• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

StarTopic Retro Games |ST| Warp Zone Forever

xghost777

xghost777

Magical Girls <3 #TeamJRPG #TrustTheProcess
Welcome to the Retro Games ST! This is a new home for Retro Game discussion on Famiboards with a focus on talking about the Retro games you are playing across all platforms! Feel free of course to discuss retro game news, culture, and adjacent media as well. For the purpose of this thread, we'll be using a broad definition of retro games that either satisfies games that are more than ten years old or games that did not first release on the Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series SX. You can discuss ports, remasters, and graphical remakes as well, though use your best judgment for more ambitious stuff beyond that. The main goal of this thread is to have a place you can share your experiences enjoying retro games especially games that do not have clear or active homes for discussion. Talking about all time classics is just as welcome here as discussing old obscurities.

I plan to actively compile resources for the OP that I will place behind Spoiler Tags including relevant STs and lists. If there is anything you'd like me to add, please let me know. Other than that, have fun Fami!

RPGs
Visual Novels
Life Simulation

Metroid
Xeno Series
Donkey Kong
Pokemon
The Legend Of Zelda
Yakuza / Like A Dragon
Castlevania
Resident Evil
TimeSplitters
Retro Gaming On Switch

Metroid Prime Remastered
Advance Wars 1 + 2 Reboot Camp
Trails From Zero
Trails To Azure
Chrono Cross
Kirby's Return To Dreamland Deluxe
Sonic Origins
Pac-Man Museum+
Resident Evil 4
Persona 3 Portable
Persona 4 Golden
Tactics Ogre Reborn
Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
TMNT Cowabunga Collection
Front Mission 1st Remake
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
GoldenEye 007
Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga
Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

List of Nintendo Switch Online Games

More coming soon!
 
Excited to finally post this ST! Yesterday it was officially announced that our subforums, The Pokemon Center and Warp Zone, will be shutting down in the near future. While Pokemon has an ST for the franchise, I was sad that retro game discussion was losing its home. When the feedback thread had kicked off, I asked to gather interest if people would like to see a Retro Games ST so here we are! I wanted to kick this thread off by talking about retro games I'm going to be playing in the near future and then also asking two questions for the thread here.

I have a fairly massive backlog, so in addition to the newest games I play, I'm often playing games from my backlog and more relevant to this thread my deep backlog. For this year I set a goal for myself to completely finish off my final Wii U Virtual Console games to truly retire the console. I had started out with 11 games, but that number increased to 13 before the Wii U and 3DS eshops closed. Thus far this year, I've beaten Breath of Fire, Breath of Fire 2, EarthBound Beginnings, EarthBound, Fire Emblem GBA, Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones, Golden Sun, and Golden Sun The Lost Age all of which I discussed in the RPGs ST. The next game on my list is actually a great candidate to discuss in this new ST, F-Zero GP Legend! The very first F-Zero game I played growing up was F-Zero GX and I was blown away at the time with how amazing it was. I had no idea at all that that would be the only F-Zero I would check out at launch for 20 years and counting lol. Anyway I finally sat down and started playing the rest of the series, really mostly just last year and F-Zero GP Legend is now the last F-Zero game for me to play. I have the most fondness for the 3D F-Zeros, GX and X, but I appreciated the first GBA game more than I did the SNES game so I'm looking forward to playing the last 2D / Mode 7 F-Zero. I did play the first cup already a while back and I was originally planning to play it more seriously towards the end of August as I'm juggling Trails Into Reverie and Rain Code right now, but with this new ST officially launching today I plan to start playing it this week so I can write up some fresh impressions! Still ahead for my Wii U VC backlog is Mario Golf and then replays for Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Donkey Kong 64!

My other order of business at thread kick off, I did want to ask, I compiled all of the STs I could find that might be of interest here in the OP, but if I am missing one you'd like to see added let me know! My big question though is one of the categories I started, currently labeled lists, could do with more resources. I wanted to do an open call here for what you like to see included (feel free to link stuff if you have it handy!) and if you know of any good up to date resources for tracking retro game availability / backwards compatibility on modern consoles especially please let me know!

I hope you all enjoy this ST!
 
Oooh, new thread! I like it. I think I might hang out here.

I’ve been diving into my classic games collection lately, just skimming the surface of the games and basking in my childhood nostalgia.

Like a few nights ago when I booted up Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 for the PS2. Right from the jump, the opening cinematic with that kickass song from Hot Action Cop blaring (come to find out, it’s a heavily edited version of the song - and the NFS version is better in every way!), I was instantly eleven years old again. The racing gameplay itself is just okay: the handling can be described as twitchy, where the cars are always eager to oversteer, there is observable rubber-banding AI, and the cop chase races are slightly frantic and have maybe a bit too much going on at once. But even if the gameplay isn’t the best, the vibes are what I’m here for. That soundtrack is what it’s all about for me. This game is actually the first time I ever heard Rush, who became my favorite band, like, ever.

