Games of old that you think have aged well.

[Shadow Wolf]

Diablo 2 has aged very nicely. D1 has also aged well, though not as well.
A bunch of Sega Genesis games have aged well, like Sonic, Shining Force, Streets of Rage, and Gun Star Heroes. The SNES also pumped out alot of good agers.
Many of Squaresoft's RPGs have aged wonderfully. Most Final Fantasies, Super Mario RPG: Lot7S, and Chrono Cross and Trigger.
The Metroid games, most Zelda games, Megaman X series up to 6, a few of the Castlevania games (2, IV, SOTN, and AoS especially) and the Star Ocean games also have some old ones that are still really good.
Soul Caliber 2 and Star Fox 64 have also aged well. The older Tetris games also, and their better than the newer ones.

 

[Riverwolf]

That is, games that still hold up today, even after many years have passed.

My personal top pick is Star Fox 64. This game is just as much fun now as it was when I first played it. ^_^

I also recently started playing the first Wing Commander game, and I'm amazed at how well that's aged. For a space flying sim that's not even true 3D, that game's amazing in the strategy and tactical thought required to play. (Plus, I love the manual. You know a game's good when the manual gets praise.)

Others off the top of my head are:

Super Mario Bros.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Final Fantasy VI (that's III in America)
Silent Hill (first one) *shudder*

Ah, four years later.... let's see, do any of those games still hold up now? (Side note: TIME GOES BY WAY TOO FAST AS AN ADULT!! 2010 WAS JUST YESTERDAY!!! ...wasn't it?)

After all, I've come to learn how to more deeply analyze and describe how games play and the experiences they provide. Thank you Youtube Shows Extra Credits, Matthew Matosis, and Sequelitis. ^_^

Star Fox 64, for the longest time, has always been my poster-boy for aging, since even after playing such plane-shooters like Ace Combat 4, Star Fox 64 is just one I have the most amount of fun going back to. Now, I recognize it as a rail-shooter, in the same vein as Galaga or Gradius. Plus, with HD graphics finally coming into their own, the dark aesthetics have become kinda bland to look at.

I'll probably give the game an analytical Let's Play at some point, to see if it's truly aged well, next to modern games in the same genre, such as Ikaruga. But just off the top of my head, I still think it's aged far better than many other games from that era...

However, Super Mario 64, the game that ushered in that transitionary generation, I feel has aged better than most others I've played, at least when next to modern games in the same genre. The game is just a joy to play, to hear, and to look at. At the very least, though perhaps this is just nostalgia goggles, but I've always felt more compelled to revisit this Mario game than any other.

Ocarina of Time, sadly, has finally shown its age thanks to a better appreciation of Wind Waker and Majora's Mask, and the recently released A Link Between Worlds that returned to form. That said, the game does still hold up very well, and I think does a better job than other main-entry 3D Zelda games (besides Wind Waker) at exploring the Lore of Hyrule in a way that doesn't interfere with the game's flow (Twilight Princess, though great, has a 2-hour tutorial that makes replaying the game far more intimidating than it should be, and Skyward Sword's motion controls just broke the immersion for me).

I haven't had a chance to revisit Final Fantasy VI, compared to modern JRPGs... then again, I've recently discovered the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, so all bets are frankly off, now.

And I've played Silent Hill 2, now. The first Silent Hill aged immediately, far as I'm concerned; 2 is simply a masterpiece.

...oh, and Wing Commander is still as great as when I played it four years ago. ^_^