Topic: What is your other choice?

Everyone has a gaming experience and I'm not into fans' wars any more. I'm just a gamer now.

I've been a player since I was a child, like most of you. The first console I owned was the SNES. Since then, I became what it's known as Nintendo fanboy, although I believe there were real reasons to be so in the SNES and N64 days. However, I played and had fun with my friends' consoles and discovered a whole new world beyond Nintendo's boundaries. The first non-Nintendo console I desired was the Mega Drive but my parents wouldn't buy me everything. Excluding handhelds, this generation is the first gen I own more than one console. Disappointed by Nintendo's sparse games library and lacking hardware, I bought a PS4 a few months after it launched. That felt weird, like breaking up with a g/bfriend, but eventually it was the right choice and I could afford it. My gaming experience totally changed because of my first PS games: Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid V, The Last of Us, Journey (the Collector's Edition trio), Final Fantasy X/X-II...

Microsoft. I hated them until I discovered that it was Nintendo's fault that Rare was sold. During the acquisition by Microsoft key people left the company and many of them are in Playtonic now and are developing promising Yooka-Laylee platformer. Anyway, I've been wanting an Xbox 360 since Microsoft launched the updated versions of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, but I didn't want to spend so much money for just a few games. When the Xbox-One-Kinect launched, I didn't like how expensive it was and it was not even backwards compatible. When Microsoft announced Rare Replay and the backwards compatibility, I knew I was going to get an Xbox One. After all, there were many other Rare games I've always wanted to play, plus the Banjo and Perfect Dark remasters. Conker's Bad Fur Day was included too, which I didn't have and it's extremely expensive for Nintendo 64. Plus the Xbox 360/Arcade games e.g., Sonic CD. I was browsing console packs and different choices everywhere, then the Xbox One Elite was announced and I loved its controller. It was difficult to find on the High Street so I just bought it online on the Microsoft Store and now I'm so happy with this console, this controller and the huge and interesting games library that I have access to now, including Killer Instinct, Resident Evil, Halo, etc.

No, I was not a spoiled child but this man got a Wii U, a PS4 and an Xbox One Elite this generation, and I'm glad I did. I don't play as often as when I was a child because of everyday life responsibilities and because I like doing sports and stuff but I'm happy to know that I have those three consoles and that I'm not a Nintendo's slave any more.

What is your other choice regarding consoles now? PS4? Xbox One? Which one did you get first and when did you expand your horizons? Why are you not Nintendo-only now?

I couldn't care less about the topic of this thread personally, I own all 3 current gen consoles and don't care to explain how/why I wanted them, but I thought I'd correct this part of your statement because from my understanding of things it doesn't make any sense. Rare were a small, but talented, independent studio who despite several success could not sustain themselves on their own, so they put themselves up for sale. Nintendo, despite their recent partnership, has to this day never been known to purchase studios, and weren't interested given that they were not in any great need to invest in more studios, particularly ones outside of Japan. Microsoft, newly entered into this industry and with more money than they knew what to do with but having very few game development studios to call their own felt it was a no-brainer to buy them, which looking back it probably was. Though considering the 'quality' of Rare's output since then and how Microsoft have mishandled their franchises (only this week butchering Conker's even more) I don't give Microsoft a lot of credit for what they did. Either way, it was no one's 'fault' that this happened in the way it did. It's just business.

Though I am optimistic for Sea of Thieves and Rare Replay was well done so eh.

I found Rare Replay annoying as so many of the games weren't actually on the disc had to be downloaded seperately, it's a small thing though.

I was a latecomer to consoles. I loved Super Mario Kart on the SNES, but we had an Amiga at home, no console. My younger brother bought an original Xbox, which I played a fair amount of Project Gotham Racing on, but I always saw console gaming as too expensive for the time sink that it is.

When I was about 25 I bought my first console - a used Gamecube with a few games included. I bought it principally for Rogue Squadron 2 as I love Star Wars and wanted to dog-fight in space to John Williams' score. Mission accomplished. But I never bought any new games for the Gamecube - I softmodded it and dabbled in piracy a bit, but never really got into my Gamecube very much. But the piracy I did did open my eyes more to the Mushroom Kingdom, primarily due to the brilliance that was/is Super Mario Strikers.

