Sega Saturn or PlayStation 2. I’m mainly a STG/shoot’em’up player and those two consoles have a ton of them. If forced to choose between the two, PS2 edges out on top because of Dodonpachi Daioujou which I consider to be perfection.
At first I was going to say SNES, since I did not own one as a kid and I’d have the chance to play all the 16-bit games I missed, but instead I’m going to say PS1. The classic SNES games are being re-released in various services or packs including Switch Online in their original form and if push comes to shove SNES emulation has been quite good for a long time. I’ve played even less PS1 and it has a huge library full of “hidden gems” and classics in all sorts of genres, many of which may never see a re-release on retro consoles or services. Just pick a type of game you want, the PS1 probably has it, something that even the SNES may not be able to say.
Oh I’m not saying that the PS1 has the “best” library, but among the 16-32 bit console generations it likely has the most varied library of games that are generally more difficult to emulate/play properly on other things like emulators and which is likely to be in more danger of losing more of its library to the aether of lack of preservation than the Genesis, SNES or perhaps even the N64. Also, while you can find the classic PS1 games such as FF7/8/9, Twisted Metal, Castlevania SotN, Metal Gear Solid, Crash, or Spyro all over in collections or remakes like Crash N-Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited, there’s a lot of weird and fun experimental stuff on the PS1 while devs were figuring out what they could do with 3D and mastering 2D gameplay that I would absolutely love to give a try. There’s a certain aesthetic of 2D PS1 and Sega Saturn games that has always looked oddly charming to me and I enjoy.
But seriously, probably the PS2. Mainly because it's the only console I got as a kid and also because it's the last console before games and consoles started wanting to phone home over the Internet. I have PS3 games that I'm pretty sure are permanently hampered or unplayable because their servers are offline, but I feel confident I can still boot any PS2 game I own and play it without issues.
I got a new 2ds xl and I gotta say, it’s ass. I have fun with Kingdom hearts, monster hunter, and smash bros. Mario kart gets boring and every other game is in this dumb chibi art style. Every jrpg.
I found Xenoblade absolutely impressive under all aspects. Zelda is fantastic, FF EX, Dragonquest… all with their distinctive art style and mechanics
But what really stuns me are the emulation capabilities. You can play all Nintendo portable games at ease + a ton of home console of the '90s and before and all in your pocket
Does Wii U with its entire eShop count as a retro console? Because, despite being unpopular, it had a lot of games from a lot of past Nintendo consoles.
Given that it is nintendo’s next most recent console, I don’t think it does. An arguement could be made for the wii though, and I think that had an even more extensive virtual console
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