I would say NES

NES followed by PS1

I really do think though looking back at it that the Sega Genesis is a lot more important than people think. Lets review:

- First system to have M-rated content and blow the doors open for a M-rated blockbuster too in Mortal Kombat. And Sega had to go before the US Senate, which wanted all violent content in video games to be censored. Think about how different console gaming would be if Sega did not carry the torch here or had bailed out and accepted what politicians were pushing for.

- Genesis popularized the sports sim genre with Madden NFL, NHL, NBA Live, etc. Before that most sports games were just generic things like Blades of Steel and Tennis and Play Action Football without actual sports athletes in the games and licensed teams/logos/etc.

- The Genesis was the first successful mass market system that had multimedia playback (not Playstation). You could play music CDs on the Sega CD years before Playstation.

- Sega was the one that started the trend to market towards teenagers/young adults before anyone else was doing it. They had to in order to compete, but basically they set forth the blue print that Sony and MS use to this day.

- The Genesis didn't look like a "toy", it looked like a piece of high end stereo equipment. So again, this is something Sega was doing years before other companies.

- Without Sega Genesis, lets be honest ... Nintendo would've had a 100% monopoly basically over home console and portable markets. There likely is no Playstation because even Sony's higher ups would've looked at that and said competing with Nintendo was impossible. It took the Genesis to cut Nintendo across the eye to show everyone else that competing against Nintendo was possible.

Genesis is the grandfather of the Playstation/XBox in a lot of ways. They were doing the "cool"/"dudebros" console years before anyone else was.

Well, damn. I didn't think about the Genesis that way at all. Good post!

I'll let you have most of that, reasonable conclusions even if I don't agree.  But the bolded...

1) The Sega CD was a rather ill-fated peripheral.  It sold a couple million but that's less than 10% of all Genesis consoles.  So I wouldn't give them credit on that.  If anything, the Sega CD likely instilled doubt in the influence of multimedia functions since said functions didn't translate into market success.  As I said in another post, being first doesn't make you the most influential.  See the Apple Pippin with its integrated internet capabilities.

2) The NES (not the Famicom) already did the "don't look like a game system" shtick since...well retailers wouldn't stock them.  Hence why it looked like a VCR. 

Let's correct one thing - Nintendo isn't getting theme parks. It's getting themed areas in 3 Universal's theme parks.

Nintendo being a big brand in the 80s did not stop sales to drop from the NES to the SNES.

And add FIFA to the list of franchises bigger than Mario and Pokemon. I'd argue that Battlefield, CoD and Elder Scrolls are also bigger. Destiny and Overwatch are potentially bigger too.

Adjusted for inflation, the PS cost about the same as the NES ($393 vs $364). There's no denying that Nintendo was massively lucky and has to thanks Atari for its gaffes.

How I see the consoles in terms of importance to/impact on the industry:

1. NES
2. OG Magnabox
3. Atari 2600
4. Gameboy
5. N64
6. PS1
7. SEGA Genesis
8. XBOX
9. Wii

Sony had no interest in competing with Nintendo as they had no interest in making consoles. It was not because Sega decreased Nintendo's marketshare that they decided to partner with Nintendo. They made the PS because Nintendo pissed off Sony and Nintendo is well known for poorly treating publishers and retailers back then.

Fifa has finally caught up to Pokemon, but it's not a stronger brand.  Battlefield, on the other hand, is not bigger than Pokemon and isn't in great shape after Battlefield Hardline.  CoD is bigger, but CoD is the biggest or second biggest brand in the industry sooooo yeah, not shocking.  Elder Scrolls is bigger, assuming it maintains its strenght from Skyrim.  Destiny isn't.  Overwatch isn't yet, but we'll see.  Pokemon as a brand is still among the strongest out there.

Mario has had a dip in sales, so that's a fair assessment, though as a brand Mario is still very strong (It ain't called "Nintendo Kart" for a reason)

And there is denying that Nintendo was "massively lucky".  They came in and did everything right in the early eighties to get the industry whipped into shape.  If you think that was blind luck...then wow.  And people accused ME of revisionism in this thread....

Gameboy