Poll: What's your favorite console generation?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Title says it all. What's your favorite videogame console generation? Quick, while we can still neatly fit every option in 8 slots.
It can be the generation you deem as the most historically significant, the one that changed the gaming landscape the most, or simply your own personal favorite, because it introduced that one console you love or some other reason. Criteria is up to you.

Mine is Gen 6. It felt like a time when you were getting the best of every world: by this point Gen 5's polygonal 3D graphics had been perfected just short of HD brilliance, consoles had eased off the realistic pretense of live-action FMVs while embracing CGI, creative animation and artistic choices were used to mask the processors' shortcomings, dialogues and cutscenes cut down on the awkwardness, open worlds and sandboxes were refined by GTA standards, there was a rich diversity of genres to go around and third party studios were developing more cross-platform games than ever. And yes, some of my favorite videogames ever came up on Gen 6.

Gen 4 comes second, for similar reasons: basically perfecting all the good ideas from previous generations while ditching most of the useless ones.

Okay, what's yours?

 

[duwenbasden]

Translation:
Gen 1: pong machines
Gen 2: 2600
Gen 3: Master/NES
Gen 4: Megadrive/SNES
Gen 5: N64/PS1/Saturn
Gen 6: PS2/GC/XBox
Gen 7: PS3/Wii/360
Gen 8: PS4/WiiU/Bone

To me, I had the most fun between Gen 4 and 6. Goldeneye, Bomberman, and Super Mario Kart basically destroyed all my free time.

 

[God'sFist]

I'm right there with you, gen 6 was the consoles I grew up with I even still have a ps2 and original Xbox. All the games to me looked just fine and all the experiences felt complete the games could be played without DLC which is awesome in my opinion and now that its been a few years since then the games for them are dirt cheap but are still fun. Although it is hard to find classics like shadow of the colossus or the old gundam games.

My first games I ever played where Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon, Tekken 4, and Tenchu: Wrath of heaven. So many good memories with those games. Wish I still had Gundam though because now I don't think I'll ever find it again unless I purchase it online for an obscene amount.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I'd say it's a tie between Gen 4 and Gen 5.

Gen 4 because of how well so many games from that generation hold up today. Most SNES games still at least look passable, and some are still breathtaking. Maybe not in a modern context, but they're still easy on the eyes. Plenty of games from that era feel timeless; I'm sure I could go back to Mega Man X five to ten years in the future and still enjoy the hell out of it like I did when I was 8, like I did when I was 16, and so on.

Gen 5 because it was a sort of new generation for JRPGs in general. A genre I'm pretty biased towards. Though the games were generally ugly as sin, especially by today's standards. But I typically don't play or not play solely on graphical fidelity or quality, so not that big of a deal.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

The consoles that I've spent the most time with, had the most fun playing with friends, and in my opinion have the best overall game libraries are from Gen 6. The PS 2 is my favorite console, and I completely understand folks loving both the X-Box and the Gamecube.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Translation:
Gen 1: *vision
Gen 2: 2600
Gen 3: NES
Gen 4: Megadrive/SNES
Gen 5: N64/PS1/Dreamcast
Gen 6: PS2/GC/XBox
Gen 7: PS3/Wii/360
Gen 8: PS4/WiiU/Bone

Some corrections I'd like to make.

1) The *vision systems (Intellivision, Super Vision 8000, ColecoVision) came out during the 2nd generation. 1st generation was for the Magnavox Odyssey and a bunch of clones, all of which played Pong.

2) I'd edit in Sega's Master System into the 3rd generation. While it sold nowhere near as well as the NES, it set up the companies' legendary rivalry.

3) The Dreamcast belongs in the 6th generation. Sega's 5th generation entry was the Sega Saturn.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Gen 6 I think? (PS2/GC/XBox). In saying so that was the era that I did owned a console of my own (Gamecube) since the SNES belong to my bro (I missed out the N64 and PS1 era since I wasn't old enough to buy one and my bro kind of went to pc gaming).

