r0ach's video game emulation megathread - Top picks for each system without all the crap ones

Sorting through the thousands of console games released in the old days is a difficult task, so I wanted to compile a top pick's list of each system for games that haven't aged horribly and would still be worth playing. It took me a looooooong time to make this post. The games are mostly action-platformer + RPG orientated because those seem to age the best, while things like FPS games tend to age horribly.

If a game was re-released for PC or a newer console later as an equal or superior version (like Disgaea), I have omitted those from the list.

Mostly in order of console release:

An ancient console, but still some relevant titles. Crystalis is probably the sleeper hit here but the platformers are all still fun to play as well. There's even a 2016 release for a complete retranslate of Final Fantasy III, so work on the NES still continues to this day.

What can I say here? There's several action games that are still good to this day like Gunstar Heroes and Sonic; my favorite games at the time of this console's release were probably the Shining Force series and Phantasy Star, though.

This system has a lot of RPGs - a lot of RPGs that never made it to America. Having said that, as you can see below, just about all of them have been translated to english now. Front Mission is definitely the sleeper hit of the list. I played the original Japanese version but it's been translated now. Games like Megaman X have also aged very well.

The power of the device is similar to the SNES and there's a suprising amount of decent games. You have Golden Sun from the makers of Shining Force, and many other games people have skipped over or probably don't even know exist like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

This is probably the worst aging system of them all. Everything about the games was built around the idea of characters made out of 2 polygons with little or no textures and somewhat dumbed down gameplay - Virtua cop style. Anyway, there's not a whole lot to look forward to on this system besides the Zelda games, which are still decent even now.

The playstation one is an interesting system for modern day emulation. Unlike the N64 - which seemed to try and use 3d as a gimmick for nearly every game - the playstation has lots of 2d games as well. Having said that, many of these early 3d games have aged extremely well. If I had to pick the top two games from the system, it's probably going to be Final Fantasy VII & Metal Gear solid (which I liked more than the latter games). There's also a ton of other above average RPGs to play on this system like Suikoden.

As I mentioned before, I was slightly disappointed games like Metal Gear and Final Fantasy were better on the PS1, but the PS2 has a pretty large library of decent 3d action-adventure and RPG games. It also continues the Front Mission strategy RPG series, and there's now a Front Mission 5 english translation patch.

I link these together since it's the same emulator. Nintendo wasn't that great to me after the SNES, but they still have a few games lingering around worth playing. The gamecube, for some unknown reason, seems to be one of the best ways around to play all the earlier resident evil games, among others.

Now we're back in the prime emulation zone. The PSP seems very popular for emulation, likely because it has so many RPG games and they all tend to age pretty well. The Tactics Ogre remake is great. If you liked the Phantasy Star games from the Sega Genesis, the game 7th Dragon is made by the same person and there's an english translation ROM. There's also a different 7th dragon on Nintendo DS.

Another system to literally drown you in RPG and strategy RPG. The UI can be a little problematic emulating the split screen, but it still works decent. There's another Golden Sun from the makers of Shining Force and the Dragon Quest remakes are good.

Bonus Round:

There's not much else to this system, but there's a mostly unheard of english translation for Saga on the Wonderswan color (a remake of Final Fantasy Legend from the black and white gameboy):

And remeber, don't copy that floppy.
*void where users don't believe in the authority of a tyrannical govt or copyright law in general

(NES picture - gamespite.net, Sega picture - retrogamer.ca, Snes picture - retronista.blogspot.com, n64 picture - thetoast.net, ps2 picture - hardcoregaming101.net, psp picture - neogaf.com )