Least Favorite Era in Videogaming?

[Aswald]

Video gaming has been around now for over a quarter of a century. From the simple Pong games to the most modern ones, many, many, changes have occurred over the years; some good, some bad. Of course, it's all subjective, but...

Which era did you like the least, for whatever reason? I don't list specific eras, because there are too many possibilities. It's up to you.

[Aswald]

I would choose the very late 1980s right through to the later 1990s. The entire arcade scene was largely dominated by games that were all cosmetics, there was very little innovation, and the 1990s arcade scene was almost entirely fighting games, gun games, and second-person driving games (exceptions were just that). The 16-Bit era was especially dull; I gave away the Sega Genesis I'd fixed. Bleah.

Looking through some videogaming magazines of the mid-1990s, there weren't more than one or two games that remotely interested me.

[digitalpress]

Hey Aswald, I've added a poll to your question to correspond with the "Greatest Era" poll we have in the Polls forum.

My answer to the question by the way, is the NES/SMS era. Actually right around this time I was playing Commodore 64 and in fact LEARNING about computers. Though I was gaming heavily, the two console systems weren't doing it for me at the time.

[Ascending Wordsmith]

I picked the early 00's. For some reason, I appreciate sprites on 2D platforms more than polygons in 3D environments. After growing up on 2D games, to see a series (Mario and Sonic) placed into a 3D atmosphere is severely detrimental to my nostalgia.

[Captain Wrong]

Right now. Why? Well I am unabashedly biased against 3d. Not that I'm not without hope, really I'd love to see more games such as Maximo that I feel capture that "thing" that made 2d great. I just don't see any right now.

I feel that because designers aren't limited by technology that much anymore, we're getting more eye candy, longer games for the sake of being longer, more complicated games, etc., etc, but at the cost of gameplay. Also I feel there's a tendancy towards "everybody is a winner" gameplay where all you have to do is put in time and you can beat the game. Back in the day, it was skill. There were some games you were good at, some you weren't and that was that.

Part of this I think is due to the marketing campaign of the PSX which sold cutscenes and graphics over gameplay. A whole generation of gamers have come to expect those things from games when really they are a small part of the whole expirence.

I also feel that the amount of money flowing has hurt things. Really creative people who didn't have resources could make a game and have a shot at it being sucessful. Not so anymore. Plus, with all the money dev houses are throwing into games, I think there's a pressure to develop franchices vs. being new and creative. No one is taking the risks like they used to because the stakes are just too high.

And I hate the thing of games mimicking movies. If I wanted to watch a movie, I'd watch a damn movie. Too many games are trying to blur the line and create these "interactive storybook" kind of things. That's all well and good, but it's not a video game.

In short, I'm a dinosaur. I can accept that. I don't get mad because the industry no longer produces the kind of games I like to play. That's fine, there's plenty of old stuff for me to pick up. Sure, I'll perk my ears up when I hear someone is reviving an old series from the 2d days, but I've learned to expect nothing good from it. I was lucky enough to be at the right age to have lived through the golden age, so I'm ok with it.

[gamingguy]

I liked all those eras. My vote would go for the mid-70's when there were lame games like "Lunar Lander" "Night Driver" and "Air-Sea Battle".

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I've got to go with the current era, though the early 90s SNES/Genesis era runs a very close second. The difference is that there were at least computer games that interested me at that time. Little interests me of the recent crop outside of retro compilations and games that just have an old-school "feel" (i.e. Gubble, South Park: Chef's Luv Shack, etc.). In packing up my belongings and my collection lately and getting ready to move, I discovered two things:

1. My Odyssey2 collection still outnumbers my PSX and GBC collections.
2. I go back to the Odyssey2 games more often.

I see lots of ads on TV for new PS2, Xbox and (to a much lesser degree) Gamecube titles, and nothing reaches out and grabs me and makes me think "Hey, this'll be fun." Part of this is lousy marketing that concentrates more on cutscene animation than in-game action, but part of it is also just the current FPS/RPG/sports game mindset. It's just not what I like to play.

And let me just repeat for the record another convincing argument that's already been put forward...

And I hate the thing of games mimicking movies. If I wanted to watch a movie, I'd watch a damn movie. Too many games are trying to blur the line and create these "interactive storybook" kind of things. That's all well and good, but it's not a video game.
Preach on, brother!

[nesman85]

"pre-crash" stuff is just not for me.

[kainemaxwell]

PSX and Saturn era did produce some good games and a few new francises, but in general it was alot of "me too" clones, rehashes of sports titles and some bad 3D updates that left a bad taste in our mouths. Plus it seemed like the PSX turned everyone into a "gamer" at that point too.

[Buyatari]

Right when NES stopped making games and before PSX took over as #1.

The period with a whole bunch of systems which never did anything for me. Right around when everyone started to issue games on CDs.

3DO
Amiga CD32
CDTV
Memorex VIZ
Atari Jaguar
Sega Saturn
CDI
Sega CD

I think it cented around 1993-1994

I think the lack of any good game systems is why many people started collecting classic games around this time.

Yeah the SNES was good but what did it have to compete with? You'll notice that was the last time Nintendo was on top.

I love the classic games and I think the video game market now has never had more serious competetion. Its just everything in between that sucked.

[scooterb23]

For me it was a mix of the late 80's and the mid 90's.

