The WORST Generation of Gaming

[@ThisIs_Matt]

I said what I said when I said it

[@ynglink]

The "F" tier also almost killed gaming as a whole. So yeah, I'd agree with that

[@Nieves710]

It's okay to make mistakes sometimes.

[@WESTMPLS]

damn you said it alright

[@bigdripbeats]

This is sad, you let him put 4th gen in A tier... thats def S tier. Should of fought harder.

[@alfredojimenez1666]

The only reason I put the 7th Gen in S tier is because of online play but, I feel it is a tie with 5th Gen because I remember having friends and family come over and we would play games until we got dragged away no one wanted cake or to sing happy birthday because we were playing Super Smash or Golden Eye.

[@bmth2111]

360/PS3 era is my S tier. Being in high school and having a part time time job making $20 an hour allowed me to pre-order both and buy all the games I wanted. Ohhh how I miss those days. Way better than today’s time.

[@michaelmurillo5744]

Yo you are the luckiest MF

[@SiCVoltage]

Omg I miss those days too. Agreed so many memories playing on 6th generation hardware.

[@rurichan6009]

it's also s tier for me i owned a 360 loved it

[@tomeydev9152]

I absolutely agree

[@TuckerCreech]

​@rurichan6009 I had the original Xbox 360 so. The red ring of death

[@garyofpennsylvania]

I could not put the PS2 era anywhere other than first. It was the final generation where we didn't have overpriced DLC, we didn't have to deal with updates. Our friends were with us on the same couch for fifa and burnout. No micro transactions. It was peak fun times. Games still very playable today too. Meanwhile the PS3 era, as much as I love it, had credit card data leaks, disastrous launches of $600, the red ring of death, countless shovelware games on Wii and all the added costs of the online services. I can't see how that could be S tier.

[@shaggytewsak]

the worst generation had to be the xbone and ps4, never had we had a generation suck so badly compared to the previous generation, the 360 had hand fulls of great games u can name a 100 titles easily if u think about it but theres not a SINGLE GAME on the ps4/one that i will EVER PLAY EVER AGAIN, god what a lit down of a generation, every single game that survived really sucks unless its come from the 360

[@Dallas-w6e]

True

[@charlesbrown4483]

7th gen was one of the biggest leaps forward in both hardware and software and it had a massive list of timeless games.

[@jeremyf9124]

The PS2 had backward compatibility & DVD, the Xbox had DVD, hard drive, ethernet & took online play seriously. The Dreamcast had a modem, great library & controller & the VMU. The Gamecube had the Gameboy player and Wavebird. The Gameboy Advance SP had a backlight, folded, was rechargeable, fit in a pocket. All winners. There have been great individual consoles earlier & later, but 6th gen is clearly S tier.

[@diegochu7594]

dude what then just dont particiapte in any of that😂😂 everutjing you just mentioned was avoidable if you really didnt like it that much and i played exclusively on the same couch during x360 and wii era S TIER

[@LovelyAlanna]

I’d put 6th gen in S tier too, it’s when videogames stopped looking like abstract art, it has some of the best games we’ve ever had, so much so that most of the remakes we get are from that era, also, the game boy advance was there, and that was awesome

[@Mattriarc]

the library of games was vast and had quality, the only thing I have against it is that there were a lot of games that carried over bad camera controls from the previous gen.

[@bradwearsprada4728]

@@Mattriarcyuuuup, early 6th gen games where famous for shitty camera controls

[@dinorocker8647]

Oh my God I hated the 5th generation of games, me I'm a 3rd-4th gen gamer, I did play through the 6th, 7th generations and skimmed the 8th generation when it was already out the shit chute when I bought a PS4 slim, but truth is I was always an old school gamer.

[@thatssomegoodpie]

S: 6 A: 7 and 5 B: 3 and 4 C: 8 D: 2 and 9 F: 1 Gen 6 just has to be the S-Tier. The sheer variety of games that came out on the PS2 was mindblowing. Many of the modern conventions were established during this generation.

[@jjcranfill]

Austin: "Gen 7 had no misses" 7 Gen: Red ring of death, 600$ PS3 launch price with no games, normalized micro transactions, normalized shitty gimmicks (Wii waggle), normalized drm, normalized paid online play. It blew chunks, ate them, then blew them again.

[@BlueCrashFigurineHoldingWumpa]

also sepia everything, sub 30fps on the regular, kinect and ps move

[@devilmikey00]

100% everything currently wrong in gaming started in the 7th gen. Is there some of my favorites that came out during that time? Absolutely, but so much of the BS that drives me away from the hobby now got started then.

[@RzzBrry]

the reason it withstood all those problems and is by many considered the best gen of consoles is because they were that popular and that amazing. don't just brush that off and pretend that it wasn't so all consoles (like all electronics) have had issues and flaws lol

[@originalscreenname44]

@@RzzBrry I don't know. The most complaining I've ever seen happening in gaming has been during the 7th gen because they did some awful shit. Was it as bad as the 2nd Gen where Atari had zero quality control and you paid for games that literally didn't work? No, but it was damn close when you bought a $400 console with a 25% chance to be bricked in a few years. I think the difference here is that the bad shit from the previous gens could mostly be left behind, but what we got from the 7th gen has stuck around for over a decade and will probably impact decades going forward.

[@redring4083]

Micro-transactions were normalized in Gen 8.

[@thomascombs7159]

I must say, 8th gen is when I basically got out of consoles in general and just stuck to PC. I remember when I first got a PS4 and I learned I had to actually install the games on to the hard drive, which was just mind blowing to me. I understand why they did it that way, but in my mind it basically negated one of my favorite reasons I had consoles in the first place; having a large library of games that I could just pop into the console and just go. I remember quickly filling up my PS4 with just a couple games, and having to actually uninstall a previous one and wait. That, and once consoles starting getting more on-line focused there was a lot less couch co-op, which was my favorite thing about previous generations. I remember so fondly on the PS2 or the XBox 360 me and my friends all gathering together when a new game comes out, order some pizza and just spend the whole night playing together with just one console and one game.

