List your evergreen games!

[shane]

After reading MetalFRO's blog post on evergreen games, I thought it would be interesting to know what others consider their evergreen games. I have quite a few of them, so I'll try to break it up by platform:

Atari VCS/2600

• Yars' Revenge

NES

• Metroid
• Shadowgate
• Uninvited
• The Little Mermaid

SNES

• ActRaiser
• Soul Blazer
• Illusion of Gaia
• Terranigma
• Super Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past
• Chrono Trigger
• Super Mario World

Game Boy

• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
• Metroid II
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
• Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

PS1

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
• Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
• Silent Hill

Game Boy Advance

• Metroid: Zero Mission
• Metroid Fusion
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
• Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (patched with Card Mode)

PS2

• Silent Hill 3
• Katamari Damacy
• We ❤️ Katamari

Xbox

• Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams
• Grand Theft Auto Double Pack
• Fable

Xbox 360

• Beautiful Katamari

(All of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games used to be evergreen on this console until I purchased a Windows PC for gaming)

GameCube

• Metroid Prime
• Animal Crossing
• Killer 7
• Chibi-Robo
• Resident Evil 4

PSP

• Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (for SOTN)
• Me and My Katamari
• PaRappa the Rapper

Nintendo DS

• Castlevana: Portrait of Ruin
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
• Animal Crossing: Wild World

Wii/

• Animal Crossing: City Folk
• Super Paper Mario
• Metroid Prime 3

WiiU

• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

PS3

• Katamari Forever

3DS

• Animal Crossing: New Leaf
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Vita

• Touch My Katamari

PC/Win/MacOS

• Doom and Doom II
• Quake
• Stardew Valley
• Super Win the Game
• Axiom Verge
• The Elder Scrolls from Morrowind to Skyrim
• Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4
• Half-Life 2 and episodes
• Broken Reality
• Shivers
• Dusk
• The Witness
• King's Quest IV
• Minecraft

[MetalFRO]

That's quite a list! Lots of great games in there. Nice to see some love for King's Quest IV - that was always a fun one, and one that I don't think gets as much respect, because it was later in that game engine's life, and most games had moved on to more sophisticated interfaces. Also, I probably need to look into Blood Omen. I have both the PS1 and Dreamcast releases of Soul Reaver, but I've still never played the original Legacy of Kain game. I know it's supposed to be quite a bit different. Glad to see my article inspired some further thought on this topic!

[Crabmaster2000]

Atari 2600

Phoenix

NES

Mega Man 3

SNES

Mega Man X

N64

Goldeneye

Gamecube

P.N.03

Wii

Sin & Punishment Star Successor

Wii U

Shovel Knight
NES Remix

Switch

Super Mario Odyssey

Genesis

Sonic 2

SEGA CD

Lords of Thunder

Saturn

Darkstalkers Revenge

Dreamcast

Marvel vs Capcom 2

TG16

Blazing Lazers

Turbo CD

Lords of Thunder

Playstation

Twisted Metal 2

PS2

Marvel vs Capcom 2

PS3

Batman Arkham Asylum

PS4

Nex Machina

[Mr_Stubbes]

That is a very extensive list Shane! Here's my list in no particular order.

Fable: The Lost Chapters
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Bros. 3
Paper Mario
Animal Crossing (series)
Legend of Zelda
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Final Fantasy VII
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
Red Dead Redemption 1
Red Dead Redemption 2
Katamari Damacy
Katamari Forever
Touch My Katamari
Portal 1
Portal 2
Minecraft
Chrono Trigger
Mario Kart 64
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
Dark Souls

I'll probably add more as I remember them. It's kinda fun making a list like this cause I was just looking through my library and kept thinking. This is a great game.... This one too... Man I forgot about this one... Now I'm thinking about adding some of these into my backlog to beat them again!

[Seno]

Cool idea, I'll add some more when I've got more time:

MD
Rocket Knight Adventures
Thunder Force 4
Sonic

DS
Advanced Wars: Dual Strike
Bangai-O Spirits.

PSP
Wipeout: Pure

Dreamcast
Cannon Spike
Street Fighter 3

PS1
Final Fantasy 7 (and switch)

Switch
Mario Kart 8
Bayonetta 2

PC
Factorio
Transistor
Super Time Force Ultra
Left4Dead 2

Gamecube
Pikmin
Ikaruga

SNES
Cybernator

[MetalFRO]

Cannon Spike! That's a great one as a go-to game, because it's so immediate, and very pick up and play. Plus, it's a great game.

[shane]

Portal 1
Portal 2

I play through the first Portal maybe every third time I play the Half-Life 2 series, so it didn't make my list, but it's definitely a game I've played at least half a dozen times.

[Disposed Hero]

This was an interesting list to come up with. These aren't necessarily my favorite games (although some are), but these are games that I find to be relatively stress-free comfort food games that I can and probably have played over and over again. At any given time, popping in and playing through one of these games sounds like a good idea to me. I may add more later as I think of them.

NES
Castlevania
Contra
Super C
Super Mario Bros. 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game

SNES
Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Ran
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fight 3
Illusion of Gaia
Soul Blazer
Super Castlevania IV
Super Double Dragon
Super Mario RPG
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Wild Guns

Genesis
Alien Storm
Final Fight CD (Sega CD)
Golden Axe
Golden Axe II
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist

GB
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Neo Geo
Metal Slug
Metal Slug 2

PC-Engine
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

PS1
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Final Fantasy VII
Parasite Eve
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 2

PS2
Onimusha: Warlords

DC
Dynamite Cop!

GC
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 4

VITA
Persona 4 Golden

PS4
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
God of War (2018)
Persona 5
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
Resident Evil 3 (2020)
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The Last of Us
Yakuza 0
Yakuza Kiwami 2

Switch
Dragon Quest XI
Mario Kart 8
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Arcade
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Vendetta

[bombatomba]

This was a super fun thought exercise, and I spent a couple of weeks just mulling it over.  While at first I made up my own list of Evergreen games (I call them Comfort Games), I abandoned it due to a realization that my Evergreen games aren't so much specific games, rather a game that evokes nostalgia, and is something that I have muscle memory already built up, so that gaming isn't about thinking, rather just relaxation and fun.  For example, recently I've gotten a little dizzy from the amount of GB games I've been playing and had to retreat to Mega Man Legacy Collection on Steam to play through Mega Man 1 with my 8bit Do M30.  That is how MM1 should be played!

On a side note, I also got a lot of enjoyment from reading through the games in this thread, and trying to imagine what makes it that persons Evergreen game.  I'd love to read some short explanations for some to of these.  Here, I will go first:

Final Fantasy VII - While I rarely play more than five or six hours these days, I always come back for the amazing music.  Sometimes I don't even make it past the first time the overworld theme is played before I just sit with my eyes closed and marinate in that aural goodness!

Mega Man 1 - I know this one is supposed to be ultra hard, but I just love part one!  Cheesing the bosses in Wily's stage with the Thunder Beam is its own reward!

Persona 4: Golden - I play the first two hours, then spend another two hours listening to music in the main menu.  Then I sometimes watch the "Movie" on Youtube.  I wish the game had an option to do the same...

Dying Light - Zombie parkour that is all muscle memory at this point.