Top 5 Best Game Consoles of All Time – Nerdberry

Nintendo 64

Cool your jets folks. You’re probably sitting there thinking, “There’s at least 10 consoles better than the N64.” On many levels, the N64 was considered a failure AND a success. Sales didn’t quite meet expectations, but the system saw a slew of legendary titles, neat peripherals, and some successful experiments too. How in the hell did the Nintendo 64 break the top 5 barrier?

When the N64 was first released, it was instantly shunned and coined as “old school” due to it being a cartridge-based system while everyone else on the market went all-in on disc-based technologies. But there was no denying the capabilities of this strong machine as it helped usher in the 5th generation of gaming. Nintendo may not have been sold on discs, but they were all-in on the world of 3D gaming, as evidenced by transitioning 2 of their most recognizable faces in Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, to name a few.

The thing about the Nintendo 64 was that it was just cool! Following in the footsteps of excellent gaming machines in the Nintendo (NES) and the Super Nintendo (SNES), the N64 was poised for success from the get-go, despite the “dated” cartridge technology. One thing in particular that made the N64 better than its contemporaries or any of the 4th generation consoles was that it boasted 4-player gaming WITHOUT the use of a multi-tap. Nintendo didn’t want just another gaming console, they wanted a way for friends to connect and have fun with each other!

Those looking for proof of the power of 4-player gaming need look no further than the majority of Nintendo 64’s best-selling titles. Titles such as Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, and Mario Party are proof that Nintendo was completely sold on the concept. Look at every gaming system since then, less the Xbox. All include out-of-the-box 4-player capabilities!

We can’t say that the Nintendo 64 was the best system ever made, and most wouldn’t even put the Nintendo 64 within their top 10 favorite consoles! But there’s an undeniable emotion you felt the first time you and Epona took to the open world of the Hyrule Kingdom in Ocarina of Time. And do you remember crowding your friend’s living room with your best friends running through the complex in Goldeneye 007 all night? Perhaps you recall conquering the Lylat System with Fox McCloud and the annoying Peppy? Or the raunchiness of Conker’s Bad Fur Day? No matter what your story is, you likely had some emotional ties to the system because there were a number of legendary titles attached. Will the Nintendo 64 go down as legendary or average? I don’t know how you feel, but it’ll always be legendary in my book.

Microsoft Xbox 360

Xbox 360 cracked the top 5 best game consoles of all time list for many reasons, one of which is the straight-forward and simple approach to user ergonomics. Xbox Live’s interface vs PlayStation 3 PSN’s has brought on many a heated debate which nobody can ever win. PlayStation 3 certainly has a higher level of raw power, not to mention their games play on Blu-Ray which lends a big helping hand to the wonderful graphics! But Xbox 360 takes a user-friendly approach with a welcoming interface that boasts a simple way to connect with your Xbox Live friends and access all of your downloaded apps and games!

The unfortunate thing about the 7th and 8th generation of gaming is an overall lack of exclusive games from either platform. Sure, Microsoft has the Halo series and Sony has the God of War series, to name a few. But most of the other major franchises have seen a cross-platform release, which leaves the machines and peripherals as the true firepower in the heated Xbox vs PlayStation battle.

I know that I’m not RIGHT when I say that the 360 is better than the PS3, but it’s hard to ignore the strengths of the Xbox 360! So, I’m not WRONG either. Aside from the excellent user-interface, the 360 boasts one of the most ergonomic controllers on the market. The Dualshock controller has been through quite a few evolutionary changes, but the overall shape and feel has stayed relatively similar. The 360 controller is lightyears ahead of its predecessor, as it is molded to contour to the human hand much better than any DualShock controller.

The merit of a machine’s success can’t be attributed to the controller alone, so what about the software? Most of the Xbox 360’s exclusive games are often strong contenders for Games of the Year within their respective genres! Strong franchises like Gears of War, Forza Motorsports, and Halo have been moving hardware for years, and their continuous support of these titles will hopefully keep Microsoft afloat in the gaming industry for decades to come.

