What is your least favorite and most favorite console?

[J T]

Least Favorite: Odyssey 2
Even as a kid in the 80s I knew this thing was crap. There's really little to say for it other than it has historical importance for being the sequel to the first home console. I suppose it's not really fair to put it side-by-side with something like a PS3 and say "look at how crappy it is", but whatever. Even in its heyday I didn't like the Odyssey 2. I guess I just hold a grudge for a long time.

Favorite: Playstation 2
As others have said, the library was phenomenal. It's huge with both breadth and depth. I feel like the recent generation has created some stupid split between Eastern and Western games, but everyone got along during the PS2 era and it was golden. This could be your only console and you would still have a lifetime's worth of great games to play. I also love a dual shock controller.

[the7k]

To people talking about the large amount of crap on the NES, PS2, and hell, even Wii...

Sturgeon's Law.

[Jmustang1968]

You kinda remind me though... why is every Sega fan so bitter all the time?

Because Nintendo somehow sucked the collective cock of the internet and now every reviews editior or games "expert" on the internet, when naming their top games of all time, always puts; Super Mario 64, Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, 007 GoldenEye, Super Mario World, Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Super Mario World, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Metroid, Star Fox and Mario Kart 64 all in the top of their list...

If you're lucky, less than 5 of the top 10 will be Nintendo-wank and a Sonic game might just crack the top 50. Honestly, the only games that even stand a chance of getting into the Top 10 regularly are; Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Trigger, Half-Life 2 and Shadow Of The Colossus and it's almost impossible for the #1 to not be a Zelda or Mario game.

Sega fans feel like they're in a room with a load of lunatics. Sonic get's treated like an average platformer, yet Mario is the best game ever? People rave about Final Fight or Double Dragon, but no one seems to remember Golden Axe or Streets Of Rage. People love Contra but Gunstar Heroes... nah. People love the classic NES platformers like Duck Tails and Mega Man but no-one notices Ristar and Rocket Knight Adventure... Even fan favourites like Shenmue and Panzer Dragoon are largely forgotten.

Basically, to a Sega fan there are 3 groups of gamers. The new Hardcore who play Halo, Call Of Duty and nothing else, call you "gay" on XBLA, tea-bag you and tell you how hard they raped your mother when they shoot you after hacking their games (and yes, they do hack, google NGU if you don't believe me there's a whole forum devoted to it)... oh and they're all 12 as well. The second group are casual gamers who play nothing but brain training and wii sports resort, occationally they'll pick up a more involved game like Kingdom Hearts... and we'll feel bad for them. Lastly there's the retro-gamers who seem to enjoy the same types of games as us, but for some reason when they played Nintendo games played diamond encrusted golden games not the stuff we got, so while they like one or two games for the "Genesis" (because 9 out of 10 people online are American and they get confused when you say Mega Drive), they seem firmly set on their love affair for a console manufacturer who quite frankly doesn't care about us (Operation Rainfall people).

Basically we don't belong anywhere, and while no-one else seems to agree with us and we've been forced to admit the faults with our favourite franchises (after all, try saying Sonics the greatest franchise of all time and see how much mockery you get), no-one else seems to have been taught this lesson. Halo fans, Zelda fans, Mario fans, CoD fans, WoW fans, PC FPS fans, they're all so bigheaded. So assured that their favourite games are undeniably great, yet we get accused of being fanboys all the time (I was called a fanboy earlier in this very thread... and I was explaining why the Dreamcast WASN'T the best console ever).

In short Sega fans are the only fans forced to have a sense of perspective, to admit their favourite games aren't perfect for fear of mockery, where as everyone else hypocritically acts like a fanboy and expects us to swallow it. Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time isn't amazing. Super Mario 64 is even worse, it's a BAD game. GoldenEye is pretty damn terrible and Alien Trilogy on the Saturn years earlier puts it to shame. God forbid I say this though... the Nintendo fanboys may get hurt. This is why we're bitter.

I can see what you are saying on some of this, and even agree on some things, but I think you maybe should step off your soap box a bit haha. Now, just because a game's fan base may be obnoxious doesn't automatically make the game bad. I think the Halo series is solid, but do agree it is overrated.

I am also a Sega fan or was on the 'Genesis' and Saturn. I never was really a Sonic fan though, and neither am I much of Mario, I guess I just don't much like platformers. Though the end of the Saturn pissed me off as Sega didn't follow through with the Saturn, and mismanaged 3rd party developers completely and they abandoned Sega.