So yeah. Hot Pursuit 2. Good times.

Cool thread!
 
I pretty much have two very personal categories of retro games I play, with really specific reasons they are there, and both are almost accidentally ‘retro’ rather than intentional.

The first is
“Any game I can play start to finish in an evening or on a hour-long train journey.”
I just like being able to start and finish a playthrough in one session, especially as a parent. I often won’t have another chance to play for a while and in those cases, rather than start an rpg, I’ll pick up an old favourite. Almost all 8-bit and 16-bit sidescrollers fit into this category so form a sort of retro base to the playlist. A lot of modern sidescrollers have gradually lengthened the run time, either through metroidvania backtracking or roguelike gameplay loops, but a few have joined my playlist for this, like Streets of Rage 4 and Nuclear Blaze. The latter got dinged for a short run time in reviews but honestly, a short run time means I’m way more likely to return to a game. Stuff like the Megaman games, any kind of shmup like Gradius, any run-and-gun like Contra, any scrolling fighter.

The second is
“Any rpg I loved but can no longer remember the plot of”
Which is a great category for me as an aging rpg fan as a ton of old classics enter this category every year! I played through FFIX recently and was like ‘huh, I don’t remember any of this shit.’ Mostly as I rarely play rpgs more than once but after 20 years can barely remember them at all.

Anyway, behold, my arbitrary categories that lead me to retro games by accident
:)
 
Red Monster said:
Oooh, new thread! I like it. I think I might hang out here.

I’ve been diving into my classic games collection lately, just skimming the surface of the games and basking in my childhood nostalgia.

Like a few nights ago when I booted up Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 for the PS2. Right from the jump, the opening cinematic with that kickass song from Hot Action Cop blaring (come to find out, it’s a heavily edited version of the song - and the NFS version is better in every way!), I was instantly eleven years old again. The racing gameplay itself is just okay: the handling can be described as twitchy, where the cars are always eager to oversteer, there is observable rubber-banding AI, and the cop chase races are slightly frantic and have maybe a bit too much going on at once. But even if the gameplay isn’t the best, the vibes are what I’m here for. That soundtrack is what it’s all about for me. This game is actually the first time I ever heard Rush, who became my favorite band, like, ever.

So yeah. Hot Pursuit 2. Good times.

Cool thread!
Click to expand...
Thanks :) Yeah licensed soundtracks in racing, sports, and music games can really take me back and helped shape some of my musical tastes. I’d often just free skate around in the Tony Hawk games for example just to enjoy my favorite songs! I think my favorite racing game for just cruising around and enjoying the soundtrack was Burnout Paradise. I’d often just circle around the map going as fast as possible while rocking out!
PixelKnight said:
I pretty much have two very personal categories of retro games I play, with really specific reasons they are there, and both are almost accidentally ‘retro’ rather than intentional.

The first is
“Any game I can play start to finish in an evening or on a hour-long train journey.”
I just like being able to start and finish a playthrough in one session, especially as a parent. I often won’t have another chance to play for a while and in those cases, rather than start an rpg, I’ll pick up an old favourite. Almost all 8-bit and 16-bit sidescrollers fit into this category so form a sort of retro base to the playlist. A lot of modern sidescrollers have gradually lengthened the run time, either through metroidvania backtracking or roguelike gameplay loops, but a few have joined my playlist for this, like Streets of Rage 4 and Nuclear Blaze. The latter got dinged for a short run time in reviews but honestly, a short run time means I’m way more likely to return to a game. Stuff like the Megaman games, any kind of shmup like Gradius, any run-and-gun like Contra, any scrolling fighter.

The second is
“Any rpg I loved but can no longer remember the plot of”
Which is a great category for me as an aging rpg fan as a ton of old classics enter this category every year! I played through FFIX recently and was like ‘huh, I don’t remember any of this shit.’ Mostly as I rarely play rpgs more than once but after 20 years can barely remember them at all.

Anyway, behold, my arbitrary categories that lead me to retro games by accident
:)
Click to expand...
While not under an hour for me, two older shorter games I replay once every other or year or so are Super Mario 64 and Super Metroid. Neither are big commitments, but I always find something new in them each time I play them and I always have so much fun! Speaking of Mario and shorter platformers though, I still need to join in on VolcanicDyanmo’s Mario event and I’m strongly considering replaying both Mario Lands for it. Seems perfect to replay the “weird Marios” with Wonder coming out.

I’m usually decent at remembering plots for games, but I do like replaying RPGs I loved years later. After my final Wii U VC project wraps up and I do my short GameCube replay project, PS3 and Vita are up next for me and the big replay for me is for sure Final Fantasy IX. I’m really looking forward to it :)
 
Hell yeah. Lately I've been playing old games way more than new games so that's been great.

