Best Consoles List Gone Bad
by Kevin Maven on December 17, 2007 at 12:31 pm
You’re smoking pot if you don’t include the N64
In regards to a recent article posted by The 10th Hour listing their best consoles of all time, I have to say that it’s somewhat controversial, and in general completely misses the point.
It’s difficult to avoid your emotional attachments to a piece of equipment that has you given you many hours of pleasures, or looking through rose-tinted. But when you’re considering the words “Best Console” you need to look deeper than your favorite game, your favorite company, or even which is the most controversial.
I believe there are three categories that should take center stage in tackling a list of “Best Consoles of All Time”: Longevity, Variety, and Reliability. It is at this fundamental point where The 10th Hour’s list falls down.
Firstly, placing the Xbox 360 on this so called “prestigious” list is a great misjudgment. It’s far too early for this console to make an appearance. It’s barely been out for 2 years, and so cannot meet any calls to longevity, even if we would like to predict its position for years to come.
Microsoft’s second attempt has also failed to prove that it has the Variety of games needed. The Xbox 360’s top rated exclusive titles are generally from the same genre, with shooters taking the crown with BioShock, Gears of War and Halo 3. Although other titles, such as Mass Effect and Forza 2 are pushing the envelope, the titles remain to be mature.
Of course, Microsoft are targeting their current majority audience, but here we are talking about the Best Consoles of all time. Thus, it has yet to prove itself with a suitable breadth of game genres.
Last but not least we come to product reliability. It’s hard for the Xbox 360 to be taken seriously in this category. A console with an estimated failure rate above 30% as reported by retailers, is barely what you would like to call a reliable product, pushing it further out of the Best Consoles Ever.
Nudging this young console even further away from the top 10 list is that there are plenty of more deserving candidates to take its place.
Where is the Nintendo 64? I found this console that I bought way back in August 1997 in the attic the other day; turned it on and had a go at some Golden Eye action followed by Mario Go Kart. The only thing it needed was a good dusting off. Looking at my three categories, surely you can see why it deserves a placing on the list more than a 2 year old current console.
The Nintendo GameCube is also a system easily over looked. Of course it suffered from a small install base and a lack of software all thanks to the fierce competition applied by Sony’s Playstation 2, but it still spawned blockbuster hits, such as Resident Evil 0 along with a gorgeous rendition of the original Resident Evil 1. It also breathed new life into long time running franchises, such as Zelda, Metroid and Super Smash Brothers to name a few.
The Original Xbox I believe has even earnt a better place in history than its son. This is the console that spawned the critically acclaimed Halo franchise, and gave birth to great games like Forza Motorsport, Project Gotham Racing and reignited old franchises like Ninja Gaiden and Doom.
So although a best console list should include consoles that have set trends, changed history, revolutionized the way we game, and just been a blast to play, the consoles included should also have a variety of games, work properly and prove to have lasting appeal.
The 10th Hour’s list thus includes non-deserving consoles and pushes out those that should not only be on the list, but should make a respectable placing.
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Tags: Best-consoles, Xbox 360 |
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1 Comment » |
on December 30, 2008 10:05 am
Sorry, but… I think I agree with him. N64 was not that good. In fact, compared to the ps1 in the time, it has a small library, and a stupid controller. And so packs. Expansion pack, memory pack, tremor pack… The ps1, only the memory card is ok.
Even the mario kart, was not too good. But I know what you fell, I kind of like the nintendo. In fact, the only new generation console I have until now is the Wii.
Well… that’s it.