Old consoles and games are as good now as they were then. Super Mario World doesn't suck now because Super Mario Galaxy 2 is out, No Mercy is still the measuring stick for wrestling games even though Smackdown Vs. Raw is newer, prettier and has online play.
As for saying games were better back when, I won't say they are all better, but it seems they were made with more skill (not that the creators now aren't skillfull as hell). What I mean is that today anything is possible in games, but we are still treated to a lot of boring, forgettable games. Back in the 8 and 16-bit eras they had a lot less to work with and made games that stand up with todays top AAA releases. Case in point, Chrono Trigger or Earthbound-both legendary RPG's from the 16 bit era and loved by millions of people and then take FFXIII which cost more than the GNP of some small countries to produce and all I hear are people hating it (other than reviewers). It doesn't mean that the newer games are all worse than the old ones, it's just that sometimes it's better to restrain developers and show them less can be more.
