Are the so called "worst consoles of all time" really that bad?

[xDragonWarrior]

So we've all heard of the " worst consoles of all time" and we all know the usual suspects, the Virtual boy, Ngage, Atari 7800,CD-I, 32X, 3DO, Jaguar etc but are they really that bad?.I for one think that there not that bad as there are MUCH worse consoles than the consoles mentioned above for instance the Action Max, Bitcorp Gamate, Casio PV-1000, MegaDuck/CougarBoy,XaviXport etc. I think alot of these consoles are bashed because they have a flaw like the Virtual boy's red graphics or the 7800's controller and won't dig deep for the good games(they will play a few games which happens to be horrible and will immediately say that the console is shitty,one reviewer says this(the nerd and others) and fans will say this every time that said console/handheld comes up no matter if they have played the console or not.Now I will admit, some consoles/handhelds should stay on that list like the R-zone but alot of them have no reason to be on there.

 

Philips CD-I

The CD-I had some good gamesThe apprentice,Burn:cycle, Dragon's lair,Hotel Mario(yes this IMO is a good game), Kether,The lost ride,Mutant rampage,Thunder in paradise Tetris etc.Yes the majority of the CD-I's library kinda sucks but It should be noted that it has some decent games that you should check out and not all bad as most seem to think.

 

Virtual Boy

Out of the entire Virtual boy's library(3-D Tetris,Galactic pinball,golf,Jack Bros, Mario Clash, Mario Tennis,Nester's Funky Bowling,Panic Bomber, Space Squash, Teleroboxer,Virtual League Baseball,Red alarm,Vertical Force, Wario land, Insmouse no Yakata,SD Gundam dimension war,Space invaders,Virtual fishing,Virtual lab and Waterworld), only Waterworld is bad and Red alarm, Nester's funky bowling, Golf and Virtual league baseball are average).

 

3DO

Another console I really hate when people put it on the list is the 3DO.I mean it had GREAT games like The definite version of Street fighter 2,The need for speed,D,Slayer,Shockwave 2,Soccer kid,The horde,Lucienne's quest,Gex,Killing time,Space Hulk,Road rash, Star control II so many to count.

 

32X

out of the 40 games released for the 32X, over half of them are pretty good.I don't know why people say the 32X sucks when it has such good games.Sonic Chaotix,Virtual racing Virtua fighter, Star wars arcade,Shadow squadron,Metal head,BC racers,Cosmic Karnage, the best version of NBA Jam tournament edition,Kolibri,Zaxxon's motherbase 2000,Darxide,Tempo, the closest damn port of After Burner on a console etc.

 

Anyway, do you feel that some of the consoles always mentioned are in no way one of the worst consoles of all time or they are right and they should be there?

[Hyperboy]

A console is only as good as it's games, I for one can find games I like to play on just about anything. Its easy for some people to call these consoles "the worst" when they are aware of today's technology. Not necessarily comparing say a PS2 to a 5200 side by side or maybe basing their review on number of units sold or their popularity in that persons mind. To me its like a movie critic, you have a person giving a review of a movie based on their criteria and its supposed to be universally fitting. I like wayyyy more movies that get shit reviews than good ones. Personal preference, To each his own, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....and all the other sayings that mean the same thing, We are all different people with different tastes and as a free thinker I will make my own decisions on what are the worst consoles..Cough..Cough..Hyperscan Remember, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.

[Manoau2002]

I played the 3do a few times when it first came out and I remember being blown away by the graphics and games available. The price was very steep which put it out of many peoples price range. The worst games I remember playing as a kid were the LCD/LED knockoff games that just light up images on the screen. A system/handheld I truly have little use for is the PSP. I know lots of people love the PSP and people will disagree with me. My experience with the PSP is that it was expensive (compared to similar handhelds) The battery failed after a few months. The umd drive failed after a few months. Games were hard to find. UMD movies were even harder to find. It went through several different models over a couple years. The newest PSP's didn't have UMD drives so you can't play the games you paid for.

[mbd30]

The 3DO may have been okay, but it got a bad rap because of the extreme price tag. It was also in between console generations and quickly surpassed by the Playstation and Saturn.

Edited November 28, 2013 by mbd30

[Austin]

None of the systems you mentioned are truly the "worst systems of all time". However, anyone mildly interested in "mainstream gaming" will most-certainly dub those as some of the worst platforms of all time.

 

The thing is.. Those judging those systems probably won't judge them for what they are worth. For instance, the 3DO--they will probably say it's full of FMV-heavy games, and leave it at that. The Virtual Boy, they will probably say it's library sucks, despite its library being fairly varied (and fun), despite how small it is. The CD-i, they will probably say it's full of edutainment software.. Which it is, but they will forget about the adventure and mildly-action-oriented games it has. The 32X--It may have been a crappy "next-gen" upgrade, but it still offered plenty of "next-gen" experiences at the time of its release, like Virtua Racing, then later Virtua Fighter, both excellent games even to this day.

