| Game name | Best played on | Comments |
|---|
| Amnesia : The Dark Descent | Windows | Intense horror. Play it in the dark, alone, and with headphones ! |
| Antichamber | Windows | Strange world. Minimalist visuals. Nice puzzles. Last scene is powerful and refreshing. Ambient music is a masterpiece. |
| Assetto corsa | Oculus Rift | The best racing sim ever made to this day. Perfect physics. |
| Baba Is You | Switch | Puzzle game that expands on sokoban and, in a way, scrabble. Perfectly balanced, interesting, very innovative. |
| Banished * | Windows | Nice graphics and music. So balanced you won't believe it. Huge demonstration of emergent design & gameplay. |
| Blackwell | Windows | Interesting characters. Good ambiance. Nice finale. Great backgrounds that feel alive. Each game of the serie feels distinct and not too repetitive. It’s difficult to know the correct play order of the episodes, don’t get it wrong. |
| Bloodstain Curse of the Moon | Windows | The guys understood retro-gaming. Same people behind Mega Man 9. Action packed castlevania-like with well balanced challenge. |
| Brutal Doom v21b starter pack | Windows | Intense. Empowering. Feels modern. Great metal soundtrack. Once setup problems and nausea are overcome, the VR version is great too. |
| Burnout Paradise | XBox 360 | Huge open world. Good variety of environments. Very high speed. Very smooth frame rate (except on Switch where it's tolerable but not perfect). Impressive crash scenes. Good arcade controls allowing for both fast speed and stunts. The PC version lacks the great DLC island but has amazing 3D vision support. |
| Celeste | Switch | Begins softly, then blooms to a fantastic gameplay with excellent narrative and deep characters. Music is perfect. |
| Dark Souls Remastered | Switch | Huge built-to-scale open world. Innovative multiplayer. Precise controls. Forces the player to learn. Exceptional narrative. the remastered version fixes most technical problems. The switch version allows portability, which is a game-changer. |
| Day of the Tentacle Remastered | Windows | Hilarious cartoony humor. Breathtaking twisty backgrounds. Whacky puzzles that sometimes require the solution. |
| Doki Doki Literature Club | PC | A dating visual novel that turns into a meta masterpiece. Take the warnings at startup seriously. No, really, don't play it if you feel unsafe or psychologically weak. The 'Plus' version has good extra content, but loses very important gameplay mechanics. |
| Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist | Windows | Free game by the creators of Stanley Parable. No words to describe this. |
| Dungeon Master | Windows (CSBWin engine) | Innovative magic system. Subtle inventory management. Minimalist sound design fits ambience. |
| F-Zero | Super Nintendo (60 Hz) | Fast. Great music. Nice challenge. Beautiful environments. No stupid glitch exploit, no weapons, no gimmick, pure racing talent. |
| Fez | Switch | Best puzzles ever. Striking visuals. Exceptional music. Huge amount of easter eggs and sidestory. Make you feel like an archeologist. |
| Flashback | Acorn Archimedes (or Genesis) | Cinematographic. Good scenario. Innovative cutscenes. Seemingly stiff gameplay brings in fact precision. Avoid the remakes, especially the 3D reboot, it’s awful. |
| I-War 2 : Edge Of Chaos | Windows (With all patches, 2 sticks and pedals) | Patches cover for lack of polish. Great ambience. Great music. Interesting physics. French version dubbing is a delight. Incredibly detailed in-game encyclopedia. Rogue-like elements increase replay value. Sometimes messy. |
| King's Field (King's Field 2 in Japan) | Playstation | A very interesting first person action RPG by the studio who made Dark Souls. Focused on atmosphere with a tough but fair challenge and incredibly good level design. Graphics are a bit rough but contribute to the general feeling. |
| Lumines Remastered | Switch | Great soundtrack and pleasing mechanics. The remaster fixed readability issues of the PSP original. |
| Mega Man 3 | NES (50 Hz) | Best musics of the series overall. Interesting mechanics. Balanced challenge. The 50 Hz version has better framerate consistency. |
| Mega Man 9 | Wii | Great music. Great graphics. Respects the original series, but also brings some new gameplay mechanics. Wily's Castle has superb level design. |
| Muramasa | PS Vita | Top notch 2D graphics. Beautiful landscapes. Weapon forge system is huge. Easy controls. Nice immersion. Play it on the OLED "fat" Vita for best visuals. |
| Portal | Windows | Dark humor. Great voice acting. Great writing. Twisted puzzles. Great music. Smooth gameplay. Glitches are bearable. |
| Portal 2 | Windows (3D Vision) | Portal brought to the next level. I still prefer the cold and empty feeling of the first but this one is great too. Excellent coop game. The level editor has excellent ergonomy. 3D vision support is good if you can find the version that handles the cursor correctly. |
| Rez Infinite | VR | Beautiful neon visuals. Music and SFX blend. Out of this world experience. Perfect music & gameplay synchronization that blends everything together to provide a unique experience. VR (esp. in Zone X) brings so much to the experience. |
| Rhythm Heaven (DS) | DS | Great use of the touch screen. Extremely well polished. Ultra precise gameplay. Balanced challenge. Unexpected amount of backstory and narrative. |
| SOMA | Windows | Deep philosophical and psychological adventure. All questions answered at the end. Player choices have no impact which avoids influencing you. Original scenario. Superior sound design. |
| Shadow of the Colossus | PS3 (3D display) | World scale. Exceptional technical achievements. Poetic scenario with controversy and overall sadness. Emotional ending. PS2 version feels a bit more cinematic with its slower framerate. 3D display gives a hint of the huge size of the world. If you don't care about 3D (you should), play the incredible PS4 remake. |
| Shovel Knight Treasure Trove | Switch | Very good old-school platformer. Awesome soundtrack, awesome graphics, fantastic gameplay, 4 campaigns, many extras. |
| Skyrim VR | VR headset | Now we are talking. One of the best sandboxes of all times brought to VR. The way this game was meant to be experienced. The VR version has its rough edges, but well worth the investment. Boost the game with mods for the best experience (especially realistic lighting for true pitch black places). |
| Sonic 2 | Genesis | Speed. Music. Masterful level design. Spot-on characters attitude. Iconic special stage sections. |
| Sonic 3 & Knuckles | Genesis | More complete and cinematographic than Sonic 2. Maybe a bit less intense. Level design feels different from Sonic 2 but still top-notch. |
| Sonic Mania Plus | Switch | The latest TRUE Sonic. They got it just right ! Extremely good controls and physics. Masterful level design. Great soundtrack. New gameplay ideas and zone merging gives a fresh experience. Encore mode and new characters bring replayability. Lacks the epic ending of Sonic 3&K. If the ending was better, it would be the best game ever. |
| Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe | Windows | Best trolls & Easter Eggs. Great writing and voice acting. Please don't spoil the game. The demo is something completely different and should be played. Extremaly good "Ultra Deluxe" re-release with very good new content. 8. |
| Super Mario Maker 2 | Switch | Fixed all problems from the first one. Additions are really good. The story mode is fun (finally!). Online experience is still so-so, but that's the problem with all these games. |
| The Legend of Zelda | NES (US) | Best ambience of the series. Long adventure. Open world that does not take the player by the hand. Objects are reused in multiple situations. |
| Tunic | Steam Deck | Zelda 3 + Dark Souls + Fez + Input lag. Promoted to S-tier despite its input lag/buffering problems because 100% completion is actually doable by a single person with no online guide, which is super rare and very satisfying to do. |
