elprincipe

10. Simply the best. No other system has the volume of good and genuinely great games. I put around 300-400 in the U.S. library in those categories, and of course that doesn't include all the Famicom games, etc. that never made it over here. Especially noteworthy are the truly great games. Here is where most people played out-and-out classic series like Castlevania, Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Contra, Zelda, and so many, many others for the first time. It's no coincidence people who got into games years or decades later know those names. So bottom line: the best library of games of any system, by some distance too, and the best ratio of good-to-crap games for any system with a library of its size. The hardware could have been better in terms of wearing of the connectors, but otherwise is incredibly reliable. Given the design was influenced by the necessity to convince stores to stock a game system (i.e., that it needed to not look like a game system) that was understandable. The controllers are precise and introduced to home systems the standard D-pad, quite an important innovation and one that's stood the test of time. I actually like the dogbone controllers even more. And of course I've always loved the distinctive carts, boxes and manuals, which are immediately recognizable while allowing for some really awesome art! I'm only sad when thinking that it's very hard to collect for NES these days due to the insane expense. It's truly a shame that younger players/collectors will not be able to have that experience like I and many others did, because it was a blast through and through.

Make sure the cart can be opened easily for storage purposes

Speaking of LucasArts, X-Wing and TIE Fighter (two of the greatest PC games ever) should fit in this topic nicely.

IMO it's the best 3D Mario game bar none. Probably because I don't rate the single-player 3D Mario games as highly as many people do. In terms of best overall Mario no, because the 2D ones are better.

I love 3D World and don't think it's overrated. If anything, it's underrated. I prefer its camera to SMG and SMO, the levels are varied and fun to play through, the powerups are great, and the music is some of the best ever produced by Nintendo. I don't have the updated version so can't comment on Bowser's Fury but if it's anywhere near as fun as the base game that just makes it that much better.

9. I love the Wii U and have had lots of great times with it. My favorite game was Splatoon but sadly, as with many modern games, once the audience moves on (to Splatoon 2 in this case) it's not worth really playing at this time. But there are tons of other games I had a blast with, especially Pikimin 3, Nintendoland, Game & Wario, Super Mario 3D World, and of course Smash, along with many others. Not a lot of shovelware on the system and I like it that way. It's too bad Nintendo couldn't produce more games of the caliber of their best and that they couldn't convince enough third parties to bring out quality stuff. I know many hated it, but I always loved the gamepad. It's comfortable for me and when used correctly (Nintendoland, Pikmin 3, Game & Wario, etc.) it can really add to gameplay by allowing one player to take a different role. The battery could certainly have been better of course. I like also that the system allows for multiplayer without buying new controllers, since most people already had Wiimotes at that point like I did. Bottom line, awesome system with some awesome games, but it didn't last too long unfortunately and there were some flaws that held it back (along with Nintendo's apparent inability to market it).

I spent so much time with Empire Strikes Back (being a massive Star Wars fan at that point in time). Just tons of fun to play and I always loved the snowspeeders in the movie!

9. Big fan of the VCS and I have tons of early childhood memories relating to it. I understand why many can't get into the games since they are mostly very simple, but for me this is often a feature not a bug - it's easy to pick up and play a complete game in seconds or a few minutes. Games mostly moved away from this as consoles became more powerful and arcades waned, but the VCS is a wonderland if you like to play games for score, for example. I can still remember "popping the machine" (i.e. having the score roll over to 0) in Space Invaders several times during a game. Another thing the VCS does very well is there are TONS of games to choose from, and since it was an era of experimentation and few sequels there were some really odd concepts. Sure, many of them failed and are not worth playing, but some became classics or are quirky fun. As @Tulpa mentioned, Imagic produced some of the very best games for the system and they are also my favorite VCS developer, even ahead of the excellent Activision. Cosmic Ark by Imagic is my favorite game, still incredible to play today. Imagic's Dragonfire, Fathom, and Atlantis are always a ton of fun. There are pick up and play 2-player games that will always please for a few rounds such as Air-Sea Battle, Frogs and Flies, Fishing Derby, and Combat. And single-player games like River Raid, Kaboom, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall, and many, many others are excellent. One thing I don't like about the VCS is the joystick. Many experiences of cramped hands, even as a child, when playing for long periods of time! That's why I use a Genesis controller for playing VCS games these days for the most part, which you can do with no special adapter - just plug it in! I do think everyone should give the VCS a try. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing, but if you can get into quick and simple games with simple graphics, you can have a lot of fun with it. I've played with younger relatives and they enjoyed it - you might too!

9. Incredible game all around. The music is some of the best on any system, ever - no contest it's in the top 5-10 soundtracks from any game. For example:

5 Some great games for it, but not enough of them (not surprising as it didn't last too long on the market). Jet Grind Radio is my favorite game and is an absolute masterpiece. I loved Crazy Taxi, Virtua Tennis (and then Tennis 2K2), Typing of the Dead, Dynamite Cop, Power Stone 2, and a few others. Wish Sega would have come through with some new versions of their more popular Genesis/Saturn series - a Dreamcast Streets of Rage, Shining Force, Shinobi, etc. would have been awesome if done well. The controller is horrible. It gives my hands cramps to play it too long. The VMUs were a neat idea but basically just ended up making you have to change watch-style batteries all the time - I just got a 4x memory card without the screen and called it a day. And of course, the system is very loud which can be a bit annoying. Definitely worth trying if you are interested in the games.

