Games that are timelessly fun

Had this idea after thinking of some great games that don't belong in the "works of art" thread because they don't have any of those "artistic" properties, but are so much fun that they never get old. These are the games that you play through over and over again.

Terminal Velocity: Played through it SO MANY times since it came out. It's an arcadey 3D space fighter game where you must single-handedly defeat various alien militaries with one super-destructive, super-maneuverable and super-quick fighter. It's like a nonstop interactive Star Wars battle sequence directed by Michael Bay with a kickin' electro soundtrack. Plays well on DOSBox BTW. Setting up your controller or keyboard well is a must.

Mirror's Edge: Parkour + combat + great controls + good soundtrack = nonstop fun.

DMC5: There were a lot of third-person slash-em-ups that are a lot of fun to choose from, but I think DMC5 is the pinnacle so far. It has the best controls and widest variety of weapons that allow for the most rewarding stylized hyperviolence. I played through it at least 3 times back to back from shortly after it came out until my gaming PC died earlier this year. The soundtrack contains a good bit of dubstep though...it's not that obnoxious but I don't think it'll age well like the previous two.

Streets of Rage 2: Best side-scrolling beat-'em-up, always fun to play co-op. Great controls, enough moves that you won't get bored but not so many that it requires a big time investment, and a classic 16-bit soundtrack. The late '80s/early '90s dystopian futurism complete with "gangs wearing 'TOTALLY RAD!' uniforms" theme adds to the fun. Only downside is that it still has a hint of '80s hard-as-hell gameplay and the final boss is a bit of a letdown.

Ok, I'll play. I'll post games as I remember them.

For the NES... Mega Man 2:

It is the perfect NES-era platforming action game. Perfect, challenging game play, excellent replay value, and the best soundtrack of any NES game. I have played this game 1000's of times, and it never ever gets old.

Contra:

So much fun, with or without the code. GET THE SPREAD GUN!!!

Tecmo Super Bowl:

Greatest football game of all time. Not to be confused with Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo SUPER Bowl has all NFL teams of that era (1990 season I believe) with roster changes, as well as a saveable season.

Beware, the computer gets real cheap later on in the season. I had a tournament a few years back with friends and we got screwed by the NES. The controversy surrounding the NES's block of a clearly good field goal is known among my friends as NintenGate.

Karate Champ:

I love this game. It has weird controls, but it's a lot of fun and it takes skill to do well. It was the 1st 2-player fighting game for the NES, too.

I'll post more later.

Yar's Revenge, Tempest, any of the Zork text games...

Z by bitmap brothers. Does not always work well with dos box, but there is a windows open source remake: http://zod.sourceforge.net/

Thank you for reminding me of Terminal Velocity. I really want to build a home arcade style flight sim around this, Descent (1-3), Descent Freespace, and a few other games.

Hill climb racing for android...

http://fantasticcontraption.com/index.php

Don't click if you've got something important to do in the next day or two.

• Lee

Baseball.

Duck Tales for the NES.

Risk.

slefain wrote: Duck Tales for the NES.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/ducktales-remastered-review-the-more-things-dont-change/

Yeah, I'm buying it for my PS3 next week.

I played Soldier of Fortune II for probably 6 years after first getting it on PC. I have played GTA San Andreas until I got rid of my PS2 like 2 years ago. I played GTA4 until I got Saints Row the Third in May, and play it probably once or twice a week when I can get free time.

I'm not a video game professional, but I think the open world games where you can do whatever you want seem to pull me in better than any other games. I love racing games, but honestly, I love buying and suping up and painting the cars more than the actual racing. Gasp

Katamari Damacy, and it's many iterations. I own them all, and for the Xbox owners, I think you got the best one in Beautiful Katamari. That game has consumed my soul more than once.

Pitfall?

I'm clueless; I largely dropped into this thread to check my immediate reaction that people who grew up with different eras of games will have very different ideas of what "timelessly fun" means, thereby kind of undermining the timelessness

Back to Pitfall; as pitiful as it may seem now, at the time I was blown away by the graphics and most of all by how extensive the world I got to explore was... Oddly, I've never taken the time to play some of the more modern exploring games (are Myst and Riven a bit like that?). I enjoyed the sort of "training/puzzle" phases of Portal, but more or less came apart when I started having to deal with turrets and so forth, but I digress...

ransom wrote: I enjoyed the sort of "training/puzzle" phases of Portal, but more or less came apart when I started having to deal with turrets and so forth, but I digress...

Now that you mention it, I think Portal will become one of those timeless games.

I still love Quake 1 also.

"Hide the salami" never seems to get old.

While not as fun as the above, "Ivan Iversons 4x4 Offroad somethinorother" for NES is always as fun as I remember it to be.

Any of the rampage games on any system Edit: the more player the better!

bluej wrote: "Hide the salami" never seems to get old.

AAaaaaand time to clean Dr. Pepper off my screen.

I'll still play Halo (the original) from time to time. I literally spent years playing it and the PC version. My buddy used to say I should have gone professional lol. Nothing has ever compared since.

The original Star Wars Rogue Squadron, Goldeneye, Mario Kart, Crusin' the World.

Lethal enforcers - I must have fed $1,000 in quarters through that game in college.

HiTempguy wrote: I'll still play Halo (the original) from time to time. I literally spent years playing it and the PC version. My buddy used to say I should have gone professional lol. Nothing has ever compared since.

I still have the original on PC. Fantastic game. I loved it on Xbox except for the look-sensitivity flaw. Way better than any of its successors.

mndsm wrote: Katamari Damacy, and it's many iterations. I own them all, and for the Xbox owners, I think you got the best one in Beautiful Katamari. That game has consumed my soul more than once.

^ THIS!

Immediately what I thought of upon reading the thread title... but, damn it, now I will have that theme song in my head for the rest of the day...

Nah nahhh, na na na na na NAH nah... nah na na na na nah

Might as well fire up Katamari Forever for a few hours until the wife comes home and then begs to take over.

tb wrote:

mndsm wrote: Katamari Damacy, and it's many iterations. I own them all, and for the Xbox owners, I think you got the best one in Beautiful Katamari. That game has consumed my soul more than once.

^ THIS! Immediately what I thought of upon reading the thread title... but, damn it, now I will have that theme song in my head for the rest of the day... Nah nahhh, na na na na na NAH nah... nah na na na na nah Might as well fire up Katamari Forever for a few hours until the wife comes home and then begs to take over.

I had avoided the song til you had to say that.

HiTempguy wrote: I'll still play Halo (the original) from time to time. I literally spent years playing it and the PC version. My buddy used to say I should have gone professional lol. Nothing has ever compared since.

At one of my old jobs we would have a yearly Halo competition. The winners would get big prizes. I think the top prize the last year was 65 inch HD TV with a Blueray player and a 360.

In reply to mndsm:

Sorry

true story time:

When I first purchased my PS3 Katamari Forever was the first game I snatch off of the shelf in the used game section.

Shooting me a sideways glance, the clerk asked "Do you know what that is?"

I enthusiastically replied in the affirmative.

"Good" he replied "Otherwise I would have to warn you about the music!"

full disclosure; I never got to Katamari this afternoon being sidetracked by a replay of Final Fantasy IX.