Ranking the best vintage video games (25 years or older)
If you think a game should be higher or lower in ranking, then upvote or downvote it. If you don't see a game on the list that you think should be on the list then create a top level reply with the name and system.
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Half-Life
Bloody hell, I didn't realize it's that old. I played it in high school, feels like yesterday.
Play Black Mesa, you deserve it. Not only it's Half-Life like you've never seen it, but there's also a completed Xen campaign.
I did, it's amazing. Also just replayed HL2 with some fancy graphics mod, pretty cool stuff.
Yeah, this is the make us feel old thread.
We’re only a couple months from the launch lineup for the ps2 qualifying here.
My hope is that this becomes a living document that will show up in search engines and make people aware of lemmy and can be reffered to when people ask "what should i play?" Thats why the title says "best" instead of "most popular." There's a lot of hidden gems posted already.
My thought when reading the title of the thread was "If Half-Life fits the bill, it's half life."
Revolutionary game.
Chrono Trigger - SNES, 1995
I hear people say all the time that it is perfect. It definitely has imperfections.
However while I will insist on it being imperfect it has still been my number one favorite game for at least two decades.
It is easily the closest to perfect I think you could possibly ask for with the hardware limitations and the fact that teams don't have magical infinite time or budgets. Anyone with even a slight interest in RPGs should play it.
Plus it gave us the musical career of Yasunori Mitsuda
The SNES library of RPGs will always be peak gaming. Chrono Trigger & Earthbound fight for the top spot for me, #3 depends on the day.
PS1's rpg library is nothing to scoff at, either. Square's golden years (3 mainline final fantasy, tactics, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve and more), Suikoden, Persona, Breath of Fire 3, Valkyrie Profile.
Best JRPG of all time and I’ll die on that hill 🤣
I never played it, what are everyone's thoughts on the 2018 pc version? Some reviews don't like the port?
Super Mario Bros 3 - NES
This game was huge. People that weren’t around at the time don’t understand how much better it was than previous games.
They made a freaking MOVIE to promote it!
And that stupid glove.
Looking back, boy did they have vision. I get that the Power Glove wasn't all it was cracked up to be but Nintendo really saw early on how we want to interact with our machines.
Then somewhere along the way they realized they could make a lot of money by relicensing the same game over and over again, and suing their most loyal fans out of existence.
The power glove was like Wii version 0.0.0.1.
The amount of weird tech that got thrown around in the NES days was baffling. U-force was probably the weirdest thing I ever tried to play a game with.
I love the Power Glove™️.
It’s so bad.
YES. It's absolutely criminal that people always show the first one off and out it on a pedestal.
Doom
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
There are better Zelda games. ALTTP is clever, for sure, but the path through the game has too many obtuse moments. I don't know how I would have gotten through it the first time without Nintendo Power magazine. I liked Link's Awakening and Link Between Worlds more, though without Link to the Past, we wouldn't have those games.
Now, the Super Metroid and A Link to the Past Randomizer is an incredible achievement and a must-play for people who have finished both original games.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC)
Reporting!
Unit. Lost. Unit. Lost. Unit. Lost.
Our base is under a tack.
Mission. Failed.
I think that phrase just chipped away at my delicate teenage self esteem back in the day. Something new to bring up in therapy: being bullied by RTS games.
I can hear Hell's March just from the screenshot
Click the screenshot!
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Nintendo 64
Starcraft
This game started esports.
I would argue Quake or Street Fighter 2 holds that distinction, but it's close.
Space Cadet 3D Pinball (PC)
(tell me you didn't just hear that sound in your head)
Super Mario World. The perfect platformer.
SMB3 & Kirby's Adventure both deserve to share that title.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night - PlayStation
How do I upvote twice?
Use an alt account, but this would technically count as vote manipulation.
Super Metroid - SNES
Metroid 2 - Return of Samus for Gameboy too. I loved it.
SkiFree (PC)
Check out Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders for modern SkiFree vibes!
I mean... if there's no yeti trying to eat me it just won't feel the same...
Remember to press F to go faster
There's also a really nice skiing game called 'skiing' (no joke) by featherweight games. The ads aren't too bad, and I think they did a really good job of capturing the rhythmic back and forth of slaloming.