I loved the Genesis...hated the SNES though. It still only has about 5 games I really like to play a lot...

And I like my Playstation and Saturn a bunch, but my 3DO gets almost no play at all...

So overall, I very much enjoy every era of video gaming, those two moments stuck out to me.

[Six Switch]

Late 80s to early 90s.But I still love ym Genesis and SNES to death.

[maxlords]

I didn't start gaming until the NES/SMS era, so I never got into the pre-crash gaming at all...and it doesn't do a thing for me now. The only pre-crash gaming I ever did was the C64, which I still have fond memories of :)

[Gunstarhero]

Thats easy for me. I can't stand the newest generation. The move to virtually 99% of games to 3-d has been the worst thing to happen to video games. I hate to sound like an old fart, but that's the way it is. Give me cartridges, or give me death!

[TVs Hasselhoff]

I grew up with the Atari and Intellivision, but my disappointment with the PSX/Saturn era isn't due to any misty-eyed rememberances of days gone by. What I don't like is the lack of game innovation that came out of that time, and the legacy we're stuck with now.

The Atari era had games similar to what you found in the arcades, simple scoring, easy controls, straight-forward objectives. The kind of gaming one would expect when you only have a quarter or two to play and don't have the ability to spend all day in front of the machine. (lets keep in mind that, yes, many of us spent all day in an arcade, but obsession for a game versus game design that means you HAVE to play all day are two different things).

With the NES era, we saw traditional gaming, plus more exploration into new types of gaming, like rpg's (zelda, final fantasy), mission based games (metal gear), plus graphical improvements on shooters, platformers, etc. Still a lot of great gaming, and the novelty of the new stuff only added to the mix. Plus, the new technology of the systems allowed for a greater degree of development of the game world you were participating in.

But as we moved into the 16-bit era, then into the 32-bit era, all we saw were less and less of the "just fun to play" games, more expansion of the adventure and rpg, and the juggernaught of fighting games. Plus, the industry becamed more obsessed with the money. Sure, the money was always a concern, but the youthfulness that seemed to occupy the leadership mindset in this country became a strictly business mentality. This is the mentality that led into the franchise thinking that the psx era was dominated by. We saw emphasis on rpg, fighting, and the noses were turned down on simple ideas. Look at how Mr. Driller was received. Despite some critical acclaim, did we get to see a sequel in this country? And what Madden are we on now? How many NBA games are out there? How many mutations of the Mortal Kombat franchise have we witnessed? Has Eidos realized yet that maybe ANOTHER Tomb Raider is NOT the way to go?

We see little in the way of original gaming today because of the big business that came out of the PSX era. Certainly Sony throwing in because of the cash potential should have been a harbinger of things to come. Now do the Japanese feel the same way? Hard to say. But look at all the goodies they seem to come up with. New ideas still seem to pour out of Japan. Over here, we saw the 4th release of Tony Hawk (5th if you count 2x for Xbox).

Maybe the new systems will lead to a new genre to break the monotony, or a backlash against franchises and exorbitant spending will make Sony rethink another platformer. But this all stems from the big business, big tech approach of the 32-bit era, and I want it to end.

Still love my Halo, though.

[Alex Kidd]

I had to say the current era.I was born in 81, so I kinda missed the pre-crash stuff, but I did grow up with a 1600, and so did most of my friends... so I did play quite of bit of it.

And you know what? 2600 games are freaks of nature, I swear if you look at your collection of games, you'll find at least 60% you have no clue where they came from. we all had games that we just "had".... where'd they come from? we don't know... barely had any games with manuals, a fe with out labels, but we didn't need em, we stuck em tin the 2600 and in 10 minutes we were on our way. simple, fun, addictive gameplay.

the 8 bit and 16 bit eras were more of the same, addictive gameplay, but adding some flash cause trhey could.. the start of the 32 bit era and onward... hmmm...

this thought began creeping into the minds of video game developers... and I don't like it...

In the 70s/80s/early 90s they were thinking... 'okay, what kinda gameplay is gonna hook kids and make them want to play these game endlessly'. that idea was abandoned and the new idea became, 'What can we do with this games opening cutscenes, or advertisments to make kids think it'll be fun...'

And you know how this chnage of thought came about? the fact that arcades are dying out...
In the old days, if you produced a bad game.. a kid would come, put in a few quarters, realize it sucked, and leave it.. it would make no money, BUT nowadays a kid (or his parent, or hell, even us adult gamers) pay 60-80 bucks for a game, and then if the game sucks, whether the buyer likes it/plays it or not, company's don't care, cause they've already made their sale.

Alex Kidd

[YoshiM]

I have to say the current crop of games doesn't do it for me. While I do have an XBox, iin the hopes that something new and interesting will come its way, there are not many games that are coming out that catch my attention. Sure they look wonderful, but there's hardly any substance with a lot of games these days. Maybe I've become jaded in my old age but it's becoming harder to find a fun title rather than an electronic time waster.

[ManekiNeko]

RIGHT NOW.

JR

[Kamisama]

right now... very true.

[le geek]

I almost went with right now. Particularly I felt silly for getting a PS2 when I did (although Ridge Racer V is still a blast). I was also upset that the Dreamcast died as it was such a great system (in terms of what games came out for it: Soul Calibur, Jet Grind Radio, Typing of the Dead, Shenmue, Rez).