I just finished an Ocarina of Time replay and I'm about to go through the rest of the 3D Zeldas for the first time, but since I will be busy for the next couple of months, I decided to pivot away to a Bayonetta replay.

On top of that though, I'm also still juggling Grandia III, which I've put off for some time but no more.
 
I played through Planet Laika last year and that game has stuck with me. Storytelling in games peaked with the pre-rendered background era lol
 
I started F-Zero GP Legend yesterday and rolled credits today by beating the four cups on Easy and Normal! This is definitely my favorite of the 2D F-Zeros. The controls feel super tight which makes even navigating some of the tough turns with boost power feel manageable. Not sure there’s too many standout tracks having only played each one twice, but racing fives laps on each one per race gives you a great feel for each course and I like the designs of most of them. My favorite was definitely the Illusion course which having googled a little beforehand sounds like that is a random track that can be inserted into the end of the third cup. It features no rails so I had to reload a save state I made prior to the race start quite a few times to successfully navigate it.

I’m not done yet since I haven’t checked out the story mode at all yet, I do want to dabble in the mission mode a bit more even I don’t think I want to clear it, and because I’m having such a good time here I’m tempted to check out hard mode for the Grand Prix mode.
 
I feel guilty talking about PS2 in a retro thread but it is 20+ years old now. I grew up with N64 ➞ Dreamcast ➞ Gamecube so I missed all those games back in the day. Now I'm finally circling back.

I've made it through a couple but I'm struggling so hard with shooter controls, e.g. in Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. That would be such a good game with modern controls. I made it halfway through and then dropped it when the difficulty became too rough for me to fumble my way through it.

You can also see the early years of running from cutscene to cutscene. Like if I'm playing a shooter-platformer starring a cartoon cat, I don't need that much lore, thanks.

I'm shocked by how low-effort Crash 4 felt when he was their primary breadwinner a few years earlier. I liked Crash 4 (2019) but I think I'll just skip everything in between.

Let me know if you guys have any platformer suggestions. I know they're less plentiful on PS2 but that's basically where I'm starting.
 
Goht said:
I feel guilty talking about PS2 in a retro thread but it is 20+ years old now.
Click to expand...
PS2 came out in my first year of high school, so I appreciate you feeling a little guilty. 🙏

Seriously thought, I think it's cool that you're going back and filling in blanks you missed. Not sure if it counts but I've heard good things about the Klonoa remasters on Switch. The first one was PS1 and the second was PS2. And it's not a platformer but holy cow, have you played Katamari Damacy?
 
chocolate_supra said:
PS2 came out in my first year of high school, so I appreciate you feeling a little guilty. 🙏

Seriously thought, I think it's cool that you're going back and filling in blanks you missed. Not sure if it counts but I've heard good things about the Klonoa remasters on Switch. The first one was PS1 and the second was PS2. And it's not a platformer but holy cow, have you played Katamari Damacy?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions! I absolutely want to play the Klonoa games but I'll do them on Switch. I'm definitely not above remasters when they're available.

I've played through Katamari Damacy Reroll on Switch but have never looked any closer at the series. That's a good call.
 
I decided to stick with F-Zero GP Legend tonight and I finished both Expert Grand Prix and the full story mode! I’m really glad I gave Expert Grand Prix a shot because I just expected the AI would be more aggressive which it was, but what was super cool was that every track either had its geometry altered, new obstacles added, or both! This made my final races here extra thrilling. Story mode sadly was very thin, but it did have unique challenges and also some unique courses. It didn’t remotely compare in difficulty to F-Zero GX’s story mode’s brutal challenge, but I’m very ok with that haha.

With GP Legend done, I’ve played every F-Zero now except for the Japan exclusive game. If the rumored GX Switch port doesn’t pan out, I do plan to replay F-Zero GX again as part of my upcoming GameCube replay project probably next year. I’m now down to my last four Wii U Virtual Console games and up next will be Mario Golf which is virtually new to me (I played one round a year or two ago). Looking forward to it after I finish Trails Into Reverie at least.
 
The miyoo mini+ has become my go to way to play a lot of retro games. Just this year I replayed the Mega Man Legend games on it (both are still great once you adapt to the tank controls) and Super Mario RPG (right before the remake was announced). I had been replaying Broken Sword but I ended up putting it down for current stuff.
 
BassForever said:
The miyoo mini+ has become my go to way to play a lot of retro games. Just this year I replayed the Mega Man Legend games on it (both are still great once you adapt to the tank controls) and Super Mario RPG (right before the remake was announced). I had been replaying Broken Sword but I ended up putting it down for current stuff.
Click to expand...
Nice! I was wondering if anybody here is into these devices. I got my RG350M back when it was the big thing and I still love it. I played through Duck Tales 2 over the weekend. There are so many cool designs like your Miyoo Mini+ but I have to restrain myself.
 