Voting the Xbox 360 in at the number 4 spot was NOT an easy decision. None of these are. But consider this… I’m a retrogamer at heart. Theoretically, wouldn’t the Xbox One be superior? Regardless of your opinion, these are my thoughts and I’m sticking to them! The Xbox 360 was a great machine (and still is!) and still has a lot of life left in it! It has been a gnarly ride so far.

Nintendo GameCube

Sure, most might consider the GameCube to be wildly inferior to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox (the original one). Yea, you might also say that it is a very forgettable system. And I guess you could say that it didn’t really introduce a whole ton of great original games. But then I would say that you haven’t really experienced the greatness that Nintendo gave us…the greatness that came in the shape of a cube! The GameCube was an exceptional piece of hardware and belongs on this list for many reasons, one of which is its lasting impression on the gamers who went with Nintendo over Sony.

First off, the GameCube was a relatively inexpensive gaming machine that saw the introduction of the first commercially successful (maybe even the first ever) RF wireless controller with the WaveBird. No more having to stand less than 10 feet from your game system while pointing your controller at the box nonstop! The GameCube also saw the introduction of a fantastic, uber-ergonomic controller that Nintendo continues to promote the use of even today, as evidenced by the GameCube controller ports on the Wii and the controller tap for the Wii U. Furthermore, Nintendo was firmly sold on the use of 4-player interactivity since the days of the N64 (unlike Sony who still only included just 2 controller ports on their system).

The GameCube boasted exceptional graphics, fast loading times, and of course… Nintendo’s famous franchises! Personally, I feel the GameCube had a wildly lackluster list of launch-titles, but a couple of them were truly great, such as Luigi’s Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Super Monkey Ball, and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. Nintendo didn’t give many people a reason to get a GameCube right away but rewarded the folks who did. Not long after the launch, fans were graced with the timeless experiences of titles like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, and Resident Evil.

What makes the GameCube so great today? Nintendo using their franchises to the fullest extent! That’s what! Some of these games are timeless and unforgettable. Most people might think of Sony when they think about Metal Gear games, but let’s not forget Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which is not only a GameCube exclusive, but is highly regarded as the best Metal Gear game in the entire series! Other timeless games include Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Zero, Killer 7, Star Fox Assault, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Viewtiful Joe, Eternal Darkness, and Pikmin 1 and 2 to name a few.

Star Fox Assault

We also saw Nintendo boldly reinvent some of their most famous franchises with titles like Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Star Fox Adventure, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Mario Kart Double Dash!!, and Super Mario Sunshine. I could go on and on listing every great game for the GameCube, but hopefully I’ve provided you with some great memories. Many of these great games aren’t even 10 years old! But they feel like they were forever ago, don’t they? If you’re new to the GameCube, now is the time to get into it. I have 2 GameCubes…okay, I lied. I have 3. But I have 2 that I keep hooked up. 1 stays hooked up in the living room. The other stays hooked up in my Nerd Bacon office. I play this system REGULARLY. If you own a Wii and not a GameCube, nearly all GameCube games can be played on the Wii. So there’s no excuse. The GameCube belongs on any best-of list!

Sega Genesis

And the battle for the number one gaming system boils down to just two…and coincidentally they were both players in the legendary 4th generation of 16-bit gaming! Coming in at #2 is the Sega Genesis, a powerful black machine that could knock the panties off the ladies with its extreme blast processing! Sega saw potential to compete against Nintendo, especially when the Nintendo Entertainment System was beginning to show its age. In 1989, Sega released the Genesis and the Mega-Drive, Europe’s and Japan’s name for the Sega Genesis, which is how Western audiences referred to the system. What happened next resulted in a story for the ages.

Nobody thought they could unseat Nintendo, but Sega wanted to take them head on by attacking them directly. Slogans such as “Sega does what Nintendon’t” really set the tone for how the public would view Sega and Nintendo. Being someone who grew up during this epic 16-bit war, I have a keen perspective on the whole situation. There was a general feeling that owning an NES made you “archaic” and owning a Super Nintendo meant you were too “kiddie” and childish. But owning a Sega Genesis made you cool and hip! Wait, was the term “hip” acceptable back then? Wait…is it acceptable now? Maybe I’m too old.