Then the Wii came out. I was excited about it pre-launch but immediately caught on to the underwhelming precision (or lack of) in the motion control USP. I wasn't going to get a Wii as a result, but then my girlfriend suggested we did, so we did. My library of retail games increased very slightly (e.g. Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Galaxy, Mario All Stars), but I still didn't really get into it. I softmodded it and pirated a bit more, but the underwhelming graphics tended to put me off, and I didn't follow the gaming scene as much as I do now so wasn't too clued up on the hidden gems.

So because of the underwhelming Wii, I built a half-decent PC and bought a few more games for that.

Somewhere in the middle of my PC phase, the Wii U launched. My first child had arrived just before and I began to realise how much of my time was going to be spent at home. I didn't game on my PC too much because I find it uncomfortable to sit at a desk. LIKE A BEACON OF LIGHT IN A STORM TO END ALL STORMS, OFF-SCREEN PLAY BECKONED TO ME! So I bought a Wii U and began sinking hours into FIFA 13, but didn't buy anything else hardly.

But what really sparked my re-interest in the gaming scene was Mario Kart 8 - perhaps my favourite game of all time. I bought it Day 1 with a t-shirt bundle and just went giddy with how fun it was and how much I loved slo-moing through the highlights and uploading screenshots to Miiverse.

Since that momentous day of MK8's release, I've gone stupidly overboard with gaming. I've bought a N3DS and a used PS3, another 100 or so games on Steam etc. and have bought about 50 used Wii games. I'm probably getting close to £1000 spent on gaming over 2 years (I daren't add it up, it's more than I've ever spent before over my whole life - twice as much at least I reckon).

I don't even spend that much time gaming - I just love the scene, the wealth of glorious art styles and character designs, the hype, the debates over games, the collecting (oooh the collecting)...

tl;dr - I started out, kinda, with Nintendo, who do make great games and have some irresistible character design (looking at you Yoshi, Kirby, Mario, Pikachu, Toad, Peach), but I understand how the gaming scene works a lot better now and how daft it would be to align solely with one hardware producer.

I've recently looked at buying a used 360 too, but there seems to be so little exclusive content to that system that's worth paying much attention to that I don't think I'll bother for now. I've got 5 times more than enough on my Wii/U, N3DS, PC and PS3.

My next console? Tough call. Depending how the NX turns out, and what else of note releases exclusive to PS4, I may give my hardware buying a rest for a few years and try to find a way through some of my impossibly large backlog. I'll probably wait for the backend of the PS4 era and start picking up some used goodies for that. Can the NX change this plan???

@arronishere: yeah I can't say I disagree with that but for £20 day one (it's being practically given away for less than £10 from certain retailers now) I can put up with it gladly. I've already gotten through Banjo-Kazooie, Kameo, Conker's, Battletoads and Viva Piñata and I'm enjoying Tooie a lot. Well worth it.

Slightly off topic as my other gaming system took place in the past. I remember playing sisters NES as a lil guy, but the SNES was my first console. Had a lot of fun with it (more now probably), but when I got my playstation 1, I was at that age where I was too cool for nintendo. With games like Metal Gear Solid and Tenchu, Mario and DK became distant memories. (I did have a 64, but never really got into it) Same with my Ps2, but I skipped the Gamecube. Then I guess I became busy in life or what I did to relax changed and I pretty much dropped gaming except for playing with friends. Fast forward to the end of the Wii's life and I finally got that system. Playing DKC Returns and oh wow how did I not play this sooner. It hit me with nostalgia. It got me back into Nintendo. So much so that I got a Wii U a couple years ago and its been pretty awesome for me. I know it has big droughts, but when that happens I'll go and get games I missed on older systems from the NES to the Wii (Just got a Gamecube and REmake is amazing). So I guess my secondary system or other choice time was in the late 90's early 2000s. Now I'm content in collecting and playing games I missed in the past.

