There’s no denying it, this great site wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the consoles that held all the games on this website. There are  several, in which many are out dated and obsolete. Yet, some people take pride in owning one of these retro consoles. I myself own four consoles I consider retro (The DreamCast, PS1, Sega Genesis and NES) and I love them all….yes, even the Dreamcast. I want to list my top five all time favourite video game consoles, weather they are new, or 25 years old.

Honorary Guest, Sega Genesis

This one is a honorary guest for two simple reasons. The first being it was one of the first game consoles to go into 16-bits, while the Nintendo was still at 8-bit. The second is the name. It simply rolls off my tongue. It just makes sense. Yet, the Genesis was called that in America. Over here in the UK, we got the “Sega Mega Drive”, which – although does roll off my tongue as well, with an equally sensible name– is a mouthful to say none-the-less. Try saying “Sega Mega Drive” times in a row and you’ll see what I mean. This is also true with the Genesis name, but I would prefer to call it the Genesis, even though it says “Mega Drive” on the console. This games console had a fair few amount of good games. But for me, having the console is more like a novelty than using it to play games.

# 5: The Sega DreamCast

This was one of the first consoles to be in 128-bit, and it worth mentioning, as it seems under rated. At first, I didn’t really like it, but it grew on me. It was quite unique at the time, as the controller had a memory card in it, and the memory card had a screen on it. It was almost like a mini-Game Boy, in fact.
Certain game saves saved on it could allow you to play some game on the memory
card. This was cook, as the cards had to go in the controller (there were no
ports on the console) for you to upload your save. It also included a menu
screen so you could swap games around without turning off the console. It was
discontinued two years later. Some people speculate that this console was too
far ahead of its time, which is the reason why it was a failure. But let me
tell you this, was the Power Glove too far head of its time? Yes, and that’s
why…..it sucked….Ok, bad example. The point is this isn’t the case. The real
reason why it failed was because of the PS2. When that came round, the Dream
Cast could not keep up with the stocks Sony were selling (The PS2 did become
the greatest selling console of all time). Had the PS2s release date waited a
year or two more, and Sega might just have been able to create another console…..maybe. The controls are very awkward, and it doesn’t feel quite right
to hold in my hand, but you’ll get used to it.


There
were two major flaws in the console. It overheated way too quickly. The console
would be really hot to touch after a mere hour of game play. This was due to
the mother board having everything on it at once, and a tiny fan to cool it.
This leads to the second flaw. Over time, it would automatically reset itself.
This would get more frequent until it took just three minutes and it would
reset, making the console unplayable. I got mine with this problem for like £12
(plus £10 P&P), and I was able to fix it. Got a DreamCast with this problem
and want to fix this very same problem? It’s very easy. First, get a Philips
screwdriver and your Dreamcast. Now open up the cover and locate the
motherboard (it had like a bilzllion things on it, you can’t miss it), and take
that off. See the six pins? Those are your problem; they aren’t touching the
metal things connecting to the mother board correctly. You need to push these
to one side so they are touching the metal flips in on the mother board. Push
them with enough force so you are moving them, but not bending them. Push them
to the control port if it’s a PAL Dream Cast, or away if it’s an American one.
If you’re not sure what type it is, then look at the mother board where the
pins are meant to slip in, and push in the direction of the metal bumps in the
holes. Put it together and problem solved! The console is worth a look. The
games aren’t that exciting save for the Sonic games and a few others I can’t remember the names of (sorry =P). It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst.

# 4: The Sony Play Station 1

The Play
Station 1 (often shortened to PS1, and sometimes even referred to as the PSX)
was the first console I owned. I don’t remember the details, but I remember
there was a choice between the DreamCast, the PS1 and the N64. We choose the PS1, going to with the route of Sony for a while. I hear that Sony and Nintendo were in partner-ship in trying to make a disk add on to the Super Nintendo, when Nintendo stopped working with Sony and decided to work with Philips
instead. And we know what came out of that. Yeah, the project was cancelled,
and Philips created the Philips CDi Player. While this was happening, Sony was
working on the PS1, which grew to be a popular gaming system, making it one of the major gaming franchises ever, although the only thing that ever seems to change with these Play Stations is memory space and graphics.