Skiing Yeti Mountain?
Ah, thanks, that's what it's called in the program seller on the phone. It just appears as 'skiing' on the desktop underneath it's button.
Thanks for the recommendation and I’ll check it out. Skiing would be a terrible name to search…lol
This game occupied a big chunk of my early years. Fear the yeti!
I think it's still fun today. Maybe only for a few minutes, but it never fails to entertain me.
Tetris - Gameboy
Goldeneye - N64
Boooo! The World Is Not Enough was superior in every way. Fully-voiced dialog and a working physics engine, on the freaking Nintendo 64! No Oddjob bullshit in multiplayer, either.
Never understood why everyone sleeps on TWINE and praises GoldenEye. Every single time. Y'all missed out on a really good sequel.
Edit: *sigh* See what I mean? Why does everyone hate this game!?
The only sequel was Perfect Dark.
See? This is what I mean! Shame on you for never giving TWINE a chance.
and TimeSplitters, of course!
Final Fantasy 7 - PlayStation
Unreal Tournament
Donkey Kong Country - SNES
Bubble Bobble, Arcade, 1986
Great, now I'll have the music from this game stuck in my head all day
Final fantasy 3/6 - SNES
The best Final Fantasy
On the SNES, or counting only mainline titles, yes. Overall, tactics is the best FF
The Legend of Zelda - NES
Super Mario Bros. - NES
Diablo (1996?)
Street fighter 2 - hyper fighting edition (arcade).
Played this every day after school for years as did a huge portion of my school.
Master of Orion - MS DOS, Mac OS
STRAIGHT UP I was so happy when iOS allowed emulators and allowed me set up retroarch to run that game via dosbox with touch to tap.
Fuck all streaming gaming I just want a touch based port of that first game to use like the local crossword.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - N64, 2000
If made today this could be "premium" DLC but it was an amazing product given the constraints of a 15 month development window and a need to use existing assets and engine features as much as possible.
The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening
Found you. Adding a picture
Warcraft 2
Baldur's Gate, both 1 & 2 on PC (I prefer #1). I had to actively consider whether it had been at least 25 years it came out and...I feel super old now 😅.
I'm curious, why do you prefer the first one over the second? Baldur's Gate didn't focus on NPC characterization until 2 (I can't imagine playing without the banter!), and I always found low level 2e to be a nightmare due to low health pools and lack of class features. The sequel starts you out at the beginning of the level range where you can actually do stuff without being overpowered.
I prefer the first game as you're exploring a wild and hostile world while trying your best to survive and discover what's actually going on. You have no idea why assassins keep coming for you, what's going on with the iron crisis, or how it could possibly relate to you...but for some reason, you are tangled in a messy web of intrigue, politics, and danger.
You're right...you are SO underpowered and helpless in the first game. Getting to any town is such a relief. But this makes adventuring so very worth it and so rewarding. I feel like the first game is brutally realistic, whereas the second is more fantastical. I love the cool gear and interactions of BG2, but the first one just feels so urgent and pressing to me.
The EE versions really changed the game...so many improvements without needing mods. However, the modding community is amazing as well. NPC banter packs, item packs, new quests, etc...there are so many options to modernize the game!
Damn, yeah, now I feel old. I remember that was the first time my brother and I came to a formal agreement on sharing the computer so we could each play.
Quake 2, PC
I liked quake 2, but 1 and 3 were better
I think Q2 largely started the mass multiplayer FPS gaming culture. Multiplayer was trivial to setup over LAN unlike other games at the time. It quickly exploded in LAN parties and clubs. Q3 continued in that vein and was also great.
Interesting. My experience with Quake 1 is that it was also easy to do on LAN, but also at that point, people had only been LANning for a short time in my area, so I think that's why Quake 3 & Unreal Tournament were the first to pick up a ton of steam with the masses where I lived in the rural US.
I think Q2 had the best mods and TCs though
AQ2 was peak.
I don't think I ever played it.
I should say "peak for me".
It looks like there are 4 humans in servers right now, or some bot matches.
A precursor to CS.
What were the good Q2 mods? I think I missed out on them.
