90s stuff you miss the most?

[DevilRising]

I was born in the early 80s, and "grew up" in the 90s, entering my teens in the mid-to-late 90s. I feel in that way that I got, basically, the best of both decades, because I was old enough to enjoy most of the good stuff in the 80s, and I really started growing up and maturing while taking in the 90s. So yes, there are many things I miss from the 90s.

I am of the opinion that the early to mid-90s were a far better time than the late 90s, for pretty much everything, from clothes, to music, to gaming, to movies, etc. The social and political climate even started to get much "Darker" as we neared the looming "Y2K". But in general, most of the 90s stuff that I find myself looking back fondly on, is from the early or mid-90s.

For one thing, I got my NES later than most, growing up fairly poor, so I finally got one in late 1990, once SMB3 was already out. So I "grew up" with the NES, even though by that point it was getting "old", even though it was fairly new to me, and I absolutely loved the thing. It was similar with the Game Boy and SNES, as I got a new Game Boy for Xmas 1993 or so, and didn't get a hand-me-down SNES from a cousin until Holidays 1995. But that was still a great era of gaming for me. The NES is my fav. console of all time, though for RPGs, the SNES is king as far s I'm concerned. Just about all of my favorite RPGs are SNES games, with maybe a couple of exceptions.

I think, touching back on my earlier comments, that in general, the mid-to-late-90s felt more "Hopeful", for sure. It was nearing the end of a century, and a millennium. There was that dumb saying "Hey, it's the 90s", which looking back seems silly, but that's also kinda how young people felt at the time, like we were on the cusp of a whole new world. It really felt like things were getting better, not worse, and that the future was bright. And then 2000 hit, and I was 18, and W happened, and then 9/11 happened, and terrorism and pollution and the general socio-political climate all just took a sharp nose-dive. It was shitty, because it felt like as soon as I entered adulthood, things just got a lot darker, a lot colder, and a hell of a lot more uncertain and unfriendly.

So yeah. I certainly miss the 90s. They weren't perfect, and I certainly remember hating various things and trends back then. But I'd gladly take all of that, now, over what we have at present.