What do you think the best year was for gaming?

[atarileaf]

You people are all way off. The 80's was the last glorious decade of video gaming. Period. Mike drop. See ya! 

Which year?

Difficult to nail it down to one year but the first half of the decade for sure, but I'd go with 81-84 more specifically. Impossible for me to nail it down to one year. So many great classics were released in those years, both on the VCS and in the arcade.

[bikingjahuty]

While it may not be my favorite year, 2000 was highly enjoyable. It was the when my top three systems of all time, the Dreamcast, PS2, and N64, were all being supported by their respective creators.

[Warmsignal]

While it may not be my favorite year, 2000 was highly enjoyable. It was the when my top three systems of all time, the Dreamcast, PS2, and N64, were all being supported by their respective creators.

I have to agree with that. Plus PC games were doing well.

[sin2beta]

While it may not be my favorite year, 2000 was highly enjoyable. It was the when my top three systems of all time, the Dreamcast, PS2, and N64, were all being supported by their respective creators.

I have to agree with that. Plus PC games were doing well.

The PC part is very true. I started to see myself turn into a PC gamer around this time. I played Phantasy Star Online on PC ore than the Dreamcast around this time. I also started moving over to Starcraft and Diablo.

[DreamsDied13101]

This question is way too hard.  Every year has different memories, high points, amazing discoveries. I would say 1986/1987 depending on Japan or USA timeline.  Favorites from this time: NES, Sega Master System, Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, Ikari Warriors (arcade), Alex Kidd, Dragon Quest, Caatlevania, Metroid, Out Run (arcade), Bubble Bobble, Adventure Island, 2600 Jr., Famicom Disk System.

[maximo310]

It's really hard to nail down a specific year. For ranges, I'd choose 1987, 1993/1994, 2000, 2006/2007.  All of those expect for the latter ( b/c of consoles) had some really great games of their time for both consoles and arcades.

[brazbit]

Arcade: 1983 - The experience of being in arcades full of dozens if not hundreds of machines is still unparalleled. Crowds gathered around stand out players. Juke boxes pumping out hits. Aisles of machines that were so convoluted and endless you may as well have been in Pac-Man's maze. Amazing looking games like Dragon's Lair sharing space with things like Space Invaders. Pong and even electro-mechanical games. Don't forget pinball tables, and things like foosball, air hockey, pool tables, and other coin gabbling entertainments. Also the obligatory the photo booth. Modern arcades and barcades give a taste of it but now days those are not as social an environment as they once were, no one is going to run around gathering folks to see someone setting a new high score or pulling off amazing tricks these days. Plus arcades were everywhere... finding an arcade machine in virtually any retail establishment anywhere in 1983 was easier than finding a slot machine in Vegas.

Home Consoles: The start of each new generation. New mind blowing technology, graphics and capabilities combined with the most polished games of the previous generation as the developers get the most out of that hardware that we will ever see. It makes for a magical time and almost without fail each generation of gamer thinks their first or second generational switch is the best one ever.

[HarvestDude]

Truly a difficult question. There were so many excellent years for gaming.

But, even being myself an oldtime gamer, i´d say these last 2 years were great. Great franchises were successfully revived or continued and there is a lot of expectation on games to be released and also a lot of expectations surpassed from games already released. Some of them:

DOOM
Fallout 4
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy XV
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
No Man's Sky
Shenmue III
Street Fighter V
Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I remember how shocking the E3 2015 were when they announced most of these games. Also, on 2016 the 4K compatible consoles were also announced. So i'd say the last 2 years were great for gaming.

HarvestDude™