Action Quake 2 was great, there was also Urban Terror I think similar to Counter Strike.
Lots of small things you could do like player skins, and audio, never had to pay for that either unlike the nonsense mtx of today
Tetris - Game Boy
This was already posted 3 hours before you.
No hard drop. :(
The Game Boy was instrumental in game history and this was one of the first and most played games on the system.
I'd say the bigger problem is the bugged randomizer. Doesn't deal pieces evenly.
Pokémon Crystal is just shy of your 25 year threshold depending on what month it was released (it came out in 2000 in Japan), so I'll say Pokémon Yellow or Pokémon Gold and Silver. We can sit here and nitpick about which is the best, but Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal were all amazing.
I'd lean in favor of Gen 2 being better, but it's definitely a tough call whether the original or the first refinement is better.
Its really about whether GS are better than Yellow, GS are definitely better than RB. Anyone saying RB is better than any of the other GB ones is saying it for nostalgia.
Yellow is pretty bad honestly, it's just the novelty of being a bit more like the anime. The pokemon you can catch and what's available for early gyms are both poor.
That's fair. To be honest, I never played it as a kid, so I don't really know what's there. I guess I always thought you could catch everything in it. I know you can get all the starters. I know in later "third games" you can't catch everything (or in some like Platinum they added some).
Edit: One day I'll learn to not type "okay" instead of "play" lmao
Wipeout 2097 (Wipeout XL), PSX, 1996
Earthbound - SNES (with the oversized box and guide)
I still catch myself whistling songs from this game.
Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
My all-time favorite game. It's peak 2D Mario. SMB3 speedrunning is fun. Glitches are fun. It will challenge you, but almost every level is fair.
NES version really showed off what the MMC3 chip can do. Super Mario All-Stars has a surprisingly deep 2-player Battle Game based on Mario Bros. Wii U/Switch versions of Super Mario Advance 4 contain all 38 e-Reader levels with some wild new gimmicks and combinations.
Dune 2, PC
Genre creating and still embedded firmly in the cranium!
never got to play this, but I have been playing Dune: Spice Wars which has been pretty fun. Might not be that similar but Dune universe is excellent for these type of games for sure.
Final Fantasy 4, SNES.
(Still one of the best games I've ever played.)
Elite - BBC Micro Model B originally.
Duke Nukem 3D, PC
Pirates!
Fallout 2
Tie Fighter PC/Mac
I was more of an X-Wing fan myself but its a great series!
Someday I need to go back and replay that without the cheats (no ammo depletion or collision, I think were the ones I used).
I’ll propose Age of Empires 1. That one is my childhood pretty much 😄
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Need For Speed 3 - Hot Pursuit
Road Rash
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Anno 1602 is lovely too.
I played it again last year. Still fun!
I usually play the GOG version on Windows 10 with dxwnd and these settings:
::: spoiler Spoiler
:::
Totally, I sometimes still play it too, even though I have newer versions in my collection. Looking forward to Anno 117 Pax Romana though!
For the Dutchies among us.
A2 Racer
Yogho Yogho
Rollcage
Commander Keen (series), PC
Metal Great Solid
Spyro (series) Playstation 1998-2000
UFO (or xcom) - enemy unknown.
Great game!
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Mega Drive
My first game ever.. good times
Galaga
Freelancer, PC
A great pick, but it's not 25yo yet, tho
Banjo-Kazooie - N64
Digger - IBM PC
First game I ever got addicted to ❤️
https://www.futrega.org/digger/ clearly provides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digger_(video_game) using a web browser.
Thank you for prompting me to look for this!
sonic 3 and knuckles, Sega Genesis
Sonic gang
rise up ✊
Warcraft 2 best Warcraft hands down
Twisted Metal [1995]
I'd have said Twisted Metal 2, but the first game was still very fun.
Heroes of Might and Magic III, PC
Conkers Bad Fur Day N64
IK+ (International Karate plus), Amiga, 1987
Syndicate PC/Mac
Spacewar, DOS, 1985
Bill Seiler! I still have a copy. Great game.
I am very sad that I've scrolled several pages and haven't seen the obvious one (though I could just be blind):
Deus Ex.
