What's your favorite game from each generation?

[bikingjahuty]

1st Gen: Pong I guess
2nd Gen: Galaxian
3rd Gen: Kirby
4th Gen: Chrono Trigger
5th Gen: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
6th Gen: Shenmue/Shenmue 2
7th Gen: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
8th Gen: Shenmue 3
9th Gen: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

[mooblius]

Most of my favorites emerged toward the end of each "generation," generally because capabilities improved. There are many other great games to consider throughout each gen, though.

1st Gen: either Stunt Cycle or Video Pinball (both dedicated Atari consoles)
2nd Gen: Mouse Trap (ColecoVision)
3rd Gen: The Legend of Zelda (NES)
4th Gen: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Genesis)
5th Gen: Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn)
6th Gen: God of War 2 (PS2)
7th Gen: Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
8th Gen: ?? (time will tell... expecting new greatness )

[Warmsignal]

Just off the top of my head, and subject to change since I have many games still yet to play...

1st - Pong
2nd - Pac-Man (and clones)
3rd - SMB2 (North America)
4th - Super Mario Kart
5th - Crusin' USA
6th - Toy Commander
7th - Super Mario Galaxy
8th - Yooka-Laylee
9th - TrailBlazers

[telekill]

Well, as Switch is the only 9th gen system available, that will make it easy to choose until probably next year...
Started at 2nd Gen on my dad's C64.

2nd Gen: Dig Dug (Atari 2600)
3rd Gen: Ninja Turtles (NES)
4th Gen: Jurassic Park (Gen)
5th Gen: Resident Evil (PS1)
6th Gen: Prince of Persia SoT (PS2)
7th Gen: Uncharted 2 Among Thieves (PS3) - Favorite game of all time.
8th Gen: Uncharted 4 A Thief's End (PS4)
9th Gen: Zelda: Breath of The Wild (Switch) - Looking forward to PS5

[ignition365]

Gen 1: Pong I guess
Gen 2: Maze Craze (A2600)
Gen 3: Legend of Zelda (NES)
Gen 4: Super Mario World (SNES)
Gen 5: Goldeneye (N64)
Gen 6: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (PS2)
Gen 7: Fallout: New Vegas (360)
Gen 8: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)

I'm seeing a lot of Gen 9 calls and we aren't in Gen 9 yet.  Switch launched in the middle of the mid-cycle refreshes.  But I too will give a shout out to Breath of the Wild for being a great game.

[telekill]

I'm seeing a lot of Gen 9 calls and we aren't in Gen 9 yet.  Switch launched in the middle of the mid-cycle refreshes. 

Well, I think most gamers are confused as to how the Switch falls into place. Wii-U was the direct competitor to the PS4 and X1. It failed pretty hard and Nintendo decided to drop the Wii-U and move onto their idea with the Switch early. It was their do-over, if you can call it that. Now, we can't call the Switch a mid-gen upgrade to the Wii-U because the Switch isn't compatible with Wii-U software unless ported. Nothing on the Wii-U is playable on the Switch physically or digitally (correct me if I'm wrong as I never owned the Wii-U). Due to that, most gamers are counting the Switch as the only gen 9 system on the market, but the argument continues...

Is it Nintendo's do-over for gen 8 and to be treated as a gen 8 system or....
Is it the first gen 9 system on the market as it's clearly the successor to the Wii-U...

[oldgamerz]

A lot of you said you liked PONG so I'll tell you what I know so far about PONG 1st and a little about 2nd generation video game tv consoles

Believe it or not, I love PONG. but I I never actually played PONG on the Magnavox Odyssey or any of the dedicated 1970's PONG consoles. I only emulated on the PlayStation 2 console. and played PONG on the Atari Flashback 6 and 7

But from what I gather the original PONG consoles required 2 players, since there was not even a CPU opponent option. In any of the 1st generation of TV game consoles at the time. Before the Atari 2600 in which was actually a 2nd generation game console

I marvel the Atari 2600 because it was the vary first television console to have

1: name on cartridges
2: Sound
3: Graphics period
4: Computer Opponents (aka single player capability)
5: Colored graphics
 

[Warmsignal]

I'm seeing a lot of Gen 9 calls and we aren't in Gen 9 yet.  Switch launched in the middle of the mid-cycle refreshes. 

Well, I think most gamers are confused as to how the Switch falls into place. Wii-U was the direct competitor to the PS4 and X1. It failed pretty hard and Nintendo decided to drop the Wii-U and move onto their idea with the Switch early. It was their do-over, if you can call it that. Now, we can't call the Switch a mid-gen upgrade to the Wii-U because the Switch isn't compatible with Wii-U software unless ported. Nothing on the Wii-U is playable on the Switch physically or digitally (correct me if I'm wrong as I never owned the Wii-U). Due to that, most gamers are counting the Switch as the only gen 9 system on the market, but the argument continues...

Is it Nintendo's do-over for gen 8 and to be treated as a gen 8 system or....
Is it the first gen 9 system on the market as it's clearly the successor to the Wii-U...

I'm fairly certain Switch will be looked upon as 9th generation console. I don't see any evidence that Nintendo views the Switch as a stop-gap for a future console release on the horizon any time soon. I would be surprised if that were the case. It launched globally in spring 2017, while PS and XB are set for a holiday 2020. Not unheard of.

Historically speaking, not every generation of console launches occur in the same year, or even two years. The last couple of gens were the exception rather than the rule. Take for example how the 5th gen commenced with the 3DO in the fall on 1993, but the Nintendo 64 didn't hit Europe until spring 1997. Dreamcast was launched over in Japan in holiday 1998, while Xbox and GameCube didn't land in Europe until spring of 2002. Sometimes generations of competing hardware span several years.