20+ year old games that still hold up today.

[Fosty]

I'd like to know a few games that someone could still enjoy today even if it is their first time playing.

Halo and Half-Life are two that come to mind straight away.
Shadowrun (1993) on the SNES is pretty good too.

[salamander]

Origineel geplaatst door Defective Dopamine Pez Dispenser:

I guess it depends on what one means by "holds up." If you mean full on contemporary industry standard interface and QoL features that make it possible for people who are relatively new to gaming to just pick up and play, that's a very different thing than just saying, "I think these games are still fun today." And does their impact matter? What if a game was enormously impactful but might not "hold up" today in terms of overall UX?

There's also some bias (as in all things) involved, since it's impossible to erase our memories and return to a state of ignorance where we've never played the games before, so we can't truly place ourselves in the shoes of someone coming into them fresh with no prior experience or historical context.

With those caveats and disclaimers out of the way, though, and assuming everyone understands that they go without saying, and recognizing that not all of these are easily accessible anymore, my personal "safe" list would probably be:

• Pac-Man
  
• Tetris
  
• OutRun
  
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (Lots of Marios, but this one always felt most intuitive and easiest to me personally - very subjective though, obviously.)
  
• Space Harrier
  
• A Link To The Past (and probably Link's Awakening.)
  
• Sid Meier's Pirates
  
• Super Hang-On
  
• Sonic CD (As with Mario, lots of Sonics probably, but I'll go with this one because I always felt it had a bit more intuitive design and less demanding feeling mechanics - again, very subjective though, obviously.)
  
• The Longest Journey
  
• Spyro
  
• Star Fox 64
  
• Doom (pretty much all the classic Dooms prior to 3 - if you demand free look use a source port)
  
• Quake
  
• Age of Empires II
  
• Tropico 2
  
• Maybe both Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, depending upon taste, and if you have a platform to access them on.
  
• Shadow of the Colossus
  
• Metroid Prime
  
• Halo CE (today, I'd recommend using the Anniversary Edition for ease of access.)
  
• Resident Evil 4
  
• Ridge Racer 6 (and a bunch of the Ridge Racers, honestly.)
  
• Midnight Club 3
  
• GTA III and Vice City (though, again, recommend - now that they've been largely patched up at least - the contemporary remasters now for accessibility and ease of use today.)
  
• Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies.
  
• Suikoden I & II
  
• Skies of Arcadia

Honorable mentions: Deus Ex and Morrowind, but, they are both a bit cumbersome to play by contemporary UX standards and may not be experiences you can just pick up and get right into without modding or other efforts. And Shenmue 1 & 2 which have remasters, but may feel a bit anachronistic or clunky to modern players new to them today.

- love mario 3, easily my favourite traditional mario game. (favourites are the rpgs)
- love alttp and la, love the zelda series in general. big dark fantasy fan
- love the longest journey. really am dislike both of the sequels, but the first game is such a wonderful point and click adventure game
- love all doom games, even 3 actually
- love quake 1 and 2 (highly recommend dusk if you like quake)
- love tp and ww. again, i love zelda and dark fantasy. great games, great series
- love shadow of the colossus. team ico creates strange, dark fairy tales like few other studios do
- love metroid prime. the whole trilogy, and most of the metroid series in general. very excited for 4
- love resident evil 4, and the entire re series. i am obligated to i am thinking, as a horror nut
- love suikoden 1 and 2. if you are liking these, i recommend ff tactics and radiant historia
- love skies of arcadia. why are there not being more games about sky pirates?
- love shenmue 1 and 2. very bizarre experiences. if you love them, i recommend yakuza/like a dragon series

great list!

[swillfly]

Origineel geplaatst door 󠀡󠀡∴:

Diablo2

:scum_knuckles:

Bingo.

I've been playing Diablo 2 Resurrected every day of late.

[Crashed]

Metroid Prime 1 and 2 have both reached the 2 decade point, and still have great graphics despite being held back by weak hardware.

[Råb!d]

I loved Harpoon.

[Lupa]

Zoo Tycoon (2001)

[Krypto]

Dark Cloud 1
Resident Evil Remake
Parasite Eve

[Worldzworstgamer2025]

Too many to list.

[Drain]

Origineel geplaatst door Electric Cupcake:

Read the book first. Ignore the movie.

I don't read books. I play games and sometimes watch stuff.

[salamander]

Origineel geplaatst door Krypto:

Dark Cloud 1
Resident Evil Remake
Parasite Eve

3 great games. really recommend playing parasite eve 2 as well (temper expectations, it is good but worse than the first in a few ways).

and also dark cloud 2. which i consider to be one of the best jrpgs on the ps2. the story is forgettable, but the gameplay is being insanely varied and side content are endless.

