# [PPOTW] Which console generation was the best?



## T-hug (Jan 26, 2014)

1972 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			











 Present​ 
This week's poll asks; Which console generation was the best?
This doesn't necessarily mean sales-wise or tech-wise, but just your own personal opinion!
You can see the full list of machines from each gen here:
Console Generations Wiki




Spoiler: Previous Polls



Previous Week - Are you buying Destiny?
Week 26 - Which nextgen system will have the best year in 2014?
Week 25 - Do you like micro transactions?
Week 24 - What did you think of this years VGX Awards?
Week 23 - Which of the nextgen consoles do you own?
Week 22 - Do you think the Xbox One launch was good?
Week 21 - Do you think the PS4 launch was good?
Week 20 - Is Microsoft right to ban early Xbone players?
Week 19 - What is the best video game genre?
Week 18 - Is Vita TV a good idea?
Week 17 - Have you got Pokemon X or Y? 
Week 16 - Do you keep trade or sell your games?
Week 15 - Are you interested in Valve's new Vision for Steam 
Week 14 - Do you think GTAV is the game of the generation?
 Week 13 - Have you ever backed a Kickstarter project?
 Week 12 - Will you be buying a 2DS? 
 Week 11 - After last weeks Gamescom are you more or less interested in the PS Vita? 
 Week 10 - Are you looking forward to Gamescom this week? 
Week 9 - Which company has the best online infrastructure? 
 Week 8 - Which is better android or ios? 
Week 7 - Which August game release are you most looking forward to? 
 Week 6 - Will you be buying GTA V?
 Week 5 - Will you buy a Gateway 3DS Flashcard?
 Week 4 - Which system has the best controller? 
 Week 3 - Have you preordered a nextgen console yet? 
 Week 2 - Now MS has backtracked, will you? 
Week 1 - Who will sell the most hardware next gen? 


 
If you have an idea for a poll you would like to see on the portal just send me a PM with PPOTW in the title and your questions and answers for the poll.


----------



## emigre (Jan 26, 2014)

Gen 6, there was great diversity between the consoles, support was plentiful, a shit ton of awesome gaems, Devs began getting their shit together with developing 3D gaems, PS2 and Persona 4.

It was my favorite gen tbh tbf.


----------



## Dork (Jan 26, 2014)

Gen 6 because every console had something good going for them and memorable exclusives.


----------



## mightymuffy (Jan 26, 2014)

Have a suspicion this'll almost come down to age difference.... For me it's Gen 4, my golden era of gaming! I was in school/college/YTS (eww) at this period, obviously a memorable period in anyone's life - was also great to be able to afford games myself for the first time, which always makes them better. Plus the SNES is my all-time favourite games machine, and the Megadrive 2nd! Gen 5 coming a close 2nd, man did the PS1 have some classic titles!


----------



## chavosaur (Jan 26, 2014)

Tbh, last gen was my favorite gen of all time. 
Consoles went from "Ok, so you can already play games right? Well now we are gonna change the way you play games" 
There was a lot of innovation and mixups last gen that I really enjoyed. 
And it was also the era of Polished online console gaming that got me back in touch with a lot of good friends I used to play games with side by side on the couch, and could now play online with all the time.


----------



## GameWinner (Jan 26, 2014)

Probably 6th gen for me.
Persona 4, ya know.


----------



## CompassNorth (Jan 26, 2014)

Fifth Gen man, we had so many great titles.
Where Fifth Gen had quality, Sixth Gen had quantity.

5 > 6 > 4 > 3 & 7


----------



## user64 (Jan 26, 2014)

Fourth Gen was my first real introduction to gaming. 
I kind of missed fifth gen...
Sixth Gen was for me. Paper Mario TTYD was probably my favourite game from then. I also enjoyed the fact I could play SNES remakes on my GBA on the go. SP was a great system.
Seventh Gen was also a lot of fun. The revival of platformers was great. Indie games came to be a part of my life through Minecraft. Mario kart wii and Brawl were games a played quite a bit. In addition, I preferred Galaxy to Sunshine...
Eighth is just getting started. I only have a Wii U so far, and not too many games at that.


