What's your least favorite console generation?

[T.A.P.]

What is it, and why?

 

[smokehouse]

Funny enough…the PS2/GameCube/XBox/Dreamcast generation.

I really go out of modern gaming and into retro. Once I started having disposable income, I started dropping it on the expensive but rarer older system vs the modern gaming systems of the time.

For the most part…I skipped most of the systems I listed entirely...

 

[Jibbajaba]

I guess it depends on how you define generations. I'll just go by the wikified console generation list.

I am going to go with the PS2/GC/Xbox generation, which would be the sixth.

8- and 16-bit generations are my favs, I enjoy playing and am fascinated by older shit like the Atari VCS, and I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Playstation as it was the first console that I purchased as an adult, so those generations are all safe. I have continued to have a lot of fun with both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 so I am certainly not going to go with that generation.

But that 6th generation. The only thing that the Xbox has going for it in my opinion is its modibility. Yes, it had some awesome franchises on it, but nothing that I really care about. I had fun with RE4 and Animal Crossing on the GC, but that's about it. I was pretty big into the PS2 in it's heyday, but I literally never play it now even though I have a sizable library of games for it. There just isn't anything for me in that generation that I can't play a better version of on the PS3 or Xbox 360, and I would much rather play an 8- or 16-bit console (or Neo-Geo) than either of those. I hang on to my PS2 collection and my handful of GC games out of nostalgia, but I'm sure I could sell all of that shit off and not really miss it.

The Sega Dreamcast is technically part of the 6th generation, but I've never looked at it that way. Between the fact that it came out in 1999, and the fact that it was primarily an arcade lover's machine, I have really never associated it with the PS2/GC/Xbox generation. I've always thought of it more as something that came out in the tail-end of the PSX/N64 generation. Especially considering when it died.

 

[hyper]

ps1 just rubbed me the wrong way. it made so much goddam noise and the graphics never appealed to me

 

[smokehouse]

Even to this day...the 8 and 16 bit generation is still the best (3d and 4th generation according to that link)...although, I actually probably spent more time with the PS1 more than any of them (when they were current). From 1996 until 2000 I played my PS1 like crazy...I was renting games constantly. In retrospect, it doesn't have the longevity of the 8/16-bit consoles, but shit, was it fun when it was current.

 

[cdamm]

generation 1. 2600/ colecovision/ intellivision era.

so much of it just does not translate well for me anymore.

 

[Arcademan]

Atari 2600, 5200 and Intellivision. Growing up literally in the arcades in the late 70's and early 80's, I saw these early home systems as a disgrace to the business. ColecoVision did start to warm me to how good a home system could actually be and when Nintendo came out with the arcade VS System that was the basis of the home NES, I finally got into the concept of home systems...at least until the next level of games hit the arcade (SF2, Mortal Kombat, et al).

 

[hyper]

lol I didn't even consider the 2600

Right up there with pong consoles and r-zone

 

[Jibbajaba]

Even to this day...the 8 and 16 bit generation is still the best (3d and 4th generation according to that link)...although, I actually probably spent more time with the PS1 more than any of them (when they were current). From 1996 until 2000 I played my PS1 like crazy...I was renting games constantly. In retrospect, it doesn't have the longevity of the 8/16-bit consoles, but shit, was it fun when it was current.

The more of your posts that I read, the more I think we are brothers from another mother.

 

[ookitarepanda]

If I had to rank from worst to best, I would go 1-2-8 (too soon to tell)-5 (n64 yaay derp)-3-6-7-4 (super neo hyper mega).

 

[fake]

generation 1. 2600/ colecovision/ intellivision era.

so much of it just does not translate well for me anymore.

Yeah, that would have to be my choice (unless the Xbone / PS4 generation qualifies). I have some great Intellivision memories. That's how I started playing games. But those machines were destroyed by the NES / Famicom. Almost all of my favorite Intellivision games were really bad arcade ports and the NES ports are way better. I don't dislike any era, but that's the one that's least fun to me these days. Those machines are pretty impressive for the time. Not just the tech and manufacturing, but also getting them into people's homes.

 

[GutsDozer]

I pretty much like them all. As you go back further and further into the history the first generation had so much craziness happening and the almost pirate like mentality of the programmers and designers.. All of the generations have something interesting so this is pretty much an impossible question for me.

 

[Poonman]

Used to go in cycles for me,

I look back on the NES era as shit, and the 16 bit wars went on during the apex of 2d gaming

Then after the first wave of 3d consoles I began to lament the shit state of gaming again.... until around halfway into the PS2 lifecycle where it has pretty much leveled off and stayed that way since.

 

[hyper]

really? my first game ever was smb3 I must've played it through a few times before I graduated to track & field

loved every level

 

[Castor Troy]

Atari 2600 gen was the worst. Not even nostalgia goggles can save that awful gen.
PSX/Saturn gen hasn't aged well either. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the games that were released, but they look fugly now.

 

[Phyeir]

Going to skip the pre-crash home console gen, because that's a given and there's a reason the industry crashed on those piles of garbage.

My least favorite on the functional gaming gens is PSX/N64/Saturn. Two of the choices were a system most of the best games never even made it here due to shitty management and another system with overly expenses games and a limited library (don't forget the shitty controller).

That left you with the PSOne, which may have had a large library, but those blocky low texture games have aged pretty badly. Basiclaly, it's the 3D equivalent of the old blocky first gen systems to me.

