Ranking the best vintage video games (25 years or older)

Phantasy Star IV

Final Fantasy Tactics

X-COM: UFO Defense

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Mega Drive

Metal Great Solid

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

Shiren the Wanderer II - N64

Acrobat/Circus - Arcade

Bulk Slash - Saturn

Aleste - MSX

Penguin Adventure - MSX

Super Hang-On - Arcade

Out Run - Arcade

Power Drift - Arcade

NiGHTS into Dreams... - Saturn

Warcraft 2 best Warcraft hands down

American McGee's Alice (2000) on PC

Spyro (series) Playstation 1998-2000

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.

Spacewar, DOS, 1985

34673

Bill Seiler! I still have a copy. Great game.

Bubble Bobble, Arcade, 1986

34668

Street fighter 2 - hyper fighting edition (arcade).

Played this every day after school for years as did a huge portion of my school.

Super Mario Bros 2, NES

sonic 3 and knuckles, Sega Genesis

Star Control II, PC.

Heroes of Might and Magic III, PC

Wonder Boy: Monster Land, Arcade, 1987

34671

Total Annihilation

Star Flight, 1986(?). Huge universe, multiple alien races, reputational, on two 360k floppy disks, and a great story too.

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 The remaster is so old and out of date.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.

UFO (or xcom) - enemy unknown.

asteroids, arcade

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.
- Yeah, this is the make us feel old thread.
  
  We’re only a couple months from the launch lineup for the ps2 qualifying here.

IK+ (International Karate plus), Amiga, 1987

34669

Unreal Tournament

Diablo (1996?)

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.
- I think Q2 had the best mods and TCs though

Wipeout 2097 (Wipeout XL), PSX, 1996

34672

Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC)

Reporting!
- Unit. Lost. Unit. Lost. Unit. Lost.

Space Cadet 3D Pinball (PC)

(tell me you didn't just hear that sound in your head)

Doom

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.
- YES. It's absolutely criminal that people always show the first one off and out it on a pedestal.
- They made a freaking MOVIE to promote it!
  
  And that stupid glove.

Might and Magic III

F19

B-17 (intellivision)

Pitfall

Zork

Myst

Gauntlet (arcade 4 person game)

missile command, arcade

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Nintendo 64

Chrono Trigger - SNES, 1995

Starcraft

This game started esports.
- I would argue Quake or Street Fighter 2 holds that distinction, but it's close.

Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar (C64)

Super Mario World. The perfect platformer.

Dune 2, PC

Genre creating and still embedded firmly in the cranium!

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

Duke Nukem 3D, PC

Donkey Kong Country - SNES

Castlevania Symphony of the Night - PlayStation

How do I upvote twice?
- Use an alt account, but this would technically count as vote manipulation.

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.
- The only sequel was Perfect Dark.

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...
- 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.
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.

I’ll propose Age of Empires 1. That one is my childhood pretty much 😄

Final Fantasy 7 - PlayStation

Warcraft 2

Super Metroid - SNES

Fallout 2

Tetris - Gameboy

Final fantasy 3/6 - SNES

The best Final Fantasy

Carmageddon 2 - PC

Commander Keen (series), PC

Twisted Metal [1995]

Super Mario Bros. - NES

Pirates!

Tetris - Game Boy

This was already posted 3 hours before you.
No hard drop. :(
- I'd say the bigger problem is the bugged randomizer. Doesn't deal pieces evenly.
- The Game Boy was instrumental in game history and this was one of the first and most played games on the system.

Shinobi 3, Sega Genesis

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.
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.

The Legend of Zelda - NES

The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening

Future Cop LAPD. It's similar to Herzog, but I could figure out how to play it.

https://youtu.be/Ssq2WFnISEY

Counter-Strike, PC

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.

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.

Elite - BBC Micro Model B originally.

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).

Space Quest (especially 4 and 5), PC

Shadow Warrior, PC

Who wants some wang?

Earthbound - SNES (with the oversized box and guide)

Puyo Puyo - lots of ports

Reskinned as:

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine - Mega drive, Master System, Game Gear
Kirby's Avalanche - SNES

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. 3 - NES

Conkers Bad Fur Day N64

Final Fantasy 4, SNES.

(Still one of the best games I've ever played.)

Syndicate PC/Mac

Digger - IBM PC

First game I ever got addicted to ❤️

Paradroid -C64

now we're talking

Banjo-Kazooie - N64

Earthbound 1&2

Little Big Adventure 2

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - NES

Pac-Man/Ms. Pac Man.

Puyo Puyo Tsu (1994)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtles in Time - Sega Genesis

Hyper Stone Heist FTW

Double Dragon II: The Revenge - NES (1988)

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

ToeJam and Earl - Sega Genesis

Pong - Atari 2600

Archon - C64

boardgame strategy meets head-to-head combat. Absolutely solid game.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), was on Sega Genesis for me.

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap - Master System

aka:

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap - Game Gear
Dragon's Curse - TurboGrafx-16

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.

Death Rally, 1996 (PC)

Stunts (a.k.a 4D Sports Driving) [1990] - PC, Amiga and others

Robot Odyssey - TRS-80

Umihara Kawase - SNES

LAPD: Future Cop (PS) (1998)

Panel de Pon (1995)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Atari 2600

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.
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.