Best old console games

[eRe4s3r]

Yo.. I am looking for ideas what generally old console games you guys think are must-get. Or were a must get.

To simply give you an idea...

I recently found Phantasy Star 4 - The End of The Millenium and thought it was pretty cool.. and I am simply looking for some other old games outside of the "top 20" lists that I missed. Probably a lot of em.. You can list any console up to GC/N64/PS1 if you still remember any.

I am basically just looking for names of games that you guys think were good or great and should never be missed in an.. say, archive ,p

[zebramatt]

Soul Reaver?

[eRe4s3r]

Are you asking? ;P Yeah, Soul Reaver is good except it is also on PC released, I am talking pure 100% console games. If it got a PC release I am not listing it as a console game in my archives ;P (emulators and emulator releases, like the recent sega ones, excluded)

[zebramatt]

I was asking if Soul Reaver counted as a must-play console game you never played.

Glad we could clarify! 

Apocalypse starring Bruce Willis?

[eRe4s3r]

Well I usually play any PC game or released playable on pc game of any value (gameplay wise) ;p Not right when it releases, but I think I have about 900 of them archived now.. that's not a lot but not too little I have a near complete NES and SNES collection and for that just looking for games worth to play in that. And elsewhere.

[keith.lamothe]

Valkyrie Profile (PS1, though there's a PSP port that was later)
Suikoden 1 & 2 (1 is decent and pretty engaging if you let it be, 2 is awesome if you've played and gotten into 1, PS1)

Do you like tactical JRPGs?  There are a few that are on my top games of all time, but not everyone likes those kinds of games.

[madcow]

Toejam and Earl was a game on the genesis I loved. The original, none of the sequels or any of that.

Going back even further is Alex Kidd in Miracle World on the Master System. While other people played Mario, I played this (and sonic of course).

In case you didn't notice I had Sega not Nintendo as a kid.  I'll try to think up some more stuff if I can.

[zebramatt]

Apocalypse (starring Bruce Willis) for PS1 - a great little isometric dual stick shmup with a pretty decent hollywood B movie plot. And Bruce Willis.

Body Harvest for N64 - first real 3D GTA-style sandbox game, albeit with an action-strategy leaning. And a B movie plot (time travel and giant bugs). Steeped in atmosphere at the time but a bit dated now.

Sin and Punishment for N64 - on-rails shooter, Japanese, awesome.

But you probably played one or all of those already? 

[madcow]

Some other ones I've just thought of are Eternal Darkness on GC, and Conkers Bad Fur Day on N64. Though I think surely you must have played these.

Another game on the Genesis I played a bunch was Quackshot. It was a sort of platformed/rpg starring Donald Duck Huey Dewey and Louie flew his prop plane. Which of course made perfect sense.

Other classic genesis games include: Altered Beasts, Golden Axe, Vectorman. And of course the Sonic 3 + Knuckles combo.

While the other phantasy star games are good, if you start with IV it will be impossible to go back to the earlier ones. IV leaps and bounds ahead of the others.

[eRe4s3r]

Pretty much why I chose to start with that, I played the one where you SOLO the game and that sucked.. imo ;P

I mostly like tactical RPG's, as long as it isn't Final Fantasy (no offense ,p)

@zebramatt
I played NONE of those hah. These are good mentions, you have no idea how hard it is to find the names of good games from back these days, most of the gaming sites are infested with sonic, zelda, or super mario praise and while they surely are not bad, ... there is just no way I would not be aware of them as a gamer right now.

@madcow
Please think of more Especially Genesis/Master System games, that's simply what I am currently checking out .. though I also always consider N64 games worthwhile..

just remember, if it ain't got a emulator on PC i am pretty much SOL, because for obvious reasons, my archives are on hdd's and consoles are not ;p

In fact I want to specifically mention Suikoden 1 and Valkyra Profile these are awesome mentions. Never heard of that game before. I was a N64 / Amiga and then pretty quickly full blown PS 386 -> 486DX2 66 guy.. so I missed basically anything on the PS1 and before. Except for the Game Gear.

Of course I can't check them all instantly, but I have a list that I am working down ^^

[madcow]

So I picked out some more gems that I enjoyed. They're all for the genesis, except I included another on the master system.

Out of This World (aka Another World) & Flashback: These are also early PC games, so you might have played them. I can't believe I forgot out of this world, it is another game I top as one of my favorites. It and flashback are similar, though I preferred out of this world - flashback's best level was the first I think. These are both fantastic games though, check them out! Out of this world apparently has an iOS version, I hate iOS controls though so I wouldn't recommend that.

The Immortal: This is an RPG and despite the name, you will die horribly many times. It's honestly a little unfair, but it's still fun. It has a password thing to skip levels, there are some I could never beat, even reading the gamefaqs, heh. It was fun and even dying is amusing. The puzzle at the end of the second level though, gah - even knowing what the solution is supposed to be I never got it to work, so I always used codes to skip it. Fun game but not entirely fair.

Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, Urban Strike: A helicopter game. I've only played the first and the third. Desert strike is a hard game. Urban a lot easier. Never played jungle strike.

Alien Storm: A fun game similar to golden axe/streets of rage.

General Chaos: A fun squad based army game. Yes, they had a squad game on genesis.

