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[RoboFu]

Mine is easily the PSX,Saturn,N64 era. Every generation up until the ps2 generation felt like listening to the Beatles for the first time in the early 60s. Everything was new and exciting! Lots of risk taking due to the small budgets and every new gen brought something new that could not be done in the gen before it.

- the nes gen brought about large scrolling worlds the Atari couldn't.

- the SNES/Genesis gen brought about more complex gameplay nes just couldn't do. For example the complexity of street fighter couldn't be done on the nes.

- the PSX/Saturn/N64 was complete paradigm shift to 3D gameplay. To me it actually had more in common with the NES era as everything was new and new gameplay was being figured out. also as a bonus it's the first time driving games could really be done in a truly fun way.



It seems like after that gen everything just started to fall into a corporate template rut just like movies did before it. Everything these days could have been done last gen or gen before it (and sometimes were *cough* remaster craze). There can be great fun games today, but nothing mind blowing... nothing that hasn't been done a many times before.


Just compare these generation jumps and what they represent to any launch games of the last 4 generations yourselves.

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[FoxMcChief]

Sega Dreamcast. The graphics were amazing, the controller with a fucking VMU in it. I wish I could go back in time and appreciate that console even more. It introduced me to online multiplayer and allowed my brother and I to play Phantasy Star Online together, while I was in California, and he was in Colorado.

 

[rofif]

Late 90s pc gaming. invention of 3dfx, Unreal.

Then 360/ps3 gen. Amazing ton of new IPs. tons of games. great new games

 

[PanzerCute]

Sega Dreamcast

Yep

 

[Three]

The only times something felt magical was probably when I first played Mario 64 at home after SNES and Astrobot Rescue Mission on PSVR. Never had that magic feeling with gens other than these two.

 

[RoboFu]

Late 90s pc gaming. invention of 3dfx, Unreal.

Then 360/ps3 gen. Amazing ton of new IPs. tons of games. great new games

ohh late 90s PC was also a lot of fun but more for the tech than the games. I remember playing MGS on a Voodoo 3 using glide api.

 

[Punished Miku]

I dont know how to define magical.

Nothing tops the jump from SNES to Mario 64 / Ocarina / Wave Race.

 

[clarky]

All of them. As a 50 year old i can safely say video games are class, generations do not define us.

 

[Lupin3]

PS1. The original PlayStation along with Amiga 500/1200 was truly amazing. But I guess anything is great when you're younger.

 

[ReBurn]

The jaw drop for me was the shift to HD. I bought a 360 to play DOA4 before I had an HD tv. When I hooked it up to the LCD and booted into clean 720p I was amazed at the difference from SD the day before. Then the experience of the first Uncharted game was equally amazing.

That's also the generation that games stopped evolving. The last magical generation is also the generation where the magic died.

 

[K' Dash]

SNES, the creativity, ambition, experimentation... it was never the same after that.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I'm not sure if I qualify as old, but whatever - I'm probably close enough.

For me, the last generation that felt magical was Gen 6 (DC, PS2, GC, Xbox), because it was a combination of high quality, frequent innovation, and speedy release schedules. Hardware during this era was finally advanced enough to do 3D gaming properly, and developers absolutely delivered on that promise from the start of the gen. Owing to that, you also had games regularly trying new ideas, and AAA devs were still willing to throw crazy shit at the wall to see what would stick. I'd argue it's the last generation where that's been the case, at least to that extent. Development budgets were getting higher, but they weren't so high that complete risk aversion had set in. Maybe the craziest thing about that generation when you look back at it is how rapidly new games came out and still managed to raise the bar higher. You could have yearly good installments of a B-tier franchise back then, and AAA studios didn't take 5 years to pump out a game. That added up to a huge quantity of good games to play. So many that I'm still regularly going back and finding new stuff from that era that I want to check out today.

By Gen 7, the magic was gone. The HD era had consoles that weren't up to the task, so everything ran like shit and lacked polish, and game development took forever. And Japanese studios had no idea how to cope with the modern era, so you basically had dumbed down PC ports and clumsy open-world games for like 7 years and were expected to be happy with it. I do think things have gotten a lot better since then, and game quality is very high right now, but the innovation and risk taking just isn't there like it was back in 'the day'.

 

[nemiroff]

Nostalgia.. Man.. Definitely my time with the Amiga 500 back in the day.

 

[Kdad]

56, playing since Magnavox

2 eras

C64 - 8 bit!
PS3 - first online, great story driven games, I like the brown of the early days and the colourful end to this gen. Plus, was in a position monetarily to buy whatever games I wanted for the first time. So many games still to go back to...I only finely parked the machine about 6 months ago but feel it calling me back.

 

[Astral Dog]

the Switch

 

[UnravelKatharsis]

Definitely 5th generation. PS1 Saturn, N64. Games like Gran Turismo, Resident evil, Mario64 and the final fantasies blew me away like nothing that came after it. I've been impressed with gens since then, but magic? 5th Gen brought the magic.

