secret of mana, earthbound, and turtles in time :)

NES: Batman the video game (first one), TMNT II, Mario 2, Mario 3, Tetris, Kirby, Mega Man II and III, Castlevania, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden.

Genesis: Ranger X, Sonic 1 thru 3 plus & Knuckles, Comix Zone, Battletech, Phantasy Star II, X-Men, Streets of Rage 2

SNES: DCK2, Star Fox, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III (VI), Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past, Terragama, Earthbound, Mega Man X, Super Castlevania, Super Metroid

N64: Star Fox 64, Mario 64, Both Zeldas, Blast Corps, Star Wars Shadows of the Empmire, Diddy Kong Racing, Quest64, Doom64

PSX: Xenogears, Final Fantasy 7 thru 9 and Tactics, Wipeout 1 thru 3, Brave Fencer Musashi, Intelligent Cube, Tomba, Crash Bandicoot 1 thru 3, Parasite Eve, Resident Evil 1 thru 3, Silent Hill, Street Figher Alpha 3

DC: Tech Romancer, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Gundam Side Story, Space channel 5, Power Stone, Sonic Adventure 2

2d games in general and basically anything that isn’t pre-analogue stick 3d. Some games have quality of life mods/ patches available that make camera not suck, etc.

OK, let me fix that for you permanently.

This is Retroachievements.org.

Not only does it do what it says on the tin, but it’s, for my money, the best discoverability tool out there for old games. The most obvious way to use it for that is to check the new games they’ve added achievements to, but they also have book club-style events (they’re revisiting F1 games this month to go with the movie currently in theatres), challenges, seasonal achievements, leaderboards and all sorts of the types of metagaming stats tools you’ve seen in modern platforms to point you in the rigth direction.

You can start by selecting “all games” and sorting them all by players to see what’s popular. Or, hell, reverse sort by players and see what weird crap is in there. Once you start down that rabbit hole you’re more likely to have too much in your retro backlog than you are to ask this question again.

Hulk Ultimate Destruction, nothing else comes close.

Friggin car halves as boxing gloves

NES: Contra, Bubble Bobble, Faxanadu

SNES: Super Metroid, Kirby Superstar, Chrono Trigger

F-Zero X on N64

Starflight, on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. The graphics don’t look outdated, it just feels retro.

Honestly depends on what kind of games you like.

Many Metroid games are classics and still great to play. For the 3D Metroids, you can install Primehack and play Metroid Prime Trilogy for an amazing experience. For the classic style 2D metroids, I’d recommend a play order of Zero Mission (GBA), Samus Returns (3DS), Super Metroid (SNES), and Metroid Fusion (GBA).

Many older mario games are great, both 2D and 3D. Mario 64 has some great recompiled versions, and even stuff like sm64coopdx that lets you play online coop. Mario Sunshine (GCN) is fun too, and both Mario Galaxy (Wii) games are fantastic. Lots of good Zelda games too, such as Wind Waker (GCN/WiiU). Until recently I would have highly recommended Xenoblade X (WiiU), but it just got a remastered and expanded version on switch.

Terranigma (SNES)

The PS2 version of Shadow of the Colossus still looks great to me.

Paper Mario

SSX Tricky, Mercenaries, Katamari Damacy, FIFA Street, the various Mario Kart games.

The 2D Castlevania games still hold up well, except the NES ones for being NES hard. Most of them are available for purchase through collections.

There’s a world of options out there and you need to be more specific with what sorts of games you enjoy. I’ve been emulating on my Switch for a while, but also recently bought a dedicated retro emulation console so I have quite a few recommendations.

For games that are literally still up to modern standards, you can go back to Wii, 3DS, PS Vita, PS3 and beyond and you’ve basically got games that will still hold up just fine.

For older games: PSP, PS2, SNES and GBA are gold mines of content.

I’ve found it difficult to get into PS1, N64 and Dreamcast gaming. This was a time when 3D graphics were just starting to be widely used and are so very dated. It’s difficult to look past the terrible graphics without nostalgia goggles. I’ve had more success in going back to SNES and Mega Drive games… At least they have great pixel graphics with suitable games (side scrollers, platformers, etc).

For specific games, I find it best to go to metacritic and look at their list of all time best games, and limit by console and then work through the best every reviews. This does miss a lot of games though and if you say what sort of games you like then people can make recommendations. There are tons of hidden gems and niches… Rhythm games, block drop, quirky puzzle games, etc. E.g.:

Everybody’s Golf 6 (PS3) - excellent arcadey golf game

Mercury Meltdown (PSP) - puzzle game about manipulating mercury blobs. Great to play entirely with the Steam Deck gyroscope.

GTA China Town wars (PSP) - top down GTA game, modernised beyond the GTA2 controls

Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii) - excellent rhythm games

Super Mario 3D land (3DS) - 2.5 D Mario. Really solid platformer.

Wipeout 2048 (PS Vita) - solid combat racer

Micro machines 2 (Mega Drive) - quirky top down racer. Excellent for multiplayer.

Crazy Taxi (PS2) - taxi driving, really crazy though