Let the console wars begin! Round one: The battle of generations

[indospot Veteran]

Let the console wars begin! Round one: The battle of generations
by João Carrasqueira



Welcome, everyone, to the console wars. A few months ago, we asked you to choose your favorite console of all time, but a lot of people seemed to choose "Other", and we have never heard of that one. As such, thanks to some great work from our web development team, we're now setting up a tournament-style competition where you can choose which one is truly your favorite console of all time.

Here's how the tournament structure works: there will be three rounds, starting with six matches. The first round will feature home consoles from the second generation onward, as well as handheld consoles from the fourth generation and later. Matches in this round will pit two completely different generations against each other, with all the major consoles from each generation thrown into the mix. Two consoles from each matchup will proceed to the next round, and the final round will be a three-way fight.

For clarification, we're labeling the Nintendo Switch as part of the eighth-generation of home consoles, and we're excluding the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S from the tournament due to them being very recent, thus having a very small library of exclusive games, and also due to them being very hard to obtain ever since their launch.

Without further ado, let's begin the matchups. Starting with home consoles, we have the second and seventh generations pitted against each other. In terms of sales, Atari ruled the second generation with the Atari 2600, and many iconic franchises were represented for the first time on home consoles here, including its best-selling title, Pac-Man, a port of the original arcade game.

Meanwhile, the seventh-generation was when Microsoft's Xbox family really grew some hair on its chest and stood toe-to-toe against Sony. Nintendo led the market in terms of sales with the Wii, and kickstarted the trend of motion-controlled games this generation, which the other two companies followed with optional accessories.

Poll

2nd Generation vs. 7th Generation (Home)

1. Atari 2600
2. Atari 5200
3. Intellivision
4. Colecovision
5. Magnavox Odyssey
6. Wii
7. Xbox 360
8. PlayStation 3

Submit Vote

Next up, we have the sixth generation of consoles facing off against the third generation. The third-generation home consoles are some of the most iconic, starring the Nintendo Entertainment System (or Famicom, in Japan) and the Sega Master System. Atari also released the 7800, but it failed to leave much of an impact due to a significantly delayed release and lack of iconic titles. Sales-wise, Nintendo dominated worldwide with 61.91 million units sold. Sega was in a distant second with 17.8 million, but many of those sales would come from Brazil in the following decades, where the company Tectoy continues to sell officially-licensed variations of the console.

On the other hand, the sixth generation is mostly known for Sony's domination with the PlayStation 2, having sold over 150 million units and becoming the best-selling console ever. Microsoft's Xbox made its debut this generation and made it to second place, even beating Nintendo's GameCube. Sega also had its last run at a full video game system with the Dreamcast, but finished in a distant last and eventually dropped out of the console race.

Poll

3rd Generation vs. 6th Generation (Home)

1. Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom
2. Sega Master System
3. Atari 7800
4. PlayStation 2
5. Xbox
6. Nintendo GameCube
7. Dreamcast

Submit Vote

For our third match-up, we have the fourth generation facing off against the fifth generation of home consoles. The fourth generation, also known as the 16-bit era, is known to many as the golden era of videogames, and it was the first time there was real competition between consoles. Sega and Nintendo fought it out with the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive, in Europe) and SNES, with Sega debuting its most iconic franchise Sonic the Hedgehog, to rival Nintendo's Mario. In the end, Nintendo won the sales race with 49.1 million units sold. Other notable systems included the Turbografx-16 by NEC and the Neo Geo by SNK. Philips also had a hybrid console/media system with the CD-i, which surprisingly even had some licensed The Legend of Zelda games.

The fifth generation was when Sony made its debut in the console market following a failed partnership with Nintendo, and it made quite a splash. The PlayStation outshone every other console this generation with over 100 million units sold, the most for any console ever at the time. Nintendo refused to move to CDs with the rest of the industry, and the Nintendo 64 finished in a distant second with just 32.93 million units. Finally, Sega started to plummet this generation, with the Saturn selling 9.26 million units. Other notable systems include the 3DO, which was designed by The 3DO Company but manufactured by different entities over time, and the Atari Jaguar is only notable for being Atari's last home console.