The Genesis was a great system and it came out at the perfect time. Technology was moving fast and the Genesis was ahead of the competition. Having impressive hardware doesn’t mean jackshit without an enjoyable way to utilize it! The Genesis used its strengths to its advantage by rubbing it in Nintendo’s face that their system was flat out “faster” than the Super NES. Which was true. To showcase this speed, Sega created a whopper of a game, which in turn became a monster of a franchise! You know exactly who I’m talking about. The Blue Blur, also known as Sonic the Hedgehog.

If it weren’t for Sonic the Hedgehog, it might not have been worth purchasing a Sega Genesis! Sega released 4 classic Sonic games for their hardware, which were the only 4 games you HAD to own as a Genesis owner. Owning any Sonic game was a prize, but there were many other games available to help sweeten the deal. Classic original games such as Gunstar Heroes, the Shinobi series, Castlevania Bloodlines, TMNT The Hyperstone Heist, the Streets of Rage series, Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, the Phantasy Star series, Contra Hard Corps, Comix Zone, and Toejam & Earl helped the Genesis stand out as a bonafide contender in the at-home video gaming industry.

Everyone knew Sega could hold their own in the arcade market which actually presents another benefit to owning a Genesis: arcade imports. Sega was a king in the arcades and fortunately the Genesis saw a tremendous outpouring of ported arcade titles such as Golden Axe, Altered Beast, After Burner II, Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, Virtua Racing, and so many more.

Sega was, however, known for a few ill-advised decisions regarding their cash-cow including 2 separate add-ons, both of which failed to make any waves. The Sega CD and the 32x were both peripherals designed to capture the next generation of gaming and extend the life of the Genesis, but neither machine was supported very well by 3rd party developers or the general audience. Does the Genesis STILL belong at #2?? HELL YES! Because of these stupid add-ons, we can have MORE GAMES and MORE POSSIBILITIES! While the Sega CD wasn’t exceptional, it did provide a number of quality exclusive titles such as Snatcher, Shining Force CD, Popful Mail, Silpheed, Night Trap, Ground Zero Texas, and of course… Sonic CD.

Even when Sega started to slip up and make stupid mistakes, the Genesis was still holding its own against Nintendo’s SNES. And even though Sega has been out of the hardware game since 2001, people STILL talk about the Genesis and the good ol’ days of 16-bit gaming. The Genesis might be inferior to newer machines, but I’ll be damned if my 20+ year old Sega machine has ever gotten the red-ring-of-death! Ever!

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Coming in at numero uno is the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or more commonly known as Super Nintendo or SNES. This exceptional piece of hardware belongs in any top 5 best game consoles of all time list not only because of its historic impact on video gaming as a whole, but because it is truly an awesome machine! The SNES is known for so many things but not everyone realizes that Nintendo actually lost many of the 16-bit battles, even if they did win the war. With Sega currently out of the picture, it’s easy to look back and say, “Nintendo has ruled the spotlight since the mid-80s.” But that’s not entirely true because Sega was pretty disruptive to Nintendo’s plans. But even with Sega breathing down their neck and taking cheap shots at them, they persevered and came out the other end as heroes.

The SNES is the successor to the uber-popular NES. As the ’80s came to a close, and with numerous other companies trying to steal Nintendo’s superior grip on the gaming market (NEC, Sega, various PC’s, etc), Nintendo knew it was time to unleash their next weapon: enter Super Nintendo. Boasting super smooth 16-bit graphics processing, over 32,000 available colors, and superior sound processing, the SNES was bigger and badder than anything else out there… But better than that is the fact that it was Nintendo! Who cares about the specs?? In the mind of your average adult, the word “Nintendo” was synonymous with “Video Games” and often was used interchangeably to explain when someone was in front of the boob-tube with ANY video game controller in their hand.

For me, and most people out there, the SNES was the last truly great video game system ever made. The SNES was responsible for the birth of many incredible gaming icons. Gaming icons such as Fox McCloud and Donkey Kong got their start on the SNES. Well, technically, Donkey Kong started in the arcades in the title-game Donkey Kong, but Donkey Kong Country represents the first time we’ve experienced a Donkey Kong platformer game where Donkey Kong is a playable character. In Donkey Kong Country we are also introduced to Diddy Kong.

