Was 16-bit the best era?

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I've never owned a console, but I have played extensively on a Gameboy, Megadrive, Playstation 1, N64, Xbox and the Wii. When I say 'extensively', I mean over a hundred hours on most of the aforementioned systems. Out of all of them, none of them really grabbed me as much as the Sega Megadrive did. I loved the 2D platformers, 2D beat-'em-ups and the side-scrolling shooters. Don't get me wrong - I have a PC with an HD4850 and I'm really into PC games, and out of my 20 years of gaming, the Megadrive still wins me hands down. Probotector is the best game ever IMO! (although a lot of people seem to prefer it being called Contra Hard Corps)

Does anyone else agree? Discuss :-)
 
There was a similar thread to this the the other day, but i definately loved the 16bit era, bu cant say it was the best. 128bit era spanned gamecube, dreamcast, PS2 and Xbox. And the games spread over those consoles to me were some of the best ever.
 
This gen is the best. Just look at what consoles are doing these days. Consoles just played games back in the day. Now you get much more for your money.

I think a lot of gamers that grew up with a console will always say that era of consoles was the best.
 
This gen is the best. Just look at what consoles are doing these days. Consoles just played games back in the day. Now you get much more for your money.

I think a lot of gamers that grew up with a console will always say that era of consoles was the best.

It brings back some great memories but......

With the attention to detail that games such as Mass Effect, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy Crisis Core bring (yes 3 of my top fav games lol), I would have to agree with Robert that this is certainly the best gen so far.
 
while the cost of the games was a lot more (i remember paying £60 for 1 or 2 SNES games), i still think the 16bit age was more fun to play.

some modern games are awesome but too many try to make a movie instead of a game and pack in hour after hour of CGI cutscenes while giving the player less than 8 hours of actually gameplay.
 
This gen is the best. Just look at what consoles are doing these days. Consoles just played games back in the day. Now you get much more for your money.

Not that big a leap from last gen really, being able to download games and demos directly from your console is good though. Another big difference is media sharing as standard, you could do it on the original Xbox via XBMC but it was certainly not a standard feature in a console until now.

Last gen was more, game playback and basic media functionality. (DVD and what have you) Now you have access to games and demos online along with media sharing + all of the former.
 
while the cost of the games was a lot more (i remember paying £60 for 1 or 2 SNES games), i still think the 16bit age was more fun to play.

some modern games are awesome but too many try to make a movie instead of a game and pack in hour after hour of CGI cutscenes while giving the player less than 8 hours of actually gameplay.

there's nothing wrong with that if you like those sorts of games, and that sort of thing is far from prevalent.

im not going to say this gen is the best because of what the consoles can do besides gaming, that's pretty irrelevant imo. but certainly games have never been better.
 
Every console generation had its perks, I mean games now are more complex, amazing gameplay but you lose the factor of playing with your mates for hours on end at someones house, now you do it online with people you have never met.

Beauty about 16-bit era is you knew what you were going to get, every big game release nowadays is surprise, features online and offline etc.
 
while the cost of the games was a lot more (i remember paying £60 for 1 or 2 SNES games), i still think the 16bit age was more fun to play.

some modern games are awesome but too many try to make a movie instead of a game and pack in hour after hour of CGI cutscenes while giving the player less than 8 hours of actually gameplay.

Very true, a lot of current titles are like this. Even when you are in one of the more "free play" parts of the game there is often lots of little "scripted parts" where it's little more than a movie.
 
Every console generation had its perks, I mean games now are more complex, amazing gameplay but you lose the factor of playing with your mates for hours on end at someones house, now you do it online with people you have never met.

That's a really good point about the online vs IRL play - I never thought of that, although playing at a mate's house IRL was one of the reasons why I embraced the 16-bit era more.

Somewhere in-between IRL games and online games would be the LAN games (local network). For LAN games, you can't beat an allnighter of Age of Empires II 6-player :-)
 
The Playstation and Saturn were the best era.

The transition from 2D platformers, beat'em ups and shoot'em ups to games like Wipeout, Tekken, Virtua Cop and Sega rally were breath taking.

I remember, I was there :)
 
Probably growing up and 4 lads in a bedroom seems abit gay

I go round to my mates house and we have a few beers and get on the 360 or PS3 but gaming is just there to play, its not the focus point as it use to be back in the day.
 
For me 16-bit era was the best era of gaming, I'm a Nintendo boy so SNES was my mecca. I paid £50 for Donkey Kong Country (to date my favourite game) and £60 for Mortal Kombat 3. Crazy money, but bought my best gaming days.
 
16-bit oh yes. The Donkey Kong Country days were some of my best ever. The day I was in Sheffield town centre having for some reason forgotten DKC 2 had just been released that day went into Beatties and saw it on the shelf. Came home with it and I was blown away.

The first time I turned on my N64 to be greeted by Mario 64 on release day comes a very close second though and probably seeing Ridge Racer on my Blockbuster loaned PS1 (had a rent of one before I bought!) is third :)
 
Anyone remember a game called Flymbo`s Quest, Me and my misses used to play it for hours when we first met" not sure of the platform the game was on? It was her sons,I think it may of been a Commodore 64 16 bit
 
I have a dreamcast and megadrive set up on the shelf below my PS3 and V+ box in the living room and they definatly get there fair share of use. i also have a PS2 and PSone in the bedroom but not currently set up as we plan to decorate soon.

i think i have the fondest memories of the PS1 era though as that was when i got hooked into gaming thanks to the likes of Crash Bandicoot, FFVII + VIII, MGS, Gran Turismo and Driver.

We should have a retro section on these forums or atleast a big thread on it :)
 
My favorite console purchase was my imported jap super famicom, being wowed by the mode 7 graphics on Pilotwings and playing Mario World all the way through in japanese still rank as my favorite times in gaming.

Spending £700 on an import PS1 after seeing Toshinden running and blowing me away at an import shop, early PS1 time was great, i dont have the same passion for gaming anymore that i used to, id love to get that feeling back.
 
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