As a longtime video game collector, I have a love and passion for just about all consoles – these are the four I’d take with me if I was forced to choose.
While much of the recent content on this site has indeed revolved around video games, it’s followed a bit of a different turn than usual as my wife and I have been locked in on gaming via Steam on our PCs.
Yet of course, my love for video games was all born on consoles, which serve as the most noticeable component of our collection. Spanning from the SNES that was in my family’s home the day I came home from the hospital after I was born in April 1996 to the Xbox Series X we purchased in September 2023, our library spans a wide range of the history of video games, painting a broad picture on where to jump into.
Individually as a gamer, I grew up on platformers and racing games, with a few titles that set me astray from that general rule of thumb. Tales of Symphonia, perhaps my favorite game of all-time, introduced me to Japanese role-playing games, while Half-Life 2: Deathmatch served as my orientation into first-person shooters, a genre I still haven’t explored much outside of HL2DM.
Beyond the titles released for a given console, there’s other components to the experience of playing on a system that make everything feel complete – whether that is something practical like the shape and size of the controller or more aesthetic, such as the console’s appearance or how it fit in with your living room.
Growing up as someone that was immediately initiated into playing 2D Super Mario games, my love for the series and Nintendo consoles at large has not dissipated at all, with many of the publisher’s first-party games remaining among my favorites of all-time.
With that said, I’ve branched out plenty away from Nintendo, with more deviation than just mixing in the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro game here and there – with our recent gaming on Steam further opening up my horizons to a large slew of games that are unavailable on other platforms.
While I’m deadset on simply playing new non-Nintendo games on Steam, the consoles of the past paint a much different picture, with older consoles on CRTs providing a gaming atmosphere and experience that no PC will ever be able to replicate.
Balancing personal nostalgia, my favorite games and titles I haven’t played that I hope to, here’s a look at the four consoles that are honored on my video game Mt. Rushmore – the four systems I would take with me if I was forced to part with everything else.
1. Nintendo GameCube
Undoubtedly my easiest choice when narrowing it down to four consoles, the GameCube was the system most indelibly linked to my childhood, with several of my favorite games of all-time being released for the console.
After receiving the system as a gift on Christmas 2003, I immediately fell in love with Super Smash Bros. Melee, with Luigi’s Mansion following not far behind. While much of my love for the system is connected to Tales of Symphonia, the GameCube still had a slew of legendary games that remain revered today.
Among these are games I’ve still yet to dive into, including the very highly regarded Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, as well as Animal Crossing, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
While online availability on the Nintendo Switch 2 has helped introduce games like these to a new audience, there is nothing that replicates playing these games on original hardware, as it was intended upon the system’s 2001 release.
If I needed to be further convinced of this console’s greatness in the face of relatively poor sales, it’s the still large amount of beloved titles I’ve yet to dive into – making the GameCube a surprisingly complete system despite its connections to family gaming.
More mature titles that the console offers include Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and the JRPG Skies of Arcadia: Legends.
2. Sony PlayStation
A revolutionary console that completely transformed the video game industry, the PlayStation was perhaps the first console that succeeded on marketing itself as the system for everyone – seemingly creating new demographics of gamers along the way.
While my experience with the PS1 as a kid was fairly one-dimensional, spending most of my time on the system playing Spyro and Crash Bandicoot games, there was so much more being offered that I was simply fully unaware of.
Becoming the first console ever to sell 100 million or more units, the PlayStation capitalized on a growing demographic of racing gamers, with the Gran Turismo series leading the way – as the first two installments comprise two of the three best-selling PlayStation games.
What solidified the PlayStation’s undisputed spot atop the fifth generation of video game consoles was its wholesale domination of two other emerging demographics as well – becoming the console for both fighting games and JRPGs – the latter greatly assisting in its excellent commercial performance in Japan.
Despite my personal experience with the console being quite limited, I’m fully confident that I could give myself a lifetime of adventures with a PS1 – with games like Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Cross, The Legend of Dragoon and Tales of Destiny alone serving as more than enough to keep one occupied for dozens of hours at a time.
With an iconic controller and hordes of games from every genre imaginable, I’m fully confident the PS1 would be more than enough to scratch the non-Nintendo itch.
3. Nintendo Switch 2
Though this is a console I have still yet to own, I figured it would make no sense to choose the original Switch over this console given the Switch 2’s backward compatibility with Switch game cards.
Serving as perhaps the most ideal package of modern and retro, the Switch 2 would allow continued access to Nintendo’s current/upcoming generation of first-party games while offering generations of titles from yesteryear via the Nintendo Switch Online service.
While it’s more than enough to keep any gamer up to date with Nintendo, the console would also serve as the most basic way to keep up with games across the board, thanks to Nintendo’s resurgence among third-party developers with the Switch.
After well over a decade of many AAA developers simply sitting out Nintendo consoles while producing for PC, Xbox and PlayStation instead, most high-level modern games are also given a Switch adaptation – a massive pro of owning a Nintendo system nowadays even if it comes with relatively diminished performance compared to the other consoles the game may be offered on.
With a few modern AAA games that I’m familiar with such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 being available on the Switch 2, the console serves as the best hub system of any today – acting as an ideal median between Nintendo gamers and more hardcore gamers that likely prefer the PC or PlayStation.
4. Super Nintendo Entertainment System
While one can play many of the most celebrated SNES games on the Switch or Switch 2, there’s no way it would feel the same as the way I’ve played Mario since I’ve been able to hold a controller in my hands, which all started with the SNES.
Perhaps no game is more nostalgic to me than Super Mario All-Stars, the excellent remaster of the original Super Mario trilogy in addition to Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 that was deemed too difficult for the western audience.
Beyond Mario, there’s plenty more to love about the system that comprised one half of the Console Wars of the 1990’s, featuring other iconic first-party titles such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Donkey Kong Country, the latter of which inspired a trilogy for the system and spearheaded a renaissance of the console late in its lifespan.
Furthermore, the 16-bit music and appearance really is an incredible step up from the 8-bit showings on the NES, providing meaningful upscaling and a range of colors that had not yet been seen in a video game. These lush textures were a big part of what made Donkey Kong Country feel so advanced even for the console’s standards, while also giving new life to the Mario series in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island with its trademark marker-drawn art style that translated incredibly well to the SNES.
In terms of having the true classic video game experience by holding a small, simple controller and playing on a CRT, the SNES would emphatically deliver for me personally.
Leave a Reply