What Was the Golden Era of Video Games? (piefed.zip)

submitted 22 hours ago by MindfulMaverick@piefed.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I used to be a passionate gamer, and I often find myself nostalgic for the golden era of video games when there were new ideas popping left and right.

Now, it feels like we’re caught between long-delayed triple-A titles and a constant stream of indie platformers. Originality seems to have taken a backseat, with many games regurgitating the same concepts.

What do you think defined the golden era of gaming? Are we currently in a rut, or is there a chance for fresh ideas to emerge again?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] spongebue@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

I am honestly pleasantly surprised at everything the industry came up with in that generation, in hindsight. Maybe those kinds of games were a little overrepresented, but you still had Super Mario 64, Pilot wings, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Smash Bros (not fully 3D but that may be a good thing from a game play aspect), two Zelda masterpieces, Mario Party, some solid wrestling games, and a few Final Fantasy games (I never played them but I don't think they're shooters and definitely not racing games)

There were some flopped consoles just prior to the N64/PS1 like the Saturn and Atari Jaguar that probably helped the industry figure out what doesn't work well in 3D gaming. Maybe they still had some stuff to figure out, but that was a pretty good era IMO.

this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026

16 points (90.0% liked)

Asklemmy

53213 readers

666 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS