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Each generation I have a new favorite console.

In the early days, I loved the Intellivision. Not only was it my first video game system of my very own (we had an Odyssey, but it was the families, not mine), but it blew the Atari 2600 out of the water (sorry, April). The games for the system were very creative considering the limitiations of programing at the time. Hats off to the Blue Sky Rangers!

When the Nintendo came out, I was not immediately on board. It was hard to give up my love for the Intellivision. But when my brother bought the system along with Baseball and Zelda, I went berserk. I lost myself for hours and hours playing Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid, Super Mario Bros., and Contra. The list of awesome games seems never-ending…but I understand that's impossible. I was never a Sega fan during that time, it the Master System seemed like a cheap knock-off.

Then came the third generation with the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. My loyalties for Nintendo started to wane. I loved the larger scaling and the early paralax scrolling of the Genesis. Games like Shinobi, Populous, Sonic the Hedgehog, Arnold Palmer's Golf, and John Elway's Football were some of my favorite games during that time. Both systems came out with their own version of Super Ghouls and Ghosts, and I prefered the Genesis version by quite a bit. However, when Nintendo came out with Super Metroid and Street Fighter II, I never looked back. Super NES won out in the end with efforts such as A Link to the Past, Ultima IV, Castlevania IV, Doom, and a slew of unbeatable titles.

The fourth generation saw some new players in Sony and the Neo Geo. Sega introduced the Sega Saturn and the Sega CD. The Sega market got so convoluted at the time, that I couldn't keep up with the new tech and quickly grew frustrated. Nintendo kept it simple with another cartridge based system in the N64. The Neo Geo was pretty cool, but way too expensive: $600 during a time where consoles sat around the $150-$200 range. Sony introduced its Playstation, which really turned some heads. While the Playstation was a great system, with its CG cut-scenes, its huge adventures, and some amazing graphics for the time in Resident Evil, the N64 had shorter load times and a slew of titles that none of the competitors could beat like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Star Wars: Podracer, Bust a' Move 99 (still the best Bust a' Move out there), Banjo Kazooie, GoldenEye, Super Mario 64 and Perfect Dark. It was a magical time for gaming! The N64 is probably my favorite system of all time. However, the new disc format proved to be too much for Nintendo as they lost a lot of 3rd-party support to the superior disc space of the Playstation. Franchises like Metal Gear and Final Fantasy jumped ship for Sony, and new franchises like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider found a nifty home on Sony's consoles.

The fifth generation really upped the competition. Sega introduced the ahead-of-its-time Dreamcast. Ultimately, lack of support and the high cost of the console really hurt it. When the Playstation 2 came out, it immediately trumped the Dreamcast and sent Sega to its console grave. Nintendo finally joined the disc generation with the Gamecube, and it did so in an odd fashion using the mini-disc. Considering that the Playstation 2 doubled as a DVD player, it outlasted the Gamecube because of its superior 3rd-party support. Even with Microsoft's XBox crashing the party with great titles such as Halo and Project Gotham, it was the PS2 that won my heart in that generation. I was reluctant to give up my Nintendo as it had been so good to me all those years, but games like Time Splitters, Dark Cloud 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, Onimusha, Maximo, Guitar Hero, and Baldur's Gate really got my wife into playing games and we spent many wonderful nights together with our PS2.

Now we are in the sixth generation of gaming and the three major players have offered us the Nintendo Wii, Microfost's XBox 360, and Sony's Playstation 3. There is no denying the power of the XBox 360, however my heart lies with the Wii. I sometimes forget about the Playstation 3 despite that one of my favorite games of this generation, Valkyria Chronicles, is an exclusive to that system. While the XBox 360 has games like Halo 3, Oblivion, Gears of War, BioShock, Dragon Age, oh…the list goes on and on…I still love the childlike simplicity and love for the craft of video games that shines with the Wii. From games like the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Super Mario Galaxy, Deadly Creatures, Wario Ware, Breath of Fire, Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, New Super Mario Bros., to its throwback titles on the virtual console that you can't find on any other console like all those great games on the NES, Super NES, and N64, it's hard to beat the Wii despite its obvious short-comings in the graphics and storage department. With the introduction of SD Memory Card support and its Classic Controller Pro, some of the gripes I had about the system have been addressed. While their online effort is sub-par compared to the XBox, at least its free. I really enjoy the channel interface, although they should introduce skins to the dashboard so gamers can customize their experience, something gamers truly love to do.

I know this answer is incredibly convoluted, but I love games so much, I thought I would explain my answer. When all is said in done, I think my favorite console is: the N64.