In Your Opinion, What Is The Most Overrated Video Game System?

[zzip]

On 2/16/2020 at 9:53 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

vgchartz uses fake numbers for everything, supposedly. I don't know where they get their numbers, just that they are supposedly wrong.

That seems to be what the salty fanboys claim whenever their preferred systems doesn't do well in the vgchartz rankings.   I've looked into it,  and found their charts at least mirror other charts,  when I've asked for evidence its fake, I'll get lame responses that show the person claiming fake is ignorant of how data collection for these things works.

 

I think the issue is they don't get direct numbers from manufacturers, but are gathering it from publically available secondary sources, and adjust as new info becomes available.   So while this may not be 100% correct, it is reasonably close given what they are working with and it shows trends that represent reality.

[Video]

OOH forgot about the Wii.  Yess, itsold a bazillion consoles, and the fanboys will defend the ever loving shit out of it, but when it comes down to it, it wasn't that good of console, and those controllers, god damn those controllers.  This s one, despite the high praise it gets (and the high sales numbers) you can see how artificially "good" it is.  Two words, "attachment rate"  That is, the number of games on average that are sold per system.  It's one of the lowest ones ever.

 

Still, props for getting games into homes of grannies and such as that.

[juansolo]

Ok I'm gonna defend the Wii as someone who wondered what the point of it was other than it was for people who don't play video games. I had a friend with one who had all the Just Dance and Wii Play bollocks. The usual, and that's all I thought the console was for, until I kinda bought one by accident... (it was stupid cheap). Then I found all the really amazing games it had that you never see in people's collections. Those controllers that were gimmicks in Wii Play are easily the best light gun alternatives ever concieved. Some games are just better on them... Resident Evil 4 and the Pikmin games for example shine on the Wiimotes. Then it played your gamecube games over component without costing you megabucks for the priviledge. Finally, and I know this isn't a selling point, but god damn the thing has excellent emulation support if you hack it.

 

So yeah, I went from what is the point of it to I bloody love it.

[Steven Pendleton]

36 minutes ago, juansolo said:

Ok I'm gonna defend the Wii as someone who wondered what the point of it was other than it was for people who don't play video games. I had a friend with one who had all the Just Dance and Wii Play bollocks. The usual, and that's all I thought the console was for, until I kinda bought one by accident... (it was stupid cheap). Then I found all the really amazing games it had that you never see in people's collections. Those controllers that were gimmicks in Wii Play are easily the best light gun alternatives ever concieved. Some games are just better on them... Resident Evil 4 and the Pikmin games for example shine on the Wiimotes. Then it played your gamecube games over component without costing you megabucks for the priviledge. Finally, and I know this isn't a selling point, but god damn the thing has excellent emulation support if you hack it.

 

So yeah, I went from what is the point of it to I bloody love it.

Hacked Wii is amazing. So is hacked PSP go.

[CatPix]

I find the Wii to be okay... as long as games didn't relied to use motion detection to death (And yes, Skyward Sword counts... Damn that last boss fight.. I had to CHANGE HAND to keep playing and beat it.. and I just ended up wiggling the Wiimote like a dumbass). It had a nice share of decent games and many accepted either regular controls or GameCube controllers so props to that. It's still a console I have an abysmal lack of games for it, probably the lower number of games for it of all the mainstream consoles I own. But the few I picked up were good. It has surprisingly good survival horror games, save for the Silent Hill one.

Edited February 19, 2020 by CatPix

[Steven Pendleton]

Just now, CatPix said:

I find the Wii to be okay... as long as games didn't reid to use motion detection to death (And yes, Skyward Sword counts... Damn that last boss fight.. I had to CHANGE HAND to keep playing and beat it.. and I just ended up wiggling the Wiimote like a dumbass). It had a nice share of decent games and many accepted either regular controls or GameCube controllers so props to that. It's still a console I have an abysmal lack of games for it, probably the lower number of games for it of all the mainstream consoles I own. But the few I picked up were good. It has surprisingly good survival horror games, save for the Silent Hill one.

Wii is a shovelware console, just like the DS and PS2. Got to sort through mountains of junk to find the good stuff.

[roots.genoa]

24 minutes ago, CatPix said:

It has surprisingly good survival horror games, save for the Silent Hill one.

You're talking about Silent Hill: Shattered Memories?? It's a masterpiece!!! Even though I would agree it's not a traditional survival horror game.

