Was the PlayStation More Impactful Than the NES? - Retro Bird
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 เม.ย. 2023
- The Nintendo Entertainment System is often credited with saving home video game console market in the US, but does that make it more impactful than what the PlayStation accomplished on a global level? I share my take on the matter.
Was the PlayStation More Impactful Than the NES? - Retro Bird / PS1 / Sony PlayStation / NES / Nintendo
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Games played: Super Mario Bros. (0:00), Crash Bandicoot (0:17), Gargoyle's Quest II (0:45), Contra (2:35), Super Mario Kart (2:49), Resident Evil 2 (3:15), Final Fantasy VII (6:29)
I know I don't say it every time, but I really appreciate that you do this, thank-you
In my home town in Australia, I knew one person who claimed to have had a NES, and I knew of one person who had a PS1. PC was the real king of gaming.
Hugo's House of Horrors, Jazz Jackrabbit, Alone in the Dark, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and my favourite of all, Descent. These were my childhood memories.
@Emmanuel Sanders Very happy to hear that :)
@Boltronics good games. I played some of those. Kings Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory. My dad's house had Mario, he liked that a lot.
Retro Bird it was obviously ET on Atari that really is the most impactful. It sure did impact the Earth in New Mexico. Hopefully, the landfill is near Roswell and Area 51.
You forgot Donkey Kong via DK64😉
As someone who grew up in Mexico, the NES had a greater impact. It was the first console to receive official distribution, and even had its own official magazine and TV shows dedicated to Nintendo in the country. It was also the first console I owned, and in the late 80s and early 90s, most of my friends and cousins also had one. In fact, it was so popular that many adults referred to any video game console as a "Nintendo."
While the PlayStation also made a significant impact, by the time it became readily available in my country, I was already aware of PC gaming and hooked on gaming. Additionally, between 1998 and 2004, game piracy was rampant for PS games in Mexico, which only helped increase its popularity and dominance in Latin America.
Nintendo's control of cartridge production and the 10NES chip established a business model where consoles are cheap, and the manufacturers earn money from licensing. This model built the console market we know today, giving people a chance to buy hardware they otherwise couldn't afford.
True, but nothing revolutionized gaming like the playstation.
nothing like have a monopoly on gaming industry at the time too.
The classic razor and blades business model.
@@zugetsui9971 how?
@@zugetsui9971 TrumpWrong.gif
It’s so important to remember that all of us who are passionate about games are ultimately ‘on the same team’, so to speak. This was great, RetroBird, have a great weekend!
Well said. These videos are just a way for us to all get together and talk about the things we love :)
@@RetroBirdGaming And you did a great job with that! (I hope my comment made that clear, you are excellent at these, RetroBird :) )
Always some of the best retro content on TH-cam!
the best
One impact the PS1 had was popularising optical discs over cartridges.
In Japan it was PC Engine :)
That I agree. Sega cd though.
I would vote for nes. But I'm 50 years old. My introduction to gaming was there. When the ps1 came out I was already hooked. Age of the player , I believe, has the biggest input. Great video!
I also vote NES, but am 43, and would tend to agree with your point.👍
Facts should have the biggest input. The NES saved the industry, allowing for the PlayStation to come into existence
Maybe but I was born in the 80s and I grew up playing SNES and then N64. While I understand their impact and still love playing those games, my favorite game generation if I'm being honest is 7th...
Here’s an interesting bit of info, over in Japan the American game crash of 1983 was called the “Atari shock”. Like Europe, Japan at the time had a robust PC gaming market with things like the MSX and NEC PC-88, and if you had lots of money the Sharp X68000.
Growing up in the UK I knew loads of kids with Master Systems, but only one with a NES (and he also had a Master System).
IIRC the Master System was marketed quite heavily as a cheaper console against the Mega Drive, so I was playing Master System at friends' houses long into the 16-bit era.
Pretty much everyone I knew has a PS1 though. I barely knew anyone with an N64.
Love the thoughtful, no personal target way you discuss and find humor in things. Enjoying the videos on my Friday nights!
So fun fact: the game industry crash wasn't so much a major consumer affecting crash and more like retailers getting spooked. I watched a doc with some old Atari and Activision guys who went their own way and it turned out people were wondering where all the games went on store shelves.
This feels very much closer to the truth than what we are told about this event.
It just doesn’t make sense for an entire country to collectively reject video games all at the same time.
But as a market investor, seeing the huge profits being made overnight suddenly plummet at the tail end of the original big system, the Atari VCS, having exhausted the initial sales from it’s release in 1977 to six years later and no quality control or license fee system in place, you can imagine people thinking, a bit short sightedly that the market had simply bottomed out and it was actually a fad.
It is kind of difficult to imagine though. I mean there’s a knee jerk reaction, then there’s a complete freak out and loss of any kind of common sense or perspective.
Not to mention there was a shift to PC gaming at the time. Nintendo didn't save anything and actually was the cause of a lot of developers closing shop.
Nintendo got to decide how many carts were made for each game and limited the amount of games that could get published to the point that companies like konami and capcom had spin off and shell companies to avoid the limitations.
The ceo of namco at the time called them tyrants
@@siege_sensei here’s a strange thing.... video games were Japanese children’s 6th favourite pastime before the Famicom (1982) and 9th favourite after the Famicom (1991).
@@iwanttocomplain At that time there was a major glut of low quality games being pushed out. It was a cash grab, and we got tired of paying $30 give or take for shit games, and largely stopped buying what they were selling.
We mostly played the games we already had, if we still played at all, or arcade games, then ended up getting a C64 or other computer shortly thereafter. Then came the NES...
This topic is sure to polarize ! It's hard to compare across generations.
Pretty Simple actually. Gaming wasn't a huge thing in the 80's. It was a lot bigger in the 90's. So this is why you see the massive sale numbers reflect that.
