The best RETRO games of all times list

 Okay, so similar story as before, but I wanna limit myself to Gen 6 games and older. These games can either run on a low end PC or a retro handheld these days, and yeah, I'm literally gonna top out at gen 6 with most titles being from before.

Favorite Game- Doom 2

Yeah I moved my favorite retro game to just being my favorite game. Doom 2, and by extension, its mods, wads, and other campaigns have been one of the best retro experiences I've had. Now, again, it's hard to say "this is the best game of all time", and honestly, MANY games could have gone here, from Super Mario 64, to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, to Pokemon Red/Blue, but over the years, I just keep coming back to Doom 2 and its associated campaigns. 

Best Story- Starfox 64

Not gonna lie, given Halo 3 on my OG chart, I could've put Halo 2 here, BUT I kinda feel like the silly dialogue and story in this one deserve a mention somewhere. Like, the dialogue in this game is LEGENDARY and people my age still quote it all the time.

Favorite Art Style- Sonic CD

Halo got promoted to another slot for this one, so gonna go with Sonic CD because it was a runner up and OOOH PRETTY COLORS! Super Mario 64 also deserves a runner up here. Seriously Super Mario 64 deserves something here but it's hard to figure out what.

Biggest Personal Impact- Pokemon Red/Blue

Again, I dont really consider most games as having a personal impact on me. But if I had to put one down, I'd put Pokemon as it led to a lot of friends/bonding experiences in my elementary and middle school years, including lifelong friendships. So yeah. Here's to you, pokemon. 

Best Combat- Halo Combat Evolved

I mean, it's right in the name. And it really did offer...combat evolved. it helped pave the way for the FPS genre to move away from the old boomer shooter formula to something similar to what it is today. And its enemies, its AI, the weapon variety, all gave us a single player experience that feels YEARS ahead of its time. it truly lives up to its name. 

Overhated- Spec Ops II Omega Squad

This was a hard one. I didn't own many crappy games, or at least I dont remember many crappy games. I mostly got good titles, and a few odd balls that others didnt care for but were low key good. But most games I own never made it on the imfamous crap lists of worst games ever. However, this one did. Was it bad? Not really. Was it good? Also not really. It was a rather mid military FPS at the time. I kinda liked it, I had fun with it, but when looking at old games I've owned, this one made it on a bad list, so I put this one. I really just have nothing else to put here for old games. Most "overhated" games seem to be modern internet phenomenons where the internet just craps on a game that didnt live up to the hype despite being pretty decent otherwise. But this one was hated, and it...didn't deserve it. It wasnt terrible. Wasnt good, wasnt great, it was very forgettable, but it was kinda like "2000s B movie tier" video game wise. Like a no name action movie you forget, like "sniper" or something. ya know? Again, not good, not bad, it just exists.

Underrated- Doom 64

I stand by this one. I understand why it didnt stand out given better FPS at the time and console exclusivity, but this one deserved the come back it got recently in the 2020s.  

Overrated- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarana of Time

 OMG DAE ZELDA OCARANA OF TIME IS THE BEST GAME EVER?! I feel like that's the modern internet. Everyone swears it's the best game ever. It's just mid. I dont really like zelda, and this game feels overhyped to hell and back. people act like it's a 10/10 best game ever and I just cant get past the first hour without getting bored. 

Also, let's face it, by RETRO standard, Counter Strike actually was a pretty good game. if we're purely judging like pre 2005 games mostly, CS was actually quite innovative for its time. I just dont think it deserved the continued popularity and cult following into the modern day. So...yeah. I'll remove CS and allow it to stand by its own legacy there while anti hugboxing the legend of zelda crowd.

Needs a remake- Goldeneye 007

 So it got a remake in 2010, and apparently another one was cancelled, but yeah, this is a very dated game that was very good by the standards of its times, but I'd like to see it modernized somewhat. Again, the 2010 remake was nice, but something a bit closer to this OG game might suffice. 

Criminally Overlooked- The World Is Not Enough 007

Let's talk about the OTHER 007 game on N64. This one was also pretty good but its very underrated and kinda went ignored in favor of perfect dark and the like at the time. 

Favorite Protagonist- Doom

Giving it to doom slayer again. Runner ups involve James Bond from Goldeneye and several other 007 games of the 90s and early 2000s. Master chief from Halo is another one that stands out. Yeah, Im a simple man. Give me an FPS bad### and teenage me would define their own personality around them. 

Favorite Antagonist- Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 (specifically Yuri's Revenge)

C&C games always had excellent dialogue and story to them, with solid antagonists like Kane. However, I really liked Yuri back in the day in C&C Red Alert 2. He was some russian psychic dude who tried to take over the world by using psychic dominators to mass brainwash the population. Kinda cheesy now, but I loved it at the time. heck, I liked the US vs Russia thing at the time even though the cold war was over.

Best Sound Track- Advance Wars 2

 Honestly, this and C&C could be reversed. Sturm was also a really solid antagonist of the old Advance Wars games. he was like this weird darth vader type figure who launched meteors at people. But honestly, yuri was cooler. At the same time, Red Alert 2 also had a banging sound track, but not as strong as red alert 3's more orchestral version. Still, this little GBA game had a lot of pretty solid sound tracks for its time as well. 

Best multiplayer- Quake III Arena

This is one of the only games I COULD play multiplayer back in the day because it was one of the only games that would run. But yeah, between this and Unreal Tournament, those were our options back in the day. I mean, there was counter strike, but I hate that one and didnt play it until later, so....

Not usually by thing, but....- NFL Blitz 2000

I'm still gonna stick with the sports game here.

Turn my brain off- Unreal Tournament

 As I said I liked playing this one against bots and it helped train my reflexes a bit. I play it i just get into a flow state after a while, kinda like ultra instinct from Dragonball super.

Best with friends- Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart 64 holds this one for reasons previously mentioned

Best Retro game- Super Mario Bros

 So now we need a retro of retros. Which means I'm limiting this to at most gen 4. And it seemed like it just should go to the original super Mario bros. This game basically single handedly resurrected the industry after the 1983 video game crash. So yeah. Definitely deserves a spot if only for historical impact.

Nostalgic Childhood game- Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Yep, sticking with sonic 3 for this one. Although most sonic games could easily fill this spot.

Game everyone should play- Super Mario 64

It didnt fit anywhere else and I feel like it should deserve a spot so I put it here. Honestly, it fits here. It's simple enough that anyone can get into it. Just pick up a controller, wander princess peach's mansion, jump into paintings, collect power stars. Fun. 

And yeah, that's my best RETRO games of all times list. I thought maybe more gen 6 belongs here, but given my formative years were really during gen 4 and gen 5 I seemed to gravitate toward this era of games. like everything else there are a lot of games that probably belong on here too, but I just couldn't fit them, and yeah...