The free world gameplay from Super Mario 64, Sunshine and the Banjo Kazooie games. I miss when games weren't so linear and you could actually explore the level to find interesting stuff and do missions in any order.

I also miss when Mario games could do interesting stuff and not be all New Super Mario Bros like. It feels like Nintendo is deliberately limiting the series to avoid scaring away 'casual' gamers.

Original concepts, and developers who weren't afraid to use them in their games for fear of no publication.

I agree on the manual-thing. Something I stressed for years. It is definitely a integral part of the game in it's totality...

The limitation of a console brings out the greatest creativity of a developer, especially the 8- and 16-bit titles proved that...

Oh, How could I forget? The magazines! TOTAL!, C&VG, Power Unlimited, Nintendo Magazine System...

The writing of cheats into a notebook, in a kiosk...