| Unreal | Windows 9x (OpenGL) | Great atmosphere. Superior level design. Nice weapons fitting multiple situations. Incredible graphics for its time with great attention to lighting. Good music that fits environments and knows when to be silent. |
| Unreal Tournament | Windows 9x (OpenGL) | When level and weapon design reach that level, you have a masterpiece. The graphics look even greater with the high resolution texture pack. Backed by solid action soundtrack. Also has great mods, especially Strike Force. |
| WipeOut 2097 | Playstation (JP) | Best physics (boost arrows accumulate, air brake slides are precise, the ship does not stick too much to the track). Purest visuals of the series. Interesting glitches. Balanced challenge. Great OST. Sense of speed increased by the lower framerate. All other WipeOut games have their problems, this one is the one to play. |
| Game name | Best played on | Comments |
|---|
| Aladdin (Virgin) | Genesis | Stunning graphics and animations. Extremely precise controls. Excellent level design with obvious goals. A bit too easy. |
| Amnesia Rebirth | Windows | You will feel your character. Disturbing story that doesn't end well. Don't follow instructions for brightness settings: boost it a little bit higher. |
| Another World | PS Vita | Amazing dark and eerie ambience. Masterful cutscenes. Lacking sound design. The remaster is beautiful and offers original graphics, which I prefer. The OLED Vita screen makes justice to the graphics. |
| Blaster | Arcade | Striking visuals. Smooth gameplay. Too repetitive like most games of this era. |
| Blazing Dragons | Playstation | Original story and character design. Well written. Nice graphics. Good voice acting. Bland sound design. Plagued by loading screens. |
| Bloodstain Curse of the Moon 2 | Windows | More of the same. As good as the first, but lacking the surprise effect. |
| Brothers : A Tale of 2 Sons | Switch | Easy game with fresh game design and controls. Somewhat similar to Another World but with no unfair trap. Its art direction is somewhat bland and cliché. |
| Candy Box | Web browser | Surprises by the amount of things to do. Nice ASCII art graphics. |
| Candy Box 2 | Web browser | Enhances all aspects of the first game. Great ASCII art, big world to explore. Feels like a real RPG. |
| Captain Blood | Atari ST (game manual required) | Very unique game. Innovative dialog system. Iconic 80's visuals. |
| Command and Conquer | DOS | Classic RTS. Not too difficult. Nice cheesy live action cutscenes. |
| Command and Conquer: Red Alert | Windows | The old-school RTS to play. Expands on the strenghts of the first game. Awesome music. The level editor and rules.ini file extends its replayability. |
| Contra Hard Corps | Genesis | Very dynamic and fast gameplay. Impressive special effects and visuals. |
| Crazy Balloon | Atari 2600 | Nice small homebrew game. Ported from an obscure arcade game. Single player, but definitely cool to play with other people watching. |
| Daggerfall Unity | Any (with mods) | Fixes most Daggerfall issues, mods take care of the rest. The game is still hard but at least it's playable. |
| Dead Space | Xbox 360 | Lengthy horror game with great atmosphere and good visuals. |
| Demon's Souls | PS3 | Innovative multiplayer. Precise controls. Forces the player to learn. Exceptional narrative. Ambience is superior to Dark Souls. Some worlds are really frightening. |
| Destruction Derby | Playstation | Begins as a fun games. Becomes a technical game. A classic. The sequel feels a bit different, you might prefer it (I don't). |
| Die Hard Trilogy | Playstation | Fun game with very diverse gameplay. Controls may look bad but become very precise once mastered. |
| Dishonored | Windows | Masterful level design. Gives freedom to the player. Lacks in-game indications to help super players (death count, detection flag, ...). |
| Driver San Fransisco | PS3 | Nice story. Nice gameplay ideas. Good action. Good arcade controls. Dialogs and cutscenes don't slow the game down too much. Somewhat inferior to Burnout Paradise when it comes to tricks and physics. Limited replay value. |
| Duck Tales | NES (US) | Smooth gameplay. Nice music. Nice graphics. Controls are a bit approximative on some passages but feel very tight overall. |
| Duke Nukem 3D | DOS | Badass attitude. Good graphics that push fake 3D to its limit. Great heavy metal soundtrack. A few bugs here and there. |
| Ecco the Dolphin | Genesis / Sega CD | Very deep atmosphere. Unique gameplay that needs to be mastered. A bit dark and sad on some passages. Great music but horrible sounds. SCD version has beautiful music but loses a part of the dark atmosphere: choose what you prefer. |
| Ecco the Dolphin 2 | Genesis / Sega CD | Similar to the first game, but bigger, longer, even more beautiful. The story is seriously twisted. |
| Elasto-Mania | Windows 9x | Expansion of Action Super Cross (DOS). The first "crazy" trial game that started it all. Great physics, stupid situations that make you laugh, Great level editor. |
| Elite Dangerous | Oculus Rift (with 2 sticks, a wheel and pedals) | Great visuals that perfectly fit VR technology. Perfect immersion. Controls are incredibly immersive once set up correctly (you will need a lot of hardware). Uninspired political system. Repetitive content. |
| F-Zero GX | GameCube (emulated VR) | The game is exceptional in every way, and takes another dimension when emulated with a VR headset. Constant 60 FPS and ultra tight controls. Too bad that snaking and physics exploits artificially increases difficulty of fastest records. |
| Full Throttle | ScummVM | Beautiful game that settles an interesting and coherent world. Action scenes are a total mess and show the limitations of the SCUMM engine. |
| Galaga | Arcade | Dynamic gameplay. Immediate fun. Nice system for dual ship powerup. |
| Game Dev Tycoon | Windows | Great ambience. Good idea. Misses a few points to be a masterpiece. |
| Gauntlet 2 | Atari ST | Deeper than what you may think. Huge multiplayer fun with tactical battles. The 'it' object is a very good mechanic. |
| Ghost Trick | DS | Original gameplay with nice puzzles. Scenario offers many twists. Fully exploits its game mechanics to create many diverse situations. |
| Gran Turismo 2 | Playstation | Huge game with lots of content. Nice physics. Great graphics for its time. Full of annoying bugs. |
| H.E.R.O. | Atari 2600 | Dynamic game with a good balance between puzzle and action. Precise controls and clear objectives. Very complete for such a limited platform. |
| Half-Life | Windows (OpenGL, 144 Hz) | Good scenario. Places the player at the center of the game. So-so graphics even for its time. Loading screens are not a problem anymore on today's machines. |
| Hotel Dusk | DS | Good atmosphere. Very lively hand-drawn character animation. Characters are interesting. Scenario is a bit cheesy but has its moments. |
| Hotline Miami | Windows | Dark ambience and scenario. Very violent and intense action. Pure die and retry. Makes you feel on drugs. Involving dialogs. Top-notch music. |
| Hotline Miami 2 | Windows | Goes further than the first. Has visibility problems because environments are too big. Playing on the Vita for portability reasons, the mouse+keyboard combo feels better for me (especially to look far away). |
| Ikaruga | Dreamcast | Fine graphics. Interesting gameplay mechanic. Endless challenge. |
| Journey | PS3 | Superb ambiance. Poetic. Unexpected multiplayer. |
| Kerbal Space Program * | Windows | Went from flop to top in this list. The game needs time to be fully appreciated, then you reach the limits of the poor physics engine, which will get you frustrated. I was hoping to build big space structures but the game becomes slow above 2000 pieces. |
| King of Fighters 98 | Arcade | Beautiful graphics with detailed animations. Provides some fun for beginners. Good set of characters. Not as deep as Street Fighter. |
| Kirby's Adventure | NES | Long game with good looks and nice power-up system. |
| Kirby's Dream Land 2 | Game Boy | Kawaii graphics with beautiful music. Feels optimistic and refreshing. |
