[cheebacheeba]

Really depends on the whole timeframe we're talking about.
A gamecube isn't really a fair comparison to an nes, huh?
ok...so, I'm just gonna mention my favourites, past and present, and say why for each.

Nes - sheer amount of games this system pounded out in it's years made it suit almost anyone.
Favourite games - legend of zelda, mario 3.

Sega master system - not as many games, but most of them were excellent quality.
Favourite games - wonderboy in monsterland, psycho fox, aztec adventure, cyborg hunter, action fighter, phantasy star series

Sega Genesis (megadrive) - I think it gets my vote over the snes due to the more "grown up" feel of the majority of the games.
Favourite games - Streets of Rage 3, Flashback, zombies (same as snes zombies ate my neighbours), Revenge of Shinobi, beyond oasis, x-men 2, earthworm jim.

Sega Game gear - It came out before the gameboy, had way better graphics, and was in colour years and years before the gameboy colour came out. The games were sega, which I love...
Favourite game - Land of illusion, shinobi.

Gameboy/colour - definately deserves a mention - even though graphically basic, it was handy, a little more protable than a gamegear or lynx, and had a lot of great games.
Favourite games - Donkey kong (gameboy version rocked) mario land 2 : 6 golden coins, avenging spirit, bomberman quest.

Sony playstation 1 - Although ps2 has continued this systems legacy quiet well, the ps1 threw games in your face unlike anything that had come before it. It set the standard for other systems. Great variety of games also.
Favourite games - nightmare creatures 1 & 2, crash team racing, driver, MK trilogy, clock tower, overboard.

Gameboy advance SP - it looks great, it's very portable, you can actually see the screen, and it's bought back alotta oldskool 16bit games along with an increasingly impressive array of it's own games.
Favourite games - car battler joe, the hobbit, fortress, medal of honour : infiltrator

Out of the current top 2, I have to say I prefer ps2. Not because I hate microsoft.....mainly because of 2 things -

1: The ps2 simply has many, many more games, and is backwards compatible with ps1, there's even more games for ya.

2: The majority of the games that are on xbox are either already on ps2 and/or pc, and even most of the supposedly "xbox exclusive" games have ended up coming out on pc, in superior form.

And I also gotta mention that I had an xbox, and got rid of it upon realisation of the abovementioned issues. That, and I hated the xbox's chunky-ass'd bitch of a controller...

AAAAND I'M DONE.