Poll

4th Generation vs 5th Generation (Home)

1. SNES/Super Famicom
2. Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
3. Turbografx-16
4. Neo Geo
5. CD-i (Philips)
6. PlayStation
7. Nintendo 64
8. Sega Saturn
9. 3DO
10. Atari Jaguar

Submit Vote

Next, we have the eighth generation of home consoles facing off against the fifth-generation of handheld consoles. The eighth generation of home consoles is still fresh in our memories, featuring the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, and - debatably - the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo's Wii U was such a commercial failure that the company was very early to introduce a new system, so it's hard to define precisely what generation it should be a part of. It's widely considered to be a part of the same generation as the Wii U, however.

The definition for generations in handheld consoles is a bit muddy in regards to this era, but we're including the GameBoy Color, Sega Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket, and WonderSwan in the fifth generation. Sales-wise, the GameBoy Color appears to have been the most successful of the bunch, but Nintendo reports its sales figures together with the original GameBoy, so exact numbers aren't known. The Sega Nomad was essentially a portable version of the Sega Genesis, and it played the exact same games, but it didn't perform very well commercially.

Poll

8th Generation (Home) vs 5th Generation (Handheld)

1. Game Boy Color
2. Sega Nomad
3. Neo Geo Pocket
4. WonderSwan
5. PlayStation 4
6. Xbox One
7. Wii U
8. Nintendo Switch

Submit Vote

Moving fully into the realm of handheld consoles, we have the eighth and fourth generations in this matchup. The fourth generation was when handheld gaming truly became a thing for most people, thanks in no small part to Nintendo's Game Boy, which brought series like Mario and Zelda on the go, but also marked the beginning of the Pokémon phenomenon. Sega also delved into handhelds for the first time with the Game Gear, and NEC brought the TurboGrafx-16 on the road with the TurboExpress. Atari made the Lynx in this generation, but like most of its hardware after the 7800, it didn't do well in terms of sales.

By the eighth generation, it's obvious that the number of competitors went down over the years. This battle boiled down between the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita, and between the two, the 3DS came out ahead in terms of sales. Of course, it features a lot of Nintendo's most popular franchises, and it had the unique gimmick of glasses-free 3D. Meanwhile, the Vita had some solid entries in Sony franchises like Uncharted and saw the birth of franchises like Gravity Rush. It was a popular platform for indie games, but it simply didn't drive enough sales to attract lots of heavy-hitting titles.

Poll

4th Generation vs 8th Generation (Handheld)

1. Game Boy
2. Sega Game Gear
3. Atari Lynx
4. TurboExpress
5. Nintendo 3DS
6. PlayStation Vita

Submit Vote

Finally, the last match-up features the sixth and seventh generations of handheld consoles. In the sixth generation of consoles, much fewer competitors made any sort of impact, and Nintendo pretty much stood alone at the top with the Game Boy Advance. Other consoles did release, like the Neo Geo Pocket Color and Nokia tried its hand at videogames with the N-Gage, which sold over three million units.

The seventh-generation had even fewer competitors, but with Sony coming into the picture, the competition was fiercer this time around. The Nintendo DS won in terms of sales, passing 150 million units and becoming the best-selling handheld console of all time. However, the PlayStation Portable (PSP) still sold 80 million units, and was overall a much more powerful system. The PSP also became the first notable example of an all-digital gaming console, with the PSP Go featuring no way to play physical copies of games, though at the time that didn't work in its favor.

Poll

6th Generation vs. 7th Generation (Handheld)

1. Game Boy Advance
2. Neo Geo Pocket Color
3. Nokia N-Gage
4. Nintendo DS
5. PlayStation Portable

Submit Vote

We included some more obscure pieces of hardware in some of these polls, but with the large number of devices that played extremely limited sets of games or that didn't sell well at all, it would be impossible to include all of them. These are either the best-selling pieces of hardware from each generation or they were made by notable companies in the industry.

Have you cast your votes yet? Through all of the polls above, you can determine which consoles make it to the next round, so be sure to vote for your favorites!

[astropheed Veteran]

OH! OK! Let's do this. Bring it on bitches.