Edit: or perhaps it's because Deus Ex is from 2000 and I don't know if it counts yet. Maybe I'll wait 'til next year!
June 22nd
Thief (1998)
Double Dragon II: The Revenge - NES (1988)
I still boot this game up every now and then to knee fools across the screen. I need to try the PC Engine CD remake someday.
Perfect Dark, N64
https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark
An incredible port, plays amazing on mouse and keyboard.
I still can’t find the pair off socks it knocked off.
Pac-Man/Ms. Pac Man.
Space Quest (especially 4 and 5), PC
X-COM: UFO Defense
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtles in Time - Sega Genesis
Hyper Stone Heist FTW
Puyo Puyo - lots of ports
Reskinned as:
Puyo 1 is the Street Fighter 1 of puzzle games. Historically important, but the sequel is the one that's actually good.
Super Mario Bros 2, NES
American McGee's Alice (2000) on PC
Paradroid -C64
now we're talking
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - NES
Counter-Strike, PC
CS First came out in 1999. Today I learned, I always thought it was more like 2002
Yeah it was a year of mad Half-Life deathmatch and then we hopped in bulk onto CS beta 4.
ToeJam and Earl - Sega Genesis
Dance Dance Revolution.
(Do you feel old now?)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Resident Evil (1996)
Thank you for not saying Resident Evil 2 (or worse: Resident Evil 4). I don't care what anyone says, nothing tops the original. I wish Capcom would hurry up and get off of their asses to work on a proper remake already. The remaster is so old and out of date.
I both agree and disagree.
I agree that RE1 is the best RE, because it is also the only Survival Horror game in the RE series. When RE2 was in development, Capcom changed it to an Action series. By the developers own words, they wanted to mimic "Hollywood Action movies." They did a good job, but Action is exactly opposite of the genre wheel from Survival Horror. Survival Horror depends on a de-emphasis of action and combat, while Action games heavily emphasize action and combat.
I disagree that Capcom needs to remake RE1 again. The RE remake from 2002, which later became RE HD, is perfect. It does not need Capcom further altering the game to take away the qualities that keep it a Survival Horror game. Konami did this to Silent Hill 2 and that still has me pissed.
Additionally, RE1 is vastly more influential to video gaming as a whole than RE2, spawning a big Survival Horror genre boom that did not end until RE4 came out.
Look, I just want to play the original in VR with a modern settings menu. The current remake is based on the GameCube version. It doesn't even have proper widescreen support, let alone ultrawide. A half-assed console port from 2002 is far from perfect.
Carmageddon 2 - PC
Star Control II, PC.
A wonderful game, but I have always been fond of its spiritual predecessors: Starflight and Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula.
What a great game. It made me imagine what it would be like to travel such a wonderfully large universe.
Apparently the original team behind Star Control is making a direct sequel to II, since SC 3 was done by a different studio and did not follow the storyline that the creators had in mind.
And it's supposed to be released this year. They are calling it "Free Stars: Children of Infinity", since they don't own the rights to the Star Control name. But they do own all the rights to the content in SC 1and SC 2, so this could be fun!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Stars:_Children_of_Infinity
I did like SC 3 as well, but it wasn't nearly as great as SC 2. I can barely remember the main storyline.
Earthbound 1&2
Pong - Atari 2600
It just barely makes the cut off since it came out in 99, but Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is my favorite strategy game of all time. It even managed to get a Linux port and you can get it on GOG. I was excited when Civ: Beyond Earth was announced that it would be a true successor, but sadly it wasn't even close.
Archon - C64
boardgame strategy meets head-to-head combat. Absolutely solid game.
Phantasy Star IV
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (PS1)
So many games that I even upvoted that are still absolutely amazing haven't really aged perfectly control- or gameplay-wise, but Oddworld could be released today and it would still be perfect.
Shadow Warrior, PC
Who wants some wang?
Suikoden
missile command, arcade
Might and Magic III
F19
B-17 (intellivision)
Pitfall
Zork
Myst
Gauntlet (arcade 4 person game)
When my local arcade was shutting down around 2000 or so I almost bought their 4 player Gauntlet machine for really cheap. I had to decline once I realized that I didn't have a way to get it home and my front door was too small to fit to through.
