Support NeoGAF

[Raven117]

90s for me. But of course it is. That's when I was a kid where everything was more magical. One could argue that any game I have played since I judge on the merits of how close it gets me to that feeling.

Some games have succeeded in doing that. And finally. When its all said and done, and I can't get to that feeling anymore...Is when I stop playing video games.

There are still some games out there doing it for me though...but they are getting fewer and fewer.

 

[touchfuzzy]

Honestly TotK has probably sealed 2015-2025 as being my favorite "decade" (I know it's cheating a bit to use a decade as a stretch of ten years, but whatever). Witcher 3, Rocket League, Stardew Valley, Breath of the Wild, Ghost of Tsushima, Dragon Quest XI, Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Odyssey, Smash Bros. Ultimate, INSIDE, Into the Breach, Hollow Knight, The Messenger, Hades... oh and there's still two more years left to go in that stretch with who knows what on the horizon.

 

[ungalo]

2000's, because that's when i really got into gaming and i think creatively and as an industry gaming was exciting at that time.

That's really not the case anymore for me since 10 years ago.

 

[_Ex_]

The '90s and it's not even close. Legit feel pity for younger gamers that couldn't experience the '90s gaming scene when it was happening. We went from NES to Dreamcast in ten years. It was constant dramatic exciting game design change and incredible technological evolution. Now ask yourself how much the gaming industry has changed in the past 10 years?

 

[-MD-]

1995-2005

 

[DeepEnigma]

How is the answer to this question ever going to be anything other than the current decade?

I can play new stuff that's coming out that I find interesting, and I can play older stuff on an increasingly wider variety of commodity hardware. Older games can be emulated with upscaled resolutions, upscaled textures, save states, achievements added, etc in addition to playing them on larger/flatter/brighter screens, as well as more comfortable and wireless controllers - so the games I loved in the 80s and 90s are better today than they were back then.

While true, there were certain golden era genre defining games where you "had to be there" that made for the excitement, etc., more impactful than gaming of today. Know what I mean?

Or maybe,

 

[Chastten]

90's but that's purely because of my age.

Being born in the mid 80's I started the hobby in the early 90's on an old hand-me-down Atari 2600 and a NES, moving from there to a MegaDrive, and finally ending the decade with full 3D games on a PSX and an N64 that I bought from my own money from working a parttime job.

I mean, going from Moon Patrol, Galaxian and a random bootleg 32-in-1 cartridge to Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Crash Bandicoot 3 and GoldenEye in a single decade is nothing short of amazing. And yes, I full well know the Atari 2600 and NES were already old by 1990, but those are simply what we had in our home as a kid.

 

[cireza]

The 90s were the best decade as far as I am concerned. Games were great, fun and not bloated.

Hardware was great and varied, with very specific strengths and weaknesses.
Games were adapted specifically for each hardware, leading to awesome variety even in multi-platform games.
Cartridge was a great format and I still love it, but I also love how we transitioned to CD on 8/16 bits consoles. Many of these games are still marvelous, timeless.
8 bits consoles, and especially Master System and Game Gear, had excellent support up to 1995/1996, with often impressive ports/exclusives.
32 bits is where the magic started to fade away, but it is still great as creativity translated to ambitious games. However CD format also opened the can of worms for games that had too much content and constant loadings, which wasn't an issue on 16 bits consoles before.

If I had to pick a decade, it would be from 87 to 96, from Phantasy Star on MS until the end for MS/MD/GG/MCD basically.

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

2000s ... being apart of the rise of Xbox Live was amazing. People complain about Halo, Gears and Call of Duty now but back in the day nothing was better than coming home from school, hopping online with a headset and playing these games with friends/strangers while talking shit.

Also so many great games and franchises were created during that era.

• E3 was great
• Gaming magazines were still a thing
• Gaming coverage, podcast and sites were better
• The leap in graphics was also big, peoples jaw dropped when Gears of War was first revealed at E3 for example.

 

[Shenmuefan2000]

I know it's late but I love questions like this because both era's for gaming were amazing...

For me it is easily the 2000s. The PS2 dominated that decade from 2000-2008 (Persona 4 being their last classic game)

Then on top of that Dreamcast, GameCube, GBA, the OG Xbox and then we get to 07-09 Xbox 360 and early PS3

It was gaming at its peak in my opinion

 

[shaddam]

I wouldnt call it decades but it was around 2003-4 when I got my pentium 4 after my old P2, after that around 2010 when I finished school and bought my ps3. I played so much games

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

95-05