----------



## Blaze163 (Jan 26, 2014)

Though I'll always have a soft spot for the SNES/Genesis era, I voted for 5th Gen. Whichever way you slice it, a generation makes or breaks on the strength of its games. And I'm still playing my favourites from Gen 5 to this day. Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy 7, Ape Escape, Lylat Wars, Pokemon Red/Gold/etc. That was when games became something more than idle fun to me, they became entire worlds to explore, with a depth I hadn't experienced up til that point. They became more like leading a second life than a quick arcade style blast for ten minutes when bored. While there have been games before and after that have achieved this, 5th gen was when it first became apparent to me that gaming could truly be an art form. Notably the death of Aerith (don't tell me I need spoiler tags for that, surely everyone knows by now) for being the first time the death of a character actually meant something to me.


----------



## Thomas83Lin (Jan 26, 2014)

Toss up between gen 4 and 5 for me, But nothing tops the good old Genesis and Snes


----------



## FAST6191 (Jan 26, 2014)

There are memorable things in each.... but damned if I would want to go back to them today.

Life is only getting better.


----------



## Nah3DS (Jan 26, 2014)

mightymuffy said:


> Have a suspicion this'll almost come down to age difference.... For me it's Gen 4, my golden era of gaming! I was in school/college/YTS (eww) at this period, obviously a memorable period in anyone's life. Plus the SNES is my all-time favourite games machine, and the Megadrive 2nd! Gen 5 coming a close 2nd, man did the PS1 have some classic titles!


my thoughts here


----------



## Gahars (Jan 26, 2014)

It's kind of hard to offer any objective answer here since a person's choice is going to be pretty colored by nostalgia.

That being said, Generation 6. The Playstation 2 single-handedly carried that gen and it was glorious.


----------



## weavile001 (Jan 26, 2014)

6th Gen. because: Persona 4!.


----------



## TemplarGR (Jan 26, 2014)

I have been a gamer since Gen 3, and while i think every gen had its pros and cons, i chose gen5 as my favourite.

Generation 5 in my opinion was the best generation in terms of innovation and taking risks. Many companies tried to produce a console, introduce 3d graphics, gameplay styles, franchices etc. It was the gen when gaming became "serious" and not something for the kids.

Most if not all current genres took shape in gen 5. FPSs, 3d platforms, cinematic rpgs, survival horrors, stealth games, mmorgps, fighting games, cinematic adventures, RTSs, music games, you name it, it started then... Later generations improved those genres and added or mixed some more, but the biggest change and innovation was with gen 5...

And even with hardware, there were big innovations then. From the analog stick to the failed Virtual Boy, this gen was anything but boring...

Although when playing those games today, you may find them lacking compared to modern games, you cannot underestimate gen 5's importance for gaming...


----------



## Tom Bombadildo (Jan 26, 2014)

Man...I had a hard time choosing between Gen 6 and Gen 5. I have more fond memories of Gen 6, but Gen 5 was when I really started "gaming" as a child, so I have more attachment to the games from that generation, but I had the most fun with my PS2/GC/Xbox.


----------



## FAST6191 (Jan 26, 2014)

Regarding exclusives, I actually dislike the concept.



TemplarGR said:


> *Most if not all current genres took shape in gen 5*. FPSs, 3d platforms, cinematic rpgs, survival horrors, stealth games, mmorgps, fighting games, cinematic adventures, RTSs, music games, you name it, it started then... Later generations improved those genres and added or mixed some more, but the biggest change and innovation was with gen 5...



Assuming the ideas of certain games then became codified as "genres", and I can see it for that period in time, that is a good thing? Personally I have had a great time now the idea of genre is starting to collapse, and had a lousy time leading up to it, and people are mixing and mashing things together all over the shop.

and to finish... gen 5 would then seem to be the PS1, N64 and the like. Early console 3d, PC stuff was almost doing something OK, can go rot.