[@redring4083]

Gen 7 was the absolute best. DS, PSP, 360, PS3 and Wii all sold a very good number of units. It was also the generation that gave us some absolutely memorable games like Mass Effect trilogy, Assassin Creed 2, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Uncharted trilogy, Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Pokémon Black and White, CSGO, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Batman Arkham City, etc. Edit: the Switch is a Gen 9 handheld and the Steam Deck shouldn't be there since it is a PC. Gameboy was Gen 4 Gameboy Colour was Gen 5 GBA was Gen 6 DS was Gen 7 3DS was Gen 8 Switch Gen 9

[@FenixFeniks]

Also the generation that started the "We will just patch it later" trouble. And besides the handhelds, many of the games felt like they werent fully sure of their identities unlike the generation right before and after.

[@Nieves710]

Plus, Gen 7 made online multiplayer common for everyone.

[@DMurcielago]

Switch is half way between gens honest wouldnt consider it current gen 😂

[@jeremyf9124]

The Wii was good, but there was a lot of shovelware. The Kinect was good, but there were a ton of 360s that got the red ring of death. The PS3 was overpriced because Sony insisted on having a Blu-Ray drive to win the format war vs. HD-DVD so Sony would get royalty fees for years into the future. They cut out the PS2 chip on later models to reduce the price.

[@jake1225]

your name literally came from the worst thing about this generation....and lets not forget waggle

[@emilyshabang]

So essentially it's based on Austin being so young. How you can put the NES that low is crazy. It's not about the technology compared to today, it's about the impact and what it was of that day. The NES was what truly started the gaming boom that we know today, and probably the most important console of all time. I could go S or A here....but it could be that the SNES and Sega Genesis could be S with a lot of great consoles truly fighting it out, and a ton of amazing games.

[@DMurcielago]

Gotta think about playing the console NOW.. and cant think of anything more boring lol

[@jeremyf9124]

The NES was very innovative. Zelda 1 was the first cartridge to have battery back up to save a game without a password. Light gun, game pad (not joystick), controllers with turbo & slow-mo, Power Pad, Power Glove, Nintendo Power Magazine, R.O.B., 4 player games, games that could match arcade graphics. Such a wide variety of games I could even get my dad to play Duck Hunt, Jeopardy, Genghis Khan. Also, the NES was the first console you could rent at a video rental store.

[@8bitnation419]

It should be A, the NES failed to take off in Europe and other parts of the world.

[@0AThijs]

​​​@@8bitnation419t most older people I know (including my own parents) had one, just like how everyone had a Wii xD

[@emilyshabang]

@@brothersly8294 yes I played some pong growing up. The NES was absolutely the system that got us to where we are now. Admittedly the SNES is my favorite of the systems from my childhood but the NES is probably the most significant console ever.

[@CallmeLQ]

There's no way the 7th Gen gets an S tier with all the console issues that came about. Lasers touching the disk rendering games unplayable, red Ring of death, and fake PS3 controllers shipped as OEM. Even though this is an awesome generation. I agree with Matt, 5th Gen brought about some of the most iconic IPs from those consoles and have influenced the design and art styles of many games today...plus it was fun.

[@owaismanzar1310]

Yeah but the graphical difference between 6gen and 7gen is insane like all ps2 games look so outdated but ps3 still doesn't look that bad

[@LunarTrickd]

right? austin had huge nostalgia glasses here, I consider 7th gen c or d tier as it was start of the downfall of modern gaming and anti consumer trends such as dlc, pre-orders and finishing it later attitude also every single one of those consoles each had massive! failure rates at launch.

[@heldes1]

I have to agree with Austin on Gen 7. Gen 7 brought us some great series and the Wii which I feel like was a game changer. Now I want to see one on which generation had the best games.

[@ynglink]

7th Gen also started the bad habits that's ruined a lot of gaming today. Remember Horse Armor (microtransactions), pre-order bonuses going overboard with retail exclusive content, large day 1 patches, dlc that was just an unlock code for on-disc content. While I have many fond memories of this gen, it laid a lot of the ground work as well that's caused gaming to stagnate

[@StevetendoMii]

I mentally hold the 4th and 6th generations together. Both came after pioneering generations for 2d and 3d games respectively. They both learned what worked from the previous gen, and used that knowledge to pump out masterpieces. If I had to give only one S tier, I'd pick 4th gen. I got a snes and Genesis as a uni student in 2016 and it blew me away how fun and impactful those games were almost 30 years after launch. I didn't expect them to age as well as they did, but they made me feel like I was a 6 year old playing video games for the 1st time again.

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

PS2 era definitely the best. S-tier immediately for me. I didn't even have that many PS2 or GBA games, but I know how mind blowing that whole generation was.

[@Nonya_Concern]

Agreed. Best gen imho. Over the years ive gotten another ps2, og xbox and GameCube. Just need a dreamcast now to complete the 6th gen collection. I unfortunately stupidly got rid of all of them as a kid when newer stuff came out.

[@Loverovergold]

Guys the Wii u isn’t bad and shouldn’t be crapped on it was a great console just badly represented

[@Espada303]

Matt is 100% correct on where he wanted to put things. Screw the historical value. Austin is just playing it safe and that's a whimps way out, love ya but nope

[@Geek306]

Bruh, I have a LOT of things to say about this vid 1. The Wii U didn't damage the 8th generation 2. The Wii U is a great system (idc if its games got ported to the Switch) 3. The Switch (despite coming out in 2017) is with the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Steam Deck 4. 6th gen definitely S tier 5. 7th gen would've been S tier, IF the 360 didn't have the RROD, & the PS3's $600 price tag

[@jeffyaciuk642]

You actually had to grow up and had to be there when the first generation was sold. I remember playing Pong on console with the paddles and Atari brick breaker console for hrs. I have been around to see it all from 1970 till now. Putting the first generation in D tear was a shit move B, yes, not D.

