Most Over Rated & Under Rated Console?

[TrekMD]

....has a real international flavour.

Or flavor, depending on where you are.   

[TrekMD]

....has a real international flavour.

Or flavor, depending on where you are.   :21:

[Bobinator]

Personally, I'd defend the 3DO, myself. I mean... let me put it in the most diplomatic way possible. The 3DO doesn't really fall under a lot of the things that I, myself, would define as a 'good' console. That's not to say it's bad! It's just... it's a weird console. But I like weird.

It's got a fairly small library, one where quite a few of the games are pretty bad, or not even actually games of any sort. Sure, there's a lot of good exclusives, but comparing the number of really good games to something like the Genesis or SNES, you don't have as much. What it does have, however, is... this certain charm. You just get the feeling that people were constantly experimenting with the thing, putting on whatever they wanted without things like "worrying about if it'll sell" or "ratings boards" getting in the way.

See, take Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. It's a horrible game, and I use the word game very loosely. But the 3DO is the only system where you would actually see a game like that on there. And that's why I respect the 3DO. Because it kind of just exists in its own little world, where occasionally rays of brilliance like Super Wing Commander or Gex shine through.

I also think the PS1 is heavily underrated. Not across most of the internet, of course, but mostly around here. People give a lot of really vague, not entirely logical reasons about it, but I just... don't get it. It has a huge library of pretty much every imaginable genre. It has a ton of good games from both sides of the world. It pioneered a lot of ideas for gaming in general. I'm not sure what it is, but I guess I'd just file it under a "hate it because it's popular" sort of thing...

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

Jaguar

It is my opinion - the makers set such unrealistic expectations on its launch that it being overrated has always followed it.

This doesn't mean I don't like it BTW

3do is weird machine for sure, in a strange little world with the CDTV for sure in that its weirdly freaky and loved (by some).

[AmigaJay]

Overrated:
Nintendo 64 - hyped up 2 years before it came out, graphics nowhere near what they promised, mis-shaped overrated controller, eye watering blurry low resolution graphics, expensive cartridge games i.e Turok £70! Good games ratio library alot worse than PSX or Saturn.

Underrated:
3DO - got one years after they came out, but was way ahead of its time, but the price tag killed it off in the 1 1/2 year head start it had to make some inroads before the big boys came along, some amazing games, luckily for PSX owners alot were ported when the writing was on the wall, but certainly a console that gets written off or forgotten.

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

Ok. Just seemed a strange way of putting it. Especially as the machine is pretty much universally derided, ridiculed and put down by pretty much everyone except Atari fans. Not sure how that makes it over rated.

Now I can't agree with that! Is the Jaguar really that hated? I see more hate directed at Sony/MS for whatever it is they're supposed to have done this week. Also can I really class a console of 20 years ago as overated (or any historic console for that matter).

What might might be better question is 'which is the most overhyped and underdelivering console' - It'd still could be the Jag BTW but early days PS2 was almost as bad for being well far too big for its boots.

Even the modern consoles are still falling foul of it - XOne and PS4 both powerful and have some great games but ATM still failing to 100% deliver on the true next gen promises they have made.

To be honest I half almost didnt post at all in this - rating any historic console is a bit weird perhaps as these days they are most definitely retro/historic gaming machines and any flaws more easily forgiven?

[zapiy]

Most underrated console for me would be the Dreamcast. It just is.

Overrated is probably the Atari 2600. Just never floats my boat. 

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

Just look round the internet and You Tube and you will see the Jaguar on pretty much every worst console list with loads of totally untrue information, made up facts and streams of expletives aimed at it. Surprised you haven't seen this/know this actually.

I dont tend to watch a lot of unrecommended vids (too much crap like you say) and I grew out the fanboy BS years back, just enjoy the consoles and games these days.

Got another underated:

CD32

Could have done some very good things but lazy devs did little to explore it, Ive yet to have a good look at this console (I'd like to have one) but yeah I'd say this is underated.

[AmigaJay]

As much as i love my CD32, in hindsight it really was underpowered (same for the A1200 the year before) of course down to the AAA chipset being delayed, so by the time both came out 3D gaming was emerging and they both lacked enough horsepower.
Of course it still had some great games, mostly Amiga ports, 5-6 exclusives, and yes the design and joypad were let downs, but the expandability was decent so i could play A500/A1200/CDTV floppy/CD games with disk drive and keyboard, play Video and Music CDs, so whilst it never had the chance to prosper with Commodore going under there was plenty to use it for, but i still don't think it was underrated, i think more people appreciate it now because its easy to put Amiga games on CD and use for a retro machine!

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

CD32 was underused as well - there's precious few games that try to use it as anything more than an A1200 with a CD drive.

[AmigaJay]

CD32 was underused as well - there's precious few games that try to use it as anything more than an A1200 with a CD drive.

Yeah exactly, but the games were coming had Commodore lasted more than 6 months after it came out! The list of cancelled games is eye watering massive, even naff fmv games would have brought it more attention in the graphical department even though those games are just streamed off cd!
I still got 3-4 years enjoyment out of it as a A1200/CD combo, until we got our first pc (spit!) in 1997

[guest5158]

As much as I love the NES, I find is overrated (in my opinion), as for underrated I think potentially the N-Gage or Lynx
N-Gage provided good 3D graphics built into a phone, and the Lynx...well for an Atari handheld, it was well ahead of it's time and easily on par with the GameGear.

I would also mention Gamecube (if you choose to recognise this as a retro console), although it was lacking features that other manufacturers provide...in the GC's case DVD playback, it did have phenomenal graphics potential but never really used it except for the Resident Evil remakes!

[JoeMusashi]

Its funny you mention all the things wrong with the NES graphics, yet I do believe you love the spectrum, yet that has monochrome graphics and other issues.

 :113: and each of those had 2 intensity modes.

The Speccy stands as a god among men in the UK.

[Bobinator]

Its funny you mention all the things wrong with the NES graphics, yet I do believe you love the spectrum, yet that has monochrome graphics and other issues.

Well, yeah, but how many of those are used at once in your average Spectrum game? Your answer depends on if you count black as a color. If you use more than that, things like this start happening:

[JoeMusashi]

As for black, well technically its the absence of colour. It could be classed as a colour mode i.e. all colours off (white being all colours on).

So that makes 8 colour modes. We're making progress here lads...