The Video Game Critic

Maybe the best eras break down into the different genres....For instance, sports games were at their peak in the 16 bit era, RPGs (though I never played any) in the 32bit era, and FPS in the current gen.

Probably more due to the fact that the pump out 3x as many games that are popular at the time

[QUOTE=Atarifever][QUOTE=McTom]
The past seems always better you know, somehow... nostalgia and stuff. But overall, I think I liked the Genesis/Super Nintendo-era the best.[/QUOTE]
Don't worry, that isn't nostalgia; the fact that that era was the best is pure truth.
[/QUOTE]

Hardly.  Personally, I fluctuate on this a lot precisely because I have so many levels of nostalgia to reference.  I remember playing Odyssey with my dad when I was hardly able to make any sense of the games.  Those are times to really remember.  Yet I also remember the frenzy behind home pong games, and later on in the late '70s/early '80s, how Atari and Intellivision stole my world.  I was a young nerd at that time, a time when being a nerd was simultaneously worshipped and hated.

And I can never forget when I got my first taste of 3D gaming at the hands of the Nintendo 64 and Playstation.  Or when games took on the properties of movies with the Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube and XBOX.

Still, my favorite era has to be the NES era.  And because that time was in in the '80s mainly, it is tempting to think it might be due to nostalgia, but no -- I can honestly say that the NES era was the best without having to attach ANY sort of nostalgia to it.  It was the first game system that told me, point blank, that console gaming did not have to be just a scaled-down repeat of what I was already playing in the arcades.  For the first time, my standard was no longer "How does this game compare to the arcade version?", but "How great is this unique game for this unique platform?"   True, some Atari games like "E.T.", "Adventure", and "Space Shuttle", and some Intellivision games like those AD&D carts hinted to me what was coming, but it was NES games like "The Legend of Zelda" and "Metroid" that did much more than hint.  These were games that were MADE to be played at home, on consoles.  They were not attempts to fool me into thinking I was playing an arcade game without quarters as they were not static rehashes of the same basic games in different packages.

Of course, this era now... this latest one... is also a candidate.  Oddly enough, now that my life is so busy with work, family, and other things, I am simply unable to appreciate a lot of games that go to great depths to be interactive movies.  It is precisely the kind of arcade formula I spent years escaping as a "hardcore" gamer that I find myself longing for now.  It's odd that it is in fact the same company, i.e. Nintendo, that is attempting to bring quick and satisfactory experiences to me -- the very company that showed me the other side so many years ago.

The best time for home video games was 1976-1982.  The concept of playing games on your TV was amazing.  I remember each year getting the Sears Wishbook in November and circling the games I wanted Santa to buy from Sears and put under my tree.  Does any remember being blown away playing Adventure?  How about all the hours playing Intellivision football and baseball?  Then came Activision and Pitfall, wow !!!  I'm not a fan of any video game that is not cartridge.