| Kirby's Epic Yarn | Wii | Lovely graphics. Nice atmosphere. The lack of challenge fits younger audiences or people just wanting to chill out. |
| Kirby: Triple Deluxe | 3DS | Best use of the 3D screen. High quality as usual for all kirby games. |
| L.A. Noire | Switch | The best facial expressions to date. Dialog system is good. You should play with audio cues disabled for a better challenge. The open world is boring and should not have been included. Flashback cutscenes uninteresting. |
| Lifeline | Android | Very innovative gameplay, very immersive. Nice story. Nice characters. |
| Loco Roco | PSP | Unique gameplay. Music is interesting. Beautiful and tasteful vector graphics. |
| Loco Roco 2 | PSP | More of the same. As good as Loco Roco for the same reasons. |
| Lumines Electronic Symphony | PS Vita | Readability issues on some skins, some other skins are fantastic, nice music overall, still not sure about that randomizer block. |
| Lunar Lander | Arcade | Ultra-precise controls. Requires high concentration. Unique vector graphics display. |
| Maniac Mansion | ScummVM (enhanced version) | Nice humor and references make up for the quirkyness of some puzzles and the insane difficulty. |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Switch | Different from the Wii U version. Battle mode is pure genius. Again, like every party game, all unlockables should be available for multiplayer. Playing 30 hours solo to enable a bit more fun in party play makes no sense. |
| Mega Man 2 | NES (50 Hz) | The timeless classic. I prefer MM3 and MM9 though because difficulty is more balanced. Best weapons of the series. Wily's castle 1 music is so heavy. The 50Hz version has a more constant frame rate, delivering better gameplay. |
| Mega Man 10 | Wii | Nice music (but not as good as 9), nice levels specifically designed for speedrunning (but not as fun as 9), nice weapon set (but not as good as 9)... Not as good as 9. |
| Metal Slug (and its sequels) | Arcade | Extremely detailed graphics and animations. Spot-on humor. Never gets old. |
| Metroid Fusion | GBA | Same qualities as Super Metroid. Some bosses are confusing. Difficulty is incredibly well balanced. Not really suited for portable gaming, play it in the dark, in your bed, and have some nightmares ... |
| Mirror's Edge | Windows (with PhysX acceleration) | Nice atmosphere. Artistic visuals. Quite unique and intuitive control scheme. Good music from time to time. |
| Motocross Maniacs | Game Boy | The game appeals mastering its quirks. Good tunes in the background. Fun to race a friend in multiplayer. |
| Neo Drift Out | Arcade | Simple and straightforward game with very precise arcade control. |
| Neutopia | PC Engine | A Zelda-like with better graphics and sound. Nice balance between exploration, secrets and difficulty. |
| New Super Mario Land | DS | The game that defined modern 2D Mario games. Nice feeling, nice challenge, great graphics for the platform. |
| Nidhogg II | Switch | Very deep multiplayer fighting game based on rock, paper scissors. Nice and diverse level design. Weapons make the game so much more fun. I prefer the old 2600-like graphics, but these ones are good too. |
| Octodad | Switch | Goofy situations. Beautiful cartoon visuals. Soap-opera feeling. 4 players co-op is epic. |
| Pac-Man | Arcade | The timeless classic. Nice controls, nice gameplay, nice sounds, balanced difficulty. |
| Pac-Mania | Arcade (Atari ST) | Jumping adds a new dimension to the classic Pac-Man gameplay. The Atari ST is interesting with different pace and chip tune music. |
| Pac-Pix | DS | Good use of the stylus. Interesting gameplay. |
| Penumbra | Windows | Before Amnesia, there was Penumbra. Each episode has its own strengths and weaknesses. Storytelling works, as well as gameplay mechanics. Visuals didn't age well though. |
| Projectyle | Atari ST | Dynamic multiplayer. Cheesy soundtrack and sound design. Surprising power ups. Approximate controls and flukes give a chance to beginners. |
| Retro City Rampage | Windows | Looks like a minigame but is actually big game with a nice scenario. Huge amount of references to other games. Great music. Nice polish. |
| Rhythm Heaven Fever | Wii | Extremely well polished, as all other games of the series. I did not test multiplayer. |
| Rhythm Tengoku | GBA | Extremely well polished. More challenging than its sequels. |
| Rick Dangerous | Atari ST | The classic die and retry game. Good humor. Good graphics. Stiff controls allow for more precision once mastered. |
| Ridge Racer Revolution | Playstation | The definitive cheesy arcade game with drift mechanics that allow for a lot of abuse. Matching cheesy soundtrack. Horrible engine sound design. |
| Ristar | Genesis | Great ambience. Beautiful and colorful graphics. Good music that plays an important part of the game. Innovative gameplay. Lacks the punch of sonic games. |
| Road 96 | Steam Deck | A very interesting, original, and unexpected adventure game. Procedurally generated but not repetitive. Play its prequel Mile 0 before this one, because this game kinda ruins the slightly inferior (but still good) prequel. |
| Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 | Windows (OpenRCT) | Unmatched freeform management game. Great ride physics. A few problems with the interface and visitor AI. Play it using the OpenRCT engine that fixes many issues and limitations. |
| Sam & Max Hit the Road | ScummVM | Another LucasArts classic. Cartoonish violent humor and lots of minigames. Puzzles are often too twisted to be interesting. I wish I could get my hands on an unopened box of the game but that costs too much ! |
| Sega Rally | Saturn | Unmatched arcade rally physics. Controls are something special. Also, check out the PS3 version with incredible tyre track physics when played with a force feedback wheel. |
| Serious Sam: the second encounter | Windows | Crazy game that emphasizes on cartoon and ridiculous amounts of enemies. Insane multiplayer. 2nd encounter is the best of the series. |
| Shenmue | Dreamcast | Extremely detailed open world. Good scenario. Very believable NPC with habits and interactions at any time. So many extras in the game. Controls are stiff and some phases drag out. Fighting system under exploited. |
| Sim City 2000 * | DOS (PS1 has the best music but is slower) | Good balance between simplicity and challenge. |
| Skies of Arcadia | Dreamcast | Great tactical gameplay, especially with boat battles. Very cliché character design and scenario. Many references to Laputa. Too many random battles especially in labyrinth zones when trying to find your way. The VMU minigame is great too. |
| Slam Tilt | Windows 9x | Nice physics. Interesting pinball tables (especially Mean Machines). Good graphics. Innovative mini games and modes. Would benefit from a fullscreen version with no scrolling. |
| Sonic Generations | PS3 | Great game overall. Feels "sonic" (more or less). Too bad 2D physics is not more like classic sonic, this would have provided better controls overall. |
| Soul Blade | Playstation | Great story mode with a lot of contents. Old school physics. Very good cheesy opening FMV. |
| Soul Calibur II | PS2 | I prefer Soul Blade, but this one has an interesting story mode with nice challenges. |
| South Park: The Stick of Truth | Windows | Faithful to the series. Typical South Park humor. Detailed and clean graphics. Well balanced difficulty. Uninspired upgrades and RPG aspects. Be sure to play the uncensored version. |
| Space Channel 5 | Dreamcast | Cheesy, beautiful, over the top, and well balanced rhythm game. Fake-70's ambience at its best. |
| Space Harrier | Arcade | Action packed with impressive visuals that give a good sensation of speed. |
| Star Fox | Super Nintendo | Beautiful flat polygon graphics. Fine tuned gameplay with typical sci-fi atmosphere and epic space battles. Good soundtrack. |
| Star Wars (NES) | NES (US) | Good overall game. Faithful to the movie. Quirky controls can be offset by a few hours of training. The game is easy enough. |
