glasses is great. Clamshell design and thin enough to not be too bad for portability. Lots of potential in terms of apps and more gameplay styles like that Kirby game where you draw lines to progress him but sadly Nintendo won't take advantage of the system like they should.

4. Snes... I liked the eject button, great list of decent arcade ports and the controller.

5. Commadore/Amiga....I know it's not a console but computer games and how you used them were more unique, I also loved the larger game boxes, more variety of sim and adventure games including text games.

 

[CZroe]

Top 5:
SNES
NES
N64
Genesis/Megadrive
Gamecube

Next 5:
Gamecube
PS2
PS3
Dreamcast
XBOX (original)

Of course, PC reigns supreme since the 16-bit era but it's not a console.

I own and experienced 3DO, Turbografx, CD-i, Master System, etc but most anyone who includes those in their top 5 isn't being honest with themselves and inflating the importance of those consoles for hipster gamer cred. Neo-Geo? OK. I'd accept that.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

1) Atari 5200: First console I ever had and loved it!
2) Neo Geo .... ya, I'm going there
3) Sega Genesis ... EA Sports NHL series. need I say more.
4) NES .... wonderful library
5) N64 or Xbox 360. N64 changed gaming.

[SIZE=+3]HONORABLE MENTION) FULL CUSTOM CONSOLE[/SIZE]

 

[Arkaign]

5. PS2
4. NES
3. TurboGrafx
2/1 Tie SNES/Genesis

PS2 had a massive library and tons of classics, I wasn't having as much fun with consoles by that era though.

NES was great, but the hardware was still pretty lacking. SMS would have been epic but also had some major limitations (horribad resolution for example).

TurboGrafx had a lot of amazing shmups (some of my faves) along with the best R-Type port, Legendary Axe, Ninja Spirit, Military Madness, amazingly high quality AV for the time even over RF, but had a small library in the US.

Genesis and SNES were just awesome overall, and complemented each other nicely.

 

[ksheets]

1) SNES
2) Dreamcast
3) Genesis
4) Nintendo
5) Atari

Those systems comprised 90% of my gaming experiences- I have a PS3, but it pretty much just plays Blu-Rays, and my Wii hasn't been touched in a year

 

[Ichinisan]

1. sega genesis

road rash! bubsy, sonic, alladin, mortal kombat, tmht, desert and jungle strike, jurassic park, double dragon, and lion king.

Did you ever compare the Genesis and SNES versions of The Lion King? I think you did not...

sega made the top console for the time. the playstation may be considered the most powerful consoles around today but sega was more. if sega were making consoles today they would be stronger and more powerful than the ps4.

What? The SNES was the more powerful console by almost every possible measure. We're you fooled by Sega's "blast processing(tm)" ads?

Next, compare Earthworm Jim between SNES and Genesis. Better colors on SNES. Better music on SNES. Better special effects on SNES.

Then compare the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter games. Almost anything that exists on both systems looks better on SNES.

...and that bit about how Sega would make the most powerful console if they still made consoles...how do you think they would pull that off? They don't engineer CPU microarchitecture. If their system had more powerful components than the competition, it would also cost more and have weaker sales. Simple as that.

 

[mmntech]

GameBoy
NES
SNES
Genesis
PS2

 

[mmntech]

Double post. That's odd. Forums must be acting up again.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Genesis, SNES, PS2, NeoGeo, PS3

 

[KentState]

NES, Genesis, SNES, PS3 and XB360.

 

[exdeath]

SNES and PS1 are the top two by FAR.

Id have to think long and hard about the other three to be fair.