The Best Console Era

OK, this is the deal.

The threads like ‘whats better x-box or ps2’ are all good.

But, i would like this thread to have an emphasis, on the era’s of certain consoles, that are past there popular date.

What era was the best, what console and its games were people talking about the most. What console produced the best games in you opinion?

The consoles included are:

Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES)
Nintendo 64 (or N64)
Sega Dreamcast/Megadrive/Mastersystem/Saturn
and its new recruit:
The Psone.

The above are the consoles that are now ‘stale’, but they should still be respected.

So?

I’d have to say the PS1. They produced some of the best games I’ve ever played. FF7, Chrono Cross, BoF4, Tekken 3, Resident Evil. The list just goes on.

I like the PS2, but I’m sorta not looking forward to PS3. Most of the games will be online. And I don’t play well with other children.

Where did you hear about PS3 having mostly online games from???

But I would say the years PS1 was absoultely my fav gaming era because that’s when I started to get serious about gaming.

If you are talking about era’s then why are you classifying according to console. Era has to do with time.

So you pretty much have:
The NES Era
The SNES/Genesis Era
The N64/PS1/Saturn Era
The Dreamcast/PS2/NGC/X-box Era

I think we are in the best era for console gaming right now. We have more options than we’ve ever had, we have better games being released than ever before, and better means of getting these games.

I’m going to go straight out and say the 16-bit era (SNES/MD). The transition to 3D for me seemed very anticlimatical, and to this day I still don’t think it’s gone very far. That, and the best games for me came out for both SNES and MD.

Because of this, GBA is currently my best friend 🙂

The days of the Super Nintendo.

The good old days of MEGA DRIVE and Sonic! back when Sonic was the man!

I’d say the late PS1/DC era, matched with the SNES/MD era.
I’m going by how much fun they were.

Quite simply, the DC was the console I’ve had the most fun with out of any of mine. Not my PS2, not my GC, but my fuckin’ dreamcast.

And the fucker was stolen.

Nintendo 64 days, wow alot of people wanted one fast…(mario 64 and star fox 64)

I have to go for the SNES/Megadrive era, in my oppinion the best games and most fun games that I ever played where made back then. I wasted so much time playing the first FF games, Mario, Sonic, tons of RPGs and platform games.

Like Loki said, I think we’re in the best era now – and it’s only set to get better.

The SNES was really, really fun – and it had decent, deep games too. But back then, the gaming audience was still young, so it wasn’t really aimed at our age range (18-25, for most of us). The PS1 age had potential, but it lacked power – as classic as games like FF7 are, sometimes it’s hard to take Cloud’s stubby arms and legs seriously.

Meanwhile, the graphics power gives programmers these days free reign – which means a lot of crap comes out, but a lot of good stuff as well.

This a great era for gaming- lately, there’ve been so many game I’ve been excited about, I can’t keep track of them. Last year, several of the best fighters ever were released, and I’m sure the sequels will be even better.

The SNES era is probably my favorite though. Most of the best RPGs of all time came out in those years, and the SNES was the system that really turned me into a gamer.

Originally posted by Ex-SeeD
Where did you hear about PS3 having mostly online games from???

PS3 Rumors and Bullshit (http://www.ps3rumors.com)

16-bit, but I don’t know if the games were any better, or if I was just easier to impress. ;(

Originally posted by ud�
16-bit, but I don’t know if the games were any better, or if I was just easier to impress. ;(
I think the games of the 16-bit era were considerably better than the games released today. Back then, the focus was mainly put on storyline and gameplay. Nowadays, people are just worried about how good the graphics are going to look, so companies are producing games with these awe-inspiring graphics, without putting much time and thought into a respectable story.

Originally posted by Smokey

I think the games of the 16-bit era were considerably better than the games released today. Back then, the focus was mainly put on storyline and gameplay. Nowadays, people are just worried about how good the graphics are going to look, so companies are producing games with these awe-inspiring graphics, without putting much time and thought into a respectable story.

Very nice cliche’d response, no matter how untrue it is.

Originally posted by TCK
I’m going to go straight out and say the 16-bit era (SNES/MD). The transition to 3D for me seemed very anticlimatical, and to this day I still don’t think it’s gone very far. That, and the best games for me came out for both SNES and MD.

Because of this, GBA is currently my best friend 🙂

What he said. <3 GBA

Originally posted by Smokey

I think the games of the 16-bit era were considerably better than the games released today. Back then, the focus was mainly put on storyline and gameplay. Nowadays, people are just worried about how good the graphics are going to look, so companies are producing games with these awe-inspiring graphics, without putting much time and thought into a respectable story.

*coughDoom3cough*

*coughDoom3cough* When did any Doom game have a respectable story?

