WHEN did FPS become important!!

[danasider]

It all depends on the type of game (FPS or racing vs some adventure title). But framerate was always important. We just didn't know the terminology.

Mario Kart on SNES was 60fps. So did most sidescrolling platformers (Sonic, Mario, etc). Same with fighting games.

It got to the forefront of the gamers mind when 3d gaming came into place. That's when a lot of games GOT LOWER FPS so fluidity was now an issue more than ever before where 60 FPS was the standard for many genres of 2D gaming. Certain versions of games (say Doom ports, for example) had crappy ports with crappy FPS. So even then, to weed out the best port, FPS was largely a deciding factor.

Try playing Sonic the Hedgehog sub 30 and you will see it's not that FPS hasn't been a factor. The loss of FPS is what became important with the advent of 3D console gaming.