The PS1 generation I suppose, the japanese game industry was really on their highest back then and released so many excellent games. The SNES/Mega Drive generation was pretty great too.
Thinking about the current generation, here are all the games I really enjoyed and played thru multiple times. So we had a bunch of nice games, but this list never had so few JRPGs as it does now. It's been a very weak JRPG generation unfortunately.
Spoiler
Alpha Protocol
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City
Bayonetta
Binary Domain
Bioshock
Bioshock 2
Bioshock Infinite
Bulletstorm
Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut
Dishonored
Dragon Age: Origins
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
FEAR (shame the sequels were so much worse)
Ghost Trick
Hitman: Blood Money
Left 4 Dead 2
Lost Odyssey
Mass Effect (easily the best game in the series)
Mirror's Edge
Ni no Kuni
Nier
Portal
Portal 2
Radiant Historia
Rainbow Six: Las Vegas
Rayman Origins
Resonance of Fate
Saints Row: The Third
Star Ocean: The Last Hope International
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Witcher
The Witcher 2
Valkyria Chronicles
Vanquish
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
Way of the Samurai 3
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Xenoblade Chronicles
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4