Best console generation?

[raiden_dj]

if i completely ignore historical value and nostalgia, and look at it from the perspective of "if you could only have access to consoles from one generation only and its games" then 7th gen is a no-brainer, like, cmon, you got the wii with all of its virtual console, motion controlling, screen pointing stuff, and the 360 and ps3 with thier futuristic modern games or whatever

 

[ThunderBoy]

4th gen

MAGIC

 

[Turbo Kid]

The beauty of 4th gen is that the games are accessible (as in easy to learn controls and intuitive gameplay), easy to make time for (you can beat a lot of games in an hour or less unless it's an RPG or a Zelda game), and the graphics for a lot of games (particularly the SNES) still hold up. Put simply, 4th gen is both timeless and easy to work into any busy gamer's life.

It's so easy to pick up a handheld like a Retroid Pocket 5 or modded Vita with some emulators, blow through a game of Star Fox or Streets of Rage 2 or whatever in like 30 minutes, and then get back to your busy life. That's what I love about the 16-bit era. I don't ever see a time in my life where I'll be too busy to play those games, unlike many modern games.

Plus, the overall difficulty of a lot of games wasn't as high as the notorious 8-bit era so you didn't have to stress as much. You've got much better odds of beating Battletoads in Battlemaniacs then you do Battletoads on the NES. Mega Man X was way easier than Mega Man, and Super Castlevania IV wasn't as brutal as earlier 8-bit installments. 4th gen was like the 3rd gen refined. Things played better, looked better, and sounded better.

 

[DrunkGecko]

Whichever one PS2 and GameCube is

 

[aquova]

No one called it that then, though. I don't remember seeing a mention of generations until maybe the early 2000s, and even then it just felt like a really niche way to classify to no real advantage.

I really wish I could find it, but I recall reading an article where someone tried to track down the source of who started naming the console generations. From what I recall though, it was more or less an invention made for Wikipedia, which then took off.

 

[iamthemilkman]

It's pretty difficult to beat Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox and Gamecube. That said, I'll always fondly remember the 360. The launch, the games, the community, etc., it was something special.

 

[Bomberman]

5th, I feel it was the most creative and ambitious.

 

[miles]

Whichever one PS2 and GameCube is

That's the 6th generation.