RetroGaming

OUTER WILDS.

It's a fantastic exploration game if you go in blind and I wish I could forget it all and explore it all again.

The Outer Wilds.

A game you can only play once and that one time is magical.

Half life or Half life 2.

Windwaker.

Don't think its considered retro yet, but I wish I could forget every second of it I played. The complete emotional Rollercoaster I went through playing that game was incredible.

One of the few games where I really felt like I was the "super important protagonist" and the world really depended on me.

It might be relatively new, but I'd say Subnautica.

It was such a breath of fresh air when it came out, and instilled both such a sense of wonder at all the vibrant lifeforms of 4546B and also instilling such dread upon encountering reapers or diving deeper than ever before. I still remember the mixed sense of wonder and unease upon discovering the Jellyshroom caves for the first time

Secret of Monkey Island. Like most adventure games you can only really play it once. It'd be nice to enjoy it again.

Disco Elysium

The sheer joy of realising it's not "just another" RPG, slowly pulling the curtain on how intricate the worldbuilding is, discovering the main character and in turn reflecting on yourself. It's become a small addiction to watch first time streamers and let's players for me, to vicariously relive that process.

Another candidate might be Ultima 7, the interactivity and how "real" it felt in the 90s was mindblowing for kid me.

World of Warcraft. Starting out in an MMO for the first time is magical. No worries about the endgame, just the desire to explore and learn.

Outer Wilds. You can't even really replay it, not like you can other games. But boy, I will never forget the unbridled joy of unraveling its mysteries - and ironically, would love to so I can do it all over again.

Subnautica.

The first game to make me truly sad that I had finished it. Wow, what an experience!

I loved exploring and piecing together the story. I loved discovering new creatures and ecosystems. I loved finding strange things and figuring out what to do with them.

I've never played a game quite like it before or since. My god, it was really amazing. I beat it without needing a guide or walkthrough. It's great enough to the point where, if you are curious enough, you won't need one!

It's certainly a slower-paced game, as it's not all non-stop action, so it's not for everyone. But if you're a patient and curious person, this may be for you.

It's hard to pick just one:

• Deus Ex. It's timelessly topical despite being released in 2000. It predicted the War on Terror and a massive pandemic to name a couple.

• Spiritfarer, for maximum onion chopping. Saying goodbye to Gwen really messed me up since I became very attached to her, and I can't finish the last stretch of the game because it's too emotionally taxing.

• Undertale and wholesome fan-games like Act to Flirt.

• Half-Life 2, circa 2004 when it was a leap ahead of everything else. I was unsettled by the teaser screenshots due to how real it all seemed to be during its heyday. (I did re-capture part of that feeling with M Mod and its great yet faithful modernisation effects. Plus there's some blursed mods you can combine with it such as replacing Alyx with Krystal, voiced by the original actress.)

• Duke Nukem 3D: Alien Armageddon. It blew me away how much custom content and passion has been invested, so good that it almost felt like I was playing Duke Nukem for the first time all over again.

• There's many more worth mentioning such as Unreal, Morrowind, Oblivion, Company of Heroes 1 and the forgotten gem that is Ground Control.

Man, I was born just at the right time to experience a stunning variety of titles and enjoy the mods that improve them.

I’m gonna break the rules and name more than one.

Super Metroid

Link to the Past I beat it with my mom as a kid. I’d love to go back and just be a kid who loves his mom playing that game again.

Ocarina of Time My mom and I snuck and opened the Christmas present every evening after my dad went to bed. We were at the forest temple when I actually opened it for Christmas and pretended to be surprised.

Wind Waker I was so disappointed over the cartoon graphics I almost didn’t play it. Once the game won me over I fell in love with everything about it.

Twilight Princess My first Zelda as an adult living on my own. I bought it on GameCube and played it with my ex. We had no cable, no internet, no phone. It was the only entertainment we had (video games) and it was an experience that made us closer.

Symphony of the Night I just fucking love that game.

World of Warcraft I want to go back and play with my son. We did arenas and we were an unstoppable team. Some of the best nights of my life were spent side by side playing WotLK and Cata.

I could go on but someone is standing here bugging me now. Take care folks.

Final Fantasy VII

I went straight on from super Nintendo to this. You can imagine he level of amazement I got.

Oblivion. I liked Skyrim but Oblivion quests were so much better

Maybe Stardew Valley? I found that very enjoyable.

Chrono Trigger. Hands down the greatest JRPG I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

Diablo 2 of course. It's the best game ever made. I still play it for a month or two every year.

Not retro, but Celeste hands down. That game is an emotional roadtrip of a platformer. My favorite indie game out there.

Outer Wilds. It's the best game I have played, and it can't really be played a second time.

Undertale

That game fucked me up good on a personal level

Deus Ex

Portal. I thought it was just a puzzle game. I love twists in movies and this one really caught me off guard.

The Last of Us.

It's very linear and short to the point most of that sense of wonder goes away immediately after you finish it once.

Also being a horror game, the more you play the less scary it is.

The big moments hit really hard the first time around, but then that's kinda it. Still love it though.

World of Warcraft. 2005 was a hell of a time for that game.

Dark Souls. It was a game that had so many surprises just to fuck you over randomly. Random boulders, hidden enemies, boss mechanics, mimics, hidden gems. Played the hell out of it but the first time was like magic. 2, 3, bloodline, elden ring... I had expectations. Only played a couple hours of demons souls before I dove hard.

Mass effect 2

Metal Gear Solid. Going from tooling around in the NES Metal Gear to sneaking thorough Shadow Moses while figuring out 4th wall breaking puzzles was amazing.

The Secret of the Monkey Island

Ocarina of Time, or Final Fantasy VII. Both of them had just incredible impacts on me as a teenager, and I'd love to be 16 and experiencing them for the first time again.

TUNIC

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

The universe! The characters! The plot! That reveal! Oh, man. To be able to experience that again for the first time. Wow.

Mine would be bioshock 1.

celeste every day, that game got right to my heart

World of Warcraft.

What a great game to be a noob in.

Final Fantasy 6. Still my favorite game of all time.

Yeah, its going to be Legend of Zelda: A Link to the past for me.

It's such a great game, played it for hours and hours. It truly made Hyrule came to live.

Shining Force

Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, or Super Mario RPG. I couldn't get enough of Squaresoft in the SNES days.

Chrono Trigger for the "trippy" story.

Pretty much any NES game for the "gamer" soundtrack (beep bops.)

Earthbound. It’s been my favorite game since I first rented it from blockbuster

Metal Gear Solid on PS1

Sid Meier's Civilization!

Final Fantasy 7 (the original).

And it's not even close. What a journey.