• Top 5 Worst Gaming Consoles of All Time

  

  Written by Zeromage 245 Comments
  Last Updated:: April 20, 2008

  The video game world has seen its fair share of poor systems that had no business being released in the first place. Some of these systems were created for getting something in time for a holiday. Others were carefully constructed, and failed for any number of reasons from poor games, to poor sound, to poor graphics, or to just plain bad ideas as we’ll see with the #5 entry specifically. Luckily, most of the video game world had always rebounded from its bad ideas, and created systems that were much more intuitive in the fun factor for the gamer. On this list then, we will highlight what we think are the worst systems of all time. As always, there will be those who disagree, especially with one of our entries. We expect a high amount of criticism and even some profanity from some of our choices, but we ask you to read the arguments and consider what is being said before flaming them to no end. We’re sure we’ll see a lot of your own “top 5 worst systems of all time” after this list. The systems that overlap between our lists may be cause for some agreement between us and the reader. But we’re pretty the sure the flames will be stronger. They always are.
  

  5. Virtual Boy

  Virtual Boy would be higher on this list except its made by Nintendo. Virtual Boy though, was Nintendo’s clearest misstep in the video game market. They would learn from their mistakes and watch for any hasty releases of portable systems that tried to cash in on “Virtual Reality“. Why was Virtual Boy so bad? The most obvious thing to start off with was the graphics, which looked like static infrared in a poorly lit room. Playing the Virtual Boy for more than 5 minutes would become difficult because of this. Along with the addling graphics, there was the fact that you had to wear the system on your head. This would grow tiring easily as your neck muscles were always stretched to the limit. Even the instruction manual to the Virtual Boy warned of headaches, seizures and nausea when playing the game. If anyone was able to open up the box first and read this, do you think they really would of bought it? On top of this, the system was way too expensive for what it was trying to offer. At a large 180$, the system didn’t carry enough games, or tolerable graphics to be able to warrant this price, not to mention the possibility of becoming sick when playing it. The games for the Virtual Boy were sub par including a version of Tetris and Mario Tennis which both failed immediately because of the benumbing “Kenny Rogers Roaster” color of the screen smashing your eyes with no distance in-between. “Teleroboxer” was awfully close to trying to seem as cool as the Sega catalog wanted to be. The game play though was difficult to control and the characters were tiresome quick. For these reasons, The Virtual Boy was a failure. It would be forgotten with all the other bad game systems designs that would go down in infamy. Nintendo though would learn from its mistake and create some of the greatest gaming systems of all time afterwards. The same clearly cannot be said for the maker of the next four systems.

  4. Sega Saturn

  The Sega Saturn was Sega’s first serious entry into the 32 bit market. It didn’t last long though, as the Saturn was yet another failure in Sega’s repertoire. The Sega Saturn was more expensive than other systems in the 32 bit era, all of which were better. Beyond the exorbitant price of the Saturn, there were no memorable games. The Saturn launched many arcade titles though, like the Street Fighter Series, but those were available on better systems anyway. Beyond these arcade replicas though, the original games were easily forgettable, further establishing Sega as the company who didn’t know how to create good games. One had to rely on sub-par originals like Shining Force 3 and Dragon Force to attain any sense of originality in the Saturn system. Other games like “Shining the Holy Ark” and “Magic Knight Rayearth” were conspicuous reasons for Saturn’s and Sega’s demise. The games for the Saturn were expensive though, just like the system itself, creating a low market for any of the Saturn’s games.

  That the Saturn had to compete with the likes of Playstation 1 was daunting considering that Playstation was 10X the system of the Saturn and was less expensive. Saturn was obviously demolished by the Playstation 1 which was a system which created memorable games at every release. The combination of below average games, lack of originality, expense, and being regarded side by side with the Playstation led to the Saturn’s doom. Once again (as we will see with the rest of the article), Sega would prove that it could not compete with the greater systems in each class.

