16 reasons I loved 16-bit games
 

Ah, yes. Gone are the days of SNES and Genesis. A time when games were in hard-to-break plastic cases. The era where the ESRB did its job. Those were good days. Here my 16 reasons why I loved that forgotten age(in no particular order):

1. Stories were irrelevant. You just played for fun.

2. NO LOADING TIMES!!!

3. The cartridges took real abuse in the real world.

4. Some of the hardest titles ever are in this generation.

5. Two players was too fun.

6. Nobody bothered to review them because they were all the same.

7. Some titles were excellent stress relievers.

8. The reset button was actually used.

9. Disney-themed games were fun to play at the time (prior to the Kingdom Hearts series).

10. Mario games were at their finest.

11. Super Sonic was super fun.

12. RPG titles didn't rely on over-the-top cut scenes.

13. "First person" meant first player.

14. Explosions did not interfere with a game's frame rate.

15. Boss battles in most games didn't involve too much strategy.

16. Not very often did a game version of a movie that was released ended up being terrible.

17. Chrono Trigger.

Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say.

Mostly I just wanted to beat Fifth to it.

You said that they were good because some were too easy and other were too hard? erhn...

Well... i would like that 2 features would could be added to most games today

1- The ability to save ANYWHERE and ANYTIME
2- every game shoudl have a "Jesus crhist! This is hard!" Level of difficulty avaliable

18. A 60 hour game literally had 50 hours of MAIN story, and 10 hours of finding out the back story of whoever was the lead character.

19. Many different styles of games, no rehashes of big-hits. *cough*Titan's Quest -> Diablo*cough*
20. Puzzle games were actually worth your time.

Amen to Chrono Trigger.

Having played Civilization on the SNES (w00t. =D), I must respectfully disagree with you there.

Let's see
1.The invention of action JRPGs. Secret of Mana, Illusion of Time(Gaia in the US) and their glorious ilk.

2.The golden age of platformers. SMWs 1+2, the original Sonics, and the DKC series the first game that really got me to pay attention to video game music, I can to this day hum the Gangplank Galleon theme perfectly.
Also a strange extremely hard (though I was 7 when I hired it so maybe not) platformer game where you were a Dinosaur who had to go through the prehistoric world collecting eggs, I think, I've long since forgotten the name and haven't been able to find it since.:(

3. Mario Kart

4. Super Metroid, I'm ashamed none of you have mentioned it yet.

5. Shinobi picking up right where Ninja Gaiden left off.

6. The golden age of Fighters. I was the BEST at my school at Killer Instinct and good at MK and SF as well.

We knew you'd come along and mention it for us.:D

I must also add to this list Tetris Attack.:p

21. The Final Fantasys were at their finest hour.
22. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the freakin' awesome Past!

QFT; I have missed no game from the 16-bit era more than this.