Which genres were done better in the 32 bit era?

Which genres do you think were done better in the 32 bit era, as compared to their 8-16 bit counterparts. And for the purposes of this thread, 1995-2000 Neo Geo games should be included as part of the 32 bit era. The DC's lineup should not though.

FPS
This ones easy. Better AI, larger levels and generally more evolved gameplay easily make it better than it's 16 bit bretheren. For those of you who think that AI somehow impedes gameplay, there were still alot of old skool FPS in that era.
This is mainly for PC FPS ofcourse, as most console FPS between 97 and the Xbox's launch were pretty bad.
@_@ And online play was also a great plus, esp the first Quake.

RPG's

Some may argue that 16 bit RPG's are better becuase of their stories, but gameplay had improved alot. Games like Persona, Tales, Valkrie Profile, Star Ocean, and Grandia are generally superior to 16 bit RPG's.
PC RPG's have also improved, mainly because they are more evolved than older games. Diablo, Fallout, and Planescape, etc are better than old school CRPG's IMO.

Shooters

This is a matter of personal preference but I generally prefer shooters from 93 and upwards. The reason is simple: they just have more bullets and better scoring systems. Just play Galactic Attack, it takes hundreds of hours to master, as opposed to 8 bit shooters which are pretty much over when you memorize the patterns. I'm not saying that I don't like old school shooters, it's just that the crazy manic ones are more fun to me.

Fighters
Generally more evolved, though very few are as good as the original SF2 series.
Discuss.

I agree with all of xS' choices except maybe shooters.

Gun games were a definite improvement. The genre stagnated big-time in the 16-bit era aside from a few good games by Nintendo but in the 32-bit era we got amazing stuff like Virtua Cop and the almighty Elemental Gearbolt.

Yeah, I didnt like the feel of modern shooters until I started to get better at them.
And yeah there was no 16 bit light gun game as good as rescue mission.:)

Although I generally prefer 16-bit shooters(mostly Compile's games), some 32-bit era shooters have impressed me greatly like Esprade and Guwange. I can definitely understand those who like the modern shooters more.

The single biggest improvement was racing games. We traded Mode 7 for Daytona and Ridge Racer. Upgrades don't get much better than that.

Wrestling games were done much better in the 32 bit era.

I'd say platformers took a serious dive in quality once the 32/64 bit systems came out. Jumping Flash! was great, and Mario 64 was genius, but almost everything else was crap. Compare this to the great 8/16 bit platformers, like 2D Super Mario, Sonic, Alex Kidd, Castle of Illusion, Mickey Mania, Ristar, the later Wonder Boy games, and so many more. Of course, there was plenty of garbage then, too. And so many other genres had platform elements back then, like shooters, ninja games, adventure games, even beat'em ups (or, as I like to call 'em, 'beaters'). That type of gameplay just doesn't translate easily to 3D gaming.

I think the biggest leap took place in racing games and shooters. I had lost interest in racing games until Daytona came with Saturn and hooked me. With shooters I just find the more detailed and faster 32bit+ games to be a lot more fun than the older ones.

Ugh. I like to pretend that the 32 bit era didn't exist sometimes... It really didn't do much of anything terribly right. Ummmm... Drivers and lightgun shooters were better, but that's about it. Arcade ports were great, but I can't count that because for the most part they were ports of 16 bit games (Gunbird, SF Alpha, etc.).

I found most games to be done better in the 32-bit generation. It is one of my favorite times in gaming and I started back when Space Invaders came out.


I loved the arcade shooters back in the 16-bit days, but I found most of the ones available on a console, were'nt that fun. I enjoyed Gradius III, Star Fox, Galaga 90 and U.N. Squadron, but other than that I felt the arcades had better shooters available, or just provided better hardware to put those games on. Then along came the Saturn and Galactic Attack. The hardware scaling, Redbook audio soundtrack and no slowdown. Most gamers on this board, have tons of praise for the 32-bit shooters provided on the Saturn.


Racing games became a whole new interest in gaming, when the 32-bit generation came about. Titles like Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Daytona, Sega Rally 95, Gran Tourismo and F-ZeroX, were some of the greatest racers of all time.


Sports titles defineatly benefited from the upgraded graphics. When Sony and 989 sports released Gameday, football fans clamoured to play the Playstation. The NBA live series was very succesful and I can't really recall when Basketball games sold so well. Cool Boarders, Tony Hawk and 1080 were big titles in this genera as well.

Fighting games exloded onto the 32-bit market with titles like Street Fighter Alpha, Virtua Fighter 2, Tekken, X-Men:Children of the Atom, Night Warriors and Vampire Savior. Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2, were the only highlights of the 16-bit fighters.


I can say however, that platform gaming did'nt fare as well. Sure there were great titles like Super Mario 64, Burning Rangers, and Jumping Flash, but the rest of the platformers, were easily outshined by those of the past consoles.