Introductions the SNES was responsible for include

• The Mario Kart franchise
• The 4-player party mode in the Bomberman series
• The first Mario RPG game with Super Mario RPG
• The first game in the Pilotwings series
• The first game in the Star Fox series
• The first Donkey Kong platformer with DK as the playable protagonist
• The first game in the F-Zero series
• The first Harvest Moon game in the series
• The introduction of Goemon (Mystical Ninja) to Western audiences in Legend of the Mystical Ninja
• A timeless classic with Chrono Trigger

While the Genesis may have been the edgier and “cooler” gaming system between the 2, Nintendo seemed to have a better grasp understanding Western audiences than Sega. The simplicity behind so many of their best games outshines all of the wackiness within most of the Genesis’ popular games. The Super Nintendo may have had somewhat slower processing than the Genesis, but it sure as hell featured better sound and color with an overall better polish in its graphical display. Furthermore, the Super Nintendo had a far superior selection of exclusive titles.

Some of the best exclusive titles for the SNES:

• TMNT Turtles in Time
• Any Kirby game
• Super Punch-Out
• Super Castlevania IV
• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• Earthbound
• Super Metroid
• Secret of Mana
• Mega Man X
• The Final Fantasy series
• Super Mario World
• Yoshi’s Island
• Any Legend of Zelda game
• The Super Star Wars series

With so many great games to choose from, it can be quite overwhelming if you’re thinking of starting your first SNES collection (or even your 2nd collection if you sold your old one years ago)! But the great thing is… it’s just a marvelous thing to hold a Super Nintendo controller in your hand and look at the beautiful colors on your screen! It’s friendly…it’s fun…it’s fascinating…the Super Nintendo will make you feel happy, no matter what game you play! It’s not too late to start your collection now.

With so many excellent gaming systems out there, it’s tough to narrow them down to just 5! I struggled mightily with numbers 3 through 10, so I narrowed it down to just 5, and I even shuffled those around a few times before settling on what I have here! In a couple cases I actually wrote out my reasons for why X system belonged in X place, and then either talked it up so much I realized it belonged higher, or I realized I didn’t have anything great to say and took it off the list!

Here are my honorable mentions. Some of these are just as likely to be on someone else’s top 5, but for me… They just barely missed the cut. Mind you, these are in no particular order.

Sega Dreamcast

Sony PlayStation 2

Nintendo Entertainment System

Ah… The famous NES. I love this damn system! If I had made a top 6 list, this would have fallen at #6 without a doubt. And honestly, it wasn’t easy not having this in the top 5. It could

The Adventures of LOLO (one of my personal favorites). Puzzle games is something the NES was great at!

just as well go right in at #3 and push everything up one. It is THAT good of a system. Some of these games are timeless, such as Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3. The Nintendo (as it was originally called when there was just ONE real gaming system in America) took the at-home gaming world that Atari created and flipped it on its head! The games were fun. They had high-replay potential. They were beautiful in color. And they were flat-out cool. But what really made the NES exciting and fun was the NES Action Set which included a gun AND a 2-in-1 game!

The NES is often referred to as being timeless and wildly inventive, but I can only agree with the latter. The NES is showing its age and much of its library consists of games that were developed BEFORE large test-panels were created. Some of these games are buggy while others are downright impossible and unplayable. Unless you are versed in NES history and such, it could be very overwhelming to get into collecting these games. But if you know what you’re doing and you’ve been at it for a while, finding a good NES game has such a rewarding feeling! It’s a masterful system which truly sparked a revolution in gaming. And guess what? The NES gave us Mario in his platformer state! Thanks Nintendo!

With so many great gaming machines created over the last 30+ years, I can guarantee there’s a heated debate happening in someone’s living room this very moment (no matter when you read this) as to what system is the best. We already know the SNES is THE best console ever made (because I said so). And we’ve seen the honorable mentions. What about the unheard of and forgotten machines? Well, I could list off 30 gaming systems right now, but that would be a waste of your time. Here’s a couple quick shots on some gaming systems that were ready to take on the world and failed miserably!

3DO Interactive Multiplayer

Atari Jaguar and Jaguar CD

Virtual Boy

Ouya