Why 90s Gaming Beats Modern Gaming (And It’s Not Even Close)

Let’s be real for a second. Modern gaming is beautiful, sure. We’ve got 4K textures, ray-tracing, and worlds so big you can get lost in them for a month. But beneath all that polish? Something is missing. A soul. A pulse.

If you grew up with a controller that had a cord and a console that didn’t need a 50GB day-one patch, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Here is why the 90s still holds the crown.

1. “Plug and Play” vs. “Wait and Pray”

In 1996, you bought a game, shoved the cartridge in, and you were playing in five seconds. Today? You buy a physical disc, wait three hours for it to install, and then get hit with a “Server Connection Error.” We spent the 90s actually playing games; we spend the 2020s watching loading bars and updating firmware.

2. The Death of the “Complete” Game

Remember expansion packs? They were huge additions to games we already loved. Now, we get “DLC” that was clearly ripped out of the main game just to sell back to us for $15 a pop. In the 90s, when a game hit the shelf, it was finished. No microtransactions, no “battle passes,” and no “early access” excuses. You got the whole experience for one price. Imagine that.

3. Local Multiplayer > Online Toxicity

There was a specific kind of magic in sitting on a basement floor with three friends, some greasy pizza, and a four-player split-screen on the N64. You could see the look on your buddy’s face when you bumped him off the track in Mario Kart. Now? You play with a random “xX_Slayer_Xx” from halfway across the world who screams in your ear if you miss a shot. We traded real human connection for “matchmaking,” and we lost the best part of gaming in the process.

4. Risk and Originality

Because the budgets weren’t $200 million, developers in the 90s were weird. They were experimental. They gave us PaParappa the Rapper, Earthworm Jim, and Twisted Metal. Today, every “AAA” game feels like a third-person action-adventure with “stealth elements” and a skill tree. It’s safe. It’s corporate. It’s boring.

My  Final Word

The 90s weren’t just about the games; they were about the feeling. It was the wild west of digital entertainment. We didn’t need “daily logins” to keep us coming back—the gameplay was so addictive that we couldn’t stay away if we tried.

Modern gaming has the graphics, but the 90s had the heart.