Conker Bad Fur Day (live and reloaded)
Halo 1,2 3
Mass Effect Trilogy
Guitar Hero/Rockband
Battlefield Bad Company 1/2
Castle Crashers
THPS 1/2/3 THUG 1/2
If Little Big Planet for the PS3 and PS4 ever get a proper sequel or remaster, or the Restitched developers ever actually put out that spiritual successor it would be a no-brainer. It was a magical game series for me that was not only very fun to play but also inspired creative and logical thinking with the intricate community level maker tools built into the game. Especially LBP2 with its logic gate and microchip implementations. When I took real engineering classes I was familiar with many high level concepts just because I screwed around with them in a video game as a child. Crazy.
It was also a very cute and well done aesthetic. The gorgeous background enviroments and the little sack boy character you play as. The vibrant collection of music. It was very unique.
For a Gameboy suggestion, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. This is the first game featuring Wario. You can complete the worlds in any order. When you get a game over you lose all the Golden Coins you’ve obtained which act.as keys to enter the final world. So you still have to reheat the final stage in each world again if you get a game over. One of the worlds is a giant mechanical Mario you get to go through!
I haven’t played this, but the next game in the “series” is Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 lmao. But I have played Wario Land II. Wario Land II is interesting because you cannot die in the game. Getting hit makes you lose a few coins and that’s it. When a boss hits you you get sent back in the stage a bit. Rather than having power ups, some of the enemies affect you. For example, if a bee stings you then you begin to swell up and float. If you’re lit on fire then you catch on fire and can burn certain blocks. These are fun because they’re oftentimes the only way to progress.
A lot of Gameboy games were kinda crappy. No offense to them or if you liked them, but these two still really hold up. They look and sound amazing. It’s a shame to me that so many people seem to remember and are nostalgic for the first Super Mario Land but haven’t played the second which is WAY better.
Xenogears - My favorite RPG, a little rough in the later acts because of publisher shenanigans, but the story is still good and the gameplay, other than turn based being uncommon now still holds up. (Nier Automata is one of the few more recent games that taps on some of the feelings and concepts Xenogears has in spades)
Worms Armageddon - Less common suggestion, but a fantastically fun game to play with multiple people, even with one controller, since you can pass it around by turn.
Quake 1 - despite my two turn based suggestions FPS is my favorite genre. Quake 1 blends things like lovecraftian and body horror into the environment. And the re-release Bethesda has done is really well done.
Doom 1 + 2 - just for the history lesson. Also has a re-release now that makes it much more playable. Still fun too.
Planescape Torment - You’ll want to be a particular person for this one. I don’t have the patience for isometric rpgs like this one, but the story is great.
Diablo 2 - Pinnacle of isometric action RPG. Wasn’t my cup of tea but if you like the genre, it’ll be a winner.
Day of the Tentacle - point and click adventure, but fun and not quite as obtuse as a lot of them. Will make you think still and the evil tentacle is funny imo. Remaster available on steam too.
Freddy Pharkis Frontier Pharmacist - Another point and click, this one is a selfish add, I mostly add it because I played it a lot and liked it. It may not be the pinnacle of anything, but I found it fun.
Half-Life 1 and 2 - fantastic and fun both. They tap into some things that other FPS still today can’t touch. Really fantastic games.
Vagrant Story - It’s hard. It won’t hold your hand. But it is a good story and interesting leveling/armor/weapon system.
Solstice - NES wizard game. It’s a fun and somewhat difficult dungeon crawler/platformer.
Sonic 1,2,3 - Classics.
Chrono Trigger - Classic RPG
Final Fantasy 6 and 7 - Classic RPGs
Age of Empires / Age of Mythology - Great Real-Time Strategy
Thief - The original games have some clunk to them but they are still fun.
Descent - Probably my favorite 6DOF game.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - probably the best of the Heroes games. Good fun turn based adventure game.
The Incredible Machine - A puzzle game where you figure out logical components, I played the Incredible Toon Machine a lot as a kid which is a cartoonish version.
System Shock - Another classic game. I haven’t actually played the original, but am playing the remake. You cN look at both and decide what you’d prefer.
Lemmings - another unique puzzle game. Save the lemmings from themselves, they will walk to their doom.
Yakuza - The series is great and I’d recommend the remakes over the original. Starting on zero isn’t required (It’s a newer prequel) but it’s a good start. The games are all similar in play, so take breaks between them. And the best parts are all the side stories. Seriously, all the fun is there imo. Main story is fun but side stories are more of a draw to me and generally hilarious.
Elder Scrolls III - New TES games are still fun, but they lost a lot of the soul the series had and it gets worse every time. Still fun for what they are, but Morrowind was a unique gem. Fair warning though, it does have it’s rough edges.
A few newer ones because I can’t tell where to cut things off lol:
STALKER - FPS, a bit buggy, but really excellent game. Especially with difficulty mods added. Blends in spookiness, the feeling of being alone, and fun action. Part 2 is set to drop within the next year or so. The invasion of Ukraine has made dev difficult and slower.
FEAR - FPS, this first game is still good fun, the sequels aren’t worth the piss I would take on them.
Mirror’s Edge - The first one is fantastic, just don’t focus on fighting (you’re a runner not a fighter). The first and best First Person Runner game. I replayed it not long ago and still loved it.
Portal - Unique, fun, funny.
Metro 2033 - start of an excellent series. Loved the games, and then the books.
OK I should stop. In general I would suggest playing the remastered versions of any of these games. Many of the originals are victims of their times and did they best they could with what they had while defining what made a game good. The older the game the more likelihood you’ll run into immersion breaking or game ruining designs. We had to tolerate that to find the gems in the rough. You don’t have to do that.
FEAR is still to this day, a well done game. Very enjoyable and still tough
Trepang2 is it’s spiritual sucessor
Xenogears is one of my all time favorites.
I grew up playing BG1 and 2 and have replayed them as an adult. However, I just can’t get into planescape for some reason.
Age of Empires and Age of Mythology should be RTS games instead of turn based like Civilization
Morrowind is hands down the best elder scrolls. If you want a TRUE sandbox where you can do whatever the hell you want, that’s your game. Some issues include graphics, no quest markers (you have to read the quests and follow directions), the leveling system is not intuitive at all, and combat is heavily stats based.
Upsides are you can craft any spell or enchanted item using any spell effects you know. Ring of permanent invisibility. Spell of lock every door within 50 feet. Summon 3 different daedra at once. Conjure a whole set of bound armor. Explode yourself in fire. Literally anything.
The elder scrolls renewal project is working on recreating morrowind with skyrims engine and I really hope it comes out soon.
