The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
From the art to the music to the plot to the gameplay, it's just iconic.
This is going to be a weird one considering the graphics, but hear me out, the original Deus Ex. Something about the game just feels so well put together that the graphics take a back seat to the gameplay. There is a reason the community around the game has fought so hard to keep it running on modern hardware.
The original DE is still one of my favorite games of all time. It's truly a masterpiece.
The Binding of Isaac. I keep buying it on all platforms. No single run is the same. More expensive than it should be these days but it is my crack.
Super Mario World! It holds up remarkably well even by modern platformer standards. It feels great, looks great, and is a blast to explore.
I honestly feel a little disappointed that I scrolled this far and nobody mentioned Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999).
This is an RTS game, which is a dying genre. It's also a 24 year old game, which after its release two more Age of Empires games have been released as well, and the game itself has been remastered recently. Yet people continue to play the original game to this day, the multiplayer scene and competitions are still active.
If that is not timeless I don't know what is.
Community consensus is that AoE 2’s mechanics are an improvement on its predecessor, but I personally have a weak spot for AoE 1: Rise of Rome expansion. Fewer things to manage, beautiful wonder structures, and cheap axe man hordes.
My dad and I used to play against each other over LAN. Hearing him shouting and cursing from the other room while I razed his city with scythe chariots is such a happy memory. Man, I miss him. To the dads here, play AoE with your kids.
Second this. Rise of rome, from that unforgettable title music, that start screen, wololo, everything about it tickles my pleasure centers. Have very fond memories of this game.
Surprised no one has said Super Metroid yet. The game just excelled at atmosphere.
Super Mario World
I would say Borderlands 2. This game is so good in terms or story and gameplay creating its own type of game + the graphics that are sort of cartoon/drawing like definitely makes it timeless for me. I would still restart a gameplay today if it wasn't for the 4 or 5 times I finished it at the time it got released haha
I still play through Final Fantasy VI at least once a year.
Tetris. Straight original is so simple accessible and addictive. I really haven't cared for much else they done with it since. It was perfection also out the gate.
Also, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I can play it anytime, anyplace. The gameplay, music, graphics even today just feel so go for being 2D
For Tetris, Game boy version or is there a different console you feel is definitive ?
I had it on original Nintendo. But the Gameboy version is almost the same (to my knowledge) just without the color pallet.
Also the story of Tetris and how it got lisenced is crazy. The new Tetris movie is a fun (albeit with Hollywood coat of paint) recount.
I have a few answers, but I agree that Chrono Trigger is one of those games you come back to again and again. I think there are many excellent games which wouldn't qualify because they are too firmly rooted in their time, or perhaps don't feel timeless due to the limitations of their interface, but here are a few titles that are not just my favorites but I also think compare boldly across systems, genres, and time. I may have got carried away :|
edit: formatting, I'mma Lemmy newb
Super Metroid is a game I have played over and over again for years. I recently played it again and I loved it so much I’ve been going back and playing all of the side scrolling Metroid games (again).
I actually just beat AM2R for a second time followed immediately by Samus Returns.
When I get through all of them I’m hitting Dread (which I only barely started when it first came out and I haven’t finished yet) and then moving to the Prime series.
I can’t get enough of Metroid, but Super Metroid is the greatest of them all. Even with the slightly dated controls, I find myself playing that game more than any other.
My second favorite game is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I play it almost as often as I do Super Metroid.
Mike Tyson's Punchout. I still play it occasionally as an adult and it's still just as fun as when I was a kid.
In no particular order:
Chrono Trigger
Binding of Isaac Rebirth
myhouse.wad (I know it came out this year, but goddamn it's good)
Yoshi's Island
Super Mario All-Stars + World (cheating maybe?)
Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3
Terranigma
OMORI (also recent, but also damn good)
LoZ: Majora's Mask
Pokemon 2nd gen (could totally just be nostalgia talking right here)
Tetris
Super Smash Bros Melee
Mario Kart 64
Also I keep coming back to yashum's Call of Cthulhu SMW hack.
Skyrim, actually. It's quite dated by today's standards, but just recently I started another playthrough on a whim and ended up playing 20h or so even though I've played the game a bunch of times for several hundreds of hours throughout the years already.
Chrono Trigger
Starcraft: Brood War
Diablo II: LoD
The GBA remakes of the pre-7 Final Fantasy
The tank game on Wii Sports (reminiscent of Atari Tanks but coop)
PS1 Final Fantasy Tactics (especially with mods, particularly FFT 1.3)
PC Master of Magic (especially with community mods, Caster of Magic is a favorite)
SNES Super Mario World
SNES Super Bomber Man
Half Life 2 still looks and plays fantastic even nearly decades later
Can't believe Nethack doesn't top the list.
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines
Love that game, even if its combat system is pretty dated. The world and the writing are top notch. If you get it, make sure you get the community patch so it's not buggy.
Jade Cocoon for PSX. The only true monster merging game. Been waiting on RujiktheComatose to change that. As a side note I would've said Armored Core but we're finally getting a new one.
Gran Turismo 2 - I have no idea why to this day, I play it atleast weekly. To me, everything about this game is timeless from the Soundtrack, selection of cards to the graphical style (it has to be played on a CRT mind you OR an emulator with some mods to fix textures and clipping properly.).
DooM (1993), but mostly because of the community. Constant new levels, mods, engine updates, total conversions. Even commercial games released on the engine. It just never stops.
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Totally still works as a modern Zelda game. Especially since Nintendo hasn't really changed the core mechanics since it's release!
Personally, it's Disco Elysium for me. It deals with issues that will always be core to the human experience, and it forces you to place yourself somewhere along that spectrum with no opportunity to opt-out. I wish people near me were more interested in video games so I could show it to them.
Uniracers for the Snes still looks, sounds and plays great. It's like a 2d Tony hawk racing game with unicycles.
Definitely Golden Sun.
And it's direct sequel, The Lost Age.
For me it's Chrono Trigger.
I see what you did there.
I think Toy Story 2 for PSX holds pretty well as a platformer, graphics wise ofc not, I hope I'm not being blinded by the nostalgia.
I‘ve went back to Secret of Mana a lot… Coop-able JRPGs were extremely rare for a very long time. Maybe they still are.
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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