[@quantumleaper]

When I started to play video games in the 1970s, you had pinball or a game like Pong if your lucky at the Arcade. The home mome market was not that different than the Arcade games. I still have my Atari Pong home game, it can work on 4 D celll batterires or wall wart. Compare it to todays games it was primative but not because they didn't try. It was beacuse the tech wasn't there to build something better. It like comaring a Model T to a Tesla.

[@jeffyaciuk642]

@quantumleaper lol, and I would take the Model T in a second over a Tesla. But they would probably put that in the D category also, lol

[@noodlelynoodle.]

I feel like that shouldn't be considered the first generation, like it was the first generation really marketed a bunch for home use but there were commercially available games long before pong in the 70's that were basically the exact same thing and I've always felt like the stuff back in the 50's-60's was the real first generation

[@quantumleaper]

@@noodlelynoodle. What console existed in the 50s or 60s. Tennis for Two (the first video/computer game) was in 1959. Pong wasn't even in the arcade until 1972, and you think video games were in the home before that? "This Is" was talking about console games and not Arcade games. 1972 was a great year for video games with the first console release at the end of that year with the Magnavox Odyssey begin the first.

[@noodlelynoodle.]

@@quantumleaper I kinda missed the part about it being about console generations prolly cause I wasn't really paying attention and was thinking just video game generations and they were just labeling them based on console, that way yeah it makes sense

[@ericwolford5685]

6th Gen is absolutely S Tier. The games were amazing from release (no patches needed), and there were no predatory microtransactions like the 7th and 8th gen.

[@devilmikey00]

Games absolutely needed patches. That's some rose tinted goggles, games were buggy and broken all the time and we just had to deal with it. Also, later print runs of games would come with bug fixes all the time. Go to a rom site for PS2 games and see how many have a version 1.1 or 1.2. Xbox specifically downloaded patches for a bunch of games if you had an xbox live account because games were absolutely not perfect lol

[@ericwolford5685]

@devilmikey00 okay, okay. Still, back then, if a game never a patch, it is because the developer overlooked something when finalizing a game. From the 7th gen onwards, patching seems to be a way to roll out an incomplete game on the deadline, with the hopes that they complete it over time.

[@eTiMaGo]

As a 40-something nerd, I had a NES as a kid, but the SNES is definitely my case for S tier (it even has a starting S in the name!). The jump in video and audio quality from the previous gen was mindblowing (16 bit! damn!), and so many of the games were epic too... Super Mario World, Mario Kart, Starfox, Final Fantasy 3/6 and so, so many others (shout out to any Rock n Roll Racing fans out there, freaking loved that game). Never played much on the Genesis, but I recall the Sonic games were smooth and fast and fun. Very close second would be the Playstation 1 generation, the move to CD media allowed developers to create such more expansive and detailed worlds, Final Fantasy 7 just for one... All consoles since then just feel incremental, nothing really revolutionary

[@joshhowsam5578]

I agreed with you 100% up until you said the PS1 generation was a close second. I'm 2 weeks away from being a 40 year old nerd myself, I grew up with an NES in the house. Zelda 1 is my lifeblood. But, the SNES is everything I ever wanted video gaming to be when I was a kid. It was so smooth, the pixel graphics are still being used to this day because they're so clean. But, the next gen was the awkward years for gaming, not the golden age. It was developers trying to figure out how to use 3D gaming. The boxy graphics aged like milk left out in the Houston sun. Historically, it is important, no doubt, but we didn't get GOOD 3D games until 6th gen, and I'd argue that we didn't fully understand 3D games until 7th gen.

[@jeremyf9124]

The Super NES was good, but the outer plastic was not, it was ugly. The Japanese and European versions looked a lot better. The Japanese market got a lot of games the USA didn’t, such as anime games. You can get adapters to fit Super Famicom games to SNES and vice-versa.

[@noodlelynoodle.]

Playstation 1 has always felt like one of the consoles with the roughest games, like other old consoles are still relatively playable on non crt TVs they don't look quite as good but they're still pretty decent but a lot of games on playstation 1 are so pixelated you can't even read the text without a ton of effort or looking at it through a phone camera where the automatic processing seems to smooth the text out

[@Wimmle]

​@@jeremyf9124only the US got the ugly SNES rest of world got the good looking one with what we think of traditional colours

[@vadnegru]

This is exactly what we missing in 9th gen. If you squint your eyes enough, 7th gen games might be better that next two.

[@rwilliamson238]

I have both a Series X and PS5; I agree with Matt on the 8th and 9th generations. C/D tier for sure. 2yrs into the 9th gen and we haven't seen anything other than "ermergerd.. our consoles cant handle 60fps... NeW tItLeS aRe HaRd To MaKe." Not to mention the ever-evolving ways of companies to squeeze every dollar out of each title with MTX, but that's another conversation. We also STILL haven't gotten anything ground breaking.. only mid-tier titles and re-releases, remasters, and remakes.

[@4carhur1more]

I really don't know how the generation of PS2/Xbox/Gamecube could be anything other than S tier. It's the one generation that has the most games that I still want to play on it. The list is damn near endless of the great games from that generation. Not a single genre was left out of something that could be considered greatness. Like, for example, games I haven't played and still want to: Onimusha series, Paper Mario Thousand year door, Jak 2 and 3, Okami, Metroid Prime 2, Eternal Darkness, Skies of Arcadia, Devil May Cry, Star Fox Assault, Shadow of the Colossus, Persona 4, That gen's Prince of Persia series, Zone of the Enders 2, and there are definitely more if I think about it. And I've played a whole lot of games from that generation, too.

