Pinpoint gameplay and a feel that hasn't aged a day: some games are still a joy with a controller in hand, years later. This Top 100 gathers the retro games with the most polished gameplay, based on RomWize's reassessed scores. For each one: its current score, its versions, their rarity and their collector value.
"Costumes with varied powers, a world map, and abundant secrets vastly expand the formula without sacrificing any of Mario's perfect momentum. Flying with the leaf or swimming in the frog suit reinvents every level. The peak of the 8-bit platformer, it retains a richness of game design and a handling that remain an absolute."
"Stacking Jokers until the multiplier rockets into absurd territory is the engine of a ferocious addiction. The poker hook is a clean pretext, but the depth comes from synergies each run reinvents. The risk of routine exists, yet the sheer variety of combinations keeps boredom at bay for ages. In handheld mode, putting it down is impossible."
"Exploring Rapture and Columbia retains a rare evocative power, and it's that atmosphere, more than the shooting, that carries the trilogy. Mixing weapons with genetic powers still has its kick, and the first game's moral choice still hits. On pure gameplay terms the firefights show their age against today's standards, but the writing and staging more than make up for it. Carrying these three remasters on Switch is a luxury, and for anyone who never visited these fallen utopias, the chance is ideal."
"Collapsing sets, blazing escapes and outsized set-pieces punctuate an adventure where climbing, shooting and exploration flow seamlessly into one another. The melee gains in variety, the staging in scale. If the gunplay divides a little, this third installment keeps a sense of spectacle and a pacing that have lost none of their sweep."
"Gliding, soaring and bouncing wall to wall delivers a flow of movement few metroidvanias reach. The deeper combat varies your approach without breaking that lightness, and the escape chases tighten the nerves like little else. A few technical hiccups linger, but the precision of the jumps and the readable level design keep every traversal a pure pleasure."
"Slowing, speeding up or zooming the action at will to amplify your blows and solve traps: these VFX powers reinvent the beat-em-up as a mischievous game of timing. The comic-book cel-shaded style hasn't aged a day, and the muscular difficulty rewards mastery. Demanding and inventive, this concentrate of ideas stays a breath of originality in the hands."
"Stacking lines while the whole screen pulses, vibrates and sings in time with the game is a flatly hypnotic experience. The Zone, freezing time to pile up rows, adds a strategic layer without weighing down the timeless gesture. Connected mode renews both versus and co-op. In handheld, the meditative effect grows stronger still. Visually timeless, technically flawless."
"Dodging at the last instant, parrying, striking and bouncing straight back: the feel of the weapons borders on obsession and grips you within minutes. The roguelite structure punishes without frustrating, because death always reignites the urge to try another bit of madness. Metroidvania-style detours invite you to comb every corner. Fluid pixel art, total handheld comfort, edge fully intact against recent rivals."
"Seeing every enemy intention in advance turns each turn into a clean chess problem: nudging a mech to shove a bug into its neighbor becomes pure tactical glee. On tiny grids, total information sharpens the tension rather than dulling it, because any slip is entirely your own. Compact yet inexhaustible, it hasn't aged a day."
"Slipping through the shadows, reading sight lines and improvising when the alarm sounds: stealth finds here a readability and a tension that have lost nothing. The level design, tailored for cunning, and the inventive staging carry a playstyle of constant intelligence. The fixed camera surprises today, but the joy of outwitting the guards stays as keen as on day one."
"Slipping into the cat suit to scale a wall captures in one move the smarts of its vertical, readable level design. Short, dense stages suit both quick sessions and the joyful chaos of four-player co-op. The added Bowser's Fury proves Mario breathes in open spaces too. The fixed camera betrays its Wii U roots, but the whole package stays flawless."
"Diving by day to fish, running a frantic sushi joint by night: from this oddball idea springs a loop far richer than expected. The alternation between ever-shifting underwater exploration and service under pressure sets a strangely addictive rhythm. Digressions abound, sometimes risking sprawl, but the comic energy carries it all. Expressive pixel art, solid design, aging guaranteed to be graceful."
"Linking strikes, counters and gadgets into a single flow turns combat into a ballet of intoxicating fluidity, where reading your enemies is everything. The predator sections, where you pick off guards from the shadows, vary the tempo with real cunning. The benchmark for licensed action-adventure, the asylum retains a handling and a sense of rhythm that haven't aged a day."
"Reconstructing the fate of sixty sailors by pure deduction, with no arrow or marker, demands an attention few games dare to ask. Each frozen moment becomes a scene to read, cross-reference and crack. The monochrome Macintosh-inspired look shuns realism and so will never age. The structure rewards observation over reflexes. A dense puzzle, savored once but etched for life."
"Rediscovering the whip, Dracula and the Castlevania themes inside an engine this snappy is a guilty pleasure, especially for anyone raised on the saga. The borrowed weapons slot into the system without unbalancing the foundation, which stays Motion Twin's flawless roguelite. If you already own everything, the appeal dips, but as a first taste this condensed edition is the best way in."
"This expanded edition grafts onto the stealth adventure a mountain of VR missions that isolate and push each mechanic to its limit: shooting, close combat, scouting. You return to polish your technique as much as for the story. The already brilliant game skeleton thus gains in replay value, and the precision of the manoeuvres remains a benchmark of the genre."
"Everything rests on a radical bet: it's strictly two-player co-op, and each chapter throws out its own mechanics to invent new ones, from combat to racing to puzzles. Nothing repeats, the pacing never sags, and the two pads' complementary roles spark constant playful dialogue. The story is a pretext, but as a game for two it remains unrivalled today."
"A return to its roots in hand-painted 2D, it favors a snappy, precise platforming where every jump and every strike answers to a hair's breadth. Four-player co-op quickly tips into joyful chaos. Gorgeous and demanding, this revival keeps a lucid handling and an exuberance that make it a must of the genre."
"Building squads, programming their behaviors then watching the ballet play out in real time blends planning and action with rare elegance. The depth of the classes amply rewards the patience to optimize, and exploring the world map paces it all without diluting it. Vanillaware's hand-drawn animation is timeless. The learning curve asks for commitment, but what richness it yields."
"Faithfully reprising the asylum's freeflow combat and stealth sections, this edition piles on extra challenges and maps. The same precise countering and the same thrill of being a silent predator are all still here. More complete than ever, it remains the best way into an adventure whose gameplay has held up admirably."