Goht said:
Nice! I was wondering if anybody here is into these devices. I got my RG350M back when it was the big thing and I still love it. I played through Duck Tales 2 over the weekend. There are so many cool designs like your Miyoo Mini+ but I have to restrain myself.
Click to expand...
I also have the Steam Deck, but it's too big (and it's battery too meh) to be comfortable as a portable device (it's my go to docked retro gaming machine with friends/family replacing my Nvidia Shield TV). I also bought a Retroid Pocket Flip but I've quickly discovered I vastly prefer when these systems are linux based as opposed to Android based.

Currently my dream devices are 3 things

A two screen emulation device that can run ds and 3ds games with little compromise

An under $200 device that can emulate gc/ps2 with little compromise

A miyoo mini/rg35xx sized device that can do n64/saturn/dreamcast/psp with little compromise.
 
1qTXnzn.webp
 
AerialAir said:
Hey there! How do you guys find cool retro games for consoles you've never tried before, making sure they match your personal gaming preferences? Any tips for discovering hidden gems?
Click to expand...
I kinda look at it that there’s only been so many major gaming consoles with deep libraries. At some point over the last 15-20 years I’ve probably idly looked at various ‘best 100 games on x console’ lists on forums, then looked up anything that sounds cool on YouTube to see if it looks like my kinda thing!

Is there any particular console you’re interested in?
 
AerialAir said:
Hey there! How do you guys find cool retro games for consoles you've never tried before, making sure they match your personal gaming preferences? Any tips for discovering hidden gems?
Click to expand...
When I'm diving into a console I have little/no experience/knowledge about I generally search for a few "top 10/15/x games on this console" and "hidden gems on x".

So using say the game gear as an example, I'd start with stuff like these

culturedvultures.com

20 Best Game Gear Games of All Time

Get your fifty batteries at the ready as we gear up to reveal the best Game Gear games of all time on Sega's charming little oddity.
culturedvultures.com culturedvultures.com

infinityretro.com

Top 50 Best Sega Game Gear Games of All Time - Infinity Retro

Tired of black and white graphics? Upgrade to the Game Gear! These are the top 50 best Sega Game Gear games of all time!
infinityretro.com infinityretro.com

retrododo.com

Ranking The Best SEGA Game Gear Games Of All Time

The Sega Game Gear is one of the best handheld consoles of the 90s, but what are the best Sega Game Gear Games? Find out here!
retrododo.com retrododo.com

Then I use a combination of "does this look like something I'd enjoy" and "is a title that maybe isn't normally in my wheel house getting consistent praise" and go from there in terms of collecting. I generally try not to worry about price, even if I don't buy something today I can still put it on my "keep an eye out for/play anyway you can" list till I get to it. Like using the lists above on GG there is a title called Vampire:Master of Darkness which doesn't sound exciting looking at a list of games or even seeing a used copy in a retro game store/box art, but when 2 of the 3 place it in their top 10 and say "if you like Castlevania check this out", it's goes into my "I want to check this out/buy it" list.

I'll also look at a list of games with English fan translations on sites like romhacking since generally if someone has taken the effort to do an English translation on a less popular platform there's probably something interesting about that game.

The above is more for finding the niche stuff that's cool, I don't really need people to recommend me titles from ip like Sonic, Mega Man, or Castlevania which will always be on my radar.
 
PixelKnight said:
I kinda look at it that there’s only been so many major gaming consoles with deep libraries. At some point over the last 15-20 years I’ve probably idly looked at various ‘best 100 games on x console’ lists on forums, then looked up anything that sounds cool on YouTube to see if it looks like my kinda thing!

Is there any particular console you’re interested in?
Click to expand...
I'm just looking at all of them. I'm not limited to a specific system. Plus, some of them have small libraries but some really standout games. iirc, both Snatcher and Policenauts released on systems with small libraries.
 
Last edited:
0
AerialAir said:
Hey there! How do you guys find cool retro games for consoles you've never tried before, making sure they match your personal gaming preferences? Any tips for discovering hidden gems?
Click to expand...
I typically look at what’s available digitally on consoles and look at each game individually and then go from there. It’s a bit of a combination of going with my gut, remembering what I’ve heard about over the years, and then basic research. I tend to read about a ton of games regardless of whether they are of obvious interest to me and I play almost every genre.

I think if you are getting started, I think asking for recommendations on a platform or genre is a good way to start. There’s a lot of collective knowledge on Fami directly. Once you get started, it’s easier to know what to look for and where to look.
 