| Super Hexagon * | Windows (Fine tune setup to avoid lags) | Fast and challenging. Too bad the engine is limited to 60 FPS. Don't even try mobile version as it's laggy. Benefits from a low latency setup. Did I mention that lag kills the game ? |
| Super Mario Bros. | NES (US) | The classic game. A bit too shallow for nowadays but still ... |
| Super Mario Bros. 2 (US) | Super Nintendo (US) | Beautiful game with relaxing challenge. Everything feels smooth and simple. Nice ending. |
| Super Mario Bros. 3 | Super Nintendo (US) | Great adventure. Innovative power ups that change the game. Very polished with practically no bugs and glitches (there are but they don't trigger with normal gameplay). Beautiful graphics on the SNES remake. Saving is convenient. |
| Super Mario Kart | Super Nintendo (60 Hz) | Weird controls that allow creativity and abuse. Unmatched battle mode. |
| Super Mario Land 2 | Game Boy | Too bad it's so easy, this could have been the best Mario game ever. Improves practically everything over SMB3 (except slippery controls and the lack of color). The fan-made DX version adds color. |
| Super Metroid | Super Nintendo (US) | The definitive Alien game ! Dark ambience with didactic gameplay and great scenario. Good sound design and matching music. |
| Super Paper Mario | Wii | Awesome world. Great 2D/3D system. Great gameplay ideas. Incredible dialogues (surprisingly aggressive from time to time). Platforming and battle is nice and tight. Some minigames are surprisingly detailed for one-shots. Some levels are boring though. |
| System Shock | DOS | Superb scenario. Nice 3D rendering. Inspired many other games. Superb wireframe / flat poly in the virtual reality world. Sometimes very dark. |
| Tetris * | Game Boy | The best tetris version out there. Such a classic ... |
| Tetris Attack * | Super Nintendo (US) | Great gameplay mechanics. Very addictive and strategic. All game modes are interesting. |
| The Incredible Machines 3 | Windows 3 | Challenges creativity. Very unique game that was never really copied. |
| The Last of Us | PS4 | Superb scenario. Great graphics. The absolutely best tutorial ever. Sad ending that stimulates imagination. Action scenes sometimes a bit long. Poorly balanced boss battles. Should have been a movie from the start. |
| The Lost Vikings | Super Nintendo (US) | Innovative coop gameplay. Tight controls. Adjust its pace to fit the player's. |
| The Touryst | Switch | Extremely polished puzzle/adventure game with cute voxel graphics. |
| Theme Hospital | Windows | Very fun game with spot-on humor. Nice graphics and animations. Difficulty rises too fast and last levels emphasize too much on random disasters. |
| Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove | Switch | Very good remake of the classic game. Difficulty is much more balanced. Very good funky soundtrack. Good co-op multiplayer. |
| Trials Evolution | Windows | The best of all « trials » games. Keeps the funny and weird aspects of the old « ElastoMania » game with upgraded graphics and a nice level editor that offers huge flexibility. |
| Viewfinder | Steam Deck | Highly polished environmental puzzle game. High WOW factor. Ultra smooth transitions. Game mechanics could be exploited for more interesting puzzles. It has its weaknesses, but they don't really degrade the experience that much. |
| Virtua Racing | Arcade (Deluxe cabinet) | Best flat polygons graphics. Challenging to master. The deluxe cabinet is a very rare experience. |
| Xenoblade Chronicles | Switch | Huge game with too many things to do. Good backstory and original universe. Cliché characters and mainstream music can get on nerves. |
| You Have To Win The Game | Windows (EGA graphics) | Free. Nice surprise. Captures the feeling of very old games without their quirks. Be sure to turn on « EGA graphics » in the options as the awful CGA colors might be more retro but miss details. |
| Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Switch | Nice come back to the initial formula. Very modern game. Nice sandbox with good mechanics. Plagued with hyper slow transitions and poor rhythm in scripted sequences. Music is sub-par. |
| Zelda: Phantom Hourglass | DS | A nice zelda with some retro feeling. 2 player mode is exceptional, very tactical and very deep. |
| Game name | Best played on | Comments |
|---|
| 3D Power Drift | 3DS | Intense 3D display. Feels very fast. Classic arcade feeling. |
| 4D Stunts | DOS (Sound blaster 16) | Great level editor. Nice flat poly graphics. Simple physics with good handling. |
| Adventures in the Magic Kingdom | NES | A so-so yet underrated set of Disney-themed minigames with strong Capcom vibes. Easy and forgiving, which isn't typical for the NES. |
| Alley Cat | DOS (CGA) | Nice little game. Very old-school feeling. Kind of Game&Watch feeling. |
| Alien vs Predator (1999) | Windows | Unique feeling of power when playing as predator and alien. Unique feeling of pressure when playing as marine. A bit repetitive. Slow paced (which is not a problem). The sequel has great multiplayer. |
| Arkanoid | Arcade | Best balance between simplicity and features. |
| Balloon Fight | Game & Watch | Deep gameplay (for a Game & Watch) with a lot of variety between different stages. Very good difficulty balance. Very expensive to buy. |
| Barbarian | Amstrad CPC | One of the few pre-Street Fighter 2 versus fighting games that is playable and fun. |
| Barbarian 2: Dungeon of Drax | Amiga | A strange action-adventure game with a weird presence, weird graphics and weird controls, but it manages to be enjoyable. |
| Billy la Banlieue | Amstrad CPC | Cool little game with a typical CPC touch. Controls aren't perfect but the game has a distinctive atmosphere. |
| Bomb Jack | Arcade | Classic gameplay. Rewarding experience if you chase high scores. |
| Bomb Sweeper | Game & Watch | Fast paced puzzle/labyrinth game with interesting mechanics. |
| Border Down | Dreamcast | Sadistic games where the difficulty increases if you lose a life. Beautiful graphics. |
| Bubble Bobble | Arcade | Fun to find secrets. |
| Buggy Boy | Atari ST | Childish racing game with classic bleeps and bops sound effects. Refreshing. The arcade version is smoother but lacks charm in a way, also its wide screen is impractical to emulate. |
| Burning Rangers | Saturn | Good action platform game with a superb animated intro. Sometimes very confusing but the challenge is rather balanced. |
| Caesar 2 | Windows 9x | Very nice city manager, well balanced. Caesar 3 is said to be better although I did not try it. |
| Captain Tsubasa | NES | There is a translated version of this game. Very faithful to the animated series. This game demonstrates that turn-based soccer makes sense (somewhat). |
| Carmageddon | DOS | Funny gore game. Restrictive car physics limit the fun. Play it on a crappy PC with low framerate for authentic feeling. Avoid the remake that shows how much the game sucks. |
| Castlevania 3/Akumajou Densentsu | Famicom | Big game with good mechanics. The music with the extra chip is top-notch, play it on the Famicom, don't be afraid by the japanese text. |
| Castlevania Rondo of Blood | PC Engine | One of the best in the series. Killer music thanks to the CD-ROM media. Interesting boss mechanics and level replay system. |
| Cheesy Invaders | DOS | Because the intro. CHEEEEESSSSSY ... Cheesy invaders. Pwow Pwow Pwow Pwow .... |
| Commandos : Behind Enemy Lines | Windows 9x | Nice tactical stealth game overall. Insane difficulty was a problem for me. Objectives were not always 100% clear. Too few solutions to puzzles. |
| Cool Spot | Genesis | Nice game overall, just a bit repetitive. Don't play the butchered SNES version. |
| Crackpots | Atari 2600 | Action packed. Nice difficulty progression. Immediate fun. |
| Crash Bandicoot N-Sane trilogy | Switch | Very good games, superb remaster. 3D platforming at its best, with extreme jump precision and perfect challenge balance. Plagued with modern non-sense like aggressive legal, long loading times and abuse of splash screens. At least you can play offline ... Would be a great game without these problems. |
