The Best Consoles of All Time: A Countdown

Hey guys, this is Austin. So over the last 30 years, there have been dozens of great consoles, but today I'm going to countdown the best of the best. Starting at number five, we have the Microsoft Xbox 360.

It's easy to forget, but the 360 brought a huge change to the way we game. It was the first console to really get online gaming right with Xbox Live, bringing features like achievements and a robust friends and matchmaking system that has since been copied almost everywhere. Being able to download games was also a big plus for the 360, allowing you to skip buying discs altogether and play a huge variety of download-only titles that normally wouldn't have made it to consoles.

While most consoles had a minimal interface or none at all, the Xbox 360 allowed you to do a lot more than just throw in a disk and play a game. We take it for granted today, but having a decent UI is a big deal for consoles. Since most 360s are connected online, Microsoft was able to completely overhaul the software several times, adding new features like avatars, a web browser, and even apps like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.

The early hardware did run into issues, but the PS2 has one of the longest life spans of any console at 13 years. One thing that's easy to overlook is just how many things the PS2 did right. It brought full backwards compatibility with the original PlayStation, even including the memory cards and controllers.

So what's your favorite video game console? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe to the channel for lots more Top 5s videos like this! Anyway, I've got to give a big shoutout to Audible for making this video possible.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey guys this is Austin. So over the last30 years there have been dozens of great consolesbut today I’m going to countdown the bestof the best. Starting at number five we havethe Microsoft Xbox 360. It’s easy to forgetbut the 360 brought a huge change to the waywe game. It was the first console to reallyget online gaming right with Xbox Live, bringingfeatures like achievements and a robust friendsand matchmaking system that has since beencopied almost everywhere. Being able to downloadgames was also a big plus for the 360, allowingyou to skip buying discs altogether and playa huge variety of download only titles thatnormally wouldn’t have made it to consoles.While most consoles had a minimal interfaceor none at all the Xbox 360 allowed you doa lot more than just throw in a disk and playa game. We take it for granted today but havinga decent UI is a big deal for consoles. Sincemost 360s are connected online Microsoft wasable to completely overhaul the software severaltimes, adding new features like avatars, aweb browser and even apps like Netflix, Huluand YouTube. The early hardware did run intoissues with the Red Ring of Death caused byoverheating but this was sorted with laterversions of the console which got smaller,quieter and added features like built-in Wi-Fi.You also have to appreciate the controllerwhich is one of the best ever made and isstill the standard for PCs today. If you comparethe graphics to a new console or PC it mightnot seem too impressive but it’s easy toforget that the Xbox came out nearly nineyears ago. To put it in perspective, bothYouTube and the Xbox 360 came out in Novemberof 2005 which considering that new games arestill being released for the console easilymakes the Xbox 360 one of the best consolesof all time. Coming in at number four is theNintendo Game Boy. Back in 1989 Nintendo hadthe home console market locked down with theNES so they turned their sights on the handheldconsole market with the Game Boy. Sportinga two and a half inch screen with a whoppingfour shades of gray it might not look tooimpressive today but the Game Boy was an enormoussuccess with well over 100 million sales worldwide.The original Game Boy was massive but in 1996they released the Game Boy Pocket, a muchslimmer and lighter version that could actuallyfit in a pocket. Considering how revolutionarythe Game Boy was it’s interesting at justhow many compromises there were. Since thescreen wasn’t backlit you pretty much hadto find either a bright window or some kindof light to play with, otherwise you wouldn’tbe able to see the screen at all. It was alsopowered by AA and AAA batteries dependingon the model which gave you anywhere from10 to 30 hours of gameplay. The Game Boy mightnot have been the most powerful but that didn’tstop Nintendo from absolutely dominating handheldgaming for over 15 years and a big reasonwhy was the huge game library. There wereportable versions of many console games likeDonkey Kong, Kirby, Zelda, Megaman, MortalKombat and of course Mario. Having Tetrispacked