Many of the old Sierra and Dynamix adventure games are great. Kings Quest IV through VII are probably the ones that hold up best. The adventures of Willy Beamish, Heart of China, Police Quest and Space Quest.
Rollercoaster Tycoon. Super chill game, you just manage amusement parks and build rollercoasters. Openrct2 is an updated engine for it, which supports modern high resolution screens, but requires a copy of the game for the art assets.
Thanks to the community, you can download all of the RCT1, 2, and expansion campaigns in RCT3
It’s not super old, but the original BioShock is one of those games that you can point to and say “this is art”. It’s an amazing exploration of Ann Rand, capitalism, addiction, art, deregulation, unions, and greed, all with the most beautiful art deco levels. The mechanics of the powers you get are tied into the themes and your choices of how to acquire them are in themselves a statement of the self vs others. It’s well thought out from the ground up, from aesthetic choices to narrative ones, and one of the few games that absolutely nails it.
I enjoy the gameplay of the second one even better, though I feel the attempt to explore collectivism doesn’t fit as well by using the same motifs as the first one, the dlc Minerva’s Den has the most tragic exploration of identity and the singularity out there.
The third is fun to play but I think they were trying to explore too much of everything at once, between America, racism, classism, quantum states and everything else, and unlike the first two, the mechanics of the plasmids didn’t really lend anything to the story. The dlc is fun, but rewrote a poignant lesson from the base game and watered it down.
I’ll add that while the remastered version of BioShock looks and plays somewhat better, the “improved” lighting completely destroys the original atmosphere. Keep that in mind if you’re trying this game for the first time.
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Conker Bad Fur Day (live and reloaded)
Halo 1,2 3
Mass Effect Trilogy
Guitar Hero/Rockband
Battlefield Bad Company 1/2
Castle Crashers
THPS 1/2/3 THUG 1/2
If Little Big Planet for the PS3 and PS4 ever get a proper sequel or remaster, or the Restitched developers ever actually put out that spiritual successor it would be a no-brainer. It was a magical game series for me that was not only very fun to play but also inspired creative and logical thinking with the intricate community level maker tools built into the game. Especially LBP2 with its logic gate and microchip implementations. When I took real engineering classes I was familiar with many high level concepts just because I screwed around with them in a video game as a child. Crazy.
It was also a very cute and well done aesthetic. The gorgeous background enviroments and the little sack boy character you play as. The vibrant collection of music. It was very unique.
Star wars Jedi Knight: Outcast and Jedi Knight: Academy.
I’m not really much of a Star wars fan and I looooved those fucking games.
Xenogears - My favorite RPG, a little rough in the later acts because of publisher shenanigans, but the story is still good and the gameplay, other than turn based being uncommon now still holds up. (Nier Automata is one of the few more recent games that taps on some of the feelings and concepts Xenogears has in spades)
Worms Armageddon - Less common suggestion, but a fantastically fun game to play with multiple people, even with one controller, since you can pass it around by turn.
Quake 1 - despite my two turn based suggestions FPS is my favorite genre. Quake 1 blends things like lovecraftian and body horror into the environment. And the re-release Bethesda has done is really well done.
Doom 1 + 2 - just for the history lesson. Also has a re-release now that makes it much more playable. Still fun too.
Planescape Torment - You’ll want to be a particular person for this one. I don’t have the patience for isometric rpgs like this one, but the story is great.
Diablo 2 - Pinnacle of isometric action RPG. Wasn’t my cup of tea but if you like the genre, it’ll be a winner.
Day of the Tentacle - point and click adventure, but fun and not quite as obtuse as a lot of them. Will make you think still and the evil tentacle is funny imo. Remaster available on steam too.
Freddy Pharkis Frontier Pharmacist - Another point and click, this one is a selfish add, I mostly add it because I played it a lot and liked it. It may not be the pinnacle of anything, but I found it fun.
Half-Life 1 and 2 - fantastic and fun both. They tap into some things that other FPS still today can’t touch. Really fantastic games.
Vagrant Story - It’s hard. It won’t hold your hand. But it is a good story and interesting leveling/armor/weapon system.
Solstice - NES wizard game. It’s a fun and somewhat difficult dungeon crawler/platformer.
Sonic 1,2,3 - Classics.
Chrono Trigger - Classic RPG
Final Fantasy 6 and 7 - Classic RPGs
Age of Empires / Age of Mythology - Great Turn based Strategy
Thief - The original games have some clunk to them but they are still fun.
Descent - Probably my favorite 6DOF game.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - probably the best of the Heroes games. Good fun turn based adventure game.
The Incredible Machine - A puzzle game where you figure out logical components, I played the Incredible Toon Machine a lot as a kid which is a cartoonish version.
System Shock - Another classic game. I haven’t actually played the original, but am playing the remake. You cN look at both and decide what you’d prefer.
Lemmings - another unique puzzle game. Save the lemmings from themselves, they will walk to their doom.
Yakuza - The series is great and I’d recommend the remakes over the original. Starting on zero isn’t required (It’s a newer prequel) but it’s a good start. The games are all similar in play, so take breaks between them. And the best parts are all the side stories. Seriously, all the fun is there imo. Main story is fun but side stories are more of a draw to me and generally hilarious.
