@Webene Well, I don't really think about it. Games of that era were games of that era, and gaming has changed since then. I feel strange and a bit of nostalgia when I see (mostly indie) new games returning to the aesthetics and gameplay of the "then" times, like, dunno, Broforce, VVVVV, or of the later 16bit era, like Spelunky. Would I trade my Mass Effect for my International Karate+? Nope. I would sacrifice neither, but could also not choose "what's the better of the two", since I had fun with both and they were both great experiences. With a difference of about 20 years between them.
I'll try to explain the feeling in another, more manly-man way: think that you've found an issue of Playboy. You look at it, you open it and start peering at those beautiful girls. Man, oh man, that redhead, you could marry that one. You close the mag and look at the cover more closely: "1973"...
"What was good then" doesn't mean that the same thing wouldn't be good now. But things changed and simply "got different" in many ways as the years passed. A photo of a beautiful young girl from 1973 depicts a beautiful young girl today as well. But if you search for the girl, herself, you may find out she's your aunt today :-D
Dunno if you "get it" the way I'm trying to explain it. We live an awesome era for gaming. It would be nice if we could have our Mass Effects 20 years ago, but we couldn't, because we didn't have the tech, the whole "game design mindset" wasn't at a level that could have produced a Mass Effect, it simply couldn't be. Today we CAN have both our Mass Effects and our Ms. Pac-Mans, and its nice when I see some devs going the second way, giving priority to gameplay, tough difficulty, fun for fun's sake, and not to glossy graphics. But I ALSO want my glossy graphics, too, and when I trake a break from re-playing Rick Dangerous I like my Lara Croft with hair shaders :-D