The PS4 and 3DS easily won the 8th gen home console and handheld races respectively, leaving their competitors far behind.

But of those competitors, the defeated, which do you think was the best system, and why?

Wii U
Vita
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Xbox One in that order. XBO in a distant 3rd.

Vita has some cool smaller games. Wii U still had a lot of good first-party stuff and at the time exclusives from Platinum like W101 and Bayo 2. Xenoblade X. MK8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions. BoTW. Splatoon. Smash. Yoshi Wooly World. DKCTF. Super Mario 3D World. Wii U had a lot of good exclusives. Vita had some good niche games. Xbox one....Sunset Overdrive. Gears 4.5. Killer Instinct. Maybe Forza games I guess. Just not much there.

When judging a console, I always take it's library as the main factor. So, based on that, I would choose the Xbox One.

The Wii U had some great first party titles, but that's all. The PS Vita... Well, I can't remember a lot of memorable games. The Xbox One had a lot of the same titles as the PS4, even if the first party was not as good as the Xbox 360.

Wii U wins for me. It had many amazing games like Zelda BoTW, MK8, Smash Bros, Xenoblade Chronicles X, NSMBU, and Super Mario 3D World.

Vita had decent games, but it is a handheld.

XB1 likewise had decent games, but most of them required XBL for the full experience or were available on PS4.

Assuming we're not taking into account either backwards compatibility or their library being ported to successor systems, the WiiU has a very strong library for a system with such bad sales. The Vita library is also great, a lot of niche indies and JRPGs if that is the thing for you. The XBOne has most multiplats out of the three, but less exclusives, so it feels the most disposable of the three despite having more games. In this regard I'd give it to the WiiU, as you can really have a very strong library with its exclusives alone.

Feature-wise, the Vita serves as both a handheld and a PS4 remote play machine, the former has a lot of uses, the latter feels kind of pointless. The WiiU tablet was clumsy and SEVERELY underutilized, it was the thing that dragged the WiiU down in sales, but hey, it was the last console with free online, which is a damn shame. The XBOne had the Kinect, which was even more pointless than the gamepad, but Gamepass was a great way to save on games. Gamepass is a paid service that can be accessed on PC as well, so it's not a XBOne only feature. I think it's a toss up between the WiiU and the Vita, with the Vita edging it out due to handheld always being useful while the WiiU's online servers will eventually be cut.

These metrics are usually tough. Xbox One almost seems out of place here because it got far more games than Wii U and Vita, sold far more units than either and did bring in a ton of revenue.
I got a Wii U back in 2014 when Mario Kart 8 came out, a Vita in 2021, and an Xbox One X earlier in 2024.
When we look at the Wii U prior to the launch of Switch (or even shortly into Switch's life), its exclusives are better. Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (well it technically has a 3DS version with a lot of similarities) and some others. Now if you include Xbox One console exclusives that still exist or existed in 2017, I get why you might pick Xbox One. But now, Halo 5, Rare Replay and Forza Motorsport 5 are the only non-Kinect first-party exclusives that I think are still trapped on Xbox One and on Series via backwards compatibility.
But when all is said and done, I have to say Xbox One for its massive library and features. Since I'm not a modder, there's not exactly a lot to play on Wii U or Vita nowadays that can't be played on Switch, PS4/PS5, or Windows. At least Xbox One still has Game Pass and a huge library even if Series X/S or PC seem like the better choice.
At this rate, you'd be better getting a standard Wii to play GameCube and Wii games than getting a Wii U. Save up for a Switch or the upcoming Switch 2 if you really want to play Nintendo games past the Wii generation.

WiiU for Xenoblade Chronicles X alone.

I mean even if the gen didn't go so great for MS, XBox One still has basically most of the games the PS4 had.

Elden Ring, Nier Automata, Final Fantasy 15, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Monster Hunter World, RE7, Fallout 4, Control, GTAV, Red Dead Redemption 2, Witcher 3, Mortal Kombat X, on top of some decent exclusives like Forza, Sunset Overdrive, Killer Instinct, Halo, etc.

For software volume it would be tough to put the other two above it, that said the Wii U's library for something that got abandoned and cut off and only about half a generation's worth of software, is not bad.

Zelda: BOTW, Splatoon, Mario Maker, Smash Bros. U, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Xenoblade X are all great, things like Zombi U, Captain Toad, Pikmin 3 were very good.

Xbone has a great library,  it blows Wii U and Vita easily 

Is redundant yes, but it can play 90% of the best games released last gen and great state, often better than PS4. The amount of hate this system gets is totally unwarranted

Mostly agree but for the often better are you referring to Xbox One X vs. the PS4/PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro?

Because I'm pretty sure Xbox One VCR/Xbox One S play almost every multiplat identical or worse than PS4.