----------



## Hyro-Sama (Jan 26, 2014)

All glory to the 6th Generation.


----------



## Taleweaver (Jan 26, 2014)

TemplarGR said:


> I have been a gamer since Gen 3, and while i think every gen had its pros and cons, i chose gen5 as my favourite.
> 
> Generation 5 in my opinion was the best generation in terms of innovation and taking risks. Many companies tried to produce a console, introduce 3d graphics, gameplay styles, franchices etc. It was the gen when gaming became "serious" and not something for the kids.
> 
> ...


Some VERY interesting points. 

And you're right. At first, I was going to vote for 4th generation because of the plethora of 2D quality titles. But until that point, it was mostly an evolution. The fifth generation revolutionized gaming in the literal sense of the world. As such, it was indeed the most important one for gaming, save perhaps the third one (the recovery of the video game crash).

Your last point is also interesting. I actually disliked this period in consoles, as it seemed as if every developer went 3D no matter what (even games like bloody tetris), and in that regard PC's were much better (this happened to also be the golden age of FPS'es on pc). But on hindsight...it certainly was the best generation, IMO.


----------



## FouadtjuhMaster (Jan 26, 2014)

So I haven't really participated into the 8th generation, but I remember having a lot of fun playing GTA SA and Fable on my old Xbox and PS2. As I grew older, I still enjoy those moments more that I do now (= 7th generation)

Graphics / CPU etc. don't really mean much to me, as it is the gameplay that is important to me...
Therefore, I am voting for the 6th generation.


----------



## RodrigoDavy (Jan 26, 2014)

For me it would be the 4th followed closely by the 5th, mainly because of quantity and quality of titles.

6th generation is completely overrated btw


----------



## Gahars (Jan 26, 2014)

The 5th generation was certainly a time of innovation and experimentation, for good and ill. It was very much an awkward "teething" time for games. Developers had to, in some senses, completely relearn how to design games. Sure, there were definitely some classics from this period, but for every Mario 64 there were a million Bubsy 3Ds. For every Spider-Man there was a million Superman 64s.

By the time the 6th generation rolled around, developers had a better understanding of how to fully take advantage of 3D. Development found a sweet spot; while the hardware was far less limiting than before, the cost of game development was far more reasonable than what it's become today.


----------



## djgarf (Jan 26, 2014)

has to be 83-87 for me as that was the era of the zx spectrum


----------



## Social_Outlaw (Jan 26, 2014)

I would go for 5th gen due to games like syphon filter series, and twisted metal Etc, but ill have to give it to 6th gen, due to the fact for bigger dvd-rom storage to put more content into games, and getting to know 3d fully at that time, such as Gta Sa, Final Fantasy X-2, Persona 3/4, Fable, Hl2, Shenmue 2, and so on.


----------



## Hadrian (Jan 26, 2014)

The first two gens still have their charm but of course really the 2600 and it's ilk are still very playable today, in fact there is a lot you can liken to today mobile phone games. Very casual, easy to jump into.

3rd Gen a very close second, a lot of creativity during those days (and you should be shot for not mentioning the Sinclair line) and bedroom coders on the home computers made some of the finest games with the very littlest of budgets.

4th Gen all the way, though I'm surprised Neo Geo is mentioned over Amiga. I was more an Amiga/C64/PC back then than the consoles but Nintendo really had it going on and they still had it going on with great games right to this very day. The PC came into it's own with the advent of VGA and Doom.

5th Gen, the darkest era of Nintendo. I can't say they released as much great stuff outside of Zelda. Say what you want about them now but it's a lot better than their N64 output that is for sure, outside of Rare's stuff they hardly did anything. Sega died with the Saturn and Sony well they were the "cool kids" so got all the 3rd party stuff but didn't do that much themselves to be honest.  Late that gen the GBC was in a world of it's own, I loved that thing and I played it more than what the N64/PSX had.