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Gen 6, otherwise known as the gen in which the PS2 ruled the world and composes most of my favorite games, many of which I still play to this day. Aside from that though, the XBox at least had Halo, the GameCube had Windwaker and you could drop it from a three story building and the thing would miraculously still work.

If not gen 6 than gen 4 and gen 5 on nostalgia alone. These were the only gens where members of my own family (none of whom play video games regularly) would play games with me.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I'd have to say Gen 5. While I've always been a primarily PC gamer, that timeframe is what really got me into video games. Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Shadow Man, H.E.D.Z., Powerslide (my first game ever), Monster. Inc Scare Island, Spyro 1 & 2, Croc 1 & 2. Just, so many good games. Probably a few I'm missing, but hey.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I am resolute that the 4th and 6th generations were the best.

Those console generations hit a sweet-spot between simplicity and complexity; between "great-looking" and "reasonable graphics budget."

I'm STILL going back and playing games for those consoles and enjoying them.

 

[Mezahmay]

Oh wow. Hmm...overall, probably gen 6 with gen 5 as a close second. That's when I really grew up with gaming and have a difficult time separating them.

 

[Elfgore]

Gen 6, got me really into gaming. PS2 and Xbox where my life back in the day. Halo 2, Godzilla: Save the Earth, War of the Monsters, Destroy All Humans, and multiple other titles made me enjoy the ever living hell out of those systems. Kinda regret trading them in sometimes.

 

[rgrekejin]

Like most everyone else here, I'm probably gonna go with Gen 6. Xbox and PS2 were good systems, but I'm on record as believing that the Gamecube was the greatest console ever made. It had everything, man. The controller is still the best I've ever used. It was a cute, quirky-looking mahcine (and that thing it did when you held down the Z button at the loading screen was great). It was the generation when 3D graphics started looking respectable. And it had both solid 3rd party support AND the whole stable of original Nintendo titles! No need to choose between them like there is these days!

It's not a coincidence that of my top ten games of all time, about half of them come from this generation.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I'm going to have to give it to Gen 4. The Mega Drive is the first console I owned and one of only two generations I experienced 'during the moment', back during its official lifespans when all games for it were still new and exciting and it still had everything going for it, so it will forever hold a place in my heart. For the same reasons Gen 7's PS3 will always remain a little special to me. During the time of every other Gen I was either a PC gamer, too young or not born yet. There are many things I like about Gen 3,5 or 6 and I'm glad I nabbed as much of it as I could, but I've got my hands on it after the fact, so I don't have the same emotional fondness for them that I do the Mega Drive and PS3.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

It's hard to say really...I'm still stuck in gen 7 considering the number of PS3 games I've been grabbing up and playing. I have been enjoying the Wii U too but I have a lot of nostalgic attachment to the SNES...and there are a ton of gen 6 games that I really, really enjoyed too...it's really difficult to pick just one really. I hate how modern games (gen 7 and gen 8) are seemingly sold piece by piece. I also dislike how older games are artificially lengthened by absurd difficulty spikes. I guess I could roll a dice to chose between gens 3, 4, 6 and, 7.

 

[Hero of Lime]

4, 5,6 are probably my favorites for sure. 7 was also a great generation, but I feel like there were less games that hit the pillar of excellence for me personally. All that being said, I can find plenty of enjoyment from just about every console generation. Even though people are down on this current gen, it's still given me several great games.

 

[Silvanus]

Gen 5 holds most of my fondest memories, so I'll go for that. It brought us 3D gaming, people!

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Gen 5 simple because the N64 remains, to me, the console where videogames hit a high that we've never really come close to again.

 

[Prince of Ales]

Definitely Gen 4. In my stupid fantasies where I dream of being an indie developer, I dream of making games that play like SNES games. But maybe a bit prettier. Cuz, y'know.

 

[FoolKiller]

6 then 4 then 5.

I loved the addition of online without all the shenanigans that were added when gen 7 came around. And I'm not a big player of online. I prefer a lot of solo time but to me the golden age is when gaming was in had better controls, in 3 dimensions and there was both the options of online or couch coop without either killing off the other.