Topic: Your Favorite Console Generation

I've not seen this topic here so I figured it would be fun.

My favorite gen would have to be 4th(SNES/Sega Genesis). The 6th gen(Gamecube/PS2/Xbox) is close a 2nd for me. Maybe they're extra special to me because of my age? I was an 11 year old kid when the SNES came out and a young adult(21) when the Gamecube came out.

My choice:
1. PS2 era for Dance Dance Revolution games, K-1 games, Monster Rancher 4, FF X/X-2, FF XII, Sly Cooper games, Ratchet & Clank games, 3D platformer games, Harvest Moon games, The Sims games, etc.

2. PS4 era for Portal Knights, Dragon Quest Builders games, The Sims 4, Epic Chef, My Universe games, games by Outright Games, etc.

3. Wii era for tons of casual games with motion play such as Mii games, DDR Hottest Party games, Harvest Moon games, Cooking Mama, Petz games, Imagine games, random unpopular 3rd party games, etc.

Switch. Best hardware. Best library. Also one of the longest gens too.

1998 to 2010 hands down. It was a peak of mankind and of gaming industry

Sixth gen for me. It's late enough that developers had a grasp of 3D gaming and was able to put out consistently polished experiences, but it was early enough that developers were still willing to be experimental and push the medium in weird directions. It also helps that pretty much every major dev was firing on all cylinders with their consoles, with the Dreamcast, PS2, and Gamecube all being some of my favorite consoles of all time.

In terms of Nintendo specifically, I think they peaked in the 7th gen since the Wii and DS were such an incredible duo of consoles, but that generation had a lot of growing pains (iffy console launches, rampant framerate issues, real is brown game design, JP developers struggling) so I can't exactly say it's my favorite overall.

Seconded.

Although 6th gen also has a special place in my heart — feels like there was a lot of creativity both in the 2D space (GBA) and 3D space (Gamecube and others) at the time.

There is always the strong draw of nostalgia, but if I try to be unbiased, definitely Switch.

In terms of console generations as a whole, I would say the 4th and 6th gens are my favorite. I feel like a lot of the best games from those gens have aged very well and are well worth coming back to, and as somebody who was born in the early 90s, I am pretty nostalgic for them too. And it wasn't just Nintendo that was making great games, either... the Sega Genesis and PlayStation 2 had a lot of great ones too. Both the last two consoles I mentioned are my favorite systems that weren't made by Nintendo. The Game Boy and GBA were great handhelds too... especially the GBA.

I will say that I've been exclusively Nintendo since the 7th gen. I didn't like the 360 and PS3 that much, where games started to gravitate toward realistic settings and stuff like that. I never got into stuff like Call of Duty, Uncharted, etc., so I just stuck with my boy Mario, haha. I still like Nintendo's games today, and I loved the Switch generation too. The Switch might very well be my favorite console, period. Great lineup of exclusive games, and I like how versatile it is. Would love to see what the Switch 2 will bring to us in the future.

6th Gen for me - specifically Dreamcast. Coincidentally, probably the Gen where my ratio of spare cash to spare time was perfect. Working, but no real responsibilities and still living at home = Good times.

Probably 7th gen (Wii, X360, PS3) for me, although I play games from many different gens, even today. Mainly 5th gen and up, but I have found games I like as early as 3rd gen.

As above, PS1/N64 generation was exhilarating for the generational 'leap' from 2D -> 3D games. I'm not sure that any other generation has ushered in such a substantial improvement/enhancement in this regard?

I started with NES, but think SNES for me as an overall era. Secret of Mana, Kirby's Fun Pack, Goemon, Yoshi's Island. Only thing is though, I got the console when it was starting to wind down (1996), so didn't experience it the same way, not really knowing about new games and news till the end when I was old enough to read the magazines.

N64 is very close though. As others have said, it was a huge leap, and I was involved in keeping up with the news and games through Magazines too, so that was a hugely fond one for me.

