I’ve been enjoying emulating games recently - mostly NES, ps1 and gba - and I’m looking to branch out from my limited familiarity as I mostly play games I’ve played in the past (and then it was mostly rentals- so very limited exposure lol).
What games would you recommend checking out? Basically across any ps1-equivalent generation system or earlier. I’m interested in the FF series but have no idea where to start either 🤷♂️
My rotation atm:
PS1: Medal of Honor, ssx,
GBA: Pokémon firered, wario
NES: castlevania, ninja gaiden
Normally I’d rec a bunch of obscure stuff, but since you say you have limited exposure, here’s a bunch of games from different genres, most of which are widely agreed on. If you know which of these you like and dislike, that’ll make a good jumping off point for more specific recommendations.
NES: Fire 'N Ice, The Adventures Of Lolo 3, Megaman 2
SNES: Kirby Superstar, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Yoshi’s Island
Gameboy: Link’s Awakening DX
Gameboy Advance: Advance Wars, Fire Emblem
I’m interested in the FF series but have no idea where to start either 🤷♂️
Final Fantasy 6 for the SNES. It was localized as Final Fantasy 3, so if you see that on the SNES, that’s also the right one.
They’re all fully separate but 6 and 7 are widely considered the peak, and 6 is shorter.
If you play that and think “I want an intentionally dumber plot and smarter RPG mechanics” then play 5.
I just wanted to add to this that there’s a good FF6 port for GBA. It has bug fixes and improved translation but the music quality is significantly worse. However there is a patch out there to give the GBA version the music from SNES if you’re up for some tinkering.
I seriously cannot believe nobody has yet mentioned Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PS1
I lately played Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on a PS5 and this game’s a hot garbage AND a masterpiece at the same time.
The story is cliché and unique. It made me want to be done with it quick but also kept me extremely captivated. The gameplay is awful but feels great.
No, I don’t mean it sometimes is great and sometimes it’s horrible. Did you know that water can be hot and cold at the same time? This game was giving me this kind of vibes.
Now you gotta play the Soul Reaver sequels. Beautiful games.
The original Blood Omen is one of those games that swung for the fences but didn’t quite make it. It’s clunky and ugly in places, but you gotta respect its scope and ambition. It’s worth playing to appreciate those parts of it.
PS1: MGS, Tekken 3, Silent Hill, Shim Megami Tensei (remake of the SNES version just got an english translation a couple years ago)
SNES: Contra 3, Castlevania Dracula X
GBA: Warrioland 4, LoZ Minish Cap, Sonic Advance,
GBC: Warrioland 3, LoZ: Oracle of Ages/Seasons,
This reminds me I haven’t played a single MGS game yet lmao. Gonna get so much mileage from that alone. Or Sonic!
for me older arcade games. just looking top of the list on my MAME rn: D&D Shadow over Mys / Tower of Doom, Metal Slug, Dragon Saber, Quiz & Dragons, 1942, Simpsons, TMNT Turtles in Time, Tempest, Puzzle Bobble 2/4, Super Mario Broths, Galaga, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, Joust, Gauntlet, Pole Position, Crystal Castles, Gorf, Bubble Bopbble, Final Fight, Out Run, Robotron.
Ooooh metal slug! I’ve totally forgotten about that! Was way too hard when I tried it as a child and it kicked my ass haha. I really wanna get/build a full sized arcade cabinet- I’ve seen some good emulator ones
The DND arcade entries are exceptional. Deserving of physical cabinet re-release
Metroid: Zero Mission is fantastic. It’s pretty much the perfect remake of the original metroid, there’s zero wasted content, the game has great pacing and is made to be beaten in under two hours, and the game actively encourages sequence breaking via morphball bombing, making it a really replayable title (The game has unique ending artwork for sequence breaking the shit out of it and beating it with less than 15% of the game’s items). Played it for the first time this year so I can confirm it has aged gracefully like wine or a graceful and hot immortal vampire guy or something idk
they should have called it Peak: Peak Peak imo
I’ve only dabbled in emulation to play things on my phone, so I only really have suggestions for Gameboy Advance games, but here they are:
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Golden Sun 1 and 2
Harvest Moon
Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green
Yeah I’m real boomer-core and doing it on an iPad lol. Just so convenient when I’m traveling
PS1: Tomba!, Digimon World, Spyro 1
FF series but have no idea where to start either 🤷♂️
All the games stories are completely separate and you can play in any order. All the PS1 era ones should be good.
I grew up on N64, IMO Star Fox 64 and F Zero X are among the greatest games ever made.
Final Fantasy series
FF6 and 7 are both fine starting points, SNES and PS1 respectively. FF Tactics is also a great game from the PS1 era, but best thought of as its own thing because aside from some visual designs it doesn’t share much in common with the other FF games.
