What's the Worst Console You Ever Played?

[Bill Loguidice]

1 minute ago, mbd30 said:

 

Because SMB is the only NES game ever made and represents a system with literally hundreds of games. NES is the worst system because this one game is better as a one player experience, that seems logical.

 

It's impressive how one launch window game, like Donkey Kong on the ColecoVision, Super Mario Bros. on NES, Halo on the original Xbox, Super Mario 64 on the N64, etc., can sometimes help define and push the success of a particular console simply by being a genre-defining experience to that point. In some ways, it's probably easier to build around the breakout success of a definitive title than it is just to have an all around good library at the start (although that helps too, and in most cases goes hand-in-hand).

I'd argue that the PS1 didn't necessarily have a standout launch title like the earlier examples - although its launch window line-up was pretty strong and had good depth and diversity - but instead was defined by being the first true 3D console, so it was arguably set apart by the general look of its initial games (Battle Arena Toshinden and Ridge Racer probably the two best examples) and then those to follow.

Alternately, I'd say that of course launch window games can hurt a console, like with the buggy releases on the Sega Saturn. That did the system no favors, despite revised remixes or sequels that addressed the initial issues.

[Bill Loguidice]

2 minutes ago, zzip said:

SMB was hardly the only offender here.   But the only NES game I played back then that I was mildly interested in was Castevania.    I just didn't enjoy the NES game aesthetics,  most of the music was irritating,  too many of the games were cutesy and for kids rather than a teen like me.   But this is personal experience, so no point in arguing about it as it won't change my memories of the system.

I feel the same way about the NES music for the most part. It was annoying and cloying in many instances. 

 

Aesthetics have always been a big deal to me. I really loved the look and sound of the early NES titles, like Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Ice Climber, Tennis, etc. I would have liked to have seen more of those versus too many of the side-scrolling platform-style games that were all the rage back then. It felt like in many cases it was pushing the hardware too far and lacked the careful audio-visual design of the earlier titles.

For me, personally, I'll take the 80s sprite work, up until roughly the late 80s, over what happened in the 90s, with the rendered look becoming all the rage. A lot of in-game objects lost their charm (and sadly, there are still instances of this overly clinical look). There was also a period with 3D, sort of when we went from the early stuff with the lack of textures to where texture mapping was becoming a thing, where I thought there was a similar ugly period. I feel like for the most part we're past that, but there are still instances of it on every platform (and certainly for me as much as I kind of like the Amico, some of its games have that cheap rendered look to them, which I definitely don't like).

[mbd30]

13 minutes ago, zzip said:

SMB was hardly the only offender here.   But the only NES game I played back then that I was mildly interested in was Castevania.    I just didn't enjoy the NES game aesthetics,  most of the music was irritating,  too many of the games were cutesy and for kids rather than a teen like me.   But this is personal experience, so no point in arguing about it as it won't change my memories of the system.

That's fine. I enjoy a lot of NES music, but music is extremely subjective so there's not much that can be argued in that department.  I will say that even "cutesy" games are fun. I understand being self conscious about anything perceived as being too kiddish when you're a teenager and peer pressure is an issue, but that shouldn't matter now when judging a console.

 

There are also many NES games that aren't particularly kiddie at all. I was playing Contra and Metroid with my friends. I was playing Ninja Gaiden, Batman and Double Dragon. I had a friend who was really into Simon's Quest. These aren't kiddie games, no more so than any other console.

 

 

 

 

[zzip]

25 minutes ago, mbd30 said:

That's fine. I enjoy a lot of NES music, but music is extremely subjective so there's not much that can be argued in that department.  I will say that even "cutesy" games are fun. I understand being self conscious about anything perceived as being too kiddish when you're a teenager and peer pressure is an issue, but that shouldn't matter now when judging a console.

 

There are also many NES games that aren't particularly kiddie at all. I was playing Contra and Metroid with my friends. I was playing Ninja Gaiden, Batman and Double Dragon. I had a friend who was really into Simon's Quest. These aren't kiddie games, no more so than any other console.