The Psone

dude SNES and Genesis are two of the best consoles ever, so the 16-bit days were awesome, can anyone say Final Fantasy VI??

can anyone say Final Fantasy VI??

Ahem.

"Final Fantasy VI."

Haha, you can only type it!

…I LIKE PLAYSTATIONS.

yeah sony

I think the games of the 16-bit era were considerably better than the games released today. Back then, the focus was mainly put on storyline and gameplay. Nowadays, people are just worried about how good the graphics are going to look, so companies are producing games with these awe-inspiring graphics, without putting much time and thought into a respectable story.

saves me the trouble of typing something that would come out similar to this

Very nice cliche’d response, no matter how untrue it is.

no, its very true

But the thing is, it’s not true for all games. Sure, games have become much more consumer orientated, and consumers like pretty graphics. But there have been crap games in all generations, and classics in all generations.

Gaming has expanded in leaps and bounds since the advent of 3D. Immersive experiences like Halo and Metal Gear Solid would simply not be possible. 3D has taken games from being simple button press affairs to worlds that you can lose yourself in.

In the current generation, there is a lot of window dressing – but dig deeper, and you’ll find the best games. Sure, the SNES had classic RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, but our current generation brought us Knights of the Old Republic and Fable. Gameplay is continuing to evolve, and will do so for a long time.

Props to ExS…

Now my favorite Era is now because I can play all the pre-PSOne games I want on an Emulator. lol. Naw really, I really liked many of the older ones very much, but many of the newer ones have been just as good, and perhaps even better. But what I wouldn’t do for an Nes emulator and a Pool of Radiance Rom.

But the thing is, it’s not true for all games. Sure, games have become much more consumer orientated, and consumers like pretty graphics. But there have been crap games in all generations, and classics in all generations.

Gaming has expanded in leaps and bounds since the advent of 3D. Immersive experiences like Halo and Metal Gear Solid would simply not be possible. 3D has taken games from being simple button press affairs to worlds that you can lose yourself in.

In the current generation, there is a lot of window dressing – but dig deeper, and you’ll find the best games. Sure, the SNES had classic RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, but our current generation brought us Knights of the Old Republic and Fable. Gameplay is continuing to evolve, and will do so for a long time.

I think that’s the outlook with any developing artform. When people can still improve things on a technical level, that will be the overriding goal for many of them, and their successes will be regarded as the best ever. Take your comment about "simple button pressing experiences" to "worlds that you can lose yourself in." Now, with the perspective I just mentioned, someone would take two games they enjoyed equally, and then say the latter was better simply because it was technically superior.

I was reading something at the TNL some time ago that was a comparison of GTA: San Andreas to some other game… probably Halo 2, and someone said that, while both games are/probably will be awesome, GTA:SA simply does so much more that it’s in a completely different league than Halo, which is just an FPS.

Along those lines is the rejection of thing that are old, arbitrarily. It’s rather like how some people refuse to watch a TV show that’s in black and white, or won’t listen to classical music.

Now, I think this is just a sign of the times more than sound comparisons. Eventually, gaming will become so technically proficient that technical advances will no longer be that big of an issue. Developers will be able to put in the best possible graphics and most complicated AI that they can muster, without any hiccuping in the gameplay, and I believe that once they reach that point and settle in it for some time, the importance of technical improvement will be lost when we look at games.

The importance of trying to find out how much you can cram into a game will be lost, and at that point, people will rediscover the joy of simple button press challenges, and critically appreciated games will be those with ingenious concepts, rather than the trailblazers of technical advancement. Not that I’m knocking them or anything, as -for right now- what they’re doing is some of the most important work in video games. But to me it’s a sort of "state of the art" thing. Even though new games are awesome and things are being done that never were before, I can still enjoy a game of WAVY NAVY and it’s Space Invaders-ish gameplay about as much as many modern games I come across. Not that I do a lot of gaming now. =\

GO SPACE INVADERS!!!

Our current era

I know a lot of people want to say the 16 bit era, but I think we overrate the 16 bit era. What we have is an evolution of videogames

8 bit games were the fun games that didn’t need a lot of story. Then came 16 bit with better graphics and more story. Then came the next age where they knocked up graphics to promote more realism. Now in this age videogames are evolving into a interactive cinematic experience. (for the most part)

We tend to focus on graphics a lot more because it’s where we see the big differences in games today. I mean story was a big thing in SNES days because it hadn’t been done that much. Now that you can find story in so many games now people tend to focus on how it’s different than those SNES games and the answer of course is the graphics. They get so caught up in how awesome the graphics look that they underate the story aspect.

A lot of games today have some really good stories. We just tend to underrate them because of all the graphics

The 4-Bit era, gotta give props to Colecovision.

for me it would be the nes i still play super mario bros 😀

The Super NES Era was the best in my opinion. Those were the good ol’ days,