Red Monster said:
I’m playing Super Mario RPG again and I’ve just realized that MP is shared among the entire party and that is simply madness.
Click to expand...
The game starts throwing MP restoratives at you later in the game. It’s tighter at the start (like most RPGs) but nothing you really need to be worried about long term.
 
Red Monster said:
I’m playing Super Mario RPG again and I’ve just realized that MP is shared among the entire party and that is simply madness.
Click to expand...
Considering a single flower tab not only increases your max, but completely refills it, you can basically just spam magic and never have to worry. Heck you can break a lot of early Mario RPG by just using Mario's basic jump command over and over. It gets a permanent point of strength up every 2 jumps, which can cause it to deal far more damage then any other attacking option you have.
 
xghost777 said:
I typically look at what’s available digitally on consoles and look at each game individually and then go from there. It’s a bit of a combination of going with my gut, remembering what I’ve heard about over the years, and then basic research. I tend to read about a ton of games regardless of whether they are of obvious interest to me and I play almost every genre.

I think if you are getting started, I think asking for recommendations on a platform or genre is a good way to start. There’s a lot of collective knowledge on Fami directly. Once you get started, it’s easier to know what to look for and where to look.
Click to expand...
I'm still trying to understand which systems I'll likely enjoy the most.

If you want to shoot some recommendations at me, I'll leave here a semi-finished list of my favourite games, just so you know what I'm into:

www.listchallenges.com

100 Favourite Games

not ordered... yet tried to limit myself to only one game per ip, but was also not quite successful with that
www.listchallenges.com www.listchallenges.com
 
AerialAir said:
I'm still trying to understand which systems I'll likely enjoy the most.

If you want to shoot some recommendations at me, I'll leave here a semi-finished list of my favourite games, just so you know what I'm into:

www.listchallenges.com

100 Favourite Games

not ordered... yet tried to limit myself to only one game per ip, but was also not quite successful with that
www.listchallenges.com www.listchallenges.com
Click to expand...
Tons of awesome games in there! Some good overlap with my own tastes. Depending on how old you want to go, I think you might find some new favorites on the SNES, PS1, PS2, and PSP. Some of the games you like have predecessors on those systems and you might find some new favorites too if you poke around. I think a good way to go about it is to hit the classics first on a given platform because once you better know your tastes you can branch out. Also if you have any favorite genres, look into each game available (RPGs and platformers I rush to quickly for example).

If you did PS1 for example, maybe start out with some stuff that might be more obviously up your alley like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, or one of the Final Fantasy games like FF9. Then you can keep going if you want with stuff like Chrono Cross, MegaMan Legends, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, the Tony Hawk games etc., before diving into the more cult classics and ultimately more obscure stuff. The more you try out, the more you’ll know what to look for.

Not all of it will hit for you and that’s cool too. I’ve been working through my Wii U Virtual Console backlog + NSO apps last year and I definitely had a few duds or a few that just didn’t work for me. Ogre Battle 64 and iirc Gargoyle’s Quest (the SNES Capcom game with Firebrand) I dropped quickly for example. But even though I dropped those games, it was still interesting checking them out. That’s part of the fun too.

Anyway this post is getting long and others should feel free to jump in, but from your list I immediately had to ask if you played and if not immediately recommend Zelda A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Odin Sphere, Ys Origin, and Falcom’s Trails series. Also saw some shooters on your list and N64 games so I also want to recommend Perfect Dark immediately too.
 
As my Analogue Pocket shipping date theoretically approaches, I've been doing little bits of research on retro games I may want to check out first. I've mostly been looking into the more unfamiliar consoles that are supported with openFPGA cores, so I haven't really thought too deeply about Game Boy, SNES, NES or Genesis yet.

Here's some games that I've never played but look especially interesting to me:

Blade (GBC)
Blazing Lasers (PCE)
Devilish (GG)
Devil's Crush (PCE)
Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA)
Gunstar Super Heroes (GBA)
Jet Grind Radio (GBA)
Loom (Amiga 500)
Mario's Picross (GB)
Mother 3 (GBA)
Mysterium (GB)
Ninja Golf (A7800)
Phantasy Star Adventure (GG)
Salamander (PCE)
Shin Megami Tensei If... (SNES)
Shining Force Gaiden (GG)
Splatterhouse (PCE)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (GBA)
WizKid (Amiga 500)

If it's half as fun to play these games as it is to read about them, I think I'll be in for a good time. And I'm open to any weirdo, retro game recommendations!
 
0
AerialAir said:
Hey there! How do you guys find cool retro games for consoles you've never tried before, making sure they match your personal gaming preferences? Any tips for discovering hidden gems?
Click to expand...
I have a little bit of experience doing this, so here are a few things I've noticed. First, I don't find most Top X listicles or Reddit posts asking for hidden gems very reliable or useful. The games are usually picked by someone who experienced the console's heyday, which I find to be a problem for the same reason that asking someone who lived through a decade for a list of its best music is usually a bad indicator of what has stood the test of time. The generational gap would filter out a lot of what makes up these lists, with the remainder usually being the same set of famous games that you probably already know about.