It's probably like the "Ewok Effect" where a person's opinion of the Ewoks depends on which side of 12 they were on when ROTJ came out.   I think I was exactly 12, and my reaction to Ewoks was on the fence at the time.

 

Most of my NES-owning friends were younger, but at least one was older.   I'm aware of games like Metroid + Contra, but for whatever reason those weren't the games my friends were playing.

 

But what helped change my view on SMB somewhat was the Wii version.    I played it at someone's house and it was a lot of fun in multiplayer, and made me rush out and buy a Wii as my first Nintendo Console.   It also helped my learn to tolerate the old SMB games better than I used to.

[zzip]

54 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

For me, personally, I'll take the 80s sprite work, up until roughly the late 80s, over what happened in the 90s, with the rendered look becoming all the rage. A lot of in-game objects lost their charm (and sadly, there are still instances of this overly clinical look). There was also a period with 3D, sort of when we went from the early stuff with the lack of textures to where texture mapping was becoming a thing, where I thought there was a similar ugly period. I feel like for the most part we're past that, but there are still instances of it on every platform (and certainly for me as much as I kind of like the Amico, some of its games have that cheap rendered look to them, which I definitely don't like).

I agree 2D and Isometric pixel art was looking pretty amazing.   I loved what Bitmap Bros, Psygnosis and others were doing on the 16-bit systems.

 

Before true 3D, there was a period of texture-mapped pseudo-3D games like Wolfenstein, Doom and Heretic.    I liked this era of games because the freedom of movement/ ability to go up and down stairs was a novel gaming experience.   However in retrospect they don't hold up visually

 

But I hated early 3D attempts where developers were abandoning beautiful pixel art in favor of 3D blobs that were poorly texture-mapped if they were texture mapped at all.   And 3D was being applied to games that I would argue didn't benefit from it.   For instance, the Monkey Island series.   MI3 was stylish and beautiful, MI4 was a 3D blobfest, it had insane PC requirements for a point and click (for its time) and caused LucasArts to abandon this genre.

 

[bluejay]

I've played on one of those weird chinese nintendo ds clones with the game&watch/tiger style lcds, and that wasn't even a game at all. So that'd be the worst.

[Leeroy ST]

It's curious because Nintendo was mostly considered a kid-targeted console back in the day, and the demographic leak that never returned and only came back when the Genesis became a major competitor (in part) kind of verifies that demographic appeal. 

 

Not that every game on the NES was "kiddie" as they say but it's clear that was the target. If there was an adult/teen appeal consoles in 86 that could attract an audience the NES may have had some decent competition, which would explain the earlier performance of things like the 7800 and SMS but lost later until the Genesis started bringing a significant number back to home consoles. Something the SNES eventually slowly fixed by the mid 90's (and then lost again with the N64.)

 

3 hours ago, zzip said:

I agree 2D and Isometric pixel art was looking pretty amazing.   I loved what Bitmap Bros, Psygnosis and others were doing on the 16-bit systems.

 

Before true 3D, there was a period of texture-mapped pseudo-3D games like Wolfenstein, Doom and Heretic.    I liked this era of games because the freedom of movement/ ability to go up and down stairs was a novel gaming experience.   However in retrospect they don't hold up visually

 

But I hated early 3D attempts where developers were abandoning beautiful pixel art in favor of 3D blobs that were poorly texture-mapped if they were texture mapped at all.   And 3D was being applied to games that I would argue didn't benefit from it.   For instance, the Monkey Island series.   MI3 was stylish and beautiful, MI4 was a 3D blobfest, it had insane PC requirements for a point and click (for its time) and caused LucasArts to abandon this genre.

 

I actually liked the HI-FI flat colored polygon and shaded polygon early 3D games without the tetures or minial textures, because everything flowed smoothly and it had a certain style that got lost once early texture priorities came in because the machines couldn't do them well so you had the janky, blurry, pixelated messes we saw later. That plus the Doom/Blake Stone 3D your referring to (at good frame rates) were pretty awesome back then.