The
console used disks to play games, and could even be used as a music player.
Although the design was dull, grey and chunky, the games on it were pretty
good. Such classics as Spyro the Dragon, Rayman, and Crash Bandicoot had their
glory days on this very console, before they started trying different things
and never tried going to back to their old roots (shamefully). The controllers
were something new as well. You had a D-Pad on the left hand side, four buttons
with the symbols of shapes on the right hand side (why they were shapes and not
letters, I’ll never know)m two shoulder buttons for each side (called L1 and L2 for the left, and R1 and R2 for the right), and on the middle was a start
button, and two joysticks on both sides of the start button. These were called
L3 and R3. They have never changed the controller design since. Earlier
versions of the PS1 controller didn’t have the L3 and R3 joy-sticks. Once you got used to these controllers, it was a dream to use. Ours broke, so we had to
get a new one, but soon after that, we got the GameCube, in which our
everlasting faith to Nintendo would start.

#3: The Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 (or N64 for short), was one of the last 64-bit gaming consoles to come out. Some would say they were taking to slow and steady with how technology was advancing, and damn, did they do a good job. The first few games had slightly blocky graphics, but they ironed that out when they released more games. The control
deck was sleek and good looking (kinda like the Genesis), while the controls were
changed yet again to some sort of up-side-down trident. It was good, as there
were some games that could include a different way to play it, weather it’s
holding the middle and right or the left and right….That’s the good thing about
Nintendo. They try something different every time. Sure, some of the things
they produce didn’t quite work out (The Power Glove and the Virtual Boy are
some examples), but they aren’t afraid of new things, and (90% of the time), it
works. The controller had both a D-pad and a joy-stick, with all the buttons on the left hand side of the controller. They cleverly made the Z button on the back do whatever the R button did in case the controls made you hold the middle part of the controller with your right hand (or left if your left-handed, I;m not sure if it's intended to do anything like that, but Nintendo is a smart company, so maybe yes).

The console had four ports for four controllers, so you could have some
serious multi-player matches on this system. The console had some extension,
which really just had updated games with slightly different features (like in
F-Zero, you could build your own track in the extended version), but is pretty
rare, and you need the extension copy of the game. There was a plan to have an
Ocarina of Time game for it, with an extra Master Quest in it, but was
scrapped, and was later added to the collectors edition of the Zelda Collections
version of Ocarina of Time. Man, that was a great game…..that’s another great
thing about this console, it has some great memorial games on it, such as Star
Fox 64, Super Mario 64, F-Zero X, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask…the list could
go on and on. The multi-player in it is just so timeless. I remember playing
F-Zero X with some friends, and we had so much fun. I would like to own one,
but it really isn’t at the top of my priority list.

#2: The
Nintendo Entertainment System

The intendo Entertainment System (or the NES as it’s famously referred to as), was
the first console Nintendo released. They did a good job on it. The design was
a dull grey and light grey colour scheme, yet it just seems like the perfect
colours for a gaming system. Ok, today, it might not be the perfect colour
scheme, but back then, grey seemed to be the new wood. It’s surprisingly light
for a gaming console, lighter than the Nintendo Wii by a curious comparison. The
game had two control ports, so the maximum of players that could be played at

once is two. Yet there is a four score adaptor that you can apply to have four
players play at the same time. But these games that support that number of
players is so rare, it’s almost impossible to find enough players that want to
play that game to take advantage of it. Then again, I suppose that I could host
a tournament. That could be way to take advantage of the four score.

The controller itself had only one D-pad on the left, An A and a B button, and
Start button and Select button. If you include the D-pad as a whole button,
that’s five buttons. Who would have known you could have such engaging game
play with so little buttons? I love how you enter the cart in the console, and
then push it down until you hear that “click”. I always wanted to get a NES,
and I even saw one in a Game Station once for about £20 with the game Super
Mario Bros. I was young, and they told me it wasn’t worth it. Some years later,
I got one, and it was like love at first sight. The main reason this console is
at # 2 is the replay value of each game. The epicness of Contra, the  nostalgia of
Super Mario Bros., the wonderful level design of Megaman…..The list goes on.
True, there were the fair share of bad games, but I like to look at the good
pile instead. I love to play Contra with someone else, it makes the game so much more fun. I love this console, but there is one more console I like more
than this.

