Games released on April 19
Eight games that still hold up, from Metal Slug in 1996 to SpeedRunners in 2016
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Metal Slug 1996
The Peregrine Falcon Squad takes on the army of General Donald Morden during an attempted coup, in Nazca's run and gun for the Neo Geo, where enemies react with exaggerated, often comic animations.
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Jagged Alliance 2 1999
Turned 27 this year
In this turn based tactical role playing game, you hire mercenaries through a laptop and recruit locals to free the fictional country of Arulco from the ruthless Queen Deidranna.
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Psychonauts 2005
Turned 21 this year Xbox
Raz joins a summer camp for psychic spies and goes into other people's minds, each one a world built around its owner's psyche, in a platformer directed by Tim Schafer.
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Mortal Kombat 2011
Turned 15 this year PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
The god Raiden sends a warning back to his past self, and the first three Mortal Kombat tournaments are fought again to change how they ended. A super meter filled by attacking, blocking and taking hits pays for X-ray moves.
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Fire Emblem Awakening 2012
Turned 14 this year Nintendo 3DS
Chrom, the prince of Ylisse, leads his army against the undead Risen, with Robin, an amnesiac tactician you design yourself, at his side. It was designed as possibly the last Fire Emblem, and its success kept the series going.
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Botanicula 2012
Turned 14 this year
A point and click adventure with no dialogue at all, in which five small creatures of a tree set out to save its last seed from the parasites eating their home.
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The Banner Saga 2 2016
A caravan of civilians carries on toward safety with the first game's choices behind it, while a mercenary band, the Ravens, follows a road of its own. Battles on a grid add the charging Horseborn.
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SpeedRunners 2016
Up to four runners race through a side scrolling course with grappling hooks, and the screen follows whoever leads, so anyone who falls too far behind drops off its edge and is out.
