The ultimage must-haves-list

Here is my goal:

Collect the best games, with an emphasis towards sega and "old-school" (whatever that means).

I figure I'm probably not alone in this quest, so I thought I might get some help.

Here's how this this quest has gone in the past:

1. Pre-ebay days. Whatever they actually had in stock at funco or was found at a garage sale, with a name or box that sounded cool, or a review in the mag. Usually whatever was found cheap and was ok-good. This is how I got games back when the systems were still supported.

2. Interweb days. When I decided to revitalize my genesis collection, I surfed the web for reviews on every game, read everything on the genesis collective and looked at every screenshot. Having narrowed the list down to say a hundred, I tried out the roms for them all, and then picked the several dozen I liked the best.

Unfortunately, neither scale that well. #1 resulting in my missing nearly every great game back in the day. And #2 is impractical when it comes to say saturn, ps1, and nes.

I started by looking for a list of shooters to get. I came across this page:

http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/xenocidefiles.html

which basically has a list and one-sentence (sometimes more) review for nearly every shooter for every system. Most of the systems were easy. SMS and GG only have a couple shooters. And genesis/cd/32x is already "done" from my prevoius endeavor. But once I hit saturn and ps1, I was overwhelmed. With hundreds of shooters, all of them with cool-sounding names and a rating of "good shmup", how do I figure out which 5-10 are the ones worth owning?

And it's not just shooters. All the good old stuff, like 2-D fighters and platforms and puzzlers. And even games that aren't old-school, but still have that old-school (arcade-maybe) fun to them, like some driving, flying, first-person, 3D fighting, and special gens (like say nights).

The other big problem is which system. A lot of the great shooters and fighters are available on multiple system (like say, both saturn and ps1). But sometimes they might be only available in Japan for one of the systems (so it might be easier/cheaper to get the ps1 version, even though I'd prefer the saturn just for sega). Region is not a showstopper though. In fact, games that we never saw in the US are some of the ones I want to make sure I don't miss.

The other problem is which collection. Some games like say metal slug or R-type can be found individually on older systems, or as collections on new systems. Which one is better? Cheaper? (money is an issue here obviously).

So, what I'm looking for is a list of best games for all systems, more from a "best games" standpoint. Games worth buying the system for. The "if you only play one game of type X on this sytem, it should be this game", etc. Graphis doesn't matter the most, just gameplay and fun (i.e., an NES game might be better than a PS2 game).

And by "best", I don't necessarily just mean the best one. Even like the best dozen out of a hundred (since I'm sure the "best" is going to be like the 200$ models like border-down and radiant-silvergun or something, so if second best is something I can find for 20$, hey!)

So, if anyone has some input, please do. Systems I'm looking for:

Atari 2600

NES

SMS

GG

Genesis/CD/32X (already exhausted, but you can post for the benefit of others)

SNES

Saturn

PS1

Dreamcast

PS2

Uber-thanks.
 
NES:

Super Mario Brothers

Super Mario Brothers 2

Super Mario Brothers 3

Excitebike

Punchout!

The Legend of Zelda

Kirby

Tetris

Dr. Mario

Game Gear:

Sonic 2

coloumns (not sure what number or version)

Genesis:

Sonic 1

Sonic 2

Sonic 3

Sonic and Knuckles

Coloumns III

Streets of Rage III

Light Crusader

Super Street Fighter II

Herzog Zwei (you either love it or hate it)

Mortal Kombat II

nhl hockey 96

GUNSTAR HEROS

Samurai Showdown

Mega Bomberman

...i'm sure many more

SNES:

Super Mario World

Uniracers

Super Street Fighter II

Super Punchout

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To the Past

F-Zero

Kirby's Superstar

SATURN:

Saturn Bomberman

Fighters Mega Mix

Virtual On

Panzer Dragon 1, Zewi, and Saga

Nights

Virtua Cop

Marvel vs. Street Fighter

PS1:

Crash Bandicoot II

Street Fighter Alpha III

Tony Hawk (I, II, and III)

Dave Mirra BMX

Final Fantasy 7

Wild Arms

Mega Man X4

Tekken 3

Metal Gear Solid

Dreamcast:

Marvel vs. Capcom 2

Marvel vs. Capcom

Street Fighter Alpha 3

Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure 2

Power Stone

Power Stone 2

Ready to rumble boxing 2

Puyo Puyo

San Fran Rush 2049

Tony Hawk 2

Soul Calibur

Dead or Alive 2

Playstation 2:

Devil May Cry

Tony Hawk III

Prince of Persia: sands of time

Tekken Tag Tournament

I'm SURE i could think up many more, but this is just off the tip of my mind... and yes I do tend to love most Capcom games...
 
