What retro games are actually, genuinely worth playing today?

briany

A lot of retro games are enjoyed by collectors for the nostalgic value or their collectibility, but what retro games offer, in your opinion, an experience that remains unmatched by modern offerings in the same genre or franchise? What retro games, do you think, can make you, or indeed anyone, forget they're retro for the duration of playing because they're just so compelling?

johnny_ultimate

While there are scattered timeless classics from earlier times, the SNES / MegaDrive era is the best for this (slightly less so for the PS1/N64 era, although there are still plenty of gems there). It was the peak of 2D development, so that ensured a degree of technological competence and design knowledge that has stood the test of time. Games like Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, Earthbound etc... may have some quirks that would put off modern players, but for the most part they have aged elegantly and confidently.

anything on the 2600

o1s1n

BrownFinger wrote: »

anything on the 2600

Have to make sure they're on an LCD through RF for the full effect

OP - Most of them :pac:

I try to look at it in the same way I would approach film. The question 'what older films are still worth watching today when compared to modern film?' would be just too broad a question to ask. (and a little bit dismissive of all films not released in modern times)

There are quite literally thousands of videogames still worth playing. You're talking about the complete history of videogames. The modern era only makes up a tiny quota of that.

Retr0gamer

Good games don't age, they'll be a good game forever.

Really I think from the NES onwards you can't really go wrong if you go for the highly rated games. Early NES games can be ropey and even before the NES there's some classic older games, especially in the arcades. The early 3D era is a bit ropey, a lot of PS1 and N64 games have aged poorly due to bad framerates and technical issues but then those eras were also some of the most inventive and productive in all of gaming.

There's really no way to but together a definitive list other than to say if it was a good game then, it's a good game now. You don't see people dismissing Led Zepplin or Citizen Kane because they are old.

Retr0gamer

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Good games don't age, they'll be a good game forever.

Hmmmm I dont know about that!
maybe add

Good games don't age, they'll be a good game forever (for their time)

Like goldeneye and perfect dark.
they suck arse to play now :P

Retr0gamer

BrownFinger wrote: »

Like goldeneye and perfect dark.
they suck arse to play now :P

I like this guy.

Digital Solitude

It depends on how much graphics mean towards your enjoyment of a game to me, for a lot of games the gameplay will be missing certain things we're used to but it's normally not gamebreaking, solid gameplay will remian solid gameplay.

The age old adage applies, you can't polish a turd. Crappy modern era games are still crappy, good old games are still good, the main obstacle for me would be graphics.

If it was worth playing before it's worth playing now

CiDeRmAn

The beauty of this modern age is, with a little googling, you can be playing nearly any game from the retro years on your PC.
So there really is no barrier to entry via cost.
Just take a peep at a decent top 50 games of all time list and give them a shot, see what floats your boat and then, being an honest person, buy the original hardware and the game.

Firefox11

To me, retro gaming is a very personal thing and the the retro games I really enjoy reflect this with the games I grew up with.

In the 80's it was the zx spectrum, in the 90's it was Sega and xbox and PC after that.

I really had no interest in nintendo stuff like many others.

I am only now gaining an interest in other platforms of those times so it's great to discover all new stuff that I had never got into in the past.

Dr Bob

BrownFinger wrote: »

anything on the 2600

http://www.8-bitcentral.com/images/reviews/atari2600/warlords2600_tn.jpg
Warlords , 4 Player .it looks a bit simple but its probably one of the best 4 player quick fun games around

CiDeRmAn

Every single era of gaming produces muck.
But at this remove, when we remember the Snes, Gameboy or Megadrive, we remember Dune II, Super Mario World or Tetris, we don't remember Plok, Pitfighter or the gods awful conversion of Road Rash on the Gameboy.
But, the suggestion is that, shorn of nostalgia, old games are p1ss poor compared to current games.
This is patently false.
Old games can be just as enjoyable, yes, some overstretch the hardware, meaning that Stunt Race FX looks and plays terribly now, but others remain as good as they ever did.
Yes, you may have to overcome learning an idiosyncratic control scheme, but that was typical for the era and is a no barrier with a little practice.
Looking at the early days of 3D can be a struggle, games like Perfect Dark and Goldeneye were best known for their competitive multiplayer gameplay and this has suffered in comparison to modern titles, and the games look very dated indeed even in their extensive single player campaigns, but others, like Doom and Wolfenstein, still do what they do well, another good example is Aliens Vs Predator and it's sequel on PC, still a lot of fun.
Pre HD days gave us the GC, Xbox, DC and PS2, and there is a lifetime of great gaming on those machines, too many to mention here even in a shortlist, Luigi's Mansion, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Under Defeat and Cold Winter to name one from each system that remain my favourites, no nostalgia required.