 

[Rockman33]

Original Xbox. Playing console online for the first time was magical.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

All of them.

Astrobot Rescue Mission VR is the most magical thing I have experienced since Mario 64, but in each generation new games make me re-discover this hobby.

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

Sega Saturn easily (Only just beating the Dreamcast by the smallest of margins, if they had scud race ported it may actually have beaten it)

Arcade perfect ports of sega games (gameplay wise if not graphically) Having virtua fighter 2, fighting vipers, sega rally, virtual on (still have the twin sticks boxed I imported) Last bronx et at home was amazing

Actual arcade perfect Capcom games along with the 4 meg cart

Sonic team at the top of there game ip wise (nights and burning rangers), the 3D pad thumb stick was amazing and I was suprised sega didn’t use it on the Dreamcast pad. Imagine the sonic game they could have made using the 3D world section on sonic jam, it would have been amazing!

Team andromeda banging out panzer dragoon games.

Console was great with its movie card which at the time was like looking into the future

Excellent ports of duke nukem and quake.

Only Mario 64 during that era made me jealous, and maybe mgs.

 

[Drell]

Ps2/gc/xbox... For me it was to 3D what 16 bits were to 2D: a big step up technically allowing a lot more creativity. Games were not as expensive to produce so studios dared to try things.

 

[Kacho]

Nothing will ever top the N64. What a tremendous jump. Wave Race, Pilot Wings and Mario 64 all blew me away.

 

[bitbydeath]

PS5, gaming just keeps getting better!

 

[Trogdor1123]

SNES or ps1/n64. I’m leaning on the ps1/n64 gen.

The ps3 though with online kind of amazed me too

 

[MiguelItUp]

Definitely 99 - 00 for me. Dreamcast launch, PS2 launch, and just PC gaming. Wild experiences through and through during that time.

Runner-up is definitely 95 - 96 for PS1 and N64. Another wild time to see games look the way they did for the first time at home. I remember being absolutely blown away by cinematics and FMVs.

 

[Calverz]

Very difficult to say. Seeing Mario 64 for the first time was jaw dropping and later playing goldeneye/perfect dark multiplayer was amazing. Online play on Dreamcast with quake 3 arena and PSO. Then probably 360 era.

 

[Zarak]

I loved the 360/PS3 generation so many amazing new experiences.

 

[violence]

N64/PS1/95~00 PC. Hard to best that. It was a special time for me.

 

[MagnesD3]

360, PS3, Wii era. That was the last time everyone was really trying to push things forward still. Every generation since has been way more safe and stagnant in general.

 

[KimDongHwan]

I would say PS2 but there were also some big moments on PS3, basically playing Uncharted 2 for the first time - it felt like we were unblocking a new barrier in gaming but then it became weird.

Also had some hints of magical moments with PSVR as mentioned by others, so I have huge hopes for VR and waiting to jump ship on whatever new VR Valve hopefully is working on.

 

[willothedog]

Amiga. Playing games like Pinaball Fantasies, SWIV, supercars...the list goes on. Going to the local weekly 'Amiga meet' in a rented pub room and going Xcopy crazy.

 

[Crayon]

It was ps1/saturn/n64. I was dying for 3d games since I was a little kid. When I was like 7 I had an idea for a game "where you see what the guy sees". Nes and snes were great of course. I was a kid so everything was exciting. But finally I started to get some 3d games on the family computer. The first was tempest, which I had never come across in an arcade. I was sick of side scrollers and playing magic carpet and doom on there. Then ps1 came out and it was on. I would take those shaky graphics and clunky controls over any 2d platformer.

 

[Garnox]

Man, hard question. I'm 37, so I'll go with...N64/PS1 era.

OoT, Smash Bros, MK64, Golden Eye sleeping over at friends houses, ordering pizza, staying up late playing these games.

FF7, 8, 9 were during my adolescent formative years. Left an impression and I look back fondly on this era of gaming. Life was simpler before the angst of high school.

 

[F31 Leopard]

PSWii60 generation. A lot of fond memories from queuing at midnight releases, getting my 1st HDTV, playing Wii Sports, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, COD4, SF4 at friend parties, family gatherings or online. A lot of great new IP's from Xenoblade, Demon's Souls, Gears of War, Dead Rising to name a few as I could go on. RROD and YLOD were bad but it's something I laugh about today when reminiscing with friends and Wiimotes flying into TV screens or people. I'm not computer savvy but I actually fixed my YLOD PS3 watching YouTube and felt a sense of achievement (pun intended) because I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up fixing multiple friend's PS3 in the process.

 

[MALpractice311]

Almost 41 year old gamer here. First console was the NES. For me, it's the last generation because of Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, and Sekiro. Nothing else has come close in a long time.

 

[Kings Field]

I would have to say the last gen like someone said. The output from FROM was fantastic and that carried the gen for me and the beginning of this gen.

My favorite gen will forever be the 360/ps3 era.

