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

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.
- My thought when reading the title of the thread was "If Half-Life fits the bill, it's half life."
  Revolutionary game.

Chrono Trigger - SNES, 1995
- I hear people say all the time that it is perfect. It definitely has imperfections.
  However while I will insist on it being imperfect it has still been my number one favorite game for at least two decades.
  It is easily the closest to perfect I think you could possibly ask for with the hardware limitations and the fact that teams don't have magical infinite time or budgets. Anyone with even a slight interest in RPGs should play it.
  Plus it gave us the musical career of Yasunori Mitsuda
- The SNES library of RPGs will always be peak gaming. Chrono Trigger & Earthbound fight for the top spot for me, #3 depends on the day.
  
  PS1's rpg library is nothing to scoff at, either. Square's golden years (3 mainline final fantasy, tactics, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve and more), Suikoden, Persona, Breath of Fire 3, Valkyrie Profile.
- Best JRPG of all time and I’ll die on that hill 🤣
- I never played it, what are everyone's thoughts on the 2018 pc version? Some reviews don't like the port?

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

Doom

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
- There are better Zelda games. ALTTP is clever, for sure, but the path through the game has too many obtuse moments. I don't know how I would have gotten through it the first time without Nintendo Power magazine. I liked Link's Awakening and Link Between Worlds more, though without Link to the Past, we wouldn't have those games.
  Now, the Super Metroid and A Link to the Past Randomizer is an incredible achievement and a must-play for people who have finished both original games.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC)
- Reporting!
  
  Unit. Lost. Unit. Lost. Unit. Lost.
- I can hear Hell's March just from the screenshot
  
  Click the screenshot!

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

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Nintendo 64

Space Cadet 3D Pinball (PC)
(tell me you didn't just hear that sound in your head)

Super Mario World. The perfect platformer.
- SMB3 & Kirby's Adventure both deserve to share that title.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night - PlayStation
- How do I upvote twice?
  
  Use an alt account, but this would technically count as vote manipulation.

Super Metroid - SNES
- Metroid 2 - Return of Samus for Gameboy too. I loved it.

Tetris - Gameboy

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.

Final Fantasy 7 - PlayStation

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.
  Edit: sigh* See what I mean? Why does everyone hate this game!?
  
  The only sequel was Perfect Dark.

Unreal Tournament

Bubble Bobble, Arcade, 1986
- Great, now I'll have the music from this game stuck in my head all day

Donkey Kong Country - SNES

Final fantasy 3/6 - SNES
- The best Final Fantasy
  
  On the SNES, or counting only mainline titles, yes. Overall, tactics is the best FF

Diablo (1996?)

Super Mario Bros. - NES

The Legend of Zelda - NES

Street fighter 2 - hyper fighting edition (arcade).
Played this every day after school for years as did a huge portion of my school.

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.

The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening
- Found you. Adding a picture

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.

Warcraft 2

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.
  
  I prefer the first game as you're exploring a wild and hostile world while trying your best to survive and discover what's actually going on. You have no idea why assassins keep coming for you, what's going on with the iron crisis, or how it could possibly relate to you...but for some reason, you are tangled in a messy web of intrigue, politics, and danger.
  You're right...you are SO underpowered and helpless in the first game. Getting to any town is such a relief. But this makes adventuring so very worth it and so rewarding. I feel like the first game is brutally realistic, whereas the second is more fantastical. I love the cool gear and interactions of BG2, but the first one just feels so urgent and pressing to me.
  The EE versions really changed the game...so many improvements without needing mods. However, the modding community is amazing as well. NPC banter packs, item packs, new quests, etc...there are so many options to modernize the game!
- 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.

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

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

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.
- I'd lean in favor of Gen 2 being better, but it's definitely a tough call whether the original or the first refinement is better.
  
  Its really about whether GS are better than Yellow, GS are definitely better than RB. Anyone saying RB is better than any of the other GB ones is saying it for nostalgia.

Wipeout 2097 (Wipeout XL), PSX, 1996

Earthbound - SNES (with the oversized box and guide)
- I still catch myself whistling songs from this game.

Dune 2, PC
- Genre creating and still embedded firmly in the cranium!
- never got to play this, but I have been playing Dune: Spice Wars which has been pretty fun. Might not be that similar but Dune universe is excellent for these type of games for sure.

Final Fantasy 4, SNES.
(Still one of the best games I've ever played.)

Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
- My all-time favorite game. It's peak 2D Mario. SMB3 speedrunning is fun. Glitches are fun. It will challenge you, but almost every level is fair.
  NES version really showed off what the MMC3 chip can do. Super Mario All-Stars has a surprisingly deep 2-player Battle Game based on Mario Bros. Wii U/Switch versions of Super Mario Advance 4 contain all 38 e-Reader levels with some wild new gimmicks and combinations.

Duke Nukem 3D, PC

Elite - BBC Micro Model B originally.

Pirates!

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).