An obvious example of this is that a list of the best SNES games will not infrequently have some version of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat on it. If you're taking these as a list of recommended games for the console, that seems kind of stupid from a modern perspective, because those ports have no value to anyone playing the games for the first time today when the superior arcade originals are widely available. But those are the versions whoever made the list played at home growing up, obviously. This sort of thing is especially bad for Master System/Game Gear, where so much of the library is inferior versions of Mega Drive and arcade games. It makes it hard to weed out the stuff actually worth playing today from amongst the flood of junk 90's kids are nostalgic for. Popularity from decades ago is king with these lists, which is why the longer ones tend to be oversaturated with licensed games and have no awareness of anything that wasn't released in English back then. Donkey Kong Country is much more likely to show up on a list of the best SNES games than Donkey Kong Country 2, even though in enthusiast spaces the latter is far more revered.

On the other hand, one surprisingly great resource is Hardcore Gaming 101. The site is full of reviews going over often obscure games. If you look through the lists of 16-bit games they've covered for platformers, while you'll probably find most of your expected Mario & Sonic titles as well as a good amount of crappy also-rans like Awesome Possum and Wild Woody, you'll also read about Magical Pop'n, Prehistorik Man, Monster World IV, Youkai Buster, and Umihara Kawase. The website is kind of slow and a bit awkward to search, but I'm not aware of anywhere else you can read such in-depth articles on such a breadth of obscure games.

Depending on the genre you're interested in, you might also be able to find enthusiast sites that cover it in detail. If you want old shmups or RPGs, there are definitely places that will come up in a cursory Google search that have covered all of them at length. If you want platformers or Tetris/Puyo Puyo style puzzle games, you're going to be mostly doing your own research. YouTube channels covering specific systems or genres can also be a big help. I think that the ability of a reviewer to assess the quality of the games they cover is going to be hit or miss though. I consider Jeremy Parish to be pretty generous usually, often judging games relative only to the landscape of the time, but compared to others he's a downright harsh and incisive critic. You'll have to figure out where their standards fall in comparison to yours before you can rely on them as a filter.

If all else fails, another approach is simply bringing up a video of every game on a system and taking note of whatever seems interesting. For successful consoles these can get very long, even when divided by genre, and will have seemingly endless crap to sift through. But it's more direct and informative than a Wikipedia list, even if there's only a few seconds of footage for each game.
 
I've never gotten too into the Castlevania series, but I am really enjoying Castlevania: Bloodlines so far. (It's on the Genesis NSO app!)

The gameplay is really punchy and arcade-like. It reminds me a little bit of my recent playthrough of Metroid Fusion. Both games seem like they value visceral input more than other games in their series.
 
0
xghost777 said:
Tons of awesome games in there! Some good overlap with my own tastes. Depending on how old you want to go, I think you might find some new favorites on the SNES, PS1, PS2, and PSP. Some of the games you like have predecessors on those systems and you might find some new favorites too if you poke around. I think a good way to go about it is to hit the classics first on a given platform because once you better know your tastes you can branch out. Also if you have any favorite genres, look into each game available (RPGs and platformers I rush to quickly for example).

If you did PS1 for example, maybe start out with some stuff that might be more obviously up your alley like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, or one of the Final Fantasy games like FF9. Then you can keep going if you want with stuff like Chrono Cross, MegaMan Legends, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, the Tony Hawk games etc., before diving into the more cult classics and ultimately more obscure stuff. The more you try out, the more you’ll know what to look for.

Not all of it will hit for you and that’s cool too. I’ve been working through my Wii U Virtual Console backlog + NSO apps last year and I definitely had a few duds or a few that just didn’t work for me. Ogre Battle 64 and iirc Gargoyle’s Quest (the SNES Capcom game with Firebrand) I dropped quickly for example. But even though I dropped those games, it was still interesting checking them out. That’s part of the fun too.

Anyway this post is getting long and others should feel free to jump in, but from your list I immediately had to ask if you played and if not immediately recommend Zelda A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Odin Sphere, Ys Origin, and Falcom’s Trails series. Also saw some shooters on your list and N64 games so I also want to recommend Perfect Dark immediately too.
Click to expand...
Regarding the PSP and PS1, I think I've covered my bases, as I've had those systems and have been collecting for them since I was a kid. Same with the NGC, GBA, Wii, DS, OG XBX, 360, PS3, and 3DS. All of the other systems are unknown to me, though. I might have played a game or two at a friend's house or read about them online, but I never had any system besides those I just listed. Actually, I did have a Gen/MD, but I was about 5 yrs old when my parents sold it, so I only remember playing Sonic and Tiny Toons. Since making my original post, I've researched the many existing systems online and found a lot I'll probably love. Some were surprising (e.g., DOS), and others I already imagined would fit my tastes (e.g., PS2).

