Top 20 Video Games That Aged Well

[The Blackangel]

 

[m76]

I don't think most of those games aged well. Early 3D games like Tekken 3 particularly age badly.

Here's my list instead:

Raptor Call of the Shadows - 1994

Raptor is a classical 2D vertical scrolling shoot em up with a very addictive campaign. Boosted by an in-depth weapon upgrade system.
You can never go wrong with hand painted 2D graphics, which is almost timeless.
I finish the campaign once every few years even after all these years.

Test Drive Unlimited - 2006

This aged so well that it is in fact still the best street racing game available to date.
The most impressive part of the game is its immersive nature, you are not just in a racing game, you are immersed in a street racing playboy lifestyle, with the ability to buy houses, luxury cars, race or just cruise around an almost 1:1 recreation of Oahu.
The graphics might be getting a bit long in the tooth by now, but it's still enjoyable.

Tie Fighter - 1994

Everything that seems like a good idea about Star Wars Squadrons has already been done better in this game 25 years before that was even conceived.
You are better off playing this game even today instead of Squadrons and its annoying and weak campaign.
And space is a particularly forgiving environment in terms of graphics. So it does not detract from the experience. And the cutscenes are hand drawn.

Cyberia - 1994

This game aged well because of its excellent sound design and background music, which makes the game very atmospheric. The graphics holds up as it is mostly pre-rendered. Which means it plays as an arcade shooter, if you can accept that this game is well worth playing even today.

Red Alert 2 - 2000

Most entries of the classical command and conquer franchise hold up well and easy to get into. I'm mentioning this game, because it is the highpoint of the classic storyline, it was kind of downhill after this, but Red Alert 3 is still worth playing, unlike Tiberum Wars and Tiberian Twilight (C&C 3 and 4)

Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour - 2003

The Best RTS game, bar none. I don't know what more I can I say.

Honorable mention: The Need for Speed - 1994, OK, it doesn't exactly hold up today, but the graphics of this game is way ahaed of its time, due to a clever trick they used. The environment is not really 3D, but basically a projection, that plays like a video as the car moves through it's playback speed varies depending on the car speed. And for this reason you can't turn around in the game, since there is only one viable perspective.  This results in graphics thta is far superior to any competing game at the time.

 

 

[skyfire]

DOOM I think is one of the game often ignored which have made a lot of progress over the years. And so does the Resident Evil and Final fantasy. I'd say a lot of those games continue to improve as with their engine every release. 

[killamch89]

Castlevania and Mario 64 I somewhat agree with, but the rest haven't really aged well at all. Deus Ex games, The original Need For Speed Most Wanted and COD Modern Warfare are arguably better inclusions on this list.

[Heatman]

From the ones that I played, I'm going to pick out Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and Doom. Those three old games were fantastic.