Games Everyone Should Play

Street Fighter 2. I'm not a very big fan of it, but it's sure fun from time to time. And it might as well the best gateway fighting game.

I really don't think there's a game that everyone should play. I'm more of an advocate only playing the games that catch your interest personally. It's not like someone can never end up liking a game that doesn't interest them at first glance, but I don't think someone owes it to themselves to play a particular game just because it's important, or innovative for it's time, etc. None of those qualities by themselves mean someone's going to enjoy playing it, and there's also probably alternatives similar to said games that people might enjoy more.

That's just my opinion though, I'm not trying to derail or even disparage this thread in any way. I think it's cool that we can have a thread where we can recommend some of our favorite games to eachother.

If I was to make a list of "essentials", I wouldn't exactly list the games I think that are the best, but the ones that became more influential - so, by playing them, you would understand better how video games evolved in the past decades. So, for example, as much as I love Ninja Gaiden, I think I would actually recommend Devil May Cry 3 instead for someone who wanted to understand the rise of spetacle fighters, as it became the most famous and copied one.

Considering how the "metroidvania" genre is everywhere nowadays, I would recommend that everyone play both Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night.

For FPS games, I would say DOOM and Half-Life 2 represent very well the raycaster, labyrinthine level-design games of the 90s and the 3d, linear and story-focused games of the 2000s.

Ocarina of Time was really a turning point for 3d action-adventure games, so I agree with it being on any list.

Chrono Trigger and FF7 represent very well the transition from 2d, concise RPGs to the long animations and bloated stories of 3d RPGs.

Mega Man 2 is still a constant reference for 2d action games and to a particular style of pixel art, so I would also recommend that.

Portal was also a huge influence, and in the following years there were all these games based on test environments and "for science!" plots.

Dark Souls is another one, since in any conversation about a hard game there's always the risk of someone saying "This game is the Dark Souls of... [insert any random genre here: platformers, rpgs, racing, dating sims etc.]"

So yeah, my entire list would be boring and composed of a few famous games in each genre, even if I don't think those games are exactly the best ones (I dislike FF7, prefer MM3 over 2, Ninja Gaiden over DMC3 etc.). But if someone is just starting to play video games and don't want to feel lost in most conversations, those are the most referenced ones.

Also, Pac-Man goes without saying. How many Pac-Man clones were made in the 80s? I have no idea.

Yes, that's what I was trying to convey. This exactly.

Great list, stratogustav, but I'd argue for Pokemon Red/Blue over Yellow or Gold/Silver. Gold and Silver are better games, but I think everyone needs to play the first, the most basic, to see how the series has progressed.

Ayuh, but discussions on objective facts are less interesting than opinions.

Speaking of which, I gave some thought to the Pokemon one and decided you were right. I think Yellow is probably the one that should be played. It's got the mascot of the series right there, you get all of the original starters through the game, but everything is a little more polished than the first two. All Pokemon games are very similar (played one, you've played them all, to an extent) but if there's one title that should be played, it's probably Yellow.

I feel a lot of games that were massive should be there, the Castlevania NES Trilogy, Super Mario World, the Donkey Kong Country SNES Trilogy, the Ninja Gaiden NES Trilogy, the NES Double Dragon Trilogy, Contra III, all shmups by Treasure, the Genesis Sonic The Hedgehog Trilogy, the Golden Axe Genesis Trilogy, the Streets Of Rage Genesis Trilogy, the Final Fight Trilogy, almost everything by Quintet, you know like ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Robotrek, Terranigma, Illusion Of Gaia, all 6 NES Mega Man games, the SNES Mega Man X Trilogy, Secret Of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, Super C, Life Force, Kid Icarus, Bionic Commando, the NES TMNT Trilogy, the first 6 Metal Slug games, if not at least 1 to 3, Rush'n Attack, Thexder, Blaster Master, Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, those kind of games.

Say what you want, but all those games were and still are essential.

Try it... TRY IT!