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Guardian: The 25 greatest video game consoles – ranked!

Greatest console of all time?

  • SNES

    Votes: 436 27.6%

  • PS2

    Votes: 644 40.7%

  • XBOX 360

    Votes: 136 8.6%

  • MEGA DRIVE/GENESIS

    Votes: 43 2.7%

  • PS4

    Votes: 160 10.1%

  • NES

    Votes: 43 2.7%

  • PS1

    Votes: 119 7.5%
  • Total voters
    1,581
zuf

zuf

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,890
On the threshold of a new console generation with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, here are the industry's most influential and impactful machines over 50 years of gaming.
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25. 3DO (1993)
24. Atari Jaguar (1993)
23. Sega Master System (1985)
22. Intellivision (1979)
21. PC Engine (1987)
20. Sega Saturn (1994)
19. Colecovision (1982)
18. Magnavox Odyssey (1972)
17. SNK Neo Geo (1990)
16. Atari VCS/2600 (1977)
15. Nintendo GameCube (2001)
14. PlayStation 3 (2006)
13. Nintendo 64 (1996)
12. Xbox One (2013)
11. Xbox (2001)
10. Nintendo Wii (2006)
9. Sega Dreamcast (1998)
8. Nintendo Switch (2017)
7. PlayStation (1994)
6. Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System (1983)
5. PlayStation 4 (2013)
4. Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (1988)
3. Xbox 360 (2005)
2. PlayStation 2 (2000)
1. Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1990) -
Whole days in front of Street Fighter 2, the living room crowded with mates, coffee table loaded with snacks and Coke cans. All-nighters on Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past, Super Metroid and Secret of Mana. Sharing Yoshi's Island and Harvest Moon with your younger sister. Blasting through the Super Star Wars series. Discovering Donkey Kong Country. Millions of us have these memories. The SNES arrived in an industry already changed by the Mega Drive, but Nintendo stuck with what it knew – solid tech and astonishing, fecund creativity. The machine produced beautiful, colourful visuals and lush sampled sounds, and it had the flexibility to allow enhanced cartridges later in its lifecycle. But really, the lasting influence was all down to the games – more than 1,700 of them – and the way they made us feel. That is, in the end, what it's all about.
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Solid list or not? Poll only has seven options so Switch just misses out.

www.theguardian.com

The 25 greatest video game consoles – ranked!

On the threshold of a new console generation with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, here are the industry’s most influential and impactful machines over 50 years of gaming
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,482
Not solid to me. Not going to argue with n1, but PSX is too low and Saturn is criminally low.

Although the headline is "greatest" and then it says in the text "most influential and impactful", which are entirely different things. I could accept the saturn being low in impact, but not in how good the platform was overall.
 
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,015
UK
It's a toss up between PS2/SNES, though there are a ton of amazing systems really
 
plow

plow

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,641
Pretty american british List. Putting the 360 in front of the OG Playstation and even the WII is blasphemy.

Xbox One in front of the PS3. Okay.
 
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Silvergun-Blue

Silvergun-Blue

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,932
Andrei Rublev said:
I'm a big Xbox fan but I wouldn't Xbox One above PS3 or N64 in my opinion.
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It brought online gaming to the masses and made it trendy. Microsoft may have lost their way by the end of that gen but they started off with a bang. PS3 took way too long to hit its stride and that's coming from somebody who went from 360 to PS3 by the end of the gen and has been PS4 all the way this gen.
N64? Based around outdated, expensive and limited cartridge tech. Beyond the big hitters everybody talks about it really didn't have a great library. The Saturn had almost 3x as many releases.
 
Dennis8K

Dennis8K

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,161
NES saved console gaming after the crash.

PS2 was a huge step up for console gaming but it is not comparable.
 
Odeko

Odeko

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Mar 22, 2018
15,180
West Blue
Even from a purely American perspective, the Xbox 360 being higher than the NES is ridiculous

One saved video games here, the other had like a 90% failure rate after 3 years
 

Deleted member 51789

User requested account closure
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Jan 9, 2019
3,705
Would switch around the top 2, but I'm glad that the good looking version of the SNES is used for illustration purposes (even if it is the mini version).
 
Nazgûl

Nazgûl

Banned
Dec 16, 2019
3,082
Xbox One better than PlayStation 3 ?
tenor.gif

I don't know about that
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
yeah as a non-American/Brit seeing the 360 that high is bizarre

would also swap PS2 and SNES and probably move the PS4 and Genesis up a couple spots
 
Dennis8K

Dennis8K

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,161
Dreamcast and Xbox 360 shouldn't be that high.

And this Gamecube and Sega Master System disrespect will not stand.
 

Deleted member 37739

User requested account closure
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Jan 8, 2018
908
I mean, it wasn't my console of choice, but the Nintendo Wii should be considerably higher. One of only four consoles to break the 100m mark and hugely influential on the industry during it's hey-day.
 
Gartooth

Gartooth

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,440
Weird list, I feel they pushed certain brands like Sega and Xbox much higher than they should've been. Like they ranked best Playstation/Nintendo/Xbox/Sega and then seeded them throughout.
 
Silvergun-Blue

Silvergun-Blue

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,932
Dennis8K said:
It is NES.

Not my personal favorite but it is NES.
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Dennis8K said:
NES saved console gaming after the crash.

PS2 was a huge step up for console gaming but it is not comparable.
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Odeko said:
Even from a purely American perspective, the Xbox 360 being higher than the NES is ridiculous

One saved video games here, the other had like a 90% failure rate after 3 years
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The Guardian is a UK paper, nobody gave a toss about the NES over here. Kids were too busy on their Speccy's and C64's
 
LiquidPolicenaut

LiquidPolicenaut

Member
Jan 21, 2018
75
As usual with lists like these, so many things are bad on this list. I know there are still unfair stereotypes for the Sega CD (my favorite underrated system) but to not even be on the list AND have the Jaguar on it?!?! Ridiculous. With great games like Snatcher, both Lunars, The Terminator, Popful Mail, Sonic CD, and many others it absolutely should have been on there...
 
Y2Kev

Y2Kev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,838
The dreamcast's incredible run of being remembered a bit too fondly continues unabated!

And yeah Xbox should not be above PS3. I think you can debate Xbox One. But original Xbox? Sudeki fans?
 
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