[CatPix]

I need to replay it. I got stuck in the very first ice labyrinth, couldn't get to find the exit even with a soluce. I ran and ran and ran in the level for about 10 minutes, gave up, put it back on the shelf, never touched it since. I do'nt mind difficulty in a video game but heck a good first level must guide you so you understand what you're supposed to do.

I'm not a fan of the survival-horror genre where you have force chase sessions (exception might be SH Downpour, but those parts are short and rather easy and progressively getting harder, giving you ample time to understand them) either, so that didn't help me getting into it.

Edited February 19, 2020 by CatPix

[zzip]

On 2/15/2020 at 8:10 AM, eddhell said:

But I do have to say, I always HATED the NES.  When it was released, I felt like it was mostly geared to younger crowds, and I stopped playing a lot of those types of games when they renamed "Jumpman" to "Mario."

I think this is a big part of why I didn't like the NES too.    It's kind of like the "Ewok Line" for Star Wars,  where if you are born before 1973 or whatever, you are more likely to hate the Ewoks than if you were born after.

 

By the time the NES came out, I was getting into RPGs, and didn't want the colorful, bouncy, cut-down version of an RPG that NES delivered, or endless side-scrollers.

[Flojomojo]

6 minutes ago, zzip said:

I think this is a big part of why I didn't like the NES too.    It's kind of like the "Ewok Line" for Star Wars,  where if you are born before 1973 or whatever, you are more likely to hate the Ewoks than if you were born after.

 

By the time the NES came out, I was getting into RPGs, and didn't want the colorful, bouncy, cut-down version of an RPG that NES delivered, or endless side-scrollers.

That's a good point about the Ewok Line. I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Side-Scrollers, but many of my classic-arcade-and-Atari-loving peers did not. The thumb pads were a point of contention as well. They stopped video playing games, I never did. That's why they're all successful, and

[eddhell]

52 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

 The thumb pads were a point of contention as well.

Took me a while to get used to D-pad on Left, buttons on right.....older controllers were generally right-handed (2600, C-64) or centered (Intellivision, Coleco, arcade)....

[Flojomojo]

Yeah, that seems like ancient history now, doesn't it? We adapted. 

[+wongojack]

3 hours ago, zzip said:

I think this is a big part of why I didn't like the NES too.    It's kind of like the "Ewok Line" for Star Wars,  where if you are born before 1973 or whatever, you are more likely to hate the Ewoks than if you were born after.

 

By the time the NES came out, I was getting into RPGs, and didn't want the colorful, bouncy, cut-down version of an RPG that NES delivered, or endless side-scrollers.

 

I was definitely on the wrong side of the line for Super Mario Bros and really the whole foundational art style and assets for the NES.  However, there were many games that transcended those problems and made me have some amazing experiences with the NES.  Still have mixed feelings to this day about it, but there is no denying that it is/was a great console that I wanted to bang into the dirt with frustration on occasion.

[Steven Pendleton]

As I don't think I have seen the NES in real life (plenty of Famicoms, though) and have obviously never played a real one, one of my friends keeps advising me to stay away from basically all of the boring things that everyone on Youtube talks about like the Nintendo IPs, Castlevania, Contra, etc. (his words, not mine!) and play more obscure things. I did get a Famicom Mini and honestly most of the games on there, save Akumajou Dracula (FDS), are not super appealing to me at all. Except Metroid, of course, which is a great game. I know, I went and played the REAL original Castlevania game (not the NES version) as my first entry in the series after being recommended to avoid mainstream stuff for that platform, but it's really great.

Edited February 20, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[turboxray]

Pretty much the N64. A handful of decent games, but way too many kids were bought the system instead of a Play Station simply because of their parents. I mean if all you ever owned was a N64 during that generation, what did you even play??? I mean compared to the PS which had more great games than people had time for. 

 

How it even sold that many units with such a tiny fraction of the PS library is beyond me. 