[@-fixifr]

4:24 implosion? Sound familiar

[@8bitnation419]

The early age Pong, Magnavox, Atari etc. It was essentially the stone age pre 8 Bit even though it’s super important and it birthed gaming, playing it today is primitive as heck. Still love my Atari but the actual gaming started with the Famicom/NES and beyond with RPG’s and Side Scrolling becoming a thing. But i still think it deserves a C or a B because it’s such an important era. 06 and 90’s era are both S. The SNES, Neo Geo, Genesis were arcade perfect. The Gameboy is greatest handheld of all time. That era was where 2d gaming peaked. 16 Bit power. For 06 PS3, 360, PSP, DS etc were insane all systems were backwards compatible even the PSP with PS1 games on PSN, DS with the GBA slot, Wii with Gamecube, Xbox 360 with Og Xbox, Og PS3 played it all. And each system sold really well with dozens of games and tons of 3rd party support. Also don’t forget that mobile gaming was also taking off with the first iPhone. The NES era should be A because it’s such an important generation and also the start of that Retro aged like fine wine aesthetic birthing a lot of great franchises. The PS1 era should also be A, early 3d looks bad but there are many iconic games on that system aswell as its competitors. And it birthed a lot of franchises that we still see today.

[@8bitnation419]

@nosoyallowed828 Ok maybe not exactly Arcade perfect but the 16 Bit Generation does indeed came close to it. StreetFighter 2 on SNES compared to the CPS2 version, Turtles in Time and Altered Beast on the Sega Genesis comes close to the Arcade version. Overall it does come close to Arcade perfect.

[@sycoskater]

I was in my early 20's when the PS3/Xbox360 came out, but that generation had the most impact on me for gaming. I've been a heavy gamer since I was 5, but only dabbled in consoles until my 20's.

[@sikguitarist]

6th gen is S tier PS2 > *

[@xFayth]

Gen 7 is total ass, Wii sold good because of moms and dads who can’t even tell a ps3 from a ps2, PS3 is stupidly forgettable, Xbox 360 bricked constantly, PSP is dope but homebrew makes this popular. DS alone doesn’t make this good enough. Easy D tier. 6th Gen probably the best Gen ever. It has everything for everyone. Everything else…sure 😂

[@claude5520]

Top 10 most underrated tierlist video

[@justin3346]

I agree with Matt. The Genesis/SNES generation is the S tier.

[@philovermyer6166]

The Snes, the Genesis, the Gameboy, even the Sega Battery Eater redefined the market of gaming as we know it today. There are so few games on these consoles that didn't define entirely new genres and solidify what gaming would be. These were the best years of the AAA companies, Enix, Squaresoft, Konami, Capcom, Nintendo, all throwing down on certifiable legends. The concept of being able to play decently programmed games anywhere you went with the handhelds walked so that the Steam Deck could fly. The Wii was a shovelware console, the PS3 marked the decline of AAA gaming, the Xbox 360 existed.

[@disobayishness]

13:09 that spit out of Austin! Couldn’t edit that out LOL

[@mark5391]

With these rankings, it’s hard to tell what they’re basing their decisions off of. List looks almost just random.

[@kierolovesyou]

Hot take: I was like they stepped up their ad read game so much…then saw the donut media shirt and was like ahhh they took notes from the best. Love both channels that’s all

[@charlesbrown4483]

As much as I loved PS2, 7th gen is king. It was a huge leap forward in hardware and software, and that era had absolute banger after banger games on both 360 and PS3. 7th gen is untouchable.

[@die_flugel_der_freiheit7382]

The 7th gen is the easiest S-tier of my life. Not a single generation before had as many iconic consoles from PSP to Wii(literally not a single one was a miss), online play with parties, where you can talk to your dudes while playing the games together while being on the different parts of the globe, HD/Full HD and Blu Ray, Netflix and its watch parties, mind blowing graphics and experiences, even Kinect and Wii controllers were sort of a miracle and helped moving forward motion technologies in VR/AR and motion-capturing. Literally every single thing about it was freaking awesome and most importantly, games were unique, there were experiments, there were masterpieces and eye-candies and so much more, first indies on Live Arcade. It was one of a kind in so many things and all of it dined right. The alter generations on other hand didn’t bring anything unique or interesting, but just cannibalising and parasitizing, improving graphics, but making everything else bad. Besides, let’s be real, Xbox 360 and PS3 games still look stunning, it’s not the visuals we need, it’s the mechanics, the experiments, the B titles, the big studios investing into the bold ideas, building the new IPs, starting new genres etc.

[@DJTagz09]

Something I feel they didn't take into account with some of these tiers: how that generation screwed up. With 7th gen, we got insanely priced PS3, Xbox Kinect, Nintendo shovelware, and the birth of the practices of outrageous dlc/microtransactions. Anyone remember the infamous Horse Armor fiasco?

[@newellbrian]

SNES and Genesis.....absolute S tier!!

[@endymallorn]

My list: S: 4th Gen A: 3rd Gen B: 5th Gen & 1&2 Gen C: 6th Gen D: 8th Gen F: 7th Gen The historical impact of 16-bit gaming consoles cannot be overstated. They’re the ones that PCs actually had to chase, it’s the first time that PC-to-Console ports happened (Doom & Duke3d especially). They were the last ones where we’d left the joystick Stone Age, before getting plunged back into analog control. Get those damned joysticks out of my face and give me a decent game controller - maybe I could go into 6Gen for the GBA, but that’s only the one handheld console that’s keeping it even that high.

[@ceoproductionz6846]

Whatever console you played in your pre-teen/teenager years, that's S tier

[@VanDamage918]

PS2 GameCube Xbox gen is absolutely S tier.

[@RulzSG]

Austin Clearly Failed ranking the 7 gen as S tier. The Generation were 2 of the systems have Serious Heating issues that result in the failure of many units and recalls of many others. Not to mention the PS3 removal of some software features (such as Other OS). This Gen was also the start of Always online gaming with constant updates (paid DLCs) as well as dropouts and server issues. The 7th gen of console had a myriad of issues. The only silver lining was the outstanding breakout that was the Wii. However, one could argue that the Wii was a beefed up GameCube, making the Wii essentially a mid cycle refresh of the GameCube. Matt's Choice for the S tier was right on the money. The 4th gen was the most exciting time to be a console gaming. Many innovations that we enjoy today comes directly from this era. There were also many competitors trying to break into the market, providing a greater variety of choices for all gamers. From the Expensive Arcade Quality Neo Geo, to the affordable Sega Genesis Tower of Power, the options were abundant.