Nintendo Switch > Gameboy Advance > Nintendo 3DS > Nintendo GameCube > PlayStation 2 > Nintendo 64 > Nintendo EntertainmentSystem/Famicom > Nintendo DS > Game Boy Color > PlayStation > Playstation 4 > Xbox 360 > Xbox > Wii U > SNES/Super Famicom > Wii > Game Boy > Dreamcast > PlayStation 3 > Sega Genesis/Mega Drive > Turbografx-16 > Sega Game Gear > Sega Nomad > Atari Lynx > Xbox One > Atari Jaguar > Atari 7800 > Sega Saturn > Atari 2600 > PlayStation Portable > PlayStation Vita > Atari 5200 > Intellivision > Neo Geo Pocket Color > Neo Geo Pocket > Sega Master System > CD-i > Nokia N-Gage > Neo Geo > 3DO > Colecovision > WonderSwan > Magnavox Odyssey

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

2nd Generation vs. 7th Generation (Home): Xbox 360 - Xbox Live, inventing achievements, all the 4 player XBLA games (Trials Evolution, Heavy Weapon and so on) and many 2-4 Player co-op games such as Halo and Gears.

3rd Generation vs. 6th Generation (Home): Xbox - because of the homebrew scene for modded Xbox consoles.

4th Generation vs 5th Generation (Home): Megadrive - Sonic, need i say more?

8th Generation (Home) vs 5th Generation (Handheld): Game Boy Color - Pokemon Gold / Silver was amazing and is still my all time favourite hand held game.

4th Generation vs 8th Generation (Handheld): Nintendo 3DS - Again for the homebrew scene and that it's a console capable of playing every core Pokemon game released from Gen 1 to 7. (Gen 3 via Homebrew).

6th Generation vs. 7th Generation (Handheld): Game Boy Advance - I just really enjoyed this console at the time, it had some many good games which still hold up today and it was backwards compatible with all the GB / GBC games. I also thought the connectivity to the GameCube was a unique idea.

I'd have also voted for the GameCube in the appropriate poll if possible. Mario Kart Double Dash was the peak of the franchise, as was Smash Bros Melee.

The PSP should also get a mention as in 2005 playing near PS2 quality games on the go was amazing. In addition it made a great portable movie player for MP4 video long before we had phones and tablets which offered a comparable experience. The homebrew scene was really good for the PSP also.

[branfont]

I'm not going to vote for this, it's just not my thing.

I will say for the 1980s, technologically the SMS was more advanced, but for popularity that went to the NES.

[darkpuma]

Cool idea. I've never owned any myself so I shouldn't vote, but it is an interesting concept.

Personally I'm a big fan of a console you can dust off and play all the games you had for free, or go find used games for dirt cheap. That's not a thing anymore with all the only-digital BS, and servers which require you to pay to use, etc.

I met a girl during quarantine and we got her old SNES working (with a bit of help from me cleaning connections, rewiring controllers, etc) and played donkey kong for days. It was glorious.

[Mobius Enigma]

I'm not going to vote for this, it's just not my thing.

I will say for the 1980s, technologically the SMS was more advanced, but for popularity that went to the NES.

Agree, tech will never be the reason. Features and Technology often fail to win things people fall in love when they are children.

[ThaCrip]

Which is your favorite console of these = XBox360 (a easy choice here), 3rd vs 6th gen = XBox (especially given it's moding capabilities) (my alternative choice = NES), 4th vs 5th gen = N64 (a easy choice for me (I think this is Nintendo's top console overall)), 4th vs 8th gen(handheld) = Gameboy (a easy choice here, assuming this is referring to original gameboy).

in general I always favored XBox over Playstation consoles, especially long term (like general game exclusives etc and moding capabilities(the last console was I bothered with was XBox360 generation(I prefer PC in general more))). in fact, I only had a PS1/PS2 fairly briefly at one point in the past. but I never really looked forward to any Sony consoles back when they where new-ish like I did with XBox/Nintendo (etc), although Nintendo pretty much dropped off the radar for me after the N64 era as while I did get a Gamecube, that was one console I regretted buying back in the day (which I eventually traded to one of my cousins for his XBox console which during the trade we both knew the XBox had a bad DVD-ROM. but I did not care because once I moded it, it was easily worth the trade. XBMC also turned it into a nice video playback machine to). but N64 was basically the last time a Nintendo console was in the Top 2 for more serious gamers as after that point it's been Microsoft/Sony ever since and Nintendo went a different route.