6th Gen...perhaps the last good generation. Sega actually had a good console that pioneered a lot of things...but after a good first year Sony killed them dead. Sony honed in on their development studios, Nintendo kept on making greats (have you noticed how the Gamecube stuff has actually aged really well?) and Microsoft had a good console and just bought up a ton of studios. Without their money, Microsoft would be nothing, Nintendo and Sony have the skill in their studios and have showed a lot of love in gaming. The GBA however was the most played system back then, so many good games and like the GBC I played it more than the home consoles.

Of course the 360/PS3 era came with games that pretty much played themselves. I was a Wii/PC game more than anything, I had a 360 at one point but i hardly played it, I'm not into Halo, Fables or Gears of War. This gen it was just Nintendo's great work, some AAA multi platform PC games but more indie titles...not since the 80's have the bedroom coders have been so relevant and they have had more imagination than most other developers.  The DS...well again like the GBC/GBA seemed to have had better titles though less so than the GBC/GBA.  I really enjoyed what Nintendo had for the Wii and the two Mario Galaxy titles blew away the other 3D Mario titles and FELT like actual Mario games. The advent of faster internet and better emulation meant that I played more retro titles than before, discovering some forgotten gems for the first time and falling in loved with the 3rd/4th gen all over again.

As for now...well I've liked what I've played on the Wii U...though it's pretty much unchanged since the Gamecube (only with less games and 3rd party titles) and that is for the better as what I have played on the PS4 and Xbone is just "press button, go forward, QTE, done". Ryse is terrible IMHO. As for modern PC, well I just played Starbound and I am having a blast.  

If I had my own way, I'd stop with the last gen and keep it as that.  Games look fine enough as it is, I like escapism and my games to look like games.


----------



## the_randomizer (Jan 26, 2014)

Generation four or six, tough call


----------



## xwatchmanx (Jan 26, 2014)

My favorite? On their own, it's probably the 4th or 6th. But it seriously might be the 7th because not only was the catalog of dedicated games decent, but we saw a huge rise in collections and downloadables of classics from previous generations. Whether it's really fair to count those is debatable, though. The jury is still out on the 8th for obvious reasons.

But which one is the best? That's a different question entirely, and I'm not so sure what my answer would be for that.


----------



## tbgtbg (Jan 26, 2014)

16-bit, any more bits would just be greedy


----------



## Xexyz (Jan 26, 2014)

For me:
1st: Sixth Generation for Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, and Halo 2.
2nd: Fourth Generation for Super Mario World, LoZ: ALTTP, and Sonic 1, 2, and 3.
3rd: Third Generation LoZ, SMB, and Contra.
4th: Fifth Generation LoZ: OoT, SM64, and of course Superman 64  .
WORST: Seventh Generation for CoD only.


----------



## xwatchmanx (Jan 27, 2014)

Xexyz said:


> WORST: Seventh Generation for CoD only.


 
Because, y'know, CoD is the only game available on the 7th generation of consoles, right? And CoD totally didn't begin in the 6th generation, right?


----------



## Xexyz (Jan 27, 2014)

xwatchmanx said:


> Because, y'know, CoD is the only game available on the 7th generation of consoles, right? And CoD totally didn't begin in the 6th generation, right?


 
I put 7th gen as worst for CoD in this gen.


----------



## xwatchmanx (Jan 27, 2014)

Xexyz said:


> I put 7th gen as worst for CoD in this gen.


 
...I'm not quite sure what you mean. Are you saying that the 7th generation was the worst because it was oversaturated with CoD, or are you saying that the CoD games in the 7th generation were the worst CoD games?


----------



## calmwaters (Jan 27, 2014)

Ah, the fourth generation, followed by the sixth. Just what I'd expected. As much as I love the Playstation 2 and the GameCube, I'm obligated to say that the predecessors to those games were on the Genesis and such.


