Best & Worst Video Games Consoles from the 1990s

From the Super Nintendo to the Sony PlayStation, the nineties were full of video game console releases. Some good, some bad. Some that fill us with nostalgia, and some that make us happy the days of old are gone.

I’m a bad news, first kind of a person, so let’s start with the worst video game consoles of the nineties.

Phillips CD-i

The Phillips CD-i or Compact Disc Interactive, was released in 1991. It would have sold for around seven hundred dollars upon release. It was a clunky system with poor controller designs, terrible video quality and some of the worst video games ever published. Although the system and its games were a complete and miserable failure, Phillips continued to put out video games for the console until 1998. The company did manage to sell off an impressive one million units in its seven-year span.

Apple Bandai Pippin

The Apple Bandai Pippin wasn’t just a game console. No, it was so much more than that. The introductory price was about six hundred dollars. The Pippin was marketed as a “multimedia technology console,” that could play games, browse the web and play CDs. While none of that sounds bad, the Pippin couldn’t deliver on any of its promises. The console was underpowered, slow, and had only a small selection of games. The console ranked twenty-second on PC’s World’s list of “25 Worst Tech. Products of All Time,” and even Apple considers it their worst invention. The Apple Bandai Pippin was only available on the market for one year, selling just forty-two thousand units.

Atari Jaguar

The Atari Jaguar was developed by the Atari Corporation in 1993 in hopes of competing with Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Although the console was considerably cheaper than most, starting at just two-hundred and fifty dollars, the poor choice of games and weird controller design led the system nowhere. The Jaguar was a commercial failure. Atari finally pulled the plug in 1996. The Atari Jaguar sold two-hundred and fifty thousand units in its three-year run.

Sega/JVC X’Eye

The X’Eye was a single unit that played Sega Genesis cartridges, Sega CDs, and VHS tapes. The 1994 system also came with karaoke features and a keyboard add-on called “Piano Player.” Not a bad little system, just an unnecessary one. The five-hundred-dollar price tag made the system unattractive, and was essentially a more expensive version of what you already had. The system sold about five-hundred thousand units.

Nintendo Virtual Boy

The Nintendo Virtual Boy was the first system to display “3D graphics” via goggles in 1995. The system was heavy and painful, and was commercial failure. Attempting to break onto the market at one-hundred and eighty dollars, the Virtual Boy flopped big time . After fifteen minutes of play, you would be sore and disoriented. The product was discontinued in 1996, and made Time Magazine’s list as one of the worst inventions of all time. Nintendo did manage to sell an impressive seven hundred and seventy thousand units in just one year on the market.

Although the nineties came with its share of awful video game consoles, it also birthed some of the best systems to date. Let’s move on to the best video game consoles of the nineties.

Sony PlayStation

The Sony PlayStation was released in 1995 to great market success. The system came on the market at about three hundred dollars. The original PlayStation was so successful that they announced the PlayStation 2 in 1999. Sony’s success with their new console had much to do with the quality of games available for the platform. Games like Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy, and Tony Hawk Pro Skater were huge hits and instant classics.

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64, better known as just the N64, was released in 1996 for about two hundred dollars. The system was very successful and remained on the market for seven years. It was named machine of the year by Time Magazine in 1996, and IGN named the Nintendo 64 the ninth greatest console of all time. Great games like Super Mario 64, Mario Party, and Super Smash Brothers helped the system become the success it is.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) came on the market in 1991 at about two hundred dollars. The console was a global phenomenon and quickly became the best-selling system of the 16-bit era. The system had a fun and diverse range of compatible games, including sports games like Madden, NBA Live, and FIFA as well as games starring the classic Nintendo characters we all love, such as Donkey Kong, Super Mario All-Stars, and Kirby.

Sega Genesis

Although the Sega Genesis began its release in 1988, it didn’t become available everywhere until 1990 and is without a doubt a part of the 16-bit era and nineties gaming culture. Sega discontinued the Sega Genesis in 1997 after selling thirty million, seven hundred and fifty thousand units worldwide. Popular Sega games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat, and Comix Zone are gamer-favorites even today.

Game Boy Color

The Game Boy Color was released in 1998 for about eighty dollars and is backwards compatible with the original Game Boy. The Game Boy Color was a battery-powered handheld system that was perfect for long car rides and gamers on the go. The system, combined with the original Game Boy have sold one hundred and eighteen million, six hundred and ninety thousand units worldwide. The handheld console was discontinued in 2003, shortly after the release of the Game Boy Advanced SP. The best-selling game for the Game Boy Color is Pokémon Gold and Silver, selling over fourteen and half million copies. Other popular games include other games in the Pokémon series, Wario Land, and Super Mario Bros.

So, there it is. The five worst video game consoles, and the five best of the nineties.