That being said I enjoyed this list and it's always nice to hear about some of these older consoles from someone who experienced them in their era. The Gamecube is middle of the pack in my rankings but every October it's almost exclusively what I play due to all the Resident Evil titles.
Haha, I know, it is pretty terrible. What can I say, my time with the Wii U was incredibly memorable, while my time with the Switch was exactly what I expected.
Thank you! The Gamecube RE ports are surprisingly great. My friend bought them all back in the day when they were relatively inexpensive.
That's a really good justification, I totally get that sentiment.
The Resident Evil 1 remake on the 'cube is my 3rd favourite game ever, an absolute masterpiece... and still about £5 here somehow, even when Gamecube games tend to be expensive.
I’m an elder millennial (born 1983), and the N64 is the best Nintendo console just on the strength of Mario Kart, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time (my personal favorite game ever) alone.
Then when you add Mario 64, Perfect Dark, F-Zero, WCW/nWo Revenge, Majora’s Mask, WWF No Mercy, Donkey Kong 64 and Star Fox 64…this is not an argument.
I love your passion, Christopher. And I do agree that the N64 has some top-tier games for it. I’m partial to Paper Mario and Harvest Moon 64 myself.
Unfortunately, some Nintendo system has to sit in last place on a ranking list like this. If I’m honest with myself, this is the console I’ve revisited the least in the last three decades.
Agree with SNES being number 1. It just has it all. The best versions of every game are here. Final Fantasy VI, Super Metroid, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Mortal Kombat 2, Donkey Kong Country 2, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, the Super Game Boy, and we can go on and on and on. Though I'm only playing through emulators, the SNES is still the go-to gaming experience every xennial gamer loves.
People wonder why I put the N64 at the bottom, it’s because the SNES is a near-flawless system. Going from perfection to WTF in real time was very jarring (handful of great N64 games aside).
I was disappointed in your ranking of SNES over NES (I still do not accept GameCube at #2), but then you posted the Chrono Trigger screenshot and won me over.
Agreed on the SNES, obviously. But I think you're selling the N64 short. Besides having some of the iconic games of its era (Mario Kart 64 was, imo, the best of the franchise, and Goldeneye pretty much invented the FPS genre), another thing the hardware enabled was an absolute revolution in sports games. MVP Baseball was groundbreaking. And let's not forget that the N64 went toe to toe with the Playstation 1, despite the limitations of the cartridge format. I'd put it at #3, behind the NES and SNES.
This is my favorite Nintendo console-ranking article I've found. Totally agree on the Top 2, and very glad to see Windwaker get some love. Shoutout to FF6 (aka FF3) on the SNES.
Nice article. As I read I got more and more exited for where the GameCube would be. It’s nice to see it get the respect it deserves. The SNES is hard to beat out for #1.
Oh man, I wish that were the case for mine. My GameCube just died out of nowhere recently. If I get another one, it’ll be my 3rd. I love them, but they’re definitely the Nintendo console that’s given me the most trouble!
The PS2, Xbox, and GameCube era had so much going for it. Great exclusives for all three consoles, each console had its own unique identity, etc. But yeah, the GameCube was the tops for me.
Oh man. I'm so torn about this. But I guess we're all entitled to our opinions 😂
Considering that the SNES is the one Nintendo console I never owned, I suppose I can't make any arguments about it not deserving a top spot, but that N64 at the bottom just hurts a little. Then again, I didn't have the PS2 competing with favor for it (didn't get one of those until my DDR phase in 200...6?). I also have a lot of sibling-bonding-nostalgia around the N64 that's hard to separate from it, and which certainly colors my opinion.
Even so, I find it hard to fight the instinctive "But! Ocarina of Time!" (Combined with the fact that my instinctive response to the Switch being relatively low is "But! Breath of the Wild!" I think this says more about my IP preferences than console preferences.)
Part of me also wants to be more defensive of the Switch, because I love how well it does couch co-op/split-screen multiplayer, which has always been one of my favorite ways to game (and one of the reasons I'm so Nintendo-loyal). However, I know that's not everyone's priority, and can respect that outside of that, it's sort of just a way to play BotW.
