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[mopspear]

16-bit only got too big for it's breeches when it tried to do 3D. There was enough power there do enough without getting too ambitious and failing. I think it's aged the best partly due to this.

The PS3/360 era is when a lot of modern concepts were invented that would feel more familiar to us today. PS2/XBOX era can feel strange in that regard. Like you can communicate easily enough with someone in the 1600s in English but ye are going to have a harder time before that.

Bad frame rates in the PS3/360 generation though.

 

[The_hunter]

Aren't we using 64 bit processors right now, lol.

 

[March Climber]

I just entered to say that I'm glad the ugliest generation is near the bottom of the list (Playstation, N64, Saturn).

 

[CashPrizes]

Everyone knows it is SNES and PC games of the 16-bit era (and some Genesis games).

Link to the Past and Super Mario World and FF6 and Chrono Trigger and Contra 3 and Super Castlevania and Super Metroid are all arguably the best games of their series. Plenty of other greats that are still fun to play today are FF4, Secret of Mana, Mega Man X 1 and 2, ActRaiser, TMNT Turtles in Time.

PC has Tie Fighter, X-Com, Day of the Tentacle, Civilization 2, Monkey Island 1 and 2, Doom 1 and 2. All of those games are still eminently playable today (X-com the controls are a little fiddly but still worth it).

I was an even bigger Genesis fan at the time but fewer of the games are best in their genre types. The ones that still hold up are Phantasy Star IV, Landstalker, Contra Hard Corps, Castlevania Bloodlines, Shining Force 1 and 2, and Streets of Rage 2 .

 

[CashPrizes]

I just entered to say that I'm glad the ugliest generation is near the bottom of the list (Playstation, N64, Saturn).

I agree. There seems to be an insurgence of people making games with PS1 style graphics..... like why? Those games looked like shit. They only looked their best (Metal Gear Solid) when they were making creative decisions to hide how limited they were.

I personally think a lot of PS2 era games are hard to go back to, 16bit and PS3/360 are the sweet spots.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

128bit

But you need either a CRT or a good upscaler.

And it's remarkable how good those games still look with the proper hardware. I'm genuinely surprised when I fire up a ps2 game on the Retrotink 4K after a while away from it - art style really ruled the day back then.

Gen 6 is my answer, too. I think the games have aged incredibly well and are easy to go back to even if you didn't play them at the time. Pick-up-and-play appeal was still alive and well. I get why people would suggest the 16-bit era, though.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Chose PS2, Xbox, GC Gen. Games on those systems were pushing the hardware. Konami, Capcom and Squaresoft were the kings at that time. Towards the end of the generation they were pulling off stuff that was mind blowing for the time. RE4 on GC felt like a next gen game when it came out and ultimately influenced the entire 3rd person shooter genre. The Silent Hill and MGS games were also insanely detailed for the time. FF 10, 11 and 12 were incredible feats, when Square still raising the bar with their tech in games. FF11 in particular being on PS2 is a massive feat, if you played it back in the day, you know.

And even though they weren't so popular at the time as they are today, Atlus was at their peak with SMT, Persona, Devil Summoner games and Digitial Devil Saga. When the father of SMT family, Kaneko, was still involved.