PC: Civilization
Atari 2600: River Raid
Sega Master System: Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Super Nintendo: Street Fighter II Turbo
PS: The Tony Hawk series
Nintendo 64: Goldeneye
I used to love playing video games, but ever since the Nintendo 64 set the trend of shifting focus away from gameplay and on to graphics, games just haven’t been the same.
You think the Nintendo 64 did that?
Weird.
Ay, dios mio, you can be a snob sometimes, RNATB. N64 gave a lot of people their first taste of 3D platformers and adventure games in Mario64 and Ocarina of Time. Just because that’s not when you felt the focus shift from gameplay to graphics (assuming you ever did) doesn’t mean someone else’s experience wasn’t different. I happen to agree with straggler. I think going 3D slowed games down and put the focus on environments more, whereas in older 2D games the environment/graphics were just window dressing for the gameplay.
I agree on the timeframe, but not on the specific. I think it started with the Sega 32X, but really took off with the Saturn and Playstation. That was the first time I stopped hearing people say, “are the games any good?” and started hearing them say, “it can handle 425,079 polygons at once! Can your system do that?” or whatever.
And yes, I’m a snob. 
Compare:
200,000 Sega 32x’s sold (I knew 1 guy who had one, and he only had 1 game, and he never played it)
33,000,000 Nintendo 64s sold (everyone I knew had one, or played frequently with friends)
Which system do you think people are going to remember when they think about early 3D, graphics-focused console gaming?
PlayStation?
I really don’t know much about the Playstation. This is an interesting point about the perspective from which we view things, actually. I looked it up and was pretty surprised - borderline shocked - to see that it came out in 1995. I don’t think I ever heard of or saw a Playstation until about 1998, and didn’t really feel like it had much saturation/popular support until rumors of the PS2 started heating up. I never owned one (or a PS2, or a PS3.) N64, for me, was absolutely the first 3D console gaming experience, and when I felt like the focus shifted from gameplay to graphics.
Atari 2600: Adventure (honorable mention to Asteroids)
NES: lots to choose from, I’ll say Metroid
SNES: Zelda, a Link to the past (honorable mention to Mario Kart)
Sega: I forgot the name of this game, but it’s soccer, football and rugby all rolled into one played by robots. It was incredibly balanced and very intuitive with a small learning curve.
N64: Goldeneye (better multiplayer than Mario 64)
Playstation: too many, possiblly Metal Gear
PS2: I didn’t own one, but we did play Street Figher II Turbo a lot, possibly the best incarnation on the home port.
Xbox: Star Wars, KOTR
Wii: Twilight Princess
360: I don’t own one (yet), but I have to say Gears of War 2. Is there no love for this game? “Horde” option is definitely the best on-line FPS advancement out there. I think Left 4 Dead might have something similar, but since I haven’t played it I won’t comment.
DS: hands down, the best use of the DS functionality is Zelda, Phantom Hour Glass.
NES- Dragon Warrior IV
The epitome of the old time RPGs on the system. It took all the fun gameplay elements, added a good story, then divided things in to chapters in the most wonderful way possible. (A very close 2nd is SMB3, but I didn’t play sick to stay at home and play it.)
Gameboy- Pokemon Red/Blue
A really fun RPG. Collecting teammates makes for a surprisingly good system.
SNES- Chrono Trigger
Perhaps the best designed game ever. Amazing story, intriguing characters, and so much fun stuff to do. Time travel kicks ass. (Earthbound is my personal favorite, but its just not as perfect. FFVI and Super Mario World are also close contenders.)
N64- Super Mario 64
It set the standard for 3d platforming. I mean, come on! (Goldeneye, Mario Kart, and Harvest Moon 64 are good, but just not the gaming milestone that SM64 was.)
PSX- Final Fantasy Tactics
A very addictive job/skill system and a deep plot that feels real put this ahead of the rest. (Honorable mentions include Metal Gear Solid, FFVII, and Suikoden 2. Outstanding games, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em.)
GBA- Fire Emblem
A good game, but nothing to write home about. The GBA as a whole is kinda like that. (I’ve played Mother 3 and, while its good, just doesn’t stand up to the second game.)