#1: The Nintendo Wii

Yes yes yes, I didn’t include the SNES in my Top 5, or as an Honorary Guest. But this
is my top five, and not the general top five. I just don’t feel it with that
console. Anyway, the Nintendo Wii had its share of being made fun of. Due to it’s
name being a homophone of “wee”, and wasn’t taken that seriously by some. Wii accurately means "us" "together", as this console was aimed at everyone. Both the hardcore and the casual gamer. I
remember feeling the up-most joy of getting it at Christmas and having lots of
fun with Wii Sports. The way the controls were done were so well that the
gimmick didn’t get old quickly. Or old, for that matter. Then other games tried
to take advantage of this new found gimmick. Apparently, the NES controller was
meant to have motion control with mercury in it, but the scrapped the idea because
it was too far ahead of it’s time. Now why did they allow the Power Glove to be
created? Guess they wanted to try it out using sensors or something. The
selection of games is even better than that of the N64, with Super Mario Galaxy
and Super Mario Galaxy 2, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Super Smash Bros.
Brawl and some decent Sonic games, it was great. Some games offered some of the
best multi-player I’ve seen yet, with my favourite being Super Smash Bro.
Brawl, having endless fun with playing as Pit (<3 <3 <3 <3) and Meta
Knight as I thrash everyone on the screen. Ah, the nostalgia of it…

Oh year, the controls are all over the place. There is a home button when pressed will
pause the game and will allow you to either restart the game, go to the home
menu, or sort out the Wii remote (nicknamed the “Wii-mote”) settings. Either
side of that is the + and – button, which have certain uses in and outside of
games, normally the pause button in games. On top of the Wii-mote is an A
button, and a 1 and 2 button. Below the Wii-mote is the B button, and what’s
more. It fits perfectly in your hand, and none of the buttons requires you to
be quadruple-jointed or something ridicules like that. You can attach a
Nun-chuck, which has a C and Z button side by side, and a Joy-Stick for your
thumb to dominate. It’s amazing how comfortable the way you hold it is. I love
the nun-chuck combination, and have stuck with these controls when possible to
use them. I just feel I’m more in the game with both these in my hands.

The main menu screen for the Nintendo Wii is a work of art. You can select several different screens to do different things. There is a Mii Channel, where you can make you own Mii, which is basically your avatar, only smaller. You can then save them to your Wii-Mote to be portable (....so you would have to bring your own Wii-Mote to a friends house?), or send them to your friends via wireless means. Then there is the photo channel, which lets you upload your photos to your Wii, the news channel to get the latest news all over the world, the weather channel to get what the weather is like....you know, like a TV! A TV with Sky Plus where you can read the news you want to read. Then there is the Shop channel, where you can buy and download retro games (from 8-bit consoles to 64-bit consoles, even the ones by Sega), download channels that will help you surf the internet, get your horoscopes from, submit you Miis in contests etc.....and finally, download Wii Ware. These are third party games that can be downloaded for a reasonable price. These can range from Indie games (CAVE STORY!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3) to weird games that you are just curious about (like hydro-adventure, which was pretty fun) to remakes of classics games (like Megaman X....erm, sorry, not that Megaman X, I mean Megaman 10, ok, this isn't technology a remake, but it's like an 8-bit carry on of the classic NES games). Then you get stuff like the Kirby Channel......URRRRGGGGGGGGG! I swear every time I hear Poyo, the Kirby-Shaped tuma in my brain get's a little bigger. Not to say the animation was bad, it was just.......annoying as hell. But the review of the Kirby Animation is something for another day. For now, it's the games consoles. The Wii had a lot of things to offer, and even was rumored to have a hidden message at the end of the calender, but I've never found it. Taking full advantage of the Nintendo Wii made me feel like I was in the future. And with the Wii U on its way, I can't think how they can top the Nintendo Wii, but I'm pretty sure they'll find a way. Has anyone noticed how the Wii U controller looks a bit like the DreamCast controller? I wonder if Sega are in partner-ship with Nintendo to make this console....

Well,
those are my top five gaming consoles. Tell me what you think, and maybe list
your top five while you’re at it.

Nice top 5, my friend, detailed and really good, but after all it depends of each of us

Now here is my top 5.

5th position: Game Boy Advance
4th position: Game Gear
3rd position: Playstation 2
2nd positon: Playstation
1st position: Game Boy

And a special guest too: Master System (the first system I played in my life with my grand brother, so many memories ^^ )

laian : Hmm, rather interesting, you focused mainly on the portable gaming systems, save for the PS1 and PS2.

Darkpower508 :
There's a logic explanation to that, my friend

Why the Game Boy Advance? Well, the lack of brightness, fixed later with the Game Boy SP is the only bad thing I can criticize about this system. However, the games released on this system are mostly great: the Castlevania episodes, some remakes like Doom, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 3D, the two Golden Sun... I can't quote all the good games released on this system, it would be so long ^^

Why the Game Gear? Well, only bad thing: six batteries (awwww ) but I keep some good memories of this system, specifically Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe, that's why I asked tRIUNE to add the US version of this game because there was only the Japanese version.

