The period when the fifth generation of consoles was released brought about a mixed set of fortunes for those machines. A few of them grew into cherished fixtures in living rooms across the world. Others vanished almost immediately after appearing. Collider has placed these ten machines in rank order of greatness, and the ranking itself reflects both success and failure in roughly equal parts.
The ranking covers consoles from Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Atari, NEC, Commodore, and even Apple, sorted by how much they shaped the industry, how well they were received, what new ideas they brought to the table, what they could do, the games they played host to, and how successful they ultimately proved to be.
The Apple Bandai Pippin
The company behind Mac devices and iPhones attempted something outside its usual territory in 1996. It produced a gaming console called the Apple Bandai Pippin. This console carried more than one purpose, serving both as an educational tool and an internet appliance.
The Pippin was an ambitious machine, but its fate was sealed by a steep asking price of $600, a limited selection of mostly dull educational games, and a weak sales performance that has left it with the reputation of being one of the worst consoles ever put on the market.
Nintendo’s Virtual Boy
Among the world’s most beloved video game makers, Nintendo sits at the top. In the fifth generation of gaming hardware, the company tried many new things, and the Virtual Boy was the least successful of all these attempts. It sought to make virtual reality common, placing players inside the game itself so they could see it from their own point of view.
The Virtual Boy suffered from headaches, neck pain, and eye strain. It offered scarcely any games worth playing. It spent just one year on shelves before being discontinued. It proved too early for virtual reality.
NEC’s PC-FX
NEC built the TurboGrafx-16 as a very popular PC engine, then followed it with the PC-FX, a machine that resembled a desktop computer more than a game console. That device rendered 2D animation instead of 3D, and it became a console that people forgot about quickly because it failed to understand what players actually wanted.
Its niche popularity in Japan with anime-style visual novels prevented it from ranking lower than the rest of the group. The PC-FX, however, remains an obscure console, buried beneath the reputation of its fellow fifth-generation machines.
The Amiga CD32
A rival to Europe’s own fifth-generation efforts came from Commodore, whose Amiga CD32 was a repackaged earlier console, and marked Europe’s first 32-bit CD-based machine.
The device achieved notable success in bringing popular Amiga computer games to the television screen, particularly within the United Kingdom. Its maker, Commodore, declared bankruptcy before it could reach foreign markets. That event sealed the fate of any hope the Amiga might have had for widespread acceptance.
Atari’s Jaguar
Once a major player in the video game industry, Atari reached its peak during the 1980s, when it led the field. Its final push to regain that standing came with the Atari Jaguar, which claimed to be the world’s first “64-bit” console.
The machine failed to succeed. Its hardware was hard to grasp, weighed down by too many buttons. It notably had almost no games, save for a small number of quality titles. The Jaguar has since become a cult favorite, in part because it marked the company’s final console and its definitive end.
Panasonic’s 3DO
The Panasonic 3DO was a true trailblazer for the video game world. It pushed full-motion video and interactive games into the mainstream, and it built a standardized 32-bit hardware system that transformed the industry.
The problem was straightforward — the price. It rested at a startling $700, far beyond what its rivals charged. That turned it into a genuine luxury item. For many people, the cost simply did not match the payoff, and its smaller reach failed to give it any real standing, particularly when a cheaper console arrived just a year down the line.
The Game Boy Color
Nintendo had its hands in many things during the fifth generation. The Game Boy Color was a modest step forward for the Game Boy, with a color display and quicker processing, though it kept the shape of the old model.
The console was backwards compatible with Game Boy games and offered longer battery life for more playtime. It arrived during a new generation, around the cultural phenomenon of Pokémon, which made it the preferred handheld. The fifth generation of game consoles produced few good handhelds, largely because nothing in the format could match the Game Boy Color and its popularity.
A Comparison of the Bottom Four
| Console | Problem | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Bandai Pippin | $600 price tag, boring games | Worst console ever |
| Virtual Boy | Early VR concept | Discontinued after a year |
| NEC PC-FX | Desktop-like design | Anime visual novels |
| Amiga CD32 | Bankrupt parent company | Middling UK success |
What This List Says About the Era
During the era of the fifth generation, many original consoles appeared, some of which did not succeed while others did. The ranking brings together both kinds, including the Game Boy Color and the Nintendo 64, showing that even as new ideas were being put into practice, plenty of consoles fell short.
These consoles are not remembered fondly. The Pippin, the Virtual Boy, the PC-FX, and the Amiga CD32 are remembered only because they mark a moment when companies attempted things that failed. The Jaguar and the 3DO were ahead of their time, but their prices made them unaffordable to buyers.
This ranking captures a moment in time when success and shame arrived side by side, in perfect balance.
Source material: “The 10 Best Fifth Generation Consoles, Ranked,” Collider.
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