Games looked marginally better in 1989 as they did in 1980, basically still 8-bit but with larger sprites. The same can be said about 2000 and 2009, and 2010 and current day. There were advancements, but...

Here's how the 1990s started:

Here's how the decade ended.

Not to mention many of my favourite games of all time came out in the 1990s including (but not limited to): Final Fantasy 6, 7, and 8, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario Bros 3, Link to the Past, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Time, Terranigma, Earthbound, Sid Meier's Civilization 2.

Regardless of what I liked, no decade saw a jump quite like the 1990s. From Super Mario Bros 3 to Sonic the Hedgehog to Donkey Kong Country to Super Mario 64 to Final Fantasy 7 and Resident Evil 2 and finally to Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure.

The 2000s were the second best IMO, it began with Final Fantasy X and Skies of Arcadia, saw the launch of the Wii and motion controls, the advancement of handhelds with the DS, and still has games that are arguably superior to what we're seeing today in terms of design: I am thinking Super Mario Galaxy vs Super Mario Odyssey - while Odyssey is no slouch it was certainly lacking something that Galaxy had. Galaxy felt bigger and more adventurous, Rosalina is the most compelling character the franchise ever saw; and IMO Galaxy still sits with the top 5 games of all time. The 2000s also saw resurrections of dead genres like rail shooters (which had been dead for about a decade by the time of the Wii) and graphical adventure games (which had been dead for nearly a decade and a half, if you count Myst as sort of the last hurrah. otherwise around 2 decades).

2010 to 2020 was kind of a shitty decade, to be honest. The latter portions of it were great due to the sudden increase in volume, but the first 3/4ths of it marked a steady decline of the industry with PS4 taking a bit to really take off, Nintendo languishing with the tail end of the Wii and the disaster of the Wii U, and the failure of the 3DS to inspire the way the DS did. That all changed in the later years with PS4 really taking off, and the release of the Switch; the capital game release of the 2010s was Breath of the Wild.

The 90s. Most of my favorites games are from that decade. I had tons of time to play games, local multiplayer parties were frequent living at home with my brothers, SquareEnix was still Squaresoft and they could do no wrong.

Yeah that's something I miss in modern gaming, how rare good local multiplayer has become. Online just cannot match the fun of sitting on a couch with friends eating pizza, drinking, and laughing as we own each other in splitscreen.

ME is a weak ass game (series)? I couldn’t disagree more

2000s

Gaming gets more refined over time, however, many games as of late are just remasters or remakes of games from the 2000s, or earlier. This current generation of games was basically exactly the same as the last, except with better graphics. GTAV was on PS3. So was last of us, beyond: two souls, God of War 3, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Ultra Street Fighter IV and so many others.

I looked through my PS4 collection after turning it on again after what? Nine months? I was instantly reminded of why I don't play my PS4. With the exception of Spider-Man, Uncharted 4, and God of War, and Mortal Kombat 11, all the games (in my collection) could have been made for last generation consoles, if the companies really wanted to.

There's nothing next gen about Street Fighter V, or Tekken 7, other than the fact they're running on Unreal Engine 4. If Namco can port Tekken 6 to PSP and Xbox 360, they could have gotten Tekken 7 on PS3.

In 2008, a PC wasn't going to give you a game comparable to MGS4 at 500 dollars. You'd miss out on so many good games, but at this point, I've been there, and done that. It really does feel like if you've played one, you've played them all. I finished Tomb Raider on PS3. I have it on PC. Can't play it, or TR2, and didn't bother getting TR3, because I knew I wouldn't play it. I've played Uncharted 2 & 3 on PS3, and with Tomb Raider, I'm just done with that type of game. "Oh this one's different, because you can swing from trees." "This one is different because you can climb certain surfaces with a pick-ax."

After writing all this, it has just hit me that the reason I like PC gaming so much is because it feels like a big enough leap over what we had before. I can use mouse and keyboard, which means my hands and thumbs don't hurt anymore, and I have more control over my actions in every single game, except driving games. I can play above 60fps, and above 1080p. Things of course look better, and playing online isn't an additional charge for no good reason.

I mean, just overall, I enjoy my PS3 more than my PS4, because many of the games that came out for that system, I'd already played and finished on PS3, and was burned out by the time PS4 came around. Now, there's just no beating how comfortable it is to play on PC. And today, in 2020, I still go back and play my PS3 more than PS4. The only difference is now, I avoid all the multiplats on that console, and save them for PS4, or PC.

Lastly, the reason why I'm not saying 90s, or 80s is because being first doesn't mean things are refined. Many early 3D games are boring and stiff shovelware experiments that were only praised in the day for being the first of its kind. I can't play Tomb Raider, or Metal Gear, or many early 3D games, outside of Mega Man Legends. The other reason is because in the 2000s, the games from before that time still existed, and it wasn't like you couldn't go back and play them.

radiohead's ok computer, air's moon safari, rem's automatic for people, pearl jam's ten, blur's park life, tori amos' boys for pele, fiona apple's when the pawn, nirvana's in utero, bjork's post, oasis' what's the story, tool's aenima, erykah badu's baduizm, massive attack's mezzanine, lauryn hill's miseducation, neutral milk hotel's in the aeroplane over the sea.... so many great album and you decide to put aqua! :P

Hahhaha :) true.
Music was actually really good during the 90s.

Honestly, I think they got better as they went on. In all fairness, I have little experience with games from the 1980s. Even my experience with games from the 1990s pales in proportion to the 2000s and 2010s. So I gotta say the 2010s.
Key Software: Super Mario Galaxy 2, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, Stardew Valley, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Marvel's Spider-Man, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Key Hardware: Nintendo 3DS, Sony PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch

Yeah the lack of originality and over-abundance of old ports and remasters is my biggest problem with the current gen too. It just lacks the creativity and freshness of previous generations because 95% of it feels been-there-done-that just with shinier pixels.

There's still some great games from the last decade mind, just fewer than in the 90s or 2000s in my opinion.