Always wanted a white saturn and a ram
Xart

In reverse chronological order:

Analogue Mega Sg (2019) – JPN colourway



The Sega Mega Drive was a ‘90s icon, along with Memphis patterns, The Simpsons, Lady Di etc. But while it has a distinctive, well-remembered design, with elements that carried across most of its numerous incarnations, its design is perhaps slightly messy by modern standards, along with being dragged this way and that by various localisations. Then along came Analogue to revise the classic design for the modern age. Out goes the clutter but a minimalist reimagining of the iconic circular pattern remains. And while a variety of colourways were available, this time the original Japanese colouring takes its rightful place as the ‘hero’ version and is available for all.

New Nintendo 3DS (2015)



In 2008, Edge magazine awarded LittleBigPlanet a coveted [10] score. User-generated content had come of age. Subsequent years brought other games that encouraged user expression such as Minecraft, social media rose for both good and ill and we’re generally encouraged to express our individuality more than ever. New Nintendo 3DS is the handheld of you. Stickers and decals are only skin-deep – New Nintendo 3DS allows the user to completely replace the front and back panels of the hardware with what turned out to be a genuinely huge range of customisable options. Want to express your love for your favourite franchise? You can do that. Want to deck out your console with your favourite colour or pattern? You can do that. Change the texture and materials of your console? You can add weighty wood or fuzzy felt panels to your console, all completely official. Glow in the dark? You’re covered. Combined with the first genuinely non-shit Nintendo 3DS design, the customisation of this iteration, along with the interior’s minimalist design disrupted only by a burst of colour from the SNES-inspired buttons, makes the New Nintendo 3DS an underrated classic.

Nintendo DSi XL (2010) – Wine Red colourway



With its silky texture, majestic nose of blackberries, charming dessert-like mouth and extraordinarily long finish, the 2010 Château Mouton-Rothschild has come to be a well-regarded wine that according to experts will “provide years of decadent pleasure”. In the same year, Nintendo produced a handheld console of equal sophistication and long-lasting pleasure. Its deep burgundy colour, with a hint of the metallic and a glossy top-coating that evokes its liquid namesake, brings a modest, elegant sophistication to any surface it is placed on. Reassuringly weighty in the hand, a sequence of tactile clicks opens up the console to reveal a vista of minimalism and symmetry. You lose yourself in the depth of the large screens, the grilles for the stereo speakers reflecting the button placement like a scattered reflection in a pool of water. A large stylus provides luxurious comfort for touchscreen control. One of the most sophisticated handhelds ever produced, the Nintendo DSi XL is a fine vintage.

Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)



Advertised as a kind of nexus between the player and a mysterious ‘third place’, there’s certainly a lot to get lost in with the angular design of the PlayStation 2. The sharp ridges of the design create deep black crevasses from which your eyes may never escape. Deep blue gradients, adult yet bursting with colour in a way that also suggests playfulness, consistently adorns design elements. A vertical stand that provides a solid block of this colour in stark contrast to the mostly black exterior is an optional accessory – and yet is also oddly essential. Right angles feature with reassuring consistency – even the logo is a sequence of right-angled lines – yet a few contrasting elements taken from the Sony brand and the original PlayStation also speak of a burgeoning sense of heritage in Sony’s growing entertainment brand that would cumulate later on in the 20th anniversary celebrations during the PS4 era. Much criticised at the time, the PlayStation 2 is a misunderstood classic that has stood the test of time.

Sega Dreamcast (1998)



The Dreamcast is a rare console whose exterior design and actual usage experience are ineluctably linked. Is it possible to look upon the console’s cloud-like exterior without hearing the gentle plink-plonk of its start-up sequence, and seeing its sky-and-sea inspired UI in the mind’s eye? The design resists straight lines – straight lines do not exist in the chaotic rumples of a cloud or the ever-changing surface of the churning sea… and they do not exist in our dreams. We merely look at the controller and the VMU’s screen and gameplay possibilities are an undeniable reality. A distinctive gentle purple cord connects the controller to the console – is it electrical wiring conveying charges from control inputs to a machine, or is it a psychic umbilical cord, sending our most heartfelt wishes and desires to this self-acclaimed caster of dreams? The Dreamcast design is modest and unassuming, perhaps easy to overlook among showier consoles, but unlike many of those consoles it forms a core part of the nostalgia for its platform. Like a dream, the design of the Dreamcast may easily slip from the conscious mind but it will live on inside us forever.

I do like the Wonder Mega.
It looks like something that would be strapped to an Acid House DJ on Top of the Pops.

Ooh yes the BG pocket is lovely -

mistercrayon wrote:

GameBoy Micro: Audacious. The GBA original is the best except for the screen so should never be in the running. landscape is actually preferable we learnt here (piss off game gear).

I've tried to discount usability or factors other than pure aesthetics from my considerations, I guess if the machine is turned on then yeah a backlit screen will look better.

Nobody has mentioned my pick for best looking console yet.

Gameboy Advance SP




I got a grey import from Japan on day one. Even the box was a thing of sophisticated beauty. Just look at it.

Ahh yes forgot about this. Had the silver one it was a device of joy.

I used to think poppo had taste

Best

1 gamecube
2 wii
3 Uk snes

Worst
1 ps5
2 series x
3 series S

Perhaps a controversial and topical worst list but I don't like the appearance of any of them. I'm not just bitter I'm not getting any!

I have a wee SP. Silver one. Nice handheld.

I very nearly went for the SP. Very nice kit. Probably in 4th place.

I think the PSP is a nice handheld but the PSP go is also nice

Do not underestimate the power of sliding.

Paul the sparky wrote:

Looks crippling to use. Absolute madness that we have the GameCube top of the list. Baby's first VTech console.

The black trim with the matching controller makes all the difference.

The Wii in black is a nice little minimalist box. Matching wiimotes even nicer. Were there ever matching nunchucks?

@davyK yeah I got a black Wiimote/Nunchuk set.

Wii was a decent design but that glossy plastic is horrible, especially in black.

Never liked the GCN design either, easily bottom of the Nintendo pile for me, well maybe the Famicom. That was just odd, but maybe for the Japanese market in 1983 it was appealing?