People often talk about underrated games, but what about the systems themselves?

What console/handheld do you think is the most underappreciated, and what about it deserves more recognition?

PSP - there are some truly great games on the system, and, for its time, it was incredibly powerful. The PS2 launched in 2000 and, just four years later, Sony was able to make almost that exact technology portable (with just a few cutbacks and changes).

It was also the first (and only) portable console not made by Nintendo to break the 20M threshold. In fact, it sold as well as the GBA did (and better than the 3DS). Unfortunately, by comparison, the DS sold 70M more units, so it feels like the PSP didn't do as well as it did.

I also think that it's because of the PSP that the PS2 continued to sell as well as it did. Because they were making PSP games, ports to the PS2 were easy (because much of the technology was similar), thus extending the life of that console by both first and third party.

As for underrated home console, it's the GameCube all the way. Easy to develop for, powerful compared to the competition, fantastic games (both mature and family friendly), a host of third party partnerships, and quite a few new IP/new takes on IP (Pikmin, Metroid Prime, Luigi's Mansion, Eternal Darkness, Animal Crossing).

IMO, GameCube could have been peak Nintendo if people would have just bought the freaking thing.

 SEGA Saturn-Huge and fantastic Japanese library

PCE Engine/TurbografX/CD-Same as Saturn

SEGA Dreamcast-Pioneered a lot we take for granted today and while the US Library was great, yet again Japan library huge and amazing.

PlayStation Vita-Noticing a theme? Japanese library

Neo Geo Pocket/Color- A lot of great gems from Fighting games to puzzle games to a few RPGs and Sonic/Mega Man

WonderSwan Color. In the late 90s portable mainline Final Fantasy games and the last system designed by Gunpei Yokoi.

SEGA Game Gear. Batt life sucked but it had quite a few gems.

All fantastic with huge and great libraries.

WiiU. The first and only real Hybrid console being a fixed home console with off-screen mobile play, albeit limited.

It's game releases did "okay" at the time, but once ported to another console (Switch) ended up being some of the best selling titles in video game history.

Mario Kart 8, Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Bro's U as notable mentions with those 3 titles alone having a combined sales of almost 120~ million. - Fucking nuts for a console that only sold 13.5~ million hardware units, it's game quality was clearly not the issue.

Wii U had some of the best games Nintendo ever made. Too bad those couldn't save the console, it's really a great one.

Still waiting for some Indie studio to create an Tabletop RPG system where the DM uses the Gamepad and the other players get a visual of their scenario plus instructions and the like on the TV...

I would add the PC-FX to that list. It sadly came at the worst of times (A 2D console in the midst of the 3D hype) due to numerous delays; had it come out in 1992 as planned it would have fared much, much better than it did.

Also, the Sega Master System outside of Europe and Brazil.

Game Gear battery life only sucked on cheap batteries, with more higher-end ones 5 hours were possible even back then. But this paled compared to the 15+ hours of the Gameboy even on cheap batteries all while using more of them each time.

MSX It was the dream everyone wants now. A system developed by MS Japan that set standard requirements for the machine and let companies compete on both the hardware and software. It worked with both cartridges and tape deck and was the birthplace of MGS. MSX-2 added a 3.5" disk loader yet MSX-3 never came to be.

https://www.antstream.com/post/the-story-of-the-msx

I learned the basics of coding on the MSX, made games on it, got a keyboard attachment for it and learned to play synthesizer on it (never was much good at it though, too easy to resort to programming the thing to play the music by itself lol) and later wrote a database program for it to keep track of my VHS library. I also used it as an alarm clock with an alarm connected to the printer port and programmed my whole high school year and later university classes into it. (Different starting times most days and irregular holidays) I used it so much I eventually burned out the display chip and after more and more graphical glitches it finally gave up the ghost in the mid 90s.

I will throw in SEGA Nomad. Not for the library as it's just Genesis games and Genesis is recognized. Nominating Nomad for beating Nintendo to the idea of the Switch in 1995. A full console that is portable but also docks with a TV and can hook up other controllers for friends. It was just 22 years early so it failed hard.

The Wii's probably quite underrated due to it's gimmicky nature. It had some seriously good games of its own and some great GameCube ports (Prime, Pikmin, RE4). Even had the virtual console as an added bonus.

Other than that maybe the PlayStation 3? Maybe I'm wrong but I feel like it's still the least liked PlayStation (by a small margin) and to me it's quite possibly my favorite.

Nokia N-Gage.

I loved that thing back in the days. It was ahead of its time and had a lot of features like a music player, internet connection, a web browser and all that good stuff that people love about smartphones. But the first iPhone released years later.

It was also a blast to play Tony Hawk and Lara Croft on the go and the N-Gage had some top notch exclusives like Pathway to Glory. Granted, there weren't too many games. But the few it had were great. And you always had the thing with you, because it was your phone. It also helped that piracy worked really easy on that thing. =P

Gamecube. Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Rogue Leader, Pikmin, RE4, Sunshine, Prime, Luigi Mansion, Thousand Year Door, Prime.... Gamecube had a superb lineup.