[+wongojack]

I feel like we've had this conversation about the NES so many times that regulars like me, zzip, Bill, mbd30 should instead be having it at a local bar instead of on this site.  I could've predicted how this was going to go.

 

Anyway . . . I generally agree with zzip that the NES seemed like a machine for kids and the appeal of SMB just didn't reach me.  However, I did find lots of enjoyment in the NES.  Zelda and Metroid are still some of my most favorite games of all time.  I just bought a Bionic Commando T-Shirt earlier this month.  Therefore, there's no way that I could consider the NES the worst console that I've ever played.

 

I wish we could all have a drink and play some games together to take this farther.  That sounds like a lot of fun.

 

You know what is probably the worst "console" I've ever played is that in-flight system on Air-Kreplakistan.  You know the one that plays some weird version of Othello and the worst Pac-Man you've ever seen.  You can barely control the thing with that recycled N-Gauge as a controller . . . that thing sucks.

[Bill Loguidice]

Not that it needs to be said, but why not... I never thought the NES or much of anything else that was not specifically made for kids was kiddie. It's not something that ever really crossed my mind. A game was a game was a game to me and enjoyed - and enjoy - it all. Heck, even some edutainment titles have been quite a bit of fun for me over the years.

[+frankodragon]

11 hours ago, bluejay said:

I've played on one of those weird chinese nintendo ds clones with the game&watch/tiger style lcds, and that wasn't even a game at all. So that'd be the worst.

That wouldn't been the Neo Double Games bootleg would it?  Ashens did a review back in 2006. 

[bluejay]

1 hour ago, frankodragon said:

That wouldn't been the Neo Double Games bootleg would it?  Ashens did a review back in 2006. 

No clue.

[nester]

It’s gotta be the Hyperscan for me. It had terrible games that you had to play in bits and pieces and even with the discs having game skeletons they still took over a minute to load

[carlsson]

HyperScan with its total of 5 games, all unplayable? In that case, it sounds like WOPR was right.

[zzip]

12 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Not that it needs to be said, but why not... I never thought the NES or much of anything else that was not specifically made for kids was kiddie. It's not something that ever really crossed my mind. A game was a game was a game to me and enjoyed - and enjoy - it all. Heck, even some edutainment titles have been quite a bit of fun for me over the years.

I was always aware even back then that there were 'hard-core' gamers that liked things like 'Defender'  but hated 'cutesy' games like Pengo or Q*bert.   Back in that early 80's era, I liked virtually all games.   But I think for many boys, the cutesy, colorful stuff loses its appeal after you hit a certain age.   That might be why I loved Pengo, Q*bert, Mr Do,  but by the time SMB came along, I wanted to play darker RPG type games, not jump on mushrooms and ride clouds...   hooray for awkward teenage years

Edited August 27, 2020 by zzip

[Tanooki]

On 8/25/2020 at 11:17 PM, tripletopper said:

Not anyone could get a license.  if I remember right Beeshu tried to get their ultimate super stick licensed, but Nintendo refused because it was competing against their NES advantage.  despite the fact the Beeshu Ultimate Super Stick had one thing the NES did not, ambidexterity.

 

but Beeshu did get a version licensed for the Turbo Grafx 16 and the Sega Genesis and that's when Nintendo decided to open up possibly competing licenses for their own peripherals.

 

It makes me wonder if Japanese companies just hate right hand sticks, because when most of the titles in the arcade and home were made in America of the eight consoles at the crash six of them head ambidextrous options. Five of them had OEM options.

I was talking about games only when I said that about the licensing.  I know they turned down a decent amount of odd accessories as I'm sure some of those crazy ideas people had including those sold in Japan would have been tempting but not everything approved.  Nintendo has always been defensive about their stuff and having it first so it would make sense if they had some part on the market they'd not want others taking a swing, or in the case of the power pad, they liked it enough to wipe out and rebrand it as their own.