| Daggerfall | DOS | Huge game with tons of content. Some difficulty spikes (esp. at the beginning) might be discouraging. Stupid controls are a pain. |
| Dark Century | Atari ST | Funny little tank shooter. The graphical AI "programming" language is interesting. |
| Dark Earth | Windows 9x | Nice world and backstory for this hidden gem. The main character is interesting. Controls are approximative. |
| Dark Side | Amiga | A short 3D FPS with quirky controls but interesting ambiance. |
| Dead Space: Extraction | Wii | Too bad the WiiMote lags. Play it on an emulator with a mouse. Graphics are top notch for the Wii and practically on par with the Xbox 360 game. |
| Descent | DOS | Classic spaceship shooter within claustrophobic corridors. Once correct key bindings are set, the game plays well. Has that "DOS" feeling. |
| Deus Ex : Human Revolution | Windows | Nice music and atmosphere. OK graphics. The power up system is good. Bosses are totally crap though and need rebalance. |
| Donkey Kong | Arcade | Popeye at its best ! Unfortunately the 4 levels get repetitive. It did not age that well. Difficulty starts high and skyrockets to an insane amount very quickly. The NES version is good. |
| Donkey Kong | Game Boy | Shares the same DNA as the original classic games but greatly expands on it while keeping the same feeling. A forgotten gem. |
| Donkey Kong Jr | Arcade | The 2 hands climbing system makes up for the lack of content. The NES version is good. |
| Downwell | PS Vita | Nice simple game with deeper mechanics than what it seems to have. |
| Dragon Ball Advance Adventure | GBA | Beautiful graphics. Faithful to the original manga. |
| Duke Nukem 2 | DOS | Old school 2D action platformer for DOS. Beautiful but hard as hell. |
| Dwarf Fortress * | Windows | Probably one of the biggest games ever done in terms of emerging gameplay. Takes so many variables into account. Unfortunately not open sourced. |
| Earth Defense Force 2 | PS2 | Stupid game. Just kill, kill and kill. Cheesy as hell, so bad it's good. |
| Ecco Defender of the Future | Dreamcast | Amazing soundtrack by Tim Follin. Beautiful 3D for its time. Confusing game, not that bad, even harder than its predecessors. |
| Epic | Atari ST | Quirky space opera game but has a unique feeling. Don't spend too much time on it but worth trying. |
| Exhumed | DOS | Nice old-school FPS. Great music. A classic. The console version has a nice remaster, but I prefer the simpler DOS version. |
| F-Zero X | N64 | Fast and cool, nice music (check out the remaster with real guitars). Too much battle-oriented for me. Glitches are too difficult to trigger, requiring too much work on illogical moves. Play on an emulator with a good gamepad to avoid N64 feel as much as possible ! |
| Fallblox | 3DS | 3D puzzle game that works really well. Too much dialogue makes the game dragging at first, but it quickly gets better. |
| Fantasy Zone | Master System | Cute little shooter. I didn't go that far but it was cool. |
| Fatal Racing | DOS (3DFX) | Silly racing game with loops. Feels 90's cheese. |
| Fighting Force | Playstation | A cool old school 3D beat'em up. Beating up punks with broken glass bottles in dirty back streets never gets old. |
| Flow | PS3 | Quite unique game and atmosphere, you should keep trying for at least a boring hour before saying that you dislike it. |
| Formula One | Playstation | The game is just another sim. Was top-notch graphically for its time but lost its interest. Still, play it for its rock/metal/prog OST that kicks serious ass (or grab the OST individually). |
| Fotonica | Windows (3D Vision) | Nice 3D jumping game with abstract visuals. Easy and not that deep. Beautiful with 3D glasses. |
| Freedom Planet | Switch | Sonic-like that looks good. Not as good Sonic Mania. Level design is sometimes confusing. |
| Frogger | Arcade | Classic feeling. Very precise controls. Cartoonish humor. |
| Galaxy Force 2 | Arcade | Scaled sprites at their best. Pumps so many pixels in your eyes you will be overwhelmed. |
| Global Gladiators | Genesis | Nice run'n'gun with platforms. Good graphics and animations. Typical 90's hip hop/rock soundtrack. Cool bonus stage with the cans. |
| Goat Simulator | Windows | WTF game that should not be taken too seriously. Hilarious. Read the release notes (change log). Multiplayer is even better. |
| Gods | Amiga | Masterful graphics that make full use of its 16 color palette. Nice weapon progression. Good level design with a few traps here and there. Stiff controls that become tight and precise once mastered. Avoid console ports, action is too fast and music kills the mood. |
| Gran Turismo 5 | PS3 | Massive content. Physics simulation is OK but not up to the best simulators. The points system is way worse than the money system of the previous games. Race entry conditions are too restrictive. AI is still the same dumb line follower. |
| Grand Prix Simulator 2 | Amstrad CPC | Yet another top-down racer. Fun enough for a CPC game. |
| Green Beret (Rush'n'Attack) | NES (US) | Somewhat better than the original arcade game (better music, cleaner visuals). Very fun to superplay when you try to minimize your score (pacific run). |
| Grand Theft Auto | DOS | Nice game with great top-down open world. Great gore with no self-censorship (contrary to the sequels). I still prefer retro city rampage. |
| Gunpey * | PSP | Incredible idea by the master Yokoi Gunpei. Addictive puzzle game with superior combos and chains system. |
| Half Minute Hero | PSP | High WTF factor. Challenging. Maybe a bit repetitive. |
| Hang On | Master System | Nice port of that game. Feels fast. Very retro. |
| Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice | Windows (VR) | Very good game that suffers from being too repetitive. Unique ambiance and strong main character. Will drive you crazy. |
| Hidden In Plain Sight | Windows | Fun party game with unique rules. |
| Hostages | Atari ST | Good visuals, nice sound effects, nice music (a bit short). Masterful use of 2D to simulate 3D. Short and not too deep. |
| Hyper Lode Runner | Game Boy | Nice gameplay and controls. Perfect mix of puzzle and action. The game suits a handheld. The level editor is a plus (too bad that you cannot save). |
| I-War | Windows | Incredible graphics and sound for its time. Immersion is great. Combat is sub-par. |
| International Karate + | Amiga | Crazy game with funny animations and sound effects. Too bad you can't play with 3 players. Controls seem weird at the beginning but become interesting once mastered. |
| Ishar III: The Seven Gates of Infinity | Amiga (AGA) | Incredible visuals for its time. Good scenario. Classic D&D feeling. Good magic system. Confusing graphics require good spatial memorization. Some versions lack unimportant NPCs. Other games of the series are good but not as refined. |
| Jet Set Radio | Dreamcast | Nice semi-open world. Cool music. Input is not responsive enough in some situations. |
| Kid Chameleon | Genesis | Classic platformer with a nice set of power-ups. |
| King's Field (JP) | Playstation | The first From Software title. Aside from its historical importance, it's a good game with a lot of shortcomings. Beautifully balanced difficulty, okay fights, nice hub-based level design. Ugly textures, slow walking/turning, imperfect sound design. |
| Kirby's Dream Land | Game Boy | Nice old school platformer with polished gameplay, good level design and cute graphics. Really easy even in hard mode. The sequels are better. |
| Klotski | Gnome | Good puzzle game. Becomes quickly challenging. |
| Kung Fu Master | Game Boy | Easy game with simple controls. Much better than the arcade original. Feels good to play once in a while. |
| Limbo | Windows | Nice die n retry with superb graphics and ambience. |
| Lucky's Tale | Oculus Rift | Demonstrates that the Oculus is not only about first person view. Exploits VR in interesting ways. Feels like you are playing with a dolls house. Nice and very clean graphics. Feels very polished. Not very original. |
| Macadam Bumper | Amstrad CPC | Nice old school pinball game with a level editor. |