If I ever get rich it's on my must buy list
Puyo Puyo Tsu (1994)
Wonder Boy: Monster Land, Arcade, 1987
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap - Master System
aka:
Star Flight, 1986(?). Huge universe, multiple alien races, reputational, on two 360k floppy disks, and a great story too.
Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar (C64)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Edit: nevermind, this was already posted. I literally did a search on the page first and it didn't match for some reason.
I noticed that problem on mobile, it doesn't load all of the comments i don't think.
Total Annihilation
Day of the Tentacle - PC
asteroids, arcade
Metal Slug
Some games released in 2000, alone:
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Counter Strike
Deus Ex
The Little Mermaid II: Pinball Frenzy
Zork
Shinobi 3, Sega Genesis
I missed System Shock 1 and 2 on release (I was 1 and 6 years old, respectively) but I've recently been playing the SS1 remake and, holy shit, this is an incredible game.
I think the original is held back by its UI but the actual game itself, which the remake pretty much preserves almost one to one, is incredibly solid even by modern standards. I've been super hooked on it and it's opened my eyes to an entire lineage of games that I've not paid attention to - System Shock 2, Deus Ex, and Prey are the big three that I have my eye on when I finish with SS1 Remake.
Final fantasy 8, it is the best, no sarcasm.
I would give a testicle for a proper remake, expand the Laguna story, a more populated world, even more battshitery
I respect your opinion.
Mine is: the draw system is shit and the teenage angst gunsword story a hot mess.
I liked that I didn't have to worry about mana/magic points, and if you didn't want to draw you could convert items into magic, or cards into items into magic, enemies into cards into items into magic....
The weapons in general I chalk up to fantasy universe with flying school buildings, and the story could absolutely be more fleshed out, but it doesn't revolve around gun sword, that's just another weapon in the messed up world
Yes, that sentence was mashed together, the gunsword is unrelated to the story. For me it just added on stuff I didn't like or could not relate to.
Interesting point with the mana! I didn't like the consumable aspect of magic basically because I feared running out of something. Similar to some of the worse paper Mario titles.
It's fantastic to hear from someone who thinks the opposite!
H.E.R.O.
Atari 2600
Super Metroid - snes
Legacy of the Wizard - NES aka Dragon Slayer IV Drasle Family - MSX
Out Run - Arcade
Xenogears
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), was on Sega Genesis for me.
Power Drift - Arcade
Fuck. So good. 10/10
Ride Like THE Wind!
Stunts (a.k.a 4D Sports Driving) [1990] - PC, Amiga and others
Little Big Adventure 2
Might & Magic VII (PC)
Death Rally, 1996 (PC)
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Arcade
A timeless masterpiece of 2D fighting with beautiful sprite work and a banger soundtrack. Other fighting games come and go, but we still play this one online and in tournaments 25 years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmxOO-A3i7w
Panel de Pon (1995)
Marathon.
Umihara Kawase - SNES
Penguin Adventure - MSX
Robot Odyssey - TRS-80
NiGHTS into Dreams... - Saturn
Shiren the Wanderer II - N64
Future Cop LAPD. It's similar to Herzog, but I could figure out how to play it.
https://youtu.be/Ssq2WFnISEY
LAPD: Future Cop (PS) (1998)
Super Hang-On - Arcade
Aleste - MSX
Bulk Slash - Saturn
Acrobat/Circus - Arcade
I'm going to break the rules and just nominate every SNES RPG. FF4, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Mario RPG, Lufia 2, and even more that weren't released in America like Live A Live, Fire Emblem 4 and 5, Star Ocean, and Front Mission. Even listing that many, there are many more that I haven't played that it would be totally fair to say, "How could you forget X?" Amazing era for that type of game, and I'm only partially saying that because of nostalgia.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Atari 2600
lol what?
Its an example. If you think a game should be higher or lower in ranking, then upvote or downvote it. If you don't see a game on the list that you think should be on the list then create a top level reply with the name and system.
I still have my copy, but come on, this game is bad and should feel bad.
Every time I think I've successfully surpressed the memories, someone has to mention that trash
Find the site where the guy debugged it, then he said it was an OK game. Not great but on par with most Atari games of the time.