I think you are discrediting the gamer as a whole. One who has to like Nintendo or Sega or whoever else exclusively. I love the Genesis and generally dislike the Dreamcast. What gamer does that make me? And really what does it matter what media sites list at their top games ever? Play what you like.

[swiftzx]

The PS2 is a weird one imo. It's has hundreds, thousands even, of games. I have a good selection of games for the system, including some of the best on the system (well if you believe what a lot of sites, critics and general people say). Yet, I still get more enjoyment out of my Gamecube, Saturn and Dreamcast...

I agree. PS2 had a lot of good games. But not enough GREAT games.

My thoughts exactly.

[TornadoCreator]

Tornado, I thought we had a connection. Now you do this.

I understand some of the complaints, but the NES complaints are just like any other console with good games-there is also a lot of crap. With the NES, it just seems more noticeable. And I don't believe you dug enough on the Wii. I get the SNES dislike since your in Europe, but meh. It just seems like you come off directly hostile towards people in your writing, I doubt you mean to though.

Sorry. Oh, and CD-i sucks.

Yeah, I think my frustration when it comes to Nintendo is slightly unheathy :S

I don't really hate the NES, I just like the rant, sometimes it's best to not take everything I say too seriously. In many ways I'm my own worst enemy as I get so engulfed in my own frustrations that everything becomes a red flag to me.

I can see what you are saying on some of this, and even agree on some things, but I think you maybe should step off your soap box a bit haha. Now, just because a game's fan base may be obnoxious doesn't automatically make the game bad. I think the Halo series is solid, but do agree it is overrated.

Awww, it's comfy up here on my soap-box, but you're right, I'm getting too ranty. It's just I finally found a forum that wasn't filled with 12 year old Halo and CoD fans and I needed to rant. You can't rant about the N64 on most gaming forums now, the N64 is older than the average member... they just don't get it.

I am also a Sega fan or was on the 'Genesis' and Saturn. I never was really a Sonic fan though, and neither am I much of Mario, I guess I just don't much like platformers. Though the end of the Saturn pissed me off as Sega didn't follow through with the Saturn, and mismanaged 3rd party developers completely and they abandoned Sega.

I think you are discrediting the gamer as a whole. One who has to like Nintendo or Sega or whoever else exclusively. I love the Genesis and generally dislike the Saturn. What gamer does that make me? And really what does it matter what media sites list at their top games ever? Play what you like.

I know I'm generalising. Hell, I'm a Nintendo gamer myself. Give me a copy of Donkey Kong Country 2 and a SNES or a copy of F-Zero GX and Super Smash Bros. Melee and a Gamecube and I'm as happy as a pig in sh---uger. I think I just wanted to vent and a new forum ended up the destination. I apologise to anyone who I overreacted to (both here and in the other threads), I tend to have the subtlety of a half-brick to the forehead and I really do find some games (burning searing hatred for Super Mario 64 for example) a little bit irritating but it's all just a hobby in the end, even if I hate a game you like even if I say it's the worst game ever made and can prove it... and then do so (which is something I tend to do, multiple times, even when asked not to), it doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it. You could even do what my room-mate did and take great pleasure in winding me up by playing Halo in front of me and telling me how wonderful it was all throughout just so he could watch the vein on my temple pulsate... thankfully he was never one for Nintendo or I'd have had to kill him.

[gtmtnbiker]

Least Favorite: Odyssey 2
Even as a kid in the 80s I knew this thing was crap. There's really little to say for it other than it has historical importance for being the sequel to the first home console. I suppose it's not really fair to put it side-by-side with something like a PS3 and say "look at how crappy it is", but whatever. Even in its heyday I didn't like the Odyssey 2. I guess I just hold a grudge for a long time.

Agreed. I only knew one kid who had an Odyssey 2.

Getting back to Tornado's complaint about the lack of good SNES titles released in Europe, I wonder if this had anything to do with 50Hz vs 60Hz? I mean, wouldn't developers have to tweak their titles because of the different frame rate? It also wasn't easy to develop for SNES because there were no standard SDKs. I'm wondering if these were factors for the lack of PAL releases?

[TornadoCreator]

Least Favorite: Odyssey 2
Even as a kid in the 80s I knew this thing was crap. There's really little to say for it other than it has historical importance for being the sequel to the first home console. I suppose it's not really fair to put it side-by-side with something like a PS3 and say "look at how crappy it is", but whatever. Even in its heyday I didn't like the Odyssey 2. I guess I just hold a grudge for a long time.

Agreed. I only knew one kid who had an Odyssey 2.