[@RedPillAlways]

I've said it before I'll say it again and I mean it online multiplayer and games as a disservice is killing the gaming industry. Destroying Innovation imagination and cultivation of skill anticipation and excitement. Because you get none of that with online multiplayer nor games as a disservice and digital is killing ownership.... With how the gaming industry is dying this might be my last generation buying new hardware and new content

[@aeminence]

Gen 7 is the best generation - it had that HUGE leap in graphics (HD era ) , HUGE leap in technology (bluray, internal HD, multimedia support, wifi, wireless controllers etc ) HUGE leaps in games we got ( Halo 3, GTA 5 Online which is literally being played today, Last of Us, Mass Effect, Battlefield 3, etc ), gave us a more mature online gaming presence for consoles (perfected Xbox Live, PSN ) AND still support Couch Co-op, FULL game releases unlike the alpha/beta messes we get now and ontop of all of that you still had innovation in the form of the Wii. Everything else has not been able to even come close to that kind of resume as a generation. Compare the resumes. NES and SNES? Thats notalgia. Great games and it helped popularized gaming abit more but the resume literally ends there. Even 8th gen which should have been BETTER than its predecessor was weaker in every category. The only thing that comes close to this kind of resume is Gen 6 but Gen 7 did what it was suppose to do and became a BETTER VERSION of 6.

[@allenwest1986]

The creation of "Call of Duty" is a 2003... was the down fall of gaming! As soon as you had people that called themself "Gamers" that only played "Call of Duty" , sports games , and later only online games ... Game companies stopped trying to make good games for a long time... we are just now starting to recover from this mess . Now downloadable only games, and NO backwards compatibility is the nail that will kill game consoles ... This is why I switched to mostly Desktop gaming and emulation ... Not wasting one more dime on consoles when they have no backwards compatibility , and you end up re-buying the same games over and over ...

[@TheTeeroy32]

5th is my S tier, I had both N64 and PlayStation in Highschool. I had the PS for racing games predominantly and the N64 for anything else. The amount of Mario Kart 64 I've played in my life, it's muscle memory and my kids outright refuse to play me at it. Not to mention Goldeneye and Perfect Dark I continued playing them during 6th gen, which apart from Halo, Halo 2 and Battlefront I didn't play 6th Gen much at all. Both 6th and 7th Gen were secondary to me as that was the start of my rather expensive habit that is PC gaming.

[@Hrethgir]

Gen 7 as S tier is absolutely the right choice. I still play my PS3 upstairs in the bedroom on the regular, an Xbox360 is hooked up downstairs next to the Wii, and I even broke out my PSP the other day to play with it a little.

[@alexgonzalez9053]

7th gen is the paid DLC generation, the Day 1 patch generation, the episodic game generation, the season pass generation,... Sure, there were a ton of good things about it and the following gens kept doing all those bad thing, but that was the neginning of the fall for consumers and it would never deserve to be S tier. Also quite funny how Austin mentioned two games that were not available on 5th gen consoles like Crysis and Half-Life and were only on PC back then as one of it's good points XD

[@LordMaxed]

While I do find the amount of gaming handhelds in the current 9th generation, you can’t argue that it is revolutionary that we can play AAA titles on the go

[@clibnjmn]

Gaming during the 360 PS3 era was 2nd priority because every last one of those systems were damn near entertainment hubs a cool way to consume media. The actual gamers were in a dream because you could play all your old games again on your HD TV's literally people hacked these systems to play old games from the 3rd era. This was also an era where franchises started to fall off aka the birth of the remakes. Online gaming was cool, even though your identity was in jeopardy every other month or the online servers were down. The only generation were you recommended people wait to by the next version of systems when they fix the problems early adopters were having. I hated this generation, it made me skip the 8th generation and start PC gaming. Haven't looked back since.

[@jaysonjohnson7768]

SNES and Gameboy alone carries that gen to S tier Matt is right!!!

[@jeremyf9124]

Turbografx-16, Atari Lynx, Philips CD-i, Sega 32X were also 4th gen. The 6th generation was better (PS2, Xbox, GC, Dreamcast, GBA).

[@elgeniomaestro]

My personal tier list would go something like this: S tier: 6th Gen. A Tier: 7th Gen, 4th Gen and 5th Gen. B Tier: 8th Gen. C Tier: 3rd Gen. D Tier: 1st and 2nd Gen. F Tier: 9th Gen. Reasoning: The sixth and 7th gens were amazing, you could choose any of them, and have great, unique experiences on each, for the PC players, this was also a great time, ports from one to the other were becoming better, components even more affordable and user friendly as standards were consolidated in the 90s. The 4th and 5th were incredible, but you either had to grow up on them or adopt the mindset of a player back them to enjoy them now, after you get past that, you can find true gems in both, for PC, some of the greatest PC games were from this era, but playing them now is a pain in the ass. The 8th Gen was dissapointing, underpowered consoles, underutilized features and lack of third party games on the WiiU, some of the worst anticonsumer crap from the 7th became even worse, Microsoft started to gaslight their fanboys with the whole "Xbox ecosystem exclusives", despite all of that, you could still find fantastic titles among the trash. The third gen was good, but it's primitive, few of the games from this era have aged well, those that did are still fantastic, Mega Man 2, Phantasy Star and Turrican, for example. The 1st and 2nd were ok, they did the best they had with the tech, but got surpassed very quickly and we are too separated from the time to truly adopt such a mindset and enjoy the games for what they are. And the 9th, I truly feel like we are going to see the end of home consoles, they either make each unique in some way to distinguish it from PCs and each other or they go the way of the dodo, because the Xbox and PS5 are pretty much locked and watered down cheap PCs, might as well go with Steam Deck or full small form factor PC and plug it to the TV, we were 3 years in when this video was made and Xbox has released all of their games on Windows and the PS5 has only 15 exclusives, 15 after 4 years, then why even bother? What else does either console have? Nothing, exclusives are anticonsumer garbage, sure, but if a console has nothing else to stand out, what's the point?