I've already played CT (DS), and Odin Sphere (PS4) and really liked them. I also played Ys Origin and didn't like it, but after that, I played Oath in Felghana on the PSP and loved it, so I might give Origin another shot. I never played ALttP or the Trails series, but they're top of my priorities!

Stilt Village said:
I have a little bit of experience doing this, so here are a few things I've noticed. First, I don't find most Top X listicles or Reddit posts asking for hidden gems very reliable or useful. The games are usually picked by someone who experienced the console's heyday, which I find to be a problem for the same reason that asking someone who lived through a decade for a list of its best music is usually a bad indicator of what has stood the test of time. The generational gap would filter out a lot of what makes up these lists, with the remainder usually being the same set of famous games that you probably already know about.

An obvious example of this is that a list of the best SNES games will not infrequently have some version of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat on it. If you're taking these as a list of recommended games for the console, that seems kind of stupid from a modern perspective, because those ports have no value to anyone playing the games for the first time today when the superior arcade originals are widely available. But those are the versions whoever made the list played at home growing up, obviously. This sort of thing is especially bad for Master System/Game Gear, where so much of the library is inferior versions of Mega Drive and arcade games. It makes it hard to weed out the stuff actually worth playing today from amongst the flood of junk 90's kids are nostalgic for. Popularity from decades ago is king with these lists, which is why the longer ones tend to be oversaturated with licensed games and have no awareness of anything that wasn't released in English back then. Donkey Kong Country is much more likely to show up on a list of the best SNES games than Donkey Kong Country 2, even though in enthusiast spaces the latter is far more revered.

On the other hand, one surprisingly great resource is Hardcore Gaming 101. The site is full of reviews going over often obscure games. If you look through the lists of 16-bit games they've covered for platformers, while you'll probably find most of your expected Mario & Sonic titles as well as a good amount of crappy also-rans like Awesome Possum and Wild Woody, you'll also read about Magical Pop'n, Prehistorik Man, Monster World IV, Youkai Buster, and Umihara Kawase. The website is kind of slow and a bit awkward to search, but I'm not aware of anywhere else you can read such in-depth articles on such a breadth of obscure games.

Depending on the genre you're interested in, you might also be able to find enthusiast sites that cover it in detail. If you want old shmups or RPGs, there are definitely places that will come up in a cursory Google search that have covered all of them at length. If you want platformers or Tetris/Puyo Puyo style puzzle games, you're going to be mostly doing your own research. YouTube channels covering specific systems or genres can also be a big help. I think that the ability of a reviewer to assess the quality of the games they cover is going to be hit or miss though. I consider Jeremy Parish to be pretty generous usually, often judging games relative only to the landscape of the time, but compared to others he's a downright harsh and incisive critic. You'll have to figure out where their standards fall in comparison to yours before you can rely on them as a filter.

If all else fails, another approach is simply bringing up a video of every game on a system and taking note of whatever seems interesting. For successful consoles these can get very long, even when divided by genre, and will have seemingly endless crap to sift through. But it's more direct and informative than a Wikipedia list, even if there's only a few seconds of footage for each game.
Click to expand...
I've been looking at many of those lists, and what I find helpful is to already have some games in mind that I know I'll like before reading the list while also knowing what I won't like. That way, it makes it easier to filter out the lists that don't match my tastes. For instance, any lists with NHL/FIFA year xxx are likely written with heavy nostalgia goggles, as you said. Since I'm not restricted to any given system, I've been looking for the best versions of each game I find interesting. More often than not, Hardcore Gaming 101 will be the best resource for info on that, as you said. It's too bad that they don't attribute any scores to the games or make any system "top x" lists, as I find them the best resource on retro games. Trying to navigate their site to find their recommendations would take a lifetime.

Anyway, I've listed the games that interested me so far. It's definitely not final or organized; it's more of a place I throw everything I find interesting into. If there's anything I'm missing or any games that are duds, please do comment:

Wii U

justpaste.it justpaste.it
 
I’m thinking about getting a Vita. I bought a PSP at launch and have a lot of awesome nostalgia for that device, but I never got a Vita. Anyone have any good recommendations for Vita games?

The last thing I need is another console to develop a backlog for, but I can’t help myself sometimes. This is how I have fun.
 
Red Monster said:
I’m thinking about getting a Vita. I bought a PSP at launch and have a lot of awesome nostalgia for that device, but I never got a Vita. Anyone have any good recommendations for Vita games?