[Tanooki]

You kind of answered your own question by not answering it.  Parents bought KIDS the N64, not the PS1.  Of the 300 games on that system, a decent amount were not T or M rated, and a handful were even like kindergartner ready like Elmo and Tigger.  Beyond those it's very easy to find a ton of games for the 5-12 bracket, easier so than the PS1, and far more durable.  Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it didn't exist.  GO check the wiki there's a lot, and even as say a middling teen to adult who may have owned one, take that out of the picture of what you perceive as a dumpster fire, and kids would love it.  Many disney and other licensed games, iggys wrecking balls, blast corps just to blow stuff up goofing off, all those Rare non FPS games, Mario and the dozens of clones from known to little known makers, even dopey stuff like wrestling or kart racing stuff.  It wouldn't be hard to find at least 50 acceptable games to downright fun for a child, and odds are no parent bought their kid 50 let alone probably more than half that many over those years.

 

Taking kids out of it, you'd just have to be a hater or very very pro-PS1 to be that blind not to see how it did sell as well as it did despite the crappy limitations the cart put on there, but you know, that's your opinion and choice, even if it is a wrong one given the actual game list, ratings on said games, and totals sold despite the lack of CD storage ass kicking Nintendo deserved and got.

[mbd30]

The N64 had a strong reputation as a multiplayer console with games like Golden Eye, Mario Kart and Smash Bros. That helped. As did the popular Nintendo franchises. Yeah it was limited in terms of selection compared to PS.

 

[turboxray]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

You kind of answered your own question by not answering it.  Parents bought KIDS the N64, not the PS1.  Of the 300 games on that system, a decent amount were not T or M rated, and a handful were even like kindergartner ready like Elmo and Tigger.  Beyond those it's very easy to find a ton of games for the 5-12 bracket, easier so than the PS1, and far more durable.  Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it didn't exist.  GO check the wiki there's a lot, and even as say a middling teen to adult who may have owned one, take that out of the picture of what you perceive as a dumpster fire, and kids would love it.  Many disney and other licensed games, iggys wrecking balls, blast corps just to blow stuff up goofing off, all those Rare non FPS games, Mario and the dozens of clones from known to little known makers, even dopey stuff like wrestling or kart racing stuff.  It wouldn't be hard to find at least 50 acceptable games to downright fun for a child, and odds are no parent bought their kid 50 let alone probably more than half that many over those years.

 

Taking kids out of it, you'd just have to be a hater or very very pro-PS1 to be that blind not to see how it did sell as well as it did despite the crappy limitations the cart put on there, but you know, that's your opinion and choice, even if it is a wrong one given the actual game list, ratings on said games, and totals sold despite the lack of CD storage ass kicking Nintendo deserved and got.

Or you know, just being an actual gamer haha. I was just out of the age of being teen by a couple of years when it came out, but I would have been pissed if that's all I had that generation! There was tons of games on the NES during the 8bit era. And there was tons of stuff for SNES/GENS for 16bit generation (I owned both, and a TurboDuo during that generation.. and imported games for all three). And then this thing. Like what happened??? At least they came back with the GameCube. 

 

I'm not saying you can't find a good 5-10 games on the system. But compared to at least 100+ great games on the PS1 (and that being very conservative number), it just makes the system clearly overrated in comparison to its popularity. That was the only generation where I felt I didn't need to buy at least the two popular systems (I borrowed it to play the few popular titles). PCs were already a pretty great gaming platform by '98 too, thanks to voodoo cards. 

 

But yeah, (sadly) overrated. 

[turboxray]

59 minutes ago, mbd30 said:

The N64 had a strong reputation as a multiplayer console with games like Golden Eye, Mario Kart and Smash Bros. That helped. As did the popular Nintendo franchises. Yeah it was limited in terms of selection compared to PS.

 

I get that. Golden Eye and Mario Kart especially, though multiplayer gaming was superior on PC.. just that LAN parties weren't easy to just setup last minute notice. Obviously, lack of 3rd party is largely to blame.. but what about 1st party games? I could be wrong here, but I remember big N putting out a lot of 1st party games on the NES. They didn't need to as much for SNES. So why didn't they pick up the slack for the n64??

[Tanooki]

An actual gamer wouldn't take such a dim attitude unless they were fanboying of course which I'd hope you're beyond that.   I was in college when the N64 came out and for like 1/2 its time I was quite good with the releases as they came.  When the lie wall hit about being a kiddie box happened and things dried up and games came every few months, I grew up and went multi-console and learned about the wonderful world of Turbo Duo, problem solved.   I was never pissed though, the good games I had, and there were dozens, I enjoyed a lot.  What happened is easy and hard to dispute.  Yamauchi getting senile in his advanced age coupled with this decades of known anger and arrogance decided that CDs sucked after Sony tried to trick them with the SNES CD system licensing agreement and went cart only, a cart at best that would hold no more than 1/10th (64MB) of a CD.  That's what happened, loss of space despite great hardware, well that equaled very limited releases because porting wasn't practical.

