Retro Bucket List

Four ghosts, a maze and 256 levels before the kill screen; the 1980 arcade icon.

Rows of aliens that speed up as you kill them; the game that caused a coin shortage in Japan.

The job system proper, twenty-three classes swapped at will, and the last of the trilogy that never left Japan for years.

Worms in real time and in two dimensions: two players, one keyboard, forty weapons and no turns at all.

The 1986 game that invented the Japanese role-playing game: one hero, one slime at a time.

No experience points - your stats grow from what you do - and the first game in the series with a real story.

The real Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2: the same engine, poison mushrooms and wind, and far harder.

The 1987 original that saved Square: four Light Warriors, a job you pick at the start and a time loop at the end.

The 1989 Game Boy launch platformer: twelve levels, two shoot-em-up stages and a princess who is not Peach.

Time travel through four versions of every zone, and two soundtracks depending on where you bought it.

The 2007 build brought back by popular demand, where new content only ships if the players poll it through first.

The other half of the linked pair, with a harp that moves Link between two eras of the same island.

The slide, Rush the robot dog and eight more masters, then the doc robot rematches.

Build your own party, then learn which world you have been walking around; the ending that ties the trilogy up.

Pre-rendered apes on a SNES in 1994, mine carts and a David Wise soundtrack that still gets remixed.

Diddy and Dixie through Kaptain K. Rool's pirate world; the hardest and best of the Rare trilogy.

Richter Belmont, branching stages and Maria as a second character; the PC Engine game the West never got.

Side-scrolling, experience points and the black sheep of the series.

Cars, hovercraft and planes in an adventure mode with a boss whale; Rare on the N64 in 1997.

Mode 7 at three hundred kilometres an hour with no weapons and no second chances; the SNES launch racer.

Branching paths and three companions; the best of the NES Castlevanias.

Simon Belmont, a whip and stairs that will kill you; the 1986 original.

One of a linked pair of Game Boy Zeldas, with a rod that changes the season.

Dash, wall jump and an intro stage that teaches without a word.

108 Stars of Destiny, a castle to fill and a war between brothers; Konami's first.

Three generations, a marriage you choose and monsters you recruit; the fans' favourite.

Pull vegetables and throw them; the reskinned Doki Doki Panic that became a Mario game.

Cecil turns from dark knight to paladin; the first Final Fantasy with a real story.

Tiny players, a whole football world and as many seasons of management as you want.

Three kids into a mad scientist's house; the game that invented the SCUMM point-and-click.