Probably the Ouya…
Unpopular opinion, but Xbox 360. The first ones didn’t have hdmi, didn’t have a hard drive, the giant power brick was unsightly, the controller has the worst dpad I have ever touched and playing any fighting game on it was a pain, the paid multiplayer cancer grew there, the ads in the main menu of the console… And I didn’t get to see the red ring of death since I’ve switched to PS3 as soon as I could afford one.
I know a lot of people have fond memories of it, but for me the 360 represented the worst of the console manufacturers’ greed, milking the consumer to the bone while cheaping out on everything that was possible to cheap out on.
Mine was also the 360, but simply because of when I got it. I was a young teen when it originally came out, and I begged my parents for one. They were concerned that my kid brother (several years younger than me) would inevitably end up playing the games I had for it. The 360 was marketed more as a mature console, compared to the family friendly Wii. So I had to wait until my brother was old enough to play games like COD and Halo.
This meant that by the time I finally got the 360, the XBO was nearing release. And the 360’s multiplayer heyday had largely passed by that point, as everyone had largely moved on from games like Halo 3, Modern Warfare 2, Assassins Creed Brotherhood, etc… So matchmaking lobbies for all of the games I wanted to experience were basically only full of the diehard fans who had absolutely no sympathy for new/learning players. It meant I ended up using it primarily as a single player console. I enjoyed lots of single-player games like Final Fantasy 13/13-2, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect Trilogy, Dark Souls, etc… But that’s pretty much all I used it for. I’d chat with friends while I played if they were online, but it quickly became clear that my friends were moving on from the console.
All of the big multiplayer experiences for the 360 were largely lost on me, because none of my friends were interested in playing those old games by that point. And multiplayer is unfortunately a large part of what the console was designed for. I think the only multiplayer game that really held our attention was Destiny, and even that turned out to be a pretty big disappointment after a while. We only really kept playing it as an excuse to hang out in voice chat.
I was also largely moving towards PC gaming by that point. I had already experimented with installing games like Oblivion and Skyrim on my (really shitty) laptop, and got them running at potato quality. I saw the potential, and shifted towards PC gaming after getting the 360. I saved up my money from my first job, and built my first PC a year or two after getting the 360. So I only really kept the 360 around for the exclusives that weren’t on PC.
Nowadays, I just emulate the 360 exclusives for single player. Currently working my way through Lost Odyssey, because I never actually got around to finishing it on the 360. I think because I built my PC before I beat the game.
I still want to play some of the rpgs of that era: Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata
Just need to find the time somewhere 😅
My Xbox 360 RRoD’ed on me twice.
It also had its disc drive die THE DAY I got Skyrim on release after waiting in line for it.
I spent the next several hours learning how to flash the firmware of a broken RRoD’ed Xbox 360 so that I could replace my drive with its parts.
It was simultaneously the best and worst console I ever owned:
Best because I have a lot of fond memories playing Halo 3 multiplayer, Skyrim, etc. with my friends in my college apartment we all shared.
Worst because it was an unreliable piece of shit.
They offered the HDD as optional if you paid for the “pro” package. The HDMI was a bummer but being honest I needed to buy a special adapter to use on my TV because I didn’t even have component out ! So slightly understandable at the time.
It wasn’t a well built system none of that generation was. I went through three Xbox 360s. I bought my fourth 2 years ago !
Lot of fond memories though
Tiger GameCom. I really think it had a lot of potential and was ahead of its time. They didn’t make a lot of games for it and it was underpowered. Some really cool ideas though, it was the first touch-screen anything I had. It had 2 game cartridge slots. It had built in utilities, tools, and games.
Nintendo has ironically made my favorite and most disappointing consoles.
Most disappointing:
Virtual Boy WiiU Wii Switch
Best:
NES SNES Game Boy GBA
The Switch, because it removed all the cool features the DS had.
PS4 - no games. Worse multimedia experience compared to PS3. No longer matters to me but did at launch.
Xbone - no games
Didn’t buy PS5 or another Xbox myself but my roommate did get a PS5. No games. He’s not buying another Sony console either.
Artificial value of exclusives lost combined with drastically less output from AAA and oddball titles like Sony had on PSN during PS3 era renders consoles completely pointless to me now. Since I was always PC gaming while also owning consoles in the past, I built a PC for the living room too.
Upcoming disappointment:
Probably Switch 2. I think Nintendo has lost their way ever since Iwata died. Certainly their style has evaporated. You will like your black/white barren GUI or else Mario’s getting shot. Switch 1 was already borderline.
My Switch 1 broke after just a few months. That gets it the worst spot for me.
They all have flaws, but I’ve had a lot of consoles over a lot of years and don’t have any I’d call “bad” all around. Each did its job masterfully.
Thinking about the question made me remember this bad boy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance_SP
That might be the favorite. Great size, battery, controls, games, peripherals… I kinda think I remember it got internet hate for some reason? But I LOVED this thing. Ultimate evolution of GameBoy.
I haven’t gotten into a console since SNES.
I bought a PS5, played it a few times, but it gathers dust. I think it was last powered up in 2024. I don’t find the games fun.
What games do you play?
None at this point
For me it was Xbox One. From day one (no pun intended) it just didn’t feel good to me. The UI experience never got away from being awful. The system itself was a sluggish awful mess. It should never take more than 3 seconds to load your options menu . On top of that Everytime I turned on my console it would take a half hour or more to update. The must have games just never came. The games they did come played worse than nearly anywhere else. If I was a teenage when I bought this system and played everyday some of these short comings could have been avoided. But as an adult it just felt terrible . From here I went back to Pc gaming made a rig that would destroy any console at the time. It was so bad to me I canceled my Xbox Live Subscription I had for 15 years ! That killed my love to Xbox entirely.