@TheLastLugia: I won't answer you because you're not interested on my topic, and I don't understand why you replied here then, there are other topics about Rare, but I'd recommend you reading the whole story. In short, Nintendo had 49% of Rare and they didn't want the other 51%. Then Microsoft came and bought the 51% and then Nintendo sold its 49% to Microsoft. Now back on topic, please.

This is exactly the only reason why I wrote this thread so find other topics that interest you more. This topic is for those stories you don't care about.

@gcunit: It's quite interesting how Super Mario Kart was a childhood favourite and then you went back to console gaming with Mario Kart 8 which happened to be your favourite game ever.

@VanillaLake: Yeh, it is. Guess it means, in my eyes, that they struck gold with the idea and execution. I find sporting (particularly racing) games to be the most immersive experiences for me, because of the obvious link between competition experienced in real life and the competition going on on the screen (I've not had to rescue so many princesses or save the world so much in real life), so to combine sports with the fun and appealing style and aesthetic of the Mushroom Kingdom is perhaps my perfect matchup, hence my love for Mario Kart and Mario Strikers.

There are many other karting and football games around, but the balance of simplicity, fun and competition achieved in MK and MS are unrivalled to me. E.g. Sony and Sega have both tried karting, but they don't rival Mario Kart IMO. I don't thnik this is Nintendo-bias (though of course it could be subconscious), but I'm yet to play more captivating versions from other developers.

I'm really hoping for a new Mario Strikers that has a slight increase in the player moves/animations, and maybe a bit more depth (i.e. larger sided games e.g. 7 v 7 or 11 v 11 with a greater character roster and a few special moves) - I've seen a brief clip of the Mario & Sonic Olympics Soccer that suggests headers and volleys have been implemented, so hopefully this can be brought to a new Mario Strikers (pls pls plsplspls plssssss!)

I have a PS4 as well. I wasn't too impressed with the PS3's library, so I never got one. But I always told myself I'd buy the next PlayStation when they announce The Last Guardian (SotC was a masterpiece), so I did. I'm a big fan of action adventure games, so I couldn't skip the PS4. And with the release of many remasters, I'm able to enjoy the few PS3 games I was interested in as well.

I'm usually a Nintendo + Sony though recently I've been leaning towards Nintendo + Microsoft with a bit of PC in there. That said I usually make it an effort to get all platforms at one point

I would consider myself mostly Nintendo + PC, then Microsoft would be 3rd and for some reason I have always had Sony systems laying around. During the 360 age I became a huge Microsoft gamer but after a rough patch with achievements and personal life, I returned to Nintendo. Nintendo has the experiences I crave and want to play. Halo 2 will always stand as one of the very best games ever made.

I lean towards Nintendo & Playstation, but I'm pretty platform agnostic.

Due in large part to the fact that while we had an NES (and later SNES), my cousin had a Genenis, so I sort of grew up knowing both Nintendo & Sega.

In the 5th gen we had both a N64 & PS1. In the 6th gen we could only afford one console, so we went with the PS2 (though I picked up a GCN late in the game, for a few titles). We lucked out in the 7th gen and had a Wii, PS3, & 360, but we don't have any 8th gen consoles yet.

The only PS3 games I've played are the two we got free through the "Welcome Back" program (LittleBigPlanet & InFamous), because it's not hooked up via an HD connection. Because of that, when I want to get a game for one of the HD Twins, I opt for a 360 game since it's hooked up with one of those HD Component setups.

Ninty and a PC is my way to go. None of the exclusives on the other two systems interest me. I've played both throughout the years, and there was never any incentive for me to get either.

Growing up with the Gameboy, SNES, N64, PS2, and Xbox, while realizing that the first 3 were by far my favorite, I've always just been a Nintendo fan. I'm not really interested in buying other game consoles, since I try to limit my gaming budget, and Nintendo's consoles pretty much do it for me; plus I'm usually exposed to the other consoles through friends and family. Though last year, there were some non-Nintendo games I've been hearing about that I got the itch to play (namely Portal and Limbo), so I got myself a Steam account. Now, It's pretty much just Nintendo for me, but with the occasional purchase on Steam if I'm looking for something different; it's plenty enough variety.

