Eurogamer's Games of the Generation

[jyoung]

If Spelunky was on SNES, it would have Gradius III-esque slowdown.

The PlayStation Vita can't even run Spelunky at full speed without slowing down.

[Tain]

Freeware Spelunky probably would run really bad on SNES but most decent SNES games look way better than it.

[NeoZeedeater]

I'm really not aware of a game like Spelunky on any 16-bit system.

Exactly. Retro games like Spelunky, Hotline Miami, Frozen Synapse, etc.. are typically the best ones because while they look old, their gameplay isn't a re-tread. Very few retro games of the last 5+ years manage to play like 8/16-bit games and hold up to the classics. Volgarr seems to be a nice exception from what I have played so far.

I don't typically like random generated content or rogue-like inspiration but enjoyed Spelunky. Take a few minutes to try the free one, Yoshi.

[jyoung]

Or better yet, get the STEAM version while it's 50% off.

[Finch]

You know what absolutely every retro game has in common? They aren't as good as hundreds of actual vintage games that you could get for the same price.

They don't hold up to the hundreds of games (in reality 30 or so if we're being generous) in your mind that you haven't actually played in 20 years.

[Tain]

I think the acclaimed "indie" 2D action games are generally not good (huge exception: Volgarr) and I've played a lot of older games in the past few years that were new to me that I'd put above them BUT some devs released games like Hard Corps Uprising and DoDonPachi Saidaioujou and whatnot this gen and those are among the best in their genres so it's all good.

I don't consider those great ones to be deliberately throwbacks, though.

oh! I did almost forget about Rockman 9 and 10 though. Those are throwbacks and are pretty great.

[Finch]

Many games are not good. But some are.

[bVork]

I'm not sure that problem strictly lies with indie games or with retro revivals. The problem really is that a lot of developers try making games like the greats but don't understand or fail to nail the little details that make the true classics what they are. I can think of plenty of big-budget FPS that try to be like Call of Duty and fail miserably at getting all the things that CoD gets right, starting with the framerate. Same goes with all the truly horrible music games that came out to cash in on Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The only difference is that the indie developers tend to be looking farther back for their blueprints than the big-budget developers.

[Anthony]

Someone should give me money to make a fighting game.

[Yoshi]

Socialized fighting games imo

Also, Dark Souls is number nine.