re: Was there a better era for gaming than the xbox 360?

It's absolutely generational. I agree with you 100% though, the transition between NES to SNES was mind blowing at the time. I still vividly remember Christmas morning, walking out of my bedroom and into the living room to see that my dad had hooked up the SNES and had Super Mario World on the screen. I couldn't contain my excitement, and the SNES is still my favorite system. Primarily for nostalgia reasons, but it still to this day has very solid rpg games as well as a few action/adventure games that hold up well even by today's standards.

Another big wow moment for me was the PS1. Having true 3D games was crazy at the time. I think my first experience with a truly 3D game was at an electronics store (the name escapes me atm) that had a 3DO on display with a playable demo of some flying shooter game. Can't remember all the details just remember it being a 3DO and young me being blown away by it.

I also agree that the 360 was a game changer in terms of setting the tone and expectations of what to expect out of a modern gaming console. Loads of great games during that era.