I waited a year before I got one, and I should have bought it day 1. I love rogue likes, and it's perfect for them. Plus getting games on sale for massive discounts quickly reduced the overall cost of my gaming habits.
I think my all time favorite is the N64. Some aspects haven’t aged all that well — the controller is obviously weird by modern standards — but it was such a huge jump from 2D gaming. It was new and exciting in ways that are almost impossible now.
And I still like how weird it was. There was tons of experimentation by developers while figuring out how this new era would work on top of the usual fun, Nintendo quirkiness in the first party games. The PS2 and Xbox ended up setting the standard for modern gaming controls, optical discs, and all the rest but the N64 lived in a weird, fun transition space between retro and modern.
Ooh, that's a tough call... I really can't say I have a single favorite, best I can do is say a favorite per generation:
Pong - the one that started it all. Also taught everyone about screen burn in.
Atari 2600 - Hands down, one of the all time greats.
NES - Hard to beat Super Mario 3, but my favorite game of this generation was Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System.
Sega Genesis - Sorry, the SNES never grabbed me, although Super Star Wars was a great game. Best home version of Street Fighter II was on the Turbo Grafx/Duo of all things.
I'm going to add an "unofficial" generation here. You will never see this on any official list. Call it 4.5. There was a weird period of time where everyone and their cousin was doing a CD based machine. Sega CD, Turbo CD, Pioneer LaserActive, a whole bunch of crappy "set top boxes" like the Phillips CDi and Tandy Viz. The best of the bunch, with the most games and the best games was the Sega CD.
Playstation - Another all time great.
As much as I love the Dreamcast, it was murdered pre-maturely by Sega. Xbox and Halo just demolished everything else. I don't know that we ever got an official "Halo Killer" until it suicided with Halo Infinite.
Xbox 360 - Sony handicapped itself with the overly complex cell processor. Games just weren't as good as the 360.
PS4 - In this case, Microsoft handicapped itself by fundamentally misunderstanding why people buy consoles. It's to play games, not "tv, tv, tv, tv, tv, sports, tv, tv, tv."
Another unofficial generation, call it 8.5, where you had the PS4 Pro, Xbox One S and Xbox One X - The One X was the clear winner with more power, 4K enhancements and a 4K Blu Ray player.
Playstation 5 - Microsoft is losing the plot with Gamepass, to the detriment of the entire industry.
I was so late to the 360 game i got the last gen console they made. Fucker was slim and quiet and currently still going strong, but the disc tray occasionally misbehaves.
God the fan on that first one though omg
SNES. The console had enough power for great games while still having obvious limitations the developers acknowledged. The great SNES games still look and play good today.
The PSX/N64 generation, despite having some great games, has aged horribly because they started chasing that photorealism dragon.
It's a 3-way tie I think. Since the Steam Deck can emulate almost anything, that's a winner. But for legacy consoles, the 3DS and PSP have probably eaten up most of my game time. Between those two, the 3DS has a massive catalogue of games unique to its dual-screen touch interface, so...I guess the 3DS?
Easily hackable? Might have to look into that in the future, so long as we aren't talking hardware modifications.
Edit: looks like something I'd try in the future if I ever end up with a spare PS2 because I don't trust myself not to brick my current PS2 somehow, despite the instructions I found being real easy to follow.
I don't think there's much risk of bricking the system, honestly. If you wanted, you could even get a FreeMcBoot card off eBay, and avoid having to do the setup on your own system at all. That's the beauty of the mod - if you know someone who's done it, they can very easily make another modded memory card for you!
Probably Nintendo game cube. But from what I now a Wii U that’s modded can natively play Wii and GameCube games and emulate the earlier Nintendo games.
I like couch party games and between the Wii U and n64 there is no shortage of them.
Nintendo DS had the most insanely stacked library, way too many incredible games.
It's a shame how many of them are unlikely to ever see a rerelease on modern hardware. Or how many of them wouldn't be the same experience even if they tried.
Probably the PS2, for access to the entire PSX and PS2 library. But I'm afraid that it would feel dated if I actually went back it - I haven't played one in years, and it was my childhood console gen, so it's possible it's the nostalgia speaking.
Probably the PS3. Got it at a time in my life when I didn't have much direction, and then stumbled into Demon's Souls while I thought I was waiting for Skyrim to come out. I still play my second PS3 after playing my first one to death.
The X-Box 360 takes it for me as an overall winner. It had a great and expansive library of games, and aside the red ring of death (I never got one) it just worked.
I'd almost put the N64 as a second place contender because it has so many great games, but that controller has never been good. It might be visually iconic but it's so clunky. 3rd part controllers exist now that are more shaped for human hands and I am baffled why Nintendo didn't do that from the start.
In their defense, it was 1996 and nobody before had done what they were doing with their controller. The PlayStation didn't even have analogue sticks in the first instance. Just took a bit of refinement, that's all.
In my opinion it's the perfect console form factor. Portable yet dockable when needed, detachable Joycons that can turn into 2 controllers for multiplayer games and a bright and vibrant OLED screen.
it's unfortunate that it's severely locked down by Nintendo, held back by its weak processor and Nintendo dropped the ball with Joycon drift.
I grew up with a Wii and an Atari 2600, and my favorite console is, no surprise, probably the 2600. Both because I put wayyy too much time into it, and because it's incredibly neat from a hardware perspective (seriously, that anyone actually managed to make functioning games on it is a miracle).
I've had most of them, the big exceptions being the SNES and anything Sega. I think the one I've used the most, have had the most games for, and hands down my favorite, is the PS4.
Then I was in college and poor. Then working. And working. And working. I honestly never (re)gained the ability to fight with my thumbs, but I'm a force of nature on a bog-standard Dell keyboard and mouse.
I have a nostalgic attachment to the Nintendo GameCube. It was the first console I bought with my own money and I spent possibly THOUSANDS of hours on that thing.
By play time on console, xbox360. Also due to it being my console of choice for controller scheme and playing Borderlands, Hitman: Blood Money/Absolution, and a few other things.
Close second right now is probably gonna have to be PS2 since I got one sitting on my desk, I have a.physical copy of the final Ratchet & Clank PS2 title I need to have played every PS2 title in the series (Deadlocked), and it allows me to play Devil Dice since I don't have a PSx.