  3. Sega Dreamcast

  When talking about video game consoles, the Dreamcast is synonymous with the word “failure.” The Dreamcast was simply an overrated system all around. That’s not to say back in 1999 when it was first launched that I didn’t want one. I’ll be the first to admit that I did. I wanted one pretty bad but as fortune would have it, the store was backordered so I bought a DVD player instead. Sega’s new console was too much money for what it was anyway, not to mention that like many people I was still feeling burned from the Sega CD, 32x, and Saturn. EA made the right choice in not supporting the Dreamcast, because they knew that nobody wanted it. Sega had ripped off their customers too many times, and then released a system with only a handful of good games. What good games did Dreamcast have? The first Crazy Taxi was an awesome game, one I still enjoy on my PS2 from time to time. But the Dreamcast game library is highly overrated, especially some of the games that are held so highly by the Dreamcast fanboys – Soul Calibur for instance. It’s nothing but a button masher with swords. Sonic Adventure was the only good game available at the launch of the Dreamcast. But past Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi there were simply no other games worth buying. Games like Chu Chu Rocket and Space Channel 5 were just plain stupid. And most of good games would eventually end up being ported to other systems anyway. It’s both amazing, and sad that the Dreamcast still has fans today. There are people who actually say that the graphics on the Dreamcast were just as good, or even better than the Playstation 2. These people really need to go to Wal-Mart and have their eyes examined. As luck would have it, the Playstation 2 would be released just sixteen months after Dreamcast, and many people didn’t even buy a Dreamcast simply because they were so excited about the PS2 coming out. By early 2001, game publishers had abandoned Dreamcast development en masse in favor of the PlayStation 2 and canceled many nearly completed projects. With the arrival of the Xbox and Nintendo GameCube, Dreamcast was finished, thus ending a dark chapter in the history of video games.

  2. 32x

  Without a doubt, one of the worst things to ever come out in the video game world was the 32X. The 32X was made out to be an addition to the Sega Genesis along with holding its own as its own system. Instead, it made the Sega Genesis even worse, making it the first add on system to actually make it original worse. The 32X was marketed for it’s stealthy 3^rd technology and the explicit aspect of making the Sega Genesis graphics better. Unfortunately the graphics were noticeably worse when one tried any game through the 32X.

  I remember the first game I tried using the 32X. It was Wonder Boy in Monster World, one of the few bright spots in the averagely conceived Sega Genesis. The screen in Wonder Boy went from average to worse. The screen was so annoyingly bright that one couldn’t even get out of Wonder Boy’s house without taking off the superfluous 32X. Somewhere along the line, the designers must have thought that an improvement in graphics consisted in how bright the screen was. Whatever the reason, 32X’s main marketing ploy decreased the quality of an already lagging system. This was certainly a first for the video game world.

  So with this understood, one was left to the actual games on the 32X to hold its own as its own system, which consisted of what seems like five to eight games. The games on the system were some of the worst ever. The version of Doom on the 32X looked so poor that one wondered why they ever stopped playing the computer version, not to mention that it didn’t include anywhere near close to all the levels of the original for the PC. The same thing happened with the version of Virtual Fighter to be bought with this slipshod system. The virtual fighter blocs looked like some of the worst 3D graphics ever released. On top of this, the actual sound of the game was clearly terrible from the punch sounds to the music. It started to seem that every game that was released for the 32X were much poorer versions of games for other systems. If one were looking for original games on the system it would be difficult as software developers realized how poor of a system it was and stopped any creations for the system. So you had a system that was supposed to improve the graphics for the Sega, and include new improved 3d games. Both of these goals failed so obviously that the system soon left the gaming shelves after its initial release. It was with the 32X that Sega fully started to be realized as the weak company in the video game market.

  1. Sega Genesis

  There are many reasons why the Sega Genesis is the worst video game system ever released. For one, it was because of the moderate success of the Genesis that the video gamer had the bear the terrible systems that came after it, from the 32x, to Sega CD, to Dreamcast, and to Sega Saturn. Another reason was because of how poor the soundboard was. Compare the Tecmo Bowl of the Genesis to the one for SNES and you’ll understand the difference. Have someone play Pitfighter and one will understand even more clearly how bad the sound was with the Genesis system.

