Probably the best ratio is the Vectrex. I have most of the library, and everything I've played is at least decent. The runner up would have to be the Neo Geo Pocket Color. If it weren't for the gambling games, it would have tied with the Vectrex. The Neo Geo and Neo Geo CD are a close third.
As for worst, I'd have to say that just about any dominant system could qualify for this, from the 2600 to the NES to the Playstation. We tend not to notice, since we tend to only think about the good stuff, but even in their heyday, the libraries of these systems were mostly made up of half-assed crap. For those who don't believe me, try watching Chrontendo. For the most part, out of the 16 or so games an episode, only 1 or 2 are noteworthy and at least half are just shit. I still love the thing, but that's a terrible good to bad game ratio.
I would argue for the Sega CD as up among the highest. For a library of 150 games or so, it had a lot of outstanding games let alone good or very good ones.
Consider the rpg lineup alone - out of a dozen or so rpgs there were:
Both Lunars
Shining Force CD
Dark Wizard
Popful Mail
And Vay was not far behind these.
Last edited by Natty Bumppo; 09-14-2011 at 06:20 PM.
When I come home from a long day in Hell, there's nothing I'd rather reach for than a fire-brewed bottle of Styx Beer. Made from the filthiest waters from our own River Styx. Styx Beer is a third more toxic than any other regular beer. The worst beer - the filthiest beer - the deadliest beer. It's Styx Beer!
If you want to see repetitive level design, look no further than Adventure Island and Bignose the Caveman for NES. Both are very fun games to play, but both have reused level shapes and everything. Heck even Super Mario Bros. reused a few levels. 1-3 and 5-3, 1-4 and 6-4, 2-2 and 7-2, 2-3, and 7-3, 2-4 and 5-4. All reused levels
Highest-
SNES. Sure tons of forgettable sports games, but I can't think of many actually that bad
Neo Geo. More or less designed to be epic enough to get colossal amounts of quarters from among the richest and most hardcore gamers in all existence. Those with a serious interest in Neo Geo could be expected to put massive amounts of cash into good games, the potential reward was too great for most devs to waste time making crap.
Dreamcast. Support was pulled so rapidly little shovelware had any hope to release.
Lowest:
Wii/PS1/PS2. Loads of casual fads. I'd never begin to bother plumbing the depths of their libraries to try naming titles standing out for true awfulness. THAT much got dumped on these systems.
Neo Geo Pocket Color. Ignore too much of the ports/remakes, side-stories, and gambling, you'll be left with few quality original titles in an already small library.
I agree it isn't really fair to rate computers. Stuff like PC and C64 border on anarchy at best when looking at the fringes of what classifies as a proper "game release". Anyone's able to sell the most inane **** one can ever dream.
Lum fan.
Yeah, some people forget about some of the horrid feces released on the PlayStation, like Spice World, Teletubbies, Flintstones Bowling, Tail of the Sun, Spec Ops, Mortal Kombat Special Forces, etc.
Same goes for the NES: Winter Games, Dash Galaxy, Wayne's World, Karate Champ, Tag Team Wrestling, Hatris, Ghostbusters, Total Recall, Ikari Warriors II, etc.
The more popular a game console is, the more junk is released for it.
Last edited by Rob2600; 09-14-2011 at 09:19 PM.
Yeah, some people forget about some of the horrid feces released on the PlayStation, like Spice World, Teletubbies, Flintstones Bowling, Tail of the Sun, Spec Ops, Mortal Kombat Special Forces, etc
No, I took those into account. PS1 is still higher percentage.
I actually enjoyed Spec Ops Stealth Patrol. Sure it might be one of the hardest games on the console, but the game had good decent control, great graphics, etc. If you can actually get into the game it's pretty fun.
It might not have been a great game, and that's mainly due to the difficulty, but it certainly wasn't a bad game.
Covert Assault wasn't bad either, but when everyone says "Spec Ops" it's safe to assume they're talking about Stealth Patrol. Usually the only one people have played.
I'm still convinced people hate that game (both on the NES as well as the arcade) because they don't know how to play it.
I completely agree with this and was just talking about it with a co-worker yesterday. I really haven't been as enthusiastic about a gaming era since during the time of the original PlayStation. Don't know what it is exactly, maybe everything is just starting to look the same to me.