[Swami]

14 hours ago, nester said:

It’s gotta be the Hyperscan for me. It had terrible games that you had to play in bits and pieces and even with the discs having game skeletons they still took over a minute to load

Aren't all five games basically the same one with a different character? Reminds me of the xbox 360 kinect games PowerUp Heroes and Marvel Avengers, by Ubisoft no less. The former had generic characters and the latter Avengers characters, but the gameplay was the same ... why?

[adamchevy]

It's probably like the "Ewok Effect" where a person's opinion of the Ewoks depends on which side of 12 they were on when ROTJ came out.   I think I was exactly 12, and my reaction to Ewoks was on the fence at the time.   Most of my NES-owning friends were younger, but at least one was older.   I'm aware of games like Metroid + Contra, but for whatever reason those weren't the games my friends were playing.   But what helped change my view on SMB somewhat was the Wii version.    I played it at someone's house and it was a lot of fun in multiplayer, and made me rush out and buy a Wii as my first Nintendo Console.   It also helped my learn to tolerate the old SMB games better than I used to.

 

 

 

 

 I recently purchased New Super Mario Bros on the Wii to play with my kids. It’s an absolutely great game. I’ve been digging deep into the Wii library the last few days. I’m starting to see more clearly why a lot of people held off on the Wii U. The games were largely copies of the Wii. Also the use of the same controllers proves that they really lacked originality in that department minus the gamepad. It’s strange but after playing a lot of games on the Wii recently I’ve become a fan. I really disliked the Wii up until a few days ago. Without the GameCube backwards compatibility I would have tossed the Wii years ago. I came across the House of the Dead 2&3 release for the Wii today. I can’t believe I missed that game.  A short list of Wii games I’ve found the last couple days that I missed completely that I’ve been really surprised by:

 

Punch Out (controls like the NES)

Ghostbusters ( controls better than the PS3 and Xbox 360 ports)

Dragons Lair Trilogy

PAC-Man Party

Excitebots

A boy and his blob

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros Treasure (awesome puzzle game)

Rayman Origins

Kirbys Epic Yarn

 

Sorry for the Wii tangent, I’m just surprised that I’m buying a lot of Wii games right now. I was saving up for an Xbox Series X, but changed my mind.

 

Up until last week the Wii would have been a contender on my list for the worst console ever made.

[adamchevy]

I was always aware even back then that there were 'hard-core' gamers that liked things like 'Defender'  but hated 'cutesy' games like Pengo or Q*bert.   Back in that early 80's era, I liked virtually all games.   But I think for many boys, the cutesy, colorful stuff loses its appeal after you hit a certain age.   That might be why I loved Pengo, Q*bert, Mr Do,  but by the time SMB came along, I wanted to play darker RPG type games, not jump on mushrooms and ride clouds...   hooray for awkward teenage years [emoji4]

I’ve recently had this experience with almost all games besides the Vectrex. My eyes are growing tired of super mega Hd everything. The much more simple and elegant Vector lines are easier on my over H-Deed(new word) eyeballs. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I’ve never been very excited about gaming in HD. I’ve owned a PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and I’ve played them at 4k with HDR. It doesn’t do anything for me if the gameplay isn’t immediately fun, and if it lacks local multiplayer. I just prefer old Arcade based games, even though I grew up with an NES/SNES/PS1/ and N64(my last childhood home console).

[Osgeld]

23 minutes ago, adamchevy said:

 I recently purchased New Super Mario Bros on the Wii to play with my kids. It’s an absolutely great game.es X, but changed my mind.

im sure it is, I couldn't tell on my tiny 40 inch tv where every single thing on the screen was 16x16 pixels on a whopping 480p res and it thinks particles are the best thing since pixels , its one of those games you appreciate where you might accidentally whack the screen with the controller cord 

[Lost Dragon]

On 8/26/2020 at 2:04 PM, Bill Loguidice said:

Well look, the screen really was terrible, which is why there were a million screen magnifiers, lights, and other enhancers released for it (of course, those things also found their way onto other handhelds of the 90s, though not to the same degree). Despite the garbage screen, it was a good size, had good controls, had excellent battery life, and was reasonably priced. Of course, the topper was that it was released at the height of the NES craze and had some killer, desirable titles, including of course Tetris, that none of the other platforms, even Sega's, could match. All of this is of course is obvious now and was obvious then. I don't think it's unreasonable to look at a product critically, warts and all, no matter how successful. I know I have very specific frustrations with all kinds of console and computer hardware that I otherwise like or have fond memories of.