  The Genesis also had an excessive amount of bad games that were part of its catalog. Most Sega Genesis games were utterly forgettable. Altered Beast was a shameful excuse for a side scrolling fighting game, especially with the poor idea of consistently moving screens taking up the bulk of the game. Kid Chameleon became boring quick with its excessive amount of levels which were never cool regardless of the inscrutable sunglasses that the kid would wear. The list of bad games could go on and on for the Sega Genesis. Sonic tried valiantly to compete with Mario but was crushed under the weight of its lack of innovation compared to the largess plumber.

  In very simple terms, the Sega Genesis was the kid from school who tried to be cool, but everyone knew he was a loser. There was often talk of “Console Wars” between The Sega Genesis and the SNES, but we are sure that the SNES knew nothing about it. Again, its like a kid at school who wants to be cool trying to start a war with someone cooler, and the cooler kid having no idea who the loser was in the first place. Every game that was released between the SNES and the Genesis, the SNES version was better in all aspects from the graphics to the overall sound. Every original game that Genesis released was forgettable and augmented by failed attempts at coolness. That the Sega malediction carried on to all of its subsequent systems is no surprise with the Genesis never winning any timeless success for itself. It’s with the Sega Genesis that the definition of a bad gaming system first becomes conspicuous.

245 Comments

1. #1 !!! says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 6:48 am

   ..WRONG!
   GENESIS ROCKS
   Sonic The Hedgehog 2!!
   Started my video game addiction lol
2. #2 Hammer says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 12:17 am

   i agree. my first ever console was the genesis and now i play games non-stop. i’m not saying that there weren’t better consoles, but it’s not a bad console. i still have and i break it out every once in a while to play sonic or doom.
3. #3 Curious now says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 12:49 am

   ^Is that some sort of reverse troll attempt on a troll?
4. #4 metalangel says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

   Why not just put the Game Gear in there and make the list complete? While I prefered Sega (Nintendo was too cutesy at the time) I’d have had a SNES too… except when it’s your parents doing the buying you tend to have to pick one and stick with it.

   Sorry, but you can’t expect any to retain any crediblity with the anti-Sega bias you’ve put in here, not when there’s so many obviously worse consoles out there – 3D0, Jaguar, Gizmondo, Atari 7800. Yes, the 32X burned me (though you seem to have had issues with your TV that aren’t the 32X’s fault) and I’m glad I only rented the Virtual Boy, but the other three are far from the worst things ever foisted on us.

   Oh, and you bitch about Saturn games being expensive – my friend used to regularly throw down 80 bucks for SNES games, while the equivalent Genesis game was 60 at the most! In the end he sold his SNES and bought a Genesis.
5. #5 lol says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 3:48 am

   lol. Poster of this article is an obvious attention whore. 11/10 for trolling.
6. #6 Kettobase says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 4:07 am

   This is a troll article right?
7. #7 oldfag says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 4:12 am

   Genesis was the worst?

   0/10

   You fail Nintendotroll.
8. #8 No says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 4:38 am

   What? Are you kidding me?

   Streets of Rage 2, Vectorman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Contra Hard Corps, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Ristar, Shining Force…

   I could go on.

   Also, for the record, there was a time when Sonic was a good deal more popular than Mario.

   Sure, there were some bad games for it, but the SNES had equal amounts of them, or even more than what the Genesis had. Barbie Super Model anybody? No? How about some George Foreman’s KO Boxing?
9. #9 avi says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 10:07 pm

   actually no atari was good id say number 5 N-Gage awful battery life you look like an idiot talking into it and the screen was taller than it was wide. number 4 Atari 5200 the controller makes it unplayable number 3 R-Zone everything bad about the Virtual boy made 10 times worse no black just red and library sucks number 2 CD-i bad zelda games, ’nuff said number 1 Gizmondo.
10. #10 avi says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    eatme:is your top 2 a joke?
11. #11 avi says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 12:52 am

    I USED to like this site… Then I saw this list, completely lost all faith in them.
12. #12 President Steve says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    @avi:

    I don’t think this is meant to be taken seriously.
13. #13 WTFFRANK says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    guardian heroes for saturn … you can’t forget that game ever once you play it, no live it!

    And for the dreamcast … MOST of the ports of games that were released for dreamcast look far worse than the dreamcast versions.