Gahars said:


> It's kind of hard to offer any objective answer here since a person's choice is going to be pretty colored by nostalgia.
> 
> That being said, Generation 6. The Playstation 2 single-handedly carried that gen and it was glorious.


 
Even more glorious than the Super Nintendo? I'd be careful with that. Let's just pretend that the Playstation 2 was the Super Nintendo of its generation.


the_randomizer said:


> Generation four or six, tough call


Four.


----------



## Xexyz (Jan 27, 2014)

xwatchmanx said:


> ...I'm not quite sure what you mean. *Are you saying that the 7th generation was the worst because it was oversaturated with CoD*, or are you saying that the CoD games in the 7th generation were the worst CoD games?


 
The first one is correct.


----------



## FAST6191 (Jan 27, 2014)

Xexyz said:


> [7th gen was over saturated with COD]



Going back about as far as I can remember everything was oversaturated once someone hit upon a good idea (usually a well made game) and everybody copied what they thought made it good (which typically did not result in a well made game).

Modern and near future/specialised military was this time around. Most of what I saw was completely fictional, I wonder if the need to do that will still be present this time around.
World War 2 provided endless games before then, almost invariably European conflict and even there you would be lucky to see anything in say Italy, Scandinavia or the Russian fronts. Modern stuff you had to actually look for to find -- other than Tom Clancy, Operation Flashpoint, Delta Force and maybe Counterstrike and other Half Life spinoffs you were pressed for choice, note also most of those were of the balls hard variety as well. Occasionally it might have gone as far forward as Vietnam (what is Korea?) or as far back as something that could almost be world war 1.
For a hot moment there far future stuff looked like it would take over, that may have just been how big Battlefield 2142 got though.
Though it had existed as far back as Doom and even before now online was the thing of choice, so Unreal and everything trying to be it was the thing here. It did do much to dethrone Quake/ID mind you.
By now we are probably back in Quake clone country. It was somewhat less diverse than what I am about to cover though with Unreal nipping at its heels that is hardly surprising.
Before that was Doom. Aesthetically these had some quite varying themes (1,2,3,4,5,6), however they kind of looked the same and mostly played the same though; stop me if this sounds familiar, handheld, possible handheld upgrade, pistol, shotgun, grenade, machine gun but limited in some way (ammo, accuracy, clip size....), rocket or basic energy weapon, crazy far out gun that does something unique to the game, maybe a big boy machine gun for the last levels or better energy weapon, mega death cannon. Add sniper/accurate weapon according to taste.

Before this... we are probably back in the everything must be a platformer or shooter (as in shmup) or shooter platformer era. The state of licensed games of that era probably says it all there really, indeed such a thing I usually find is a good barometer for any period in gaming, give or take some of the "action adventure" stuff.


----------



## the_randomizer (Jan 27, 2014)

calmwaters said:


> Ah, the fourth generation, followed by the sixth. Just what I'd expected. As much as I love the Playstation 2 and the GameCube, I'm obligated to say that the predecessors to those games were on the Genesis and such.
> 
> 
> Even more glorious than the Super Nintendo? I'd be careful with that. Let's just pretend that the Playstation 2 was the Super Nintendo of its generation.
> ...


 
Four it is, I have the most pleasant memories from that era for sure, playing Snes with my brothers and sisters   Good times


----------



## XDel (Jan 27, 2014)

The thing is that 20 years down the road, people are still going to be making games inspired by the 16/24-bit era, backwards. No one is going to be inspired to make games that look and play like those from the 32/64-Bit era. No one is going to think it's cool to have a game with fewer polys, degraded texture quality, and lower AI, because lets face it, once everything transitioned to 3D, game systems simply became prototype units until it became affordable to build units comparable with yesterday's PC game station specs. In some respects, a lot of art went out of the scene and market interests and new convert consumer trends were beginning to take over. No longer were systems designed around the vision of a video game to be developed, I.E. Mode 7 in the Super Nintendo, or the CD-ROM on the Turbo GFX and Sega Genesis. Each of these features were present in order to realize games that designers had in mind to create. They wanted to explore new areas of game play, and also allow for better audio, in game speech, and the ability to make the game universes larger than the cartridge could ever allow!
Though, this is when Sony pioneered the transition into 3D...

