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
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
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.
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.
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.
Would be my choice as well. The Wii had an amazing library by itself and could also play GC games out of the box, it’s a pretty good deal even without hacks.
Original NES. Mario 1, 2, 3. Just about every 1st party game was legendary, but the sports games were great too. There have never been better arcade versions of their sports than Tecmo Bowl and Baseball Stars. Shit, there have been like zero real improvements ever made to the original formula of the launch title Golf. Then there was the amazing 3rd party support. Everything from Jaws to Jackal to Top Gun to Maniac Mansion, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and on and on. Hell, it even has a couple of all time racers with Excitebike and RC Pro Am.
The hidden gems catalog for NES would be bigger than the catalog for like half of consoles out there.
No brainer. NES.
didn’t even mention startropics and that shit with the manual
I suppose it depends on how much I can bend the rules...
If I'm allowed to use the console only 'as-is', then probably the Nintendo DS. This gives me DS games (which are great), but also GBA games as well (though you'll miss out on GBC/GB games, which is a bit sad); this also nets you a smattering of NES/SNES ports to boot, so that's nice. But most importantly, it gets me Chrono Trigger and a bunch of my favorite Castlevania games all in one place (sad that SotN doesn't get here, but...)
If I'm allowed to use the console with no hold's barred, then Playstation Vita. Mod that little sucker and you've got access to a ton of stuff... PSV games obviously, but emulated PS1, PSP, GBA, GBC, GB, NES, SNES, and Genesis also (and maybe more, I don't think I've tried any others though).
I was teetering toward the Super Nintendo also with Earthbound, MK2/MK3 Ultimate, and Super Mario World. The roaming around in Super Mario 64 and flying non-stop with the birdman suit in Pilotwings 64 won me over with the N64 in the end though.
That’s where I was until about 5 years ago when I bought a used N64 so I could play those greats again, and after about a week, I never touched it again. Still playing my Super though!
The 5th gen consoles are a great time capsule of everything developers didn’t understand about 3d gaming. If you don’t have a strong sense of nostalgia for them, most of the games aren’t worth bothering with and even the ones that still hold up were mostly dead ne better on the 6th gen consoles.
The fact that most of the great 2d games were intentionally withheld from the North American market is a real shame since the ps1 and Saturn were amazing at 2d.
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