Probably second place was the PS3 but I bought it at the end of the generation and never got the exclusives I should have …
I owned a Virtual Boy back in the day and… yeah. It sucked. I bring it up every time people think Nintendo are infallible - they do have shit ideas from time to time.
I also owned a PSP and I just didn’t use it much. I know it’s a well beloved console but I didn’t really like anything that I played on it.
The Wii was just okay, I just got tired of the gimmick too quickly, and the library was just atrocious. If you don’t like movie tie-in games, you miss out on like 3/4ths of the entire catalogue of titles.
I think I’m just tired of console gaming at this point. The only reason I would buy a console is if it were a mobile console that I can take with me when I want to game away from my PC, and so far the only companies that are interested in developing mobile consoles are Nintendo and Steam.
Meta Quest 3s. It was an initially a cool way of playing games but the novelty soon wore off and most games are not that good with VR. Up until then I iterated through Nintendo systems and was always satisfied.
Switch is easily my least played console. Its library was nearly entirely made up of games I already played on the Wii U. On top of that they had the cheek to require a subscription to play online. No thanks.
I am one of the few lucky ones to actually get an Ouya… It wasn’t great.
My friend got an ouya, I think he mostly got it as a bit of a curiosity since he was a game dev student (and now does it professionally)
It absolutely didn’t do anything particularly different or better than any other gadget we could have hooked up to the TV to game on, but we did have a lot of fun with it for a while. It was kind of nice that it was so small so he could carry it around easily if he wanted to take it somewhere for a party or something.
And a few of the games we first discovered on the ouya are still mainstays of our parties when we manage to get together as busy adults.
Through a series of moves, roommate swaps, and marriage, that ouya (though not the controller) has actually now ended up in my possession
It’s on the left with my small collection of retro consoles and handhelds. Couple other cool bits of geeky paraphernalia scattered in there too. Disregard the mess on the coffee table and such, this was taken in the middle of some renovations, turns out I don’t take many pictures of my entertainment center.
Your entertainment center is so cool I didn’t even notice the so called “mess”.
The real shame is that the coffee table isn’t really visible because it’s pretty cool itself, it’s a hatch from a ship (I believe a WWII Liberty ship)
Bit of family history with it too. My dad originally had it, but my mom hated it, so eventually it went to live with my grandfather. He died, and it ended up back in our basement. My sister and I both really liked it, and we had a bit of an agreement that whoever moved out first got the table, and I won.
EDIT: Also for anyone else who likes my setup, the entertainment center and shelves in the wall are IKEA Fjallbo, no pretty affordable. The shelf of the far right is just an IKEA Kallax.
And I have the TV synced up to Phillips hue lights behind it and in the ceiling
That’s a lotta Chianti
I’m not totally sure where the bottles came from, we don’t really drink chianti, and they’ve just kind of been hanging around on a shelf somewhere, but they ultimately ended up on this chandelier
Hahaha nice. I’ve tried it once, it was nice. Very distinctive bottle, though!
Nice portal gun hiding up on a shelf.
Every so often I get reminded of the Ouya. I still have mine from the Kickstarter somewhere. It was good in concept, and I even saw posts of it being sold in major retailers like Target, but it just fizzled out far too fast.
I came to say this. Some good games on there, but Julie Uhrman is the worst. and to think, she just failed upward.
I owned Ouya. The games weren’t great but OK. Some were fun. At least console wasn’t too expensive. Then I tried to change my email for my Ouya account and learned that the company behind Ouya disappeared. I was frustrated and sold my Ouya :(
Xbox One S. The library was crappy and the games are more expensive than on steam for some reason I can’t fathom.
Switch was what made me realize golden era of gaming was over, but it took about a year to set in because of the disconnect between the NX presentation and the actual product.
Seriously, go take a look at the original NX Switch presentation and it would almost seem that Nintendo was selling a completely different product.
All of the Wii era inspired hardware went mostly unused because the Switch couldn’t play Wii games, and Nintendo didn’t bother to even port their own titles outside of recycled Wii U content that didn’t sell well on the original console.
The software similarly was a joke. I have more functionality on a Nintendo DS than a Switch, and that isn’t even including “unofficial” homebrew. You can’t even voice chat with your friends without using an external app, which is insane considering the DS, DSi, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U that preceded this.
Major features that gave Nintendo the edge were gone. DS Downlaod Play, Streetpass, included minigames & apps, themes, free online, eshop points, wifi events, etc.
On top of that, the library was just not interesting enough to warrant paying $60 a pop for single player games, and the multiplayer selection was sparse, despite the main feature of the console being joycon controllers.
I got bored of it after only a year, and ended up having to change the joycon c-sticks a couple years later because of the drift issues.
IMO it was a massive success just because of the portable format allowing you to play big name games on the go, but it absolutely fails as a handheld console when compared to the DS line, which did so much more for so much less.
Now that other handhelds like the Steam Deck, AYN stuff, Legion, etc exist, there’s really no need to buy a Switch (2) for third party titles, which makes it a complete Nintendo only buy in.
The kicker is that Nintendo made absolute bank which is now why the Switch 2 is going for $450 (soon to be $500) and bumped their game prices to a whopping $70-80 because they know people were fine with it.
If I had more time on my hands, I would legitimately go make a modern version of Streetpass and download play for modern handhelds because that stuff was so cool and useful.
Yeah, I loved Streetpass so much.
