Frankenstein's Console: The camaraderie and comforts of StreetPass

Which console features from yesteryear are you super fond of? Given that there are new machines out soon - and given that it's almost Halloween - we thought we would spend the week picking and choosing our favourite elements from our favourite consoles and stitching together our perfect Frankenstein's Console. Inevitably it's going to look a bit like that car Homer Simpson designed, and equally inevitably it's going to say Giga Power Pro-Gear Spec when you boot it up. Anyway - join us! And have a think about what your own Frankenstein's Console might look like. If you dare...

Every console should have StreetPass. Imagine that? Even if it simply sat snug under your telly, you could swap greetings and gifts with your downstairs neighbours, or ping the handhelds of random passersby.

One of the things I loved about the 3DS' StreetPass was the feeling there were countless people around me all with a 3DS in their pocket. Even if you didn't talk to that person next to you at the bus stop playing surreptitiously by themselves, you knew you might have a little hello from them waiting, another puzzle piece, another warrior to help defeat a dungeon alongside you.

It's that feeling of being connected, I suppose, however passively, to others playing games around you. It's why I'll still pop onto my friends list as soon as I switch on my Xbox, just to see what people are playing. Or why I'll add friends to my list even if I'm never going to play FIFA or Warzone with them. It's nice to feel connected, especially right now.

And those StreetPass games - god, I miss those little rituals. I feel the battle for my eyeballs each evening, between games and Netflix and Twitter. Do I play something? Do I switch on a console and browse what to play for 30 minutes? Having a StreetPass queue to clear acted as a reason to switch on and see who had passed by.

• The mechanical beauty of the SNES power switch
• The camaraderie and comforts of 3DS StreetPass
• The PS2's utterly essential rotating logo
• The GameCube's handle which made games truly social
• The baked-in pleasures of Alex Kidd in Miracle World