Unpopular opinion, but Xbox 360. The first ones didn't have hdmi, didn't have a hard drive, the giant power brick was unsightly, the controller has the worst dpad I have ever touched and playing any fighting game on it was a pain, the paid multiplayer cancer grew there, the ads in the main menu of the console... And I didn't get to see the red ring of death since I've switched to PS3 as soon as I could afford one.

I know a lot of people have fond memories of it, but for me the 360 represented the worst of the console manufacturers' greed, milking the consumer to the bone while cheaping out on everything that was possible to cheap out on.

Xbox One S. The library was crappy and the games are more expensive than on steam for some reason I can't fathom.

My Switch 1 broke after just a few months. That gets it the worst spot for me.

They all have flaws, but I've had a lot of consoles over a lot of years and don't have any I'd call "bad" all around. Each did its job masterfully.

Thinking about the question made me remember this bad boy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance_SP

That might be the favorite. Great size, battery, controls, games, peripherals... I kinda think I remember it got internet hate for some reason? But I LOVED this thing. Ultimate evolution of GameBoy.

The Switch, because it removed all the cool features the DS had.

Nintendo has ironically made my favorite and most disappointing consoles.

Most disappointing:

Virtual Boy WiiU Wii Switch

Best:

NES SNES Game Boy GBA

I owned a Virtual Boy back in the day and... yeah. It sucked. I bring it up every time people think Nintendo are infallible - they do have shit ideas from time to time.

I also owned a PSP and I just didn't use it much. I know it's a well beloved console but I didn't really like anything that I played on it.

The Wii was just okay, I just got tired of the gimmick too quickly, and the library was just atrocious. If you don't like movie tie-in games, you miss out on like 3/4ths of the entire catalogue of titles.

I think I'm just tired of console gaming at this point. The only reason I would buy a console is if it were a mobile console that I can take with me when I want to game away from my PC, and so far the only companies that are interested in developing mobile consoles are Nintendo and Steam.

PS4 - no games. Worse multimedia experience compared to PS3. No longer matters to me but did at launch.

Xbone - no games

Didn't buy PS5 or another Xbox myself but my roommate did get a PS5. No games. He's not buying another Sony console either.

Artificial value of exclusives lost combined with drastically less output from AAA and oddball titles like Sony had on PSN during PS3 era renders consoles completely pointless to me now. Since I was always PC gaming while also owning consoles in the past, I built a PC for the living room too.

Upcoming disappointment:

Probably Switch 2. I think Nintendo has lost their way ever since Iwata died. Certainly their style has evaporated. You will like your black/white barren GUI or else Mario's getting shot. Switch 1 was already borderline.

For me it was Xbox One. From day one (no pun intended) it just didn’t feel good to me. The UI experience never got away from being awful. The system itself was a sluggish awful mess. It should never take more than 3 seconds to load your options menu . On top of that Everytime I turned on my console it would take a half hour or more to update. The must have games just never came. The games they did come played worse than nearly anywhere else. If I was a teenage when I bought this system and played everyday some of these short comings could have been avoided. But as an adult it just felt terrible . From here I went back to Pc gaming made a rig that would destroy any console at the time. It was so bad to me I canceled my Xbox Live Subscription I had for 15 years ! That killed my love to Xbox entirely.

Probably second place was the PS3 but I bought it at the end of the generation and never got the exclusives I should have ..

I haven’t gotten into a console since SNES.

I bought a PS5, played it a few times, but it gathers dust. I think it was last powered up in 2024. I don’t find the games fun.

Xbox One disappointed me too! Switched to browser games after that. Much more relaxed gaming experience.

Meta Quest 3s. It was an initially a cool way of playing games but the novelty soon wore off and most games are not that good with VR. Up until then I iterated through Nintendo systems and was always satisfied.

I can't say xbox series x disappointed me, but compared to playstation it felt meh - probably due to as unenthusiastic UI as a gaming console can get. I guess I was lucky with consoles if this is the biggest issue.