in was a major help to the system aswell however by far the biggest seller ofthe entire Game Boy line was Pokemon. Launchedin 1995 the first generation of Pokemon gamessold over 23 million copies helping to givethe Game Boy enough longevity to last nearlyten years before being replaced, cementingit as the greatest handheld console of alltime. At number three is the Sega Genesis.The Genesis, also known as the Mega Driveis by far Sega’s most popular console ever.Competing mainly with the Super Nintendo thisreally helped to start the very first consolewar. With a 16-bit processor and high definitiongraphics, the Genesis actually did prove tobe a fairly powerful console. Excellent gameslike Sonic showed that the Genesis had enoughpower to easily keep up with the SNES andtitles like Afterburner weren’t too faroff from their arcade releases. There werevariety of add-ons available including theSega CD, 32X and Nomad which was a handheldversion of the console. None of these wereparticularly popular but they all helped togive the Genesis a life well into the nextgeneration of consoles. The controller hasalso held up quite well. It’s larger, curveddesign always felt more comfortable to methan the Super Nintendo and later versionsadded three more buttons making it even better.One of the most ahead of it’s time featureswas the Sega Channel. The Genesis was amongthe first consoles to support downloadingtitles, allowing you to play an entire selectionof games for $15 a month. 20 years later evenmodern consoles haven’t figured this out,making the Sega Genesis truly one of the bestconsoles ever. For number two we have theNintendo Entertainment System. The NES isthe grandfather of modern video gaming. Asthe first home console by Nintendo, back in1985 the video game industry was almost completelydead with the market shrinking by 97% in justtwo years. Nintendo was an enormous part ofbringing consoles back to life. The pack-ingame with the NES was Super Mario and DuckHunt, introducing Mario as one of the bestplatformers and most influential games ofall time. Mario wasn’t the only major franchisethat got it’s console start on the NES,though. Huge series like The Legend of Zelda,Metroid and Mega Man all launched first onthe NES. The controller was also a big improvement.While it might not be quite as ergonomic asan Xbox gamepad compared with some of theother controllers of the time this was a majorstep forward. When you step back and considerthat the video game industry nearly died inthe eighties a huge reason why we still haveconsoles today is thanks to the NES. And finallyat number one we have the Sony PlayStation2. 155 million. That’s how many PS2s Sonysold, making it easily the most popular consoleof all time. Ending it’s production runjust last year a few months before the PS4launch, the PlayStation 2 had one of the longestlife spans of any console at 13 years. Onething that’s easy to overlook is just howmany things the PS2 did right. It broughtfull backwards compatibility with the originalPlayStation even including the memory cardsand controllers and played a huge part inhelping to popularize DVDs, allowing you todo more than just game on your console. Italso had USB ports which made games like GuitarHero possible, you could install a hard driveand it even had 1080i output for some games,years before the Xbox 360 and PS3 introducedHD gaming. The original fat PS2 was succeededby a much slimmer option in 2004 which remainsto this day one of the smallest consoles everand brought upgrades like a built-in Ethernetport. With games like Grand Theft Auto: SanAndreas, God of War and Shadow of the Colossusthe PS2 might not have been as powerful asthe Xbox but the library was nothing shortof excellent, sealing the PS2 as one of thebest consoles of all time. So what’s yourfavorite video game console? Let me know inthe comments below and be sure to subscribeto the channel for lots more Top 5s videoslike this! Anyway I’ve got to give a bigshoutout to Audible for making this videopossible! Audible.com is a leading providerof audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadabletitles across all types of literature, includingfiction, non-fiction and periodicals. I spenta lot of time driving around to find old consolesand do research for this video which madelistening to Audible a great way to get somereading in while still getting work done.Right now Audible is offering a free audiobookif you try them out and that includes Woolby Hugh Howey. To download Wool or anotheraudiobook for free just head over to audible.com/austin!The reason I’m able to do videos like thisis because Audible is such a huge supporterof the channel so definitely go check outaudible.com/austin and give them a shot! Anywayguys thank you so much watching and I willcatch you in the next one!