Consoles: 25 Game Strong

[o.pwuaioc]

I have a rule, that any console or handheld or gaming computer I buy must have at least 25 games worth playing, with add-ons needing less. I define that as the best versions (or unique enough versions to warrant multiple copies) of games I would want to play. Up to recently, it has been super easy to find 25 games I would want to play, and all of these are included:

Atari 7800 (plays 2600 games), C64, NES, SMS, Genesis + CD/32X, PCE Duo, SNES, Saturn, PS, N64, DC, PS2, Xbox, GCN, Wii and handhelds GBA (also including GB/GBC games), DS, and PSP.

I excluded Neo Geo on account of price, but figured the NGCD would be a nice substitute. However, I found exactly only 25 games I would want to play (others may push it up to 30 or down to 20), so it barely makes it. After this, I'm stumped on the rest. What consoles am I missing (except for modern ones, which I'm still researching)? I'm just now looking into the Amiga32, are there 25 games worth playing on it? What about any others? In other words, what consoles not listed here have 25 games worth playing?

[Menegrothx]

I'm just now looking into the Amiga32, are there 25 games worth playing on it?

Might be, but quite a lot of them (if not most) are Amiga ports, and quite many are mouse dependent games, like strategy and point&click adventures. Now you can plug in a mouse and play them that way, but overall you'd better invest in an Amiga, CD32 doesn't have all that much exclusives that can't be found from Amiga or other consoles. Out of the failed "4.5" consoles (CD32, Jaguar, 3DO, CDi, PC Engine FX, FM Towns Marty, Pippin, A'can), I think that Jaguar offers the most exclusives when it comes to actual games and not FMV/edutainment crap (and is there for most recommended for purchase), while 3DO probably has the greatest amount of good games, but the problem with it is that allmost all of them are available on other platforms.


Amiga has a strong line up, as does MSX. Atari ST might also break the 25 game barrier too. ZX Spectrum and Apple 2 too probably, but if you have already have a C64 are able to play the PC games of that era+arcade ports on SMS, 7800&NES, they might be out of the count. I don't know much about the Apple 2 and Spectrum library, how much they have exclusives etc.

Not sure if it hits the 25 mark, but Neo Geo Pocket Color is a great handheld with a lot of surprisingly good games. It's better than Game Gear, Lynx and Wonderswan from my experience and research, but people who are more knowledgable about the hidden gems of those systems might disagree with that statement.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Have you considered a Sega Game Gear? There are certainly 25 games worth playing on that system, most of which can be acquired fairly inexpensively.

EDIT: I would agree that the NGPC probably has some better games, but the Game Gear's library is a bit more extensive. Accordingly, I think that the Game Gear is more likely to meet your 25 game standard.

DOUBLE EDIT: You might also want to consider an Intellivision. There are some good games - and some good exclusives - for that system.

[o.pwuaioc]

I actually have a Game Gear, but I'm not sure there are 25 games worth getting, considering that most of the games are either stripped down Genesis games or were also on the Master System. Still looking into it. There was a thread on GG exclusives, but it went nowhere.

(You can see I've been thinking about this for a while! )

Any good start on must-have exclusives for the INTV?

[prfsnl_gmr]

Any good start on must-have exclusives for the INTV?

I will defer to someone with more INTV experience, but I would start with the AD&D games on the INTV. There are also some exlcusive Imagic titles, such as Beaty & The Beast, that are supposed to be pretty good. Finally, the INTV received the best versions of some games that were also available on the 2600 such as Astrosmash.

The games listed in one of the various Intellivision Lives! collections might also give you a good start on some of the system's exclusives.

[Damm64]

Finding 25 games for 3DO or Jaguar will be real hard

Im pretty sure that some GG games are diferent games from the genesis version.

[Menegrothx]

Finding 25 games for 3DO or Jaguar will be real hard

Im pretty sure that some GG games are diferent games from the genesis version.

3DO:

Star Control 2
Gex
Killing Time
Wing Commander 3
Need for speed
Samurai Shodown
Space Hulk
Street Fighter 2
Road Rash
Return Fire
Guardian War
D
Strahl
ADD: Slayer
Shockwave 1&2
Soccer Kid
Panzer General
Syndicate
Lucienne's Quest
Alone in the Dark
Another World
Incredible Machine
Captain Quazar
Crash N Burn
Policenauts (JP) [There are some decent JP&Korea exclusive 3DO games, Dr Hauzer is probably the most noteworthy of them]
Wolfenstein 3D
Phoenix 3
Daedalus Encounter

Well, that list doesn't read like "top 25 best SNES" games with masterpiece after masterpiece, but there's some good stuff in there, even excellent, like Star Control 2, Wing Commander 3 and Street Fighter 2 turbo. Like I said, the major problem with the console is that most of the best games are PC games that got ported to it, slightly better versions of games available on other consoles, or in few cases games that were exclusive to but got later on were ported to Saturn/PS1, so there's there aren't really any exclusives that are good enough to justify buying one. There are some decent FMV and 3DO exclusive games I didn't list there, but none of them are really good enough to justify buying one for gameplay reasons rather than curiosity&collecting.

On Jaguar quite a high number of it's games are exclusive to the system so that's nice, but they're mostly substandard or mediocre.

[o.pwuaioc]

There are some decent FMV and 3DO exclusive games I didn't list there, but none of them are really good enough to justify buying one for gameplay reasons rather than curiosity&collecting.

Yeah, that's what I've been trying to avoid. With little space in a crowded studio in NYC, I can't really justify to myself, let alone my wife, why I should have a curiosity piece as large and expensive as the 3DO and its library. I'm sure some others must feel the same way.

[Ack]

There are some decent FMV and 3DO exclusive games I didn't list there, but none of them are really good enough to justify buying one for gameplay reasons rather than curiosity&collecting.

Yeah, that's what I've been trying to avoid. With little space in a crowded studio in NYC, I can't really justify to myself, let alone my wife, why I should have a curiosity piece as large and expensive as the 3DO and its library. I'm sure some others must feel the same way.

Yeah, I'd say you've got good reason to avoid picking one up., especially considering all the other consoles and handhelds you've got on your list.

[dsheinem]

why not 24? 20? 10? 25 seems a bit arbitrary...