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

Amiga. Playing games like Pinaball Fantasies, SWIV, supercars...the list goes on. Going to the local weekly 'Amiga meet' in a rented pub room and going Xcopy crazy.

I’ve been playing my Amiga 500 mini, rediscovered vroom after a good 30 years or so. It still plays great! Can’t wait to get Into some cannon fodder and shuffle puck cafe!

 

[Danknugz]

for me it's NES / master system (i played some atari but was super young) all the way up through ps2 and xbox360, I still love gaming but it's become too popularized and corny with streamers and all the glitz and glam, just my opinion, but that's why it's lost its edge for me, i see it more as a toy for kids now.

 

[willothedog]

I’ve been playing my Amiga 500 mini, rediscovered vroom after a good 30 years or so. It still plays great! Can’t wait to get Into some cannon fodder and shuffle puck cafe!

 

[wondermega]

Last time I was honestly super excited about games, probably leading up to & release of the SNES. The excitement was palpable. A bit of the enthusiasm was lowered since I'd already been enjoying Genesis for years, but it was impressive to see what the Nintendo hardware was bringing to the table for 16-bit. I loved the console (who didn't?) but as we got further away from 8-bit, I realized that the current trends were not sweeping me away like they used to. Everything LOOKED so much better, but I didn't feel that a lot of the gameplay was evolving as drastically as it had in the previous generation. 8-bit, we saw the birth of much larger adventures (Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid, etc).

3D was exciting but N64 and PSone both looked pretty gross to me at the time (neat, but gross). I couldn't get my head around the extreme low-poly look that so many games sported, and the 3D gameplay never gelled with me the same way that 3D did.

Only in the past few years with the advent of VR gaming have I felt that surge of excitement. There's plenty of things I haven't played, but games like Rush of Blood, Astrobot, Fairpoint, and Superhot all felt like "a completely fresh and exciting gaming experience" that got my enthusiasm back into the game.

 

[RoboFu]

Man, hard question. I'm 37, so I'll go with...N64/PS1 era.

OoT, Smash Bros, MK64, Golden Eye sleeping over at friends houses, ordering pizza, staying up late playing these games.

FF7, 8, 9 were during my adolescent formative years. Left an impression and I look back fondly on this era of gaming. Life was simpler before the angst of high school.

basically they just keep remaking all the best games of that era over and over now. Sometimes literally.

 

[Comfortgel]

50's here.

The last time gaming felt "magical" to me was when I got my PC Engine from a friend who's dad traveled to Japan a LOT. My friends and I were all playing on NES's and a few on Master Systems, so when that little wonder box from Japan showed up, it was a whole new world. Saving allowance and getting 2-3 games a couple times a year, and always thinking about what was out there after looking through issues of Famitsu or PC Engine Fan even though I couldn't read the moon runes.

My little brother eventually got a Genesis, and it was cool, but it wasn't the same. Then the next big leap was when we got a PS1, but to be perfectly honest, even games now just feel like prettier versions of what we played in 1996.

It was a great time, lightning in a bottle. I still get glimpses of it when I fire up the old girl, or her younger sister the mini.

Bittersweet memories.

 

[LordOfChaos]

I was excited for the 360 (jesus christ, 19 years ago ) and was interested by the Cell processor in the PS3, something so interesting to this day people are replying to my old comments about it lol. It faded a lot by the 8th gen, and then by the 9th it was just a thing I was getting because I was financially able.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

n64/ps1/saturn

ps2/gamecube era had some magic for sure, but rot was also setting in.

ps3 e3 reveal was the last time i was super excited... then the real ps3 came out. what a dud in comparison.
gta4 revived some of the magic--wasnt expecting it to be as fun as it was.
then dark souls 1 after that. loved it.
been a bit ho-hum thereafter.

 

[sachos]

6th Gen was racing game peak imo. So much variety and split screen heaven.

 

[Thanati]

The 16-bit era (Amiga person here) but I also loved the original Xbox. Some truly wonderful games.

 

[Thanati]

A six man team making a truly iconic game.

Amazing times

 

[HL3.exe]

I had two, one in the 90's with Doom all the way up to Half-Life, than stoppen a bit. And then 00's when physics and dynamic lighting/shadows because actual gameplay systems and mechanics. And simulation within games became more sophisticated and meaningful.

All the way up to the late 00's where it trailed off. With games after that losing the ability to merge interesting new tech into reactive gameplay mechanics. Now it's just shiny expensive visuals with somehow still PS360 feeling mechanics.

 

[gothmog]

VR is pretty magical so for me the magic continues. I can't wait to see where this all goes in the next 10 years.

 

[Generic]

PS3/X360/Wii era still had an identity. Nowadays pretty much every game is multiplatform. Also digital stores are filled with shovelware.

 

[WitchHunter]

There is hope for new generation things. Play Plague Tale: Requiem. Wow, that game is an emotional roller coaster. Some really good writing, visuals and animations. Fucks every AAA game in the ass big time, pig time.