Most of the early PS2 games were prettier versions of PSOne games, etc... This changed for me finally with ICO, and Suikoden III. Also, the Gamecube has more really nice stuff for it.

So it was a toss up between post crash 8-bit and 16-bit. As I was on the c64 and Amiga track at the time...

And the 16-bit era wins it for just seeming like a prettier version of 8-bit. Although in retrospect there are games I like for almost every system :)

[ubersaurus]

I'm gonna list the 95-99 era. Although there were some games I really enjoyed, the bulk of them were pretty much the same thing (like the PSX and its cookie cutter rpgs, n64's cookie cutter platformers, and the saturns overall NA market crappiness). Plus I hated the look of the games, everything tried to look realistic but just came out grainy.

[Aswald]

I happen to have a 1990 gaming magazine, for computers. Some of the games include Sim City, Secret of the Silver Blades, Tetris, Les Manley's Search for the King, Monkey Island, an ad for Loom, among others.

If you look at the photos, you'll see colorful, detailed pictures, very bright and well-done.

Now, look at a magazine from the mid-1990s. Ugly, grey, polygons. Blood everywhere. Very dark and grim.

That decade pulled a 180 degree turn in almost every possible way!

Bleah.

I'll take the first half of the 1980s any time.

[Eternal Champion]

Least favorite era--I'd have to say mid to late '90s, pre-Game Cube. I paid NO attention to ANYTHING coming out, although Mario 64 was fun, didn't even pay attention to Zelda 64. Didn't like the blocky 3d graphics! And I still don't, although demoing Metroid Prime...holy crap.
Recently got back into my old Genny and SNES games, bought more, bought a refurbished NES...I'm an old fuddy duddy! I just prefer 2-d "drawn"-style graphics. I don't need texture mapping, etc. The graphics and animation in Neo Geo games (Samurai Shodown has taken gobs and gobs of my dough!!) and late-era Capcom fighting games (am I alone in loving Darkstalkers??) still give me goosebumps. :D
Alex Kidd--you made an excellent point about the fact that the arcade scene died, and the only way now to play a game is to buy it (or rent). But the games themselves--Final Fantasy VII is NOT a "game". No way. It's like the old Dragon's Lair laserdisc "game". BO-RING. -_-
That's why I love the GBA, even though Metroid Fusion is more "new" school than old in some ways...very story driven. The orig and Super Metroid, you had to figure it all out. Don't know where to go next? Tough titties. It's called CHALLENGE. I love Fusion, but it's like a FFVII/Super Met blend...oh well. I still think the first is the best, primitive graphics or no!
I agree about the Dreamcast--a fine system (much superior to PS2), with fine games. Dammit. Never had a chance. :(
And the Saturn--could have been (here in the US) a kick-ass 2D system. Very popular in Japan. Especially with shooters. Guardian Heroes. 'nuff said. But not here. Why not? What is it about the US market???
Anyway. I'm new here. Hi!

[Neb]

Out of the eras, the one I dislike the most is probably the current one. I own a PS2, GameCube, and an Xbox, and most of the games out there for the systems don't really interest me. The ones that do interest me seem WAY too short in comparison to the some of the older games (has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?) I mean, there are some exceptions, GTA3: Vice City, Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, etc., but still. I've beaten almost all the games I have for the new systems. Maybe I've just gotten better at video games in general than I had been in the past? I don't know... Also, many of the new games that take a long time to complete seem uninspired and boring... In my opinion, many of these new games just don't seem to meet the superiority of the past...

[dreamcaster]

I voted for the current era.

Not that I don't like the new games (I've got a PS2 and GCN), I just don't like the state of the games industry!

Video gaming has become too mainstream and popular. It was much better when it was a niche hobby, filled with great games from Sega and Nintendo.

Now everyone's got a PlayStation or an Xbox.

That's the other thing. Microsoft, unhappy with controlling the entire computer software industry (and hardware to an extent), they now want to monolpolise and destroy the video games industry.

Don't believe me? Look what happened the last time an American company led the industry. It crashed! And it took the ingenuity of a Japanese company to revive it!

Bill Gates doesn't need anymore money. That's why I'm purposely boycotting the Xbox.

[chrisballer]

My vote was for this era just because when i was young games where so much better finding them under the tree and for birthdays. Now that i am older and buy what ever i want and buy so many i dont enjoy them as much.

[swlovinist]

I was a dark time for the sprite rebellion.....when the evil polygon empire led by Sony came to destroy creative thinking.......ok, so I dont totally think that harsh of Sony, but the mid 90's were growing pains for games. I think honestly that the technology was not there for what companies wanted to make. there were many poorly constructed games using 1.new technology that sucked 2. FMV(yuck) 3. some lame ass platform character that nobody cared about(Bubsy 3D). I collect games from this period partly because they were so wierd and bad......not because they are fun to play! I would like to add that If I had to rate a second place it would be now.....to many crappy ideas are coming out flooding the market and making the 5% of the games that are worth playing not profitable ENOUGH. I am sick of seeing seqel upon sequel of a tired franchise(tomb raider to name one). I am going out on a limb here but I think the market for retro gaming is on the rise and I think the market for new gaming is on the downside this next year.