[@CalcProgrammer1]

Sega Genesis has to be up there for me as I grew up on the Sonic series. However, I would rate today's generation S tier on just the Steam Deck alone. The Deck has done something no one's ever done before, merging the openness of PC gaming with the convenience and portability of handheld consoles. Building it on Linux, making it an open platform, and having very well built hardware makes the Steam Deck my favorite gaming device I've ever used.

[@TechDove]

PS3 gen is S tier all the way. PSP, DS, 360, PS3, WII UNDEFEATED Matt you are WRONG

[@Eftiar]

I have to be on team Matt with this one.

[@hasnainsoofi8088]

These ranking videos are my favourite, keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to the next one

[@LivingWithGames]

I love the fact on the 4th generation of consoles, for the NeoGeo console, rather than putting footage of Metal Slug, you guys actually got footage of a Metal Slug-like game that got recently shown, that is Aqua Ippan. I don't think this comment will be seen by you guys but I want to say, massive, MASSIVE respect. Absurdly excellent taste.

[@Dudewitbow]

The WiiU was great, and a lot of people shelved it and listened to the poor marketing to think that it was bad. You only have to look at the sales of the WiiU ported games on the switch sales to know that it had good titles, its just people didn't give the WiiU a chance. People forget that Breath of the Wild was intentionally nerfed from its E3 showing to remove gamepad functionality for parity with the switch in terms of content. The game was originally designed for the WiiU.

[@hood954]

S - 6th Gen A - 4th, 7th Gen B - 3rd, 5th Gen C - 8th Gen D - 9th Gen F - 1st & 2nd Gen

[@nickroig9214]

Hearing austin talk ab how much he covered the 8th gen made me feel olddddd

[@ChaChaRetro]

8th gen is D tier, C at best. The wii U was poor implementation. The Xbox One and PS4 are basically just optimized low end gaming PC's, the always online sucks, and microtransactions ruined what should have been a lot of great gaming experiences. The Switch was unique, but at the end of the day is on par with an Android tablet.

[@scepticskeptic1663]

you cant have a couple of kids deciding how good generations are that they didnt partake in

[@MobikSaysStuff]

You want 50 year old farts running this channel?

[@FloridaManRacer]

My personal list: S- 4th Gen. Timeless 16 bit art styles and music, basic controllers that made sense, timeless games that are still fun today. the mini console versions sold like wildfire. Austin is just wrong. Period. A- 3rd Gen. & 6th Gen. NES saved gaming that's all 3rd Gen needed to do, and 6th Gen was the 3D era's equivalent of 4th gen. gaming. timeless art styles, groundbreaking gameplay and tech. B- 7th Gen. The PS3 and XBox 360 both had a lot of amazing games. some not as timeless, but in their time just as awe inspiring as anything we'd played before... C-Current Gen. I love my switch, I love gaming on PC, but for as much as the current tech in the PS5 and Xbox Series was supposed to improve gaming, I haven't been wowed. Not once. D-5th Gen./ 8th gen. 5th gen got us to 3D, but it just does NOT hold up to playing these titles on original hardware now. In emulation I think they're actually better because you can make the awful graphics look better... 8th Gen. PS4/pro Xbox One, Wii U? Name one game you can only play on those consoles that you really give a single sh!t about. F- 1st/2nd Gen. Look. I get it, without these consoles being invented, nothing else after exists okay? But they f**king suck. They don't even come close to holding up today...

[@Raiju.]

Putting 8th gen in D tier just makes no sense

[@FloridaManRacer]

cry about it. the generation sucked...@@Raiju.

[@DavidStruveDesigns]

Although yes, the devices themselves weren't good if you compare them to most of what came later - I'd argue 1st Gen IS "S-tier" simply because they finally brought gaming to the home and stopped the monopoly of arcades and arcade companies where you had to _pay every time you wanted to play_ a game. They made home gaming _possible_ - can you argue that home gaming would have still been a thing several decades later _without_ this first generation? Like okay, maybe the creation of consoles might have been inevitable, but not for a good long while I don't think, and I think we'd still be playing catch-up right now if those first consoles hadn't come out _when_ they did. They were the pioneers of home gaming - the ones that proved it was even possible and desirable in the first place. Everything that came after was simply _technological_ improvements, which _were_ inevitable - the 1st Gen invented and proved the very _concept_ of home-gaming itself. It doesn't matter if the devices themselves were janky, not very powerful and weird (they were still figuring out literally _everything_ including the controller method - cars went through the same thing at the start, where every brand had a totally different idea on the layout and operation/function of their particular models' controls, and it took a fairly long time for the three-pedals in a specific set order we're familiar with today became standard). Nor does it matter that the games themselves, by any standard that came later, are basic on every level, with graphics that can be barely counted as graphics at all. None of that mattered, because all of that can be improved and figured out for the coming generations. What mattered was now you could play games at _home_ , in the nice warm dry livingroom or bedroom, and you didn't need bags of quarters to have a good time and you didn't need to "go somewhere" to play a game any more if you didn't want to (or if there wasn't an arcade near you). And you didn't need to wait in line whilst other people played your favourite game or got kicked off the arcade machine before you were ready.

[@nappa0582]

7th Gen is D tier. Austin was so blinded by nostalgia that he forgot about the RRoD and how that killed Microsoft Gaming division. They *KNEW* of the problem and doubled down on how there was no problem, shipped flawed systems, and then blamed the consumers. From that gave birth to those god awful Intercoolers, which did way more harm than good. PlayStation 3, at launch, was 6 bills! Six. Hundred. Dollars! Nobody could afford that except a select few. The 20 and 60 (?) GB models were PlayStation 3s with PlayStation 2 guts, which made them completely backwards compatible but then all future models removed the PS2 guts and made them backwards compatible through emulation. Remember Sixaxis? Remember how great the idea was to control the Lair dragon was with the tilt of the controller, but how flawed it was because of the vibration? Great idea on paper, horrible on execution. If it wasn't for the future versions of the 360 and PS3 that "fixed" many of the "problems" the original systems had, both companies would have tanked. The only good thing that came from the 7th generation was Wii and DS. D. Tier. Generation.

