Favorite: Steam Deck, it’s my favorite piece of gaming hardware I’ve ever owned. The controls are fantastic, it’s now frustrating to use other controllers that don’t have back paddles, gyro, or track pads.
Least favorite: cheap off-brand controllers, with bad tactile buttons, sticking buttons, analog sticks that drift, analog sticks that only register 8 directions, etc.
Also, Wii U. I have some mixed feelings on it because I have some good memories with the system, but the hardware never paid off. Their were almost no games that made use of the gamepad screen in a way that wasn’t just a gimmick, generally the only real advantages of it were being able to play on a handheld screen while the TV was being used (a feat that the switch and steam deck so far better) and being able to have split screen multiplayer where the players can’t see each other’s screen (limited because you only have 1 game pad, and the deck struggles to do two different rendered screens for many games, with games like Hyrule warriors having to cut the enemies in half when doing split screen).
Nintendo DSi - The DS just had such an incredible library, with tons of unique titles you could never experience elsewhere. Though the sad thing about how unique it was is that... you can't properly experience a lot of these titles elsewhere. Emulation just isn't the same. While it came out very late and wasn't worth upgrading to if you already owned an earlier model, the DSi was a very nice and sleek evolution on the hardware. Much more softmod-friendly too.
Miyoo Mini Plus - Bought this last year on sale as an impulse buy. Ended up liking it so much I wish I'd bought a more expensive model with analog sticks. My ultimate dream is to someday get something that runs SteamOS in this form factor.
My custom built fightstick - Put this together last year to replace my old Hori RAP4. Really happy with how it turned out! Love the GP2040-CE, I used to have to go through an adapter to use the HRAP4 on Switch and I can feel the difference not having that added latency anymore.
Hard for me to name least favorites, because I haven't owned a system I actively disliked, and I don't wanna just say CD-i or N-Gage or whatever. But I guess I'll list ones that I have mixed feelings on:
Wii - The Wii had a few great games. It also had a lot of duds. The saddest thing about it is how many games had to shoehorn waggle gimmicks in, and how few of them actually did it well.
Steam Deck - As a Linux nerd that wants to see the platform grow, I love that the Steam Deck exists. It's arguably the most important thing that has happened to Linux gaming. It just isn't for me at all. It's too big to be a handheld, I grew up on a Game Boy Color and I still love curling up with handhelds in bed, but this doesn't feel cozy to play with at all. I do occasionally use it + dock as a portable setup I can take to FGC events, or when I have guests I'll sometimes hook it up to the TV for Jackbox, but it mostly gathers dust the rest of the time.
Switch - Great library, and the hybrid form clearly worked out for Nintendo just because they don't have to divide their output between two platforms. But like the Deck, it's not what I want in a handheld, mine doesn't leave the dock. It's also rather frustrating how many bad ports the system got, I wish developers would simply stop trying to port games it clearly can't handle - especially when there are plenty of older titles in their back catalog that I'm sure could have good ports but get overlooked. And don't get me started on JoyCons!
Them's Fightin' Herds - Glue Cup was short on commentators this week, so I volunteered to fill in. Been a long time since I've done proper commentary, honestly missed it a lot.
Kitsune Tails - Cute little platformer, but maybe a little too on the nose in just how much it copies from SMB3. I think they didn't need to put Kuribo's Shoe in there.
Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers - Liked the demo a lot, but my opinions are already a little more mixed on the full version. It has cool ideas, but it feels like there's just not enough player agency, and a lot of ways to get stuck in stalemates. Maybe I need to give it a little more time to figure out strats I'm missing.
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - Casual practice, no cool clips worth sharing this week. Or maybe I just don't feel like dumping my SD card right now.
Splatoon 3 - Also just practice sessions.
Slay the Spire - The usual.
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Running out of things to say here.
DS-i: just a lot worse than the lite imo. The camera and the few dsi downloadable games were not worth losing GBA back compat
PlayStation TV: had potential but was just a worse vita and mediocre streaming box.
Piboy: a weird raspberry pi 4 based handheld I had by a company called experimental pi. It was actually kind of cool, but they had their own custom software needed to run on the screen and they were really bad about getting fixes out, and some patches would brick the machine iirc. The company seems to be defunct now. The website is a 404 now
DS Lite: maybe it’s because it was my first gaming console I bought with my own money as a kid. But this thing is such a trooper. Looks beautiful clamshell and the battery some how is still good today, almost 20 years later. Works real well with game carts too!
GameCube: I’m such a sucker for Nintendo but this thing was so portable and had a phenomenal wireless controller if you had it. I loved this console and the mini disks were so fun until I lost my case full of them.
Switch Lite: I know this isn’t a common one but the weight and the power behind it is amazing to me. I’ve always wanted a super portable console that doesn’t weigh a lot. The regular switch hurts for me to hold too long even with grips.
Least Favs:
PS2 slim: this little shit barely worked. At one point the slim would stop working where I’d have to open it, spin the disk like I was pull starting a lawn mower. It also scratched half my disks for no reason. The OG was a tank.
OG DS: bulky pain in the ass. Felt like holding two GBAs glued together.
This will probably get buried but I got a few of em for ya.
Syndicate Wars: Game was mind blowing for the time it was released.
Black and White 1/2: I know, more Peter Molyneaux. Everything else has been mentioned.
Jade Cocoon 1: Not 2. One was extremely unique and you won’t find another game like it. It’s the coolest monster merging game I’ve seen and has an endless dungeon.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: It’s old but not old. Went open source and has been developed over some time by the community. It’s much more newbie friendly these days.
Warlords Battlecry 3: Holy cow the races, persistent hero progression in an RTS. It’s age shows though.
That’s all I can pull of the top of my head right now that I haven’t seen mentioned, though I didn’t skim every single comment.
Edit: Just remembered Tyrian existed. Oldschool Schmup that had a good SP campaign and multiplayer.
Alright lots of recommendations in here, some that are making me question how old I am now since some of these don’t strike me as old enough to require a recommendation but I’ll just suggest one as a bit of a dark horse.
Tyrian 2000, the classic PC Shmup of a time long gone. Oh and I guess Jazz Jackrabbit cause that soundtrack is funky.
Steam Deck. I haven’t been this excited for a console since the original Xbox. I play a lot of games that I would otherwise avoid on my gaming rig, and it’s excellent for traveling.
Steam Controller. This one was worth the effort to get used to, and it introduced me to gyro controls and paddle buttons. Also, it was integral to the Steam Deck’s control scheme design.
Least favorites:
Wii. There were a few good games, but the controllers sucked ass. GameCube was better.
Game Gear. Screen was a smudge-fest. Any kind of motion was super hard to see.
Gen 1 Xbox controller. That thing was massive and awkward.
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