Yep, spent most of my Game Gear days with a screen magnifier 'bolted' onto it and it plugged into the mains (same issue with Lynx in that regard, both went through Duracell and rechargeable batteries like a dose of salts). 

 

 

I could point out frustrations with numerous systems i have owned from a design point of view. 

 

Buttons on A8 tape deck prone to snapping off, the mouse and joystick ports being underneath the machine on the 520STFM, thus needing to buy lead extendors, the PSP nub, the horrendous set up of a MD-MCD and 32X...

 

Nintendo hardware would feature quite low on the list. 

[Lost Dragon]

On 8/26/2020 at 5:05 PM, Bill Loguidice said:

It's impressive how one launch window game, like Donkey Kong on the ColecoVision, Super Mario Bros. on NES, Halo on the original Xbox, Super Mario 64 on the N64, etc., can sometimes help define and push the success of a particular console simply by being a genre-defining experience to that point. In some ways, it's probably easier to build around the breakout success of a definitive title than it is just to have an all around good library at the start (although that helps too, and in most cases goes hand-in-hand).

I'd argue that the PS1 didn't necessarily have a standout launch title like the earlier examples - although its launch window line-up was pretty strong and had good depth and diversity - but instead was defined by being the first true 3D console, so it was arguably set apart by the general look of its initial games (Battle Arena Toshinden and Ridge Racer probably the two best examples) and then those to follow.

Alternately, I'd say that of course launch window games can hurt a console, like with the buggy releases on the Sega Saturn. That did the system no favors, despite revised remixes or sequels that addressed the initial issues.

Your spot on here and as we have been discussing elsewhere, Star Raiders was the Killer App for the Atari 8-bit line. 

 

The Playstation WOW factor was due to a very strong (in terms of glimpses at what the hardware can do) launch line up. 

 

People remember Ridge Racer, Toh Shin Den and the walking T-Rex demo. 

 

 

When i think back to the Atari ST, people seemed blown away by Starglider running at a show, music epically, then Dungeon Master was the title that really had folks talking. 

 

 

Glitchy graphics on Saturn V.F and the horrors of a rushed Daytona USA, did the Saturn immense harm when put next to the Playstation titles mentioned above and Sega never recovered from the image Saturn was a lesser system, despite having titles like:VF Remix, VF2, Sega Rally, Quake at a time press claiming it was impossible on Playstation, etc etc. 

[Lost Dragon]

On 8/26/2020 at 5:11 PM, Bill Loguidice said:

I feel the same way about the NES music for the most part. It was annoying and cloying in many instances. 

 

Aesthetics have always been a big deal to me. I really loved the look and sound of the early NES titles, like Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Ice Climber, Tennis, etc. I would have liked to have seen more of those versus too many of the side-scrolling platform-style games that were all the rage back then. It felt like in many cases it was pushing the hardware too far and lacked the careful audio-visual design of the earlier titles.

For me, personally, I'll take the 80s sprite work, up until roughly the late 80s, over what happened in the 90s, with the rendered look becoming all the rage. A lot of in-game objects lost their charm (and sadly, there are still instances of this overly clinical look). There was also a period with 3D, sort of when we went from the early stuff with the lack of textures to where texture mapping was becoming a thing, where I thought there was a similar ugly period. I feel like for the most part we're past that, but there are still instances of it on every platform (and certainly for me as much as I kind of like the Amico, some of its games have that cheap rendered look to them, which I definitely don't like).

When the Sega Master System appeared here in the UK, i remember being impressed by it's colorful, high resolution graphics, but sprite flicker was clearly an issue, but surprised by how poor the soundchip appeared. 