[Drexel923]

I voted for the current generation. I have always loved games from all generations, but this current one is a little different. During every generation before this one I always found myself being constantly surprised and excited with new games, ideas, and gameplay that was introduced. Now when I see a new game that I like I do get excited, but the feeling of awe just isn't there.

[zmeston]

I was a dark time for the sprite rebellion.....when the evil polygon empire led by Sony came to destroy creative thinking.......ok, so I dont totally think that harsh of Sony, but the mid 90's were growing pains for games. I think honestly that the technology was not there for what companies wanted to make. there were many poorly constructed games using 1.new technology that sucked 2. FMV(yuck) 3. some lame ass platform character that nobody cared about(Bubsy 3D). I collect games from this period partly because they were so wierd and bad......not because they are fun to play! I would like to add that If I had to rate a second place it would be now.....to many crappy ideas are coming out flooding the market and making the 5% of the games that are worth playing not profitable ENOUGH. I am sick of seeing seqel upon sequel of a tired franchise(tomb raider to name one). I am going out on a limb here but I think the market for retro gaming is on the rise and I think the market for new gaming is on the downside this next year.

I second your emotion, SW; the mid-'90s were wretched, thanks to 3DO, Jaguar, 32X, and especially that wretched beast known as FMV. (Although I still have a soft spot for Digital Pictures' stuff, despite myself.)

-- Z.

[miles]

I agree with digitalpress.
In the late 80ies I considered the NES and SMS just to be machines for people who couldn´t afford a home-computer. The Commodore C-64 ruled Europe like no other machine before or after. The people of Nintendo must have seen that, because they released the NES here in 1987, after the release of the SMS!!! Well, still today the NES doesn´t do anything for me, the graphics are too "inbetween Atari-Age and 16-Bit-Age". The SMS has got some decent games with decent graphics, but also just collects dust at my home.

[TheCrow]

I would have to vote for the 2000 - 2005 ERA The PS2 -_- completely lowered the standard for video games in this time. Although the Xbox and Gamecube are far superior in its harware capabilities, Developers chose to limit themselves and give full support to the PS2 :angry: I don't blame the developers though, it makes sense to make a game on a system that is owned by 40 million sheep as opposed to makeing a game for a system that only 10 million or 4 million people own. God bless the almighty dollar!!! If your going to make a game cross platform, can't you at least use the hardware of the machine your developing for. Xbox and Gamecube owners have 5 years of emulated PS2 games...and not even the decent ones.

[bensenvill]

The worst -- That FMV fad...


~Tj

[supahzonik]

its 16 bit beeyach
sonic's my homie

[AMG]

For me it's the current gen of games. It's hard to explain but the magic just isn't there. Don't get me wrong, I've played some great games this gen. But overall it just isn't adding up.

[lym]

I picked 00's I prefer the older games over the newer ones such as Mega Drive and Master System games.

[Milk]

My middle school years consisted of FMV, the death of 16 bit, and playing 32 bit games in which it was painfully evident that the programmers couldn't handle the technology. The few games I wanted, like a Sonic on the Saturn, never came, or were released only in Japan. Mortal Kombat and clones were nailing arcade's coffin shut. The last system to get me excited was the Dreamcast. We know how that went...

The late 90's sucked.

[charitycasegreg]

I VOTED FOR THE CURRENT ERA. I LOVE OLD GAMES. DAMN NEW MUSIC...AND NEW GAMES. :angry:

[Pantechnicon]

It's a close call for me, but I voted for the early 90's as my least favorite era. This is less an indictment of the consoles at the time as it is against the coin-ops of the time. I moved around a lot during this time as I was in the military, and I would walk into the arcades in wherever I was looking for a trusty Galaga or Tempest or what have you and instead see this endless succession of multi-player side-scrollers which I just couldn't get into. Konami (TMNT, X-Men, The Simpsons ad nauseum) stands out in my mind as the biggest cuplrit of rehashing this concept. Moving around was bad enough, but not finding good games to play in the arcades made me feel even more disconnected.

The mid-90's sucked, too, as it seemes that every arcade manufacturer was simply trying to clone Mortal Kombat (which, to me, seemed little more than a rip-off of Pit Fighter). The arcades seemed stocked with nothing but fighters. I wrote a bad poem about this once which I'll probably post here one day x_x

I guess the modern era sucks, too, but I am firmly entrenched enough in my retro thing to not really care. LOL

[RetroYoungen]

I'd have to say the PS-X/Saturn era. I love my Saturn and I love my PS-X, but I just wasn't all that excited about them before I had them. The games that were coming out all looked somehow the same, very few really original games coming out (I learned later about No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!!!, but at the time I had no clue), and I was still busy playing my NES and SNES, so why did I care?

[charitycasegreg]

now blows

[sabre2922]

I had to pick the PSone/Saturn/N64 era for these reasons:
N64 games costing around 80.00 freakin bucks :angry:
Saturn dying a sloooow and painful death
Playstation flooding the market with more crap 3-D games than quality and destroying what once was a small niche "geek" hobby (wich was the way I liked it) by making gaming a "cool" thing therefore opening the floodgates for all the me-too casual gamers out there that have made it difficult to justify why there should not be another video game crash similiar to '83 just so we can weed out all this crap that the market is currently flooded with anyway the PSone was both a curse and a blessing but much more of a CURSE! O_O

[Darkness X]

I vote for this Generation as the worst one yet, the only console I really liked and cared about is the Dreamcast. In most generations I liked all the consoles...