The thing is, and this will become more apparent over time, the modern console is very expensive to develop for, particularly if you are aiming for a AAA title. This results in fewer risks being taken and, in the best case, ongoing refinement of currently successful franchises, like Dark Souls 3 and Battlefield 1, and in the worst case an annual release of increasingly uninspiring genre/sports titles, Need for Speed, Fifa for example.
Risk taking is now at a minimum, with the best of it having been seen, perhaps, on the PS2, similar maybe on the PS3/360, but a vaccuum of worthy titles on the XB1/PS4 that dare to take the games player to the kind of places Capcom or Konami used to take us.
Perhaps only Nintendo dare to experiment, with the recent Star Fox Zero being an example, and we can see where that led, players unwilling to invest a little time to become accustomed the controls, instead becoming frustrated and moving onto the next easily digested piece of pap from EA/Ubisoft/Activision.

May have wandered off of the point a bit....

Rant over!!!

Retro games are life!!!

Glenster

Retr0gamer wrote: »

. You don't see people dismissing Led Zepplin or Citizen Kane because they are old.

Urgh, the two most overrated things in existence.

o1s1n

Glenster wrote: »

Urgh, the two most overrated things in existence.

I was going to write a very long reply to this, but in the end realised the phrase 'you are wrong' would suffice.

You are wrong.

:pac:

Hank Scorpio

Some retro games look better than their modern equivalents, Yoshi's Island springs to mind.

mcmoustache

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

Some retro games look better than their modern equivalents, Yoshi's Island springs to mind.

I had that game for the snes and I was blown away by the crayon-style graphics at the time.

I play it on my PC and on my 3ds these days and guess what? It still looks great.

I think that some of the art designers that worked on snes games had a real talent working within their limitations. Donkey Kong Country series, Super Mario World, Zelda and Chrono Trigger immediately spring to mind. There's more that I can't think of right now.

Other games, even if they were great back in the day, can look a bit shíte. An example of this would be Mario Kart. Before people start sharpening their pitch-forks, I still play this game as it's the only mariokart game where I can beat my partner. I've been playing it for over 20 years and have no plans to stop - the powerslide is simply the best. All that said, I'm not sure that a new player would appreciate the graphics. They could probably trigger epilepsy and I think that people might instead prefer to play the later gen versions from the n64 and GC.

So yeah, loads of good stuff out there for the snes. Just try out the ones in top 20 or top 50 lists to get a taste.

CiDeRmAn

No one prefers Mario Kart 64, you've nothing to worry about there!

But, in terms of building visuals out of pixels and sprites instead of polygons, the art was perfected back in the early to mid 90's, resulting in some simply sublime games, many of which have been mentioned here.
Polygonal games date quicker as the hardware is still being perfected but the equivalent of "limiting the palette" has resulted in the likes of Viewtiful Joe and even Silent Hill 2, games which still look and play well some 15 years later, as they were never testing the limits of their host hardware so they never had graphical glitches to break the spell.
Photorealism really should never be the goal, instead the ability for the creative person to bring their ideas to life, without limitation, or to create using the limitations as a frame, some amazing work has been seen on consoles that have no business looking so good, from Lemmings on the Gameboy to Virtua Racing on the Megadrive, from the aforementioned Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 to Gran Turismo on the PS1.

Retr0gamer

At the last stag I had a drunken argument with some one that insisted that Ocarina of Time looked better than Link to the Past.

****

right

off

Lukeskyrunner

I know a guy that's a big Final Fantasy fan but wont touch FF6 because of the graphics even though its the best FF game in the series , of course alot of it has to do with nostalga but there are some games on the nes and snes that I will always love

NES

Super Mario 3

Castlevania series with Simon's Quest(Cas 2) being a personal favourite of mine

Megaman series with Megaman 2 being the best

Batman

Shadow warrior also called ninja gaiden

Punch Out

Kirbys adventure

Jackie Chans action kungfu

SNES

Whilst zelda was popular on the nes, It didnt really do it for me. I thought the graphics and what it was trying to achieve was a bit too complicated for an 8 bit system . Zelda 3 on the snes is a completely different story and one of my favourite games of all time, in fact I would say its the best Zelda game ever

Super mario world

Castlevania 4

Super ghouls and ghosts

Contra

Super metroid

Secret of mana

Chrono Trigger

Final fantasy 6

Shadow run(amazing game that went under the radar)

Mario kart

There are others but the above are my personal favourites

Lukeskyrunner

Prince of persia on the snes was another favourite of mine

Retr0gamer

It's probably the best version as well, Konami expanded it out with a lot of new levels.

