Steel, rigid, elegant. I'm building up a 1992 Kona Kilauea but, for obscure reasons, have also acquired a cheap and complete Kona Fire Mountain (almost the same geometry but heavier) and it's a revelation. I found my 2013 Kona Cinder Cone very disappointing to ride - it was fairly light but very stodgy to ride, and the fork lockout didn't really do much when riding on the road. Probably OK for chucking down a rocky slope but not much good for anything else. The Fire Mountain looks better and you can actually ride out of the saddle without it pogoing. And you don't have to bleed the sodding brakes every six months when the fluid swells up and the rear brake starts to drag.
I think MTB design reached a kind of apogee around 1992/93, just before they all went fat-tubed and bouncy. V-brakes were slightly later, I think, and are much easier to set up than cantilevers* so I'll maybe extend that timeline a little. It no doubt sells bikes but makes them ugly and horrible for general use. This may be why an early 90s MTB in decent condition sells for as much as a nearly new one on the Bay of Thieves. They don't make them like that any more, there's nothing expensive to wear out like suspension, and a 25 year old steel frame is usually a good bet - a well-used aluminium one less so.
*there are two theories for the introduction of V-brakes; one is that they don't need cable stops so are easy to fit to a suspension frame but the other is a product liability one; a conventional cantilever setup (straddle cable and yoke) on a bike without mudguards can throw you over the bars if the cable from the front brake lever snaps, as the straddle catches the knobbly tyre. Mind you, I've never broken a brake cable.