Anyway, I hate this generation the most because it just doesn't seem all that fun anymore. Games like FFX and Xenosaga are really just movies with some small interactive parts put in so it can be called a "Game". I would say I get bored with about 95% of todays stuff, the only games of this generation I have really liked so far are(not counting DC games): GTA3,GTA:VC,SSB:M,Super Monkey Ball,Halo. And that really is just about it. And even though I own an Xbox/PS2/GC, they collect dust most of the time while I'm playing my Saturn/PS1 or Genesis and SNES, IMO those systems are just more fun.

I sure hope the next generation is better then this one(although I really doubt it)

[ClubNinja]

Initially, I wanted to join the "right now" segment. After all, new games suck, right? But I put a little more thought into it and realized that I've been excited about more new games in the past year or two than I have since the Saturn first appeared. Therefore, I'm going with the time period beginning with the tail-end of the Saturn and going up until the launch of the Dreamcast. More affectionately, we'll call it the period where Sony and 3D garbage mangled my interest in games. During that time period, I pretty much just played Doom and Rise of the Triad on my old Pentium 75Mhz and Sonic on the old Genesis. In fact, I ended up spending a lot more time with music than games during that era since the Playstation looked like trash to me and there didn't seem to be much hope for better.

[classicb]

Right when NES stopped making games and before PSX took over as #1.

The period with a whole bunch of systems which never did anything for me. Right around when everyone started to issue games on CDs.

3DO
Amiga CD32
CDTV
Memorex VIZ
Atari Jaguar
Sega Saturn
CDI
Sega CD

I think it cented around 1993-1994

I think the lack of any good game systems is why many people started collecting classic games around this time.

Yeah the SNES was good but what did it have to compete with? You'll notice that was the last time Nintendo was on top.

I love the classic games and I think the video game market now has never had more serious competetion. Its just everything in between that sucked.

Has to be the most aukward time in gaming history.

I don't know how any one can not like the SNES and Genesis era because that was one of my favorites.

[JaredCenter]

Right Now!

I use to have an ultra-high for all new games up until around 1996. Then only a few titles really caught my attention (anything Atari Games was definitely something you HAD to have, circa 1997). The last game to ever rock my world was probably the first Tony Hawk game for PS1 when it came out in 2000.

Today's era SUCKS! I don't know why all the hype over NFS: Underground. To this day, I still get 200 times more thrill in one game of San Francisco Rush than I do playing 200 games of NFS: Underground.

It's in the game EA, not in your marketing strategy you fucking wankers!

[Kroogah]

Atari era, just because it has the least amount of games I really like (though it still has some games I really enjoy)

[BloodshedPlague]

This is probably the wrong thing to say to classic gamers but pre NES is my least favorite era. Sorry, but none of those games intrest me.

[DasCrewShtool]

I just play the games, it's either them or myself!! and By the way 3DO fucking rocks.

[EnemyZero]

Right now, the early 00's really bore me, the only modern console i really enjoyed was Dreamcast...but man....when atari came out it was something new we never seen before, then it jumped up in NES and we were even more amazed, then the 16-bit era brought on more detailed and colorful games, 32 bit introduced us to 3D (even though computers were already doing it, not everyone could afford a pc) , which was really exciting, but now, its just same old same old, the only current platform i REALLY enjoy is GBA because it reminds me of the 16 bit days. I have a feeling it will only get worse with the launch of new machines.

[Lord_Magus]

As with every form of art, evolution of the medium stops when the creator is transformed into a businessman.


The moment this happened for video games was, of course, when the PS1 came out. My least favourite moment in all video-gaming history: the release of Tomb Raider.
It was more than a game - it was a statement. A statement from the gaming developers saying:


"Forget about what has made games great. Forget about what has made you a gamer. We can now cover our lack of creativity with impressive graphics and features that wash away after a few minutes.
We dont even need to make quality graphics; we can display 16.7 million colors on screen using more polygons than we can count.
We dont need to write decent music; we have 5.1 surround sound.
We dont even have to call them games anymore; a business is only concerned about manufacturing consumer products.

Oh, and you know what? The person that has given us the opportunity to do all this, YOU, can rot in gaming hell for all we care, because now we have the glorious casual gamer to support us with his ignorance."

[Malvanus]

I voted for this era.

A lot of games don't seem very innovative anymore. Every game of a genre pretty much looks like another. Atleast to me it does. Hell, you might even call them "interactive movies" now instead of games!

I remember back when the Intellivision was winding down and NES and SMS started getting big. Man, there were new types of games coming out constantly! Granted, there were a lot of sequels, but even those sequels had new and interesting ideas.