 

It's just the nature of the mainstream gaming media, I suppose, to label each of these platforms "the worst ever", despite there actually being worse. However, these sources are often sighting the "worst" of the "mainstream", so what is listed often isn't really the worst of what is out there.

[+thegoldenband]

You can question a lot of systems on a design level, i.e. the Atari 7800's weak sound hardware, the Jaguar's complex architecture, the 32X's unattractive design and cluster of wall warts, or the Virtual Boy's headache-inducing display. In all of these cases you can legitimately argue, OK, maybe the whole thing was a bad idea from the beginning (and I say that as someone who likes all four systems, BTW).

 

But I honestly can't see anything wrong with the 3DO except the price point, and even that dropped relatively quickly -- apparently the 3DO was cheaper than the PlayStation when the latter was released, which I didn't know. From all reports, it was a powerful system whose power was relatively easy to harness, thanks to a forward-thinking architecture that, in turn, made it a pleasure to develop for (with the exception of some buggy dev tools). It also has a surprisingly large library, especially if you factor in the Japanese and Korean releases; many games we now have on the PlayStation or Saturn would've come out on the 3DO had the console not tanked. It was simply undone by a combination of questionable business decisions, bad timing, and unforeseeable shifts in the marketplace.

[Rhomaios]

"Are the so called "worst consoles of all time" really that bad?"

 

Not at all surprised to find you asking this question, xDragonWarrior! Ultimately, it will come down to two things: the console itself, and tastes in gaming. Plenty of the games you listed I didn't care for. I would whittle your list of 14 32X games, for example, down to 8. I still have one, but it doesn't get nearly as much play time as other consoles, and I can play After Burner, Space Harrier, and Virtua Fighter elsewhere (like the Saturn!). The 32X is a head killer. I cannot play it. The 3DO lacks a plentiful library of good exclusives. And crucially, the 3DO, CD-i, and Virtual Boy are very expensive to collect for today for what you get. You're much better off getting the better consoles.

 

Also, all of the above consoles were very much mainstream flops. The ones you mentioned like MegaDuck were never in the mainstream consciousness. On that sort of level, perhaps they "don't count"?

[zylon]

IMO, the 3DO was a great console that died too early. I enjoyed most of the games I had for it until my Goldstar version died a while back. It was just too early and too expensive then. It even outlived my Jaguar.

After 3DO, I got into the Saturn.

[youki]

For me "worst" consoles are only the one derived directly from Computer.

 

For instance :

 

Atari XE

Commodore 64 GS

Amstrad GX 4000

Amiga CD32

 

and i would put also the Atari 5200 that is too close from the Atari 8bit computer line too.

[AtariLeaf]

To me control can completely change my view of a system. It's the reason I don't own or care for the Intellivision. If there were alternative controls I'd probably still have one. If the Colecovision forced to use their stock controllers or those super action controllers instead of a modded genesis pad or stock atari stick (for one button games) I probably wouldn't own it. Same with the 7800. Those prosticks, to me, are an abomination of design and comfort. Thank god for europads and modded nes pads. Badly designed and failure prone controllers are one of the main reasons I own XL machines over the 5200.

 

This is not to suggest that these consoles are "bad" by any means, the intellivision has an excellent library, but if I need to massage my cramped hand for 10 minutes after playing for half an hour it completely sours my experience with said machine. Why the hell anyone thought that fire buttons on the side of a controller is a good thing is beyond my meager intelligence to comprehend.

 

The 3DO does look like it has a lot of great games. Been watchiing Steve Benway on youtube who's been doing gameplay of many 3DO games lately.

 

A lot of the ones in mentioned in this thread I can't even speak about as I've never played them. Why? I've never come across them in the wild. Why? Didn't sell very many back in the day making them rarer than hens teeth. Why? No one wanted them back then. Why? Various reasons - poor library, bad control, astronomical price, headache inducing and seizure causing, etc.

 

"Worst" is a subjective term as someone mentioned when using movies as an example. I have no desire to own a virtual boy because I don't want to stick my head in a pair of oversized goggles and get headaches staring at a sea of red. Does that make it one of the worst? Probably not as there are some who love it. Worst from a financial standpoint for the company in terms of sales and public interest? Certainly.

[BydoEmpire]

If you're going to rank consoles something has to come in last, so I can understand why those consoles are generally listed. That doesn't make them bad, though, and whether or not you think they're a bad console doesn't mean someone else doesn't love it. The Intellivision and 5200 are two of my very favorite consoles, and others think they're the worst... so there you go. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

[Manoau2002]

I don't understand why anyone would consider the Intellivision a bad game console. The controls were innovative for the time. It was the most graphically superior system until the Colecovision and Vectrex came out. It easily had the best sports games of any system until the NES. It had cool addons like the voice module, a computer keyboard, and a musical keyboard. It was offically supported for a really long time. The hardware has lasted for over 30 years.

[1982VideoGames]

Each to their own opinion but the Atari 5200 is one of my favorite systems and play it almost everyday now.