...for game consoles that is. PC's had been there for a few years now. As for the Sega Saturn, it was in fact designed for the most kick ass 2D gaming we'd ever seen, that is if they'd not failed. And the N64 came out after Sony had already began the 3D trend so it just kind of followed along with the 3D thing, where as Atari was a mixed bag, and sadly rushed out the door so it ended up being twice as slow as planned.

Anyhow, it wasn't until the Dreamcast that things began to look close to what the PC was doing, then with the advent of the XBOX and Gamecube, everything piled up nicely, and now were are at the point where we all might was well just be using PC's if we're going to continue on the 3D bandwagon because consoles still are not upgradable. The only way I see it logical to purchase a console at this time would be to buy a Nintendo because at least the majority of their games require a different control interface than the crippled dual analog controller, plus they still cater to 2D gaming as well as 3D to an extreme, old school and blocky all the way up to cartoonish, and polished. Nintendo is still about pushing the bounds of the gaming experience, and keeping things true in spirit, where as the other two systems are still lost somewhere just competing with specs, and graphics, which at this point are becoming trivial. Besides if a company claims that they need a super high spec video game machine in order to develop quality games, then I would say that it is not the game system that is in question at this point, but the developer's ability to squeeze good games out regardless of system specs, and to use their imagination to find new and interesting ways to utilize what the said game hardware does offer... like in the old days.

Too much trend following and playing it safe now a days...



So there is my rant, I'm tired.


----------



## DAZA (Jan 27, 2014)

4th generation, when it was gaming at its best!!! i owned a megadrive and i never looked back.. it had some of the greatest games on there, i also got to borrow the SNES and played out mario kart and world. i grew up with the atari 2600 and the spectrum but when the megadrive hit the market and i got it for my birthday you could never get me off the thing, still to this day i play the sonic series and will never stop. i will educate my children with it also so they understand and appreciate great gaming and see how far its all come over time


----------



## lokomelo (Jan 27, 2014)

Snes / Mega Drive era was when video games became art. If there was not memory limitations, this generation wold be even more awesome.

After SNES games became darker, and took you away 30 minutes of videos and story-telling, than 30 minutes of tutorial, and just after that you could start playing, I see the PS1 and PS2 generations loosing appeal for that (but still there is awesome and epic games).

From 2005 owards, huge dev teams, huge money on engineering dominates the "main" market, and art has returned on few big titles (Portal 2 for example) and by the hands of some indies, but most of people were and still are inside "sports + call of duty"


----------



## FAST6191 (Jan 27, 2014)

lokomelo said:


> Snes / Mega Drive era was when video games became art.



Interesting, because I have seen some stunning work done on the C64 for music.

Artwork was definitely distinct by this point.
Level design was a known thing as were the other basic tenets of game design (though much of that probably carries over from the likes of board, card and other games).


----------



## lokomelo (Jan 27, 2014)

FAST6191 said:


> Interesting, because I have seen some stunning work done on the C64 for music.
> 
> Artwork was definitely distinct by this point.
> Level design was a known thing as were the other basic tenets of game design (though much of that probably carries over from the likes of board, card and other games).



If we look to Alex Kidd, its environment, number and size of levels, number of itens, and so on we will end up getting a huge piece of art, it is almost a book. The same goes to Super Mario Bros 3, Prince of Persia, and many others (thats was my first generation BTW).
So I said shit, you are right.


----------



## Hells Malice (Jan 27, 2014)

6th was probably the one I enjoyed the most overall, but that probably has more to do with the free time I had then and not entirely so much with what came out.
7th has my favorites of all time though.

But really anything from 3rd onward I enjoyed plenty of, though I started gaming in the 4th gen.


----------



## xwatchmanx (Jan 27, 2014)

Xexyz said:


> The first one is correct.