Then again, now that I think about it, it could just be nostalgia making me say this. Who knows. :hmm:

[dethink]

i think there were just as many people griping about endless streams of mario-wanna be platformers (of those "damn jumping games") as my mom referred to them as back in the 80's as there are me-too sports/RPG/FPS titles now. as usual, revisionist history is MUCH kinder to gaming like many other things. all those instantly forgettable me too games on the NES are even more long forgotten now, making the days of yore seem much brighter.

every era has had it's share of turkeys and eagles, it's innovations, and franchise-o-ramas, although it was a bit less like a blatant "expansion pack" like many sequels seem to be now. mario 1-mario 3 at least brought radical changes to the gameplay, whereas something like halo 2 will merely expand upon the experience of the original (don't get me wrong, I loved halo).

with the exception of the dreamcast, i'm torn between this era, and the 32-bit era. some of the initial PSX titles that focused on new kinds of gameplay were pretty fun (i.e. Jumping Flash), but are so tough on the eyes now resolution-wise, i can't even play them. Some are almost as tough to get a handle on in 2004 as the old visually cryptic atari 2600 games.

things have been going down a slippery slope ever since we went away from carts. the N64 was a shining point as far as first/2nd party software goes, but other than that, it seems the 32-bit era -> now has been more focused on making an "experience" rather than a game.

the last games i HAD to sit down and just totally complete were the early N64 games. i've gotten all 120 stars in Mario, all golds in Pilotwings, unlocked everything in WaveRace, Blast Corps., got all the medals on expert in StarFox, etc. etc. They were really FUN and challenging to complete all the way.

i've played through FFVII, MGS, xenogears, etc., and while i can't say i didn't ENJOY myself, i'd NEVER go back through for another runthrough. there is no set of skills to master, all that you have to do is put in the TIME. and who can blame the developers? they spent millions of dollars on the game, and creating all the different segments, FMV's, story arcs, and environments, as opposed to a repeating, color changing, difficulty increasing set of "boards" - why WOULDN'T they want you to finish, and see their immaculate creation in it's majesty? it'd be like an author not wanting you to finish his book.

i've since sold all my PSX games, with the exception of SFA3, metal slug X, the ridge racers, einhander, and GT3/RRV for the PS2. the GT games are great...much like the N64 games, you can play for 15 minutes or all day unlocking new things, and have fun, not have to block out 4 hours minimum of your life to read story/watch cutscenes waiting for the next save point.

i have no problems admitting i played through all the PSX FF games, and it was literally to see the art. (i'm a designer) but will i ever do it again? nope. even after there was nothing to unlock in mario 64, it was still fun to pop in and run around for a bit.

dunno, i sold an entire bomb PSX collection, a gamecube, and an xbox, only to start collecting Mega Drive games. what does that tell you?

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I voted for right now. Games today are mostly based off of graphics and sequals. I remember square actually being a good game company when they were with nintendo. Now of days i won't even touch any of their games. If you can even call them that, did FFX even have any gameplay? Don't get me wrong i still play newer games (NJ,BOF5,disgaea,r-type final ect..) and have high hopes for some upcoming games. It just seems that game company aran't coming up with anything new and every single game MUST be 3d.

[-hellvin-]

I picked the current genre. It was really damn close between that and psx/saturn/n64. Around the psx/n64 era, I got a nintendo 64 and got quite a few games for it, but towards the middle of it's life, I never played it again. I didn't touch console gaming all the way until the xbox, which was my next gaming system. Then I got back into the classic consoles I once had and started rebuilding my collections that I sold off =*(.

But overall I picked this era. Why? Well, I'm just tired of seeing a flood of games come in, week after week that are nothing but extreme rehashing. It seems it's all about quantity over quality (hmm, a sprinkle of capatalism, perhaps?) and while there are a bunch of good games released there are probably about 3 times the amount of bad ones. Game companies have the right to make money, but games have fallen to a mediocre level of production qualities for the most part nowadays. That's why I am stuck in classic gaming past.

[-hellvin-]

And since I can't edit I have another small gripe. Why does square blow these days? I'm with testament on this one, I haven't touched one of their games since FFX, which I did enjoy to a certain extent. Everything they have made lately is just crap. Sword of mana, Unlimited Saga, FFX2, FFTA, Drakengard....it's just bad. Maybe Enix has something to do with it??? I wish them luck on Front Mission 4.

[Kamino]

the 32/64 bit era is DEFINITELY gaming's dark ages...........
With the suckitude of the psx, and the bitter taste n64 left in my mouth....
I no longer felt a need to get a new system, until i finally got ps2 with vice city.....
Only with the recent acquisition of a SATURN have i found that the era was not totally void of good games.

[esquire]

Right when NES stopped making games and before PSX took over as #1.

The period with a whole bunch of systems which never did anything for me. Right around when everyone started to issue games on CDs.

3DO
Amiga CD32
CDTV
Memorex VIZ
Atari Jaguar
Sega Saturn
CDI
Sega CD

I think it cented around 1993-1994

I think the lack of any good game systems is why many people started collecting classic games around this time.

Yeah the SNES was good but what did it have to compete with? You'll notice that was the last time Nintendo was on top.

I love the classic games and I think the video game market now has never had more serious competetion. Its just everything in between that sucked.

I agree wholeheartedly. This era should be added to the poll. FMV games were my least favorite, and it seems like during this time period we were bombarded with craptacular games hailing the arrival on "Interactive" TV and video games. I mean, how many versions do we need of Myst, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Lords of the Rising Sun, Johnny Bazookatone and Who Shot Johnny Rock?

[Sibs]

I voted for the current era.

Not that I don't like the new games (I've got a PS2 and GCN), I just don't like the state of the games industry!

Video gaming has become too mainstream and popular. It was much better when it was a niche hobby, filled with great games from Sega and Nintendo.