    >>>POINT IN CASE … Capcom vs. SNK looks better on dreamcast than the freaking arcade. Street Figherter 3 3rd strike looks like SH*T on a PS2 … and is breathtakeing on a dreamcast…

    Last point … Guilty Gear X .. This game still looks like it is from the future.. the only fighter that is better or close to being better is Street Fighter 4. Last fact > Guilty Gear games look like crap on a ps2 and don’t you ever forget that
14. #14 avi says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    @President Steve:it may not have been.
15. #15 GamerX07 says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 5:20 am

    86 Dreamcast Sub Game Gear
    86 Sega Genesis Sub Sega CD/NGage (tied between the two)

    switch the order around so Virtual Boy is number 1 and this list is good
16. #16 Lime says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 4:55 pm

    ALERT. ALERT.

    FANBOY ALERT.
17. #17 Stephen Ulm says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

    i loved Altered Beast i even bought it onto my wii
18. #18 Stephen Ulm says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    o and cd-i=worst game system ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
19. #19 Avi says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 3:28 pm

    I don’t find it funny when someone disses my favourite consoles. (but I do find it funny when someone gives props to my least favourite consoles…)
20. #20 MattTheSpratt says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 9:08 am

    Biased, but probably an attempted trolling.
    If it isn’t, then damn, someone needs to live in the past.
21. #21 jesus says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    The kid who wrote this severily pissed me off!
    he knows nothing of gaming qulity and fun
    he’s the kid who plays games because they look good
    i want this fag to burn
22. #22 Uhhhhhhhhh, pie says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

    My first video game system was also a Sega Genisis. Please don’t diss it. It made me love video games. Weird. My story is a lot like Hammer.
23. #23 RandomGuy says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    My first console was the Dreamcast and I loved it. Games like Sonic Adventures 2 and Toy Commander were my favorite. By the way, I wasn’t born when the Genesis and others came out, so I don’t really know what they are like.
24. #24 Devin says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 8:59 pm

    dude, you are the biggest douch bag I have ever seen.
25. #25 NmKD says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    This looks like a nintenfag comming out of the fanboy closet. Really, WTF?

    When you make an article and not even one single reply agrees with you is because you pissed waaaay out the jar, man.
26. #26 Rodrigo says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    Are you crazy?????? Dreamcast, genesis and even saturn rock, fuck you, serious i’m not a sega fan boy (maybe a little) but this is ridiculous!
27. #27 shane says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 1:08 am

    not a bad list. saturn also broke to easily. As fro the dream cast, my friend had the sheek to say that chu chu rocket was the best game of all time, thank you for putting that straight.
28. #28 Gavo says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

    I love nintendo but the genesis is nearly on par with the snes and the vitural boy is the worst gaming system ever. The dreamcast and satrun weren’t that bad but the 32X did suck. My worst 5 are

    5 32X
    4 atari 5200
    3. Gizmondo
    2 n-gage
    1 vitural boy

    Also I bet that if the VB was made by someone other then nintendo it would be no.1.
29. #29 Duran says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 10:12 am

    Yeah…your anti-sega bias gives you little to no credibility. The main reason why Dreamcast went down was because it was ahead of it’s time. Without it, Sony, and Nintendo wouldn’t have made so many advancements with the PS2 and the Gamecube.

    If you’re going to write a legitimate article about worst consoles, throw your bias out the window. Like many have stated, there are far WORSE consoles:

    - Panasonic CDi
    - 3D0
    - Atari Jaguar CD
    - Atari 5200
    - Sega 32X
    - Nintendo Virtual Boy

    To name a few.
30. #30 You're dumb says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    Wow. Could you sound any more like you got paid by Nintendo to write this article? Four out of five were Sega consoles. Seriously?

    The Genesis was a great system, and the Dreamcast was not that bad. You left out plenty of shit consoles just to fuel your psuedo-intellectual bullshit article.