Lukeskyrunner

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's probably the best version as well, Konami expanded it out with a lot of new levels.

what order would you put super ghouls and ghosts, super cas 4 and prince of persia in. I find it very difficult

Lukeskyrunner

Actraiser was another classic snes game

Retr0gamer

Picking between a GnG game and a Vania game is Sophie's Choice to me. I won't make it!

Linoud

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Every single era of gaming produces muck.
But at this remove, when we remember the Snes, Gameboy or Megadrive, we remember Dune II, Super Mario World or Tetris, we don't remember Plok, Pitfighter or the gods awful conversion of Road Rash on the Gameboy.
But, the suggestion is that, shorn of nostalgia, old games are p1ss poor compared to current games.
This is patently false.
Old games can be just as enjoyable, yes, some overstretch the hardware, meaning that Stunt Race FX looks and plays terribly now, but others remain as good as they ever did.
Yes, you may have to overcome learning an idiosyncratic control scheme, but that was typical for the era and is a no barrier with a little practice.
Looking at the early days of 3D can be a struggle, games like Perfect Dark and Goldeneye were best known for their competitive multiplayer gameplay and this has suffered in comparison to modern titles, and the games look very dated indeed even in their extensive single player campaigns, but others, like Doom and Wolfenstein, still do what they do well, another good example is Aliens Vs Predator and it's sequel on PC, still a lot of fun.
Pre HD days gave us the GC, Xbox, DC and PS2, and there is a lifetime of great gaming on those machines, too many to mention here even in a shortlist, Luigi's Mansion, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Under Defeat and Cold Winter to name one from each system that remain my favourites, no nostalgia required.

The thing is, and this will become more apparent over time, the modern console is very expensive to develop for, particularly if you are aiming for a AAA title. This results in fewer risks being taken and, in the best case, ongoing refinement of currently successful franchises, like Dark Souls 3 and Battlefield 1, and in the worst case an annual release of increasingly uninspiring genre/sports titles, Need for Speed, Fifa for example.
Risk taking is now at a minimum, with the best of it having been seen, perhaps, on the PS2, similar maybe on the PS3/360, but a vaccuum of worthy titles on the XB1/PS4 that dare to take the games player to the kind of places Capcom or Konami used to take us.
Perhaps only Nintendo dare to experiment, with the recent Star Fox Zero being an example, and we can see where that led, players unwilling to invest a little time to become accustomed the controls, instead becoming frustrated and moving onto the next easily digested piece of pap from EA/Ubisoft/Activision.

May have wandered off of the point a bit....

Rant over!!!

Retro games are life!!!

Gonna be a right bollox/clown and say I enjoyed Plok and think it's good. I generally agree with the rest of your post tough.

CiDeRmAn

Yeah, I know Plok has it's fans, seems to have been named by someone who knew nothing about marketing though!

Plok is good, but it's no Rise of the Robots...

Retr0gamer

I thought everyone liked Plok. Even Shigeru Miyamoto congratulated the Pickford brothers on it and told them he loved it.

Glenster

Retr0gamer wrote: »

At the last stag I had a drunken argument with some one that insisted that Ocarina of Time looked better than Link to the Past.

****

right

off

Who gets the mushroom after they've gotten a fancy new tunic?

YOURE PLAYING WRONG

um7y1h83ge06nx

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Just take a peep at a decent top 50 games of all time list and give them a shot, see what floats your boat and then, being an honest person, buy the original hardware and the game.

So, what would be a good list that's out there already?

Retr0gamer

You can always look at top 20-50 lists or whatever but the problem with them is they'll be mostly populist lists, you won't get any of the hidden gems listed which makes playing old games interesting.

Very few lists of SNES games will include the likes of DoReMi Fantasy etc.

CathalDublin

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

Some retro games look better than their modern equivalents, Yoshi's Island springs to mind.

And GTA

This is what I still think of when someone mentions GTA


WTF is this?

Lukeskyrunner

what order would you put these in Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Zelda 3, Secret of Mana

For me

Final Fantasy 6
Zelda 3
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Mana

But I love them all

Glenster

Lukeskyrunner wrote: »

what order would you put these in Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Zelda 3, Secret of Mana

For me

Final Fantasy 6
Zelda 3
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Mana

But I love them all

Zelda has to be number one. Its certainly the most unique of the four.

