Topic: Does Nintendo's current "golden age" surpass its golden age of 20 years ago?

[Chozo Ghost]

What do you guys think? Is right now a better time to be a Nintendo fan or was back in 1989 the better time to be one? Back in 1989 the Sega Genesis had JUST been released and was starting to make an impact, but the NES still had a monopolistic stranglehold on the entire industry, and you couldn't really discuss video games without mentioning Nintendo in some way... the two words became synonymous with one another.

Fast forward 10 years and Sony stole almost all of Nintendo's thunder and from the on (until recently) the word "Playstation" came to replace the word "Nintendo".  But now Nintendo seems to have made an unprecedented and unexpected comeback, and now the Playstation is old news.

But is now a better time to be a Nintendo fan than in the NES era? While the Wii is way ahead of the competition, it isn't anywhere near the complete monopoly that the NES had. You can still very much be playing modern games and not do so on Nintendo hardware. So I guess what it comes down to is the quality of the games. Are the current selection (as well as the ones announced at E3) better than the NES lineup in the olden days?

That's the question.

[King of Twitch]

In some ways I say: resting on the laurels of their previous golden age; their big mario game this year is a sequel to an homage to NES mario games. The last Zelda was seemingly an homage to OOT or a 'deluxe'. Every handheld since the GB Color has launched with a port of a mario game. I know they could do better.

Hardware wise, they've yet again set a precedent their competitors can only pray to be able to match... in the distant future. They're making use of multiple peripherals to advance gameplay and interaction with a fun interface and free internet play, but sometimes not (wii speak, custom music, memory space, belated motion+). They've brought Metroid into 3D for 3 games and are already getting ready to switch it up. They seem to listen to fans if enough rage persists and try to improve when convenient. They've overturned 3 straight generations of decreasing console sales.

Overall I'm going to be a little sad when this gen is over. I think that's a yes vote for 'current' but I was a little young to remember much of the NES

[ShyGuy]

We can easily play games from that era, so there we go.

[Mop it up]

No.
The golden age was 14 years ago.
1995-2001

[Caterkiller]

I like Galaxy like I like Super Mario Bros a hundred years ago. I don't like Twilight Princess like I loved Links awakening 50 years ago.
Like Metroid Prime 3 like I liked Super Metroid. The only way this age will surpass the golden age for me is if a new DK is made that is as good as jungle beat, and new star fox that is as good as 64, or SNES. If those things cant happen then personaly its a no!