Best Consoles of 2001
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
The consoles of 2001, ranked by critic grade, and a short list of three. The year belonged to Nintendo on two fronts and to a first attempt from Microsoft. Nintendo's two machines are focused and cheap: the GameCube at $199 with no DVD and no online, and the Game Boy Advance at $99, backward compatible with a decade of Game Boy cartridges. The Xbox (Original) went the other way, shipping a hard drive and an Ethernet port for $299.
The GameCube leads, graded A. Our critic calls it the most focused console Nintendo ever built, a purple lunchbox with the best controller of its era and a small, ferociously good library led by Metroid Prime, Melee and Resident Evil 4. The Game Boy Advance is also graded A, a Super Nintendo in a pocket whose library is deep enough to keep people playing it a quarter century later.
The Xbox (Original) is the one B, and the grade is about the gap between the hardware and the library. It was the most powerful box of its generation, built like a server, and carried almost entirely by one launch shooter, Halo, before spending four years being outsold by a machine half its speed. A reader choosing between it and the GameCube should weigh the extra hundred dollars and the hard drive against a library our critic describes as near-perfect.
GameCubeThe most focused console Nintendo ever built: no DVD, no online, just an efficient machine and a run of near-perfect games.Read the review
Game Boy AdvanceA Super Nintendo in a pocket, with a library deep enough to keep people playing it a quarter century later.
Xbox (Original)The most powerful box of its generation, built like a server and carried almost entirely by one launch shooter.