Fanboy wars throughout the ages - Settled at last!
We decide the winners of 27 years of system rage, so you don't have to
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
The 32/64-bit era was when things really began to heat up for the first time. The vigorous but cozy rivalry between Nintendo and Sega gave way to an apocalyptic, gore-drenched melee as Sony stepped into the ring to turn the industry on its head, before piledriving its unsuspecting face straight into the canvas.
The PlayStation made games a cool, adult medium, had moresoftware than Phil Harrison now has defunct follicles, and used CDs with extreme prejudice to provide an FMV-soaked, multimedia sensory overload that consoles had only dreamed of before. The Nintendo 64 changed gaming forever with Super Mario 64, did it again with the use of an analogue controller as standard, and then did it again by making modern FPS really work on a console for the first time with Goldeneye. Its anti-aliasing made its games look great, but its reliance on cartridges meant that there were less of them, and both soundtracks and cut-scenes lagged seriously behind.
The Saturn stunned everyone with its rushed early release at E3 1995, and while it failed at 3D in comparison to the other two, it did 2D games amazingly well and had a glorious line-up of Sega arcade conversions. And although the N64 gets all the credit, the Saturnwas the first console to have analogue controlwith its specialised NiGHTS pad. Itsstandard controller still has the best d-pad since the SNES.
But how would a fanboy argue it?
So, a mixed bag again then, whichever way you look at it. Time for the Doom test...
The Saturn version of Doom thought frame-rates were just something that happened to other people:
The PS1 version was exactly the same as the PS1 version you saw on the previous page. Here it is again in case you've already forgotten it:
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
The N64 had a whole new Doom, built from the ground up with redesigned, rendered sprites and a terrifying ambient soundtrack:
Verdict:

Former (and long-time) GamesRadar+ writer, Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.


