16/32 bit era for sure.
8 bit didn't really have enough memory to store enough text for huge adventures and was rather crude and improvised, despite some memorable entries, and 32bit+ CD ROM systems ended up getting crazy and pushing FMV and going the other way until consoles finally just turned into PCs.
16/32 bit era = enough memory to make great worlds but hardware still limited enough to force you to focus on the game itself and not just throw 600 MB of live FMV on a disc and call it good.
It was more fun being a hardware nerd too. Going from 16 to 64 to 256 to 4k to 32k to 64k colors is a lot more exciting than just oh look everything is 16.7M colors and photo-realistic now. It was the "just right" era, not too shitty, not too advanced, and this went a long way to allowing for game worlds to have character. When CD systems were this exotic ooh aah thing we lusted over in EGM. Anyone else still waiting for their 32 bit SNES CD ROM? Now it's hard to get excited about new hardware. Ok long over due higher resolutions and more RAM. Digital stereo sound and real music. There was an exoticness to new console launches then, and now it's just oh... an even faster PC... yawn... and lack of an internet to leak and spoil hype.
No internet or Gamefaqs... you'd play games with 2 year+ release cycles and it would take you months to beat them. The social setting was more fun sharing experiences and secrets with friends face to face in those months, internet and youtube took that away by allowing everyone to complete the largest of games in 24 hours.
But mostly it was the heydey of what we now consider classic Japanese developers and JRPGs and action/platformers before western influence ruined the world with their onslaught of multiplayer casual shooters and mega corporate mass monetization of the industry (eg: EA/Activision).
The 90's was like a renaissance era of gaming and Konami, Capcom, Square, Namco, Working Designs, Nintendo, etc were like the da Vincis. There was just a certain love and care put into many classic games before western greed took over the industry by appealing to the masses of American mouth breathers with violence and explosions on 3-6 month release schedules.
In before the usual suspects are quick to jump in about how there was shovelware and trash in the 90's too, but oh hey go figure, most of the mass produced trash was all western companies... Acclaim, EA, Activision, etc with their dumb sports games and movie and cartoon ports 3 times a week.
It was also an exclusive club when gaming wasn't as popular. How many other kids in your school all got a SNES or PS1 the day it came out? Now every asshole on the block has a new Xbox and is playing Madden the day before it comes out. It's just not as mysterious anymore. We don't even have cartridges or manuals to get high on anymore. Who can forget the overwhelming aroma of sliding that huge block of Styrofoam out of a NES or SNES box? I wanted that with my PS4 and XBO but nope... it's just not there.
I doubt it's just video games. Seems every industry follows an ADSR envelope curve where it starts out low, ramps up quickly to a peak that will be known as the golden age in it's 2nd-3rd generation, then slopes down, levels out, and eventually dies off as it becomes a commodity of same old same old.
As for an earlier comment about SNES graphics not scaling as good as NES... both are 256x224...