chemergency
1989
This evil Soviet mind game is more addictive than cigarettes, and brilliantly well-crafted given its simplicity. Tetris is a universal concept that can appeal to literally anyone and keeps you playing to perfect your play style and achieve a high score. It's not hard to see why the GameBoy was an instant smash hit given that it was packed-in with this, one of the greatest puzzle games ever made.
Obtuse and cryptic, but admirably-ambitious and forward thinking for an Atari 2600 game that would go-on to influence many other action adventure games going-forward.
1997
If you're expecting a goofy, satirical FPS like its sequels, you might be shocked to find that the original Postal is a bleaker, more-depraved top-down shooter with a psychological horror theme where the goal is to eliminate police and millitary while optionally-slaughtering innocent bystanders that get in your way while a voice in the main character's head (who would later become the voice of The Postal Dude himself) spouts sarcastic quips and one-liners, making a joke out of the atrocities you're committing. The gameplay here's nothing to really write home about, but there are some provocative moments and memorable setpieces that stick with you.
2020
Easily the best open world action adventure game to come out since Breath of the Wild. Ghost of Tsushima is elevated by brutal and tense sword combat (particularly on the highest difficulty where it's one hit deaths for everyone, reminiscent of the PS1 classic Bushido Blade), a captivating soundtrack, a compelling, almost kino-worthy story backed-up by an amazing cinematic presentation and gorgeous visuals that push the PlayStation 4 to its limits, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this might be its defining game, even at the tail-end of this console generation. Ghost of Tsushima brings the samurai era of Japan to life in the medium of video games the same way Red Dead Redemption did for the American old West ten years ago.
1983
A unique blend of space shooting and horror where you're blasting aliens while also being pursued by the eponymous cosmic horror that taunts and yells at you. Sinistar is fun, challenging, and also pretty damn tense. It's infamous for causing heart attacks so don't play it if you have high blood pressure but otherwise this is a great early 80's arcade game and one of the most memorable.
2014
A fun superhero action romp and a highlight of the PS4's rather limited launch window lineup, with some nice visuals showing-off things that couldn't be achieved on the PS3, though it's short and considerably-lacking in content compared to its predecessors.
A kickass crossover sequel to Battletoads with some fun new gameplay mechanics and a solid variety of characters with their own movesets, a more-balanced difficulty, a rockin' OST, and nicely-implemented co-op that improves on the original in many ways. A great addition to anyone's NES, SNES, or Genesis library.
Despite it being featured in AVGN where it was ruthlessly-scrutinized while Bugs Bunny was getting the shit kicked out of him, Birthday Blowout is an okay, albeit-middling NES sidescroller. Not the best but you can do much, much worse for the era.
A nice compilation of the first four Super Mario Bros. games (including the original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, released as "The Lost Levels") with improved graphics and quality of life improvements like a save feature for every game. Not sure if I'd call this the definitive way to play these games since the movement and physics are altered just ever so slightly, but it's a very good choice regardless.
While it's not the worst game on the platform and has its neat moments, Keith Courage was generally a mediocre Zelda II clone without much to set itself apart from NES contemporaries in terms of visuals or gameplay, and a very ill-fitting pack-in title for the Turbografx-16 that likely contributed to its failure in the Western market while competing with the Genesis and its graphically-superior pack-in, Altered Beast.
An okay but unremarkable spinoff that served as the first CoD entry on consoles. The campaign has its moments but didn't do a whole lot to set itself apart from contemporaries such as the Medal of Honor series, and the physics and controls are weirdly-floaty and not smooth like later entries.
2003
A nice start to one of the most well-known and polarizing video game series. If this feels a lot like Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault that's basically because this is the follow-up from the same developers, under Activision instead of EA.
2004
A neat Max Payne-esque third-person shooter known for its gory and brutal violence for the time, as Frank Castle shows no mercy on the scumsucking criminal slobs you'll be slaughtering throughout, and there's some memorable and unlikely Marvel cameos too!
2006
One of the most infamous cases of a game being left in Japan, and easily one of the best games for the GBA. Mother 3 is a somber, poignant coming of age story set in a world tearing itself apart with time and social anxiety, following a family torn-apart by death and destruction. Mother 3 definitely has a darker, gloomier tone than the previous games despite retaining the same colorful, whimsical art direction. If you liked Earthbound or just like JRPG's in general and you can take a moment to seek out an English translated ROM to play on an emulator or a flashcart, you owe it to yourself to do so. This game sticks with you on an emotional level that many modern "mature" Western games could only hope to.
Probably a pretty decent way to revisit the game on consoles, but the PC port is frankly just terrible due to a lack of FOV adjustment, forcing you to use a sketchy third-party tool as a workaround (and the damn thing doesn't even work for most people), a tiny multiplayer community due to busted matchmaking, lack of Steam sales, crossplay support, mod support, or a server browser, a stubborn "out of memory" bug that crashes the game at certain points without workarounds, and some other issues and I don't recommend it. Best to stick with the original if you're playing on PC, especially if you intend to delve into multiplayer, as it still has a fairly active community thanks to the presence of mods and custom servers.