 
That's what I thought.

So, pray tell, how does the existence of 9 CoD games (one per year) in any way lessen your enjoyment of other games in the 7th gen?

Don't get me wrong, the 7th gen had its issues, I'm not denying that. But saying 7th gen sucked because of the existence of CoD would be like saying that 7th gen was the worst because of the existence of Angry Birds. In other words, it's pants-on-your-head stupid.


----------



## WiiCube_2013 (Jan 27, 2014)

I grew up with cartridge consoles such as NES (3rd Gen), SMD (4th Gen) and pirated Famicoms (3rd Gen) too and I loved those times so yeah it was hard to pick but I chose the 3rd Gen.

The later gens (6+ and beyond) will take many years to ever be considered classics.

I still play SMD and NES to this day because it's that damn awesome!


----------



## Mr_Pichu (Jan 28, 2014)

You know it was the fourth gen.  The 16/32bit NeoGeo MVS and it's little brother the Sega Mega Drive were the best in this Pichus opinion.  While certainly there were some excellent games on the SNES 16/24bit.  Like today there was much rivalry amongst the different console camps.


----------



## TemplarGR (Jan 29, 2014)

This question is difficult to answer in a forum, because most participants tend to vote for the gen that their favourite game or series belongs. For example they are Final Fantasy X fanbois so 6th must be the best, amirite?

I voted 5th although i don't like most of the games that got released on consoles back then. But in terms of innovation, new gameplay possibilities etc, you can't go wrong with 5th. With 5th you had everything, 6,7 and 8 are just evolutions of what came in existence during the 5th period of gaming.

Since i mentioned consoles, let me say that imho the golden era of gaming was between 1993-2003/4, ON THE PC. Hands down. And this period covers all of 5th and the early part of 6th console gen. It has gone downhill in gaming since then.


----------



## VMM (Jan 29, 2014)

I admit nostalgia is a huge factor on my choice, but Gen 4 had a huge quantity of high quality titles:
Super Mario World, Sonic, TLoZ:aLttP, Donkey Kong Country, Megaman X, Earthworm Jim, Chrono Trigger, Kirby Super Star,
Zombies Ate my Neighboors, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, Alladin, Super Ghouls n' Ghosts, Ultimate Mortal Kombat
III,
Super Metroid, Goof Troop, Streets of Rage, TMNT: Turtles in Time, Golden Axe, Super Bomberman etc

PS: Take a note that I don't posted sequels or prequels to not get the list repetitive.


----------



## pwsincd (Jan 29, 2014)

im looking at 2nd 3rd and 4th with nostalgia glasses on , but really i think the 4th has to be it..


----------



## BORTZ (Jan 29, 2014)

While this is a matter of opinion and possibly numbers, i really think that some of the best titles to come out ever, were between generation 4 and 5. 4 Because we had been making 2D games for 20 some years at this point, and the hardware of the SNES and Genesis really helped us go the extra mile with game creation. 

Then Gen 5 really took everything we knew, threw it out the window and made us start over. So companies made some of the best titles we have ever seen. Long franchises were taken from epic to legendary in one generation thanks to 3D processing and disk based media. Final fantasy, Mario, Zelda, all ushered into a relm of 3D for the first time ever.


----------



## zachtheninja (Jan 30, 2014)

SNES/Genesis. Those games look beautiful scaled to any resolution. (Beauty being relative to the observer, of course.)


----------



## Taleweaver (Jan 30, 2014)

TemplarGR said:


> This question is difficult to answer in a forum, because most participants tend to vote for the gen that their favourite game or series belongs.


Don't forget age. I doubt the majority of this forum was born during the first, second or even third generation. And while the third is somewhat known because nintendo recycles so much, there's hardly any knowledge of those first two generations. And with standards just starting to get set (and arcade games being the absolute norm), I doubt many are going to vote for it. Playing a game of pong or pacman now just isn't the same as playing it back then. The importance doesn't show...


