Mario Galaxy's one of the best games I've ever played; it's boundless creativity and the way it used gravity and perspective to create wondrous celestial toyboxes just captured my imagination in a way few games ever have. The sequel, while not as fresh, was equally well crafted.

Then there was Xenoblade Chronicles with its unforgettable world and sense of scope, Monster Hunter Tri which I sunk more hours into than any other game, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, Donkey Kong Country Returns, The Last Story, Wii Sports, some of the best COD games, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Sin & Punishment Star Successor... fark I loved the Wii.

When we talk mario 64 we have to consider the hardware and time it released with 3d gaming being new and all. It's way ahead of it's time and mario 64 still controls great, with a good amount of exploration and platforming challenge. 7th gen was not limited by hardware or games being new to 3d.

The only thing i hear about how mario galaxy being great is that it's creative, and the hubworld and story being great. They ignore the fact that running around a sphere and doing brain dead things  to shoot to another sphere kills platforming, or how mario is sluggish with very floaty jumps. There little to no exploring or secrets in the game, which is a staple for mario games. So basically no exploring or secrets, mid  controls with very little great platforming levels so running around spheres and doing brain dead things makes this best game ever.

Yeah I was thinking that myself.  I want great games who cares if they lose money.

It really depends on the perspective you want to bring to the table here.
3DS is my favorite console of those two generations because I only dabbled with a 360 during the 7th Gen and a GBA.
Therefore by default, having the ability to play DS games on my 3DS was a plus some of theost interesting things I missed. Also I liked the stuff I played on my WiiU mostly so no regret there.

Hum, but from the perspective of an historian and giving an outlook to the whole thing, I'd say the 7th Gen is the last real traditional one where we could see most console makers flourish with a multitude of original IPs being pushed, classics being formed for all of them and all that before practices of increasing monetization to their customer base really went in full motion and the focus shifting to tested IPs with homogenized RPG and gameplay mechanics, so the enshitification of gaming.

7th gen was a mixed bag,
HD was nice, wireless gamepads were nice, being able to access a range of online/offline features and the internet for the first time thanks to my PS3 was very nice.
On the flip side the hardware broke easily, and crappy trends started occurring, such as content being locked as DLC despite being on disk during launch.
I vaguely recall having major concerns with the direction of DLC - I managed to avoid spending money on a single online service or piece of DLC for almost the entire 7th generation, which I wish other people had also done.

As for the 8th gen, I barely engaged with it on consoles. From 2015, I spent my time gaming in 4k on my PC. Fast-forward to 2020, my PS4 collected dust with it's 4 games.

I'd prob give the 7th gen a 7/10. Dunno about 8th gen.

Yeah that was one of my favourite things about the 7th gen, the sheer number of standout new IPs.

In the span of a single generation we got the likes of Bioshock, Mass Effect, Xenoblade, Uncharted, Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, The Last Story, Bayonetta, Vanquish, Wii Sports, Dead Space, Alan Wake, Resistance, Motorstorm, Metro, Crysis, Portal... 

Because budgets hadn't grown so immense back then, it was more viable to take a risk on an entirely new IP.

Nier

fortnite

astro bot

control

days gone

evil within

horizon

ghosts of Tsushima 

bloodborne

sekiro

nioh

watch dogs 

cyber punk

I really see no difference in risk they both kind played it safe. like  the over the shoulder 3rd person shooter, and fps shooter were the hottest market at the time so what risk are we talking about here. lets not forget about VR which really was trying to take gaming to a whole new level of immersion but failed. 

Nier, Watch Dogs, and Evil Within were on PS3/360 too.

And IPs like Bioshock, Mass Effect, etc absolutely didn't play it safe; they didn't copy what was already popular, they forged their own style and identity.

The 8th gen did have some cool new IPs too; I did quite enjoy Splatoon, Hellblade, and Ori, but the 7th gen definitely had more standouts.

I was talking about nier automata, and watch dogs and evil with were designed for 8th gen, as the 360/ps3 version are really butchered version of the games that take away from the experience.

As for Bioshock and mass effect they were still in a very popular genre at the time everyone was making thirdperson shoulder shooters and FPS sure they had their own twist and elements  but they weren't anything risky for example hack and slash were a genre that was dying on 360/ps3. I don't even recall one hack and slash doing really great sales wise except DMC 4 and GOW3 did did like 3 and 5 million each.

@zeldaring

Being inferior versions doesn't defeat the point of those IP's presence on 7th Gen hardware, therefore at best they are cross-generational IP's.

Anywoo, I have to remind you the Nier franchise didn't start with Automata but Replicant/Gestalt(in the west), which were on 7th Gen consoles.

Also, equalling franchises like Bioshock and Mass Effect to the usual TPS or FPS, while hand waving what's litteraly making them unique dix. RPG/Choose your own adventure elements in Mass Effect, the SIM approach gameplay and narrative elements that were beyond the usual scope of FPS at the time for Bioshock(which is closer to System Shock.), is just generalization.

You can't mold a good argument like that.

Even worse, you spoke of Bloodborne and Sekiro earlier. That's exactly two IP's that are being recognized as Souls games. You know the progenitor of the whole genre born on 7th Gen machines, Demon Souls and Dark Souls.
Therefore you previous point about Mass Effect or Bioshock becomes ironic if you take it as such.