[Tazor]

DOOM with mods is an absolute masterpiece. Project Brutality, Blade of Agony and Ashes 2063 are my favorites. Heard a lot of good things about Total Chaos, haven't played it. Remake of Total Chaos in a new engine coming on Steam.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Age of Empires II. Get the HD version. I personally hate DE.

Brothers in Arms trilogy. Road to Hill 30, Earned in Blood and Hell's Highway.

Call of Duty 2.

Command & Conquer Generals. Some great mods out there. Rise of the Reds is my favorite.

Delta Force series.

F.E.A.R. The first one was the best. Expansions meh. Then it went downhill.

Far Cry.

Hidden & Dangerous 2.

Max Payne 2. The first one feels janky by today's standards, but the sequel is smooth.

Medal of Honor Airborne. Not really 20+ years old but almost there. My favorite in the series.

Rome Total War.

Painkiller and the expansion Battle out of Hell.

Prince of Persia trilogy. Sands of Time, Warrior Within, The Two Thrones.

Serious Sam The First Encounter and The Second Encounter. Get the Revolution version on Steam, best one imo.

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.

Rainbow Six 3. Supply Drops mod for some really nice looking guns. Damn, Ubisoft made so many absolute bangers. Look at them now.

Unreal Gold. Highly recommend Unreal Evolution mod.

Unreal Tournament.

Warcraft III.

Dawn of War with the Unification mod.

[Krypto]

Origineel geplaatst door salamander:

Origineel geplaatst door Krypto:

Dark Cloud 1
Resident Evil Remake
Parasite Eve

3 great games. really recommend playing parasite eve 2 as well (temper expectations, it is good but worse than the first in a few ways).

and also dark cloud 2. which i consider to be one of the best jrpgs on the ps2. the story is forgettable, but the gameplay is being insanely varied and side content are endless.

Parasite Eve 2 made some nice improvements over the first one, such as with the weapon types (a shotgun was actually a shotgun), but the story sucked balls.

Dark Cloud 2 lost me after seeing how complex they made the Georama system. I prefer the first game where it was just putting the pieces down where the NPC's wanted them. Simple but fun. Combat in the second game was vastly improved though.

Wild Arms 2 is another old classic.

[GustavoM]

Monkey island.

[salamander]

Origineel geplaatst door Krypto:

Origineel geplaatst door salamander:

3 great games. really recommend playing parasite eve 2 as well (temper expectations, it is good but worse than the first in a few ways).

and also dark cloud 2. which i consider to be one of the best jrpgs on the ps2. the story is forgettable, but the gameplay is being insanely varied and side content are endless.

Parasite Eve 2 made some nice improvements over the first one, such as with the weapon types (a shotgun was actually a shotgun), but the story sucked balls.

Dark Cloud 2 lost me after seeing how complex they made the Georama system. I prefer the first game where it was just putting the pieces down where the NPC's wanted them. Simple but fun. Combat in the second game was vastly improved though.

Wild Arms 2 is another old classic.

love wild arms 1, 2, and 3. i recently did a replay of wild arms 3 for the first time since release and was surprised by how much i liked it. the 4 party members have good banter with one another due to having much different personalities, and the antagonists are cruel and loathsome so they are fun to hate (which to me is being an important part of rpgs, wanting to see antagonists meet justice).

the intro is LONG though, really really long. several hours long. it is doing a good job of introducing each party member but...i can see why this would be a turnoff for many.

[Krypto]

Origineel geplaatst door salamander:

Origineel geplaatst door Krypto:

Parasite Eve 2 made some nice improvements over the first one, such as with the weapon types (a shotgun was actually a shotgun), but the story sucked balls.

Dark Cloud 2 lost me after seeing how complex they made the Georama system. I prefer the first game where it was just putting the pieces down where the NPC's wanted them. Simple but fun. Combat in the second game was vastly improved though.

Wild Arms 2 is another old classic.

love wild arms 1, 2, and 3. i recently did a replay of wild arms 3 for the first time since release and was surprised by how much i liked it. the 4 party members have good banter with one another due to having much different personalities, and the antagonists are cruel and loathsome so they are fun to hate (which to me is being an important part of rpgs, wanting to see antagonists meet justice).

the intro is LONG though, really really long. several hours long. it is doing a good job of introducing each party member but...i can see why this would be a turnoff for many.

Wild Arms did a really good job with character interactions and the antagonists. The only one I've played is 2, so I can't comment on the others.

Long intros, huh? Longest one I've played through has got to be Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Maybe close to 10 hours before you finish the prologue.

[Lautaro]

HAL LIFE 2!!!11!1!!!!!1!11