Least favourite...Wii for me. I have few good memories with it and would go for months and months without playing, I just didn't care. I was very depressed too I should add, which doesn't help my notion of it, but even in my better times I still didn't enjoy it the same.

Switch is the best CONSOLE though, for its unbeatable access to pretty much all my favourites, near enough, from other consoles.

The jump from 2D to 3D was definitely a once in a lifetime event. Every generation since then has mostly just been refining/improving 3D gameplay and graphical fidelity since there's no other 'dimensions' to use besides for virtual reality and the 3D the 3DS used.

For me it's 7th and 8th gen because of the DS and 3DS respectively.
Tons of games on those handhelds I love and still play to this day. Not to mention those consoles also had the best Pokémon games ever made, in my opinion.

My favorite console generation would be the SNES/Sega Genesis

A close second would be PlayStation 2 generation.

Being around for all of Nintendo’s console generations, it’s gotta be the SNES era for me. I will never forget seeing the first images in magazines of Mario World, Castlevania, Pilotwings…and being absolutely blown away. The leap from NES to SNES just felt so massive. Getting “arcade quality” graphics was so exciting. It was a time when videogame magazines were blowing up, and I poured through everything. Playing the SNES was just as amazing as I imagined. That’s why it is my favorite generation.

Is it the best, or the greatest leap, no. The Switch is the best, hands down…it almost takes #1 for me because it got me back into gaming. But the nostalgia wins today. Maybe in 10 years I’ll feel different 😜

Easily 6th gen. People had figured out how to make 3D games but didn't have the expenses that have consistently ruined (or been the excuse from some companies to ruin) what I love about video games. And the only generation where there were three home consoles people cared about that had a good mix of both exclusives and also 3rd party games that actually released on everything.

Though there is a part of me that prefers 5th gen because of nostalgia and 7th gen because of a mix of Wii being an underrated system with tons of hidden gems and an endless supply of Nintendo games throughout the gens and being the only one where I reliably played and owned new games from a non-Nintendo system as well.

under-rated? it was the best selling Nintendo home console until Switch. Sure, people got over motion controls eventually but Wii still has to be one of the consoles with the highest name recognition ever and I feel like basically everyone I know has fond memories of it. And games sold like crazy on that system — even though it sold far less hardware than the DS, it sold almost as many games.

It's probably third on my personal list of favorite consoles, but first on innovation and the lasting effects have been pretty huge too.

At the time, Nintendo added motion controls to tons of games which didn't necessarily need them and at the time it was a fun and original gimmick. But now that time has passed I much prefer where they are optional or only required in games which really need them like sports games, some party games, etc. Considering Nintendo now mostly has them optional and even lets you turn off motion stages in the new mario party (to much applause), I feel like Nintendo and their customer base agrees. Some games like Super Mario Wii I enjoyed at the time but would absolutely love a Switch port without the gimmicky and very unnecessary motion controls.

Anyways, it was commented that Wii was under-rated; I'm not quite sure what was meant, but the over-reliance on motion controls is one aspect that, while fun at the time, hasn't fully stood the test of time. The concept of motion controls is here to stay and a great legacy of Wii, but I think people eventually got over the over-use of them.

I wonder how many Switch games actually require motion controls 🤔 Not many outside exercise/dance games and a few party games. Of course the hybrid nature of Switch kind of forces them to be rarely required.

Do you not know what rated means? Words mean things. Wii was very popular, but controversial and increasingly rejected by hardcore gamers. They had in fact, not rated it very well.

I DISTINCTLY remember in the middle of that generation it being widely hated by the "hardcore" gaming community since I spent a year doing my all to showcase and sell people on the cooler games coming out on the system, since no one else was going to (sadly often including Nintendo). No one wanted those games, and instead thought the sellout action version of Resident Evil and Call of Duty were "hardcore" games. The most popular opinion in these spaces was that Wii was a useless system outside of a handful of Nintendo IPs if you actually played video games before Wii Sports.

I'd also like to post my favorite video about motion controls which is both the 2nd aspect of Wii being underrated and also just broadly my opinion on them in general.