What are the best OLD games you played in 2024?

We already have a thread for games released in 2024, but this one is for bitter old-folks like me who didn't play anything new. I'd make a top-ten list, but didn't even play enough games for that. So here's a handful I enjoyed enough to mention this year:

Biggest Surprise: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for GBC. I never gave this a second thought back in the day. Figured it would be a minimal effort port EA shat on to an outdated system just to squeeze a few bucks out of kids with parents who wouldn't let them get a newfangled GBA when they already had a Gameboy at home. But it turns out because EA had low expectations, they gave the developer Griptonite very few conditions, allowing them to make whatever they wanted. So they made Harry Potter into an old-school Final Fantasy game. It's fairly basic and pretty easy, but fun and includes scenes from the books that didn't make into the movies or other versions of the game.

Most Sega pulling a Sega: PSO Episode 3: CARD Revolution. Sega has a tendency to find success and then say, "Okay, we could do more of this, or we could do something... else?" So they took their popular online arpg, and made it turn based deck building game. No one asked or this, no one bought this. But maybe we should have asked for this and bought this. It's actually pretty fun and very unique.

Best Overall: Bayonetta 3. I get people's complaints. The game is easier than the first two, controlling the kaiju monsters isn't as fun as Bayonetta herself, and the story is whack, but its still got some of the most satisfying gameplay in the character action genre.

We already have a thread for games released in 2024, but this one is for bitter old-folks like me who didn't play anything new

Feel you, also played some older games too. & because I already expressed my favorite new games elsewhere may as well focus on older games I played in 2024_

Magic Arena- I played this card game a lot this year. Just generally a good time. Deck building is very addictive and generally feel the mechanics of the card is ahead of any card game I've played.

Fight n' Rage- Just a very well made Arcade Beat em' Up. Big fan of the genre and this game is pretty fun. Not overly long but the side routes and crazy difficulty spikes bring you back in for one more game.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne- It should never shock anyone that I just play MH a whole lot, my play group is still playing MH a lot and it's going back for Fatalis runs that is setting us up for Wilds in 2025.

Shadow X Generations- technically new content but built off the backbones of a decade old game. It's actually really good and even though Astrobot is overall a superior experience Shadows campaign is really good.

Kureyonshinchan: Bokunatsu- If you're not familiar with Boku no Natsuyasumi that's alright. Think of it as Animal Crossing without the house making. Basically a fun stress free adventure of catching bugs and fishing with some side humor.

The Thing: Remastered- Two steps forward one step backwards. I feel most the changes made are excellent. The inventory management is the only real exception. You just have seemingly infinite ammo and health.

Marvel Versus Capcom: Collection- Mostly played MvC2 here but it's still a ton of fun, week one lobbies was a blast!

Soul Reaver- Only replayed the first game in the collection. And it's still an overall excellent game. I recall not liking SR2 so not too keen to revisit but the first game is really well designed. Easy recommendation.

Monster Hunter 4G- yes another MH game. But it's more than that, 4G is still my favorite entry. It's well made and the level design is frankly still ahead of its Gen 5 counterparts. Just a near perfect game, and still a MH game I would recommend if they own a 3DS.

Dino Crisis- With a vocal minority outcrying for this to be remade I went back to the original and I just don't see the appeal. It's not a terrible game but isn't great either, mostly a Resident Evil reskin with some interesting dinosaur animations, which we all know Monster Hunter just did way better. Don't waste your time on this franchise Capcom, it was never that good.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent- Went back to this old gem to play its added Hard mode, and geez is balance thrown out the window. Generally found myself dying from walking down empty hallways on random due to the Sanity system. It just doesn't work very well in Hard Mode.

Devil May Cry 3 (Switch version)- The greatest 3D hack n' slasher of all time with an interesting port exclusive addition, while DMC4 and DMC5 let you change styles on the fly DMC3 did not, but the Switch version does, and boi does it change combat heavily. So much fun. Even if the AI clearly can't handle your upgraded advantages.

*probably some others but I either didn't put much time into them or I've plum forgot playing them in 2024.

I already posted my answer in the other thread: What are your Games of 2024 related to this one. Even if I copy/paste it here, I don't wanna start spamming so feel free to go check out the other thread to see my answer.

Nice picks! I love how you highlighted some underappreciated gems like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for GBC. It’s wild how a "low expectations" project turned into something genuinely enjoyable. And PSO Episode 3—classic Sega move, right? Innovating in ways no one expects! Also, totally agree on Bayonetta 3. Even with its quirks, it’s hard to beat that satisfying gameplay. Great list!

I don't think I played that much games, and those that I've played were alright:

ME1-3 Legendary Edition

Palworld

Outside the title @judaspete explains it's just games in general.

Not games just released this year. So any game you've played whether new or retro. For example Many keep playing Live Service games, many keep going back to Tetris or Street Fighter.

I thought my list should exclude the newer games in favor of the older games I found myself jumping into last year.

The Binding of Isaac, Prince of Persia: TLC, Helldivers 2, Super Mario Sunshine.

I was addicted to that game for hours on end, finally beat Mega Satan.. and now it's not even really an end-game boss anymore from what I read lol.

So much content and replayability.

Do visual novels count? I went through Steins;Gate and got all the endings and was extremely invested. And I’m not a big anime person.

I stopped after a couple chapters in 0 as I just couldn’t get invested somehow.

Game enjoyed the most was Tomb Raider: Remastered Collection.

@RSM-HQ: @davillain: I changed the title to make it more clear.

Ok, that makes sense, thanks😅

Guess I'll say I've been enjoying revisiting old games and these are the one's I've played for 2025:

1. Dead Island - I just like Zombie games that involves chopping heads and limbs off in order to survive.
2. Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil - old school Doom fan but to my surprise, it still a fun game for nostalgic but man, it's scripted as hell lol.
3. Metroid Prime Remastered - I must say, playing Metroid Prime on Switch was more fun than I thought it would be. Still, the GC version is still superior compared to the Switch version.
4. Dead Space 2 - Since EA said no to DS2 Remake, guess I'll go back to the classic touch and still fun to play.
5. Child of Light - Sad this game is still underrated for a good Ubisoft game, it's charm has aged well and if anyone hasn't play it yet, I recommended doing so.
6. Tomb Raider 2013 - Going back to where it started from SE, I forgot how fragile Lara Croft is in this game and she whines too much from what I remember. The Bow/Arrow is still fun to use and it's stealthy approach is satisfying.
7. Rare Replay - I have an Xbox Series S mainly just to play older games you may not find on PC and since Rare Replay is still an Xbox One exclusive, I really enjoy replaying Rare Replay games but mostly for Banjo/Kazooie as I'm a fan of those games.

Doom I + II. Those games are over 30 years old, but they're still fun to play. It's a simple, yet refreshing experience. It's just about finding key cards and shooting demons -- and it does a great job in doing that.

I actually got my Gamecube out the other day and played a few games... those being Wind Waker, Mario Sunshine (even though I have it on Switch I still like to play it on GC every now and then), and Metroid Prime. It will always hold a special place in my heart that console and it's games.

Watchdogs in my spare time of playing video games. Hearts of Iron 4.

@hrt_rulz01: Yeah, Mario Sunshine plays a bit different on the original hardware. One of the few games that makes use of the GC controller's analogue triggers that click into place when fully pressed.

Speaking of GC, I just started Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance yesterday. Been sitting in the backlog for about 15 years now.

Yeah it definitely feels different on Gamecube compared to Switch... don't get me wrong, I definitely prefer the controls on Switch but I still like playing it on GC too. So much nostalgia.

The Gamecube library was so good.

STALKER 1. Has not aged well, but still a solid game all around. Really do love the environment and atmosphere.

Thief (reboot, or the third one...whatever the newest one is). I think people were unfairly critical of this game. Maybe I'm just desperate for a solid pure stealth game, but I thought it was pretty damn good.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War. I love me some singing orc bards, what can I say?!

Kerbal Space Program. At this point, KSP has a permanent home on my hard drive.

Mass Effect 1-3: Veilguard got me nostalgic for old Bioware, so I replayed the trilogy. Was a lot of fun!

Skyrim. Felt like playing something modified to hell and back, Skyrim is always good in this regard.

Alpha Protocol. There must have been some news about Obsidian because while I love this game, it hasn't aged well but sure enough I loaded it up and played it.

ME is a series that for some reason I always feel "meh" about until I go back and play it and become invested in like it's my first time playing.

Kakarot.

Just so fun.

Also pokemon black. It was ok, but nothing special.

@mrbojangles25: "Alpha Protocol. There must have been some news about Obsidian because while I love this game, it hasn't aged well but sure enough I loaded it up and played it."

Can a game really age poorly when it was notoriously janky to begin with? :)

Easy Tomb Raider: Remastered.

Had a blast, good price, 0 complaints.

Been playing through Icewind Dale.

Enjoyable, gets somewhat repetitive.

Played old games almost exclusively in 2024. The best? Not completely sure. But the better ones...

Finished Streets of Rage 2, finally, a masterpiece.

1998's Spyro the Dragon and Resident Evil 2 were both really good.

Happy to have finally played through Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Beating Banjo Kazooie again after so long was gratifying.

The Last Guardian is underrated. Not as good as Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but better than most modern studio games.

Crazy Taxi, fun, as always.