The SNES, N64, PS1 and Game Boy games that defined a childhood.
If you grew up in the 1990s, your memory of games is probably a rental shop, a shared living room and a cartridge you had to blow on. This list is the shortlist of what everyone actually played, not a critical canon.
Each entry says where you can play it now — a lot of these are one subscription away rather than an eBay hunt.
1990 · SNES, Switch (NSO)
The game that came with the console for most families, and the one everybody could finish together. Secret exits kept it going for months.
1996 · N64, Switch (NSO Expansion)
Four controllers, Block Fort, and arguments that lasted into adulthood. Still the fastest way to a full room of players.
1997 · N64, Switch (NSO), Xbox
Split-screen deathmatch with the screen-watching rule everyone ignored. Its objective-based campaign was ahead of its time.
1996 · Game Boy, 3DS
Link cables, playground trades and a starter choice that felt permanent. The single biggest schoolyard game of the decade.
1992 · Genesis, Switch, PS5, Xbox, PC
Speed, spin dash and Tails as a permanent second player. The Genesis half of the playground argument.
1992 · SNES, Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC
The reason your friend memorised a fireball motion before their times tables. Perfectly readable for a beginner even now.
1994 · SNES, Switch (NSO)
Pre-rendered graphics that looked impossible in 1994, and barrel levels that punished panic. Two-player tag-team was the default.
1996 · PS1, PS5, Switch, Xbox, PC
The PlayStation's mascot and the source of a very specific memory of dying on a bridge. The remaster is faithful.
1998 · PS1
The PS1 fighter everyone had, with a roster you learned by button-mashing. Short rounds made it perfect for passing a pad.
1999 · N64, Switch (NSO Expansion)
Nintendo characters knocking each other off a stage — instantly understandable, endlessly repeatable.
1995 · SNES, Genesis
A licensed platformer far better than it needed to be, and far harder than a kid expected. Very much a weekend rental.
1993 · Genesis
Virgin's version with sword combat and Disney animators on the sprite work. Beautiful and brutally difficult.
1994 · Genesis, SNES, PC
Cartoon slapstick with genuinely strange level design. The cow gag is core 90s memory.
1993 · Arcade, SNES, Genesis
Two-on-two, on fire, boomshakalaka. The most quotable sports game ever made.
1993 · Arcade, SNES, Genesis
The forbidden one, with fatality codes copied off a magazine page. Its notoriety created the ESRB.
1996 · PS1, Switch, PS5, PC
Cavernous, lonely levels that felt genuinely dangerous to a ten-year-old. The remaster adds modern controls.
1994 · Genesis, Switch, PC
The lock-on cartridge that let you play as Knuckles in older games. A genuine hardware trick nobody has repeated.
1997 · N64, Switch (NSO Expansion)
Do a barrel roll. Ninety minutes long and replayed dozens of times because of branching paths.
1998 · N64, Xbox, Switch (NSO)
The friendliest 3D platformer of the era, with worlds you could poke at for hours. The music is unshakeable.
1999 · PC
The family PC game, played over LAN or against the AI for entire weekends. The Definitive Edition keeps it alive.
1989 · Game Boy, Switch, Mobile
The pack-in that made the Game Boy universal, and the game most likely to still be in a drawer somewhere.
1998 · Game Boy, 3DS
Pikachu following you around was a small thing that mattered enormously. Kanto with the anime's cast.
1993 · Game Boy, Switch
A dream island with a genuinely sad ending, on a monochrome screen. The Switch remake is excellent.
1992 · Game Boy, 3DS
Six zones you could tackle in any order, and Wario's debut. Short enough for a car journey.
1994 · Game Boy, 3DS
Starts as the arcade game, then turns into 97 puzzle stages. Wildly underrated.
Super Mario World, Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, Pokémon Red & Blue, Sonic 2 and Street Fighter II are the near-universal ones. Which four-player N64 game you argue about depends on whether your house had Mario Kart or Smash Bros.
Nintendo Switch Online covers most NES, SNES and N64 titles; Sega and Capcom collections cover the Genesis and arcade ones; PlayStation Plus Premium handles the PS1 library. Very little needs original hardware.
The best ones do — see our list of retro games that still hold up. Anything built around fixed cameras or lives systems will feel dated fastest.
The SNES has the best software library, the N64 has the best four-player games, and the PS1 has the widest variety. For a single retro purchase, the SNES is the safest.
Use an HDMI converter or a dedicated upscaler; modern TVs no longer have composite inputs. Our retro HDMI guides rank the ones that avoid input lag.