Retro Games Worth Playing

[Night Owl]

Speaking of point-and-click games, Sanitarium tends to be somewhat overlooked most of the time.

 

[Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost]

I burned Dark Savior and been meaning to play it as I love Landstalker as its my favorite Zelda like on the Genesis. Landstalker was supposed to get a remake on the PSP but it was cancelled. Like Shining Force series, I am never going to get a great new game from a loved Sega series.

Superb game, it really is. It's one of the few games that I played on the Saturn, that I still look fondly upon even now. I would have loved for them to make a sequel, but it being ported to the Saturn seemed to kill any opportunity of a sequel.

Continuing with the computer adventure game series.
The Colonel Bequest games.
This is a very niche part of the Sierra adventure games series but well worth it in terms of playing. The irony of it is, is that despite the story being set in stone, it has lots of replay-ability value for both of the titles as if you play through them and apply previous knowledge than you can get a higher detectives score.

Fun factor, I'd say the first game is superior to the second, the Dagger of Amon Ra looks magnificent but really doesn't take off story wise until after you are into the 2nd act.

 

[TrippinKahlua]

Colonels Bequest scared the crap out of me. I refused to do the final scene in the attic because of how scary those shadows of the murderer were.

When I figured out who it was, I was both not surprised but also surprised.

 

[Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost]

Colonels Bequest scared the crap out of me. I refused to do the final scene in the attic because of how scary those shadows of the murderer were.

When I figured out who it was, I was both not surprised but also surprised.

Agreed, that used to give me the willies big time, especially playing in a dark room and knowing that the person in the attack can just straight up murder you if you fuck around up there. Also some of the closets and secret passages they'd grab you, for a kid that's some serious shit.

I was a bit disappointed that the murderer wasn't a bit more dynamic, but I've played it to death at this point, and still love it.

Alternatively a great game for what it tried to do at the time is Manhunter 2 San Francisco. It's not a brilliant game, but it is good fun, and it literally was the first horror adventure game that actually was full on horror themed. It still gives me the creeps even now, and it's been donkey's years since I first played it. (It was made before the rating system, when game developers self policed content. As such it's no holds barred.)

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

A lot of things from the Amiga tends to be overlooked because it had 10,000 games and most were crap.

But there was a game that was truly fantastic.

Do you like the movie Tremors? Of course you do, it's a fun movie with a fun premise. "It came from the desert" actually predates the movie Tremors but the setup and how it plays out are similar.

Words and pictures below:

Spoiler

First, you have the city map, this is part of it, there's a military base to the east, mines to the west.
Every building is named if you hover over it, you get to them by car.

The game is about finding evidence of The Threat, have it analyzed, have people corroborate your ideas and convince the townspeople that something weird is going on, these sections plays very much like old adventure games.

There's also driving/playing chicken.

There's also a hospital to end up in when injured, but you don't have time to lay around so you have to bust out or you'll lose a day(the game is 14 days long).

Sometimes you encounter your enemy and shoot at it a bit.

But what you're really working towards is setting up and managing defense. The number of units at your disposal will reflect how many people/groups you managed to convince and that includes the military.
Then the game turns into a sort of strategy game where you round up everyone you've managed to convince and hope that it will be enough to beat back the ants.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

The 7th Guest and it's sequel The Eleventh Hour (No links because they give away the story). The first is probably better, though I like both. Puzzle adventure games that are great and a trip back to the days of live-action video games. Don't get the Steam versions though, I've heard they're garbage so just pirate if you can or get the Android version if you've got a tablet. Also Gobliiins by Sierra, a series of 4 old school "here's a puzzle, fuck off and figure it out" games that I enjoyed a lot when younger.

Edit: The first puzzle from 7th Guest, lol.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

The 7th Guest and it's sequel The Eleventh Hour (No links because they give away the story). The first is probably better, though I like both. Puzzle adventure games that are great and a trip back to the days of live-action video games.
Edit: The first puzzle from 7th Guest, lol.

The 7th Guest is a weird technical masterpiece, it's often glossed over as just a FMV game playing video files but they do some really cool sleight of hand type things to render the puzzles.

Gobliiins might be for people that like the Samorost games, it's a bit like that if I remember it right without the post-Soviet art style. Lots of weird reactions and clicking on things to see what happens.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

Lots of weird reactions and clicking on things to see what happens.

Yeah, it was one of those games where you would have to click on everything you could, see what happened, and then piece the correct order of events together to proceed. It could get frustrating at some times but all of those games were like that lol.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

I used to own an Atari ST back in the day. There were many excellent games for the grey box with the green desktop. Here's a few I had. Many were also ported to or from PC or Amiga as well.