Last edited by InsaneDavid; 09-15-2011 at 01:49 AM.
I have much, much love for the PlayStation, but even I wouldn't say it has a particularly good crap to quality ratio. It was the first system to have a metric shit ton of games, which equals, well, a ton of shit. It's like, take the NES, SNES, or Genesis library, which already have a fair number of stinkers, and then add on another 500 games, most of which being shovelware. There's a huge wealth of great games, no doubt, but so much trash too. Like, look at the long boxes, fun to collect and interesting historically, but not a whole lot of games in there worth playing these days, now that hype is no longer a factor. And that set is, what, over 100 games?
Last edited by Aussie2B; 09-15-2011 at 02:40 AM.
It has StarBlade in there, so that instantly makes it worthwhile. Ridge Racer, Descent, Krazy Ivan... but StarBlade Alpha would be enough for me.
For best ratio though, I have to agree with Atariguy, it's gotta be the Vectrex. Everything on that system is fun and at least functional enough to get some enjoyment out of. The only games I haven't cared for on the hardware were all homebrews.
Lowest concentration I'd go with Game Boy Color, just so much crap against a handful of great games, in which a handful of those were remakes.
We're all bias, I'm clearly super bias, but I say SNES for me has highest concentration of "good" games. If you want to stretch good to "playable/enjoyable" (which is highly subjective)... for me that's literally HUNDREDS of titles on the SNES.
I could pick out a Super Nintendo title at random, and chances are, I could at least spend a (relatively) happy hour playing that random title.
Can't say that personally for many other systems. Yes, SNES did have a lot of average, cookie cutter games, but for me at least, they're definitely not "broken" by any means; they're quite playable and enjoyable in their own right.
Chalk me up as being another Keith Courage fan.
Ummm... to be honest, I think the NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1 and PC Engine all have pretty awesome libraries of games. Yeah there's probably a ton of crap, but the amount of quality titles outweighs them.
I think the worst system I ever owned was the Nintendo 64, followed by the Game Gear. In both cases I had a hard time finding quality games and even most of the popular titles didn't really do much for me. Right now, I keep my N64 strictly for Doom and Wave Race, and its been awhile since I played either one. I sold my Game Gear and so far haven't found a convincing reason to buy a new one.
As has been said many times, personal taste is key here. I like my old games, and it's hard for me to find a Colecovision game I don't enjoy for a bit. As for worst, the RCA Studio ii just barely falls into the standards set by the OP at 10 games, unless you count Bingo. I can't think of one of them I'd ever want to play again.
Best: NGPC, hands down. Every non-casino game for the system is worth playing. Even the casino games aren't really "bad" per se; they do what they're supposed to.
Saturn is pretty high. I would say half of its US library is at least somewhat worthwhile. I would even rank Saturn above Dreamcast in this regard.
I'm not sure how I'd rank something like Game Gear. If you look at the system's library alone, it has a very good ratio. But a lot of those games are ports, and while they're mostly "good" ports, they're just redundant if you have other systems. For example, Streets of Rage for GG was done pretty well, but there's just no reason to play it over the Genesis version.
Worst is easily Game Boy Color, along with PS2.
Selling gaming accessories. Click
For my money the 5200 and Dreamcast have the best ratios. Each has a couple of terrible games, but not many, and lots of good-to-great stuff.
Not sure about worst ratio. I don't have a big Sega CD collection, but I rarely have a reason to play it and I've been pretty unimpressed with most of the titles I've played. Might be because I didn't acquire one until a few years ago. I would guess the biggest-selling systems (NES, PS1, PS2, Wii, etc) probably have the biggest ratio of bad-to-good games, but they also have the most good games in terms of quantity.
If you can't do it with 8 bits, you don't need to do it!
The Vectrex only has about 30 games, and 20 or so of them are excellent, especially for their time.
All of the Nintendo systems are at the bottom of this list. Each of their systems are chock full of shovelware's. The NES not so much, considering how many games were released for it, but damn, the SNES, 64, Gamecube, and Wii only have about 30% or less good games in thier entire libraries.
Gameboy Color too, as previously mentioned. Probobly at 5% or less.
Last edited by shinobimusashi; 09-16-2011 at 05:00 PM.