[@DrVernSFC]

Gen 5- PS1,N64,Jaguar,3DO,CDI,Saturn,32X ---Worst generation by a mile. Many innovations that would make Gen 6 an easy "S" Tier, came from the myriad of mistakes made by the majority of the industry during this time. It nearly killed Sega, it did kill Atari, 3DO and Philips. The populations thirst for 3D lead to SO many bad games. A small percentage of games from this era hold up, but most of these console libraries have aged poorly. Only Sony really came out unscathed (you'll remember that N64 was not a financial success for Nintendo, despite American fan love) Only Nostalgia goggles could rank this terrible generation at "B" Tier

[@HolgerNestmann]

Up until 9th gen, we should put the handhelds a generation earlier. The gameboy was able to play nes games. The psp was about ps2 etc. So I think we should have two lists right?

[@astoroth88]

100% 4th gen deserved S Tier, 7th gen was known for red ring of death, shovelware and the "homebrew" scene kick off but not for "amazing" games.

[@PixelatedH2O]

4th gen deserves nothing lower than S tier. Final Fantasy III/VI, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Earthbound, Super Mario Kart, NBA Jam, Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X, Streets of Rage... and on and on

[@alertArchitect]

Saying 7th gen is S tier is so monumentally wrong. Yes, it produced one of my favorite games ever made - Halo Reach - but it also had _so many issues._ The Wii was a shovelware machine that also played Nintendo games. The PS3 had very few games compared to the 360 thanks to Sony trying to force exclusivity through weird architecture. The 360, for how much I love it, had tons of technical issues, such as the overheating that would lead to the infamous Red Ring of Death. I will give you that the PSP and DS were unequivcally massive hits, but they cannot save the generation on their own. The 7th gen is also where we started seeing the modern trend of pervasive, overpriced DLC that's practically necessary for the best experience. For example, Asura's Wrath was an otherwise amazing game that put the ending that was ON ITS DISC behind a paywall. The 7th gen also started the trend of focusing on realism instead of allowing for interesting art styles, leading to an entire console gen of "realisitic" looking games that were 90% different shades of brown. The 7th gen had its Ws, but it's an A at best. 6th gen is the best console gen in my opinion. Some of the best games ever made in their series, such as Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Sonic Adventure 2, Metroid Prime, Metroid Fusion, Kingdom Hearts 2, Rayman 2, and more. You also had the beginnings of some of the greatest game series out there, such as Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry, Halo, and Pikmin. It also had amazing standalone games like God Hand & Okami. Putting anything other than 6th gen at S is a massive disservice.

[@davidfear6030]

Austin with the donut shirt, what a legend. Need an automotive episode

[@Shakezo_727]

single player/offline co-op was the best part of gaming. the internet has ruined everything

[@MarcelSupaarawOndemkeys]

6th gen is S tier. GameCube: extended memory, Gameboy player, SMASH BROS MELEE(arguably the greatest game) sonic adventures, pokemon coliseum, yugioh falsebound kingdom Gameboy advance Gameboy advance sp: gen 3 pokemon, golden sun Ps2: Gta 3 (arguably best game), God of war, Xbox: Halo (arguably best game), Fusion frenzy, NBA street volume 2, NFL street volume 2. Midnight club 3 dub edition Gen 7 road the coattails of gen 6. There's not a single generation that beats 6. 7 rode the success of 6. 8 tried to remix 6 and 9 emulates 6. Respectfully

[@alecheesacker4460]

How Square Enix tends to make things worse within game design and then violates Music Rules within Star Ocean 3 by playing the Ending of Ark Theme from Indiana Jones. I am no longer trusting Square Enix and their games. Deletes Star Ocean Music.

[@dbbach4502]

Austin is 100% correct. 5 and 7 are the greatest generations of consoles. 1a and 1b. 5 was so good, they didn't even mention the Nintendo 64 and that's one of the best consoles of all time. I still give the S tier to 7 because the PS2 and 360 had such great games, controllers, options, and everyone had LAN parties playing Halo and drinking Game Fuel eating Doritos!!

[@Jdbye]

Mario Party is a poor example of a Wii U game considering the Wii U didn't have a single good Mario Party game. It had two crap ones that weren't worth revisiting after trying them out once. Super Mario 3D World, Smash 4, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 are much better examples of what made a Wii U worth playing on. It was a failure, but it had some great games. Just not enough of them. It wasn't the worst console of all time, even just among recent-ish consoles I think the PS Vita is worse than the Wii U. That was similarly a commercial failure, with the main difference being that Sony really didn't want to give up on it until the end. Nintendo basically gave up on the Wii U as soon as they started developing the Switch and then started holding off big releases so that they could launch them on Switch instead. Which was a big insult to the people who bought the Wii U, and to add insult to insury, almost all the games that made the Wii U worth playing have been ported to Switch anyways so that generation could've been completely skipped without losing almost anything.

[@AronFromThisIs]

The worst generation is the one where I started getting stomped by 12 year-old's online

[@Dallas-w6e]

Lol 😂 yes

[@loch3765]

Austin is absolutely incorrect. The PS3 was a damn miss with it's price tag and the 360 kept having the red ring of death. Let's also not forget it was the gold standard of hacking and cheating online. Compared to the original Xbox, GameCube, PS2, and Dreamcast which were all loved consoles.

[@panos21sonic]

No way 8th gen is below 9th. Yes, 8th gen may be putting people out of console, but 9th gen is making people quit modern gaming, with half of the major releases being unfinished messes. Meanwhile 8th gen had some of the best releases in gaming. Also cant use the wii u and xbone as a point when you have 5th gen up there, with the saturn setting the stones for segas exit from the console wars, and also ataris exit....