GameCube- Super Smash Brothers Melee
It improves on the original in every way and was the first game that I had to take breaks from to keep my hands from falling off.
PS2- Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
A ton of great games, especially RPGs, but this one takes the cake. One of the hardest games around, but expertly designed. It has Pokemon’s “Gotta’ catch 'em all!” aspect with a mature, post-apocalyptic setting. You’ll fall in love within 15 minutes. (Romance of the Three Kingdoms X deserves mention as perhaps the best strategy game around. Metal Gear Solid 3 also amazes, and of course the Katamari games deserve mention as well. Persona 3 gets some kudos too, but it can’t quite equal its MegaTen cousin.)
DS- Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
The best treatment to date, it refines the small mistakes of the past and introduces Nintendo WiFi, which makes trading and collecting a breeze. (I’d like to mention Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja as well. Really fun dungeon crawler that you should pick up if you like the genre.)
Wii- Super Mario Galaxy
Platformer in the spirit of Mario 64, but the Wiimote and spherical worlds make it unique.
PS3- Metal Gear Solid 4
Not as good as MGS3, but still the best game on the system. I will admit, though, that I haven’t played many of the games, so grain of salt.
PC- Civilization
Any of the series, but I prefer Civ4. But as anyone who has played can attest, these games are more addictive than crack soaked in heroin-flavored nicotine.
According to Wiki the original Playstation moved just over 100 million units as of 2008, and it’s one of the systems with the greatest market penetration as far as I’m aware. (Only the PS2 beats it.) It’s strange because I would have expected the Atari 2600 (30 million) or the original NES (61 million) to rank higher but apparently not.
Christmas of 1995 was the first year it was available, but that first year of the PS’s life was pretty dreadful, at least I thought it was (I bought one early in 96). I think Tekken launched with the system, but other than that the best games were ports of 2d Capcom fighting games. (Street Fighter Alpha and Darkstalkers mostly…) Developers didn’t really start to get a handle on it till later on, I’d say circa early '97. The release of FF7 in January of that year was a watershed moment and I’m sure moved a ton of consoles on it’s own. A lot of titles that people still associate with it, (Castlevania: SOTN, Final Fantasy: Tactics and FF9, Valkyrie Profile, Chrono Cross, MGS, Gran Turismo…) all came late in the system’s life cycle. '97/98 is actually about the point it reached mass appeal.
Atari 2600: Freeway (I didn’t have too many 2600 games… :P)
NES: The Legend of Zelda
SNES: Zelda 2: A Link to the Past
Genesis: Phantasy Star
Sega CD: Lunar: The Silver Star
XBox 360: Dead Rising (tough call against Rock Band 2)
Modern-day PC: World of Warcraft
Nintendo DS: Phoenix Wright
Nintendo GameCube: Animal Crossing
Playstation: Chrono Cross
Probably, but it had wide appeal among the collegiate set from the start.
The guys across the hall from me my sophomore year got one in 1995 and had a few games, including MK3, which was probably the top selling title at the time. Over the next 3 years more and more people had them.
I haven’t looked at anybody else’s choice yet:
Commodore 16: Mr Puniverse
ZX Spectrum: Spellbound Dizzy
Sega Master System: Phantasy Star
SNES: Super Mario World
Xbox: Halo
Playstation: Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Xbox 360: Mass Effect
PC: Fallout 2 (Grim Fandango juuuust missing out)
Speedball. One of the great Bitmap Brothers games.
What about the PSOne?
OMG! That’s it. That is a great game. I had no idea there was a 2. I’m going to have to go hunt it down. The only reason I knew it existed is because my local video store carried it for rental. I never saw it in the stores.
IIRC, they didn’t sell many games in the US; most of their games were originally written for the Amiga, which wasn’t nearly as popular here as in Britain, and then ported to the various other systems, or not.
Vice City was the PSOne. I have never owned a PS2.
IIRC the Genesis version in the US was called Cyberball. And yes, it is one of the few really great fantasy sports games.
Actually, Vice City was the sequel to GTA 3 and was originally on the PS2, and was later ported to the Xbox and PC. It was never on the PSOne.