This week I thought I’d focus on gaming. Gamers are a passionate crowd. I know, ’cause I are one. I’ve been a gamer for years, in fact. Not hardcore, mind you, so I can’t decide all by myself. I need your help.
So I must ask you the question:
What’s the ultimate video gaming console of all time?
Before we get into the brawl, here’s a closer look at most of the consoles. If I missed yours, I’m truly sorry.
Next I need to share my gaming history.
1. I owned Pong as a kid. Yup, the very first video game—which amounted to two bars you could slide up and down to bounce a square “ball” back and forth. Bleep. Bonk. Bleep.
2. I also owned a Commodore 64. My favourite games were Bruce Lee and Raid on Bungeling Bay.
3. My friends owned Atari 2600s and Intellivisions. They were better than Pong. I was jealous. Until I played E.T. on my friend’s Atari. It sucked.
4. I also owned a Nintendo, the original NES. Favourite game? Super Dodge Ball. But I think I’m technically an infidel, because (GASP!) I never got into Super Mario Brothers.
5. I owned a Playstation. Favourite game: Star Wars Battlefront.
6. I owned a Playstation 2. Favourite game: Star Wars Battlefront 2. One of two games we kept playing on our PS3.
7. I own a Playstation 3. Favourite game right now: Uncharted 3. Loved Resistance: Fall of Man. Original Motorsport made my palms sweat.
8. We own a Wii. Favourite game: Bomberman Land. Gameplay all the way.
9. My son owns an X-Box. Favourite games: Halo Reach, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Now then… how to decide which console is the best of all time? What’s the most important measurement? Graphics? Gameplay? Sales? Fan base? Features? How groundbreaking it was/is?
- In terms of gameplay, the Nintendo Wii got non-gamers gaming like nothing else before it.
- In terms of graphics, both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 are pretty killer.
- In terms of fan base, Xbox 360 is surging ahead with the young ‘uns.
- In terms of sales, I have no idea. I suspect Playstation is lagging behind. Which is weird. Playstation Network is free, Xbox Live is sixty bucks a year.
- Features? Six ‘o one, half a dozen of the other, although… I can’t for the life of me figure out why all controllers aren’t rechargeable by USB like with the PS3. And the PS3 is a Blueray player.
- Groundbreaking? Pong was huge. It kick-started the gaming console movement. Atari broke away from cubes and rectangles into icons that looked more like real stuff. The Wii brought motion sensitivity. The rest of the consoles, in my humble opinion, were just more of the same—incremental improvements.
- For pure, nostalgic power, there’s no rival to the original Nintendo. Snif…
My sons clearly vote for Xbox 360. My personal favourite is the Playstation 3. But that’s just me. Tell you what, why don’t you weigh in, and I’ll tally the results after all the bloodshed.
Be passionate, but be classy. Go! Comment now. What’s the best gaming console of all time, and why?
Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog. And to tweet, share, pin, and like this post. Or all the above.
Nice post dad but to kindly correct you, my favourite system is the Nintendo 64.
The controllers where the most comfortable to hold out of all the systems I’ve played on, and plus it held a great game: Mario Smash Bro’s!
Nintendo 64 FOR THE WIN!!!
I stand corrected, my gaming son.
My current favourite has to be the PS3 simply because it’s the only gaming console I own. Ironically, I don’t own it because I think it’s the best gaming console; I own it because it’s a blu-ray player and at the time I bought it, it was the best blu-ray player on the market (it arguably still is). If I had to pick, I would probably go with the Atari 2600. It was our first gaming console (although I do remember my Dad having an intellivision, but we visited him rarely and I probably only played it twice). My mom bought us the Atari for Christmas but she repeatedly wrapped it, opened it, played Q-Bert into the wee hours of the night, then re-wrapped it again in the weeks leading up to Christmas. So I think she probably played it more than any of us!
But if we’re talking about electronic gaming (and I’ll conceded that the argument is intended to be focused on consoles only) then I simply have to go with the good old-fashion computer. I’ve gamed more on a PC than on all the other platforms combined. My favourite games are all PC games and I still think the PC owns in terms of graphics (important) and gameplay (MOST important). Nothing can compare with Civilization, Battlefield, Unreal Tournament, all the Sim games, Wing Commander, etc. The list goes on.
I’m almost certainly getting off topic, but I think I have to put my official vote in for the PC. In my opinion, it is the best gaming platform, bar none. I admit it’s not a console, so perhaps my vote doesn’t count, but the point of a console is to game, and none of them do it better than a non-console PC. 🙂
Oho!
Yeah, I’ve got a friend in Manitoba that would campaign for the PC being the best platform. Personally I reached a point when the built in obsolescence of my PC (and the need for continual upgrading) frustrated me out of the PC gaming world. Now every game I play on my console is optimized for the system. Ahhhhh.
PC games I miss, though: Battle for MIddle Earth (1 and 2); Jedi Knight; and Jedi Academy, and Worms Armageddon. Loved those.
Worms Armageddon is awesome!! Apparently you can get Worms 2 for the iPad. Just saying. 😉
Let’s here some love for the best console: The SNES!
The greatest launch title, super Mario world, the grand daddy and best legend of Zelda: a link to the past. The greatest final fantasy FF6 and arguably the best metroid! And some of the best games of all time: earthbound and chrono trigger. Oh and my personal favourite, super Mario RPG. Let’s face it, the SNES was a golden era of evocative and sublime pixel art sandwiched between the rudimentary games of the nes and awkward 3D that followed the SNES . It was the glory days of art and design, maybe never seen again. Sniff*
Hard to argue with gamechurch guy. You’re so passionate, you almost won me over.
Well I think one of the reasons that people are willing to buy Xbox live si because of the recent collapse of the PS3. It is probably the best thing that happened to X-box, as well as the Halo series.
Four reasons why I bought the PS3 after my xbox360 died,1) the original Halo series + storyline died (now it’s just a moneygrab).2) There is the arguably the best baseball game exclusivly for PS3 (yea I know for gamers that does not really matter but helped my decision. 3) it has a blu-ray player and so if my gaming habits died it would still be useful. 4) online play is free! (this is before the network collapse, but I still have faith in PS3).
Anyways, despite all of this the super nes will always have a special place in my heart (first system I ever owned), lots of hours playing hundreds of games. (Donkey Kong Country is a classic).
My hopefully humble opinion. PS3, because despite the original crappy game selection I still bought one.
Good thoughts. Thanks for weighing in, bro.
Woah I can’t believe I forgot about Donkey Kong Country! Those games rocked so hard, thanks for reminding me!!
I think the deciding factor in choosing my favourite console is the impact its collection of games had on me and my taste in video games. So I will have to choose the Nintendo 64, the first home console I ever got. Games like Mario Kart 64, 1080, Star Fox 64, Super Smash Bros., GoldenEye 007, Super Mario 64 and most importantly The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time shaped how I view video games and what I look for in games today. They were also groundbreaking at the time. It’s thanks to Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. that I still love local multiplayer. The scale and sense of exploration and discovery in Ocarina of Time kept my eyes wide open and palms sweaty. The endless fun and charm of Super Mario 64 got me hooked on Mario and I’ve been a fan every since.
Yeah, those were pretty epic. Thanks for stopping by, bro. Have a good one.
Intellivision was the 1st color console that had games u could really play for hours – sonic and grand turismo r favs