There are entire genres that I think in many ways have passed younger gamers by.
Point and click adventures were the biggest thing in the world at one point. The classics are the Lucas Arts entries, like Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, The Dig (both based on unused Spielberg pitches), the Monkey Island games, Full Throttle, Day of The Tentacle and Loom. You’ve also got Myst and Riven (Riven being the far superior of the two), and my personal favourite, The Longest Journey, which has an absolutely stellar story and really compelling protagonist with a lot of depth to her. Also, positive queer representation in a nineties game, holy shit.
The next lost nineties genre is the space sim. The kings of the genre were Wing Commander and X-Wing/Tie Fighter. Then you’ve got Privateer and later Freelancer. For the Wing Commander games read a summary of 1 and 2, then jump in with 3, the first to feature FMV with Mark Hamill as the player character (genuinely an excellent performance too, he took the role really seriously and saw it as every bit as important a scifi property as Star Wars). John Rhys Davies (Gimli) and Malcolm McDowell also make appearances.
And of course, the classic nineties FPS, a genre that feels very, very different from modern FPS games, though there have been some good attempts to recreate it. You know Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D (the latter does not hold up; the former absolutely does), but also check out Heretic, Hexen, Rise of The Triad, and most importantly, IMO, the Marathon games. These were the precedessors of the Halo series, and they combined really solid action with a genuinely amazing story. It’s the kind of big, high concept that you rarely get in movies, TV shows and games, with a world that the writers clearly put a tonne of thought into, and some characters who will stick with you long after the game is over.
Finally, some stuff that doesn’t really fit any of the above. Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret are isometric action shooters with some fun storytelling and LOTS of explosions. If you get them on GOG be sure to download and read all the supplementary material, it really fleshes out the world and the characters. System Shock probably doesn’t even need mentioning with the recent remake, but the originals truly hold up, especially with the UI and controls polish Nightdive added. Syndicate and Syndicate Wars are very hard to explain, but they’re really fun (That said, I’ll give an even stronger recommendation to their modern spiritual successor, Satellite Reign, which deepened the gameplay significantly while still retaining all of the spirit).
There’s plenty more, obviously, but that’s what immediately comes to mind as worth checking out.
Oh yeah, the Crusader games were fun. They probably also aged well. OK, their controls are really annoying and weird, and you kind of have to “cheat” a bit in that game at some points (e.g. by shooting an enemy outside of the screen, so it can’t shoot back, otherwise some situations are really hard). But yeah, fun games, great action, many explosions and mayhem. And since it’s isometric 2D graphics there’s nothing really bad about them either. Except maybe for resolution or aspect issues. Also good sound/music.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
How old? Heretic, Zork, Nethack, Metroid Zero ( it’s basically OG Metroid with quality of life upgrades). On the old Nokia, we had snake…
Sorry to let you down but Super Metroid sorry to burst your bubble but while NES may have had Metroid it was not the GOAT before the term was instituted.
“OG” means “Original Gangster”, like first of its kind.
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.
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.
Star Wars knights of the old republic 1 and 2
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
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.
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.
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
Portal, Final Fantasy, StarCraft, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Half-life 2, Portal 2, COD Modern Warfare… to begin with
Portal
Surprised to only see this mentioned a couple of times in here. This and the sequel are probably the two games I would recommend everyone play, gamers and non-gamers alike. They’re just that good and easy to get into from a controls perspective.
Most likely because we people >30 don’t see it as an older game. =D
