The SMS just didn't have the library to support it. Phantasy Star was phenomenal, but other than that, I can't think of anything else that wowed me. The NES on the other hand had one of the most amazing libraries on any system ever.
There were a bunch of great games, but as I recall they were mostly just arcade adaptations (Golden Axe, Shinobi, Rampage, etc.). As far as unique games, you are right; Phantasy Star was definitely amazing though.
KT
Edit: I also really liked the Alex Kidd games, at least the ones I played.
I never got into Alex Kidd, thought they were kinda boring platformers compared to what was on the NES.
Golden Axe on the Genesis was a great arcade port, but if I recall Golden Axe for the SMS came out much later than the Genesis Golden Axe, and was nothing like the arcade.
Shinobi was not a bad port, but nothing to write home about.
Rampage, well it's hard to get that wrong, so I'll give you that one.
You cannot be serious.3DO this would take 1st place for me out of the 5
Coleco Vision
3DO this would take 1st place for me out of the 5
Dreamcast
N64
PS3
Super nes, dreamcast, ps2, Saturn, and gamecube. Ps2 and gamecube had inexcusably bad graphics (look at how colorful v8 2nd offense was and then how no other ps2 game was anywhere near as colorful, then look at all the banding in gamecube games; the gamecube had good effects, and the ps2 had a 32 bit fixed z bufer but that didn't make te graphics good looking overall) compared to the dreamcast considering that they came out a year after the dreamcast and that the latter didn't even have r and d poured into it's hardware... but the ps2 and the gamecube were of the last generation in which more than 1/3 of the games were from japan, so that means they had excellent libraries.
Overall, the gamecube had better graphics than the dreamcast, but by a small margin in my opinion. The dreamcast and ps2 were about the same though considering how drab ps2 games tended to look.
NES, N64, XBox, 360, Gameboy
No particular order. I skipped over the SNES and Genesis era unfortunately. The parents didn't let me get either
The NES, has to be cut out. Those games play like crap today.
The NES, has to be cut out. Those games play like crap today.
I have no idea what you're talking about here regarding the gamecube. It had excellent graphics and was just a notch below the xbox, which had the most graphics horsepower that generation. You're right in that the PS2 always seemed to have a lot of rough edges to everything.
SNES - the "oldest" system I can still revisit and enjoy/play the games. The NES, has to be cut out. Those games play like crap today.
This. A few years ago (long after the Gamecube's time had passed), I noticed a racing setup at Fry's Electronics running Mario Kart Double Dash. It was on that small track with the wiggler (caterpillar) roller coaster in the background.
I still thought the graphics were brilliant and amazing...even in 480p. It reminded me of just how great GC games looked compared with PS2 games.
Unfortunately, many people never saw anything for GC except multi-platform games that were developed primarily for PS2 (due to market share). These were hastily adapted to GC and sometimes looked worse than the PS2 version.
Games from first party (Nintendo) and second party (Lucasarts, Silicon Knights, etc) developers really showed what the system could do.
I had a GC for under a year before getting a XBox instead. I too noticed the same thing with jaggies and colors, but PS2/XBox were concentrated on 3D and complex stuff - GC was all about simplicity and that funky ass controller. I never regretted dumping the GC.