Shadowrun: Apparently the genesis and snes versions were different.

Paper boy: A classic, you must have it already though.

The Haunting Starring Polterguy: This is a funny game. You possess stuff to scare out the humans.

Columns: Genesis's answer to tetris. I never cared a whole lot for it, but my brother loved it. Is a match 3 game.

Ecco the Dolphin: This was a hard game, I've played a few times. Unique in that you know, you're playing as a dolphin.

Sonic spinball: Surprisingly fun.

ESWAT: Basically you're robocop after the third level on.

Teddy Boy: This is a game on Master System. It was fun and frantic.

[keith.lamothe]

I mostly like tactical RPG's, as long as it isn't Final Fantasy (no offense ,p)

FFT was alright, but not my favorite.

So some more suggestions, tactics-related:

Vanguard Bandits (PS1) nice story, nice battle system, 3 main story branches so generally you can count on 3 playthroughs.

Brigandine (PS1) my favorite game of all time, hands down.  Has some significant flaws (I really want to make something better, that's part of why I got into making games) but it's just so much fun if you really get into it.  Playing Norgard on hard and still defeating the entire Esgares Empire in 12 turns is probably my favorite video-game accomplishment, ever.  Important step to proper enjoyment: turn off the 3D visualization of the attacks, they break your concentration on making the right decisions in the battles.

Ogre Battle 64 (N64)  I think you may really like this one, it's quite awesome.  I wish people still made games like this.

Dragon Force (Sega Saturn) a true classic, though the battles play out very differently than other "tactics" RPGs.  May not even fit under the label officially, I dunno, but it has a strategy layer too which lumps it in, in my own mind.

Tactics Ogre (PS1) FFT was basically made from this mold so you may not like it, but it's a significant event in tactics-RPG history and I enjoyed it so I mention it.

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (SNES, I think there's a PS1 version which would probably be better) older than the other two, but still worth a go.

Bahamut Lagoon (SNES) an earlyish take on the genre, has some things I wish had been kept in later tactics-rpg games.  Great game, imo.

Arc The Lad Collection (PS1) 1 was solid fun, 2 was pretty impressive, 3 was fun.  Come for 2, play 1 first so you have the background story (they tie together), stay for 3 if you like.


And some from other genres:

Star Ocean 2 (PS1) same people as did Valkyrie Profile, but earlier.  The battle system is really fun (so is VPs, and that one is better polished).  The story is more lighthearted than VP but I really enjoy them both.

Xenogears (PS1) I'm actually assuming you've already played this, it's on a lot of "of all time" lists, but mentioning it just in case.  The execution fell down on the second disk but it's still an incredible experience.  With this and a lot of the games on the list you'll enjoy them a lot more if you try to enjoy them, thinking of what was done right rather than what was done wrong.

Lunar: Silver Star Story (PS1) fairly standardish battle mechanics but a very nice story, voice acting, etc.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (PS1) even better than the first.  One of the most badass scenes/music-tracks of all time lies within, at least if you've played the first one first and sunk into the story.

I'm sure there's more I'm not remembering offhand, but those are good to get started with

so I missed basically anything on the PS1 and before

The PS1 was the golden age of gaming for me.  That's largely related to my own personality, etc, but it's how I feel.

[madcow]

Oh yes, Ogre Battle 64 was an awesome game! I think I got about the most evil ending while -trying- to pick the good choices though. Paying attention to unit alignment and capturing/liberating cities was a pain.

[keith.lamothe]

Oh yes, Ogre Battle 64 was an awesome game! I think I got about the most evil ending while -trying- to pick the good choices though. Paying attention to unit alignment and capturing/liberating cities was a pain.

Achievement Unlocked: You messed the world up about as badly as could be imagined!

Achievement Unlocked: And it wasn't even intentional, wow!

[Wanderer]

Brigandine (PS1) my favorite game of all time, hands down.  Has some significant flaws (I really want to make something better, that's part of why I got into making games) but it's just so much fun if you really get into it.  Playing Norgard on hard and still defeating the entire Esgares Empire in 12 turns is probably my favorite video-game accomplishment, ever.  Important step to proper enjoyment: turn off the 3D visualization of the attacks, they break your concentration on making the right decisions in the battles.

12... Norgard to win in 12... WHAT?  Holy crap.  I agree, attack animations were highly distracting (though pretty the first hundred and 50 times, kinda like Nectaris).  I'm kinda suprised you were able to unit level that fast.

All of those games though, there's an antique on Genesis that you will almost be unable to find that was a 'recent grandfather' for those game styles.  It was called Master of Monsters.  There IS a MoM2 out there, but it's... well... weak compared to the first one, same philosophy though.  They made a number of minor design tweaks however that really changed up game and level flow.  Went from a game I adored to ... meh, alright, it's not horrible.  A lot of that was to make the game more accessible.  In MoM I, if you took enough of a beatdown you restarted at level *1* to start rebuilding your army up.  I don't think I ever did finish that game, now that I think about it, and I had hundreds of hours into it... and fondly remember all of them.

Another Sega Gen game I enjoyed was Alex Kidd, another of Sega's attempt to match Mario.  Was a fun game.  Probably crap now but my childhood memory remembers it fondly.