Most Exciting 5-Years of Gaming

[fairyland]

1988 to 1992. Before that I was into PC gaming which was rather annoying with shovelware crap games and their incredibly slow loading times. NES was instant gaming and so much better all around. So I ended with with dozens and dozens of great games to play on the system for most of these years. Then towards the end I was looking forward to getting the SNES and Super Mario World. The SNES was good, but I was really into the NES much more. Gaming systems after that was always hit or miss for me, never quite like the golden NES era which is what I enjoyed the most.

[bigbacon]

i have to say like 93/94 - 2000 ( i know this is more than 5 years)

but PC gaming exploded with games like doom, duke 3d, quake (1, 2 and 3).

Online gaming took off with Kali, TEN, etc.

3d acceleration took off and we got awesome games like GL Quake and what not.

System Shock 2 came out...

I fell out with consoles during this time. The games just couldn't top what the PC was offering, not by a long shot. Mods, level editors and everything else. I remember people my freshman year of college all on consoles and my PC was still blowing them away.

[Tanooki]

It's too hard to really nail down. As a kid you get those rosy memories of your first system and all it did for you, then as a teen you get that next one and while not a child you can more appreciate that one and afford to get a few more things. I'm stuck in a valley on that one I suppose. Perhaps 1990-1994? 1990 brought some of the NES's best offerings and yet through 1994 much of what is consider the most AAA of greatness hit the SNES as well with some Squaresoft level outliers and Nintendo too. I was in high school for the greater life of the SNES and really could dig into that stuff solidly around classes and stuff yet going back towards 1990s which was junior high SMB3 dropped and that was insane with the promos, movies, happy meal toys and the rest and I played that thing to death for a very long time.

[The Adventurer]

Honestly? Right now. The last five years have been just nuts in terms of the game industry. Both in development, distribution, and releases. We are living in interesting time.

[Greg2600]

1987-1992. I personally went from playing the 2600 to the NES to the Genesis to SNES, etc. On the hand held front, went from garbage Tiger LCD's to the Game Boy.

[Edmond Dantes]

Honestly? Right now. The last five years have been just nuts in terms of the game industry. Both in development, distribution, and releases. We are living in interesting time.

Speaking as someone who hasn't owned any modern gaming hardware past the PS2 and Gamecube (and PSP, I forget if its afterr those two or not)... I'm tempted to agree. Even for someone in my boat who only ever plays vintage or low-tech, things like repro carts have made that a promising new world too.

That said, for me personally I'd have to say from 1989 to 1994. It just seems like the times in my life that really inspired me were around there, and its a set of years I keep going back to. Past 1994 I drifted away from gaming and into other things, by 2001 I almost gave up gaming entirely but didn't because of discovering flea markets and pawn shops, and... yeah.

Honestly I feel like I cheated this question because like, I technically named three different five-year periods (1989-1994, 1999-2003, and today)

[WulfeLuer]

Hmm. I have to say '96-'00. While I can't claim that was when the games and consoles I loved were stating to be released, I can say that was when my obsession for something other than Mario, Sonic, or Link blossomed. Final Fantasy VI (which I've already rambled on about at length) came into my life, and then things were never the same. Secret of Mana. Robotrek. Super Mario RPG. Chrono Trigger came into my life right at the beginning of high school. Then I went a buddy's house for a nerdy slumber party and was introduced to Final Fantasy VII. RPGs were suddenly cool, and the bigger market meant more stuff was localized. I devoured pretty much anything published by Square, plus a fair bit of other offerings to be had. The last game I know I was excited about getting released was Breath of Fire IV. There would be other games later on that I would happily pre-order (a standout being Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis) but I wouldn't get nearly so hyped about a game for a very long time. This was also when the Pokémon insanity started, which I partook a bit for a while.

Looking back, this was also when games and/or series I would come to enjoy later got their start. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Wild ARMs, Star Ocean, Tales (have yet to play a Tales game of the period, though), a few others.