Why the PS2? I own this system and I fell in love with so many amazing games: Fatal Frame, Kingdom Hearts, Yakuza... So many memories and funny moments in front of my screen with my brothers.

Why the PS1? Simply because this system was amazing in my opinion, I still have some good games like Kingsley's adventure, Resident evil director's cut or Alone in the dark - the new nightmare.

Why the Game Boy? My first portable system with the EPIC Tetris. So many memories again... I think I will cry before the end XD

And finally, the Master System, ah this one is special, well I don't have to ramble anymore, I already said that: this is the FIRST  system I played or how I start my videogame career with Alex Kidd in Miracle world, MERCS, Shinobi, Operation Wolf...


Oops, sorry that was long, my friend. An aspirin probably?

Mine is...

5.PS3-Sure it's playing catch up but it's still a good system with good exclusives
4.Genesis-Same reason as number 3
3.SNES- Basically I grew up with this system
2.PS1-This system had a lot of fun and good games. Two of my most favorite franchises was on the PS1
1.PS2- I've had the most fun with this system with tons of awesome games to play.

My Top 5 Consoles look something like this:

5: Atari 2600 Pretty much ushered in popular gaming to the US...and the world. People really started to first take notice of games here.

4. Sega Genesis: This system showed everyone what the next generation of gaming looked like, and they loved it. Arcade ports that looked just as awesome as they did at your local Arcade? Sonic the Hedgehog moving at speeds you have never seen with vibrant colors? Just plain awesome

3. Gameboy: This gave everyone the gaming they needed on the go, and the system was awesome. Sure there were some crappy handheld systems before this, but this one allowed you to change cartridges, and had some pretty awesome titles on it too. Bored in the car? Play gameboy. Waiting for the bus? Play gameboy. You get the point.

2. Super Nintendo: This system wowed everyone with it's colorful graphics, awesome sound, and stellar titles that no other system really could match. It took everything we loved about the NES and expanded it.... x10 Hell the controller was even revolutionary for it's time

1. NES: what's to say that already hasn't been said? This system took the Atari's blips and bloops and made games mainstream. Everyone wanted this damn thing once they saw Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. Awesome titles, killer music, a simple but great controller everything you wanted in a system and more. Hell, even parent's wanted a go at Mario. If it wasn't for the NES, the gaming world would look very much different. There's no way you make a top 5 list and not have this system on it.

Lol,i like how you randomly start saying how to go about fixing a dreamcast.
My sega mega drive overheated when i was little and wouldnt go back on >=(
My 5 would be
1.ps1
2.n64
3:snes
4.gamecube
5.nes

I would maybe have listed gamecube higher but they didnt have many good games, some were amasing, most= meh.
And megadrive was great fun but the games were mostly bland.
And dreamcast?utter fail, wasnt that paperweight suposed to have online or something, which never worked.
And atari i think is so lame, but it was revolutionary at the time so il let it off.

5th: Gameboy Pocket (my first handheld console, still play it to this day.)
4th: Sega Saturn (was played for the better half of my childhood and still gets played on occasion)
3rd: Nintendo 64 (had some of my favorite games of all time, such as Star Fox 64 and Paper Mario)
2nd: Playstation 2 (Had some of the better final fantasy games)
1st: Xbox 360 (When it comes down to it for me, no it's not about the graphics, it's about the game content)

Good way to steal the red jersey lol.

Anyway, my top 5 are:

5. Nintendo DS
4. Nintendo Game Boy Advanced
3. Sega Genesis
2. Wii
1. PS3

Nice list. My personal top five are

5. NES - It introduced me to plenty of simple games that I still play today.
4. Game Boy Advance - Same as the NES, although I really grew up with a GBA and overall played it more than the NES I used to own.
3. Nintendo 64 - Some of my favorite games ever are on there, such as Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. Too bad the controller sucked.
2. PlayStation 2 - I grew up with this system and still own it and most of the games I got. Classic games such as Grand Theft Auto III/Vice City/San Andreas, Tekken Tag Tournament/4/5, and Sonic Unleashed are games I still regularly play today.
1. Nintendo Gamecube - Compared to the previous two entries on my list, this console is extremely underrated. Underrated games like Luigi's Mansion, Star Fox: Assault, and Mario Party 5 are games I play whenever I can. I never grow bored of them.