I'm going to stick mainly to exclusives, or games where the mentioned version is totally superior.

NES

-Contra

-River City Ransom

-Castlevania 1&3

-Ninja Gaiden 1&2

-Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

SMS

-Phantasy Star

-Rastan

Genesis/CD/32X (already exhausted, but you can post for the benefit of others)

-Shining Force series

-Shinobi series

-Phantasy Star series

-Streets of Rage series

-Sonic series

-Thunder Force series

SNES

-Super Metroid

-Cybernator

Saturn

-Radiant Silvergun

-Nights

-Guardian Heroes

PS1

-Silent Hill

-Skull Monkeys (heh, seriously... I love this game)

-One (ditto... I don't know why)

-Final Fantasy Tactics

Dreamcast

-Shenmue 1&2

-Rez

-Ikaruga

PS2

-Gradius V (seriously, I bought the system for this game)

-Katamari Damacy (short thrill, though)

-Shinobi

Also, I want to add:

Neo Geo

-Metal Slug!!1one!!!
 
I'll try to limit this list as much as possible. I compiled it while thinking, If I had to start from scratch (with a budget to consider), these are the games I'd buy first.:

2600:

-Centipede

NES

-Castlevania 2: Simons Quest

-Batman

-Final Fantasy

-Super Mario Bros 3

-Castlevania III

SMS

-Phantasy Star

-Shinobi

Genesis:

-Beyond Oasis

-Phantasy Star II

-Sonic the Hedgehog II

GG:

-Shining Force: The sword of whatever it's called

Super Nintendo:

-SMW2 Yoshi's Island

-Super Metroid

-Secret of Mana

-Final Fantasy III

-The Legend of Zelda

Saturn:

-Shining Force III (I bought a Saturn anticipating this and a PS sequel)

-Nights

-Fighters Megamix

-House of the Dead (with guns)

PSX:

-Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (I bought a PSX for this. Now I'm wondering where did it go?)

-Final Fantasy VII

-Final Fantasy IX

Dreamcast:

-Crazy Taxi

-Sonic Adventure

-Skies of Arcadia

-Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

-Ikaruga

I didn't list virtually any shooters because besides Ikaruga, I really haven't been exposed to the vast amount of shooters out there.
 
This is SO easy to answer...

EVERYTHING! duh...

[EDIT]Even the bad games are worth having just to see how bad the actually are!
 
Dreamcast:

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2

Capcom vs. snk 2

Shenmue 1&2(EUR)

DOA 2(Japanese Version)

Crazy Taxi

Saturn:

Policenauts(The Best Of all Versions)

Snatcher

Saturn Bomberman

any Capcom Fighter

Virtual Fighter 2

Virtual Fighter Remix

Virtual Cop 2

Fighters Megamix

House of the Dead(Light Gun Mania)

Nights

Panzer Dragon 1, Zewi, and Saga
 
Out of games that I've played for each system, because calling a game you haven't, a killer game, is retarded. Just a handful, too, because naming 50 games for a system is too shotgunny.

Atari 2600

Adventure

Amidar

Combat

Cosmic Ark

E.T

Midnight Magic

Solaris

Smurfs

Spiderman

Warlords

Yars Revenge

Atari 7800

Ballblazer

Choplifter

Pole Position 2

Jaguar

AvP

...there's nothing else I'd consider any good for it.

3DO

Gex

Need for Speed

Return Fire

Road Rash 3D

Gameboy/GBC

Kirby's Dreamland 2

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages + Oracle of Seasons

Super Mario Land 2

Tetris

Yars Revenge

Gameboy Advance

Advance Wars

Any of the Super Mario Advance games...

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Rockman EXE (buy them in order, because you cannot go from 4 to 1 without hating 1)

NES

Battletoads

Blaster Master

Crystalis

Dragon Warrior

Final Fantasy

Life Force

Legend of Zelda 1+2

Megaman 2

Metal Gear

Ninja Gaiden (any)

River City Ransom

Shatterhand

Snake Rattle n Roll

SNES

Chrono Trigger

Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy VI

Gradius III

Super Mario RPG

Super Mario World

SMW2: Yoshi's Island

Virtual Boy

Mario Clash

Mario's Dream Tennis

Nester's Funky Bowling

Nintendo 64

Bomberman 64

Goldeneye 64

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Mario 64

Megaman Legends... whatever they called the port of it

Mischief Makers (above all else)

Perfect Dark

Resident Evil 2

Starfox 64

Gamecube

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime 2

Pac-Man Versus

Starfox Assault

Beh, I grow tired of this listing.
 
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