 

I'm saying, including non-exclusives, I could easily rattle off 50 games that are worth playing and are or can be fun depending on taste.  To me that says a lot given like nearly 40% of those 300~ games are sports, driving of some sort, and wrestling titles.  PS1 may have 100+ great games, but again, down to taste and well Sony took the shotgun approach, or more appropriate, the buckshot approach.  Fire widely with buckshot and yeah, pump enough rounds quite a few of those pellets will hit the target, including a good many in the center or near it.  And before you say I'm playing sides, I'm sitting a foot and a half away fro my desk toy, a PSOne+LCD combo.

[turboxray]

If you think my post amounts to fanboying, apparently you have reading comprehension failure. I've owned almost every Nintendo console. I've own all Sony's consoles. I've owned Microsoft systems. Shit, I've owned so many systems. I guess I need to repeat myself; I'm talking about library.. software.. reasons to justify owning a system. I.e. if all you owned during that era was a n64, then I feel sorry for you. Not because it's Nintendo, or not being Sony. It's about games. Period. Everything else you mentioned is irrelevant. The 'why' doesn't matter; it's the 'what'. And what does it have in comparison? Library wise, it's dismal compared to any of their other systems. For starters, where are the JRPGs?? There's just soo much missing on the system. I would have been pissed if that's all I had. If you weren't pissed, then you weren't a 'gamer'. You were just a casual player. I'm sorry your butthurt over the fact. I mean you can like overrated systems. That doesn't mean they aren't overrated. Hell, I own a SuperGrafx and that system arguably only has 3 good games for it. And I owned it BITD (1993!). But it wasn't all I owned haha. 

 

 Sony's approach??? The PS success is down to its 3rd party games! What is this shotgun nonsense. If you're gonna talk about the PS, Sony's 1st party developed games are a pretty tiny piece of that picture (and I don't mean 'published' or co-published games). 

[phoenixdownita]

Wrt to the N64 I still hold a grudge wrt Killer Instinct ... so much fanfare wrt the Arcade being based on the Ultra 64 HW (they barely had the same CPU ... 'cause even that wasn't an exact match) ... such BS!

 

So told, Mario64 was on a class of its own .... the bird that steals your hat, the metal cap .... genius. 

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, turboxray said:

I'm not saying you can't find a good 5-10 games on the system. But compared to at least 100+ great games on the PS1

That's not a problem for everyone. When I was a child, I would only get around 4 games a year. I had a dozen Master System games and less than twenty on Genesis. So if I had a N64 at the time, I would have been fine. To be honest I didn't have a lot of N64 games, but we would play N64 a lot more with friends than Saturn or PlayStation: GoldenEye, Mario Golf, Mario Party...

[IntelliMission]

When I was 17, I bought a Playstation. It was my first home console and my second console overall after the Game Boy.

 

I had to save all my weekly allowance of around $5 for 6 months to buy the Playstation. The plan was to have a machine to play games in my own house after my parents separated and my dad left with the 486 PC. The Game Boy was an intermediate step.

 

I didn't even know about 16 vs. 32 bits back then. I played video games since I was 9, but for me it was all 2D, 3D and "better graphics".

 

I remember being kind of a Nintendo 64 hater back then. The machine was very popular among Nintendo fanboys, but most Spanish teenagers and young adults preferred a PS1: it was cheaper (especially with the piracy), it had more games and games were more exciting/adult oriented. Most of these people had bought a SNES in the previous generation (I had played Secret of Mana, the Dragon Ball fighting game and Mario Kart in their homes a few years earlier).

 

I remember a couple of funny anecdotes with Nintendo 64 fans. If you read the magazines, you can understand our rivalry. The Nintendo 64 was famous because of the super expensive cartridges and the fog. It had a bad reputation. Playstation magazines attacked the machine and, of course, Nintendo magazines attacked the PS1 or other consoles. I recently read one 64 magazine issue that called the Xbox "ugly" when it was announced. Nintendo magazines were placing their machine and their games as something magic. They are very interesting reads. They can convince any hater, even if you know they are exaggerating. I love reading them, they create a huge hype for the N64 games.