The last thing I need is another console to develop a backlog for, but I can’t help myself sometimes. This is how I have fun.
Click to expand...
A lot of the games people used to recommend you buy a vita for have been ported to more modern systems. As of 8/6/23 exclusives I could recommend are

Tales of Hearts R
Tales of Innocents R (need a hacked vita to used English patch)
Uncharted Golden Abyss

Not exclusive/no longer exclusive but still a good time on vita

Persona 4 Golden
Trails of Cold Steel 1-2
Gravity Rush

And a ton of visual novels to numerous to name
 
Red Monster said:
I’m thinking about getting a Vita. I bought a PSP at launch and have a lot of awesome nostalgia for that device, but I never got a Vita. Anyone have any good recommendations for Vita games?

The last thing I need is another console to develop a backlog for, but I can’t help myself sometimes. This is how I have fun.
Click to expand...
Off the top of my head-

Tales of Hearts R
Freedom Wars (i love the vibe of Freedom Wars- it’s like Monster Hunter, set in a sci-fi anime prison, with a grappling hook and chainsaw mechanic. It’s weird but a lot of fun).
Killzone Mercenary
Darius Burst: Chronicle
Soul Sacrifice: Delta
 
Red Monster said:
I’m thinking about getting a Vita. I bought a PSP at launch and have a lot of awesome nostalgia for that device, but I never got a Vita. Anyone have any good recommendations for Vita games?

The last thing I need is another console to develop a backlog for, but I can’t help myself sometimes. This is how I have fun.
Click to expand...
As BassForever mentioned, one of the tricks with Vita today is a majority of the games have been ported elsewhere thankfully. That said there’s a lot of fun to be had with one if you want to jump in anyway. Some of my favorites on the system were:

Trails of Cold Steel I and II + Trails in the Sky and Sky SC
Ys Origin* + Memories of Celceta + Oath in Felghana
Tokyo Xanadu
Danganronpa 1*+ 2*+ 3*
Hatsune Miku Project Diva 1** and 2**
BlazBlue** + Under Night In-Birth**
Persona 4 Golden* (Never actually beat it though)
Uncharted Golden Abyss (still exclusive)
Gravity Rush
Tearaway
Sound Shapes
Rabi-Ribi*
Axiom Verge*
Rogue Legacy (might be on Switch? 2 is)
Downwell*
Super Meat Boy
Sayonara Umihara Kawase
Odin Sphere + Muramasa (Vita version of Muramasa has exclusive DLC episodes)
Megaman Legends 1 + 2 + Tron Bonne (tons of PS1 and PSP games on there!)

* = on Switch
** = better/different version on Switch

Your post got me to boot my Vita up and despite not playing mine in close to a year. My Vita still(!) had a charge. The Vita battery is truly incredible lol.
 
Last edited:
0
AerialAir said:
Anyway, I've listed the games that interested me so far. It's definitely not final or organized; it's more of a place I throw everything I find interesting into. If there's anything I'm missing or any games that are duds, please do comment:

Wii U

justpaste.it justpaste.it
Click to expand...
I'll always recommend against subjecting oneself to Donkey Kong 64. Most of my other takes would probably be more controversial though.

I'll be positive and say that:

Diddy Kong Racing
Blast Corps
Paper Mario
Belmont's Revenge
Gunstar Heroes
Castlevania Bloodlines

Are all good. Also, play the Japanese version of Dracula's Curse if possible, the NES version butchered the difficulty balance and had to downgrade the music because Nintendo of America didn't let third parties use special chips.
 
Stilt Village said:
I'll always recommend against subjecting oneself to Donkey Kong 64. Most of my other takes would probably be more controversial though.

I'll be positive and say that:

Diddy Kong Racing
Blast Corps
Paper Mario
Belmont's Revenge
Gunstar Heroes
Castlevania Bloodlines

Are all good. Also, play the Japanese version of Dracula's Curse if possible, the NES version butchered the difficulty balance and had to downgrade the music because Nintendo of America didn't let third parties use special chips.
Click to expand...
Yeah, from what I've been reading, DK64 seems like one of those games that everyone seemed to like when it first came out but is very negatively reviewed in retrospective. Do you have any recommendations for games that I haven't already checked out?
 
0
so in SMRPG, I’ve got Bowser in my party and im making my way up Booster’s Tower for the fourth star. Anyone got an estimate on how much of the game is left?
 
Red Monster said:
so in SMRPG, I’ve got Bowser in my party and im making my way up Booster’s Tower for the fourth star. Anyone got an estimate on how much of the game is left?
Click to expand...
I usually consider that about halfway through. Probably a bit less than halfway, but close enough if that helps. Definitely halfway after the next proper location concludes.
 
xghost777 said:
I usually consider that about halfway through. Probably a bit less than halfway, but close enough if that helps. Definitely halfway after the next proper location concludes.
Click to expand...
I concur with this. Booster’s Tower always felt like the mid-point of the game for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom