Games you keep coming back to because of nostalgia

There are games which might not be very fun to play NOW on their own, but the memories make them worthwhile even today. I'd have to go for:

• Pokemon (watching the series parallely was extremely fun and gave you a sense of actually being a trainer!)
• Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (first game I finished in one sitting)
• Zelda OoT (this may sound weird, but when I was playing this I used to listen to a lot of blues. So, everytime I turn on a blues album, I get reminded of Hyrule!)

Phantasy Star Online..:)

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil Code Veronica

Jet Grind Radio

Red Faction II

Max Payne 2

SSX 3

Final Fantasy series, Zelda series, Castlevania: SotN, Super Mario Bros. 3 and World.

Pokemon

Sonic Series

GT 2&3

Resident Evils

Monkey Island 1 & 2

Sometimes even Wolfestein 3D, or SimCity 3000. Also Super Mario World, but I mainly grew up with PC

Any Rampage game, Paper Mario, OoT, and old kart-racing games (Diddy Kong Racing, Crash Team Racing, etc.). Oh, and I've been playing Jazz Jackrabbit 2 pretty much since it was released in 1998.

Pokemon Red (though I now only have Fire Red)

Super Mario

Crash Bandicoot 1,2,3

Twisted Metal 1

super mario world and yoshi's island

This post is long because I've been an arcade and PC gamer since 1982 - console gamer since 1988.

I don't know if it's the games, the system, or the fact of playing the original games on the original system that I keep going back to. A lot of the games I enjoyed when they were new are still fun to play - I don't know if nostalgia really plays that much of a role. Fun games are fun, it doesn't matter how old they are.

With that said, here are some of my favorite games from most of the (legacy) systems I've had (and still have)

"CLASSIC":

NES: Adventure Island, Bad Dudes, Battletoads, Blaster Master, Castlevania (1, 2, and 3), Double Dragon (1, 2 and 3), Duck Tales, Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, Kings of the Beach, Ninja Gaiden (1, 2 and 3), Rad Racer, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1, 2 and 3), Top Gun, Track & Field II.

"OLD-SCHOOL":

SNES: Bubsy, Castlevania: Dracula X, Contra III: The Alien Wars, Final Fight (1, 2, 3 and Guy), Killer Instinct, Knights of the Round, Star Fox, Sunset Riders, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario World, Super Punch-Out, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Top Gear (1, 2 and 3000).

Sega Genesis: Columns, Comix Zone, Mortal Kombat, Ms. Pac-Man, NFL 94, Road Rash (1, 2 and 3), Sonic the Hedgehog (1, 2, 3 and Knuckles), Streets of Rage (1, 2 and 3), Strider, Vectorman

"OLD-SCHOOL 3D":

Sony PlayStation: Ace Combat 2, Gran Turismo (1 and 2), Jet Moto (1 and 2), Moto Racer, Need for Speed, Resident Evil (1 and 2), Road Rash, Soul Blade, Tekken (2 and 3), Tomb Raider, Twisted Metal (1 and 2), WCW Nitro, WCW/NWO Thunder, Um Jammer Lammy, Vigilante 8

N64: Extreme-G XG II, Forsaken 64, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Vigilante 8

LAST-GEN:

Sega Dreamcast: Crazy Taxi (1 and 2), Ecco the Dolphin, Gauntlet Legends, Marvel vs Capcom (1 and 2), Power Stone (1 and 2), Sonic Adventure (1 and 2), Spider-Man, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense

PlayStation 2: DOA 2: Hardcore, Gran Turismo (3 and 4), GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas, Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, Oni, SSX, Splashdown, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 5, Twisted Metal Black (also Black Online), Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition, Zone of the Enders

GameCube: Mario Kart: Double Dash, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil (1, 2, 3 and 4), Star Fox Adventures, Star Wars (Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike), Super Mario Sunshine, Zelda (collection, Twilight Princess and Wind Waker)

Xbox: DOA 3, Fuzion Frenzy, GTA (III and Vice City), Halo (1 and 2), Ninja Gaiden (Black), Project Gotham Racing (1 and 2), Rallisport Challenge (1 and 2), SSX Tricky

Awesome list, Stinger. :) I still play about every GC title you mentioned bar Star Wars.

Pokemon red/blue/yellow

Mario bros 1 - 3 / mario world

Sonic 1 - 3 / & knuckles

Castlevania 4

Mortal Kombat

Street fighter 2 (This one never gets old for me)

Several of my PS games: the FF's (including NES/SNES ports), Legend of Dragoon, Spyro series, MLB 98, and NFL Gameday 97.

If I still had my Genesis console, I'd probably be playing the crap outta the Arcade 6-Pak games (Streets of Rage and Golden Axe in particular)

super mario ftw

Final Fantasy games, Zelda games, Super Mario RPG

Mario 64 has reached the status of Tetris and Super Mario Bros, for me.

I don't know if it's nostalgia, or just that the games are really enjoyable in my opinion. But Iplay Donkey Kong Country every once in a while. I've probably beat it more then 30 times. I also play Donkey Kong 64, but it takesmore then aweek for me to beat, so I haven't beaten it many times.

Super Mario RPG, Doom 1 and 2, Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger, all of the Sonic the Hedgehog titles from Genesis.