----------



## The Catboy (Jan 31, 2014)

Gen 4 will always hold a place in my heart. I grew up on my SNES and still own my first SNES, which has gone through a house fire, been stolen once and returned, then same person who tried to steal it poured super glue in it, but it still works perfectly. Not to mention so many of my favorite games are on the SNES, from Yoshi's Island, Final Fantasy 3 (well to be correct it was 6,) Super Mario RPG, Mega Man X, ect ect. Plus it's basically the only generation I go out of my way to emulate or play portable.


----------



## xwatchmanx (Jan 31, 2014)

The Catboy said:


> been stolen once and returned, then same person who tried to steal it poured super glue in it


 
Was this a crazy ex?


----------



## The Catboy (Jan 31, 2014)

xwatchmanx said:


> Was this a crazy ex?


 
Kinda, more like a crazy ex friend.


----------



## DrOctapu (Feb 2, 2014)

Sixth is absolutely the best IMO. It's probably the last generation where legitimate competition existed between all the competitors, there was a huge amount of diversity in games, and the libraries on different consoles were vastly different. There were games on the DC, PS2, and GC that made a compelling argument for each of 'em, not like recent generations where it's the same shit on every platform. Fifth suffered from people not entirely understanding how to use 3D in games yet, 7th has basically been PC lite for a while. Fourth would probably be second on my list, with every other suffering from either a lack of compelling exclusives or just extreme datedness. Other than the NES, which has quite a few games that hold up pretty well. Plus you've got Pikmin, Ratchet and Clank, Chibi-Robo, Sanik, Super Mario Sunshine, Smash Bros Melee, Tak, Wind Waker, Crazy Taxi, and a shitload of other quality games.


----------



## grossaffe (Feb 2, 2014)

I gotta go with 4th generation as that was the pinnacle of 2D gaming.  There was a lot of creativity, challenge, and replayability in those games.

6th Gen would probably rank as #2 for me.  The 5th generation, for the most part, introduced 3D gaming, but most developers had yet to figure out how to best handle 3D gaming.  We saw a good deal of experimentation with some resounding successes, but a lot of flops, as well.  6th Generation built upon the beginnings of 3D gaming and developers learned how to really work in a 3D environment.  There was still plenty of creativity, but it was better executed.

The 7th Generation, while adding better graphics, and improved engines/physics, seemed to have lost focus on gameplay.  I feel like 7th gen was kind of like the beginnings of story-driven games (obviously not the first gen to do it, but it seemed to become more of a focus this gen).  It also became a gen obsessed with shooters and and the "badass" anti-hero.  A lot of Press 'A' to win games, too, because the developers wanted to show off cool animations with their new hardware.  I'm hoping 8th gen can be to the 7th gen as the 6th gen was to the 5th or the 4th gen was to the 3rd.  Take on some of the stuff that started to happen in 7th Gen and make it actually work.  A story-driven game doesn't have to lack gameplay.  A good game engine doesn't have to play itself just so all the animations can be super-slick.


----------



## FireGrey (Feb 2, 2014)

I started at the 4th generation, I kind of missed out on the 5th gen even though we had a PS1 (Never touched it, only played the SNES) but I started to play a lot of N64 at my friends house during the 6th gen.
I unfortunately never got a gamecube, but I loved playing smash bros melee and OoT on it (didn't know that OoT was an N64 game back then) wherever I could.
During the 7th Gen I got a Wii and loved playing Mario Kart Wii on it, got a DS and R4 and got a PS3 sometime down the line, then got rid of it cause I never played it and I've recently got another PS3 to play GTA 5 (My friend was selling his PS3 for cheap so i thought why not).
And this gen it's mostly 3DS + PC and Wii U whenever my friend is over.


----------



## Guild McCommunist (Feb 3, 2014)

I said 7th because I'm not "muh nostalgia".


----------



## Flame (Feb 4, 2014)

wait............... we gonna put ouya in this poll.... i was gonna vote for 8th gen.


----------

