Poll: Which console generation had the best games?

[Fox12]

5, 6, and 7 for sure. Square Soft carried 5 hard, with xenogears, parasite eve, and of course, FF7. I feel like the games that would later define gaming were first created during that generation as well. Silent Hill was introduced, for instance. Those ideas were then perfected during generation six, with Silent Hill 2, persona 3/4, and others.

That said, I still voted for seven. All the Souls games, Mass Effect, The Last of Us... And many more. Gaming really hit the mainstream that generation.

 

[chadachada123]

Close between 4 and 6. The Gamecube has most of my favorite games of all time (RE4, WW, Paper Mario TTYD), but the SNES has my all-time favorite game, Yoshi's Island, and was a very solid console.

 

[Nazulu]

It's Gen 4, 5 & 6 I'd choose, after that I don't give a flying fuck, but I'm gonna pick Gen 6 because that is where many heavy hitters came in, and I'm including computer games too.

Super Smash Brothers Melee being one of the most addictive fighters, Metroid Prime added some very unique elements, Snake Eater is something else, Silent Hill 2 had you eating out of it's hand, and Half-Life 2 felt bigger than everything. Many more I could gush about then too.

 

[Jingle Fett]

I went with G5 but G6 came close. G5 was the pioneering generation for 3d games and while the graphics haven't aged well (for some games), in many cases the gameplay itself still holds up. There's a reason we're still talking about games like Majora's Mask and Banjo-Kazooie nearly 20 years later...

The way I see it, G5 was the 3d game development equivalent of Star Wars: A New Hope, while G6 was the equivalent of Empire Strikes Back. On a technical level G6 was more advanced, perfected and refined stuff, and was an overall improvement and maybe even more enjoyable...but G5 gets props for being the first and being the bigger achievement.

 

[Glaice]

4 through 6 as well.

 

[FPLOON]

G4, baby! That gen was so good, it has it own fucking satellite channel! #RIPInPieces

Then again, I'm always feeling so fine like G6... (Shit, this is a tougher choice than I thought...)

 

[fenrizz]

Every generation after (and including) Generation 3.

My personal favorite woyuld be generation 5 and 6 though, since it's what I grew up with.

 

[Politrukk]

G5 or G7

I highly disagree with the playstation 2's victory parade and that same era takes the original XBOX into account which to me arguably is also shit.

G5 kickstarted gaming as we know it today in terms of retaining the depth but changing to 2.5/3 D games were improving graphically radically and were still retaining their story heavy focus oftentimes.

G6 to me is the first jump into the shallows.

G7 Then kickstarts the gaming frenzy and makes gaming a part of everyday life around the world in a way it hasn't ever done before.

First came a couple of revolutionairy IP's and the revolution in graphical design, then we got the gameplay enhancements, came to a halt and when we were finally back in story heavy content games and the moment a lot of the critics were expecting the real creativity to shine... we suddenly got G8 which nobody really wanted and not a lot of people care about even today.


G6 to me was a mediocre inbetween taking the good from 5 and setting up the good for 6

 

[Unspoken_Request]

I have to go with G4

Many of G5 and (some of) G6's early 3D visuals (not graphics!) and game mechanics have aged badly.

By comparison, while pixelated, Super Mario World and Link to the Past remain visually appealing to me and are still considered pinnacles of game mechanics in their respective genres.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Tossup between G4 and 5. Playstation 1 and SNES had the best lineups of any console, plenty of which I find more enjoyable than any modern game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

G5 or G7

I highly disagree with the playstation 2's victory parade and that same era takes the original XBOX into account which to me arguably is also shit.

G6 I think always wins because, having polished all things graphical, we start getting the better stories gaming has to offer.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Gen 6 hands down.
With the added bonus of the graphics being what I'd consider finally hitting "good".
It doesn't hurt that my PS2 was the first thing I ever purchased with my own money. Not sure how I made $300 as a kid, but I made it. And it was all worth it.

As for the games...
Rayman, Jak and Daxter, Midnight Club, Halo CE, Brute Force, Star wars Battlefront, GTA 3, Ratchet and Clank.
The list goes on.


Though... it might have been permanently placed in the top spot if it included the nintendo 64 as well.
Nothing short of 100% immersion VR with games that pulled through on Peter Molyneux's promises would ever top it.

 

[beyondbrainmatter]

Either generation 4 or 6. Why? Because the SNES and the PS2 have the best libraries.

 

[Wakey87]

Gen 5.
3 and 4 had good games but I guess my console gaming peaked with the PS1 then slowly waned in favor of PC. Suprisingly I had no interest in consoles during the 6th gen despite having a PS2 and I didn't get a PS3 till late into its life cycle. Got a PS4 now tho so lets see if they can win me back.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I, I can't choose!

4 or 6....

Squaresoft/Enix or ATLUS/NIS...

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Gen 8! Ok, just kidding.

It's a very close call between Gen 4 and 6, I don't want to be lookin' through the old nostalgia glasses from my happiest gaming days (Sega Megadrive) but I think Gen 6 was the best era for games in general. Gaming in those days was so blissful too...expansion packs, unlockable characters via cheat codes, GameFaqs, no greedy bullshit by companies, although there was DRM it was usually easy to sidestep and conserve the quality of your disc and worries about losing it.

Sigh, your poll has brought a tear to my eye.

Edit: Gen6 because of course PS2 as well, and it's fantastic, vast library of games that really carved out their genre (not invented tho). Racing sims (Gran Turismo), survival horror (RE, Silent Hill), 3rd person action (God of War, Devil May Cry), and even stealth. Plenty more to list.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Considering Gen 6 games are being remastered and, re-remastered even now, I would say that those are the most popular games but I have a softer spot for gen 4. It's an incredibly difficult decision though since there were a TON of games from gen-7 that I loved as well but I ended up going with Gen 6 because;

Crazy Taxi
Final Fantasy X
Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Metroid Prime
Otogi: Myth of Demons
Pokemon Leaf Green
Power Stone
Time Splitters: Future Perfect
Whacked!
Wind Waker
XIII (look it up)

There are more but those were the first that came to my mind.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Nostalgia says G6. Battlefronts, final fantasies, metroids, power stone, sonic adventure, and so much more were here, and really were amazing. G7 added more to that, but... I didn't grow up on it. Though, Dragon's Dogma is amazah.

 

[Private Custard]

G6, without a shadow of a doubt. It took the advancements of G5 and improved on them vastly. Micro-transactions weren't rife, much loved franchises flourished with the new power at their disposal, and the online community was at its highest point in terms of overall mood/feel/atmosphere.

Just look at the amazing things we had....

GTA3
MGS2
Vice City
San Andreas
Max Payne
Gran Turismo 3 & 4
Timesplitters 2
Fable (say what you want, the original was a lovely lovely thing!)
Morrowind (it may be buggy, but in my opinion, the atmosphere has never been beaten in any game since)
PGR2 (the best online community ever, especially after it became a safe haven, once Halo 2 came out!)
Halo
Halo 2

The list just goes on and on and on.

I've been a gamer since the BBC micro/ZX81/C64/CPC464 days, and at 36 years old, am still dabbling now. I can't think of another generation that felt as special as G6.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I went with gen 5... Though it was a tough one compared to gen 4...

Thing is... I kind of lost the... Wonder, and extreme passion for things by the time of gen 6... I still liked things, but I just wasn't... Passionate about any of them anymore...