Let's say the PC doesn't count and you aren't taking into account backwards compatibility, emulation, online play, homebrew games, and the cost/availability of games.
I feel like I'd want to choose the PS3. Like the Xbox 360 it had a decent lifespan and a lot of games were produced for it. A lot of which are already some of my favorites.
The only things that would make hesitant are I feel like a lot of modern games are larger and have open worlds which I feel like that could be nice in the long run and many of my favorite games for the PS3 have been re-released.
Steam Deck, because it is handheld, and can run a lot of my Steam games. I can also dock it to a big screen and attach a controller.
Both have such a huge library of fantastic games. In my opinion, the best libraries overall of any generation of video games. I think they existed during an era of video game development where there the market had not fully digested what a commodity video games could be, so there was space for a lot of experimentation and discovery. Off the top of my head, the SNES has...
- Donkey Kong Countries 1, 2, and 3
- Final Fantasies 4, 5, and 6
- Super Mario World
- Yoshi's Island
- Super Metroid
- F-Zero
- Star Fox
- Mega Man 7
- Mega Man X, X2, and X3
- Breath of Fire 1 and 2
- Rock and Roll Racing
- Earthbound
- Secret of Mana (and sequels if in this hypothetical we're not being region-locked)
- Secret of Evermore
- Terranigma
- Skyblazer
- Hook
- Street Fighter 2 (and others)
- Final Fight 1, 2, and 3
- Killer Instinct
- Super Mario RPG
- Joe and Mac 1 and 2
- Soul Blazer
- Chrono Trigger
- Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Mario Kart
- Shadowrun
- Demon's Crest
- Super Ghouls and Ghosts
- Castlevania Dracula X
- Super Castlevania 4
- Mortal Kombats 1, 2, and 3
- Illusion of Gaia
- Dragon Quests
- Star Ocean
- Lufia
- Front Mission
- 7th Saga
- Ogre Battle
- Harvest Moon
- Tales of Phantasia
... I'll leave it there, but the list goes on, the SNES has a library that is burgeoning with bangers. The PSX is, too, but I feel hesitant to ruin the comments page with another list.
Good point. I had a feeling someone might choose the SNES or NES for the big library alone but the SNES era definitely did have some unique games
I'll have to check out some of the ones on your list I don't recognise
I would say it doesn't because you are still running PC games. The reason I specified consoles specifically without homebrew and backwards compatibility is it kind of leaves you stuck in a certain generation that typically has a finite lifespan.
You could install Linux on a console and use it forever or rely on homebrew for extended life like the PS Vita otherwise.
Then Xbox Series X as I said in the first version of the comment
Let’s say the PC doesn’t count and you aren’t taking into account backwards compatibility, emulation, online play, homebrew games, and the cost/availability of games.
I'd rather quit gaming altogether at that point.
I game on PC myself but why would you quit gaming all together if you couldn't do it on PC?
Because I don't like consoles, plain and simple. Everything they can do I also can on my PC, except better and for less.
Fair enough. I'd probably just go for the Xbox One in that case and deal with a few games still being moddable and supporting the keyboard and mouse as peripherals rather than give up on gaming
