Don't forget about Apple.
Apple is the underdog. But Apple is making progress with the iPhone and is competing with the Nintendo DS and PSP. Who knows. Maybe someday Apple will even rival with the actual consoles.
But nintendo has always been my favorite. I loved playing SNES when I went to carmax. But my grandma did get me a sega genesis for christmas when I was younger and I loved it. I think I liked Sonic more than Mario.
Because mario was an annoying short Italian man. And sonic was a cool blue hedgehog. Mario's voice annoyed me.
Crash Bandicoot was fucking awesome too. I got the first crash bandicoot game when it came out for PSX.
I still liked nintendo 64 too but Playstation came out with different games and the graphics were a bit better than nintendo 64, the controller was different, and it just seemed to have a more powerful third party support.
Nintendo seems to have ALWAYS been great with 1st party nintendo games. But not so much for 3rd party games.
Gamecube was kinda a hit and miss. Most GC games you can get on PS2.
But there were a few good ones for gamecube. Mostly the nintendo ones though but not all.
Playstation 2 I think was the best thing ever.
I BOUGHT a playstation 2 ONLY because of Kingdom Hearts. When that was announced in Game Informer I wanted to get that so bad because I've always loved disney and the concept sounded interesting. My friend rented that game. His brother was an asshole though and when we got to neverland and about to enter hollow bastion his brother deleted the memory.
I bought a PS2 when the price dropped to 150 and when it came with ATV Offroad Fury 2.
Which kicked ass.
Playstation 2 had racing games, fighting games, adventure games, random games, puzzle games, rpg's, and all kinds of games. And it was much more than nintendo offered.
PS3 doesn't seem that great though. There is like maybe one or two game that I want on PS2.
The Wii I did get shortly after it came out. But I did not play at as much and still don't. I play a few games on it now. I do like the VC and have some games from it but not too many.
The XBOX my friend did get and I kinda liked. I thought the controller was too fucking fat. I loved it when they came out with the controller S. I did like some games for it.
I thought the 360 was kinda a gimmick at first til I learned more about it and realized how powerful it was.
I got the 360 during Black Friday at best buy for a major discount. It came with Guitar Hero 2 as well.
Xbox 360's XBOX Live service kicks ass. I love being able to go online and play against others. And even better co-op. Having a friend over and me and my friend both going online and either teaming up or kicking ass. Or just chatting in the main lobby. Netflix on 360 is great now too.
Also 360's graphics just kick ass and I like the games offered on 360.
The wii has wii speak, friend codes, no headset, no external memory (except SD cards) and it needs a freaking DVD player.
I still like the wii but I just think that the other consoles have better third party support.
The wii has been getting horrible third party support "IMAGINE PETS", "HELLO KITTY", "HANNAH MONTANNA" I mean come on :/
The wii hasn't gotten DLC support as well. On 360 DLC kicks ass. Especially for Rock Band. Well I take it back. Rock Band and GH have download content on the wii now.
But that's fairly new. It is nice that the wii does give demos for NDS games. But still no demos for wii games.
Now on the portable side.
the game boy was the best thing ever. The game boy color was even better. Than the game boy advance was just mindblowing and the games released were awesome and fun to play. And the GBA SP was like "OMG how did they do it again." A backlight and being able to close the handheld to protect it. It looked cool too.
The GBA Micro was a failure. OMG a handheld device the size of a pack of gum that you can put in your jeans..
The Nintendo DS at first sounded odd because touch devices have been around for things like Palm Devices. But playing Metroid Prime was amazing. And warioware was even more fun. The thumb strap was a horrible idea though. I think after two years the DS finally got better and 3D graphics actually started appearing on the DS and they stopped used the bottom screen for just stats and there were less "touch mini games" and more fun games that were either action, adventure, or rpg.
The DS Lite was even better because it wasn't as clunky as the original DS, it was sleeker, brighter screen, and it just looked better. I have a black DS lite that i love and will never sell.
Now the DSi I think is epic failure.
It is nintendo's attempt to keep up with it's newest competitor the iPhone. The iPhone has apps. Nintendo comes out with clock apps like every week now. iPhone has music. Nintendo supports only AAC. iPhone has internet. DSi now has internet using the oh so lovely opera browser. iPhone has voice recording. DSi has 10 second recordings.
It's really a "Anything you can do I can do better."
Now the games is another story. There haven't been that many games for Nintendo that use DSi features. But that's only for now. The camera is also better on the iPhone than the DSi's is.
Also. THE DSi LOSES THE ABILITY TO PLAY GBA games and Guitar Hero On Tour games. NOT COOL
Oh but wait. Picto chat in color. OMG. IT'S IN COLOR BUT STILL NO GLOBAL CHAT. IT'S INNOVATION...
Kingdom Hearts 123/12 Days (forgot the numbers) is going to be amazing though because the cut scenes are not only 3D graphics but there is also going to be "VOICE OVERS" I don't think there have been any DS games that have actually had voice overs for characters except announcing something or saying a menu. KH:COM for the GBA was also the first besides Mario and Donkey Kong Micro something to push and start 3D graphic cut scenes on the Game Boy Advance.
Now the PSP.
The PSP was a great concept. But with lack of support for UMD movies, only 2 years of really great games, and the fact that the loading time was unreal it hasn't done as well. It's not dead yet though. There are still some good games on it. But not as great as sony probably wanted it to be.
Nintendo's problem now and the problem they have always had is getting GOOD third party support. Not 100 developers who want to do games that are for 3-12 year olds. WITH THE WII-MOTE NOW. Now you can use the wii-mote to feed a virtual baby
...
It seems that Sony always got the best third party support. I think 360 is getting more of it now. Although the Xbox 360 does have it's faults. The red ring of death happened for a while but the disc loadeder does scratch the discs. And there was a little fix that would have barely cost anything per system that Microsoft refused to pay because they are greedy whores.
Nintendo does make stable and not faulty hardware. That is something that can be said.
Nintendo does try with innovation as well which I give them credit for.
But in terms of options they really do give their systems lots of limits.
Jailbreaks, mods, flashes, and jailbreaks are ways around that though and unlock the true potential of their systems.
I am thankful that they at least give the DS no region protection as well. There are some great games out there that will never see the light of day in the US.
But yeah I still like nintendo. I think they are a little more succesful on the portable side right now though. I don't care if the wii has more numbers on sales. For games it's not so great even if the numbers say so. Nintendo also has the market of soccer moms and people who buy their kids games for no reason or just because they say so.
I still see Apple as current or potential rival though. Technically right now I think it is one in the handheld market. There are people who have actually bought the iPod Touch just because of the apps.
If Apple and Nintendo teamed up they'd really be unstoppable.