Now everyone's got a PlayStation or an Xbox.

That's the other thing. Microsoft, unhappy with controlling the entire computer software industry (and hardware to an extent), they now want to monolpolise and destroy the video games industry.

Don't believe me? Look what happened the last time an American company led the industry. It crashed! And it took the ingenuity of a Japanese company to revive it!

Bill Gates doesn't need anymore money. That's why I'm purposely boycotting the Xbox.

Amen to that!

[bangtango]

Right when NES stopped making games and before PSX took over as #1.

The period with a whole bunch of systems which never did anything for me. Right around when everyone started to issue games on CDs.

3DO
Amiga CD32
CDTV
Memorex VIZ
Atari Jaguar
Sega Saturn
CDI
Sega CD

I think it cented around 1993-1994

I think the lack of any good game systems is why many people started collecting classic games around this time.

Yeah the SNES was good but what did it have to compete with? You'll notice that was the last time Nintendo was on top.

I love the classic games and I think the video game market now has never had more serious competetion. Its just everything in between that sucked.

I think you also had the LaserActive, Neo Geo, FM Towns Marty and the dying TurboDuo still around at the same time. Not to mention the Genesis, 32X, Game Gear and Gameboy. The Atari Lynx was probably still in stores, too, even though new games weren't coming out.

That era of gaming was sort of like a long running tv show that has jumped the shark and is near the end when they start adding a ton of new cast members. Something like Happy Days or Married With Children, for example.

This was around the time that I got out of gaming for a few years. I didn't really come back until the Dreamcast was on clearance.

[Famidrive-16]

I gotta go with 'pre-crash' games just cause it was long before my time. I have a monsterload of 2600 games and the like but I can't really get into the gaming/collecting of those titles like I do for later games.

A few points in the late-90's (not all of it, but some parts like the first two years of the 64 and 98-99 in general) probably comes in second, just cause it seemed like nobody knew what they were doing.

[AllSchoolGamer]

ive been playing video games since '82 and i can honestly say there isnt an era i didnt really enjoy

[Nebagram]

I second the poster above me, there isn't one particular era that leaves me cold, but if I had to pick one I liked least... it'd have to be the current one. Whilst there was undoubtedly cruft in every era to date (even my beloved 4th generation had its 'Bubsy's), it seems that nowadays repitition is becoming the norm amongst so many companies. So few games feel truly 'fresh' nowadays.

[AllSchoolGamer]

I second the poster above me, there isn't one particular era that leaves me cold, but if I had to pick one I liked least... it'd have to be the current one. Whilst there was undoubtedly cruft in every era to date (even my beloved 4th generation had its 'Bubsy's), it seems that nowadays repitition is becoming the norm amongst so many companies. So few games feel truly 'fresh' nowadays.

yeah i tend to agree but i think its the market they are going for these days that has this effect. it all seems to be fps with a brown or gray tinge to everything in the game. RL has more colour then some of these new games.
i also find that more and more people just want to play games to kill things....i dont know many people besides myself that enjoy the story of a single player game....with all that said thank goodness niintendo is still a major player in the gaming industry.

[EdFick]

it's hard to argue that games have ever been better than they are now. But like a lot of us here, and just like anything else, whether it be movies, television, or music, I will always have a fondness for the games on grew up on as a kid.

Yeah, sitting at home and having the ability to play games on my HDTV, PC, or even classic arcade games is great. But nothing will ever replace going to the local arcade as a kid and playing coin-op games like galaga, pac-man, and spy hunter. And while we owned an Atari 2600/2800, intellivison, and colecovision when I was very young, the NES was my first real experience with an in home video game system. Games like Super Mario, Metroid, and RBI baseball is the reason I got into video games in the first place.

[The 1 2 P]

The Atari era was my least favorite. Although the games were fun, those joysticks were very uncomfortable.

[16bitter]

Right now. Why? Well I am unabashedly biased against 3d. Not that I'm not without hope, really I'd love to see more games such as Maximo that I feel capture that "thing" that made 2d great. I just don't see any right now.

I feel that because designers aren't limited by technology that much anymore, we're getting more eye candy, longer games for the sake of being longer, more complicated games, etc., etc, but at the cost of gameplay. Also I feel there's a tendancy towards "everybody is a winner" gameplay where all you have to do is put in time and you can beat the game. Back in the day, it was skill. There were some games you were good at, some you weren't and that was that.

Part of this I think is due to the marketing campaign of the PSX which sold cutscenes and graphics over gameplay. A whole generation of gamers have come to expect those things from games when really they are a small part of the whole expirence.

I also feel that the amount of money flowing has hurt things. Really creative people who didn't have resources could make a game and have a shot at it being sucessful. Not so anymore. Plus, with all the money dev houses are throwing into games, I think there's a pressure to develop franchices vs. being new and creative. No one is taking the risks like they used to because the stakes are just too high.

And I hate the thing of games mimicking movies. If I wanted to watch a movie, I'd watch a damn movie. Too many games are trying to blur the line and create these "interactive storybook" kind of things. That's all well and good, but it's not a video game.

