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The 5 Most Impactful / Important Consoles in Video Game History - Retro Bird

Retro Bird

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There's been a lot of great consoles throughout the course of gaming's history, but which ones are the most important? In this video I pick the five consoles that I feel aren't necessarily the best, but are the most important in shaping gaming into what it's become.

The 5 Most Important Consoles in Video Game History - Retro Bird / Top 5 Most Important Consoles of All Time / Top 5 Most Significant Video Game Systems

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20 Comments

@RetroBirdGaming Creator 4 years ago (edited) Pinned

To clarify one more time... this video is not a list of the best 5 consoles or the 5 consoles most important to me personally. This is a list of the 5 consoles that I feel have impacted gaming the most (for better or for worse). Also, a lot of you have mentioned the Super Nintendo's controller, which I think is a solid argument (in addition to the console's overall greatness). Games played: Super C (0:06), Mega Man 2 (0:37), Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1:08), Sonic 2 & Knuckles (2:18), Contra Hard Corps (2:40), Timesplitters 2 (7:18), OutRun 2 (7:50), Mario Kart 64 (8:40), BurgerTime Deluxe (10:00), Final Fantasy IX (16:55), Symphony of the Night (17:40)

@Westile 4 years ago

8:20
Easily my new favorite Brad Face.

@jakejasonread980 1 month ago

I remember being in my late teens when the Xbox came out. One of my friends had one and we’d play Halo 2 online all night, every weekend. It genuinely felt like the future had arrived. I was still on a PS1 at my house, the leap felt unfathomable!

@AnonimitySmith 2 years ago

I really like the separation of favorite consoles vs important/impactful consoles.

@mjnomy 4 years ago

Nailed it. As a Nintendo AND Sega boy (my love reaches no bounds), I think the fierce competition between the two was the perfect storm. 🤓

@nathanharsh2590 4 years ago

Killing it with the longer form content. Thumbs up from me

@ASeasonInSidewinder 4 years ago

I feel like the issue with the Atari 2600 is it just did not hold up well over time. The NES was the first generation where 2D games started to look and play a lot like 2D games still do to this day.

@cicabeot1 4 years ago

I like how you included at least one console from each of the big four console manufacturers. They all had their own impacts on the industry. Even Microsoft.

@cat_froots 2 weeks ago

I think the zx spectrum deserves to be on this list. Very influential./j

@LankeyKang 6 months ago

I’m from Sweden. Every kid had an nes at home by 1990.

@leeartlee915 4 years ago

Interesting list. I think I would debate a couple of these but at the same time, I can see how you arrived at these choices.

@iBMcFly 4 years ago (edited)

Now I wanna get a PS1 and NES mini and load them with games.

EDIT-I was born in 84 and lived through these eras and can confirm everything bird said.

@mrbohl 4 years ago

This is a refreshing channel. There’s so many like it but this has something others don’t. Keep it up.

@YouthInAsia-YIA 2 years ago

I completely agree with your list.

@retrodork-n7k 4 years ago

I remember when the gray original game boy came out. By 1995, I thought the Gameboy was done, there were games coming out but not by leaps and bounds.

By 1997, I couldn't believe going to toys R us and seeing new game boy games coming out. When Pokemon hit the scene it revived the Gameboy until the gameboy color came out and that was that.

@to3food 4 years ago (edited)

Great list, I totally guessed the first spot. My thinking was the fact that the Nintendo and Sony partnership break up lead to the creation of the PS one. That is some diverging timeline level shit there. Imagine a world with Sony's hardware with Nintendo's solid gameplays...

@deadsharkisart 1 year ago (edited)

2 yrs later im sure this has been said, but the SNES controller all by itself (face button shape, shoulder buttons, having 6 buttons, and ergonomics) gets it easily into my personal 5 most impactful consoles ✌️ love your work.