Overall, I agree with a lot of the points here, and it's really interesting to see how much gaming experiences can vary based on individual situations.
That's what's fun about lists! They're so subjective, so tied into our own personal experiences. No one is "wrong," we all just like what we like, usually due to nostalgia.
I understand, a lot of folks love the N64, and I don't hate it. I just... should have gotten a PlayStation back in '97. At the time, I was ready to dive into more meaty experiences and the N64 just didn't have the type of games I wanted to play, for the most part. Ocarina of Time is a forever classic, though, no question.
The Switch being lower, again, is very personal. It's probably the best Nintendo console ever made for millions of people, and honestly, I can't argue with that. It does what it does very well and I'm glad it put Nintendo back on top again after the failure of the Wii U.
I'd love to see your ranking of Nintendo consoles, if you're willing to post them here.
Wow! Putting the Wii-U above the Switch is a bold statement, but you have really good arguments to sustain it. As for the other pics, no complains here. Great post!
I mean, the Switch was basically Wii U Part 2 for the first three years, what with all the ports and all! Great for people who missed out on the Wii U (mostly everyone), but boring for those who already owned all the games.
Oof, yeah, the original Joycons are garbage. Really surprised that Nintendo allowed that for as long as they have, since they pride themselves on decent build quality. Since I never play Switch in handheld mode, I just used the Pro Controller and that thing is awesome.
Also, glad to find another GameCube appreciator. What a killer system.
The Wii-U above the Switch is foul!
That being said I enjoyed this list and it's always nice to hear about some of these older consoles from someone who experienced them in their era. The Gamecube is middle of the pack in my rankings but every October it's almost exclusively what I play due to all the Resident Evil titles.
Haha, I know, it is pretty terrible. What can I say, my time with the Wii U was incredibly memorable, while my time with the Switch was exactly what I expected.
Thank you! The Gamecube RE ports are surprisingly great. My friend bought them all back in the day when they were relatively inexpensive.
That's a really good justification, I totally get that sentiment.
The Resident Evil 1 remake on the 'cube is my 3rd favourite game ever, an absolute masterpiece... and still about £5 here somehow, even when Gamecube games tend to be expensive.
Yeah, the RE1 remake blew my 17-year-old mind back in the day. Still looks amazing now, as well. Atmosphere can't be topped.
I’m an elder millennial (born 1983), and the N64 is the best Nintendo console just on the strength of Mario Kart, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time (my personal favorite game ever) alone.
Then when you add Mario 64, Perfect Dark, F-Zero, WCW/nWo Revenge, Majora’s Mask, WWF No Mercy, Donkey Kong 64 and Star Fox 64…this is not an argument.
I love your passion, Christopher. And I do agree that the N64 has some top-tier games for it. I’m partial to Paper Mario and Harvest Moon 64 myself.
Unfortunately, some Nintendo system has to sit in last place on a ranking list like this. If I’m honest with myself, this is the console I’ve revisited the least in the last three decades.
Agree with SNES being number 1. It just has it all. The best versions of every game are here. Final Fantasy VI, Super Metroid, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Mortal Kombat 2, Donkey Kong Country 2, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, the Super Game Boy, and we can go on and on and on. Though I'm only playing through emulators, the SNES is still the go-to gaming experience every xennial gamer loves.
People wonder why I put the N64 at the bottom, it’s because the SNES is a near-flawless system. Going from perfection to WTF in real time was very jarring (handful of great N64 games aside).
I was disappointed in your ranking of SNES over NES (I still do not accept GameCube at #2), but then you posted the Chrono Trigger screenshot and won me over.
Chrono Trigger really is the great uniter.
Agreed on the SNES, obviously. But I think you're selling the N64 short. Besides having some of the iconic games of its era (Mario Kart 64 was, imo, the best of the franchise, and Goldeneye pretty much invented the FPS genre), another thing the hardware enabled was an absolute revolution in sports games. MVP Baseball was groundbreaking. And let's not forget that the N64 went toe to toe with the Playstation 1, despite the limitations of the cartridge format. I'd put it at #3, behind the NES and SNES.
