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 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 with the Red Ring of Death caused by
overheating but this was sorted 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 locked down 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 Game Boy was massive but in 1996
they released the Game Boy 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 there were. Since the screen wasn’t backlit 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 AA and AAA batteries depending
on the model which gave you anywhere from 10 to 30 hours of gameplay. The Game Boy 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 many console games like Donkey Kong, Kirby, Zelda, Megaman, Mortal
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 Game Boy line was Pokemon. Launched
in 1995 the first generation of Pokemon games sold over 23 million copies helping to give
the Game Boy enough longevity to last nearly ten years before being replaced, cementing
it as the greatest handheld console of all time. At 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 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 a life well into the next
generation of consoles. The controller has also held up quite well. It’s 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 it’s time features
was the Sega Channel. The Genesis was among the first consoles to support downloading
titles, allowing you to play an entire selection of games for $15 a month. 20 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 NES 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 bringing consoles back to life. The pack-in
game with the NES was Super Mario and Duck Hunt, introducing Mario as one of the best
platformers and most influential games of all time. Mario wasn’t the only major franchise
that got it’s console 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 ergonomic 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 eighties a huge reason why we still have
consoles today is thanks to the NES. And finally at number one we have the Sony PlayStation
2. 155 million. That’s how many PS2s Sony sold, making it easily the most popular console
of all time. Ending it’s production run just last year a few months before the PS4
launch, the PlayStation 2 had 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 and played a huge part in helping to popularize DVDs, allowing you to
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 it even had 1080i 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, sealing the PS2 as 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 5s videos
like this! Anyway I’ve got to give a big shoutout to Audible 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, non-fiction and periodicals. I spent
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 audiobook if you try them out and that includes Wool
by Hugh Howey. To download Wool or another audiobook for free just head over to audible.com/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/austin and give them a shot! Anyway
guys thank you so much watching and I will catch you in the next one!