 

It seemed behind both Pokey and SID, but still better than the AY chip. 

 

Plain polygon games have aged in looks (not so much frame rate) better than early texture-mapped 3D games with limited, stretched and blocky texture-maps. 

[Lost Dragon]

On 8/27/2020 at 3:16 AM, Bill Loguidice said:

Not that it needs to be said, but why not... I never thought the NES or much of anything else that was not specifically made for kids was kiddie. It's not something that ever really crossed my mind. A game was a game was a game to me and enjoyed - and enjoy - it all. Heck, even some edutainment titles have been quite a bit of fun for me over the years.

Nor mine. 

 

You'd often see likes of Atari define a console like the then aging 2600,as an entry level system, aimed at younger players where as the 7800 was the flagship console in their 8-bit range.. 

 

Or UK magazines when doing hardware round up articles describe the older, 8-bit systems as ideal for kids, where as older, more serious gamers should look towards the 16-bit systems. 

 

Somewhat ironic when the 8-bit consoles were getting conversions from the 16-bit systems (SOTB, Supremacy, Defender Of The Crown etc)  and same arcade titles appearing on both (R-Type, Rampage etc) or only the 8-bits..Rastan canned early on with the ST version. 

[Tanooki]

5 hours ago, adamchevy said:

A short list of Wii games I’ve found the last couple days that I missed completely that I’ve been really surprised by:

 

Punch Out (controls like the NES)

Ghostbusters ( controls better than the PS3 and Xbox 360 ports)

Dragons Lair Trilogy

PAC-Man Party

Excitebots

A boy and his blob

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros Treasure (awesome puzzle game)

Rayman Origins

Kirbys Epic Yarn

 

Sorry for the Wii tangent, I’m just surprised that I’m buying a lot of Wii games right now. I was saving up for an Xbox Series X, but changed my mind.

 

Up until last week the Wii would have been a contender on my list for the worst console ever made.

I could see that, and it's nice you dug a bit as you found a nice list there.  I know it's a rail shooter, but look into Dead Space on there as that one is surprisingly good.  A few others I'd suggest having in the day sifted through the walls of crap shovelware and poorly done kid garbage would be stuff like: Fragile Into Dreams, Alien Syndrome, Endless Ocean, Pinball Hall of Fame William's Collection(solid tables, wii/chuk work the flipper and tilt action well), Klonoa, Muramasa, and since you threw Kirby in there, the end of system (for Nintendo) release of KIrby's Return to Dreamland which I believe is an intended sequel to KDL3 or the remake of Kirby's Adventure on GBA as it's amazing.  Of those you listed Dragon's Lair really surprised me as they converted it from a game of absolute unfair hell unless you have a photographic memory, to one of sheer speed and panic as it has button prompts for every move, not the sometimes flashing item junk.  I still found it very hard since it's near split second timing, but at least it was ME failing, not just forgetting the 15th move of the section garbage instead.

[zzip]

7 hours ago, adamchevy said:

 I recently purchased New Super Mario Bros on the Wii to play with my kids. It’s an absolutely great game. I’ve been digging deep into the Wii library the last few days. I’m starting to see more clearly why a lot of people held off on the Wii U. The games were largely copies of the Wii. Also the use of the same controllers proves that they really lacked originality in that department minus the gamepad. It’s strange but after playing a lot of games on the Wii recently I’ve become a fan. I really disliked the Wii up until a few days ago. Without the GameCube backwards compatibility I would have tossed the Wii years ago. I came across the House of the Dead 2&3 release for the Wii today. I can’t believe I missed that game.

 

Sorry for the Wii tangent, I’m just surprised that I’m buying a lot of Wii games right now. I was saving up for an Xbox Series X, but changed my mind.

 

Up until last week the Wii would have been a contender on my list for the worst console ever made.

The problem with the Wii library is it has a relatively small handful of great gems buried in a sea of crap.   It's very easy to miss the good ones.  In retrospect, it's not one of my favorite consoles.