I fully admit to forgetting to put Doom and Super Metroid on my list too.
Fair point about things standing the test of time, but how much time has to pass?
Anyway, I didn’t rate DMC1 that highly when I first played it, mainly because there is no way a game like that should be played with fixed camera angles like it was.
Any fighting game that allows you to put the stage clock to infinity is “timeless”.
Also Jojo’s Bizarre adventure because stopping time is an actual super move…yeah.
battletloads for the NES, tied with Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for the SNES, both great games, fun and challenging.
When Rare still used to make great games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyOOZ0T7qOk
Chess - survived centuries, used to teach Generals war tactics
Tetris - genius in it’ simplicity, highly addictive
Super Turbo - the rock paper scissors of fighting games, separates the men from the boys.
Super Puzzle Fighter - best Vs variation of the tetris formula
Wii Sports 1 - party game that young and old can enjoy together.
Halo 3 - Multiplayer, game set the bar for console FPS, haven’t played a FPS that was as balanced since.
Contra. should always be a contra-styled game around. I’ll play them as long as they exist. Also, the good ol’ castlevania/metroid style. That is the style that will live forever.
-Starhammer-
I see an Unreal mentioned, but not Quake 3 Arena? It STILL has tournaments (through Quake Live, which is basically a rebalanced q3a).
Fallout 1 and 2 still carry some of the best concept of moral ambiguity in whether a choice is “good” or “evil” as well as some of the best delayed consequences for your actions. So many possible ways to play and beat the game open up a ton of replayability
Planescape Torment one of the only RPGs (really one of the only games period) that requires you to die to succeed.
Quake 3 one of, if not the best, arena shooters of all time for online competitive play. Still played to this day and has been ported a bazillion different ways
Doom 2 so many secrets… So many secrets. Plus also, fun for speed running and just timeless level design. Also still gets ported to systems to this day.
Deus Ex - hands down the best FPS RPG of all time. They say every time you mention Deus ex, someone reinstalls it.
Super Mario Bros - obvious choice
Legend of Zelda Link to the past - I personally prefer it over OoT but both are worthy of being on this list. Consider that there was an in-game secret room that took more than 10 years after release before someone found it.
Final Fight - To this day people still play it in arcades around the world. The beat em up that started em all. Like Mario it isn’t the first of it’s kind but it’s the one that inspired everyone after.
SF2: Hyper Fighting - more than any other entry in SF2 this one marked the explosion of fighting game genre and some still argue is the most pure and best SF title to date. Some prefer it even over ST.
its not the most pure, CPS1 chains simply make the game broken:
a perfect example is Ryu’s combo at the 2:00 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lBYMq8BNS0
SNAAAAKE’s an asshole for picking MGS2(wtf) and 3 over MGS1, and I say this as a huge fan of MGS3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIW_HG9bzn0&feature=player_detailpage#t=250
So many memorable moments from MGS1.
Every Ninja Gaiden game is timeless. From the NES & Arcade versions to the modern games.
I honestly feel like mgs1, while still being a great game, is super overrated due to nostalgia. While I may flip flop about which metal gear I would consider first and second place in the series, mgs1 is consistently at 3rd place.
For me, I can only think of a few games I would consider timeless: SMB3, Streets of Rage 2, Shadow of the Colossus, and Tetris.
Flappy Bird is timeless if you ask me 
I think MGS1 is the best in the series next to 3.
MGS1 had the best dialogue. The most memorable scenes. The best characters. I remember way more about MGS1 and MGS3 more than I do any other game in the series, they had the most impact on me and many different aspects of the games are still very fresh in my mind. It was surprising to see how much I remembered of MGS3 when I was replaying it on the HD collection a while back.
I could tell you more about MGS1 or MGS3 than I could MGS2, MGS4, Portable Ops and Peace Walker combined.
Personally I like both ST and HF for dif reasons. Many ways I prefer ST though. I’m just stating a fact though, some people think HF is the most pure SF. I remember Valle talking about how Watson prefers HF over ST. I’ve heard similar statements from several OGs. That said, MORE people prefer ST than HF as the standard for what is an SF game.
I could play through the original Megaman X every day for the rest of my life.
Since SNAAAKE made this thread, CVS2 obviously… :wgrin:
I may be going more oldskool than you guys…
SMB3
Punch Out- Such simple but addicitive gameplay. This is like the only game I can play on keyboard too when I would travel and wanted to play something fun w/o a gamepad.
Turtles in Time- imo tied with SOR2 as my fav beat em up of all time
SOR2- depth of combat, music!! :rock:, art . This will never get old.
SF2
Virtua Tennis - In the DC heyday, I used to play this with my friends who didnt like fighters. Also, 4p w/o splitscreen and it would be funny blaming someone who lunged and missed their shot :lol:
Tetris and all its variants
TTT 1 , TTT2- I suck at Tekken , but I just love the tag dynamic and the tension of having only 1 lifebar as opposed to the versus system where you have to eliminate the whole team.
Monkey Island 1-3 - Awesome humor and quirky artsyle.
daytona usa 2, mario 1, supermarioworld, samurai shodown2, ff6, chrono trigger, sega rally 1, metal slug 1 (to a lesser degree x and to an even lesser degree 3), third strike.
daytona usa 2 pe shits on all else though, possibly the only sub 40 sec lapper on advanced in the world right here.
well, each SF2 iteration has their flaws, WW didnt have reversals, really easy to dizzy, etc. CE had broken chars, dictator the most memorable, HF didnt implemented air specials too well, the new challengers was a steo back from HF, ST went fancy with the Supers, which some of those ended up being unfair, while other super were really bad.
Overall, SF2 is the most pure fighting game, and its indeed timeless, its a game so simple and easy to play yet very difficult to master.
Universal timeless games (e.g. I can’t imagine anyone arguing about these)
I think we can just leave these off of the lists outright. These are probably the biggest “no brainer” ones. These games are either the game that set the bar for their respective genre, or are simply so entrenched in the pop culture psyche to never be forgettable.
Tetris
Legend of Zelda (original)
Super Mario Brothers (original)
Pac-Man (original)
Mario 64
Super Metroid
Symphony of the Night
Personal favorite that could be argued to be on that list but I think is not a straight up “no question” like the previous ones: Original Prince of Persia.
What’s so damn funny about me?
Jet Set Radio Future
Burnout Revenge
Majora’s Mask
Tetris
These are a few of my favorite things.