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Forums - Gaming - Best and worst console/handheld revisions, and why

curl-6 11 hours ago

What are your personal picks for the best and worst revisions to a console or handheld, and what's your reasoning for what makes them particularly good/bad?



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firebush03 11 hours ago

Best -> DS Lite. (Cheaper SKU that offered various QoL enhancements such as in UI, comfort of controller, battery life, and overall appearance. It also single-handily sent sales figures into the stratosphere.)

Worst -> Wii Mini. (No online, no Wii Shop, no backwards compatibility, no GCN controller support, no Wii Sports.)



IcaroRibeiro 10 hours ago

Original 2DS is one of the worst designs I've seen in my life

They fixed it with the new 2DS



Salnax 10 hours ago

To quote the last time I answered this:

Salnax said:

Great Revisions

  • GBA SP - Nearly perfect, fixing and tweaking many things without sacrficing quality or increasing cost significantly. You got lighting, a better form factor, rechargable batteries, better battery life, etc. It could do everything you could reasonably want for $99 in 2003... except tell you the time.

Good Revisions

  • DS Lite - Anything that manages to be smaller/lighter and cheaper without compromising features is a win in my book. This was the DS model people bought by the tens of millions for a reason. The only problem is that the GBA cartridge slot is a bit too small to keep GBA games from sticking out,
  • Game Boy Pocket - Lighter, better battery life, tehnically larger screen... all that was missing was some form of lighting.
  • New Style NES - Was a reasonable $50 for a much sleeker piece of hardware. This wouldn't have helped much if the NES was dead by 1993, but even in 1993, you got games like Kirby's Adventure, Bomberman 2, Ducktales 2, and Mighty Final Fight.

Middling Revisions

  • Nintendo 2DS - On the bright side, it was a significantly cheaper model that only sacrificed a largely underused feature, while being nice and durable. On the other hand, it's ugly and has worse sound quality.
  • Nintendo DSi - Though it had better specs and features like the new DSiWare store, missing the GBA slot was a major blow. Not only did hat entire library of 1500 or so GBA games get locked off, you also were unable to play games requiring certain peripherals, most notably stuff like Guitar Hero and the games that used the Rumble Pack. And the cameras weren't worth the trouble.
  • PlayStation 2 Slim - Significantly smaller and quieter than the original, but they cut the expansion bay. That isn't a major dealbreaker unless you wanted to play Final Fantasy XI, but some other games benefitted from it and removing features is always a downer.
  • Wii 2011 Redesign - The so-called "Family" model, this sacrificed GameCube controller compatibility for a $50 price drop. I'm tempted to rate it lower, but a $50 price drop is considerable, especially since these thingsusually came with multiple games.

Bad Revisions

  • Genesis 3 - Incompatible with hose infamous add-ons the Genesis is known for and even some games that don't require peripherals, such as the Virtua Racing port. Even in 1998, this was arguably not worth the $50 budget price tag; the PlayStation and N64 were already down to $129.99, and although I can't find info on the SNES in 1998, the redesigned "New" SNES cost $99 in 1997 and came with the fairly recent Yoshi's Island
  • PSP Go - More expensive, no compatibility with UMD's, a smaller screen, and honestly not that much storage space considering the all-digital design.
  • Wii Mini - It's small and cheap, but comes at the cost of many of the Wii's basic features (480p video, SD Card compatibility, ONLINE PLAY, etc). All of this made it sell for $99 instead of $129.

There are loads more, but I don't want to share completely uninformed opinions.



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curl-6 10 hours ago
IcaroRibeiro said:

Original 2DS is one of the worst designs I've seen in my life

They fixed it with the new 2DS

Yeah not sure what on Earth they were thinking with that ugly slab design, except maybe that using one big screen partly covered up saved money?



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Sogreblute 10 hours ago

Best:
-New Nintendo 3DS. Better horsepower for better frame rates, better 3D, and the extra C-stick and buttons.
-PS3 Slim: Much better model than the OG even though it lacks PS2 compatibility. Sony have a history of bad 1st generation Playstation models and the OG PS3 is one of them.
-GBA SP: Back lit and front lit screen (if you get the 101 model) and no batteries needed.
-Nintendo DS Lite: Much sleeker design and better screens and battery life.
-Xbox One S: This is when Microsoft made a better Xbox One than the VCR launch model and they revamped the UI to make it so much better. Add to that it also uses a 4K Blu-ray player something even the PS4 Slim/Pro don't have.