I appreciate your perspective, Pete.
I don’t think I’ve ever fully escaped my middle-school disappointment with the N64, though. Not sure I ever will.
This is my favorite Nintendo console-ranking article I've found. Totally agree on the Top 2, and very glad to see Windwaker get some love. Shoutout to FF6 (aka FF3) on the SNES.
Hey, thank you very much!
Nice article. As I read I got more and more exited for where the GameCube would be. It’s nice to see it get the respect it deserves. The SNES is hard to beat out for #1.
Thanks! The Gamecube is just so darn great.
A woman at a game store once told me, “I could throw my GameCube down a flight of stairs and it would still work.”
Oh man, I wish that were the case for mine. My GameCube just died out of nowhere recently. If I get another one, it’ll be my 3rd. I love them, but they’re definitely the Nintendo console that’s given me the most trouble!
Great post, man. I remember those days, searching for N64 titles to play. Was strange because the SNES had so many bangers.
Yeah, I know why Nintendo went with cartridges for the 64, but that really hindered their third-party support. Oh what could have been!
Happy to see the GameCube ranked highly. At the time it was blown out of the water by the PS2 and Xbox, but damn, I loved that thing.
The PS2, Xbox, and GameCube era had so much going for it. Great exclusives for all three consoles, each console had its own unique identity, etc. But yeah, the GameCube was the tops for me.
As someone who grew up with the N64, I can't be objective about this.
People say that the golden age of comic books is when you were ten years old. I think it's the same with video games.
100% agree, and I don’t begrudge anyone their childhood nostalgia. N64 hit hard for a lot of children.
Oh man. I'm so torn about this. But I guess we're all entitled to our opinions 😂
Considering that the SNES is the one Nintendo console I never owned, I suppose I can't make any arguments about it not deserving a top spot, but that N64 at the bottom just hurts a little. Then again, I didn't have the PS2 competing with favor for it (didn't get one of those until my DDR phase in 200...6?). I also have a lot of sibling-bonding-nostalgia around the N64 that's hard to separate from it, and which certainly colors my opinion.
Even so, I find it hard to fight the instinctive "But! Ocarina of Time!" (Combined with the fact that my instinctive response to the Switch being relatively low is "But! Breath of the Wild!" I think this says more about my IP preferences than console preferences.)
Part of me also wants to be more defensive of the Switch, because I love how well it does couch co-op/split-screen multiplayer, which has always been one of my favorite ways to game (and one of the reasons I'm so Nintendo-loyal). However, I know that's not everyone's priority, and can respect that outside of that, it's sort of just a way to play BotW.
Overall, I agree with a lot of the points here, and it's really interesting to see how much gaming experiences can vary based on individual situations.
That's what's fun about lists! They're so subjective, so tied into our own personal experiences. No one is "wrong," we all just like what we like, usually due to nostalgia.
I understand, a lot of folks love the N64, and I don't hate it. I just... should have gotten a PlayStation back in '97. At the time, I was ready to dive into more meaty experiences and the N64 just didn't have the type of games I wanted to play, for the most part. Ocarina of Time is a forever classic, though, no question.
The Switch being lower, again, is very personal. It's probably the best Nintendo console ever made for millions of people, and honestly, I can't argue with that. It does what it does very well and I'm glad it put Nintendo back on top again after the failure of the Wii U.
I'd love to see your ranking of Nintendo consoles, if you're willing to post them here.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Christena!
Wow! Putting the Wii-U above the Switch is a bold statement, but you have really good arguments to sustain it. As for the other pics, no complains here. Great post!
I mean, the Switch was basically Wii U Part 2 for the first three years, what with all the ports and all! Great for people who missed out on the Wii U (mostly everyone), but boring for those who already owned all the games.
Thank you, sir!
Oof, yeah, the original Joycons are garbage. Really surprised that Nintendo allowed that for as long as they have, since they pride themselves on decent build quality. Since I never play Switch in handheld mode, I just used the Pro Controller and that thing is awesome.
Also, glad to find another GameCube appreciator. What a killer system.
Nothing beats the wavebird