Like what the title says - can be old or new or in-between no matter the generation it was released at the time
I’ve had a couple of video game consoles in my life, but my favourite has got to be the PS3. I played so many games, watched YouTube + DVD/Blu-ray movies, listened to music, and even browsed the internet on the console. I like to think it’s one of the most versatile consoles I’ve ever owned, but it’s not backwards compatible since I have a slim PS3 model. Second to the top is the PSP for all the titles it offered, especially with the likes of Phantasy Star.
I’m not a console gamer because I suck at controllers, but I have a soft spot for the Sega Master System II. We never had one (and it’s likely why I suck at console gaming), but most of my friends did, so the nostalgia attached to it is stroooong.
I was even so obsessed with Knuckles from the Sonic franchise that I named one of my pet calves after him.
I was never a console gamer really as I started on PCs and just kind of stuck with that. A handheld I really gravitated towards was the PSP, not so much because of the games but because of the modding scene around it. I have memories of hunting down a PSP 1000 and finding one in a K-Mart so that I could load custom firmware on it and use different launchers and such. I at one point learned how to make my own recovery mode battery which was a PSP 1000 battery with one of the pins lifted that would let you boot into a special mode to load firmware I believe. There were a few games I had for it but that never seemed to be the point of the PSP for me, it was my first interaction in a way with a scene related to something I had taken a deep interest in at the time, so that’s kind of cool to reflect on too.
the only console i ever had is 小霸王, known as SUBOR in some countries. it was a chinese famiclone that played famicom carts. it looked like a keyboard with cartidge slot. so i guess that one is my favorite? ig i grew up on games people much older than me did, but thats fine.
i fondly remember this specific game
as a child i never had fancy stuff like DS, 3DS, PS2/3 or xbox360. “real” consoles were quite expensive here in 2000s.
I’m a lifelong console gamer, starting with the NES. After that came the SNES, and also a secondhand Genesis (Mega Drive) that I bought with Phantasy Star 2-4. After that, I’ve jumped to the PlayStation and never looked back. PS1 and PS2 were practially a golden age for JRPGs, particularly by Squaresoft and ATLUS (aside from their Macekre of the original Persona).
I was thinking of modding my PSP but I haven’t had the time to do that Modding consoles is still an entirely new concept to me but I think my PSP would benefit from it I hope!
I think for me it was just that it was a possibility and I was a very curious and always tinkering person at the time. If smartphones had hit the scene instead of the PSP I would’ve been learning about custom Android ROMs for example. I’m not sure what modding them offers today, I do believe it is a lot easier now though since Sony has retired the console series and is no longer updating them. For instance the PSP Go and PSVita were still very off limits to modders at the time when I was into it, both I believe are moddable now since Sony is no longer patching them which made the modders have to figure new techniques out
My favourite has to be the PS3. So many great games (which are good value now) and it can be modded for those who are into that. It’s also compatible with PS1 games. Currently you can play online for free for games that still have servers up, and you can play CDs and DVD’s on it, Netflix, Youtube, etc. Many functionalities, retro but not too retro. I bought two of these the past year!
The Gamecube was so underrated. A cute lil cube, unique among consoles. Its impractical handle is part of its charm, as are its tiny discs. It wasn’t just cute though, it had some great games. The Thousand-Year Door is widely considered the best Paper Mario game, and the first Animal Crossing game introduced a now-beloved series.
i was definitely a Nintendo kid growing up! i think some of my fondest memories were with the Gamecube and DSi: Luigi’s Mansion honestly might have sparked my love for horror media, Thousand-Year Door was an incredibly charming RPG, and i remember Flipnote Studio on the DSi just being a special brand of chaos lol.
there was also this weird bootleg one i remember having really young, one of those “1000-in-1” type things that had NES games on it. it actually might have been my first console, so a lot of my early gaming was with games that were just a bit before my time; i think game number 11 was, like, Contra or something. good times!
Sega Mega Drive: I grew up with my father’s Mega Drive, and some of my earliest memories are of my parents playing Toki and Columns. Sonic & Knuckles’ lock-on cartridge still blows my mind to this day.
Game Boy line: I’ve always had Game Boys around (it was my parents’ Tetris device after all), but the first Game Boy that was specifically mine was a clear purple Game Boy Color. The longevity of the Game Boy also meant that it was pretty affordable to pick up second-hand games, and I ended up with a big and varied library.
Playstation 2: The first console I bought for myself, mostly because I had emulated the second Kingdom Hearts game for GBA at some point and got hooked on the franchise. Great memories of playing the more mainstream stuff with friends (GTA San Andreas, F1 racing games, …), while for myself I gravitated towards Sonic the Fighters (in Gems Collection), Soul Calibur 2, and the aforementioned Kingdom Hearts. I also picked up a bunch of PS1 games eventually, like Mickey’s Wild Adventure and Diablo.
PS2 is such a classic. That was my first console and I have fond memories of the games you mentioned plus The Sims, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance, and of course Transformers
Agreeing with everyone that says homebrew/modding is a must; I love being able to customize and tweak my stuff. And of course well. Saves me money with the cost of out-of-print games nowadays
I really, really love the 3DS line, my main driver being a New Nintendo 3ds XL, though I do wish I had the non-XL variant sometimes so I could put it in my pocket and swap out faceplates. The XL also has a weird defect where the metallic paint on the housing chips off. After 7 years of using this thing it’s starting to look kinda rough lmao. But it just reminds me it’s well-loved!!!
Easy as hell to mod, really impressive emulation support, lots of options with modding, durable as hell and excellent battery life. The actual system library is really good too.
The main gripe I have with the 3ds line is the subpar visual quality of original DS games; the screen isn’t built for them. I’d love to get a DSIxl as they scale the games natively and have much better quality, but there are a lot of 3ds games that are special to me so I think the 3ds line will always come out on top.
The DS Lite is a masterpiece in system design though. What a beautiful system. There’s even aftermarket shells in clear plastic colors! Frankly if I could find a clear housing for a n3dsXL then it would be perfect.
Sega Genesis
GameCube
Wii
Wii U
PS3
PS4
XBone
Switch
Handhelds:
PSP-2000, 3000, Go
DS Lite, DS XL, 3DS XL
Playdate
In general I love handhelds and I think it has to do with so many of my formative gaming memories being old ass DOS games that were frequently kind of crappy ports of Atari ST/commodore 64/Amiga games. A lot of handheld games end up hitting the same general vibe of that age for me. My favorites out of those are the PSPs, GameCube and Genesis. I’ll die on the hill that the PSP has one of the best killer to filler library ratios and for someone like me that loves racing games and strategy RPGs it was like the promised land.
The Genesis had Streets of Rage 1 through 3, nuff said.
The GameCube had a small, but strong library with things like Pikmin, Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime, Viewtiful Joe, Ikaruga etc etc etc.
Despite all of that I was and will likely always be primarily a PC gamer. I think the Switch might be my last mainstream console, but we’ll see.