First of all, as a videographer, I really appreciate all the juicy b-roll in your videos! It's really hard for me to look past the NES and say the PS1 was more impactful because the NES was really impactful for me. I had an Atari first and I remember going to my neighbor's house and experiencing the NES which felt life changing. Overall, it made such a huge impression on me. The design of the console, controllers and cartridges were so unique that I had to have a NES. And the first game I played was Super Mario Bros which beat out Mario Bros on the Atari by a mile. I bought a PS1 when it launched, and it was a great system with some really awesome games. It just seemed to me like the titles I was playing on the NES just made more of an impact like Kid Icarus, Metroid, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros, Zelda etc etc. I must say that now I have to find that small PS1 and screen that you have in the video...super cool!
Thank you and I love the screen that attaches to the PS One. I use it a ton.
"Going to my neigbours house" that's exactly what I did too, back in 92/93 I guess. Such a magical moment it was to experience the nes for the first time. I actually remember trying Mario and dying by not jumping over a pit. Such an impact it made for me, and for a lot of us.
Pretended I was mario back home and wished it for christmas. Christmas comes and delivers - a Sega mega drive! Hehe, I sure got angry but ended up enjoying Sonic 2 very much.
I was born after the PS1 was released but, really enjoyed playing PS2 and games in general so thank you to all the gamers that allowed these consoles to become popular and games to grow to what they are now!😊
The NES was huge in Canada too! We had a very similar videogame ecosystem here as well.
Thought the SMS was popular over there
@@therealjaystone2344 It was more popular but still pretty rare, most of my friends either had a Nintendo or a Genesis. I still have our original Master System with like 30 games.
I'm glad you pointed out the whole "in America" thing. Almost nobody I knew had an NES growing up in the UK, it was mainly Mega Drive, a few Master System, and a sprinkling of Amiga machines.
Mega Drive came out years later, can’t really pretend you chose mega drive over the nes because there’s a large gap there. And instead of choosing the NES, you Europeans chose a bunch of 💩 consoles, like the Amiga
@@StrokedGT Amiga is a Home Computer not a game console
I think “in North America” is more accurate since it did well in Canada (and maybe Mexico, as another comment mentions).
@@TheDavrock whatever it was, it sucked
@@williammannard3540 yes all my family in Mexico had NES and my mom recently brought one back from my grandmas house recently.
Your channel is so good man! Your Dad should at least be proud even if he isn't directly related to your success.
I came to Canada in 1995, and Sega Genesis and Playstation were my favorite consoles. I played Nes and Snes, and I even had N64 for some exclusive games, and they were not that great of a console to me. When Dreamcast came out in 1999, I was blown away.
Same man. Nothing will ever give me that same feeling of booting up Sonic Adventure for the first time and seeing such a massive leap forward in graphics from the muddiness of the ps1 and the flat look n64 games had.
Retro Bird is one of the very few You Tubers that has the best content & topics that makes you do a deep thinking about retro gaming.
From the UK. NES was 'around' but few kids seem to have it. When the PS1 got its footing almost everyone I knew had one.
During the NES days we were still hooked on gaming with microcomputers (C64, Amiga etc..) though the Master System had a widespread presence. It wasn't until the 16bit era that we'd see more prominence of Mega Drive and SNES (and yes, we had the playground console wars back then too).
The PS1 spread like wildfire though so was definitely the most impactful.
One thing is that the NES basically paved the way forward for video games as a home medium. What I mean is prior to the NES you mostly had Arcade titles ported to the home. Bite sized experiences focused primarily on testing skill and a lot of single screen games. There were other titles like Adventure, and computers had more lengthy RPG experiences like Wizardry and Ultima, but those were all pretty niche.
With the NES though there was a clear shift towards meatier experiences spearheaded by Zelda, Kid Icarus, Dragon Quest/Warrior, and Metroid and later followed up with titles like Crystalis, Startropics, Gargoyle's Quest 2, Final Fantasy, Faxandu, ect. It got to a point where people even say with the next generation that the Genesis and Turbo are known for their Arcade ports while the SNES is known for RPGs, two things on opposite ends of the spectrum.
The PS1's use of CD's and capable 3D performance did allow for a lot of progress and change in game design, but I don't think it was quite at the level of a shift towards being able to resume progress in a game you weren't expected to complete in one sitting.
Outside of the USA 8bit computers were far more influential and there were more non-arcade ports to these machines than games ever released on the NES. Some of these became part of the NES library later on. On a worldwide perspective the NES is well down the list, but still very important in video game history.
@@Sasahara-Lafiel Sorry but I still disagree. I have spent my share of time fiddling with micros and games on them are still largely in the arcade style whether they're straight up from arcades or not. There are exceptions like Elite, Dizzy, and Rebelstar Raiders, but there have always been exceptions. In fact games largely use arcade design sensibilities on the NES too, but there's a clear shift brought forth by a lot of the early Famicom Disk System titles compared to any other platform at the time. Longform adventures designed around saving progress and resuming over multiple play sessions were both incredibly uncommon and also unpopular before the NES.
Now as for whether this shift would have happened without Nintendo's console or not? I think it still would have just maybe taken a tad longer, but by that same token I think basically everything you can attribute to the PS1 still would have more or less happened between the Saturn and N64 had Sony not thoroughly trounced them both out of the gate.
@@NiGHTSnoob The 8 bit micros had lots of games where you could save progress via tape or passwords before NES reached the USA or the Famicom Disk System released.
I would say this feature was uncommon on all of the 80's systems, it's just more apparent on the NES because of the robust nature of carts, it's lifespan ended later and the features where used in franchises that are still being made today.
The Famicom Disk System didn't release outside of Japan, the majority of non Japanese NES owners wouldn't have know it even existed, let alone played a game on it.