    You’re a pretentious moron.
31. #31 fearghoul says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    excellent troll article. a real list would have included such luminaries as the Jaguar, 3D0, CDi, and more. 32X is a worthy inclusion however.
32. #32 hambag says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    This is an outrage! Dreamcast was a pioneer in online gaming, Saturn was a hardcore gamers console, and the Genesis is the stuff of legend in console history. You sir, are an idiot and obviously a sega-hater. I like Nintendo, but Dont ever diss the SEGA!!!
33. #33 hambag says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    Oh by the way. You said that every game that was released for both the SNES and the MD, the SNES version was better. Not true! Pit Fighter was actually better on the MD. I know its shocking, but its true, compare the graphics. Yes, the SNES had better graphics capabilities, I had Mortal Kombat 2 from day one for the MD, but later I re-purchased a SNES and bought MK2 for that, it was miles better, graphics and sound, much closer to the arcade version. But this besides, The Mega Drive (Genesis) was a lot like the Playstation of its day, a big catalogue of games, means more crap games, but the good and the great will always be classics and the console itself looked way cooler aesthetically than the SNES.
34. #34 Sketch says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 12:17 am

    Wow, this person really knows sod all about games consoles. The only two valid entries were the 32X and the Virtual Boy, the others were great consoles. Especially the Dreamcast, that console was waaaaay ahead of its time.

    I Quote;

    “But past Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi there were simply no other games worth buying”

    “Sega’s new console (Dreamcast) was too much money for what it was anyway”

    “Sonic Adventure was the only good game available at the launch of the Dreamcast”

    “Soul Calibur for instance. It’s nothing but a button masher with swords”

    “It’s with the Sega Genesis that the definition of a bad gaming system first becomes conspicuous”

    “Playstation was 10X the system of the Saturn”

    “the Playstation 1 which was a system which created memorable games at every release”

    “establishing Sega as the company who didn’t know how to create good games”

    Yeah, you really do know fuck all. Get ready and open wide, here comes Sony…
35. #35 ash says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

    harsh on the Genesis my friend.. Gynorg was pretty kick ass and the entire games library had a much darker and adult feel compared to it’s Nintendo couterparts… Dreamcast and Saturn were shit but you can’t blame all that on the Genesis.. It was pretty kick ass before the SNES came out
36. #36 dude love says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 8:16 am

    i owned a PS2 and a Dreamcast. PS2 had final fantasy X which was bad ass but overall I played the Dreamcast much more often than the PS2. The poster of this article even admitted he didn’t own a Dreamcast so he already fails. Both were great systems. The Dreamcast had a game called Shenmue that while not everybody’s cup of tea, for those it clicks with, it really leaves an impression in the greatest game of all time category.
    from a dude who owned both, Dreamcast was maybe the nicest system i ever owned. I agree with sega producing a lot of crap though. I bought a 32x for 19 dollars to try it out, that was a mistake. Also I owned an SNES and a Genesis and the genesis games did not hold up to SNES games, though Shadowrun for genesis was awesome. Genesis was still an okay system. It does not deserve to be on this list with many terrible consoles still out there. Saturn? well I did not own one, but i was not blown away with playing my friends. I had a playstation and enjoyed it.
37. #37 MoJo says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

    what i love is that he’s talking shit about the 32x making his game fuck up.. but wonder boy isn’t even a 32x game! haha, what a jackass! that’s like complaining because a ps1 game didn’t work perfectly on your ps2. next time, maybe try PLAYING A GAME ACTUALLY MADE FOR THE SYSTEM. in fact, that complaint about the wonder boy game makes it seem as if he thought the 32x would somehow enhance normal genesis games. you see, mr. i hate sega so bad, at the time the 32x was released, if you went to your local videogame store, there were these games that had ‘32X’ written right on the box. this was a subtle hint that these games were specifically meant to be played on the sega 32x. just because normal genesis games fit into the cartidge port, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to buy extra games to take advantage of the system’s extra power. if you need help figuring out how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, go ahead and write an article about how terrible pb&j sandwiches taste and make sure to mention how the plastic wrapper and twist-tie from the loaf of bread are the worst tasting parts so i know how to explain what your stupid ass is doing wrong.

    i was going to go off on a rant about his retarded anti-sega bias, but i think i’m just going to let it go. it’s not sporting to make fun of someone who can’t figure out how to properly use a game console.
38. #38 Gaurav says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    whever wrot this is a retard!!!!!
    Sega Genesis was my first system and i loved it!!!