A great console can be defined in many different ways. It could be that feeling that players get when picking up the controller or that shiver that rattles the spine when remembering that one difficult boss fight or stage. Sometimes it’s the functionality of the system, its design, or maybe just that one special game that helped someone through a difficult period in their lives.
As each new console generation rolls around, however, the previous generation’s systems slowly begin to fade away. As more time passes, all that remains of them is our memories. These can sometimes be deceiving though. Over the years, certain consoles have gone on to develop reputations that stretch far beyond their capabilities whilst others have been criminally overlooked due to their lack of popularity during their lifecycles.
10 Overrated: The Master System
The Master System wasn’t actually Sega’s first home console, but it is the one that really helped the company to gain its footing in the North American market. At the time of the console’s launch, there were no Sonic, Knights, nor Virtua Fighter games anywhere to be found. Instead, the machine relied on a few decent exclusives and a host of multiplatform titles that usually looked and played considerably worse than they did on the NES.
A lot of Sega’s early success in the console market came through a combination of excellent marketing and a solid strategy. Whilst the company does deserve a lot of credit for this, the console itself is inferior to the NES in almost every conceivable way. With that in mind, it had no right to sell as many units as it did.
9 Underrated: The PS Vita
The PSP performed surprisingly well considering some of the problems that it faced around its launch, but its successor struggled to make anywhere near as much of an impact. The PS Vita was a vastly superior machine and was perhaps about five years ahead of its time. For whatever reason though, the machine just never took off.
Features like remote play and cross-platform purchasing were a godsend to many players and the machine was considerably more powerful than Nintendo’s offering at the time. It also had a huge library of games, many of which were exclusive to the system. These things did help the Vita to find some success in its native Japan, but it sold only a fraction of what its predecessor did in North America.
8 Overrated: The Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 is one of the most important video game consoles ever made. It was one of the driving forces in the quest for 3D gaming and features some of the best games of the era. That said, it also has terrible graphics, a badly designed controller, and was poorly supported by some third-party publishers due in large to its antiquated cartridge-based design. To be clear, it is not a bad console, but it is definitely an overrated one.
Despite coming out nearly two years after the PlayStation and having almost twice as much power under the hood, Sony’s machine regularly outdid the N64. By the time the Dreamcast and the PS2 rolled around, there really was no contest. Were it not for a fairly short list of games that would have likely looked and played a lot better on competing systems, the machine would have been forgotten long ago.
7 Underrated: The Neo Geo
Even by today’s standards, the Neo Geo AES was ridiculously expensive. Given that it contained many of the same components found in an arcade cabinet though, this was perhaps to be expected. Those components made a huge difference in the machine’s capabilities, allowing it to blow the competition out of the water. Sadly, the price tag was just far too high for most gamers.
That SNK released the system to the home market suggests that it recognized that a demand for such a machine was there. It seems safe to say though that SNK perhaps overestimated the true size of that market. Even though it was not a commercial success, visually, the Neo Geo still holds up incredibly well to this day.
6 Overrated: The Wii
The Wii‘s motion controls helped it to capture the imaginations of millions of people worldwide. It was yet another example of Nintendo’s ability to innovate and offer an experience that was like no other. Ultimately though, it was all just a bit of a gimmick. The system did have a handful of games that showed off the potential for motion controls, but such titles were few and far between.
The reality is that most of the games on the system barely utilized the technology at all and those that did typically did so poorly. Once the novelty of Wii Sports had worn off, many of the Wiis sold sat unused. Those who did continue to use them typically found themselves endlessly fighting against janky motion controls on a severely underpowered machine.
5 Underrated: The Game Boy
Although it wasn’t the first cartridge-based handheld console, at the time of the Game Boy‘s release, there really wasn’t much of a handheld market to speak of. Other options were incredibly expensive and typically featured only a handful of games. Nintendo saw this opportunity and, with the help of its little grey box, created a brand new multi-million dollar market almost overnight.
The first few iterations of the Game Boy sold more than 100 million units and laid the foundation for the Advance, the DS, and, eventually, the Switch. Both Sega and Sony tried to compete with the Game Boy line at different times, but, although each found some limited success, neither were able to do so in the long run.
4 Overrated: The Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 played a huge role in the growth and development of the North American home console market. The thing is though, many of its less successful contemporaries were far superior to the machine in practically every way. Even in spite of this, the 2600 still came out on top.
One thing that the system did have going for it was its strong library of games. Compared to something like the ColecoVision though, the majority of them looked atrocious. If some of these other systems had just a few more big games, things would likely have played out very differently.
3 Underrated: The Xbox
The Xbox 360 rightly receives a lot of credit for its advancement of online gaming on home consoles, but it would never have been able to accomplish what it did were it not for the work of its predecessor. It was the Xbox that pioneered the Xbox Live platform and, ultimately, helped to lay the groundwork for the future of online gaming on home consoles.
As well as its online capabilities, the system was also incredibly powerful when compared to its competition. Games typically looked better on the Xbox and it also had its fair share of great exclusives. It may have arrived late to the party and was also one of the first to depart, but, for a short time, it offered the best home console experience available.
2 Overrated: The Switch
One of the big selling points for the Switch is its ability to function as both a handheld and a home console. While this sounds like a great idea on paper, it comes at a huge cost. When compared to the competition, the Switch is severely underpowered and this has resulted in many multiplatform titles receiving lower quality ports or, in some cases, no ports at all.
This sacrifice seems somewhat in vain when considering the console’s poor battery life, with more demanding games completely draining the system’s power in around three hours. Sure, like all of its predecessors, it is the only way to play Nintendo’s fantastic first-party titles, but it’s very much a case of needs must. If these games were available on other systems, most people wouldn’t look twice at the Switch.
1 Underrated: The Dreamcast
Few consoles are as underappreciated as the Sega Dreamcast, which truly was a machine ahead of its time. It was the first console to offer a passable online gaming experience – arriving three years before the Xbox. It also featured motion controls before the Wii, a controller with a screen in it before the Wii U, and many more innovative features.
The system also had an incredible library of games, typically offering the definitive versions of many multiplatform titles. Its exclusives were also a cut above the rest, with Shenmue helping to pioneer the open-world genre and Jet Set Radio popularizing the use of cell-shaded graphics to name but a few. The list is a lot longer than most people realize though and is just one of the many reasons why the Dreamcast deserves more respect.
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