I think one of the things that made the 90s so great was that games hadn't yet become so expensive and production times so long that companies were afraid to take risks the way they are nowadays with the ballooning of AAA budgets and 4-5 year cycles.

Not only did it mean we got more games, but they had less disincentive to try bold new things.

Poor 80s, not a single vote. :(
Looks like the 90s has this in the bag, unless there's a massive influx of 2000s/2010s voters.

I think another factor in the appeal of the 90s is the amount of progress made within the decade; it took us from the launch of the SNES to the Dreamcast, from Mario World and F-Zero to the likes of Half-Life and Soul Calibur. Gaming changed so dramatically in such a short space of time.

By the last year of the 90s the transition to 3D was complete and we had the Dreamcast and games like Soul Calibur, as well as stuff like Half Life on the PC. F-Zero X on the N64 holds up really well too I think due to being one of the few 3D games of its generation to hit 60fps.

90s. Gaming goodness from start to finish. We went from Super Mario Bros 3 to A Link to the Past to Final Fantasy VIII in the space of ten years.

I consider the SNES through N64 to pretty much be the Golden Age of gaming. Basically the 90s though the early 00s. The 00s were pretty damn good too, but the late 00s also had the start of the DLC practices I hate so much. To me, those kind of shitty anti-consumer practices have marred what could otherwise be considered a pretty damn good last decade and a half or so.

I found this one harder to answer than which Console Gen was best because every decade expanded the gaming landscape into what it is today so it's hard to say which was best - it's simply down to what you value most. In terms of personal enjoyment I'd go with the 90s because that's what I grew up playing and still to this day love to go back to (I also answered 5th gen was my fave in that poll). But here I've voted for the 00s being the best.

In terms of bringing the gaming world to what it is now the most important stuff happened in the 2000s as far as i'm concerned. The 6th Gen was excellent in that it offered 4 strong consoles to kick us off this decade (yeah ok Dreamcast launched in the late 90s but saw most of its life span in the early 00s). This is also where we saw the start of online gaming, with the Dreamcast, that was then taken to the next level with the introduction of Xbox. It also saw consoles being used more as essential home devices rather than gaming platforms thanks to the PS2 also coming as a DVD player. Then the following gen brought us HD gaming and the bizarre yet beloved Nintendo Wii introducing casuals to gaming more than had ever been done before.

Handheld gaming also became more interesting - the 90s was dominated totally by the Game Boy and IMO the weak follow up of the GB Color with very little in the way of competition. The 2000s started with Nintendo offering a true successor with the awesome GBA (and even more awesome SP which brought backlight and a re-chargeable battery to gaming for the first time) . Then we finally saw Sony enter the fray with the most powerful handheld yet and Nintendo responded with some clever innovation of theirs with the DS. I just felt this made everything better as far as choice was concerned. For me the Game Boy was the console for when you were travelling but now we had handheld consoles i'd sometimes pick over the more powerful home counterparts due to the different experiences on offer. This is ultimately what tipped me in favour of voting for 00s over the more exciting yet more flawed 90s.

If i was to rank it i'd go 00s > 90s > 80s > 10s.

The 80s really set up gaming more than any other decade so you could argue it was the best but for me the developers were still figuring out what to do and could only work with limited hardware. In its favour this was easily the best decade as far as arcade gaming is concerned so it wins on that one. Then the 2010s for me has done the least in terms of bringing gaming forward and adding innovation (maybe this is simply because there are no more proper graphical jumps anymore and we've seen most of what the industry can offer - I hope i'm wrong though!) o this is why i've ranked it last. Still had many great games and consoles though - I absolutely love the Switch!

Best decade was the 80's.  Gaming was growing by leaps and bounds, and devs were not afraid to be experimental.  Game developers seem to have gradually forgotten that novelty makes something more entertaining.  In the 80's new and amazing stuff was coming out every year that had nothing like it come before:

1980 Pac-Man, the first maze game and arguably the most popular game of all time.
1981 Donkey Kong, the first successful platformer.

1982 Lots of popular and unique games, some of which defy classificiation: Dig Dug, Joust, Moon Patrol, Q-Bert, Robotron 2084
1983 Dragon's Lair, a game animated by Don Bluth.  It was so beautiful that it still looks good by today's standards.

1984 Punch Out, the first big boxing (or fighting) game and also Duck Hunt which is as important as Mario for reviving consoles
1985 Super Mario Bros, 'nuff said.  Arcade still going strong with Gauntlet.

1986 The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, and Metroid premier at home with arcade still getting solid games like Rampage, Out Run and Arkanoid.

1987 Home console gaming starts to birth some of the greatest franchises ever: Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Contra, and Metal Gear.  Double Dragon tears up the arcade.
1988 So many awesome home consoles games: Super Mario 2 & 3, Mega Man 2, Blaster Master, Ninja Gaiden. The Genesis launches in Japan.

1989 Too many home console games to count.  The NES is an unstoppable monster while the Genesis is ramping up and the arcades are still going strong with games like Golden Axe.  This is quite possibly the best time for gaming (especially 2D action games).

The 80's was so awesome, because so much happened.  In spite of the fact that the home console market crashed, there were so many good games that it makes the 80's the best decade for gaming by far.  In the early 80's the best games were in the arcades and not the home anyway.  And those early 80's arcade games were revolutionizing gaming every year.  In contrast the arcades had only one revolution in the 90's: fighting games.  And in the late 80's the NES comes along and continues to revolutionize gaming again over and over, because they are trying to make unique games that are made specifically for the home.

The 80's had the fastest evolution in gaming.  In 1985, Super Mario Bros comes along and blows everyone's mind.  The game is just so awesome compared to what we've played before.  Three years later, Super Mario 3 comes along and totally blows it away.  That is what it was like to be a gamer in the 80's.  The best game ever made could be blown away just 3 years later.  Imagine if Breath of the Wild was released just 3 years after Ocarina of Time.  That is the kind of gaming we were getting in the 80's.

Yeah I agree, the simple visuals that allowed it to hit 60fps also mean its aged better as a result of looking less cluttered. Framerate is really crucial to how well a game ages I find; 60fps will always feel smooth even after the polygons and textures are dated. Meanwhile, games that are cutting edge but drop below 30fps tend to play like shit once technology moves on.

This one because it is the one I`m playing now.

Dreamcast was only 99 in the west, It launched 1998 in Japan