In short, I'm a dinosaur. I can accept that. I don't get mad because the industry no longer produces the kind of games I like to play. That's fine, there's plenty of old stuff for me to pick up. Sure, I'll perk my ears up when I hear someone is reviving an old series from the 2d days, but I've learned to expect nothing good from it. I was lucky enough to be at the right age to have lived through the golden age, so I'm ok with it.

You've really hit the nail on the head as to why I'm not into the newer consoles as much as those of the 16 bit era.

[Zap!]

I'd add an option fot the "Pong Era", and I'd call the NES era mid to late 80's, rather than just late 80's. What about the Crash Era? 1984 and 1985 were tough, but still produced some true classics.

[TheGam3r]

PS1/Saturn/N64 Era Not That Great but The Game Boy Around this Era Was Superbe.

[Astrocade]

Undoubtedly the PlayStation/Saturn era left me cold. I left the world of video games at that time, and did not return until the Dreamcast was on its deathbed.

I think a number of things about that era got me away from gaming. For one, I was getting older and had to buy my own consoles. I didn't have the money for a PlayStation, and when I saw the types of games that were on there I didn't want to buy one. The last real system I bought was the Genesis/Sega CD combo, and I could already see the shift away from 2D gaming into the awkward polygonal mess that the PS One stood for. I was also in Junior High and working full time, so I didn't have any time for games much, really. On the weekends I was hanging out with my friends, who were more interested in getting high and scoring with chicks than they were video games. Unlike now, back then it was embarrassing to admit that you were still into video games past the age of 12; now it's expected and accepted. Hell, most girls that age now play video games as much as teen boys do.

But back to the hardware; the PS One didn't impress me, nor did the Saturn. Little did I know that over in Japan they were getting the games I wanted to play here- if I had stuff like Radiant Silvergun and all the other 2D overhead shooters that Japan got- I'd maybe think a bit more kindly of the era. The N64 came out and I payed no attention to it. Then the Dreamcast came out, and then the PS2. I still didn't care.

Lo and behold my friend leaves his Dreamcast with me and I played a few games- Crazy Taxi, the fishing game with the reel, Ready to Rumble Boxing, etc. "Hey", I thought, "these games are fun! I've been missing out on a lot!" I later realized I hadn't missed much, if anything in my absence. Within a few days Sega announced the end of the Dreamcast, but I was hooked. I still think it was the best console in the era between the Super NES and the X Box. As a matter of fact, the PS3 is the first Playstation console that I've been tempted to buy before it's at least five years old!

There are a few solid titles that have stood the test of time, but overall there are very few PSOne era games that appeal to me.

[k8track]

Easy: this era, right now, the "seventh generation" consoles. Obviously, this was not an option on the poll; this thread was started over six years ago.

There's absolutely nothing about today's scene that even remotely interests me, not even a little. I do like the previous generation quite a bit: there are some games I really dig for the PS2, I love the GameCube, I'm crazy about the GBA-SP, and I still use my modded Xbox nearly every day (and even once in a while for actual Xbox games). But today? Zip. I've hit a wall, and I'm OK with that. I already have so much to enjoy, I'll be happy for the rest of my life.

[Xander]

I don't like this generation either. There doesn't seem to be enough good game to warrant the purchase of any of the 3 consoles. And a portable device, the Nintendo DS, get a lot of very good releases but I hate portable stuff.

Worst era ever.

[muchomojo]

I picked early 00's. I still have never played an Xbox, my PS2 is just starting to get used quite a bit, and I'm contemplating getting a Gamecube mostly for a Gameboy player. Maybe my oppinion will change, who knows.

[sidnotcrazy]

Give me cartridges, or give me death!

I fully agree! So far I only have the Nintendo DS to hold the flag and carry the weight of cartridge format. I love carts, and when I die I want to burried in a casket made out of my collection of cartridges. They don't call me crazy for nothing. Well, actually I just call myself crazy...

[Game Freak]

I accidentally voted for Atari era, but i think that the 32/64 bit era was worst. I dont have many great games from the generation (of approximately 80, granted the Game Boy Color as 32/64 bit era), I'd say the only notable titles i have are

Ape Escape
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Crash Team Racing, Banjo Kazooie
Medal of Honor: Underground
Harry Potter games on the GBC
the Zelda series
Mario 64
Lego Island 2
M&Ms Shell Shocked
Mario Golf
Ms. Pac Man's Maze Madness
the Pokemon series (nix Hey You Pikachu)
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Star Fox 64
and Toy Story 2 are good titles

Also, probably half or more of the above games give me motion sickness (most notable Banjo Kazooie and Spyro.) Few of the last gen games gave me motion sickness. The only one i can think of right now is Kingdom Hearts. In addition, the 8 bit and 16 bit eras had an insane amount of awesome first party titles. In the 32/64 bit era? not so much. Sure we had zelda, mario, ape escape, and spyro. But we lacked titles such as Metroid, more than one Mario platformer, Punch Out, and all the great games from the "Nintendo Series" back in the NES era, such as Balloon Fight, Duck Hunt, Baseball, and Rad Racer. And this is also the point where the donkey kong franchise started to suck. I mean, comon, diddy kong racing? Donkey 64 was a major letdown IMO, and the music was nowhere near as good as that of the Donkey Kong Country games.

[psychopat]

Voted for atari era.... it's the only era I wasn't born so I don't have this nostalgia you got and i found the games too simple... The Nes era is the best to me... so many games and so many GOOD games!