Retro Games Worth Playing -

[Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost]

Feel free to add in a game or series of games that you personally vouch for as fun and worth playing, can be any genre/console

So to start off an absolute classic series if you enjoy playing PC adventure games was the Sierra Quest for Glory series. Each of these games is good in its own way, it had an interesting RPG element that worked will with the adventure text games that Sierra was famous for, and then moved over well to the point and click genre as well. As well as being able to port your previous character stats and all to the next game in the series which helped build an affinity with the character over the run of the entire series.

Each of them is worth playing in its own right however the absolute pinnacle in terms of the series IMO is QFG 4, it combines all of the best elements of the previous entries into the series as well as building on the already well established lore of the world. It is challenging, has lots of replay-ability as there are the four classes to choose from and each has its own set of challenges, a really great story arc and theme for each of those classes as well as a dark more mature setting for the series, well developed and interesting characters, and all the while retaining all of the fantastic humor that made the series fun to play in the first place.

 

[trigon]

Old Falcom games are still a treat for me as and when XSEED gets around to publishing them on Steam.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

Most old Sierra series are pretty great.

I also recommend the Kings Quest and Leisure Suit Larry games.

A good non-Sierra game was Broken Sword, Shadow of the Templars (previously known as Circle of Blood). There's also the game Toonstruck, and the Maniac Mansion series.

Even though they absolutely had their faults (who would think to throw a pie in the face of a fucking Sasquatch), adventure games were really fun.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

Talking of adventure games the Gabriel Knight series is pretty good, not got round to trying the remake though mostly because the protagonist is sadly no longer voiced by Tim Curry.

As for another genre Master of Orion 1 and 2 are a great entry point into the 4x genre, they’re still so popular you see some modern 4x games try to emulate them. (Starbase Orion on the iOS did a decent job of it)

 

[AF 802]

SimCity 2000.

I still have the theme in my head after all these years.

 

[BeanBidan]

Journey to Silius and duck tales for NES

 

[Shitassdeaddude]

Daggerfall is pretty fun, and you can get it free these days. Shit doesn't hold hands like current WRPGs do and some of the story stuff can be pretty wanky to get access to so you may need a guide here and there. It's still really fuckin' fun though.

Ah, the Bethesda that was.

 

[Cubanodun]

Im finishing all the Gradius i can find, still trying to find a good torrent from the one of PS2

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Any Wolf, idtech1-4, and Build engine games. Oh, and Super Mario Brothers 3.

 

[XE 600]

Oh boy oh boy. As a retro game collector (Atari 2600, NES, Genesis/Megadrive, N64 and Dreamcast are what I mainly collect for) this sounds like my kinda' thread so I'll suggest a few for each retro console I collect for so I apologize in advanced for the lengthy post as retro gaming is a passion of mine.

Atari 2600:
River Raid - One of my favorite games for the system. So much fun to be had with it.
Outlaw - A simple fun multiplayer game. I'd only buy it if you have someone to play it with, the single player game modes are boring.
Mario Bros. - A fairly well made version of the game. Great version to play regardless whether you've played any of the other ports or not.
Road Runner - Very impressive game for the Atari. Great graphics, very challenging and nice variety with how the levels look.
Crystal Castles - Very awkward game to play at first due to the isometric view. Once you get use to the controls, you'll enjoy it. I'd also suggest QBert as well but I think I've recommended more than enough Atari games.

NES:
Not going to list the games that people commonly list for the NES so I'll say a few that I don't see often starting off with Startropics - a very unique RPG. It's kind of like legend of zelda and is very charming.
North and South - Very impressive game for the NES. A strategy RTS game set in the civil war. Can play as either the North and win like how the history books say or the South and make slavery great again!
Dragon Warrior - Fun little RPG, first game in the Dragon Quest series. There were 3 of these released on the NES though the sequels are quite expensive. You can find the first one pretty cheap though.
Galaga - Fun arcade game and it's a game that is loved to death by my dad to I've got fond memories of playing it too. It's one of those games where you keep saying "one more turn" and the time you get off it you wonder where the afternoon went.

Genesis/Megadrive:
This is my least played console and has the one I have the least amount of games for and I haven't played most of the games I have for it but I'll suggest The Revenge of Shinobi. If you like Ninja Gaiden then this game would be up your alley.

N64:
I am not suggesting Conker's Bad Fur Day here because although it's fun, the price that it usually goes for is way too much for what it is in my opinion. But if you can find it for cheap somewhere then go for it. Not going to mention Super Mario 64 either because there are way better platformers on the console.
Dobstu No Mori/Animal Forest/Animal Crossing - I'm a big fan of the Animal Crossing series and eventhough I don't read a word of japanese, this game is very much playable if you've played a little bit of the gamecube version. It's a fun game if you just feel like lazing about and not playing anything intense.
Goldeneye - C'mon, how could this game NOT get suggested when mentioning the N64?
Banjo Kazooie - My favorite platformer on the N64. So much to do in every level that eventhough they are small, you don't ever feel like you're done after five minutes.