Getting back to Tornado's complaint about the lack of good SNES titles released in Europe, I wonder if this had anything to do with 50Hz vs 60Hz? I mean, wouldn't developers have to tweak their titles because of the different frame rate? It also wasn't easy to develop for SNES because there were no standard SDKs. I'm wondering if these were factors for the lack of PAL releases?

I doubt it. I'm fairly sure it'd just slow down the gameplay by 16% to play 60Hz game in 50Hz, which for an RPG wouldn't really be all that noticable, but it's a possibility I guess.

[alienjesus]

It's more likely that they didn't want the expense of translating an RPG into all the different languages in the PAL region. Even if they did that, the limited cartridge space would likely mean you'd have to publish an English cart, a Spanish cart, a French cart etc - the prices of manufacturing would be higher than usual.


It's worth noting that Nintendo didn't make many RPGs though, most of the aforementioned games were by Square or Enix - both of whom were keeping this shit up for way longer than the SNES games. The first Dragon Quest main series game in europe was Dragon Quest 1 & 2 for GBC, the 2nd was Dragon Quest 8. Square never gave us brave fencer musashi, einhander, parasite eve and a whole bunch of others even in the PS1 days after FFVII had cemented them as a big name and sold a whole ton.

Seems a bit unfair to blame nintendo for it in this case. Not getting earthbound and mario RPG sure, but the rest were squares job.

[Jmustang1968]

I can see what you are saying on some of this, and even agree on some things, but I think you maybe should step off your soap box a bit haha. Now, just because a game's fan base may be obnoxious doesn't automatically make the game bad. I think the Halo series is solid, but do agree it is overrated.

Awww, it's comfy up here on my soap-box, but you're right, I'm getting too ranty. It's just I finally found a forum that wasn't filled with 12 year old Halo and CoD fans and I needed to rant. You can't rant about the N64 on most gaming forums now, the N64 is older than the average member... they just don't get it.

I am also a Sega fan or was on the 'Genesis' and Saturn. I never was really a Sonic fan though, and neither am I much of Mario, I guess I just don't much like platformers. Though the end of the Saturn pissed me off as Sega didn't follow through with the Saturn, and mismanaged 3rd party developers completely and they abandoned Sega.

I think you are discrediting the gamer as a whole. One who has to like Nintendo or Sega or whoever else exclusively. I love the Genesis and generally dislike the Saturn. What gamer does that make me? And really what does it matter what media sites list at their top games ever? Play what you like.

I know I'm generalising. Hell, I'm a Nintendo gamer myself. Give me a copy of Donkey Kong Country 2 and a SNES or a copy of F-Zero GX and Super Smash Bros. Melee and a Gamecube and I'm as happy as a pig in sh---uger. I think I just wanted to vent and a new forum ended up the destination. I apologise to anyone who I overreacted to (both here and in the other threads), I tend to have the subtlety of a half-brick to the forehead and I really do find some games (burning searing hatred for Super Mario 64 for example) a little bit irritating but it's all just a hobby in the end, even if I hate a game you like even if I say it's the worst game ever made and can prove it... and then do so (which is something I tend to do, multiple times, even when asked not to), it doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it. You could even do what my room-mate did and take great pleasure in winding me up by playing Halo in front of me and telling me how wonderful it was all throughout just so he could watch the vein on my temple pulsate... thankfully he was never one for Nintendo or I'd have had to kill him.

I did mean disliked the Dreamcast, I really liked the Saturn was a typo lol

[Breetai]

...(paraphrase)... "I hate Nintendo"...

Holy shit dude... Wow... I think extreme, but I do at least get your points about PAL regions being screwed over.

For the record, I have a soft spot for Sega. I wanted an SMS for Christmas back in the day, but got an NES. I was happy of course, but I always did enjoy playing on my friends' SMS consoles. I think the SMS was at least more popular here in Canada than in the USA. The NES was still way bigger, though. I also went Genesis/MD over the SNES. I DID know that it was called the Mega Drive outside of North America! Probably because my copy of Castle of Illusion said "Mega Drive" on the cart for some unexplained reason.

In my opinion:

SMS<NES (I don't care if there is lots of shovelware, the good games are THAT good)
MD/Genesis=SNES>PCE (but I do really love the PCE more than the other two!)
Saturn>PS1>N64
PS2>DC>X-BOX>GCN (but, like the PCE, I love the DC more than the PS2)


Have you been to Sega-16.com yet? You might also enjoy Segagagadomain.com. Racketboy is a cool site, for sure. I'm glad you're here. There is a pretty good age range here. Plenty of us are in our 30s or older. Personally, my first five systems were: Atari 2600-NES-Genesis-Sega CD-Saturn. I definitely like Sega!