- Turrican 2. The best platformer on the system bar none. Best known for its utterly brilliant chiptune soundtrack. Other platformers jump, Turrican kills. Named after an Italian restaurant of all things. The developer also made a horizontal shmup in the 8 bit era called Katakis after a Greek restaurant.
- Dungeon Master. The original tile based 3D crawler and still one of the best.
- Ishar series. Utterly beautiful tile based 3D crawler. One of the few dungeon crawlers to do outdoors areas right.
- Robocop. I had originally thought this was a port from the arcade game myself. Apparently not. Ocean Software actually developed it originally and then worked with Data East to develop the arcade machine. This is why Robocop on the ST has a few extra levels that are either excised in the arcade (the e-fit level, and making a whole level out of shooting the rapist in the dick as opposed to just a specific enemy type in normal run and gun levels.)
- Legend (aka Four Crystals of Trazere). Isometric dungeoneering game with lovely overworld, mad as fuck combat, tough puzzles, and a spell system which allows you to devise and mix your own spells.
- Carrier Command. Full 3D action strategy in 1987 and runs smooth as you like. Actually, the PC port, which came out a bit later, is more the one to have IMO because it includes a number of features that had to be pulled from the original ST/Amiga versions because of the publisher screeching about the need to get it to market. These include a more aggressive enemy AI and the Time Warp function that that super-speeds gameplay between islands. However the ST/Amiga versions have nicer sound (the PC version has PC Squeeker and that's your lot.)
- Another World. Literally made by a basement dweller, this cinematic action adventure has literally one line of dialogue in it; everything else is communicated by gesture and facial expression. Super smooth gameplay and animation and very distinctive art style, but brain-meltingly hard. Probably above Dark Souls hard. Has many nicely gory ways to die though.

 

[Billy_Sama]

Turrican 2. The best platformer on the system bar none. Best known for its utterly brilliant chiptune soundtrack. Other platformers jump, Turrican kills. Named after an Italian restaurant of all things. The developer also made a horizontal shmup in the 8 bit era called Katakis after a Greek restaurant.

I played the Genesis/Mega Drive version, which was a butchered tie in for Universal Soldier which pretty much killed Turrcian's success in the console market. The Mega Turrican is pretty awesome even though it removes the maze like level structure.

- Another World. Literally made by a basement dweller, this cinematic action adventure has literally one line of dialogue in it; everything else is communicated by gesture and facial expression. Super smooth gameplay and animation and very distinctive art style, but brain-meltingly hard. Probably above Dark Souls hard. Has many nicely gory ways to die though.

I know Interplay made a sequel called Heart of the Alien for the Sega CD that was good as well, that and the first game I still need to play and beat.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

I know Interplay made a sequel called Heart of the Alien for the Sega CD that was good as well, that and the first game I still need to play and beat.

Hmmm. It was without any input from Eric Chahi. It feels more like a reskin than a proper sequel, what with Buddy's whip suddenly developing the ability to fire laser bullets and only occasionally used for the rope swinging and certainly never for lashing enemies to electrified death with. I think they should have made Buddy's abilities different to Lester's.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Gauntlet. Any version, really, but I prefer the ones from the mid to late 90s.

Speaking of which, any similar games to Gauntlet on PC?

And another thing, what's your cut off for what's being considered Retro?

 

[TrippinKahlua]

My uncle played a lot of Sierra's "Quest" games with me when I was 3-8. It's how I learned the basics of computers and imputing. He had Kings Quest 1 and 3 and Space Quest all through 5. He also had Leisure Suit Larry and actually let me watch him play it, and by the time I was 10 he let me play it, but didn't tell me how to get to sex scenes. LSL taught me Blackjack.

Christmas 1997 I got the complete collection for Kings Quest and Space Quest. Kings Quest collection came with Colonels Bequest and the Laura Bow sequel and loved both of them.

By 2004 I finally played Larry 2 and 3 and loved them.

 

[Army Burger]

And another thing, what's your cut off for what's being considered Retro?

For me, it's when you can no longer buy new games for a certain system at a place like EB Games.

 

[Billy_Sama]

Gauntlet. Any version, really, but I prefer the ones from the mid to late 90s

My favorite two is the Gauntlet Dark Legacy for the 3D take and Gauntlet IV on the Genesis as its a great classic take with a quest mode and one of the best Genesis soundtracks.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

Another World.

I love that game. I think I have a copy on every console I have it's available on actually. If anyone likes Another World and you haven't checked out Flashback, also by Delphine, that's great as well.

 

[dysentery]

Mr. Gimmick, Ufouria, Blaster Master and Batman: The Video Game for the NES.
You know what, forget it. Just every Sunsoft NES game.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

I'll always vouch for the Legacy of Kain series. Although the story, voice acting, environments, and characters are all top tier, there is one caveat: the gameplay has not aged well. Hell, the gameplay was only decent at best during its time. The best game in the series gameplay wise is probably Blood Omen because it's a timeless top-down action RPG.

 

[Stoneheart]

Imperialism 2: age of exploration. best turn based grand strategie game ever, also not as easy as civ games.
Patrizier 2: gold(or what ever the version including the DLC is called in your region. Super historical sim game with loads of cool mechanics and a nice battle mp mode. the other Ascaron games are also quite nice.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

There's one I forgot to include for the Atari ST. It was originally on there but there are also ports for PC and Amiga. It is, of course, Llamatron.

Designed by a legendary weirdo called Jeff Minter and released as freeware, Llamatron starts with the arcade twin stick shooter Robotron, turns the player into a llama firing bullets from its eyes, turns the enemies into random objects like Coke cans, packets of Rizlas, cow heads, smiley faces, potplants, and so forth, and includes a number of "beasties" such as goats, camels, yaks, and other ruminants that are to be rescued for bonus points, includes ridiculous sound effects, seizure-inducing inter-level graphics, and adds a variety of other special monsters such as giant 16 ton weights that drop on you from the top of the screen, indestructible laser beams, toilets that spew bog rolls with every flush, blue brains that turn beasties into evil "zombeasts," and a glowing mandelbrot set called Screaming Mandy that chases you and makes ear-rape noises when shot.

It has to be seen to be believed.

Oh, and there's apparently been an Android port as well. Ohhh yeahhh!