 

So yeah, the anecdotes. Just like the Saturn did for the youtuber Sega Lord X, the Playstation helped me get my life back on track in my worst teenage crisis. Saving for it, then playing the games, sharing those experiences with the friends... It helped me concentrate in positive experiences. One of those experiences was having a girlfriend for the first time. And her friends were mostly Nintendo fanboys. So I remember that:

    > One of them was a huge Zelda fan. We were having a coffee at a bar and her sister came in with the Zelda OoT cartridge. It was a Christmas present or birthday, I don't remember. He was so happy, like a child. I remember something about the game being hard to find at the shops, so that was part of the reason.

    > Another one was a bit of an elitist when it comes to games. He once told me "you know, we didn't bought the Playstation because we wanted a real graphical evolution from the SNES".

    > I remember being crazy about a few Playstation big games and praising the graphics of Metal Gear Solid, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Gran Turismo. So one day this elitist guy had enough and replied in an angry tone "but you don't have real time lightning". "Only the 3DFX can do that".

    > I also remember visiting this guy at his home once and he was playing the F1 N64 game. I remember being impressed by the visuals but the frame rate was worryingly low, especially when the car turned. I later learned that the guy's father was a retired professional race car driver. His specialty? Gran Turismo cars.

 

20 years later, after reading many magazines and watching lots of Youtube reviews, I bought an N64. I love its multiplayer approach and, as I said its focus on gameplay over cinematics thanks to its limitations. Funny how my perception of the machine has changed, even if I don't find Mario 64 or Zelda OoT are masterpieces as many believe. For me, it's all about the 4 player games. So yeah, I wouldn't say it's overrated. If anything, it's another victim of the "early 3D games haven't aged well" fallacy, just like the PS1 and Sega Saturn.

Edited February 24, 2020 by IntelliMission

[Tanooki]

18 hours ago, turboxray said:

If you think my post amounts to fanboying, apparently you have reading comprehension failure. I've owned almost every Nintendo console. I've own all Sony's consoles. I've owned Microsoft systems. Shit, I've owned so many systems. I guess I need to repeat myself; I'm talking about library.. software.. reasons to justify owning a system. I.e. if all you owned during that era was a n64, then I feel sorry for you. Not because it's Nintendo, or not being Sony. It's about games. Period. Everything else you mentioned is irrelevant. The 'why' doesn't matter; it's the 'what'. And what does it have in comparison? Library wise, it's dismal compared to any of their other systems. For starters, where are the JRPGs?? There's just soo much missing on the system. I would have been pissed if that's all I had. If you weren't pissed, then you weren't a 'gamer'. You were just a casual player. I'm sorry your butthurt over the fact. I mean you can like overrated systems. That doesn't mean they aren't overrated. Hell, I own a SuperGrafx and that system arguably only has 3 good games for it. And I owned it BITD (1993!). But it wasn't all I owned haha. 

 

 Sony's approach??? The PS success is down to its 3rd party games! What is this shotgun nonsense. If you're gonna talk about the PS, Sony's 1st party developed games are a pretty tiny piece of that picture (and I don't mean 'published' or co-published games). 

No, hence the smiley right after.  Other than my avoidance of MS consoles (Windows PC is enough for me on that front) I've had insane amounts of stuff from all sorts of makers too so we're alike.  I owned the N64 exclusively for a console from 1996 into later 97 or into 98 when I got the Duo to fill some console play time gaps after the fall off came from smear campaigns on the N64 coupled with the cost of chips cutting games as much as lack of storage.  Having to wait, 3, 4, even 6mo between stuff sucked as most Rare games were collect-a-thon crap I won't play.  As you said, it's about the games.  Maybe later when I've got a bit of time I'll come back with a nice list of quality games for the system kids or adults could have easily enjoyed as I wasn't starved with it more often than not, I just wanted some more 2D games and variety in various genres that lacked.  I didn't own a Sony system until I worked at Midway which would mean 2001 but I've had them since, all too.  And no, shotgun isn't non-sense, it's quite factual.  They were fairly loose on their licensing, they more cared about presence at times than quality, the library alone on the large whole makes that obvious, but yet there still are over a 100 games easy worth owning and then some.  Because of that shotgun approach, pepper the market with so much stuff (like buckshot) you'll find plenty enough to appeal to any persons lack of or high standards of taste.