7 I've always loved the 64, but it is not among the very best for me (at least not anymore). Strangely, a lot of the games people praise the most I feel are overrated - good, but overrated - such as Mario 64, Zelda OOT, Goldeneye, Super Smash Bros. All these games I've played a ton and beaten, and played oodles of multiplayer Goldeneye and SSB, but really none of them is even 8/10 for me individually. I had more fun with some of the less-praised games like Goemon's Great Adventure, NBA Hangtime (well, the arcade version is my favorite game ever...), Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Rogue Squadron, etc. Add in incredible games like Mario Kart 64, Mario Tennis, Wave Race, and more and it's easy to understand why so many people love it. I love the controller. Multiple ways to hold it was innovative and it feels good in your hands. I do wish the sticks were more durable of course, like everybody else. The graphics on most of the games are disappointing and worse than the previous generation of systems as early 3D graphics are just ugly for the most part. I for one was happy that they kept the carts as that kept load times to a minimum whereas stuff like the Playstation you have to often wait what seems like forever for the game to boot up and load.

I used to care a bit years ago but not for a long time now. It seems like 90% of games get a collector's edition anyway, so they aren't special at all and many times there are plenty to go around (that then just sit unopened on someone's shelf). So I don't see the point at all at this point. Maybe if there was a game I really, really cared about above all others.

Mario Kart 8. Amazing game all around. EDIT: awesome music too

I don't care for the series at all, but I voted the original since I did beat that back in the day. The last one I played was VII, one of the most boring games I've ever played.

Why is it that every time eBay changes something it makes it harder, more annoying, and more expensive to deal with them? No way they are getting access to my main bank account, and it's hard to be bothered enough to set up a separate account and make sure it has a balance to avoid fees, etc. No wonder their business is dying off, just another nail in their coffin I suppose. I wish there were a better alternative to them and Amazon for a large potential market.

Was looking for my favorite game of all time (rated by Gamespot back in the day as 4.5/10 I think, LOL) and found this: Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (69) - Goemon's Great Adventure is a better game, but this is an awesome game. It should be at least 80-85.

7 I'm fortunate enough to have one sitting on the desk in my office and it's a great system. Not just that it's unique, which is very cool, but there are some awesome games for it if you enjoy games from that era especially. Not a ton of games if you don't include homebrew, but some good stuff there. Personally I just got a multicart long ago and haven't bothered getting the original games. The joystick controller is definitely ahead of its time (kind of looks like an early Neo-Geo design concept or something). It's neat to let people try out this system, they're always intrigued.

(duplicate post)

You bring up some interesting points that apply even more to modern games. There are a ton of games these days where the social experience of playing them when everyone else is playing them is an important part of how you see the game. For example, someone who plays Fortnite or Among Us in 2045 probably will not have the same experience as someone playing them in 2020, because a huge part of the game is the interaction with other players on a real time basis. There are lots of other games like this (MMORPGs for example), and in this case the game actually does age - not in the sense that its code changes, but that its associated player base is vital to making the game what it is/was/will be. So, anyone want to take a stab at how to review such a game when the audience has moved on? Is it worthless? Should you judge it on nostalgia, understanding that what you experienced back in the game's heyday can't be experienced by current players?

9 Growing up, I had a SNES and my best friend had a Genesis. Rather than argue over stupid marketing language or which machine had better technical capabilities, we traded systems every so often. So he got to play Super Mario World, Castlevania IV, Zelda LTTP, etc. and I got my hands on Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Shining Force, Thunder Force III, etc. What a great time to be playing games! The Genesis comes in ever so slightly below SNES as the third-best console ever for me. The number and breadth of awesome games it offers is staggering. This truly was Sega's golden age. The machine tends to produce distinct graphics and especially sound compared to the SNES, and sometimes with great effect (check out the music in Streets of Rage 2, Thunder Force III, Revenge of Shinobi, many, many more). I like the controller although obviously the 6-button version is necessary for certain games. Just a few favorites to mention: Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage (1-3), Shadow Dancer, Shinobi III, Castlevania Bloodlines, TMNT Hyperstone Heist, Shining Force (I-II), Crusader of Centy, Beyond Oasis, King's Bounty, General Chaos, Thunder Force III, Space Harrier II, Gunstar Heroes, Rocket Knight Adventures, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, and many, many, many more. Can't recommend this system enough!

There are a lot of things that make the originals better but also make them worse. The original machine may be hard to find in decent condition or expensive. People may not know how to repair the original machine, and they are likely to need repair since we're talking mostly machines that have been out there being beat on by the public for 25, 30, 35 years. The originals are very heavy and hard to move due to the monitors (Arcade 1ups are very light and one person can move them). And the originals take up a lot more space, obviously, something that many people don't have a lot of. So really they are two different options. I have a TMNT one and I like it, thinking about X-Men and/or Golden Axe. The originals would be nicer but much more of a pain to deal with, especially since I'd have no clue about what to do when something doesn't work on them.

True, and the boomerang is the cross in the Japanese versions of Castlevania games. No doubt it has something to do with Nintendo of America's censorship of religious things (you can see it in other games, too).

That X-Men one looks pretty cool. Of course I'd love for the 6-player version but understandably that would no doubt be prohibitively expensive for them to produce. The Pong one is also interesting, hadn't seen they were making that, but I laughed when I saw the price Best Buy wants for it ($550 ). Anyone know when the X-Men one is supposed to come out?

9. One of my very favorite systems, but I can't put it on the same level as the NES, which is probably the only 10/10 system for me. As a side note, is the TurboGrafx-16 the system that people misspell the name of the most of any system? I've seen everything from the topic name here (Turbo Graphx) to TurboGrafix, TurboGraphics, etc. It seems the name was ill-chosen as people have a hard time remembering it? Are there any other systems that people misspell the name of a lot?