There sure has been a whole bunch of video game consoles. While it used to feel like they were coming out left, right and center, it slowed when the console industry started to focus mainly around PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo. That was the period I grew up in. As such, each new console tended to define periods of my life.
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So while this article is about ranking how much I personally liked each console I owned, it’s really going to be a ranking of my childhood through these consoles. Since I only got a new console every few years, the games I bought for them and how I felt was very much a reflection of where I was in life. It’s a trip!
The Steam Deck is technically just an extension of PC, so I have deigned not to include it as a console here.
10 PlayStation 1, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance
Special Mentions
Let’s kick this off with the consoles I never actually owned, but got to play a little bit of. The first console I ever properly owned was the PS2, though I did get a brief play of a PS1 from my older sister’s friend. Dino Crisis and some Aladdin game are all I really remember here. I do still own a PS1 controller for some reason though.
Next up for me was the Game Boy. Growing up, Nintendo was synonymous with Pokemon for me, so the Game Boy was seen as a Pokemon machine. Logically, so was the Game Boy Advance. Except that one was much more colourful. The friend who owned these also introduced me to the concept of hacked Pokemon and an Action Replay. More on that later.
9 PlayStation 5
Turns Out, PS5 Has No Games
The PS5 is the latest console in my repertoire, and honestly? Incredibly boring. There are literally games on the console, I am aware of this. I even love some of them. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is one of my favourite games of the generation. But how many PS5 games, really, are actually exclusive to the PS5?
Horizon, God of War, Gran Turismo. They’re still all on PS4. And cheaper! So combined with expensive games and a lacking exclusive library, I can’t really say the PS5 has much to offer me. And this is coming from someone who writes about games for a living.
8 PSP
Great Console, I Just Couldn’t Save Games
The DS was the first portable console I ever owned, and for a decent while before the PSP, too. In fact, I didn’t even want a PSP originally. I specifically asked for an Xbox 360 for my birthday, and got a PSP instead. I was very upset. Not even because it was a PSP, but because I really wanted an Xbox.
Another issue arose though. My brother bought me the PSP but, as well-intended as his kindness was, he did not know anything about consoles. And so he didn’t buy a memory stick for the PSP because the shop assistant told him it wasn’t necessary. So if my PSP died or I closed the game, I simply had to start all over again. And using proprietary tech for storage, I can tell you I never did get a memory stick either.
I did, however, manage to finish all of Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines in one session though, which is some kind of achievement I’m sure.
7 Wii
The Most Exercise I Ever Got
rTechnically, I did not own a Wii. Rather, my cousin did, but she left it at my house and never, ever came back for it. So it was de facto mine. That did mean, however, that I had very few games for it. Only the ones she left, actually. So I had Wii Sports. And this, dear reader, is the moment I realised that Nintendo consoles were much more than just Pokemon.
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I was a very introverted child, and getting out and doing physical activites with other children was very anxiety-inducing. The Wii gave me a means to get some exercise, play with friends, and have fun all at the same time. Plus it was just really unique in a way no other console I owned had, so it left a strong impression.
Don’t tell her, but I still have that Wii in a drawer in my room. Over a decade later and she never returned for it.
6 3DS And New 3DS
My Xenoblade Machine
I originally did not have a 3DS, but my younger sister did. She, however, did not play the console. She just wanted the newer one because it was the newest. But like I said, she didn’t play consoles. So I requesitionedit. Permanently. She never even noticed it was missing. Thusly, I had finally commandeered a 3DS.
The 3DS gimmick was very fun, but it also marked the transitionary point for me when I left my rural village for university. I was introduced to competitive Pokemon, and later to the Xenoblade Chronicles series through a friend. My Wii console technically not mine, miles and miles away and a Wii copy of Xenoblade much more expensive, I traded in my sister’s 3DS to get my New 3DS. And then a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. And thusly, a new JRPG obsession was born that was subsequently rewarded on the Switch.
A New 2DS XL was also the first gift I got for my partner, so it probably ranks pretty high for them too, I hope.
5 PlayStation 4
No Quips, I just Really Liked This One
PlayStation 4
My adolescent years were defined by the Xbox 360. The PS2 was my formative years. So now I had returned to the PlayStation family with the PS4 for my late teens. And that meant a lot of sacrifices. I loved Halo and Fable, and those games were gone from me now. No backwards compatibility, no baggage. It was a brand-new start for me.
But now all the games I loved but couldn’t play as a child were available to me. I could play Metal Gear Solid, Spider-Man, God of War. I loved the new games like Horizon, and I was introduced to indie games in a much bigger way than the Xbox 360 ever did. But some of my strongest memories coming from having to brave voice chat and making friends while completing Destiny raids. It has a special place in my heart that prepped me for braving social anxiety.
4 DS And DSi
My Pokemon Machine
For me, the DS meant a lot. It was my first portable console. And unlike the PSP, all the save data was stored on the cartridge so there was no fear of missing memory. Sheltered as I was, it felt amazing to have a console I could bring to all the waiting rooms and appointments when I traveled with my mother. I had my Pokemon wherever I wanted, and even picked up some other games along the way.
It was also when I started using an ActionReplay for myself. My cousin did it for me first, and completely broke my game of Pokemon Pearl by trapping me in Canalave City before I had surf. So I felt very powerful when I could suddenly use all those cheats myself. And when I eventually got a DSi, I took pictures of everything. Farms, trips to the zoos, newborn family memories. Blurry little images packed with childhood glee.
3 Switch
I’m A Sucker For A Hybrid
The Switch was the very console I got brand-new after starting college. Studying computer games development, I felt like I was finally among my peers. I could talk about games with people who knew about the industry, were studying to be in it. I had found my people. OK a lot of them turned out to be a bit…abrasive, but there was a hole in my heart that was filled.
The fantasy that Nintendo showed in all their advertisements was my reality for a while. I could go to our student centre, whip out my Switch, and guarantee plenty of people around me had it, too. Plenty of propping it up on a table and playing Smash and Mario Kart. And when I wanted a quiet moment, I could just bring it to a corner and relax. It carried me through college life and beyond.
2 PlayStation 2
The Birthplace Of My Love For Gaming
It is very easy to be blinded by nostalgia, and I won’t claim I am impartial to it, but I also can’t deny the genuine impact the PS2 had on me. The very first console I owned, it was also to this day the console where I had the most games (PC-excldued). I could go to town and come back with a new game, I could come home from school to see a new game waiting for me on the table.
It was a period when games were cheaper and plentiful. You could find them anywhere. Ireland was also in a period of economic boom when I was a child, so shops that had no place selling video games were selling them because there was just too much money going around. The walls of my room were stacked high with PS2 cases. It’s all gone now, but it was what built the foundation of my interest in games. There is a direct link between me playing those console over 20 years ago, and the very sentence I am writing this very second. I have to love it just for that.
I also started Kingdom Hearts here, and did not realise it was a beloved series internationally until I got a PS4.
1 Xbox 360
My Adolescence, And Then Some
I owe my life and career to every console I have ever played and owned. I am writing because I loved games, and found others who felt the same way. And while the PS2 began that journey for me, it reached a very particular peak with the Xbox 360. I was hitting puberty, discovering plenty of things about myself, and the world at large. And even if it sounds absurd, the Xbox 360 was a comfort to me in that point of my life.
I made friends on the 360, started using voice chat to confront my own introversion. The people I talked with every day were from all over the world. I came home from school and had people to talk and play games with. We drifted apart in time as we all got older, starting into higher education and coming into our own as people. But the 360 was more than just games I loved like Halo and Mass Effect. It was, cliche as it sounds, the friends I made along the way.
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