It certainly wasn't any more revolutionary than the disc systems that were available for most home computer systems at the time.
The nanner part is comedy gold.
Viewer from Norway here, in a small coastal town called Kragerø...
Finally my beloved PS1 gets some love! I feel like there are so few of us that still love and play on that system, all I hear is "the graphics didn't age well", hey, graphics CAN'T age, they're the same then as they are now if you boot up a childhood game. I probably play on my PS1 a couple of times a month, unless it's an jrpg, and my Nes I play on pretty much the same, a couple of times a month...
...man I love those PS1 graphics, they're so charming.......
But anyway, I got my first console in the 80's, the Atari 2400, and sure it was fun for what it was, but just about a year later we got our Nes, and that changed everything. Everyone had a Nintendo, so we used swap-borrow games all the time, until people started to get the Super Nintendo, and suddently nobody had any games to swap with me..
And all the way to 1999 my family didn't get any new consoles, we only had that Nes and severel computers, so I manly grew up with 2D and 3D games on PC, the internet in the mid 90's and so on, but when the PlayStation started to show up in late 95 I was mesmerized. Those games! I remember seeing my cousin who lived practically next door play Final Fantasy VII, and I was like "this is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!!!" I HAD to have that console, but naturally my parents, even though they were pretty wealthy, said no and that what we have is enough. I begged and I begged, but no dice...
some years latter when I was 15 and about to turn 16, I said to my self "Screw it!" the next time I wen't outta town on my own, I took all that money I had saved up and bought my very own console, and this one was mine, had to share that Nes and computer with siblings. Even though my parents forbid me to buy that console, I did it anyway, and the first game I bought was, yup, Final Fantasy VII (finished that game 17 times that first year alone), and Resident Evil 2. So for me the PS1 was more impactful with storytelling, music, and with games in general.
But what made it more impactful was that it made me stand up to my parents for like the first time, sure we've argued and had our differences in the past, but this was the first time I really disobeyed them and said "hey! this is MY money, not YOUR money and I can spend them just the way I want to." soooo, yeah... PlayStation 1 to me had a HUGE impact! And that it also made me discover my favourite game of all time, Final Fantasy VII, which later in december this year I'm gonna finish for 33rd time...
But I still love my Nes, still got the one my dad bought all those years ago, it's still hooked up (as is my original PS1) as are all my 12 consoles. Just got a new game for it yesterday, "Rollergames".
It's really close in my book, but I vote for the PlayStation... Great video!
Thank your for sharing such a detailed perspective! The PlayStation does still get quite a bit of love here in the US despite the "graphics haven't aged well" reputation it has. Collectors are super into it and I personally still think it is a lot of fun. Tons of great 2D games, games with pretty pre-rendered backgrounds and the games that go full 3D polygons I find are helped by being played on smaller screens. I like using my little PS One with the attached screen.
@@RetroBirdGaming More then glad to share, it's the most important console for me, it's sort of a "coming of age" console..
Final Fantasy VII helped me through some dark times, being heartbroken, alone (because my family moved us from the capital to way out in the desolate and rural country), and the start of mental health issues.
But hey, it sorta worked out, that person that broke my heart ended up 3 years later as my girlfriend and almost 3 years after that, she became my wife, and later in October we'll be celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary!
Oh! And she also fell in love with the Final Fantasy series through my PlayStation 1 ^_^
@@Cellfix How about that! Everything important ended up falling in love with each other!
The best way to describe it goes like that:
The NES is dr. J
The SNES and Mega Drive are Magic and Bird
And the PS1 is MJ
The first one kept the game going the second ones rivalry saved the game and the third took the game on another level globaly
Ehhhh, sort of. I like what you did here. But looking back on them, NES games on the whole have aged better than most PS1 games. Most of the early attempts at 3d graphics are horrible to look at today as opposed to the bright, eye pooping graphics you see with Super Mario Bros 2 and 3, or Zelda. Besides the Final Fantasy games on PS1, off the top of my head, I can't think of many games that I think hold up that well.
You didn’t mention at around 11:00minutes you were playing the original donkey Kong on DK64 hahah. Always good stuff keep it up
your videos have the best intro writing haha
10:25
"I showed you my Banana Peel, now answer me."
Retro Bird, you are absolutely a treasure. Your channel is the most wholesome thing on TH-cam!
Very interesting video. I did not expect the differences between territories but it makes sense. I'm in the UK and I've literally never seen a NES or SNES in the flesh, I never knew anyone who had one. I grew up playing the Megadrive until the PlayStation came out!
@P. J. Benney I saw a SNES inside a glass case at a hotel in central London once :P 1st time I've seen an SNES in my life
NES was iconic. But I still had room to go outside. SNES came around and my brother called me a Gamefreak. Those were some powerful words back then! By PS1, it was like.. Yeah, I COULD go to your house and do all sorts of things OR I could just hang out and play through this game ALL DAY. And you know what? I think I will. Then all day tomorrow and probably the next week.
Here in Brazil we did not have an officially licensed NES, but I still believe the NES is the most influential console of all time because of the impact that the various "Famiclones" had in the market and culture of third world countries (mainly). If you are from a first world country you'll probably never understand how crazy expensive official consoles and games were for us third world people until very recently. Nowadays Steam and Xbox Live are (kinda) affordable, but until they showed up most of us relied HARD on the gray market as the only viable option to play games. And "Famiclones" were the main way to go for most people. The PolyStation was a prime example of a"Famiclone" that sold millions and millions of units in the90s/ 2000s.
The Playstation was also HUGE here in Brazil because CDs were very easy and cheap to pirate. In fact, piracy for it was so rampant that even though I had several friends who owned a Playstation (and most of them were considered "rich kids") I have never in my life touched a official Playstation CD. I just recently learned online that they were black.
