The SNES/Megadrive era or the present day PS5/XBox Series X era - which was/is the better time to be a gamer? My answer may not entirely surprise you!

This is something I often think about and have come to the conclusion that the SNES/Megadrive era was the better time to be a gamer, I shall detail the reasons why in a moment.

To add balance I should also mention that I do own a PS5 and a Nintendo Switch, both of which I absolutely love and wouldn’t be without.  Particularly on the PS5 I’m constantly blown away by how far games have come since that time especially in terms of graphics, they’re of an almost lifelike quality now that wouldn’t have been thought possible back in the 16-bit era.  And the library of games is just as impressive too, so even though I do enjoy a good gaming session on my current consoles, the 16-bit era for me will always be the ‘golden age’ of gaming and these are my reasons why I think that :

• The games were quicker to load and start playing, very few everlasting cut scenes at the start of the game and no constant downloading of updates - the game you bought was the game you played
• Thanks to clever marketing and move creative and innovative advertising (Sonic 2uesday, Mortal Monday) a new game launch felt more like an event than now
• We had two gaming shows on TV, Channel 4’s GamesMaster and Sky’s Games World
• You could walk into any WH Smith and walk out with an armful of gaming magazines, they were plentiful!
• The games were just as much fun then as they are now, in fact in some cases more so
• It was just basically for me a really great era of gaming!

And that, for me, is why the SNES/Megadrive era was the better time to be a gamer and why I will always have and always will continue to enjoy these games on my excellent retro handhelds!

If only I had a time machine, now where’s my DeLorean?