Games released on December 17

11 games that still hold up, from Mega Man in 1987 to The Walking Dead: Season Two in 2013

  1. Mega Man 1987

    Turns 39 this year NES

    The robot Mega Man takes on Doctor Wily and six Robot Masters in stages played in any order, each boss giving a weapon that another is weak to, in a 1987 NES platformer.

  2. Final Fantasy II 1988

    Turns 38 this year NES

    Firion and his companions rise against the Palamecian Empire in a role playing game where nobody gains levels and stats grow with the actions a character takes. It introduced chocobos and Cid to the series.

  3. Mega Man X 1993

    Turns 33 this year SNES

    X climbs and jumps off walls and charges his shots against eight bosses taken in any order, each weapon won from one working against another, and clearing one stage can change the next.

  4. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 1993

    Turns 33 this year DOS

    Jane Jensen's adventure follows Gabriel Knight, a struggling New Orleans novelist and bookstore owner, who looks into the Voodoo Murders hoping for a novel and finds his family's past as fighters of the supernatural.

  5. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium 1993

    Turns 33 this year Genesis

    On Motavia, where a catastrophe has turned the land back into desert, the hunters Alys Brangwin and Chaz Ashley investigate the biomonsters spreading across the planet.

  6. Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck 1993

    Turns 33 this year Game Gear

    Donald Duck races to return a cursed pendant to its island before his uncle swells up like a balloon, jumping on enemies and kicking blocks to make bridges and find treasure.

  7. Suikoden II 1998

    Turns 28 this year PlayStation

    In this role playing game with strategy, a silent hero gathers the 108 Stars of Destiny from more than a hundred characters who can be recruited, each with a place in the war or in the castle.

  8. Mario Party 2 1999

    Turns 27 this year Nintendo 64

    Mario and his friends argue over who their new dream world should be named after until Bowser turns up, and up to four players roll the dice around its boards, each turn settled by a minigame.

  9. N.O.V.A.: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance 2009

    Turns 17 this year

    With Earth no longer able to sustain life, humanity lives on satellites in near orbit, and a soldier of their alliance, NOVA, fights the alien Xenos through twelve levels of a first person shooter made for phones.

  10. Final Fantasy XIII 2009

    Turns 17 this year PlayStation 3

    A former soldier fights the government of a floating world to save her sister, in a Final Fantasy with fast combat controlled by switching roles through the Paradigm system.

  11. The Walking Dead: Season Two 2013

    Turns 13 this year PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

    You play Clementine this time, eleven years old and searching for safety after the season that protected her, through dilemmas on a clock that decide whom she saves and whom she trusts.

    $2.99 on GOG -80% +1 store