I’ve owned and loved both of these consoles but I would vote PS1. The NES was my first console and if I had to pick just one it would be the NES. But I think the PlayStation was the begging of games really being mainstream, it went from kind of a niche hobby back in the 80s to more people playing or at least showing interest in the mid 90s. And I think that’s because games matured and there were more options. In hindsight the ps1 graphics were pretty bad but in comparison to 8 bit it was a huge advancement. And we started having voice acting, fmv cut scenes, better sounds. Also, CD’s were cheaper than carts so you could get greatest hits games for $20 and even new games were $10-$20 cheaper than cart based games. All this contributed to bringing more interest in the hobby. Sure there were growing pains but I definitely think that era of games brought in a lot more people who weren’t really playing games before.
I think allot of the reason the Playstation outsold the NES is that 2 or 3 kids shared it in their house growing up, and when they got older and loved on their own, they bought their own consoles they didn't have to share. I wonder if there could be a study on how many kids on average shared a NES?
I appreciate the fact that Retro Bird has the nuance to realize that one of the main reasons PS1 sold so well was because it sold well GLOBALLY and not just in select regions like Nintendo. A lot of people tend to overlook this fact. For me there are 4 key reasons why the PS1 outsold it's competitors by so much during the 5th generation.
1. (It sold well EVERYWHERE) Many people don't realize, but Nintendo consoles weren't even available in certain regions. Eastern Europe is a great example. Nintendo being Nintendo they were too obsessed and fearful of piracy. So much so that they refused to enter the market in countries like Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, etc. People in those countries couldn't buy or play Nintendo games unless they bought their Nintendos in a different region and brought them back to their country. Or if they played them on pirated black market clone consoles, most of which were Chinese made. They could however buy Sony's PS1 in those countries. And I'm sure that wasn't the only market Nintendo skipped out on.
2. (It doubled as a CD player) This actually ties in with the first point a little bit. CD players were still very popular and could still be fairly expensive in that era. Using CD technology not only was cheaper and pleased 3rd party developers, it also allowed the PS1 to act BOTH as a console and a CD player. It was a real bargain considering that many CD players still cost hundreds of dollars at the time. Yet for 199.99 you could enter the first 3D generation with Sony's new console AND use it as CD player. A 2 for 1. This appealed to a great number of people who were on a budget and wanted to maximize their money. Especially in regions poorer than North America where the average Joe didn't have as much expandable income as his North American counterparts. Sony's use of CDs also helped Sony take away some of Nintendo's main 3rd party developers such as Square that didn't want to be bogged down by the limitations of cartridges.
3. (It was relatively cheaper than the N64 and the Saturn and so were it's games) Again, this point will appeal to everyone everywhere. But ESPECIALLY to those on a stricter budget and those in poorer countries.
4. (It came out a year prior to the N64 so it had the chance to be the 1st "true" 3D console on the market and build momentum) I don't really count the Saturn as a dedicated 3D console. It had pseudo 3D graphics but most games were still of the 2D game design. Fully 3D games were rare. Where as the PS1 felt truly dedicated to 3D not just in graphics but also in actual game design.
These were attributes that helped Sony dominate the GLOBAL console market. The PS2 did many similar things (came out before it's main competitors and doubled as a DVD player). Nintendo's reluctance to use CDs and backing out of their deal with Sony was the biggest mistake the company has ever made imo. Had they stuck with Sony and not backed out of that deal they would have absolutely CRUSHED and dominated the 5th gen as there would have been virtually no competitors outside the commercially failing Sega Saturn. All 3rd party developers would have stuck with them by default as there would have been no other viable competitor to switch to. They would have dominated the market by default. Instead they created a juggernaut that easily surpassed them in console sales and reshaped the industry.
That would have been a strange future.. And what's funny is at least with the 6th generation I have a feeling that Microsoft and Sega would have teamed up in order to go against Sony and Nintendo the gaming landscape would have been a whole lot different
Another awesome video! Grew up with PS1, so biased. My father was a teenager when the NES came out, so I wonder how he would view the question. Then again, he does enjoy his legend of Zelda to this day. Yet, we made memories over Crash and Spyro on our PS1; so I think the question is something I would have to ask him someday.
The PS1 wouldn't exist without the NES. For me, it's not about nostalgia, memories or bias. This is just the truth. Gaming either wouldn't exist without the NES, or it would've taken way longer for gaming to gain footing again. The video game crash of the early 80s was very real.
I started gaming on the NES but PS1 is my all time favourite console.
I find it too hard to decide which was more impactful.
Maybe it is the PS1 to me because I have more nostalgia for it even though NES was my 1st console.
As a child of the 80’s I couldn’t possibly argue against the impact that the NES had on me personally. It’s what sparked my love of gaming that persists to this day. But speaking globally, it’s hard to understate the importance of the PlayStation
If I was you, I would find it reasonable to argue over how COOL your bread clip collection is lol
One of the funniest youtubers I've seen. I love the passion they put behind their videos. You're killing it!
Thank you very much!
I'm Australian and my introduction to gaming was with the NES in the early 90's, I recall Mario Mania being as equally strong as it would be elsewhere, my twin uncles had already been nicknamed Mario and Luigi by that point
“The other day I was chomping on a nanner”
Even as a SEGA fan with a _very_ strong bias against Nintendo, I would still say that the NES is more impactful because without Nintendo, video games as we know them today would never even exist in the first place. Because when Nintendo revived the North American Console Market from being considered a dead fad, they innovated with their own takes on game design (from the D-Pad to Miyamoto's visions to some of the controller innovations of their later consoles), which were _so_ revered, that nowadays, every single game you love (unless you’re an Old-Time-Arcade or Text Adventure buff) was inspired by Nintendo in one way or another.