| Magic Pockets | Atari ST | A fun platformer with nice art. I prefer the ST version over the Amiga because I think the chip sound fits better than samples. |
| Mario Bros. | Arcade | Good versus gameplay. Lots of fun to play casually but becomes limited by its simple gameplay. |
| Mario Paint | SNES | A nice toy with a nice minigame. Surprisingly fun. Best Totaka's soundtrack ever. |
| Mario Strikers | Switch | Why Nintendo, WHY do you insist on doing poor tutorials, unpolished and slow menus, because the game is good. |
| Maupiti Island | Atari ST | Great graphics and sound. Innovative speech synthesis (that sounds awful). Superior writing, especially in the french version. |
| Micro Machines Turbo Tournament 96 | Genesis | Fast with good controls and touches of cartoon humor. Very fun multiplayer. |
| Mini Metro | Switch | Nice mobile game. Deep mechanics with a sleek, peaceful look. |
| Minecraft * | Windows | The definitive freeform game. 21st century Lego game. |
| Monster Hunter 4 | 3DS | Very long adventure. Very rogue-like. Good multiplayer. Interesting AI system. Gives a real hunter feeling and the town feels alive and dependent on you. Not enough improvements between versions. |
| Muscle March | Wii | Funny game with over-the-top visuals. Don't take it too seriously. |
| Nanostray | Nintendo DS | A nice shoot'em up with good visuals. |
| Nanostray 2 | Nintendo DS | Much more forgiving than the first one. Beautiful graphics for the DS. |
| Nebula Fighter | DOS | Cheesy DOS shooter. Easy, massive, ridiculous upgrades, metal soundtrack made of a 10 second loop, why would you want something else ? |
| Neverball | Ubuntu | A clone of Monkey Ball but with its own atmosphere, good music and very precise controls with the mouse. Much slower paced than monkey ball. |
| Nidhogg | Switch | Deep multiplayer game. Nice and diverse level design. Intense action and suspense. Great graphics and animations. |
| Nintendo World Cup Soccer | NES (US) | Battle game on a soccer field. Cartoonish animations and typical rock music. Nice special moves visuals. |
| Okami | Wii | Beautiful game with unique atmosphere. The wii version makes good use of the wiimote. |
| Out Run | Arcade | Fast, beautiful, nice music. Unmatched classic feeling. Handling has aged poorly but it's still playable. The original arcade cabinet with the wind blowing fan and the vibrating seat is a nice experience. |
| Overcooked 2 | Switch | Nice party game. You will fight with your game partners and you will like it. Ingredient throwing mechanic is a must. Not fun in single player mode. The game is identical on all platforms but it's generally easier to grab 4 pads for the switch. |
| Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ | Windows | Frenetic gameplay. Different enough from the original. |
| Pandora's Tower | Wii | Nice usage of the WiiMote. Great backstory. A bit repetitive. |
| Papers Please | Windows | Strong visuals, strong story, strong game. A bit short, a bit difficult, a bit repetitive (but that's the point). |
| Patapon | PSP | Good game with good graphics and great universe to show. Unfortunately, rhythm patterns stay simple and never get challenging. Could have been the definitive rhythm game. |
| Perfect Dark | N64 | The solo game is a no-no for me (N64 effect ...). Weapons and excellent level design of the multiplayer is awesome. This game would benefit a lot from a remake. |
| Phantasmagoria | Windows 9x | A respectable attempt at making a horror game. Didn't age well technically but isn't really "so bad it's good", it still holds up today on many points. Anyway, it's one of the first games with a well developed scenario that feels a bit like reading a novel. |
| Pharaoh's Ascent | Windows 9x | Very unknown puzzle game with good mechanics. |
| Pinball FX3 | Switch | Beautiful pinball simulation with faithful physics. Too expensive to own because of the massive DLC amount. |
| Prince of Persia | DOS | Technological achievement. Marvelous animations. Good level design. Balanced challenge. Tight controls except in some battle phases. Has some bad surprises like poison potions. |
| Princess Rescue | Atari 2600 | A masterful homebrew game that pushes the boundaries of the venerable Atari 2600. Very playable and enjoyable adaptation of Super Mario Bros. |
| R-Type | Arcade | Pure die'n'retry game that you have to learn by heart to go further. Insane organic graphics with inventive enemies. The 3rd level is a masterpiece. |
| R-Type Delta | Playstation | Beautiful game very faithful to the series. Tasteful 3D visuals. Good music. Tainted by long loading screens like most games of the era. |
| Radar Mission | Game Boy | Game B offers a cool multiplayer game with a lot of action and even some strategy. Game A is just the classic board game with a dumb AI. |
| Radiant Silvergun | Saturn | Awesome graphics. Insane difficulty. Watch a commented superplay to get this game properly, it's very deep. |
| Rampage | Arcade | Fun old game. Shallow gameplay. Many people will prefer the Amstrad CPC version, because nostalgia. |
| Raptor | DOS | Nice and polished shooter. Not too extreme. |
| Ridge Racer 2 | PSP | Brings back the feeling of the original series. Nice gameplay. |
| Rival Schools | Playstation | Nice vs fighting with cool visual effects and very accessible gameplay. |
| Robinson's Requiem | DOS | Weird survival game that aims at extreme realism. Difficult until you get it. Unique visuals and rendering method. Boundaries are poorly implemented, leaving the character stuck in slopes. |
| Road 96: Mile 0 | Switch | A game that is much better than the sum of its parts: nothing is good (bland story, clichés everywhere, gameplay ... what gameplay ?) but the game manages to be captivating. Very underrated because it is very different from the original Road 96, but it's still very interesting. |
| Runaway: A Road Adventure | Windows | A cool point'n'click that is effectively an adventure. Some nonsense will hinder your progress, though. |
| Samurai Shodown 4 | Arcade | Beautiful game with incredible animations and nice music. |
| Scanner Sombre | Windows | Unique visuals. If you can, play it in VR. |
| Screamer | DOS | The hard rock alternative to Ridge Racer. More realistic physics (or less unrealistic) and good cheesy rock music. |
| Screamer 2 | DOS | Very different from the first game. Offers slippery arcade rally physics that emphasize on trajectories. Cool techno music (esp. the drum'n'bass track). |
| Sega Bass Fishing | Wii | May look silly, but this game is pure arcade fun. Not deep enough to keep you interested for too long. |
| Severed | PS Vita | Holy s..t this game is creepy. In a good way. Was a mobile game, but the console version is really good. |
| Skweek | Atari ST | A puzzle platformer shooter ... thing ? Cool concept. The Amiga version is superior but the ST version has chip tune that aged better than the crude Amiga samples. |
| Snipperclips | Switch | Nice small party game with nice puzzles. |
| Sonic Adventures 2 | DreamCast | The best 3D sonic out there until Generations blasted it. |
| Sonic Chaos | Master System | Good platformer with nice level design. Very different from the genesis games but has its own atmosphere. |
| Sonic Colors | Wii | Has some great levels here and there. Awesome graphics with constant framerate, a real achievement for the Wii. Avoid the broken Switch remake. |
| Sonic SpinBall | Genesis | Surprising blend between platforming and pinball. Sloppy physics. Horrible instruments sounds that don't do justice to the good soundtrack. |
| Sonic the Hedhehog (Game Gear) | Game Gear | Nice platformer. Don't expect the fast gameplay of the genesis version, this game is about something else. |
| Sonic 2 (Master System) | Master System (60 Hz) | Good platformer with good music. Horrible difficulty. |
| Space Invaders Extreme | DS | Great visuals. Faithful to the spirit of the original game. Fast paced action. Good use of the dual screen. |
| Speedball 2 | Genesis | Immediate fun because of nonsensical rules. Allows for abuse and leads to very conflictual 2 player games. |
