A reader looks back at some of the best games of the 1990s and judges them by how well they stand up today, in terms of graphics and gameplay.
So here we are, having heard the news this week that the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii U are now officially considered retro consoles.
I’m totally fine with this, as I think you can pick up some very good games for any one of those consoles and still manage to find yourself lost in how good they were.
I’ve been thinking about writing this article for a few weeks now, so forgive me if I omit everything from that calibre of console. It really was nothing personal and feel free to add your own from that era.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about games that aged well over the years, going up to the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube era.
Graphics will play a big part in my list, as I feel not all games age that well graphically, but gameplay is and always was a massive factor for me.
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I wrote a list of about 12 games but decided to cull it down to five, as we are all different and have our own opinions.
So it would be very interesting to hear others on this matter. So here goes in no particular order:
Street Fighter 2
Where do you start with this?
The characters, the stages, the multiplayer, the graphics, the gameplay are all still held up in very high regard today.
It spawned a generation of one-on-one beat ’em-ups and I get the impression Capcom are trying to out do this masterpiece still to this day.
They really did catch lighting in a bottle with this little number.
Tetris
Probably the oldest title on my list. Its simplicity is why it is so special. It’s basically a gaming jigsaw puzzle but boy is it addictive and stood the test of time.
If you haven’t watched the movie, I highly recommend it (make sure you’ve played the game first to give it some context).
I loved the Game Boy version but Tetris Effect is my favourite way to play this game. It is still fundamentally the same game but with better music and the visuals emerge you a lot more.
I’m convinced if this game came out today in 2026 we would all be scratching our heads on why nobody had ever thought of this before.
The gameplay is pretty much perfect.
Lemmings
I was first introduced to this on the Amiga 500 using mouse controls, I instantly fell in love with it. The way their hair bounced as they walked in fear of nothing and you felt like you had to be their protector.
Some of it was trial and error but sometimes you could still get through the level doing exactly that.
It was a simple concept that sometimes would really have you thinking. Most of the time you would get 100 Lemmings and you would care about each and every one of them.
Spoiler, sometimes you had to sacrifice a couple to get the others home.
I had it on the Super Nintendo but it lacked the mouse controls of the Amiga, so it was not the definitive version for me.
If I’m right, I think Sony still has the rights to the game these days and I wish they would just do something with it or sell it on to another company.
This game would still stand up today if only it got the exposure it deserves.
Daytona USA
Nothing beat the feeling of sitting down in that arcade chair, adjusting your seat and grabbing that steering wheel quite like Daytona USA did.
The sense of speed and the pumping music, and the force feedback on the steering wheel, all made you forget about the rest of the room around you.
Sure, the graphics probably aren’t up to today’s standards of other driving games, but this was the arcade equivalent of energy drinks before there were energy drinks.
I always got out of that seat buzzing. It might be the grandaddy in retro arcade racing games today but in my humble opinion, it’s still one of the best arcade racing games out there.
So much so that you still see the original cabinet in arcades still to this day.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Now this title has aged really well.
Its graphics are almost cartoon like and still look good on today’s TVs. Its gameplay and puzzle-solving are sublime.
You know a game is good when the only fault fans can find about it, is the colour of the protagonist’s hair.
You would be forgiven for thinking this game is not the wrong side of 35 years old.
A lot of the music set the bar for future Zelda titles to come and some of the ideas are genius.
It never really got remade, maybe that is due to how good the original was?
The top-down Zeldas peaked pretty early with this title, what an adventure that game turned out to be.
Honourable mentions go to Heavy Rain, Uncharted, and Luigi’s Mansion. I think all three will age very well in their own right over the next few years.
By reader freeway 77
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