For me it’s Chrono Trigger. I always want to play it. I want to show it to my children. I hope it will be regarded as a masterpiece for generations to come.
Super Mario World! It holds up remarkably well even by modern platformer standards. It feels great, looks great, and is a blast to explore.
Super Mario World
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
From the art to the music to the plot to the gameplay, it’s just iconic.
Was looking for this!
In no particular order:
Chrono Trigger
Binding of Isaac Rebirth
myhouse.wad (I know it came out this year, but goddamn it’s good)
Yoshi’s Island
Super Mario All-Stars + World (cheating maybe?)
Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3
Terranigma
OMORI (also recent, but also damn good)
LoZ: Majora’s Mask
Pokemon 2nd gen (could totally just be nostalgia talking right here)
Tetris
Super Smash Bros Melee
Mario Kart 64
Also I keep coming back to yashum’s Call of Cthulhu SMW hack.
The tank game on Wii Sports (reminiscent of Atari Tanks but coop)
PS1 Final Fantasy Tactics (especially with mods, particularly FFT 1.3)
PC Master of Magic (especially with community mods, Caster of Magic is a favorite)
SNES Super Mario World
SNES Super Bomber Man
Mega man X! The musics are so fucking good
Mega Man X has aged so fucking well. The controls still feel so tight. There are hidden secrets in the levels, and the ultimate secret if you find all of them.
This was the first game.i ever played, so I’m definitely biased, but this is still probably my favorite game of all time.
I even learned many of the songs on guitar.
Can’t believe Nethack doesn’t top the list.
The Jak and Daxter series. Gameplay still holds up, story and world building still holds up, and it’s been made easily available to later generations of consoles. Heck even the in-game animations hold up shockingly well, Jak’s movement feels so fluid and organic compared to a lot of other older games that tend to feel a bit janky compared to modern games.
Older games in the Ratchet and Clank series also hold up pretty well too, though they’re a bit harder to access unless they’ve been made available on the ps4/ps5 since I last played them, otherwise I have to dig out my ps3 to play the first 3 games.
I replay both game series pretty regularly and they’re always equally as fun to play no matter how many years have passed.
Tetris. Straight original is so simple accessible and addictive. I really haven’t cared for much else they done with it since. It was perfection also out the gate.
Also, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I can play it anytime, anyplace. The gameplay, music, graphics even today just feel so go for being 2D
For Tetris, Game boy version or is there a different console you feel is definitive ?
I had it on original Nintendo. But the Gameboy version is almost the same (to my knowledge) just without the color pallet.
Also the story of Tetris and how it got lisenced is crazy. The new Tetris movie is a fun (albeit with Hollywood coat of paint) recount.
They made a film about Tetris, that’s bizarre.
Yes, yes they did. It’s actually a pretty fun watch.
It deals with the licensing fiasco that occurred when the game released.
Many companies saw the potential in the game’s popularity and so an all out bidding war/competition for rights occurred between Soviet Government, Bulletproof, Holobyte, Mirrorsoft and most notably Nintendo.
It’s probably an interesting story, it’s just funny what they bother making films about sometimes. Like that McDonald’s film.
Fallout 1 and 2. I’ve played them so many times over the decades. FF7 and Baldurs gate 1&2 are others I’ve done a few times.
Probably really obscure but, Re-Volt. However I know a lot of people had it for PS1. Being a RC car racing game the graphics feel kind of appropriate.
My parents didn’t want to/couldn’t buy me a Nintendo + Mario kart. My dad did get this game from someone he knew and it was instantly my absolute favorite.
I think I remember playing it on all Windows OS versions since Win95. It’s somewhat been revived today, with a niche community on discord.
<edit> Here’s the link for their discord. All the info and other websites are there if you’re interested. You can play online and people organize tournaments from time to time with classic and custom tracks!
No PC? No problem. There’s an android client that works cross platform with PC. rvgl.com - new and improved client for PC and the apk for android (as well as other OSs/Platforms)
Also from Acclaim, Bots! was an amazing game for it’s time… Again, there are some revivals.
I love these old games (not quite retro yet though) that have been revived and are held together by the community.
I’ve thought about starting a YouTube channel for these kind of revival projects but I don’t think there’s enough content to justify it. I love watching/reading stuff about this though.
Skyrim, actually. It’s quite dated by today’s standards, but just recently I started another playthrough on a whim and ended up playing 20h or so even though I’ve played the game a bunch of times for several hundreds of hours throughout the years already.
Half Life 2 still looks and plays fantastic even nearly decades later
Half life 1 also! May be the graphics are a bit dated, but for that is the Black Mesa verdion
I never played the original one because the graphics are such a turn off. I’m considering buying the black mesa fan project though. Graphics are from the Source Engine (HL2 essentially) which are way a lot better, even if slightly outdated today.
I started playing Valve games with HL2, and didn’t play HL1 until the Black Mesa game came out. I highly recommend. It’s a fantastic game and the story made bolder choices than the new games. It really gives a sense of wonder in parts, especially on the back half of the story.
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Mike Tyson’s Punchout. I still play it occasionally as an adult and it’s still just as fun as when I was a kid.
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