Master System 2
Super Nintendo
Game Boy
PlayStation
PlayStation 2
GameBoy Advance SP
PlayStation Portable
PlayStation 3
New 3DS
Steam Deck

I honestly think the 3DS was probably the most disappointing; I bought it on a whim 2nd hand from EB Games along with a copy of a Pokémon game (I don’t remember which). Mechanics hadn’t evolved much since Pokémon Blue, and the experience was kinda “meh” overall.

I also dabbled with a few other games, but nothing gripped me. The only saving grace for that console was that it rapidly appreciated in value since my purchase (like 5x?) due to the relative rarity of that particular colorway.

Switch is easily my least played console. Its library was nearly entirely made up of games I already played on the Wii U. On top of that they had the cheek to require a subscription to play online. No thanks.

Hm, that's tough.

For perspective, I've owned a lot of systems from the NES on.

The first year of the Nintendo DS. The (first, Grey) system was quite ugly and there really wasn't much great software coming out. That all changed after the first year, oh boy. My favorite system ever now.

The Wii. Too much gimmick stuff distracting from the experience (eg metroid wiimote shooting and wiimote sideways). So much shovelware!. It's still a nice system (especially considering backwards compatibility too) but still.

I also had the 32X and virtual boy at some point of time but did not regret them as I knew what I was getting. After burner, star wars and virtua racing or (then) cheap stereoscopic red games.

Switch was what made me realize golden era of gaming was over, but it took about a year to set in because of the disconnect between the NX presentation and the actual product.

Seriously, go take a look at the original NX Switch presentation and it would almost seem that Nintendo was selling a completely different product.

All of the Wii era inspired hardware went mostly unused because the Switch couldn't play Wii games, and Nintendo didn't bother to even port their own titles outside of recycled Wii U content that didn't sell well on the original console.

The software similarly was a joke. I have more functionality on a Nintendo DS than a Switch, and that isn't even including "unofficial" homebrew. You can't even voice chat with your friends without using an external app, which is insane considering the DS, DSi, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U that preceded this.

Major features that gave Nintendo the edge were gone. DS Downlaod Play, Streetpass, included minigames & apps, themes, free online, eshop points, wifi events, etc.

On top of that, the library was just not interesting enough to warrant paying $60 a pop for single player games, and the multiplayer selection was sparse, despite the main feature of the console being joycon controllers.

I got bored of it after only a year, and ended up having to change the joycon c-sticks a couple years later because of the drift issues.

IMO it was a massive success just because of the portable format allowing you to play big name games on the go, but it absolutely fails as a handheld console when compared to the DS line, which did so much more for so much less.

Now that other handhelds like the Steam Deck, AYN stuff, Legion, etc exist, there's really no need to buy a Switch (2) for third party titles, which makes it a complete Nintendo only buy in.

The kicker is that Nintendo made absolute bank which is now why the Switch 2 is going for $450 (soon to be $500) and bumped their game prices to a whopping $70-80 because they know people were fine with it.

If I had more time on my hands, I would legitimately go make a modern version of Streetpass and download play for modern handhelds because that stuff was so cool and useful.

In my case, there were two:

• Phillips CDi (need I day more?)
• PS2 after having a Dreamcast and a Gamecube

I guess I'm lucky this never happened to me. I tend to do a lot of research on a console before I get it, and wait until mid-generation when it's matured with some good games. The closest thing might be the Oculus Rift, since I never did find an addictive VR game I loved. If I hadn't bought it, I might've never tried out Half-Life: Alyx, and would've been forever curious. But...it definitely wasn't a killer app.

Nintendo Switch

Mario Odyssey was fine, but I didn't really see the use for a portable slab compared to a pocket-size device like my phone or the 3DS. Also, this was the first Nintendo device that felt completely soulless. At least the Wii U had some charm to it.

Nintendo Switch

I've never really clicked with the Switch and we've had one since launch. It's not all bad, handheld and home console in-one is a pretty cool concept, but it underwhelms in all ways. Also browsing the eShop is painfully slow too.

PS5. Minimal games

I am one of the few lucky ones to actually get an Ouya... It wasn't great.

Xbox One. Everytime I booted it up to feed the Halo crave, there’d be an update that took like an hour. Finally get on… Halo needs to update. 1 hour later, I’ve lost interest.

Repeat 6+ months later.