Which games do you consider were the peak of each console generation?

I saw one topic in GameFAQs talking about Shinobi III being the peak of 16-bit action, so I decided to make my own topic here, but this isn't limited to just 16-bit consoles.

You can name more than one game per gen, as long as you think they're equal (i.e. they have different strengths).

Hmm. Tough question.

Peak on what way? Are you asking for more than simply our favorites?

Damn this is a tough nut to crack. I'll probably forget quite a few good ones so this list is by no means definitive. I'll try to limit to three per gen. These aren't my favourites by any means though. Found PS3 era the hardest to decide honestly:

NES era:
Castlevania
Super Mario Brothers 3
Contra

SNES era:
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Doom (I assume this was this generation)

PS1 era:
Metal Gear Solid
Ocarina of Time
Super Mario 64

PS2 era:
Metroid Prime
Metal Gear Solid 2
Resident Evil 4

PS3 era:
God of War 3
Demon's Souls
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

PS4 era:
Bloodborne
DOOM
Death Stranding (I think this one will be remembered fondly later-on, you already see this happening now with the PC release).

So what are these based on? Something new they brought to the table? Graphics? What are we talking about?

Just what I think are the best games generally speaking of that era in terms of innovation, trend setting etc. Also just "what games do I think of immediately when I think of that generation".

Regardless of what I think of Death Stranding, it is just too early to say how much of a big deal it will be long term. I also like to be very cautious when praising a new game that I just played and am hot on in general. The game needs time to grow and ruminate in your brain to truly assess.

PS2 ERA has to mention God of War. Absolutely changed the way action games were made deep into the 360/PS3 ERA and now are still the basis of PlayStation first party games. Set piece, cut-scene, action.

As far as trend setting Dark Souls beats Demon's hands down Dark souls spawned a god damn genre.

Can't agree more with COD4 absolutely changed the game forever.

Then I'm not going to bother with this list. I just play shit I like and don't care for trends or graphics. I'd just be listing my favs and I have more than 3 per gen.

I think Death Stranding is more down the line, but I agree it is also way to fresh on my mind so I'm a bit biased. God of War, it is super important but I feel RE4, MP and MGS2 have it beat in importance and general genre impact.

Also, without Demon's Souls no Dark Souls. Though I agree Dark Souls had more impact, I just feel it is a shame DeS is often overlooked or even straightup forgotten despite being the more interesting of the two I feel.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Damn this is a tough nut to crack. I'll probably forget quite a few good ones so this list is by no means definitive. I'll try to limit to three per gen. These aren't my favourites by any means though. Found PS3 era the hardest to decide honestly:

NES era:
Castlevania
Super Mario Brothers 3
Contra

SNES era:
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Doom (I assume this was this generation)

PS1 era:
Metal Gear Solid
Ocarina of Time
Super Mario 64

PS2 era:
Metroid Prime
Metal Gear Solid 2
Resident Evil 4

PS3 era:
God of War 3
Demon's Souls
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

PS4 era:
Bloodborne
DOOM
Death Stranding (I think this one will be remembered fondly later-on, you already see this happening now with the PC release).

Wow, one developer has a game in three different generations, what does that say? Haha.

Edit: I really agree with this list except I would put Gears of War in 7th gen instead of GoW3(and I don’t even like Gears).

^I agree, Nintendo really did a bang up job generally speaking

Real talk, it was a shock to my senses when you mentioned CoD: Modern Warfare in the 7th generation. But I suppose that makes sense in context.

I'd also say that Minecraft's definitely there. I've said it before that while it's not one of my favourite games of all time, it's absolutely one of the most influential.

Using Roy's template because I'm lazy, gonna list favorite and then some others, my favorite just reflects my personal tastes rather than thinking said game had more impact than others in said gen.

NES era:
Wasn't around for this gen

SNES era:
Super Metroid(favorite)
Chrono Trigger

PS1 era:
Metal Gear Solid
Ocarina of Time
Super Mario 64
SOTN(favorite)

PS2 era:
Metal Gear Solid 2
Resident Evil 4
Devil May Cry 1
Ninja Gaiden Black
Super Smash Bros Melee
Shenmue
Okami(favorite)

PS3 era:
Maybe I should buy new parts for my pc

PS4 era:
Yeah I definitely should buy parts for my pc

Man looking back, gaming really did see its peak on PS2 gen. I'd also add GTA San Andreas to Ps2.

And jokes aside PS3 had stuff like ES: Oblivion and Gears of War, Dark also shaped a whole generation of gamers(for worse in some aspects and better in others) so there's that. For PS4 we had Doom and Tekken7 and that's about it? I really hate the ps4 gen and consider it a waste in general with games midgen being developed to PS4Pro and already moving onto PS5 which is just going to be ps4.5 in general.

>gaming did see its peak on PS2

Agree 1000%. The difference between the quality of games on the PS2 vs every other generation is staggering to me. There were multiple bonafide classics every year during that generation.

>hate the PS4

On one hand, I think this gen itself is much worse than the last in terms of the way the industry headed, but I in terms of quality titles I’d say they’re about equal, with PS4 maybe coming out on top. Although it’s a bad sign that my most played PS3/PS4 games are usually HD PS2 games...

Birdman wrote:Hmm. Tough question.

Peak on what way? Are you asking for more than simply our favorites?

I mostly meant action, but I do like the direction this topic has taken as well.

I played quite a lot of Call of Duty (shocker, I know) growing up. Was a huge fan of WWII history, forced my dad to buy a new PC so I could play Medal of Honor: Allied Assault which I still hold in high regard. Modern Warfare changed *everything*, good and bad. Its fusion of arcade-esque multiplayer with things like Killstreaks, the birth of 'youtubers', the start of the end of arena shooters, but also having honestly quite a decent single player campaign. It was a hallmark. Still remember spawning so many hatemail, was absolutely obsessed with keeping a 5+ K/D and no-one was safe haha.

> gears instead of GoW
A fair take. I always forget this one existed but it was huge indeed.

> Shenmue
See this is what I meant with "I'll probably forget a few". Game was so ahead of its time it still shocks me.

> PS3 era
There were still a lot of good games, but it also saw the start of a lot of scary trends as you noted. Especially the 'sequel is now more pretty but has half the original's content'.

> PS2 era
I still feel it is the best era. My reasoning behind it is that, in NES/SNES's era we were still given games by basically fanboy gamers who wanted to make games. But around the PS2 era these people were still there, except now they were experienced and those that disliked the sector had left. So we were left with passionate people that also knew their stuff.

I always love games from that era, because they have a good story/gameplay balance, good and fun mechanics, games stood out for their originality etc. These days you can...basically predict how a game will play the second it comes out.

> PS4 era
Gave us Ninja Gaiden II at a steady 60fps haha.

>I mostly meant action, but I do like the direction this topic has taken as well.

PS2 - Chaos Legion, DMC3, Okami.
If I had to choose 3 for the rest of my life.

I'll think of the others later.

Hm, per Action genre..that complicates things since I feel the creme-de-la-creme is all in the PS2 era for the most part. I could never make a valid "peak list", but if I had to it would be NGB, DMC3 and GoW1. It's an incredibly dull list, but they are the kings of that generation imo and for good reason. I'd love to say Shinobi, Viewtiful Joe or God Hand. Or ZoE2. Or MGS2. But those three singlehandedly shaped the genre.

I know I don't need to say it, as it's obvious, but Chaos Legion is the best.

I'm almost certain that Birdman knows more about Chaos Legion's mechanics than the developers themselves.

I oughtta give it another chance soon.