Also you should give Dreamcast a try! It’s technically a generation later but emulation for it is really mature so it can run better than PS1 on some computers. Space Channel 5, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Power Stone, Samba de Amigo, Skies of Arcadia, Resident Evil Code Veronica, uhhhh Rez and Ikaruga and I guess Shenmue is cool too
Star Fox 64 is a perfect time capsule, nothing like it will ever be made again. Nice 40 minute play-through time, but with tons of branching paths and achievements to reach for. This is the best time to play it, since you can experience it without the slowdowns of the OG hardware.
There’s a recompilation of it called Starship, so you can run it natively on PC at widescreen resolutions and a frame rate up to 360 FPS.
Small correction: it’s not a recompilation. Just like the Harbour Masters’ work on Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Mario Kart 64, Starship is a source port based off of the matching decompilation of Star Fox 64.
Anyway, thank you for posting about it because somehow I hadn’t heard about it! It looks like it was released not that long after 2Ship2Harkinian, so maybe it got overshadowed.
Haha, yeah, I definitely know the difference between those things
I was in the process of writing a reply explaining the difference…and then my computer crashed
Rather than rewrite it, I’ll just say simply that decompilation requires a lot more labor compared to static recompilation, but it reveals more about the inner workings of the game, which can be useful for modding as well as just understanding why the game behaves in certain ways. They both have their places, and recompilation is especially great for games that don’t have a large dedicated community that’s up to the task of doing a decompilation, since decomp projects can take years and thousands upon thousands of person-hours.
Starfox 64 with one-hand key setup is a fun time
N64: Mario Golf is a good one to throw a podcast on for.
Oh yeah!! We didn’t have Karts in our apartment for the longest time- and just played waaay too much Mario golf/tennis, and Podracing!
Surprised no mention of Pokemon Pinball on GBA. Your pinball is a pokeball and you catch, evolve, and hatch pokemon throughout your run. You “travel” across areas for different types, play mini games, and unlock legendary pokemon. Only game I’ve played repeatedly to try for a better score. That shit is addictive. I wish they would make a new one, but I know they would fuck it up.
Holy shit. This is going to do wonders for my pinball addiction. Also I remember playing this a couple decades ago with my cousin 😆
Anytime this is mentioned the theme starts playing in my head, that game is on another level of addiction
The PS1 had some great ports of arcade games that afaik don’t play well in MAME. Tekken 1-3, Ridge Racer, Soul Edge, Rival Schools, Ehrgeiz, Star Galdiator, are some. Duckstation is a fantastic emulator and a favorite of mine.
I’ll check out duckstation! I’ve been using Gamma on mobile with a controller - which is such an improvement over an actual NES lol. Ooh tekken is a series I haven’t tried much at all- love a good button masher
My partner and I got really into rival schools off one of the capcom fighting collections. That shit is so wacky in the best way
RS was my jam growing up and I was pretty good at it, used to beat my friends all the time with Roberto and Akira.
You’ve played the game, but have you heard the band? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcRt7kkzcxM
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Depending on your hardware, Ridge Racer 1 and 2 actually run fine now in MAME, and I think even Rave Racer might work. The PS1 version is relatively impressive for a launch title, but it’s still a stripped down port most notably running at 30 FPS.
Yeah my pc is jank and really can’t do 3D mame titles, so I’m forced to stick with duckstation ports, good to know otherwise though.
PS1: THPS, Crash, Gex, Vigilante 8, Syphon Filter/2, gta/2
GBA: golden sun, loz:la, wario land, Emerald is the superior Pokémon game.
Nes: double dragon 2, super dodge ball, ice hockey, kings of the beach, mt’s punch out, rc pro-am, tmnt the arcade game.
For gba there are a bunch of fantastic pokemon hacks. I’ve played glazed before and I’ve been playing pokemon unbound. For gba golden sun is also funtastic
I’m blown away - I had no idea people basically developed their own versions!! Glazed is incredible so far (mind the last Pokemon I played on gba was a ruby cartridge!)
This year has been about Fire Emblem for me. Played through a romhack or two from the GBA era and played through Radiant Dawn, the Wii entry, with a randomizer that was really fun.
Edit: Should mention the Romhack that I was most impressed by was The Morrow’s Golden Country.
What are some good FE rom hacks?
Ack, I typed out a reply on my phone, then never sent it and lost it lol. These are all available on FEUniverse, which I saw SmithrunHills link.
Anyways, for me The Morrow’s Golden Country is peak. I’ve beat it once and I’m another sitting away from beating it again.
I remember playing some of Vision Quest years ago and liking it, but I never got far. It’s an older project than TMGC, but rightfully a community pillar.
I got someways into Cerulean Crescent and liked what I was seeing, but also stalled out.
Embrace of the Fog was a neat little thing in that it was a roguelike/lite (I don’t remember the difference), but the start was a little too underpowered with slow progression so I haven’t returned.
I will probably return to all of these at some time, I did appreciate them.
https://feuniverse.us/t/fe8-complete-fire-emblem-vision-quest-v3-by-pushwall-1-oct-22/3815
Might be unironically the best written FE romhack of all time
I’ll check it out. Just finished soloing 8 with Seth
