I’ve essentially only emulated Pokemon games from my childhood and their romhacks previously. But now I’m looking to play things I just completely missed because I was too young, not born, or didn’t have the system then.
So what are your favorites?
Emulating on Android with Lemuroid btw.
Hard to go wrong with Chrono Trigger, a classic JRPG that still holds up imo. Earthbound is another classic that’s a must play, it hasn’t aged as well but is a great little piece of video game history.
Those are the two big ones that come to mind with emulation for me.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and more recently Link’s Awakening. Also the older Pokemon gameboy titles.
So I’ve never played a single Zelda game. Which one do I start on?
I did play like 2 hours of BoTW on switch and just never got back to it.
A Link to the Past is the one you want to start on. It’ll get you right to the heart of what makes the classic Zelda games so good. If that’s too retro for you, play Ocarina of Time, you can’t go wrong with that masterpiece.
Should I do the SNES version or GBA?
If you’re doing emulation, just go SNES. GBA is only worth playing if you’re going to play it on an actual GBA.
There are exceptions, but for most games, given a choice between SNES and GBA versions, the SNES one is better. Usually sound is severely compressed on the GBA and the visuals are washed out.
Some of the GBA remakes also added in voice tracks, like Mario saying “Just what I needed!” whenever you get a mushroom, or Link doing his grunts and “hii-yahs” whenever you swing the sword. I guess I could see how some people might think those were neat, but I mostly found them annoying, especially given the quality of the GBA audio.
Going by ones I play the most, probably Final Fantasies IV, VI, & Tactics, Link to the Past, Sonic 2, the GBA Castlevania games, and some Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.
Golden Sun, Zelda, MegaMan and Castlevania are some of my favourites
I’ve finished it a couple of times as a kid, but playing Golden Axe II again (and again) never gets old.
I used to play Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone a lot with a GBA emulator, and I absolutely adored the game.
I posted some favourite 80s/90s coinop arcades here:
https://lemmy.world/comment/44545
Nearly all of those would be a 9 or 10 for gameplay.
To add to your arcade list:
1943 Battle of Midway Galaga Donkey Kong Kyukyoku tiger (twin Cobra) Flying Shark Centipede Ms Pacman
Super Metroid on SNES. Amazing, great game. My absolute favorite. And if it interests you, there are a lot of good ROM hacks for the game, giving you near infinite replay-ability.
Drill Dozer for gba. Incredibly fun beat em up feel game mixed with some platforming.
The Dragon Quest series if you’re into traditional RPGs (it’s the franchise that kicked off the genre basically). DQ1-3 have GBC remakes but are a little dated (3 is a fan favorite. 2 not so much). DQ 4-6 have DS remakes with 4 and 5 being the best entry point in my opinion. Art is by the creator of Dragon Ball too so if you like that it’s definitely a plus.
I always hit up “hidden gems” videos on YouTube. There are so many games out there that were great that for some reason never got a following.
If you like platformers and haven’t done it already you should play both Super Mario 3 on NES and Super Mario World on SNES. Still really great to play but also a good history lesson - a lot of staple design concepts were pioneered in those games!
Staying in the platformer genre, the original Rayman on PSX wil always be one of my favorites. Wonderful, unique art and sound design. Starts off very slow but becomes fiendishly difficult as you keep going. Be advised that it was designed with limited lives and some brutal gauntlets between save points. Save scumming with your emulator is probably going to be good for your sanity here.
It’s a bit of nostalgia, personal preference, and just overall masterful developers - but Super Mario World is a solid 10/10, easily the best game I’ve ever played. SMB3 is excellent as well.
For me, they still stand the test of time. I was a huge Sega fanboy back then, but I also loved Nintendo and the games they had. SMW just always blew me away, so every time I play it I think of that time. How advanced it was, how it played so much better than anything I’ve previously played. It was a serious masterpiece, and IMO still is.
Definitely a must play. Depending on your age, though, it may seem not as great as I’m claiming. I think it still is, but that’s from my point of view. I’d really be interested in younger people’s opinion that grew up on the Gamecube, Wii, and later console versions of Mario.
Like @R5N said - a lot of staple design concepts were pioneered in those games. Some that now are very commonplace. That’s where I’m curious… Is it just normal for some while for us that played them on release they were so perfect and new?
Well said. I’d also be curious to see what OP thinks about it with his (presumably) young eyes. I’d probably pay actual money to watch him Livestream when he gets to Tubular
Donkey Kong for the Gameboy is an outstanding platformer/puzzle game.
Try Super Mario RPG. Fantastic RPG for SNES made by Squaresoft that never got the remake/remaster treatment.
My favorites are The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Yoshi’s Island. I also like the classic Mario games.