The Top 9 Video Game Systems Of All Time

The Atari 2600 was the very first console that was seen as a "must-have" by the market itself. In a way, it single-handedly made the video-game industry as we know it today.

Atari is a famous company in the video game market. Its early home consoles basically engineered the home console market from scratch. The 2600 was very much the fuel for this acclaim. With classic games that challenged and innovated game and level design, plot design, and even the inclusion of easter eggs, the Atari 2600 is a mainstay as one of the best video game consoles ever built.

I know what you're thinking: "What is the Wii U doing on this list?" Well, despite its lackluster sales, it's actually an incredible system worthy of this list. Here's why:

One of the huge reasons to buy a Wii U is its masterful versatility in gaming. It features a Wii emulator inside its housing, which means that upgrading Wii owners can maintain their game library. Not just that, but the Gamepad, which some may find clunky, can be easily switched out for a Pro Controller, and MotionPlus & Nunchuck experience. Basically, you have complete empowerment in the ways you choose to play games on the Wii U. If that wasn't enough, it also features the Nintendo Store, where you can buy the classics from older Nintendo systems, like Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Metroid. The Wii U is a Nintendo game powerhouse that offers more than one unique way of interacting with a video game.

If the Atari 2600 helped bring the home video console to forefront of North American gaming, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) took that to the next level as a global phenomenon.

When the NES was released in 1985, the game industry was at an all-time low after the bust in 1983. But Nintendo changed all that by learning from Atari's mistakes. They kept game development as a first-party endeavor to ensure its quality, making now classic games like Super Mario Bros., Metroid and The Legend Of Zelda. The NES became an introduction to video games for multiple generations and became a major innovator in terms of game design, graphics, plot, as well as being the arbiter of nearly every console game genre currently in existence.

While the Playstation 3 can't sport the same sales figures as its older brother, it out-entertained every game console until the Xbox One.

The Playstation 3 is a powerful machine, especially for its time. It has a unique architecture which can be a pain to develop for, but makes up for that inconvenience with versatility, reliability, and performance. The inclusion of ports like optical audio and the use of standard USB and Bluetooth on the PS3 controller made it compatible with all Macs and PCs. It's Blu-Ray player also gave it a massive feature boost, on top of its better graphics and larger game library than its counterpart, the Xbox 360.

The Nintendo 64 totally changed the video game industry, much like its predecessor the NES did. It successfully normalized what had been attempted for years.

The Nintendo 64 completely changed the face of game design forever by utilizing its 64-bit architecture to create large 3D game worlds like that in Legend of Zelda and Super Mario 64. The sense of immersion went through the roof as you interact with 3D objects seamlessly and believably. Sure, there were kinks to iron out in terms of game design, but the N64 proved it was possible and that it was truly the future of video games.

The Xbox One may not win the Spec Wars, but they definitely nailed the Entertainment Wars in the current generation of home consoles.

In the previous generation, the PS3's versatility as an entertainment machine as well as a high-end video game console gave it the edge to some consumers; similarly, the Xbox 360 became the "true gamer's" console. This generation, it seems they have swapped sides. While Xbox One is still underpowered compared to the PS4, they have put entertainment versatility at the core of the Xbox One, especially by adding the ability to control your cable box and adding a Blu-Ray player. The Xbox One is essentially a living room Windows machine.

The Super Nintendo for its time was seen as the bleeding edge of games and graphics when it debuted in 1990.

The SNES was exactly what it said it was. It brought the same innovation in all areas of game development and playability and super-powered it compared to the NES. It became an instant classic and the industry-standard in gaming with titles like "Zelda: A Link To The Past," "Super Mario World," and "Donkey Kong Country." It was the golden age of the side-scroller and the overhead platformer, as some of the best and hardest games to ever be made came out on the SNES.

The penultimate item on this list is the Playstation 2. As the best-selling game console in the industry's history, this one is a shoe-in.

The PS2 was the first system to bring home video to a console, as it had a built-in DVD player. In fact, this was the first and only DVD player that many gamers had. The console was essentially just a standard PC, which made it a breeze to develop for; in fact, it had a massive library of over 2,000 games, which is more than double what the Xbox had. It was still being developed for until 2013, perhaps one of the longest development and production lifespans in the video game industry's history. Not to mention it was the exclusive home of the Grand Theft Auto series, which took the world by storm in the 2000s.

Some may find it anti-climactic, but believe it or not, the best video game console of all time is your Mac or PC. This is a list about machines that play games, so don't try and say that it's not a game console!

PC gaming is the reason home gaming stayed alive in the 1980s; it was the original sandbox for many of the games that we would soon love on traditional consoles as well. In fact, these days, you can pick up a computer that can easily outperform any Xbox or Playstation.

It is easily the most versatile way to play video games: it allows for backwards compatibility in a way that current and even previous generation consoles have abandoned since the PS2, it has the most amount of variety when it comes to input devices–heck, you can even buy a Playstation or Xbox controller to PC game with, even your old PS3 and 360 ones will work–and has been the most stable platform for development. Consoles can't pull off every type of game. Case in point is strategy games like Sid Meier's Civilization; however, PC games can and do offer all of the console games themselves. Heck, most laptops even come with an HDMI port now. Plug that into your TV, and you're good to go!