Sure it's based on the Atari 400 and it's controllers are problematic but when you get a properly functioning joystick (ala Best Electronic's Gold contact upgrade) and learn how to use the controller optimally in gaming it's very fun.

 

I play more games on the 5200 now than the 7800 and 2600 combined.

[Keatah]

The list is perfect. Throw anything Amiga-based in there for extra bonus points!

[AtariLeaf]

Well again, it's all opinion but for ME, if I have a hard time with a controller, or its uncomfortable or I get frequent hand cramps, I won't play it, simple as that. And for ME, I find any of the 5200, Intellivision, and Colecovision stock controllers unwieldy, uncomfortable and an ergonomic nightmare. In the CV's case, there are alternative controller options, for the 5200, there's the XL/XE option, unfortunately, there's not an alternative for Intellivision controllers. If there was, believe me, I'd own one. (And no, adding a stickler doesn't count - doesn't work great and you still have those damn side fire buttons)

 

Again, this is not a slam on the consoles themselves as they are great machines with great games. I simply don't like the controls. I' don't find they work well as video game controllers, at all. That's the one thiing the more modern consoles got right - great controllers. BTW, its another reason I don't care for the N64 - WTF were they thinking with that control scheme?

Edited November 28, 2013 by AtariLeaf

[high voltage]

NES what an awful console, as far as consoles go, it is the worst, plus the worst controllers, some of the games are good though.

 

So you're really talking about 'GAMES' not 'CONSOLES'

 

You say the majority of the CD-I's library kinda sucks, well look at the NES/Famicom library, 90% suckee (~2000 game library), goes for the majority of consoles actually,

few exceptions are Lynx, N-Gage, Atari 5200, SMS, PC Engine and Game Cube.

 

I got a complete N-Gage collection, the good game-bad game ratio swings definitely in Nokia's favour, hardly any duffs.

 

 

Actually, CDi it NOT a gaming console

Edited November 28, 2013 by high voltage

[mbd30]

"NES what an awful console, as far as consoles go, it is the worst, plus the worst controllers"

 

Worst controllers, really? What's wrong with them besides maybe being too small?

[Manoau2002]

I have several NES games and Sega Genesis games from my childhood collection. But I find these system have little appeal to actively collect for and own hardware for. I just can't get into the games and the games IMO play prefectly fine in emulation. (especially on the wii) Its the unique controls of the vectrex, intellivision and colecovision that make the emulation experience lacking. If I was to collect for another system it would likely be for something like the virtual boy that doesn't emulate well.

[Jess Ragan]

NES what an awful console, as far as consoles go, it is the worst, plus the worst controllers, some of the games are good though.

 

Someone get the straightjacket, there's a nut on the loose!

 

Er, anyway... I definitely would consider the 32X a terrible game console. With the Saturn just six months away, it had no business being made. It was difficult to set up, doubled the Genesis's power consumption, and had very few games to justify the purchase. Sega should have just stuck with the Sega CD or even better, worked to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the base console. I firmly believe that the 32X, and Sega's arrogant attitude when marketing it, spelled the beginning of the end of the company as a hardware manufacturer. If they hadn't made that mistake, the Dreamcast would likely have lived out its full lifespan, rather than being dropped just two years after its debut.

[Hyperboy]

I always thought of the 32X as an add-on not a stand alone console since it cannot run on its own. It gets a little shady with the Sega CD since it required a Genny to work but you also had CDX and X-Eye that didn't require a Genesis to work. Regardless of its classification the 32X was doomed before it left the factory.

[Austin]

 

Someone get the straightjacket, there's a nut on the loose!

 

Yeah, to say the NES is one of the worst consoles ever, yet mention in the same post that the N-Gage has very few "duffs", you know there are some bolts loose somewhere, heh.

 

I'm with AtariLeaf on the controller thing. If a controller hurts my hands while playing, then the platform becomes one I have very little affection for. The Atari 7800 and the Intellivision both fall into this category for me. But, as it's been mentioned, at least with the 7800 you can use different controllers, whereas the Intellivision, well.. you're kind of stuck with the default. I like the system and its library, but because of the controllers it's one I pull out very infrequently.

[Seob]

There are no worst consoles, just differences in personal taste

Edited November 28, 2013 by Seob

[mbd30]

There are no worst consoles, just differences in personal taste

I don't know. The RCA Studio II looks pretty lame. That racing game in particular looks hilariously awful.

 

[roland p]

PSone is the worst I mean, those games look ugly. It's the worst 3d console ever jagged, jittery polygons with false perspective. Consoles before and after are okay, and are even nice to emulate, but the psone stands out as a sore thumb

[youki]

. Same with the 7800. Those prosticks, to me, are an abomination of design and comfort.

 

 

Funny, for me, the 7800 Proline are the best joysticks ever!!. I still have and use the very one i bought in 1983! .. I used daily it on all the machine i had Colecovision, Commodore 64, Atari St, Amiga and nowadays i use it on PC via the Atari adaptor! to play emulators!.

 

But later, i bought few others brand new , but i have to admit the quality was different compared to the first one i bought.