The Subjective Scientific reTROview Console Tier List!

And now, the article none of you have been waiting for, but that I've been working on fairly hard for several hours, the Subjective Scientific reTROview Console Tier List *faint applause*!

As I was working through ideas for my next top ten list, I started to list out my top ten games for each console I own. I found that it was pretty remarkable that for a lot of consoles I own, I couldn't actually list ten games that I would classify as pretty good (8.5 or higher) on my patented ten point reTROview scale. So I started to think about my relative taste for various consoles and their libraries, and naturally thought that measuring them all on a scale would be a good place to start in a definitive, scientific, and highly subjective console tier list. So I compiled a humble list of 285 games that I feel are at least "good" (8.0 or higher), and ranked them all as either good, excellent (9.0 or higher), or perfect/iconic (10). I then assigned each game a score of 1 if it was good, 5 if it was excellent, and 10 if it was perfect/iconic. I then summed the games for each console, and derived a definitive ranking of my console preferences to share with my faithful reader. If systems were less than 5 points of each other (less than one excellent game's difference, in other words), I felt confident boosting one over the other due to subjective measures such as my love of the controller, historical importance of the console, aesthetic beauty of the console itself, or whatever else I wanted.

My basic rules for the games I listed was that it had to be a game I would still play today. So while I adored MVP NCAA Baseball '06 on the PS2, it doesn't appear here due to the fact that I would never play it today, given the presence of MLB: The Show. I'm not saying no one would play it, but this is my tier list, after all. I also tried to include each game on the platform on which it first appeared, unless it's on a modern console and appeared on a billion consoles during its life span (while still being updated), meaning I could put it on whichever console I associate it with. So, while I associate Street Fighter III: Third Strike with the PS3, it's solidly an arcade game. But, while Diablo III was originally released on the PC, I associate it with the PS4, where it has received substantial updates. In murky situations, like with Street Fighter II, I simply placed it where it felt right (arcade). The consoles ranked also had to be consoles I own, which means I feel like I have some reason to have them. So if Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 5200, Fairchild Model F, Virtual Boy, or your own pet weirdo console doesn't appear here, it's probably because I'm not interested in owning it, or haven't found the right deal yet.

Up next, I'll begin listing out my systems a few at a time in general tiers, along with the games I think are worth buying for the system. Stay tuned!

-TRO