Summary
The video game console industry is a harsh landscape. Once a titan that was outselling even Nintendo, Sega exited the market on the verge of bankruptcy and was only saved by a $695 million gift from chairman Isao Okawa. For every console that’s a smash success, there are several thatnever got off the ground.
The trouble is that some consoles can fail even if they’re worthy of success. Whether it’s due to bad timing, poor marketing, or limited consumer outreach, some consoles simply never made it when they should have. Here are the most underrated video game consoles of all time.
8TurboGrafx-16
Despite its popularity in Japan, where it was known as the PC Engine, the TurboGrafx-16 never caught on in Western markets. This console was ahead of its time, with 16-bit capabilities that were at least a generation ahead of its comeptitors. It also had a unique card-based cartridge system and sleek presentation.
Unfortunately for the TurboGrafx-16, there wasn’t enough software and marketing support for it. Many games on the system feature beautiful, hand-painted box art and have stunning audio quality for the time, but contemporary fans never got to accessmost of the librarydue to most Japanese games simply not being localized.
7Sega Game Gear
The Sega Game Gear was a wondrous console: it had a backlit colour screen in 1991, and its software was technologically superior to Nintendo’s Game Boy library. However, the console’s short battery life and lack of a killer app meant it didn’t catch on.
It was also much bigger and bulkier than the compact Game Boy, making it unappealing in a time where pocket-sized handhelds were preferred. Though it took second place in the handheld console war of the time, the gap between sales of the Game Gear and the Game Boy is massive.
6Neo Geo Pocket Color
If you werean SNK fan, you were eating good with the Neo Geo Pocket Color. It boasted entries from the company’s best series like Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown and the King of Fighters. Games like SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium became certified classics among the console’s small user base.
Despite the technological quality of its games being vastly superior to that of the Game Boy Color, the Neo Geo Pocket Color suffered from a far more limited selection. All the games listed above are SNK series, because the handheld had virtually non-existent third-party support. With the Game Boy Advance just around the corner, the Neo Geo Pocket Color unfortunately faded away into obscurity.
5Wii U
The Wii U is probably Nintendo’s biggest failure. Unlike the company’s earlier missteps like the Virtual Boy, the Wii U was positioned to be Nintendo’s flagship console for the seventh generation. It did not live up to expectations at all.
In retrospect, the Wii U had adecent library, as signified by how many games got ported to the Switch - it just had a bad marketing campaign. Many potential customers were turned away because of the name itself, which made it sound like an add-on peripheral for the Wii rather than a brand-new console.
4Sega Saturn
The Sega Saturn’s failure came down to a rushed North American launch and mismanagement in the Western hemisphere: the console was actually quite popular in Japan thanks to a memorable marketing campaign. In the West, the Saturn’s 2D library was de-emphasized in favour of 3D graphics, limiting the selection of games available.
It also cost a hundred dollars more than its competitor, the PlayStation. With many Sega fans already disillusioned due to the Genesis' spam of add-on peripherals, the Saturn was commercially doomed.
3Neo Geo AES
In the ’80s and ’90s, there was a good reason to go to arcades: the games there were much more technically advanced than the ones you got at home. While SNES and Genesis games had their charm, none of them could compete visually with arcade titles. Even when popular games like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat got home console conversions, sacrifices had to be made.
The Neo Geo AES came out in 1990 and suffered none of those issues. It was perhaps the first home console that was arcade-perfect: you lost not one whit of fidelity while playing arcade games on it. Yet there was a caveat: the console cost $650 in 1990. Adjusted for inflation, this would beover $1500in 2025. The console was considered such a luxury, in fact, that in Japan many customers were allowed to rent it rather than buy it outright.
2Sega Dreamcast
The Sega Dreamcast was stuck between a rock and a hard place from the very day it came out. More powerful than a Nintendo 64, but less powerful than a PlayStation 2, the console struggled to find a wide enough audience. Many consumers preferred to wait for the upcoming PS2, and Sega fans had been burned enough times by the Genesis' peripherals and the Saturn’s small library that they refused to give the Dreamcast a chance.
In later years, the Dreamcast has been assessed more kindly: it deserves credit for its avant-garde implementation of online multiplayer in games like Phantasy Star Online, and its hardware was arcade-perfect at an affordable price. Thegame selectionwas nothing to sneeze at either, with titles like Skies of Arcadia, Illbleed and Power Stone offering a versatile library.
The VMU was also perhaps the most unique and charming memory card ever invented, giving you a graphical representation of your status in games like Resident Evil 2, and incorporating some minigames when the main console wasn’t powered on.
1PS Vita
The PS Vita’s limbo can be summed up in one sentence: everyone who owns a Vita loves it, but so few people own one. It had a gorgeous backlit touchscreen, a back touchpad, a D-pad so good you could play fighting games on it, and a build quality that was unmatched. Whichever iteration you had, the PS Vita felt marvellous to hold and play with.
The console also had a stellar selection of games, and could manage straightforward ports of home console titles from both the PS3 and PS4 with minimal to no loss of fidelity. It was a haven of JRPGs and indie titles, and boasted high-quality compilations of PS2 series as storied as God of War and Metal Gear Solid. This handheld was gone too soon: if Sony had supported it a bit more in the West, it may have overcome even the mobile market in a gaming landscape that was quickly becoming no country for handhelds.