CiDeRmAn

They are all great, but Zelda isn't an RPG, it's an action adventure.
Otherwise Chronotrigger is simply superb

Linoud

Unfortunately I've yet to run through Chrono Trigger fully, I played it once many years ago but we're talking at least 10 years now or so. Definitely a game I keep meaning to try acquire. :L

CiDeRmAn

I happened across it on Amazon I think, a US copy and it's great.... I have yet to play it through though... don't tell anyone!

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I happened across it on Amazon I think, a US copy and it's great.... I have yet to play it through though... don't tell anyone!

Your size 1 text was not small enough! I'm currently on the way to your house and am going to sit beside you until you've achieved one of the good endings :pac:

Hank Scorpio

FF6 is my favorite game of all time. There is something about it words can't really describe I remember years ago going to the pub and buying a rake of cans for the final battle because I was anxious the game was about to end, sounds somewhat psychotic I guess. It's incredible. It drew me in so hard, I didn't know it was possible for a game to do that.

I originally imported the cart, then I got the box, then the manual and eventually the map. Cost a bomb but I don't care, it's simply one game I'll never part with.

Chrono Trigger, LTTP and SoM are unique in their own way, and all incredible games.

o1s1n

Chrono Trigger, FF VI and ALTTP... the Super Nintendo really was one amazing little grey box, wasn't it?

Anyone who likes the above and hasn't played Phantasy Star IV on the Megadrive really needs to do so at some point. I'd go so far as to say it's in the same league as the above holy trinity. Which is no easy feat.

CiDeRmAn

And as for Retro games that aren't worth playing, Streets of Rage and Golden Axe are obvious candidates for the gaming dustbin....

5rtytry56

Prince of Persia series.

Poor old ZOOL.

Lukeskyrunner

Shadow run on the snes was a brilliant game that didn't get the recognition it deserved , anyone that likes RPGs this game is up there with FF6 and Chrono trigger , Brillant brilliant game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDxFONbYEhY

CiDeRmAn

I remember Shadowrun on the Snes being kind of a big deal upon release, and selling well, if not here then in the States.
I know the Megadrive title of the same name wasn't as well received though.

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I remember Shadowrun on the Snes being kind of a big deal upon release, and selling well, if not here then in the States.
I know the Megadrive title of the same name wasn't as well received though.

The mega drive title was well received but gets a bad rap for not being the snes game these days. It's not as immediately good but it's a cracking game all the same. It's much closer to the actual tabletop game and is a rare example of an actual open world sandbox RPG on the 16 bit systems.

Alter Egotist

Crisis Force on the original famicom is still one of my favourite schumps of all time and often my go to game if I have time to spare.

super_furry

Most SNES era JRPGs. Playing through the translated version of Seiken Densetsu 3 at the moment and it's brilliant and has aged a hell of a lot better than similar games from the 32bit era.

Pirates Gold on the Megadrive will always be a game I can pick up and play, losing hours to.

animaal

I think most of the classic games were designed to take advantage of their platform - not ported from a more powerful platform! And usually without having to be tied to a script/port, allowing a talented designer to tweak/change as required.

So, for example, the old ZX Spectrum could do scrolling, but it was so CPU-intensive that it was hard to do right without sacrificing other elements. So some of the best games were designed not to do live scrolling - Manic Miner, Target Renegade, Knight Lore.

in the 16-bit days, the hardware was powerful enough to do 3D, but not easily. However, 2D games were well within the platforms' capability, with smooth scrolling etc - Sensible Soccer, Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario World.


* (Of course there are exceptions - Elite, R-Type on the 8-bits, Starglider, Starfox on the 16-bits)

CiDeRmAn

I was playing Mercenary, Elite and Starglider on my Spectrum 48k just fine, and when the developers put the effort in, you got Uridium on the format too.

Johnmcgee97

Every supermario game every made on every Nintendo. And that games where you race on a motorbike and break people up with bats/nunchucks that used to be on the segamegadrive

New generation consoles should put more emphasise on remakes

Digital Solitude

Johnmcgee97 wrote: »

Every supermario game every made on every Nintendo. And that games where you race on a motorbike and break people up with bats/nunchucks that used to be on the segamegadrive

New generation consoles should put more emphasise on remakes

5rtytry56

speaking of the Spectrum, CHAOS by Julian Gollop is still played by me occasionally. A new game based on this was recently released, forget the name.