Dreamcast:
Not suggesting Sonic Adventure because it's shit and only autistic troons can find enjoyment from it. Eventhough I love the Resident Evil series, I'm not going to suggest any of them either since there's either better versions of them out there somewhere or the version on the Dreamcast isn't too big of an improvement from the other versions.
Rayman 2 - Never completed this version (the version I've completed was the one on N64) but out of the pre-Revolution versions this is the best version of Rayman 2. Got great graphics even for today, the most content and feels the best to control in my opinion.
Dino Crisis - Resident Evil but with dinosaurs. What more do you want?
Shenmue - If you had to have one game for the Dreamcast, it should be this. It feels awkward to control but I don't think I've ever felt as immersed in any other game.
House of the Dead 2 - Very quick Arcade game. Can be completed in 45 minutes but I seem to keep coming back to this despite completing it what feels like hundreds of times. Easy and fun to play without a light gun too (in fact, never played it with a light gun but I'd love to find a CRT TV so I can play it how it was intended).
WWF Royal Rumble - Bit of a controversial pick for you fellow WWE/WWF gaming fans I'm sure due to it just being a port of an arcade game (and other than the mediocre at best WWF Attitude being released for the Dreamcast. this is your only option for a WWE/WWF game on the system) but that's why I've picked it. You don't have to try to do different button combinations to win, it's very easy to pick up and play and is the only WWE/WWF game where the Royal Rumble feels as insane as it should.

 

[The Shadow]

Bungie's early titles Pathways into Darkness (don't know if there's a port or you need to emulate Mac OS 7) and the Marathon series are great.

I dislike Star Wars as a franchise, but X-Wing/TIE Fighter and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight are all solid, fun games (in some ways Kyle's force powers in Jedi Knight along with the in game morality system make it feel as much a lost precursor to Bioshock as the System Shock games do). By the same token, LucasArts' Outlaws uses the Dark Forces engine in a Spaghetti Western context with some great music.

Also...Blood is a lot of fun if you're in a horror mood.

Daggerfall is pretty fun, and you can get it free these days. Shit doesn't hold hands like current WRPGs do and some of the story stuff can be pretty wanky to get access to so you may need a guide here and there. It's still really fuckin' fun though.

Ah, the Bethesda that was.

Hundreds of miles of randomly generated world and dungeons, IIRC.

 

[Otis Boi]

BLOOD, Hexen, and wizardry they are some classic game i like even if i wasnt able to play them when i was younger

 

[Ilackcreativity]

Final Fantasy, Life Force, Gradius, Dragon Warrior, Golgo 13, Double Dragon NES
Arial Assult, Sonic 2, Shinobi1-2 Game Gear
Metal Gear, Ace Combat1-2-3, Einhänder, Final Fantasy 7, Wipeout3 PS1
Free Space 2, Freelancer, Fallout1-2, Xcom UFO Defense, Simcity 3000, Thief1-2, Deus Ex PC

 

[XYZpdq]

Im finishing all the Gradius i can find, still trying to find a good torrent from the one of PS2

iirc there's two on the PS2, first one was "Gradius 3 and 4" (ports of the arcade games) the second was 5 (the one Treasure made)

Most of the the 16bit or higher Parodiuses still hold up as a fun enough time.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Final Fantasy, Life Force, Gradius, Dragon Warrior, Golgo 13, Double Dragon NES
Arial Assult, Sonic 2, Shinobi1-2 Game Gear
Metal Gear, Ace Combat1-2-3, Einhänder, Final Fantasy 7 PS1
Free Space 2, Freelancer, Fallout1-2, Xcom UFO Defense, Simcity 3000, Thief1-2 PC

Damn, beat me to F02, easily my favorite game.

 

[Cubanodun]

iirc there's two on the PS2, first one was "Gradius 3 and 4" (ports of the arcade games) the second was 5 (the one Treasure made)

Most of the the 16bit or higher Parodiuses still hold up as a fun enough time.

I already played the old ones, going to play Gradius Gaiden before going to Gradius 5

 

[Billy_Sama]

I have yet to play a better beat em up than Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis. It pretty much set the standard for that genre and few games measure close to it.

 

[Doc Cassidy]

Although Grand Theft Auto 4 feels super old nowadays if you can tolerate the more retro aspects like the controls and graphics it's honestly a lot of fun, just don't expect it to look or play like a modern game.

 

[The Shadow]

I have yet to play a better beat em up than Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis. It pretty much set the standard for that genre and few games measure close to it.

It was so good its own sequel couldn't top it.

 

[CIA Nigger]

Download MAME and a shitload of ROMs for it. You'll get a vast library of classic games along with numerous obscure arcade games you probably never even knew existed. Just be sure you have a relatively modern or powerful CPU, later versions of MAME tend to run worse in the name of accuracy.