I would say the last two generations were better only slightly. Monster Hunter, Zelda, and Metal gear made it great, but final fantasy did not ;;.

dkcr, wii sports, kirby epic yarn soundtrack, the DSSSSSS, brawl and nsmbwii so yea it surpassed my expectations and there are many hidden gems in there

PS3 was very disappointing. Wii was supposed to be my supplementary console, but it became my main console, so it surprised.

DS was far better than I thought it would have been.
PSP was also better than I expected.

So one X, one small surprise, and two big surprises. So yes, I really was surprised by this gen.

allot of games and genres were murdered and died. this gen was a disaster, and COD proves it.

personally this is my favourite gen, then i look at my shelf of PS3 games its shows me how good it has been and will continue to be till 2014

Nintendo

I never expected the Wii to be as popular as it was. To me it had dated tech, weird controls (which I found to be too wibbly wobbly, even with the upgraded wiimote), and entirely too focused on first party Nintendo software. Except for a few gems, gems tarnished by required use of the wiimote, I found the software either was too much same as it ever was or weird IP I could never get into (Wii Sports, Wii Music, Wii Fit, etc).

After I accepted that my tastes were just too different from the mainstream new gamers I then did not expect Wii's meteoric fall.

Overall though, since I had been alienated by the N64 and Gamecube there was nothing really to be  in. I play Nintendo software almost exclusively for core Mario and Zelda games and this gen did not change that.

On the mobile side, despite the fact that I do not like the dual screens, nor how most games use the stylus, the DS is probably my favorite Mobile Console of this gen. Overall though, I have been kinda disappointed on the mobile side.

SONY

I did not expect them to come out with such expensive kit, both PS3 and PSP, nor to follow Microsoft with their IMO failed XBOX strategy (XBOX 1 guys, XBOX 1) with their PS3. I expected them to continue using the glorious Dual Shock controller and was not disappoint.

They leapt too far ahead and hemorrhaged money. They dithered with software both first and third party too long.

Eventually after too many years it seems they've finally got their act together and by far, at least on the Home Console side, the PS3 has been my favorite. 

On the mobile side, since they had never done mobile there wasn't much to expect with their PSP other than I didn't expect it to be so expensive. I still do not understand why they went with UMD since anybody who knew anything about mobile gaming knew, even at that time, cartridge based was the way too go. Still, there were a few gems, and with the PSV I am rediscovering many of the old PSP/PSN games and having lots of fun.

Microsoft

What can I say. After such a miserable showing from the XBOX, the only console I've actually sold instead of kept, I did not expect them to actually do making something as good as the X360. It's actually respectable. I think they could have been much better with the initial RROD problems, but they did eventually fix that.

What they have lacked really for me has been in the RPG genre, more specifically the JRPG. That pretty much is what clinched the PS3 for me, and relegated the X360 to the exclusive game buys, but overall I actually look forward to seeing what they do with the X720/XNEXT almost as much as I am looking forward to see what SONY will do with the PS4.

Basically I was pleasantly surprised, but because of the software the X360 remained middle of the pack for me.