Worst:
-PSP GO/Street: A digital only PSP that was also more expensive than the 2000 model, and the physical only PSP that lacked anything wifi.
-Wii Mini: Very stripped down Wii with no Wifi and just feels cheap.
-PS2 Slim (latest model): While this model is arguably the best to play PS2 games it's the worst to play PS1 games. Unlike the OG PS2 PS1 games on this are emulated, so there's going to be problems. Emulation is better on PS3.
-Gameboy Micro: A much smaller Gameboy Advance that doesn't play every GBA game and cannot play any GB/GBC game. It was more expensive than the GBA SP which made no sense, as this should have been cheaper since the DS was out.



Sogreblute 10 hours ago
Salnax said:

To quote the last time I answered this:

Salnax said:

Great Revisions

  • GBA SP - Nearly perfect, fixing and tweaking many things without sacrficing quality or increasing cost significantly. You got lighting, a better form factor, rechargable batteries, better battery life, etc. It could do everything you could reasonably want for $99 in 2003... except tell you the time.

Good Revisions

  • DS Lite - Anything that manages to be smaller/lighter and cheaper without compromising features is a win in my book. This was the DS model people bought by the tens of millions for a reason. The only problem is that the GBA cartridge slot is a bit too small to keep GBA games from sticking out,
  • Game Boy Pocket - Lighter, better battery life, tehnically larger screen... all that was missing was some form of lighting.
  • New Style NES - Was a reasonable $50 for a much sleeker piece of hardware. This wouldn't have helped much if the NES was dead by 1993, but even in 1993, you got games like Kirby's Adventure, Bomberman 2, Ducktales 2, and Mighty Final Fight.

Middling Revisions

  • Nintendo 2DS - On the bright side, it was a significantly cheaper model that only sacrificed a largely underused feature, while being nice and durable. On the other hand, it's ugly and has worse sound quality.
  • Nintendo DSi - Though it had better specs and features like the new DSiWare store, missing the GBA slot was a major blow. Not only did hat entire library of 1500 or so GBA games get locked off, you also were unable to play games requiring certain peripherals, most notably stuff like Guitar Hero and the games that used the Rumble Pack. And the cameras weren't worth the trouble.
  • PlayStation 2 Slim - Significantly smaller and quieter than the original, but they cut the expansion bay. That isn't a major dealbreaker unless you wanted to play Final Fantasy XI, but some other games benefitted from it and removing features is always a downer.
  • Wii 2011 Redesign - The so-called "Family" model, this sacrificed GameCube controller compatibility for a $50 price drop. I'm tempted to rate it lower, but a $50 price drop is considerable, especially since these thingsusually came with multiple games.

Bad Revisions

  • Genesis 3 - Incompatible with hose infamous add-ons the Genesis is known for and even some games that don't require peripherals, such as the Virtua Racing port. Even in 1998, this was arguably not worth the $50 budget price tag; the PlayStation and N64 were already down to $129.99, and although I can't find info on the SNES in 1998, the redesigned "New" SNES cost $99 in 1997 and came with the fairly recent Yoshi's Island
  • PSP Go - More expensive, no compatibility with UMD's, a smaller screen, and honestly not that much storage space considering the all-digital design.
  • Wii Mini - It's small and cheap, but comes at the cost of many of the Wii's basic features (480p video, SD Card compatibility, ONLINE PLAY, etc). All of this made it sell for $99 instead of $129.

There are loads more, but I don't want to share completely uninformed opinions.

The Genesis 3 is horrible, but that was done by a 3rd Party, so I personally wouldn't count that here. Everything else I agree.



mZuzek 9 hours ago

I think the DS Lite has to be considered the best revision objectively. I didn't even know what the DS was before it, the console became famous and extremely popular because of that revision.

Not sure what I'd call the worst one but I definitely agree with the sentiment about the original 2DS being very ugly.



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Zippy6 1 hour ago
IcaroRibeiro said:

Original 2DS is one of the worst designs I've seen in my life

They fixed it with the new 2DS

I mean its ugly sure, but it was cheap as hell and comfortable. If they need to make a plastic slab to get a console as low as $79 fair enough in my eyes lol. It was a great option for young kids, no hinge for them to snap.



Zippy6 1 hour ago

Wii Family Edition. Just a Wii with the GameCube BC removed and it wasn't even cheaper than the original Wii's current RRP.

GBA Micro. We did not need a smaller, pointier, GBA.

PSP Go. I know it has a lot of fans but the lack of umd support is killer. Half of retail PSP games (mainly the older ones) were never released digitally and it was also too expensive. The PSP 3000 launched at £149 in 2008, the Go had an RRP Of £224.99