but between the three major players still standing, my preference... 1)XBox 2)Nintendo 3)Playstation (looking back into the past I would say Playstation was easily my all around least favorite of the three and even to this very day. but Nintendo vs XBox, depends on how I compare those, like at the time or now etc). that's my general preference long term and over the years through my life. but I noticed at this point, like looking back on stuff, Nintendo tends to stand out a bit more for me than XBox (like looking back at my nostalgia and games I might occasionally play to this day Nintendo seems to have the overall edge for me in this regard) as XBox was mainly good because of the moding but looking back at older games (say early-ish 3D era (call it 2000-2001 and older) and older), Nintendo might be my #1 all-around.

or to name some comparable generation stuff... XBox360(2005) vs Playstation 3(2006) = XBox360 (hands down). XBox(2001) vs PS2(2000) = XBox (hands down). N64(1996) vs PS1(1995) = N64 (hands down). SNES vs Genesis = I was mixed even though my cousin was definitely in favor of Sega etc ; NOTE: I did not mention Saturn/Dreamcast etc (both of which I had. hell, I still got Dreamcast to this day but it collects dust) because they where clearly the outsiders in their day. I could have listed Gamecube as apart of the XBox vs PS2 generation, since it came out in 2001, but it was no real competition and I would assume many, probably most, considered it a downgrade compared to N64 looking back on it now. also, I don't know about everyone else but I think Nintendo pretty much peaked with the N64 and never got back to that standard since (after Gamecube I pretty much dumped Nintendo (although I did get a hold of a Wii roughly 2-3 years ago but I am mainly looking at stuff back when they where new etc. so in this sense I did not really care about the Wii during it's prime as I was mainly into Microsoft stuff)). but then again the N64 was the last time Nintendo was among the top 2 major players in video games as after that they where always considered more of the 3rd option behind Microsoft/Sony (hell, even Sega only had a pretty brief window where they where among the Top 2 major players which was pretty much Genesis era). but I guess after the Gamecube, it seems Nintendo went more of a different route, like offered something different to the standard main two consoles from Microsoft/Sony. I can see why many referred to Nintendo as the 'kiddie system(s)' after the N64 era.

but with all of that said... looking back on all of the consoles I have had over the years, of which I have had many, the ones I look back most fondly on now overall would be (in no order)... NES/N64/XBox. but I am sure back in the day... the general mindset was newer consoles where generally better than previous ones but after quite a bit of time passed you can see some stand out all-around more than others do. plus, with the older consoles things where generally simpler to which is a bonus if you just want to pick something up and play it for a bit without having to spend many hours or days on finishing etc.

just some random thoughts

[Suurin_]

I never had a Playstation growing up, which I regret because I've recently plunged into the Yakuza series and its become one of my all-time favorite game series...

Therefore, my top picks have to go to the N64 being #1, I love SM64 and Mario Kart 64, both games I still own and still play. They were both revolutionary to me and playing them I always feel a bit emotional not just because of nostalgia, the developers put a lot of hard work into those games and at the time it took a lot of creativity and ingenuity, really quite impressive. #2 is Game Boy, my profile picture is Gunpei Yokoi, supposedly he worked a lot on the design philosophy of the device "Lateral thinking of withered technology", I still have a black Game Boy from the 1995 Play it Loud series, as well as my Aunt's former Game Boy Color, in blue. #3 is Wii, I still play Wii Sports, it's so easy to play with friends and family and I am not sitting to play it... + GameCube backwards compatibility means I can also play Luigi's Mansion, the original game is in my top 3 games of all time. There are of course other GameCube games which I enjoy greatly... #4 Xbox 360, the last console I ever owned before switching to PC, great memories with friends on Xbox Live in games like CoD 4 and Modern Warfare 2 (I still play both on PC).