Home console gaming has soared in popularity in recent decades, to the point where it is now one of the largest forms of entertainment in the world. As its reputation has grown and more people have purchased consoles, more money has been put back into improving the technical quality of games and systems. As such, gaming visuals are constantly improving to the point where it’s hard to believe that the firstLegend of ZeldaandBreath of the Wildwere released just three decades apart.
RELATED:Great Games With Incredibly Unique Visuals
Graphics certainly aren’t everything, though some would argue that visuals are the fastest way to gain insight into a video game. After all, a few images can often tell players the game’s genre, give them a rough idea of its budget, and make it easy to predict what console generation it was released on. Although every generation of home consoles has seen asignificant improvement in visual design, there have been some generations that stood out as being truly groundbreaking.
9First Generation - Atari Home Pong, Magnavox Odyssey, Coleco Telstar
The first generation is difficult to rank, given that there isn’t a direct predecessor to compare it to. However, the generation can be compared to the arcade games that came before it. Unfortunately, the comparisons don’t reflect well on the first generation, as its visuals were often worse than that of arcade games.
This is understandable, as the home console market was only just finding its feet, though it certainly didn’t convince gamers thatarcadeswere no longer the best place to play games. To put it bluntly, the first generation of home console games wasdismissed as a gimmick by many people at the time. Still, the consoles deserve a ton of respect today for taking the plunge and being the forefathers of what would become one of the world’s biggest forms of entertainment just a few decades later.
8Ninth Generation - PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Unfortunately for the ninth generation of home consoles, they have only been out for a year and a half at the time of writing, so they haven’t really had a chance to show their true potential. It certainly doesn’t help that a lot of big releases are still being developed for last-gen consoles either.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S could well move up this list in a few years. For now though, they can only be judged on what’s been released so far. Moreover, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S games are predominantly still being released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, thus capping their potential.
7Second Generation - Atari 2600, Intellivision, Fairchild Channel F
The second generation of home consoles saw the industry start to find its footing, though most games still didn’t look anywhere as good as their arcade counterparts. This was especially evident in the many disastrous arcade ports likePac-Man, which reinforced the common belief at the time that home consoles were simply an inferior product that only thrived on convenience: a mindset that ultimately led tothe 1983 video game crash.
RELATED:Atari 2600: Weirdest Facts No One Knew About This Retro Console
The fact that the second generation’s visuals were partly responsible for the video game crash may make its 7th spot on this list seem generous. However, there were noticeable improvements from the first generation that were important in setting the groundwork for the revolutionary third generation.
6Fourth Generation - SNES, Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16
The SNES continued the momentum of the industry-saving NES and was by far the biggest console of the fourth generation.The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Pastwas one of the generation’sbest-looking releases.
Its art style has influenced games for generations, with modern games likeTunicandTurnip Boy Commits Tax Evasionbeing recent examples of games that have replicatedA Link to the Past’s style on modern systems. Despite this, however, the fourth generation’s visual improvements just weren’t as impressive as some of the higher entries on this list.
5Eighth Generation - PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Wii U
By the eighth generation of home consoles, video gaming was firmly established as a major form of entertainment that wasn’t going anywhere and could comfortably take risks.The generation saw storytelling greatly improve, with bigger budgets set aside for writing, voice acting, and animation.
Comparing games from the end of the eighth generation to the seventh generation undoubtedly shows a huge gulf in quality, though - much like with the fourth generation of home consoles - the eighth generation simply falls short of some of the higher entries on this list.
4Seventh Generation - PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii
The seventh generation was under pressure to keep the gaming industry’s momentum going, as the sixth generation made video game consoles a common household item. This was largely thanks to Sony’s ingenious idea of making the PlayStation 2 a cost-effective way of buying a DVD player, which helped get gaming systems into millions of houses worldwide.
RELATED:PS3 Games That Still Look Great Today
The most notable visual improvement from the seventh generation was that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were able to output HD. The Nintendo Wii lacked HD, but games likeSuper Mario Galaxy,Kirby’s Epic Yarn,andMadWorlddid a lot with a little to ensure that Nintendo’s console didn’t fall too far behind visually.
3Sixth Generation - PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Dreamcast
The sixth generation of home consoles saw the gaming industry leave many of itsmascot charactersbehind in favor of more realistic and action-orientated games. While the GameCube stuck to its roots with theSuper MarioandLegend of Zeldafranchises leading the way, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox tried to create more cinematic experiences.
Calling PlayStation 2 games “cinematic” may seem ridiculous by today’s standards. At the time though, many people were impressed with how well-defined character models, objects, and environments were becoming, which helped game developers tellgrittier storiesthan ever before.
2Third Generation - NES, Sega Master System, Atari 7800
The third generation of home consoles could have easily topped this list, as the visual improvements from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Entertainment System were fundamental in revitalizing the home console industry after its crash in 1983. Due to the perception of home console gaming at the time, however, Nintendo had to be careful about how they marketed their Famicom in the west.
They smartly decided to advertise the console as an entertainment system rather than a video game consoleand sold numerous futuristic-looking accessories like the Zapper and R.O.B to reinforce this idea. Nintendo knew that once western audiences got their hands on the system, it wouldn’t matter that they’d figure out it was just another games console, as the huge improvements in game and visual design would win them over. Thankfully, they were right.
1Fifth Generation - PlayStation, N64, Sega Saturn
The only reason that the fourth generation doesn’t top this list is that the fifth generation was such an incredible leap in technology that it may never be transcended. The fifth generation of home consoles took gaming from 2D to 3D.
This was arguably the mostsignificant innovationin gaming history; comparable to the film industry’s shift from black and white to color. Fifth-generation games may not look like much by today’s standards, but the jump in dimensions set a foundation for future generations to build on.
MORE:Nintendo 64 Games That Have Aged Well (& Those That Haven’t)