At first, game designers either wanted to put their own spin on Nintendo’s winning formulas on the NES, or, in SEGA’s case, wanted to copy them. In fact, I am willing to bet that without Nintendo, the Sega Master System's controller would, for example, still use an Atari-style joystick, just like on the Atari 7800 in North America, and their games would be _far_ more arcade-like than they are in this timeline. If Nintendo didn't exist, then the Master System might not have performed nearly as well in Europe as it did in this timeline. All the great Master System games you played were still inspired by Nintendo, whether you Europeans want to accept it or not.
And then after Nintendo got their footing and other game developers tried to copy them or get inspiration from them, more recent game developers were inspired by the games that were inspired by Nintendo, and so on and so on, in a _massive_ chain reaction to today, which all harked back to the NES's first in-house masterpieces of games on the software side, as well as the innovations made by its controller on the hardware side.
I've only got around 20 PS1 games but, I think you have inspired me to play one today!
Ooh! MediEvil.... that looks tasty... don't mind if I do!
I think the NES took the video game crash out and made having a mascot like Mario into a household name. However, the market audience were for children. When Playstation came out, it gave video games a whole new meaning, because now it can play CDs, which at the time, was something that was not a toy. The video game industry became so successful because of these 2 giants that even Microsoft wanted to join the action, especially when PS2 had DVD player. No longer are video games toys, it something most people could have...
I remember during the video game crash toy stores were full of clearance bins of Atari games. I wasn't into video games much but my buddy was. He spent all summer cutting as many lawns as he could to get atari games. Every time he got money he had his mom take him to the game store at the mall. He got me into games and we would play mario bro's combat and pitfall. For us there was no crash. A local electronics store had a NES on display with a couch. We'd walk up there and play Super Mario Bros on the NES for hours.
I love the enthusiasm in this comments section. All love and passion, just like Retro Bird.
Worth mentioning that the jrpg genre started on the nes with ff1 and dq 1-4. But yeah, both dem consoles are grrrrreat!
NES and PS1 are my two favorite consoles because they both represent the times in my life where Video Games meant the most to me.
As to which was “more” impactful… it’s tough. One couldn’t have existed without the other and the other proved that you can’t rest on your laurels and expect success.
What both consoles did was give us some amazing experiences and break new grounds in excellence as well as rock a culture to bring in new fans.
When I think of all the consoles I’ve owned over the years, these two consoles have offered me the highest number of “must play” experience and started some of the greatest longest standing franchises.
With Nintendo, it brought fourth:
Super Mario
Metroid
Zelda
Final Fantasy
Dragon Quest
Castlevania
Mega Man
Metal Gear
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tetris
For PlayStation it was:
Resident Evil
Grand Turismo
Silent Hill
Suikoden
Tomb Raider
The Tony Hawk series
Xenogears
Persona (wing of Shin Megami Tensei)
Tekken
Dance Dance Revolution
Grand theft Auto
Need for Speed
Soul Edge series
I’m sure I missed a ton on each.
You make a fantastic argument for both consoles. Seriously well done!
Nintendo was impactful from the mid 80s to mid 90s. Then Sony took over from mid 90s to mid 2000s. Then Nintendo picked up steam again with the Wii and DS combo in the mid 2000s. Sony regained with PS4 in the mod 2010s until now and Nintendo is on par with them with the Switch. You cant argue that the PS1 was probably more impactful on a wordwide scale. 100 million units in the 90s is crazy.
I am from Scandinavia, were Nintendo had a large market, because of Bergsala in Sweden was a HUGE Nintendo importer/seller, I think they were much better at advertising than SEGA was, through ads in kids cartoon magazines and their own Nintendo Magazine etc.. I never had a NES, but I knew some that had one, consoles and games were so expensive that most did not have it, but some did, not as many Master Systems but some of those too, but I think the NES took a bit over after a while, the Master System was relatively popular though.
My big brother had an C64, then an Amiga 500. The first game I ever played I believe was Jungle Hunt on C64. I remember some of the games on Amiga as incredibly fun and very good memories. Around 92-ish we got an Mega Drive for christmas, that was amazing. I saw the ads in magazines and always wanted to play Super Mario World, it looked so nice and fun. But never played it, never had an Nintendo console, except a GameBoy!.
I feel for home consoles it was the PSX that really escalated that market to another level, and to an more adult audience. Partially because of game makers got more opportunities and it helped releasing Nintendos iron fist over game makers. Mario 64 and Goldeneye was also a big deal I remember, but I never played it. I think Nintendo has been very good with their own IPs though, compared to others, like SEGA.. SEGA could have been soo much more, without all the weird choices and seemingly "self-sabotage" from Sega in the West and Japan.
The NES is the Hulk Hogan of video game consoles where the PS1 is the Stone Cold Steve Austin.
I am in the UK and born in 76. I knew 1 kid who had the NES and no one had really heard of it. I swear he only knew what it was cos he saw the Wizard which no one else had. We all played games on the commodore 64 and Amiga. Atari ST was popular as was the Master System which was the 1st games console I ever saw. It was all home computers till then. The SNES was big news tho as was the Mega Drive along with the Gameboy tho I owned an Atari Lynx first before getting a Gameboy later. Both are awesome machines. I have to agree with you as a UK gamer the Playstation was MASSIVE. I stood in line to get one on release day with Wipeout. I ended up selling that to get a Saturn which I never regretted but comparing my Tomb Raider to a friends on the PS was hard to ignore. But for sure the PS made gaming cool with all ages. I was working by the time it came out so was an adult and many friends at work who had NEVER played video games before being older than me all went and got a PS. So it really was the PS that converted them to the cause. I have gone on enough tho. Love ur content. Keep it up :)
I really love that line when you said us older people want to do what the younger people do and play video games and not be old. Oh I've only 34 and I'll be 35 in June and I know that feeling😂
To the point about adults and kids playing video games. I was in high school, selling the Playstation and N64 at Best Buy part time.
