So I started off my morning recently talking with N5omniac about upgrading his Nintendo 3DS to a New Nintendo 3DS XL for the upcoming Metroid release and it got me thinking about the history of console revisions over the years.
Consoles have had revisions over their lifetimes almost since the beginning. These have ranged from minor cosmetic changes all the way to the more recent completely new hardware of the PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One X, and New 3DS systems.
But what really got me wondering is what people thought of these changes. What were their favorites....and their most hated. Where had a manufacturer saved a system to someone with an improvement or completely botched it up to another.
So I asked a few people from the site and sent it out onto Facebook and Twitter to see what people thought. What were their favorite revisions, and their most hated.
We will start the list with some of the people from the Zenspath Podcast & then some of the responses I got from Facebook and Twitter.
* Jeremy (myself) - Favorite has to be the DS Lite. It was such a huge improvement in design, battery life, functionality and more. My least favorite has to be the Sony Vita TV. This system makes little sense in the fact that it can't even play most of the Vita library, still requires the proprietary memory cards to work, and can download apps like Netflix...yet not be able to play them. At least the PSP Go gave me good uses for classic games in their native resolution with the dock and the Wii Mini actually plays all of the Wii games.
* N5omniac - His favorite was the Sony PSP Model 2000 (God of War edition specifically). This model added in video output features, better battery life, and just a more compact design. He would use it to watch videos & listen to music along with the games. His most hated was the Wii. Just the Wii. Hear him out. Basically over the lifetime of the Wii, it underwent different software changes that added and eventually removed channels that he used a great bit. So while it is stretching what I meant by system revisions...that is the reason he chose the Wii. It removed many of the extras that he used it for & with the Wii U released, made it a fairly unused system for it.
* Rachel - Her favorite was the Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP because of the smaller form factor. Most hated was the Sony Playstation 3 Super Slim K-model with the 12GB drive. As she put it "The Ps3 that came out with only 12 gb. I didn't buy it...but it was basically a glorified dvd/bluray player with only that much memory..."
* Caleb - He stated his favorite was the New Nintendo 3DS line for the enhanced features, extra controls, and Amiibo support. In general he stated he isn't happy about the new systems and how they are upgrading their hardware as they are.
And here are some of the responses I got from Facebook and Twitter -
* A LOT of people seemed to enjoy the upgrade from the Game Boy Advance to the Game Boy Advance SP.
* Even with the SP as loved as it was we had one reader, @monotonegent on Twitter, that preferred the Game Boy Micro as the ultimate iteration of the Game Boy Advance hardware.
* George Gay on Facebook is another person who loves the Game Boy Advance SP as his favorite, but is unique in that he hated the Xbox 360 E. As he put it, "There was almost nothing different except cosmetics and it felt like a cash grab.
* Kyle (@TurdFurgy on Twitter) said he loved the PS one redesign that Sony made back in 2000.
* Swan (@LoadingTime on Twitter) showed his love to the SP like many others, but really doesn't like the Sony Playstation Super Slim. As he tweeted it's a "downgrade in quality and made the system seem like a cheap knockoff in design and feel."
* Jason D'Aprile chimed in with some love for the move from the XBox One to the Xbox One X specifically because "Smaller, better, 4Kier". He really didn't like the redesign of the Sony Vita because it's a "cheaper, smaller model with an inferior screen screen".
We got a bunch more from people, and I am sorry if we didn't get yours in here, but thanks again for the responses! Feel free to leave a comment below to let us know what you think are the best and the worst game system