Elder Scrolls III - New TES games are still fun, but they lost a lot of the soul the series had and it gets worse every time. Still fun for what they are, but Morrowind was a unique gem. Fair warning though, it does have it’s rough edges.
A few newer ones because I can’t tell where to cut things off lol:
STALKER - FPS, a bit buggy, but really excellent game. Especially with difficulty mods added. Blends in spookiness, the feeling of being alone, and fun action. Part 2 is set to drop within the next year or so. The invasion of Ukraine has made dev difficult and slower.
FEAR - FPS, this first game is still good fun, the sequels aren’t worth the piss I would take on them.
Mirror’s Edge - The first one is fantastic, just don’t focus on fighting (you’re a runner not a fighter). The first and best First Person Runner game. I replayed it not long ago and still loved it.
Portal - Unique, fun, funny.
Metro 2033 - start of an excellent series. Loved the games, and then the books.
OK I should stop. In general I would suggest playing the remastered versions of any of these games. Many of the originals are victims of their times and did they best they could with what they had while defining what made a game good. The older the game the more likelihood you’ll run into immersion breaking or game ruining designs. We had to tolerate that to find the gems in the rough. You don’t have to do that.
FEAR is still to this day, a well done game. Very enjoyable and still tough
Trepang2 is it’s spiritual sucessor
Xenogears is one of my all time favorites.
I grew up playing BG1 and 2 and have replayed them as an adult. However, I just can’t get into planescape for some reason.
Age of Empires and Age of Mythology should be RTS games instead of turn based like Civilization
Yeah, just mistyped
Starwars Knights of the old Republic 1 and 2 they are on steam and kotar 1 can be played on a phone. AC blackflag. Dragon age origins. If you want a more specific recommendation based on a old gaming system let me know.
Look up a top 25 list for the SNES and play every one of them
Yea well ever since they did a huge crackedown on emulation. No thanks other wise I would download the shit out of them.
NoIntro Romsets on Archive.org for roms.
4chan’s Emulation General thread wiki for emulators etc.
They only care as far as going after large targets running rom sites (archive is much more than that, so they skirt by) and emulation of modern consoles (they go after the devs). They will never go after an individual just direct downloading and emulating shit.
Well, if you can afford it, the SNES classic has most of the stuff worth playing, with a couple of curiosities thrown in.
Believe it or not and I am showing my age but still own an SNES . And that was the last system I have ever bought.
Super Metroid because it’s amazing, and Castlevania Symphony of the Night for the same reason. I may be biased because those are two of my favorites ever but I swear they legit hold up.
I played super Metroid for the first time in 2019 and it was amazing. Felt like it hadn’t aged at all and the atmosphere was incredible
Ummm do not know who would disagree with you about Super Metriod but that is my go to game when I am sick of the stupid shit that is being pushed out today.
As someone who didn’t play them back in the day, I feel like SotN holds up but Super Metroid doesn’t. Just as another opinion. I couldn’t really get into metroid fusion either. To me it feels like the moment-to-moment action gameplay is too clunky in the early metroid games I’ve played, even if the exploration element is neat. I did enjoy playing SotN for the first time a couple of years ago though. It’s been a while since I played either, so they’re not totally fresh in my memory - I guess it’s possible that I’m just more forgiving of clunky melee combat than clunky shooting.
Tangentially related, always amuses me how “metroidvania” has become the genre name, when originally it was just a way that reviewers poked fun at the big change between SotN and earlier castlevanias. They were like “this isn’t what I expect from a castlevania, it’s a great game but maybe they should have named it metroidvania”, and the name stuck. Another odd fact about that terminology is that according to interviews, the SotN designer never played metroid - they were inspired by the non-linear exploration with different routes opened up by items/upgrades in Zelda games (although obviously adding that to castlevania’s platformer gameplay makes it more closely resemble metroid). So it should probably be considered a zeldavania.
Katamari Damacy for the spectacle of it. Wait for a switch sale and let your mind be blown.
There are also 3 of them on PC and are quite cheap.
Age of Empires II
The remaster is one of the few remasters that are not just a rip-off.
The C&C remasters also did an excellent job
Thief 1 - 3.
I must admit I’ve never seen or played these. They might be a bit too new for me. I listened to an interview with the game designer on the retro hour a while back. It sounded intriguing.
Would you care to give an elevator pitch on why these are must-play?
The open world concepts for each level.
The story is found and told through other characters. A lot of the story is shown rather than told.
Thief 3 has the most horrific level design ever in the orphanage. A game review had a review (really more of a worship piece) just on that one level. (I think this is the review: https://www.pcgamer.com/journeying-into-the-cradle-in-thief-deadly-shadows/)
The stealth mechanics actually require stealth and are multivariate. Most stealth games stealth systems now are actually less advanced.
They’re great games.
I came here to say this! These games are highly underrated. Amazing story and world building, actually having to be sneaky even with low level enemies, amazing music, these were always my top faves.
Need for Speed Underground 2 was great came. Not sure how much nostalgia ia in there but it just felt good for a racer.
Bloons TD holds a special place in my heart and so does Runescape.
I know I am old and you don’t have to call me it but F Zero was my first forway into racing.
I loved F-Zero on the SNES and an old game called PoD: Planet of Death on the family PC.