I'd definitely say it was like they timed it perfectly for us, kept it on our radar when we might have moved on.
Yes, from NA and am in the NES being more impactful camp, but IMO I think some of the credit the PS1 gets (and deserves) must be shared with the appearance of DOOM for PC. There was definitely a before DOOM and after DOOM vibe going on at roughly the same time. DOOM caused a ton of players to stop playing SNES and Genesis as DOOM was a clear quantum leap for gaming. In fact, it was a bigger quantum leap than what the Playstation delivered, again IMO. (Also, DOOM on the Playstation was drop dead fantastic.)
Great video as always Retro Bird! Have you considered getting the Spyro games for the PS1? They’re great 3D platformers and I’d absolutely recommend them if you like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie.
European, and I definitely consider the NES more impactful. By the time the PS1 came around, me and mine were all about PC gaming. The PS1 was just a natural 'more of that' evolution in the gaming landscape, without the groundbreaking shift of home gaming improvements that came during the NES's life cycle.
Ahh, "during" or due to? That's the issue here, not that improvements were made overall; which obviously they were.
Hi, i'm from Portugal (Europe) and I have to say that in my personal experience and for what I have seen in my friends, the NES was not a big thing over here, we were more directed towards the Sega master system, at that time. Then after, SNES was a bigger thing but still the Sega Mega Drive was even bigger. Now I just try to collect them all 🎮😁
PS - Really love the channel
…good job. This is the only youtube channel, i equally like watching the videos and reading through all the comments. Retro Bird really managed to bring a nice community together… 🆙
Thank you! I really love reading through the comments as well :)
The NES restored our loved for video game history but every where else I see Sega doing better outside the US and don't forget the UK micro PC's did well too, but this is me saying stuff
Another great video - tons of good points.
Once again great content retro...thank you sir 👍
I would say the PS1 is more impactful. The NES, as you said, revitalized the game console market in the US, and became a catalyst for more successful platforms in the future, including Nintendo's own Game Boy. But looking back to the Atari 2600, it was a family experience in the late 70's and early 80's, and was marketed as such. So for a short while, it was something that parents would play with their kids, possibly in part because so many of the games were simplistic and easy to grasp by all ages. By the time the PS1 came out, many of us who grew up on Atari and Nintendo games were becoming adults, and beginning to have a bit of discretionary income to buy our own stuff. So games began to mature with the hardware, leading to much more robust experiences, while still having games targeted at kids so that older parents could still buy the console for them. The Sony name carried a lot of weight at that point, because of their dominance in the home electronics market through the 70's and 80's, so I assume that played a part. But I think the PS1 is truly where video games became "mainstream" in the public consciousness, and by that point, it was no longer considered "nerdy" to be into them past childhood.
"Mainstream" really is a key word here. Definitely a good way to describe the impact of the PlayStation.
Great video. I'd argue more big franchises and characters started on the NES, especially ones that are recognizable to non-gamers.
I think the NES looking bad worldwide is ignoring the fact famiclones we’re a thing. Also I grew up in Hungary, and though it was rare for kids to have a console, if they did it was most likely a NES. When I visited Budapest you would go to Skála or 576kbyte to buy your games. And 576kbyte was mostly a commodore store that sold some Nintendo stuff and Skála was the only place I remember that had a kiosk for you to try out games.
Although I’m sure there was a Sega scene, as Novotrade the developer of Ecco the Dolphin and Kolobri was a Hungarian studio and had a store downstairs selling mostly Sega stuff, most the kids in School where I lived had a C64, the other kids had NES.
I had my Dad send me a Mega Drive from Australia 😎 just so I could be different.
I feel as the ps1 was more impactful because IMO...everything after the ps1 has come to a pretty much stand still interms of visual, graphical, polygonal advancements (xbox 360/ps3 era and on more particularly). You're just getting a little more framerates, gigahertz, hertz refresh rates and all that impressive sounding stuff each new console
Until VR takes off I see nothing being more impactful. My thoughts may change on this however.
C u guys in the next one!
I had both machines as an adolescent (NES) and teenager (PS) and played the heck out of the both of them at the time. That said, here are 3 reasons why the NES is more impactful for me:
1. Large library of fun, pick-up-and-play platformers (with awesome RPGs as well).
2. Longevity of aesthetics (the look of the more well-done NES games still holds up today, and has a certain artistic charm to it-a look that has become a new category of art [pixel-art] like cubism).
3. Kids still love these games (the good ones anyway), and I can’t say the same thing about PlayStation 1.
In my adult years, I find myself going back to the NES more than any other console. It has a simple yet attractive aesthetic that even my three year old son can appreciate, and the games for the most part do not demand 40 hours of your time. And let’s not also forget the feel of these games. When I play a good NES game, the responsiveness just makes the game that much more playable and fun. I can’t say the same about even modern games-too much lag. I still have love for the PSone, but I play it much less.
Thanks for yet another humorous and thoughtful video.
I grew up in Kenya. The Primary gaming system of choice there in the early 90s was PC... but console-wise, Sega was more prominent and available in day-to-day life. I rarely saw the NES/SNES (but the gameboy was super huge though). The closest to nintendo console we had were cheap Chinese knock offs of the Famicom.
Ultimately when Sony launched with the OG playstation....it was everywhere. Like a tidal wave that just came in and washed away any remnants of older video game systems. No one even cared about the n64 or the gamecube...I saw those consoles for the first time in my life when I moved to the US around 2005. I realized in the US that the NES/SNES (Nintendo in general) was as revered as the MegaDrive/MegaDrive 2 were in the country I grew up in.
Thank you for sharing this. I always love hearing about people's experiences and one like yours isn't so easily found!
On a personal level I gotta admit that the PS1 had way more of an impact on me, it was unquestionably the console of my adolescence. The NES was already after the fact by the time I got into gaming and truthfully while there are some undisputed bangers (Mario 3, Kirby's Adventure, some of the Mega Mans and both Contras are still a ton of fun) I find a not insignificant percentage of the library borderline unplayable.