What a charmer (!)

I like all consoles! Some more than others though, purely because I prefer certain games or series, which is why I usually like Nintendo (Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid) and Sony (Gran Turismo, Ratchet & Clank, Team ICO and Uncharted) more so than Microsoft.

I am not a handheld fan though, although I was gifted a DS Lite one Christmas several years ago at the height of its popularity. That wasn't a bad little thing to carry around from time to time, especially with Mario Kart DS in tow!

Mainly Nintendo then, whereas I choose between Microsoft and Sony once I eventually see what they have got to offer me - games wise - after a year or so. I had an Xbox 360 last generation, and a PlayStation 4 this time round.

@Tsurii: I'm also more a console gamer, I really want it simple when playing and don't worry about save files folders, overheating laptops, etc. Talking about PC, the first time I played Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Tomb Raider was on desktop because I only had the Nintendo consoles back then.

@gcunit: As anyone can guess, I'm also a long time Mario Kart fan, but probably because of that there's only one thing I don't like about recent Mario Kart games, that is making the franchise a party game more than a racing game, specially Mario Kart Wii, and that ruins the competitive element. When I bought the Wii U I also got Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. In some ways I think it's better than Mario Kart. It's heavily inspired by Diddy Kong Racing, another great racing classic that was fun on Tracks mode and extremely challenging to 100% on Adventure mode. I like that mix of fantasy and racing as you do. I still have and play Diddy Kong Racing on my Nintendo 64. I also have Goldeneye 007 on N64, the game I played the most on N64 multiplayer.

@arronishere: To be honest, you only do that the first time and it's far more convenient to have 30 Xbox 360, N64 and former platforms games on a console than to plug a Nintendo 64 or whatever platform to play the games. Plus, all the N64 games run natively at 1080p with x4 MSAA on Rare Replay. I had Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 but couldn't beat it because the frame rate was too slow to be accurate and quick. To play the 360 remake on Xbox One for the first time meant discovering a whole new world and I beat it on Agent (easy) and Secret Agent (normal). There are also the two Banjo-Kazooie remasters, Jet Force Gemini, Blast Corps, Killer Instinct Gold (I had that one on N64 and it was fun in spite of the plain sprites and 3D backgrounds scheme that shares with Mario Kart 64) and rare Conker's Bad Fur Day. If a bit too gore it's a smart game and it looks almost like a GameCube game here. Plus the retro games and Xbox 360 main Rare games that I've never played: I'm taking care of my garden on Viva Piñata and I'm willing to play Nuts 'n' Bolts, Perfect Dark Zero and the others for the first time. I suck at NES/Spectrum games (except Super Mario Bros. trilogy) but there are cheats and rewinds if I want to try.

Like I said it's a small thing but there's no real reason for it to be not on the disc, I still find it annoying especially when seemingly every game I get needs huge updates and downloads taking more space on my hard drive for physical games.

@arronishere: The games you have to download are the 360 games, but those wouldn't fit on a Blu-Ray anyway.

@VanillaLake: I too have SASRT, but haven't put much time into it. What I've played of it doesn't particularly excite me like MK8 does. SASRT is flashier but somehow less fun - I think maybe it is too flashy, MK8 is more refined and beautiful - from what I've experienced so far. I'll play it more some day to give it a fair shot, but it'll have to go some to topple MK8, which I'm so in love with there's probably some bias now that I can't help.

I have to admit - the Rare Replay on XBone does tempt me. I largely missed that period of console gaming and Goldeneye was the only N64 game I spent any time on, so I'm always reading about the legendary Rare games like Perfect Dark, Banjo and Conker. I'm going to have to try them one day so I will no doubt be on the lookout for a cheap XBone (my bro has one that doesn't get used much so maybe I can 'borrow' his...).