| Star Wars (Atari arcade) | Arcade | Classic wireframe vector graphics. Innovative sampled voices. Faithful to the movie. Try to play on original hardware. |
| Star Wars: Rebel Assault 2 | Windows | This game demonstrates that FMV games can have good gameplay. The millelium falcon escape scene gave me so many chills, with incredible graphics for its time. It would be incredible to see a remake with today's budgets and capabilities. |
| Streets of Rage | Genesis | Play it for its music. Ambience is so 80's. |
| Streets of Rage 2 | Genesis | Play it for its music. Ambience is so 80's. |
| Super Adventure Island | Super Nintendo (60 Hz) | Funky game with good graphics and music. |
| Super Mario Land | Game Boy | Often overlooked. Does not have the nice Mario feel but still a good platformer. Consider playing the fan-made DX version that adds color and sprite rework. |
| Super Mario Maker | 3DS | It would have been great if you could have access to all construction options right from the start. Stupid idea to force hours of gameplay to people only willing to create levels. Thankfully, cracking the save file to enable extra pieces was a child's play. |
| Super Mario War | Wii (Homebrew) | Very intense multiplayer game. Immediate fun. Simple rules. |
| Super Sprint | Arcade | Classic top-down racer. Quick multiplayer fix. |
| Superliminal | Switch | Missed opportunity. Could be the next Antichamber but the game is a bit boring. Rehashes too many ideas from many well-known "weird" games instead of focusing more on its own mechanics. |
| Teeworlds | Ubuntu | Intense multiplayer game. Unforgiving to beginners. Steep learning curve. Very precise controls. Allows creativity in gameplay. |
| Tekken 2 | Playstation | The underrated one in the series. Retains moon jumps and mostly 2D gameplay so it's a very different game from Tekken 3 and after. 90's music at its peak. |
| Tekken 3 | Playstation | Interesting combo mechanics. Cheesy music. The first one to have true 3D gameplay. |
| Terminal Velocity | DOS | Beautiful 3D environments and nice music. Play it with a flight stick. |
| Tesla vs Lovecraft | Switch | Nice top-down shooter. Action-packed. Precise gameplay. Upgrades are funny but a bit useless most of the time. |
| The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux | Windows (3D Vision) | The absolute best natural environments you can find. Sublime when played in stereoscopic 3D. Bland gameplay that is not clear to the player. |
| Tom Clancy's Hawx | PS3 | Action packed. Nice graphics. The exterior camera is a refeshing curiosity. |
| Townscaper | any | A pretty, calming, satisfying non-game where you build a cute tiny little city. |
| Trackmania (all versions) * | Windows | The ultimate stunt car game with a track editor. |
| Trash Panic | PS3 | Fun multiplayer that allows for much abuse and creativity. Much deeper than what it looks. You won't make friends playing this. |
| Twisted Metal | Playstation | Funny car shooter arena. The last level is excellent. Otherwise, level design could be better. Fun 2 player experience. |
| Two Point Hospital | Windows | Theme Hospital remake. Has modern mechanics. The switch version is good in portable mode. |
| Virus | Acorn Archimedes | A funny flying saucer game. There is a fan-made remaster around. The Atari ST version is a okay-ish fallback to the Archimedes. |
| Vroom | Atari ST | The finest 2D rendering when it comes to racing sim. Good physics. Nice sound. Mouse gameplay takes time to get used to. Don't play it with a joystick. |
| WarioWare | GBA | Weird. Surprising. Energic. Inventive. |
| WipeOut HD | PS3 | OK it's not bad after all. The Zone mode is fun. |
| Wizardry 8 | Windows | A lengthy RPG with a nice scenario and a very interesting world. Characters and team building are very deep. Too bad turns take too long during fighting phases (patches improve this a bit). Difficulty is not correctly balanced. |
| Wolfenstein: The New Order | Windows | Excellent FPS, great mix between old school and new school shooter. Story and chararcters are surprisingly good. Badass environments and mecha enemies. I am biased for music because of the title made by Fredrik Thordendal ! |
| Xenon | Atari ST | Strange vertical shooter with precise gameplay. The 2-plane system vehicle transformation is interesting. |
| Xenon 2 | Genesis | 80's feeling. Nice organic graphical design. Has its gameplay problems. Check out the Amiga version for its sampled intro but the genesis version is smoother. |
| Zelda: Link's awakening | Game Boy Color | Maybe the best zelda out there, but I lost patience with these games and never could get into this one. From what I saw, it has the potential to beat every other zelda game ever made. |
| Game name | Best played on | Comments |
|---|
| (most N64 games) | N64 | I won't repeat myself so let's be clear. When I say 'typical N64 feel', I think about ugly controls with a horrible camera, poor collision detection that make you see through walls or even walk through them, very low texture resolution that make games look flat, combined to the blur filter applied by the hardware that finishes the job and very often poor quality music. N64 has silly technical limitations that give the same bad feel to most of its games. |
| Alien : Isolation | Windows | I didn't like that enemy human faction that fires on everyone on sight. |
| Animal Crossings | Game Cube | What's the point of this game ? |
| Banjo-Kazooie | N64 | N64 feel at its worst. I don't like freeform 3D platforming. Stupid character voices that fail to get around hardware limitations. |
| Batman : Arkham City | Windows (3D vision) | Graphics are stunning, especially in 3D. But the game is so mainstream and repetitive it couldn't keep me interested for more than 30 minutes. The story and characters are totally uninteresting to me. |
| Bayonetta | PS3 | I would like to like this game. It has everything a good game could dream of. It even has that special sega feeling. Unfortunately, I get bored by beat them all practically instantly. |
| Bioshock | PS3 | I couldn't play past the intro. It was so long and I was so impatient to play I stopped the game before it even started and never looked back again. |
| Castlevania Symphony of the Night | Playstation | Does not have the dark atmosphere of Metroid. I prefer the older games but even these ones I find boring. |
| Chrono Trigger | Super Nintendo (60 Hz) | Horrible graphics with pastel colors. No dynamics at all. Tons of useless dialog. Slow to start. Mainstream japanese characters and stories. |
| Civilization VI * | Windows | I can't play 4X games, I can't adjust to the fact that patience is not always the best solution. This is good and realistic, this game is a masterpiece, it's just not for me. |
| Crazy Taxi | Dreamcast | Super popular among retro gamers, but I find the environment too restrictive. |
| Crypt of the Necrodancer | PS Vita | Unique combination of rhythm game and dungeon crawler, wicked ! The soundtrack is awesome. |
| Donkey Kong 64 | N64 | Watch a superplay and you will know why I dislike that game. Brilliant example of these horrible N64 platformers and the N64 effect. |
| Donkey Kong Country | Super Nintendo (60 Hz) | Great game with beautiful graphics. Nice soundtrack and sounds. Just missing something to me. I could never get used to controls. |
| Earthworm Jim | Sega CD | A timeless classic with great animation and high WTF value. Unclear level design and poor visibility were a problem for me. |
| Elite | BBC Micro | Important piece of history and technological marvel, but it didn't age well, especially controls. The NES version is interesting and maybe a bit more streamlined. |
| FallOut : New Vegas | Windows | (I didn't try FallOut 2). In New Vegas, the reaction of the NPC is so unexpected I couldn't play at all. It starts too slow for me. |
| Final Fantasy VII | Playstation | Too mainstream for me. I don't like turn-based JRPG. I hate character design. I hate the cheesy japanese orchestral music. These games are slow and start even slower. |