[@pauldeshield]

I grew up on the 5th and 6th gen, but the 7th Gen is legit s tier. PS3 that can play all the ps2 games, everyone and their granny had a wii for games night, THE PSP an the DS. So many 360s died but we were having a good time.

[@Cplayz08]

"AT US" matt said he could already feel us yelling "at us" in the comments. I'm just fulfilling his dreams.

[@Articbear]

Gen 7 was the epitome of gaming. No other gen comes CLOSE

[@BluePhoenix559]

FR

[@grandmoffporkins]

The PS1, N64 gen was 100% B-C tier. There are some great memories there and even lots of games worth revisiting, like F-ZeroX and Tekken 3. But the visuals are PAINFUL to look at now without hardcore nostalgia glasses, the controls are mostly butt (the N64 controller alone deserves a special place in hell), and most great franchises had better installments later. SNES/GENESIS/GAMEBOY era FTW.

[@MWKRider]

The fact that these two don't think the PS2 generation was the peak of gaming is just ridiculous. They were right this video would make me mad.

[@urk5204]

I have to agree with Matt -- the 7th generation is forgettable. I wouldn't even give it an A. Almost all the great games from that generation are on newer consoles now, the hardware from that generation was mired with problems, the PS3 was way too expensive for what was on offer at the beginning, the games were almost uniformly a muddy gray, and towards the end the truly hideous amount of shovelware made it a truly depressing time to be a gamer, especially with the Kinect and PS Move gaining traction right as everyone had gotten tired of the Wii's motion controls ruining otherwise great games. Were it not for games like the Mass Effects, Bioshock, the few good games on the Wii, and the DS, that generation would be easy D tier for me.

[@noodlelynoodle.]

That generation is what really brought gaming into the mainstream though, I remember back when the 360 was new gaming was still kinda looked at like this nerdy thing but over the course of the life of the 360 it really became a much more widely accepted thing, I feel like it did more for the current state of games than any of the more current generation, like once we got to 7th gen most stuff since then has just been remakes of the same games and more in the same series which is fun but there's way less innovation in most games for the modern systems like I actually forget that the newest Xbox is a thing but would still be using my 360 to this day is the Xbox 1 controller wasn't just basically just a better version

[@The_NJG]

6th Gen is S tier. It does not have my favorite games (that honor goes to the 7th), but that's when gaming was at it's best. Xbox Live, Gameboy Advance, PS2 with God of War, and the Gamecube with it's great lineup (although I don't like Super Mario Sunshine, so the absence of a Mario I like hits it hard). The 7th Generation set up everything that's wrong with the industry now, being paid online and updates/overpriced DLC, and that brings it down back to an A. Still has my favorite games though.

[@Tedybear315]

First gen systems should have been 'a' for their historical value. They paved the way for these more 'advanced' systems. Lost a lot of respect on that "F"... And FYI: I've worked as a service tech, field manager, and store manager in the arcade industry for 30 years. You can't have the quality home systems of today without the early systems getting the foot in the door with the players.

[@SpexSpexington]

@15:50 #1 is sometimes #2, but #2 is always supported by #1. (If you know what I mean)

[@mason9441]

The 2 gen was not that bad

[@kilbymorgan8626]

They screwed up putting 1998 as A instead of S because thats the problem. 2008 had a series of quality control problems they never discussed and is a solid B. Move 1993 to A and thats the actual correct teir list.

[@marcustmusic]

I have no “S” or “A” tiers personally. Each gen has a slither I play with.

[@Giddy_NOR]

S | A | 4th B | 3rd C | 6th D | 8th, 7th, 5th F | 2nd, 1st, 9th

[@paulknight5018]

13:26 Austin gets so excited he spits!!

[@Lou-T-Fisk]

I give 3rd gen S tier because it basically saved gaming in the USA. Also how many franchises were spawned this gen and still have games going.

[@N3ONRUIN]

as a 6th 7th 8th and possibly 9th gen gamer i agree with list but at the same time we are all gamers and i would honestly love to try the older consoles from the different generations to see how far gaming as come

[@OlaftheGreat]

5th and 7th gen were also my absolute favorites, and I refuse to remove my rose-tinted glasses and face logic and reason

[@projecttracing1767]

Austin wearing a donut media tshirt

[@mda187]

Was the PS2 not shown at all? Or was it considered its own generation? I'm confused why it is missing. Edit: NM, it was generation 6. It should have been S.

[@coolduder1001]

Unbiased opinion S - 6th (This is the generation to start bringing the fun and weird ideas that you can sadly only find in indie games now) A - 7th (My most memorable, loved my DS and PSP even without modding it, and every one I knew owned at least one of the home consoles), 5th (Sony really changed the market and I think it helped at variety) B - 4th (First solid gen, almost A tier, but again it's just Sega and Nintendo really, no one knew about tg16 and no one could afford a neo geo) C - 3rd (was ok, but Nintedo had strangle hold on everything else, meaning less variety) D - 8th (boring), 9th (Steam deck nice, everything else isn't consumer friendly) F - 1st (ok but I don't hear of people remembering it fondly, more the computers of the time)

[@Darius_Cyrus]

Hard agree with Austin with most of these choices! Gen 7 is S tier. It was the most well-rounded one with no clear winner and lasted longer than the rest. Gen 6 is A tier because while it was really good, its lack of universal online play and clear winning console makes it not quite S tier. Gen 5 at D tier though because it aged the worst with the most growing pains.

[@evokur]

Something I'm wondering I guess, is why the Switch is considered 8th in this video, if Nintendo's already got a console and handheld in 8th (Wii U / 3DS), and the Switch came out several years after them, and is still a current console with games being made. Seems like it belongs in 9th generation.

[@KinseyFromThisIs]

so happy this video could come out at a time when nintendenesis finally genesis

[@AronFromThisIs]

The doctor has just informed me that I have Schizophrenesis