I was extremely late to the party with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, never having played any of them until 2016 or so. Having long missed the zeitgeist, I figured it would be one of those instances where the games were massive in their time but are simplistic or clunky to play now. But man, was I wrong.
These are mechanically deep games with a crazy high skill ceiling, rewarding skillful execution and mastery of the controls. They have much more in common with combo-oriented action games like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry than anything in the “Sports” category they’re often lumped into (and as a fan of those action games, I felt right at home). THPS 3 and 4 are just sublime to control.
Admittedly, the first two entries show their age a bit due to lacking the mechanics that flesh out the gameplay in 3/4, but they’re still solid. The 1+2 remaster is outstanding by the way, bringing in all those later mechanics for the full THPS experience. It’s a near-perfect example of a remaster done right.
I never get tired of playing Kaamari Damacy. I do not know why. It’s just utterly bonkers fun.
Tetris. That game has aged extremely well. I played it on the original Gameboy. I last played it on a VR headset.
Capcom vs. SNK 2. It’s good to the last drop, no matter when and where you play it. Bloody Roar: Primal Fury/Extreme also holds up far better than Sega’s Fighting Vipers series.
Neo Turf Masters. Picked it up recently for the first time and it’s the first time everything in a golf game has just intuitively clicked with me in terms of “oh, that’s what each club does”. Throw in fast pacing and simple controls and I got really hooked in a way I never do with sports games personally.
I almost always have a new run of Knights of the Old Republic I or II going. It’s almost 20 years old and the replayability still amazes me.
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!
Symphony of the Night. I played it for the first time a few years ago, and it holds up really well next to modern metroidvanias, better than Super Metroid IMO.
