This weekend I've been putting a lot of thought into if I were to award a Best Console with an unbiased opinion what would it be. The smart ass answer is the PC, but I'd eliminate that from the Video Game Console race.

Truly it comes down to a select few consoles; Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Playstation 2. It seems pretty fair to judge all these as finalist in my mental award show. All of these have some rather impressive libraries with some all time great games. But when it really comes down to splitting hairs the Software truly makes the Hardware. You can brag Specs all you want, but if you can't play the games you love on it, it might as well be a brick.

So the focal point of this would be the library of the console, and I define library as "all games that can be played on the console without special requirements such as extensions and updates." Like the Sega Genesis and its bastardized extensions wouldn't truly all be in the same console library because you would have to buy attachments separately. Also downloadable games such as PSN Store, Arcade, and Virtual Console do not count because they require and Internet connection to be downloaded.

With all that said I begrudgingly gave the shiny trophy to the Playstation 2. My reasoning is that not only did it have probably the largest library to date of just PS2 games, but also with backwards comparability it can also support the entire PSOne library as well. And really how could you argue against this massive army of software supported by one machine that isn't a PC? The only thing that could touch it is if the WiiU suddenly took multiple cartridge types and GameCube discs (which sadly it does not, Virtual Console does not count).

I find it rather unfortunate that its successor, the PS3, decided to ditch backwards compatibility. Imagine if the PS3 could run all 3 generations of consoles' software... there would be no argument in a console war, it would just win, period. But alas they chose not to implement on that and just use the PS3 library and some downloadable PSN classics, which in my opinion hasn't been very impressive at all. They are being beaten by console that demands money just to use the Internet which is really sad.

I prefer the Nintendo consoles, but Sony's PS2 is quite the monster of a console so I have to give it up for the big scary library! You know I really should be focusing on buying a PS2 and rebuilding that library. You can actually get some PS2 games REALLY cheap these days. There are quite a few games I wish to either replay or try for the first time. Like I'd like to complete Final Fantasy VII to get what all the hype is about or just replay FFIX because it is superior to its over-hyped brother in every single way. Also I've been looking at the Persona Series a lot lately. A PS2 can support nearly the entire series.

UPDATE--------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has come to my attention that some early models of the Playstation 3 ARE backwards compatible. There is the 20GB CECHBxx and the 60GB CECHAxx models from the first generation of the PS3 which support nearly full backwards compatibility.

However I'm still giving the PS2 the award because its own library is much more outstanding than the PS3's plus there are only 2 PS3 models out of many more that support this and the majority depend on emulation or nothing at all.

There are also various bugs that go into the backwards compatibility of the PS3 older models.

I'm doing more research on this, but I'd love to get my hands on a fully functional 60GB CECHA xx PS3, but alas they can get a bit pricey.