I'm European and I think the PS1 is probably my all-time favourite console, but I'd argue for the NES. I think the console market would be more or less where it is today if Sony hadn't released a console in the mid-nineties, but I can't imagine it if Nintendo hadn't done the same in the eighties. A bunch of companies were trying to make an appealing 3D-capable console, but it was Sony who had the right combination of hardware, publisher relationships and marketing.
The Famicom basically established what a home console was. There were RPGs and arcade ports on Japanese microcomputers before, but the Famicom brought in games that mixed the complexity and depth of RPGs with the accessibility and action of arcade games. It's also largely the thing that established the business of selling games to people. Namco, Capcom, Konami, Bandai, Squaresoft and Enix all worked in other parts of the games industry at the time too, but I don't think they'd be nearly as big without the NES. I don't know if you'd have dedicated videogame retailers without the NES. I don't know if you'd have videogame journalism without the NES - Japan's biggest games magazine is still named after it (Famitsu is the abbreviated "Famicom Tsushin"). The NES Deluxe Set might be dismissed today as a cheap trick to get US toy stores to stock the console, but the NES really was the first worthwhile console for kids to grow up with, and parents at the time knew how captivating that box was with young players.
If you want to hear about the Famicom's impact from the perspective of both a Japanese fan and a developer who worked with it, Masahiro Sakurai recently put out a video where he talks about buying one at launch, and eventually making Kirby's Adventure on it. Really adds to your appreciation of what a unique system it was at the time, and how it maintained its appeal for a decade. th-cam.com/video/PHBKYrnIUmY/w-d-xo.html
Loved the video!
For me it was. I was never an NES player, a couple of my friends had one and I was never too impressed, I had a Commodore 64 which was a far superior gaming system, despite long loading disc based games. Super NES blew me away though when it came out, but he PS1 was the "game changer" for me.
I think that had a influence in the video game industry and I have both consoles in my collection and I play them both equally. Great video
Worldwide yes the PS1 was super important for many countries it was the first big console they got. Some places never even got the NES
From Belgium, PS1 was the thing. The only NES I played were one in my grandpa's attic, next to an old electric train, while all my family had a PS1 (which was sooooo gooood) until the lost the fun and all sold their console. Oh, yeah some people had a N64, but I guess when all the family is onto the PS1, you just follow the tribe.
You American, Retro Bird ? I thought those streets where you film in sometimes were in Australia !
They’re BOTH impactful almost equally just in different ways. The NES set the standard for home gaming, and the PS1 made gaming more mainstream and pushed true 3D gaming. No reason why one has to seem better than the other.
I mean, it's more just about trying to have an interesting conversation than anything else. Like most of my videos ;)
That was the N64 that pushed true 3D gaming ( Mario 64)
As a kid (from Europe) which played on PC and didn't wish for or got a console before the PS2, I knew about both the Nintendo 64 and PS1. But I didn't really know or thought about that Nintendo had been arround for a while and had multiple console in the past, and was this huge brand. But I got the understanding and impression that Sony and Playstation was a big deal. And I wanted a Playstation ish just because it was "the thing". I didn't want it hard enough for my mom to buy one though:P
I remember one or two kids in my class at school who owned a NT64 and I played some Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider once. But Every other kid, their older brother/s and all the neigbours. And every household with a 10+ years old boy seemed to own a PS1 at the time.
Now he's playing Final Fantasy 7 cutscenes! All that experience with playing other FF cutscenes is really paying off (also Resident Evil 2 cutscenes).
Super well thought out and articulated video! The R. Bird dropped a banger with this one. 🔥
Thank you!
im 52 and i agree. I really try to play nes nowadays and just cant get into the old games i loved. I can still play ps games and enjoy em. Nes was great for the time.
An interesting thing to ponder is that the N64 started many of the very popular franchises that they now have as staples even on the switch. The first 3D Mario and Zelda games. Super Smash Bros. The first really good Mario Kart. Golden Eye was the first good console FPS too, with 4 players.
You mentioned 3 franchises that started well before the N64.
The only one you mention that's true is Smash Bros. There's also Paper Mario(even this is meant to be a successor to Mario RPG on the SNES) and the various Mario spin off games like Party, Tennis, Golf, etc. Otherwise there truly isn't much franchise-wise that didn't already previously appear on the NES and SNES.
@@Finfection very true. Mario Party and Smash Bros both got their start on the N64. Both of which are very popular today on the switch, too. Mario Tennis and Golf did start way earlier, on the NES and Virtual Boy I believe. Also Goldeneye was a very big deal as well, being the first good console FPS, especially with having 4 players. That alone makes the N64 very innovative. Also, Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time were truly next level when it came to 3D gaming, I believe. Because of that I'd say that the N64 is possibly the most impactful game console, considering that basically all 3D games today are almost a derivative of Ocarina of Time. 3D Open World Action RPG of some sort or another. Or every game today is a FPS.
While everyone in my family had ps1, I wanted da 64 so bad lol, I wuz born in 91 doe and wuz da youngest at da time lol
Your goofiness betrays your coolness and subject matter expertise. A juxtaposition that is not only informal, it is perfectly balanced with entertaining comedy. Many thanks to the Retro Bird.
Hey, that is very kind of you to say! Thank you :)
The time flew by so fast but I remember having the Gameboy, Gameboy color, n64, Gameboy advance, GameCube, Advance SP, Nintendo DS v1 and Nintendo switch 😂
The comedy in these videos makes we want to watch regardless of my interest in the topics 😂 thanks retrobird
I'm not old enough to the NES or PS1 in their prime but I did get a ps1 in the 2003 or 2004 when it was still on the market before being discontinued in 2006. So for me it was a massive part of my childhood , played lots of tekken 2-3 , crash and Spyro games 😍😍😍😍. All that home computer gaming and sega console business is well before my time , those brands missed out on ppl of my generation becoming fans of their business in the the way that you have people of all ages who are fans of Apple or microsoft or Nintendo products.