| Gran Turismo 6 | PS3 | The dumbed down interface that takes you by the hand is unbearable. Early game is too restrictive. |
| Grim Fandango | Windows | Fuzzy controls and no particular empathy for the depicted culture made me miss the point of this masterpiece. |
| GTA: San Andreas | PS2 | PC version is better, but I played it on PS2. The huge amount of features don't add-up to form a more immersive experience. It feels like a bunch of mini-games done by many teams put together. Later GTA games share this problem. |
| GTA 4 | PS3 | The worst GTA ever ! Extremely weak main character, messy level design indoor, stupid AI that tries to be smart. Graphics are horrible with AD that does not decide between realistic or cartoon graphics. |
| GTA 5 | Windows | Modern GTA is boring to me. The behavior of NPC and especially police annoys me (too centered on the player). Good game overall but not worth a top. The open world is nowhere near Skyrim nor Burnout Paradise, nothing blends in, it's a bunch of separated gameplays put together. |
| Golden Eye | N64 | Messy controls, horrible sounding music and disgusting graphics prove again the N64 feeling. Playing a FPS with a gamepad (especially N64 gamepad) still feels odd to me. |
| Half-Life 2 | Windows | The intro is superb, the following quickly gets boring and repetitive. Maybe I didn't give it enough time but it didn't grab me like the first one. |
| Ico | PS2 | Extremely good game with beautiful graphics and nice characters. Too bad they included this stupid battle system that prevents puzzles to be richer and more twisted. |
| Katamari Damacy | PS2 | I should like this excellent game: great humor, great gameplay, a bit too much dialogue. Maybe I will like this game one day. |
| Little Big Adventure | Playstation | Controls kill the game for me. The story is really good, as well as the world building. Jokes just work. |
| Little Big Adventure 2 | Playstation | A nice improvement over the first installment. Controls kill the game for me. |
| Max Payne | Windows | Too generic, too mainstream, nothing in this game really stands out. Bullet time did not impress me either. |
| Mega Man X | Super Nintendo (US) | The series lost its heavy metal touch and changed to techno or epic themes. The SNES looks didn't help either. The game lacks impact. |
| Metal Gear Solid | Playstation | This game is absolutely beautiful. But everything about it is problematic for me : slow scenario that gives elements too far apart, one dimensional characters, too much dialog. Also the logic and rules of enemies is too simple to be interesting. |
| Metroid Prime | GameCube | I never could figure out where I am. I feel lost all the time. MP3 on Wii has excellent WiiMote interaction. |
| Morrowind | Windows | Check out mods that improve the game a lot. Still, I could not get past the beginning, too much text to remember, somewhat I felt lost in a bad way. |
| Myst | Windows | Ugly game with confusing camera system and insane artificial difficulty. No particular atmosphere. If you like the genre, play Amerzone. |
| Ni No Kuni | Switch | As a movie, it continuously switches between traditional animation, 3D and in-game, with no consistency. As a game, it's a mess gameplay-wise. The first save spot is after 45 minutes of game, that's totally wrong. |
| Pokemon Black | DS | I find the game too slow. I played the first one on fast forward and it was OK. I played one on the DS in the train and it was OK but not that fun. |
| Quake 3 : Arena | Windows | Too fast for me and lacking the depth and polish of Unreal Tournament. |
| Red Dead Redemption | PS3 | A very good game. The sandbox feels good. Hunting phases feel very real. Unfortunately, the scenario is going too slow for me and it's not especially fun. |
| Resident Evil 4 | Game Cube | This game feels empty. Characters are empty, their motivations are absolutely none. Absolutely no sense of fear whatsoever. If the wiimote wasn't laggy, the rail shooter of the Wii would be acceptable. |
| Silent Hill | Playstation | Dark ambience is top notch. This feel very atmospheric and fear is real. Also, characters are on point and well written with good backstory. The level design and objectives are just too confusing, you don't know what to do. If you stop playing for more than 1 week, you won't be able to resume because you will forget too many details of labyrinths and objectives. |
| Sonic CD | Mega CD (Japan) | Soundtrack is good, level design was given some thought, but the game is kinda slow and feels restrictive. I don't like the new running animations, physics, and the feeling of the spin dash. |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Genesis | I don't like this game. It's slow and feels too long. Marble zone kills all the pleasure and Labyrinth zone 2 is too repetitive. The speed limit was a real problem. |
| South Park The Fractured But Whole | Windows | The game crashed during character customization. I restarted, tried to skip the FMV, Cartman said "You don’t want to skip this it's important" (nice joke), then if you continue, it still cannot skip the FMV. That’s enough to kill the fun for me. No way I will play crappy games like this. |
| Starcraft 2 * | Windows | Stupid DRM for the solo game. The game balance is only tuned for high level players and is horrible for casual players. Insane amount of stress in multiplayer mode. A good experience tainted with bad beats. Good community overall. |
| Stray | Windows | Nice indie game, well made, the devs really put effort into it, but suffers a bit from its low budget and a lot from a lack of imagination. The problem is: the cat is not a cat, it's a cat-shaped human. Adapting the monomyth with a cat as the hero is the worst idea ever, cats just don't work like that. Small details accumulate to create a missed opportunity. |
| Street Fighter 2 (and all its sequels) | Arcade | The definitive versus fighting game. I never liked it, don't know why. |
| Super Smash Bros (and all its sequels) | N64 | I just don't get this game. I don't know what to do in order to win. This puzzles me. Other better games exist so I don't want to waste my time trying to like a game. Plus the roaster is full of characters I dislike. Here the N64 problem is not the root cause ! |
| The Secret of Monkey Island | ScummVM | I just didn't get the humor of this one. I played it after other LucasArts so I may got bored. |
| The Sims 3 | Windows | This game feels incomplete and too many situations are unrealistic (entering in a stranger's house uninvited should get you arrested). I found myself enjoying it more than what I thought. Also the newest sims is heading in the wrong direction. |
| Tomb Raider 2 | Playstation | Having a sexy protagonist is not a criteria for a good game. It has great animation, good controls, good music (the main theme is great and fits the game well) but action is too repetitive. Gets boring quickly. |
| Total Commander * | PC | Huge RTS with deep mechanics. Has a few imbalances at high level. I don't like the game but check it out. |
| Uncharted : Drake's Fortune | PS3 | Beautiful game with good AI and good story. Cutscenes are a bit slow to start. The problem is why the hell a tomb forgotten for 1000's years that you found thanks to a unique rune is filled with enemies ? Also the game is repetitive. |
| V-Rally | Playstation | Why did this game became a thing when it was released ? Low drawing distance. Slow speed. Bad controls and car physics. Play sega rally instead. |
| World of Goo | Windows | I could not find interest in the puzzles of that game. The funny ambience is good though. |
| Zelda: A link to the past | Super Nintendo (US) | I hate this game. Lame music and dull sound effects, horrible colors, typical depressive SNES graphics. Not enough freedom given to the player. Lengthy dialogues that never seem to end. |
| Zelda: Ocarina of time | N64 | This game combines N64 flaws, problems of "a link to the past", imprecise platforming, horrible camera angles and ugly 2D backgrounds. A big no-no for me. |