 

[Alpha Skyhawk]

I began falling out of gaming somewhat in the PS2/GCN/Xbox generation. I hung onto my Dreamcast and played that regularly through part of 2004, and I didn't have such a deep appreciation for many games on the consoles after the DC. I do still have amazing favorites from that generation, though. MGS2/3, Outrun 2006, etc.

I guess I was playing more of my PS3/360 consoles, but very little has really stuck for me. My 360 pretty much became my Guitar Hero/Rock Band console. My PS3 only sticks around for Metal Gears and its media capabilities. I got the Wii late in its life, but I'm actually kind of excited to pick up some of the games I missed. I picked up Excitetruck a few weeks ago, and I enjoyed it.

So, with the lack of games and all of the 360 consoles I went through, I guess that generation is my least favorite.

It wasn't until I built my PC in late 2009 that I began getting into gaming again. I do have some PC versions of popular console games from the PS3/360 era that I love, though. Sega Rally Revo, Stranglehold, Star Wars Force Unleashed, Metal Gear Rising, Sonic Generations, Binary Domain, and others.

 

[OMFG]

This current generation is still pretty pitiful. Aside from that, I'd say the N64/Atari Jaguar/3DO period.

 

[ahcmetal]

I couldnt go back and play Atari...I just couldnt...its aged terribly. So I would have to vote generation 1 as my least favorite...followed as a close 2nd is the current gen sadly:| ...I have never been less interested in current games than I am right now...man I hope Oculus can change that...

 

[marktheshark]

The 7th generation for me IMO.

I've tried getting into the X360's library & aside from the Shmups, Dead Rising, Resident Evil Revelations, and a few other games, there wasn't really anything else that I liked a lot. Haven't played a lot of PS3 stuff yet so I don't know about that system. While the Wii is much better than the 360 IMO, it has a few really big flaws. Downloaded VC & Wiiware stuff is locked onto your system, the Memory Card 1019 from what I heard would be corrupted if used on a Wii, & the system is only one in the 7th gen to be totally region locked. Not cool.

What really bugs me is that the 7th gen systems & their libraries (at least the HD twins) are very dependent on online. It really sucks seeing a lot of Racing & FPS games have online-only multiplayer. I wonder how long the online services will last on the 360 & PS3?

 

[Wachenroder]

Going to skip the pre-crash home console gen, because that's a given and there's a reason the industry crashed on those piles of garbage.

My least favorite on the functional gaming gens is PSX/N64/Saturn. Two of the choices were a system most of the best games never even made it here due to shitty management and another system with overly expenses games and a limited library (don't forget the shitty controller).

That left you with the PSOne, which may have had a large library, but those blocky low texture games have aged pretty badly. Basiclaly, it's the 3D equivalent of the old blocky first gen systems to me.

Yeah thats a good point. Even though its my first console, I really don't like the Atari era. NES and Master System is when gaming came into its own for me.

So out of NES/MS - SNES/GEN/TG16 - PSX/SS/N64 - PS2/DC/XBOX/GCN - PS3/360/WII

It'd be hard for to make a hard stance but I guess it would be either the 8 bit era or the 32 bit era.

As good as those eras were, too many games are ugly as sin, sound like shit or are frustrating to play. 16 bit era and 128 bit era aged better I think. Those 8 and 32 bit era obviously still have a bunch of great games that are still good but just too many have aged like shit.

Gen 7 kind of sucked too mainly because my favorite games from the gen 6 went absent. Really disappointing gen after the greatness of the previous gen.

 

[Neorebel]

I think each era of gaming has had enough interesting merits, but having to pick I would say PSX/SS/N64. In between SNES and PSX I pretty much stopped playing new games for a while. I later adopted the PSX for a few RPGs, and 3-D fighters that wowed me at the time. I absolutely hated the super long delay for the "Ultra 64" that killed the excitement of it for me in a lasting way. Again though, I did end up picking up one and a bunch of games when it was finished and on clearance. Saturn - only in recent years did I discover the wonderful library of Japanese STG goodness to enjoy.

I'll also say that for PS4 and XBone things look very dim in my opinion. I don't see what these consoles can offer me in the future. I have a PC, a big library of PS3 games, and my Wii U is getting more exciting to play lately. I can also concur that the 16 bit era is the most fun, although I did enjoy my DC a lot too, due to some quite playable arcade ports.

*edit - I was barely old enough to be able to play games when we had a 2600 in the house, so I am disqualifying the 1st gen from my choices.

 

[Karou]

eh I think that wiki said gen one was before the 2600 {combat frogger defender pac man qbert atlantis just the bleeps and bloop noises made it great in my book}so I'll pick that but only due to the fact that it was before my time. I bet pong would have rocked if I had been old enough to have been playing it(there were some other games too?). xbox never seemed like a thing to me? I guess I wasn't around the advertising enough(isolated from tv for a few years while around 23 due to shitty dishwashing job-had a bit of ''good''fun still tho.) played my ss4 darkstalkers and 3 tony hawk 2 etc on psx for years and had a bunch of that dreamcast goodness for that time. what on xbox was any better than my super runabout san francisco demo doa2 mvc and 2 gunbird and whatever that gundam one was called where you could have a dom on the dreamcast? eventually got ps2 and 360 and now wiiu no ps34 0r boner I want dragons crown tho...I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong since I thought n64 was great just because of turok?

 

[SouthtownKid]

My least favorite is probably this one, so far. Every previous generation has at least one great console with must-play games. This generation doesn't yet.

Second least favorite would probably be the Atari generation, I guess.

 

[SNKorSWM]

The Atari generation. It is no wonder the market suffered a crash.