Opinion: The best video game consoles of all time

Video game consoles are fun. We all have our favorites, mostly dictated by our memories of the plastic boxes we spent our childhood with, but the legacy of some consoles transcends generations, and those are the ones we’re celebrating here. The best consoles are those that have a strong library of games, particularly exclusives, and offer a strong value compared to the competition.

These are the best consoles of all time, according to us, in no particular order.

PlayStation 2

The PS2 is perhaps Sony’s greatest console ever, and the highest-selling console of all time. The follow-up to the original PlayStation had it all – backward compatibility, an excellent library of exclusives, and a DVD player. It had phenomenal franchises, including multiple GTA, Gran Turismo, and of course, God of War games. No joke, putting that DVD player in the console was one of Sony’s biggest winning strategies, leading to many picking up the console just for media playback. Sony has continued to do it in its future consoles with the Blu-ray drives in PS3, PS4, and PS5.

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 remains Microsoft’s best console yet, and the company has struggled to mimic its success. While it had plenty of hardware issues (Red Ring of Death, anyone?) its game library was nearly unmatched, helping it maintain a strong lead over the PS3 for most of its life cycle. The Xbox 360 had its fair share of RPGs too, with Lost Odyssey and even Final Fantasy 13 releasing simultaneously with the PS3. Add GTA 4, the Gears of War trilogy, Forza, and Halo games, and you can see why so many people love the Xbox 360, and that’s before we talk about Xbox Live, which ushered in a new era of online console gaming.

Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch is a wild success due to a variety of factors. It’s portable, its best games are awesome first-party titles and it has the best third-party support since the Wii. People like to play games on the go, and the Switch offers just that. It’s an incredibly versatile console that also packs some of Nintendo’s best legacy franchises thanks to Nintendo Switch Online, which is always a winning formula. While the Switch 2 may be on the horizon, it will be hard to topple the Switch’s legacy, though providing backward compatibility is a great start.

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is the OG. You can’t get any better than the OG. In many ways, the NES spearheaded the development and distribution system of modern video games, and many of the industry’s practices can be traced back to this console. It also gave rise to various legendary franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Kirby, Mega Man, Metroid, and, of course, Super Mario Bros.

Game Boy/Game Boy Color

Before the PSP, there was the Game Boy. The portable handheld revolutionized the gaming industry, and some would argue that the story behind it, and its legendary pack-in game Tetris, is just as if not more interesting than the console. Nintendo shrunk down the experience of playing an arcade game to fit into one’s pocket. Tetris is so good that it took more than four decades for someone to beat it. A revised version of the console, the Game Boy Color, also brought color graphics to everyone on the go. While the console can hardly be found on the market, fortunately, you can still emulate it on PCs and even iPhones.

PlayStation Portable

The PlayStation Portable, or the PSP, was essentially a portable PS2 with bespoke exclusives and features. Sony has tried to replicate its success with the PS Vita and most recently, PlayStation Portal, but nothing beats the original handheld. People have even figured out how to play PSP games on the Portal, cementing its legacy even further than Sony would have predicted. Sony maintained a consistent supply of portable spinoffs of its mainline PlayStation franchises, including Metal Gear, GTA, God of War, and even Persona, which led to the PSP’s meteoric success.

Nintendo Wii

While Sony and Microsoft were focused on beating each other with gritty blockbusters, Nintendo reared its head elsewhere by focusing on family-friendly content. The Wii’s motion controls were a gimmick, but also pretty effective. The Wiimote’s legacy led to Microsoft abandoning the core gamer as its audience, leading to the creation of the Kinect, while Sony also tried to pivot to motion controls with the PlayStation Move. While Kinect was successful, no one can argue that it was better than, or even as fun as, using a Wii mote in Wii Sports. The Wii ports of popular third-party games like Call of Duty offered a new way to play the game, and who can forget the classic Wii shop music theme?