Post by stratogustav on Jun 20, 2018 21:32:46 GMT
I was thinking about all the possibilities and I have come to a final conclusion. The best console ever made is definitely the Nintendo Entertainment System, and for various reasons:
- Almost all games in the NES played like a modern Bloodborne type of game, they were hard, but they were fair, and the difficulty always demanded you to think more than just react.
- The games would teach you how to play on the very first level. There were no boring tutorials, and the game would never hold your hand. It was all about discovery and challenge.
- It introduced to the general public some of the coolest and most iconic IPs we have ever seen: Gradius, Contra, Castlevania, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Strider, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, Metal Gear, Mega Man, Kirby, Super Mario, The Legend Of Zelda, Tetris, Ninja Gaiden, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and many others.
- It saved the home console industry in a moment where no one wanted to know about it. All trust was lost, and home consoles had basically become a gimmick popular culture was heavily rejecting. However developers showed Super Mario Bros. and the world fell down at its feet.
- It finally made consumers feel they had something special in their homes. The entertainment of the arcades was more accurately conveyed than never before for the home experience. Just play Pac-Man on the 2600 and then on the NES, it is a complete different thing.
- It simplified how to play games at home with the introduction of the gamepad, something that at the time was completely revolutionary and a total foreign new concept to what people were used to before.
- It was the main source for all content, first party, third party, and pretty much all developers and publishers. It was a licensed games madhouse, and an original IP factory.
There was nothing in the Master System to truly envy and most people didn't even know those competitors existed. Unlike in other generations where you always feel the need to have more than one console.
For example during the Super Nintendo era you were missing out on the full experience if you didn't have a Sega Genesis too, during the Nintendo 64 era you were missing out if you didn't have a PS1 too, during the PS2 era you were missing out if you didn't have a GameCube too...
After the NES you always need at least two consoles to get the full picture of that generation. With the NES you pretty much were covered for everything you needed in one single platform.
- The machine itself was very aesthetically sounding, it had a modern feel, and an elegant presentation next to other electronics of the time.
- The boxart for the physical copies of the games were the most artistic we have ever seen, and even till this day they are very precious to collect for many people.
- The artwork design for 8-bit graphics demanded to use your imagination to fill in the blanks all the fantastic adventures you were engaging on, while at the same time giving you more than enough visual stimulus to put you in that environment.
- The sound limitation demanded developers to be extra clever in their efforts to convey an experience, and the soundtracks introduced a new type of music that touches our hearts, and it is easy recognizable between other forms of music. It also has some of the most iconic tracks in the history of the industry.
- The pixel art, was actually that, art. Nothing was rendered by a computer to look like something, it was all designed with the detail attention of an artist. This is why pixel art games never age, and even brand new 2018 games like Bloodstained Curse Of The Moon that are inspired by that look, also look spectacular and can be enjoyed by players of all generations.
I also can't stress this out enough, when your selling point is challenge, when you don't give a fuck about making it casual, and even your box cover says that you have the most challenging system ever developed, you have the right focus as a game system, "gameplay", and gameplay is king, no other system comes close to deliver games designed around gameplay, and gameplay alone, as the NES did.
In case you may think I'm acting bias here, the truth is I wasn't even born when the NES came out. My first system was the Super Nintendo and also the Super Nintendo is my personal favorite system, even over the NES. I also consider the PS2 era as the golden age of the industry simply because of the massive abundance of non-indie titles, but those consoles still fall short of the many aspects that make the NES superior.
Since the Super Nintendo I had been playing on every single console generation till this day, and yet I cannot deny to see how objectively the NES wins them all by far, for the many reasons already mentioned before. I feel this is a truly remarkable thing that needs to be stated, so it is not forgotten in future generations.
- Almost all games in the NES played like a modern Bloodborne type of game, they were hard, but they were fair, and the difficulty always demanded you to think more than just react.
- The games would teach you how to play on the very first level. There were no boring tutorials, and the game would never hold your hand. It was all about discovery and challenge.
- It introduced to the general public some of the coolest and most iconic IPs we have ever seen: Gradius, Contra, Castlevania, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Strider, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, Metal Gear, Mega Man, Kirby, Super Mario, The Legend Of Zelda, Tetris, Ninja Gaiden, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and many others.
- It saved the home console industry in a moment where no one wanted to know about it. All trust was lost, and home consoles had basically become a gimmick popular culture was heavily rejecting. However developers showed Super Mario Bros. and the world fell down at its feet.
- It finally made consumers feel they had something special in their homes. The entertainment of the arcades was more accurately conveyed than never before for the home experience. Just play Pac-Man on the 2600 and then on the NES, it is a complete different thing.
- It simplified how to play games at home with the introduction of the gamepad, something that at the time was completely revolutionary and a total foreign new concept to what people were used to before.
- It was the main source for all content, first party, third party, and pretty much all developers and publishers. It was a licensed games madhouse, and an original IP factory.
There was nothing in the Master System to truly envy and most people didn't even know those competitors existed. Unlike in other generations where you always feel the need to have more than one console.
For example during the Super Nintendo era you were missing out on the full experience if you didn't have a Sega Genesis too, during the Nintendo 64 era you were missing out if you didn't have a PS1 too, during the PS2 era you were missing out if you didn't have a GameCube too...
After the NES you always need at least two consoles to get the full picture of that generation. With the NES you pretty much were covered for everything you needed in one single platform.
- The machine itself was very aesthetically sounding, it had a modern feel, and an elegant presentation next to other electronics of the time.
- The boxart for the physical copies of the games were the most artistic we have ever seen, and even till this day they are very precious to collect for many people.
- The artwork design for 8-bit graphics demanded to use your imagination to fill in the blanks all the fantastic adventures you were engaging on, while at the same time giving you more than enough visual stimulus to put you in that environment.
- The sound limitation demanded developers to be extra clever in their efforts to convey an experience, and the soundtracks introduced a new type of music that touches our hearts, and it is easy recognizable between other forms of music. It also has some of the most iconic tracks in the history of the industry.
- The pixel art, was actually that, art. Nothing was rendered by a computer to look like something, it was all designed with the detail attention of an artist. This is why pixel art games never age, and even brand new 2018 games like Bloodstained Curse Of The Moon that are inspired by that look, also look spectacular and can be enjoyed by players of all generations.
I also can't stress this out enough, when your selling point is challenge, when you don't give a fuck about making it casual, and even your box cover says that you have the most challenging system ever developed, you have the right focus as a game system, "gameplay", and gameplay is king, no other system comes close to deliver games designed around gameplay, and gameplay alone, as the NES did.
In case you may think I'm acting bias here, the truth is I wasn't even born when the NES came out. My first system was the Super Nintendo and also the Super Nintendo is my personal favorite system, even over the NES. I also consider the PS2 era as the golden age of the industry simply because of the massive abundance of non-indie titles, but those consoles still fall short of the many aspects that make the NES superior.
Since the Super Nintendo I had been playing on every single console generation till this day, and yet I cannot deny to see how objectively the NES wins them all by far, for the many reasons already mentioned before. I feel this is a truly remarkable thing that needs to be stated, so it is not forgotten in future generations.