Gotta appreciate the legacy of the PS1 and NES but also gotta wonder about what could have been with OTHER gaming brands that failed at one point or another.
Ultimately gotta say the NES had a bigger impact because if there was no NES there is unlikely to have been a playstation or xbox. Might have been just Atari and sega
We were the top of ingenuity and commerce during the 70's and 80's... We have to count inflation, and Also as you mentioned, the market... The NES's contribution to video games is undeniable but, the Playstation 1 was just as impactful... The PS1 is what the NES was in a different era...
The nes was the first time people realized videogames cpuld be more than 5 minute arcade hi score romps and be full adventures, plus this is where the 2d platformer got its start, a genre thats still popular to this day and even more popular than their 3d platformer counterparts. And it saved the us gaming industry. Nes.
Ah, what a classic debate topic; i love that you narrowed it down between two juggernaut of gaming milestones so we can immediately disregard everything else.
First, here's my 'cred': I grew up with the NES, we got it in '88 when i was 3 and I didn't get another console until around '93 when i got a Genesis. So yeah, i spent *a lot* of time with the NES. As for the PSX, i received it on xmas '97 after i saw FF7 at my best friend's house after school and it was my primary platform well into the 360/ps3 generation even though I had a DC, GC, OG Xbox and the 360.
I feel like the NES was more impactful. While videogames were around before, and Atari was hugely popular, the NES made having a game console the status quo for kids. and not only that, it synonymized the word Nintendo with "videogame". Nintendo's NES here in the states *created* the modern video game industry. The Playstation "simply" multiplied it by 100.
Both legendary consoles, and perhaps the two most important ones thus far, but I feel like the NES did more for the industry and the hobby by quite literally creating it here in the US. As for my favorite? The PSX, but a _mile_ , it's still my favorite console to this day and my biggest collection by far (400+ games!). Second favorite? The SNES, and while it's a close second, it's not _that_ close.
Gargoyle's Quest II looks really good on that CRT 🧐
I think the Nintendo Entertainment System did such a wonderful job on leaving a huge impact in gaming history. But Sony with the PlayStation made a more impactful move by not only gaming but also letting us play cd song discs on out PlayStation 1 giving us a 2 for 1 gaming console which started the whole amazing trend in gaming consoles doing more than just gaming. Sony and Nintendo are both amazing and I love them both overall. Cool video. ^_^
The first system our family had when I was born was an NES, then everyone I knew jumped ship to Sony w the PS1 n it was the first system I owned. Love both
I tend to agree with you that the Playstation was more impactful than the NES, but for a different reason. Once the DualShock controller came out it took what Nintendo innovated on with bringing back an analog stick for 3D movement & created the template for the modern controller that we still use to this day.
I know for me a lot of kids who played the odd game here or there started to get more into gaming with the Playstation, but I still stood out as the kid who wouldn't shut up about games. I'll never forget talking about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater & seeing my friend's eyes glaze over because I was getting into control nuance & specific unlocks, mean while they just played to have fun with each other.
Actually the PS1 Dual Analog controller was based on the PS1 Analog Joystick which came out months before the N64 was even released.
The PS1 Dual Analog controller had 3 modes Analog,Digital and Joystick mode to mimic the PS1 Analog Joystick controller
So no the Dualshock didn't take anything from Nintendo's "innovation" even the D pad had already been used in previous handhelds before Nintendo first used it on their Game & Watch handheld from 1982 like the Tiger Playmaker from the 70s
I like bananas and I like arguing, I guess we can disagree to disagree.
Oh I remember the stigma in the NES days. I tried to make a Nintendo club and just got made fun of for it.
But those are days long past. I've quite enjoyed my lifetime of gaming.
This topic feels like something started on a forum 15 years ago to start a flame war. The answer is, frankly, completely irrelevant. Both had a huge impact that is still felt today. The impact each made is so different that they can't be compared in any way that isn't completely subjective.
Both have another huge thing in common, though. Both have experienced a growing sentiment of being dismissed for being primitive in their form and obsoleted by later consoles. Some people think the NES doesn't do anything that wasn't done better in the 16 bit days, and that the PS1 early 3D is so primitive that it is trash compared to what followed. Sleeping on either is a mistake.
Interesting point about the NES being less popular in Europe. My perception at the time (in Ireland) was the the NES was the most popular but that may have been because I had and knew a few other people who did too. But there were definitely other systems around that people had (Commodore 64, Dos games, Atari ST, Amstrad). I never met anyone with a Master System or saw the games sold anywhere. Possibly gaming computers were more of a thing over here
This also depends on what years you started to play games. The Spectrum, C64 and BBC and others where in play from 1981. The NES released in the UK and Ireland in 1987 and had to be re-released 1988 due to Mattel's poor handing. The NES seemed to peak in 1989-1991 after the 8bit computers died off, before the 16 bit machines took over.
Hi, I'm not from North America, I'm from Europe. There was plenty NES at the time in Europe, I used to play on my neighbors NES (second console I've ever played) and I have no doubt that the NES was the most impactful and important console of all time, not to mention the best. My first console and the first i played was the Mega Drive and I consider myself a fan of SEGA first and Nintendo second. I think you're confusing the technological impact (3D) with the impact of the console itself on the market. What expanded the video game market was the 3D technological revolution, not Sony's console. I think you're wrong. Thanks for your great videos!
I think both are impactful in their own ways that defined their legacy.
Dood! I love your channel. Humor is great as well as the content. Thank you much!!!
Thank you! Happy to hear it :)