The answer to what was bestest, most golden age of gaming will depend on the age of the answerer and when they had the most spare time to play video games.
There are objective arguments that could be made about the SNES era, and many millennials will swear up and down that it was the Nintendo 64 era. But I personally think that the best era of gaming was the late 2000s/early 2010s – and current gaming trends seem to agree with me. So, let’s break down some of the trends of that time, look at how they’re coming back now, in 2026, and then let out a whoop of glee in unison.
Video games: handhelds were having another moment
In the late 2000s/early 2010s we had easy access to handheld gaming consoles (some better than others), it felt like every game console maker was trying to chase the success of Nintendo’s handhelds by making their own take of a console.
Back then, it was the PSP and PS Vita (RIP) going up against the DS and 3DS. Now, it’s the ROG Ally, Legion Go, PS Portal and the myriad cloud gaming options for mobile up against the Nintendo Switch.
Personally, I love this. Playing Guitar Hero World Tour on the 3DS was delightful, and I now have more time to game away from my TV and desk than I do in my usual roosts. With people needing to commute further, I’m sure I’m not the only one in this position.
Plus, there are fewer hard design rules about what a portable can or should be, so there is more latitude to get weird with it. Not enough developers are taking advantage of the ‘weird with it’ opportunity, but I live in hope.
Video games: plastic peripherals are back!
The 2000s/2010s were all about getting controllers in the shape of guns, skateboards, dance mats, etc. The king of this era was, of course, the plastic guitar. Guitar Hero and Rock Band were at the height of their popularity, and we apparently had a lot more storage space then than we do now.
With the return of plastic guitars in the form of the PDP Riffmaster and CRKD X Gibson Les Paul controllers for both Fortnite Festival and the upcoming Red Octane rhythm game, we are so back baby.
I want this year to bring microphones and drums to Fortnite Festival, and for this Red Octane game to eclipse it in both popularity and quality (things that I don’t think would be hard for it to do). We are ripe for another rhythm game era, and I am here for it.
I don’t know if we need too many other plastic peripherals, but I’m open to any that are particularly good. I do enjoy a novelty.
Video games: the Kinect
The Kinect and to a lesser extent PlayStation Eye were beautiful failures. Things that seemed like good ideas, but just weren’t quite right in so many ways. Motion controls, however, can be awesome. We’re starting to see a resurgence of that with the Nex Playground gaming system getting hugely popular in the US.
It’s a great idea because it opens the door potentially to so many immersive experiences without the baggage of VR. I haven’t tried the Nex Playground, and thus can’t vouch for its quality, but I did love the Kinect, so I’m interested to see where this trend is going.
This would usher in a new golden age of dance games, sports games, fitness, and watching your friends look like complete idiots while they try to play. As someone whose first dance at our wedding was playing Just Dance on a Wii U (I won), I am here for it.
Video games: the release of a Grand Theft Auto game
GTA V came out in 2013, which is in this nostalgia target window. In theory, we’re supposedly going to get the sequel this year, which would fit this trend nicely (if accidentally). Of course, it’s also a very traditional 2010s thing to delay the release of a GTA game, so …
Video games: we’ll see what happens
The Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 era was a huge time for games, with the seeds of so many popular franchises being sown and dumb ideas being tested on a bigger scale. The era was marked by a serious global recession, but coming out of that recession was a brief time of people being willing to try things that were new, different and exciting.
While our current time of economic turmoil likely has a way to go, we’re fully into our ‘little treat’ era of economics, and thus I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. I hope it’s good.
Read: What we want to see in the next Animal Crossing game
