Gadgetory

hey guys this is Austin it's over the last 30 years there have been thousands of great consoles but today I'm going to count down the best of the best starting at number 5 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 not at all the Xbox 360 allows you to do a lot more than just throw in a disc 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 with the red ring of death caused by overheating but this will sort it with later versions of the console which got smaller quieter and added features like built-in Wi-Fi you also have to appreciate the controller which is one of the best ever made and is still the standard for PCs today if you compare the graphics to a new console or PC it might not seem too impressive but it's easy to forget that the Xbox came out nearly nine years ago to put it in perspective both YouTube and the Xbox 360 came out in November of 2005 which considering that new games are still being released for the console easily makes the Xbox 360 one of the best consoles of all time coming in at number four is the Nintendo Game Boy back in 1989 Nintendo had the home console market lockdown with the NES so they turned their sights on the handheld console market with the Game Boy sporting a two and a half inch screen with a whopping four shades of gray it might not look too impressive today but the Game Boy was an enormous success with well over 100 million sales worldwide the original Gameboy was massive but in 1996 they released the Gameboy pocket a much slimmer and lighter version that could actually fit in a pocket considering how revolutionary the Game Boy was it's interesting at just how many compromises the war since the screen was in fact lit you pretty much had to find either a bright window or some kind of light to play with otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the screen at all it was also powered by double-a and triple-a batteries depending on the model which gave you anywhere from ten to thirty hours of gameplay the Gameboy might not have been the most powerful but that didn't stop Nintendo from absolutely dominating handheld gaming for over 15 years and a big reason why was the huge game library there were portable versions of mini console games like Donkey Kong kirby Zelda Megaman oil Kombat and of course Mario having Tetris packed in was a major help to the system as well however by far the biggest seller of the entire Gameboy line was Pokemon launched in 1995 the first generation of Pokemon games sold over 23 million copies hoping to give the Gameboy and have longevity to last nearly 10 years before being replaced cementing it is the greatest handheld console of all time number three is the Sega Genesis the Genesis also known as the Mega Drive is by far Sega's most popular console ever competing mainly with the Super Nintendo this really helped to start the very first console war with a 16-bit processor and high-definition graphics the Genesis actually did prove to be a fairly powerful console excellent games like Sonic showed that the Genesis had enough power to easily keep up with the SNES and titles like afterburner weren't too far off from their arcade releases there were a variety of add-ons available including the Sega CD 32x and Nomad which was a handheld version of the console none of these were particularly popular but they all helped to give the genesis of life well into the next generation of consoles the controllers also held up quite well its larger curved design always felt more comfortable to me than the Super Nintendo and later versions added three more buttons making it even better one of the most ahead of its time features was the sega channel the genesis was among the first consoles to support downloading titles allow you to play an entire selection of games for $15 a month twenty years later even modern consoles haven't figured this out making the Sega Genesis truly one of the best consoles ever for number two we have the Nintendo Entertainment System the is the grandfather of modern video gaming as the first home console by Nintendo back in 1985 the video game industry was almost completely dead with the market shrinking by 97% in just two years Nintendo was an enormous part of bran consoles back to life the packin game with the NES was Super Mario and duck hunt introducing Mario is one of the best platformers and most influential games of all time Mario wasn't the only major franchise that got its consoles start on the NES though huge series like The Legend of Zelda Metroid and Mega Man all launched first on the NES the controller was also a big improvement while it might not be quite as organic as an Xbox gamepad compared with some of the other controllers of the time this was a major step forward when you step back and consider that the video game industry nearly died in the 80s a huge reason why we still have consoles today is thanks to the NES and finally number one we have the Sony Playstation 2 155 million that's how many ps2 Sony sold making it easily the most popular console of all time ending its production run just last year a few months before the ps4 launched the PlayStation 2 had one of the longest lifespans 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 and played a huge part in helping to popularize DVDs how long you do more than just game on your console it also had USB ports which made games like Guitar Hero possible you could install a hard drive and then even had to output for some games years before the Xbox 360 and ps3 introduced HD gaming the original fat ps2 was succeeded by a much slimmer option in 2004 which remains to this day one of the smallest consoles ever and brought upgrades like a built-in Ethernet port with games like grand theft auto san andreas God of War and Shadow of the Colossus the ps2 might not have been as powerful as the Xbox but the library was nothing short of excellent sailing the ps2 is one of the best consoles of all time 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 5 videos like this anyway I've got to give a big shout out all for making this video possible audible.com is a leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature including fiction nonfiction and periodicals I spend a lot of time driving around to find old consoles and do research for this video which made listening to audible a great way to get some reading in while still getting work done right now audible is offering a free audio book if you try them out and that includes wool by Hugh Howey to download wool or another audio book for free just head over to audible.com slash Austin the reason I'm able to do videos like this is because audible is such a huge supporter of the channel so definitely go check out audible.com slash Austin and give them a shot anyway guys thank you so much for watching and I will catch you in the next one