10 Games That Are Still GOOD 20 Years LATER

(bright music) - [Jake] Hey, today we're keeping it real simple. You saw the title, you saw the thumbnail, you know what's up. We're just talking about 10 games that are still really good 20 years later.

Let's just get started off with number 10. "Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast" from 2002. Now, look, sometimes a game can be good despite its flaws.

and let me tell you, "Jedi Outcast" is definitely a flawed game, especially looking back on it with more than 20 years of hindsight. There's a lot of bad, but the good parts are so good that they elevate the whole thing. So if you don't already have nostalgia with this game, then getting through the first opening levels might be rough.

For the first hour or two, the game just really withholds the lightsaber and all the fun stuff, and just forces you to explore this endless Imperial base using all the worst weapons in the game. (guns firing) (enemies shouting) You get a painfully slow pistol and the Storm Trooper gun, which is a little too movie accurate because you can't hit anything with it, so it's worthless. I used to be more forgiving about this part, but going back to it now, it's just a long slog of a section.

And then, when the game finally lets you cut loose with the lightsaber, that's when they throw you into the city level, covered in snipers where you can't even use the thing that much. It's like the game is taunting us at this point. I just wanna cut up dudes with a lightsaber, man.

Is that too much to ask? Still, once you're past all that, the game gets exponentially better. You get some actual Force powers, some decent guns, and they put you in some places where you can finally just let loose with that lightsaber, and it is still one of the most fun games of its era.

The sequel, "Jedi Academy," is kind enough to give you a lightsaber right at the start, which is a massive improvement, but that game kind of feels more of like an expansion pack in some ways, lore-wise. I like a lot of it, it's pretty interesting, but "Jedi Outcast" just feels like it holds up way more overall. With "Jedi Outcast," the lows are low, but the highs are just so much fun that it just makes the game still great.

(guns firing) Now, next over at number nine, "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. " Yes, does this feel like a Jake list? Because it is.

So in 2004, man, this was a rare breed of a first-person shooter, an actually good movie tie-in game. It was meant to be a prequel to "Pitch Black," I think, and it was like released around the time of "The Chronicles of Riddick," if you remember one of those movies. But actually knowing the source material doesn't really matter here.

All that matters is that you're Vin Diesel, you're a spaceman, you're Riddick, and you're locked up in space jail, and you gotta get out. At the time, the presentation really stood out for this game. The graphics were incredible and cinematic, like the way the game told a story was beyond what we were used to seeing in most games.

The actual gameplay is almost like an immersive sim, but a little simplified for consoles. In this game's case, the simpler controls really worked in its favor. The game never gets bogged down or too tedious or too micromanagey.

There's always like forward momentum to everything you do as you work to escape. There are some side quests, some satisfying jailhouse melee combat, some shooting and sneaking. - Ready to die, Riddick?

(characters grunting) (knives clanking) (characters grunting) (knives clanking) - [Jake] It's a game with a little bit of everything, carefully portioned out to be as fast paced and as fun as possible. You'd think a game about being locked away in prison would be boring, but Riddick starts getting away almost immediately. There's very little time spent just kind of puttering around into cells, and the majority of the game is spent sneaking around secure locations and shanking dudes and getting into gunfights.

It's not a long game, but the fast pace and the really excellent presentation just makes it one of our favorite games to go back to and play just for fun. Sometimes you just want a highly polished game that can be finished in a few sittings. Now, the semi sequel or remake, "Assault on Dark Athena" in contrast goes on a little too long and isn't really as varied as the original, but it's not a bad follow-up thing.

The original may not look that impressive anymore, but it is fun as hell to play and it does hold up. Now, continuing with one of my personal favorites, number eight, "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. " the original "Max Payne" is a classic, but that's been talked about enough.

Let's talk about the sequel. In 2003, this game was a graphical masterclass and one of the first games to utilize Valve's revolutionary Havoc physics engine, and they used it to great effect. The shootouts were fantastic, the controls are silky smooth, and the story is where we see Remedy really evolve their style.

At a time where experimental, challenging sequels were all the rage, "Max Payne 2" not have gone super weird like full "Metal Gear Solid 2," but it was close. If there's one thing that makes "Max Payne 2" still hold up today, it's the shooting. (guns firing) - Grenade!

(grenade exploding) (guns firing) - Look out! (guns firing) - [Jake] It still feels great, like where the first game was kind of stiffer and clunkier, this game, he's way faster, way more reactive, way more movability here. The new bullet time mechanics make going into slow-mo more effective this time around and watching his bullets tear through the environment and send guys flopping and spiraling through the air doesn't get old.

Where other "Max Payne" games are more restrained, this game just embraces the chaos with explosives everywhere, everything breaks, and you mow down bad guys by the truckload. It is just glorious. Now, there's some arguments to be made, but I would say this story is still one of Remedy's best.

It's dark and it's weird in ways that make it feel extremely modern. Even if stuff like the character models aren't going to be wowing anyone these days, they used to look like real people. The game is short, but the shooting is still the best, and it's just worth playing.

Next, over at number seven "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. " What even needs to be said about this one anymore? It's a true open-world classic from 2004.

For a lot of people, it's still the best "Grand Theft Auto" game, maybe one of the best things Rockstar has ever done, which is crazy considering that this thing came out only two years after "Vice City. " They were really on something for this. The thing about the "Grand Theft Auto 3" trilogy games is that, in some ways, they are hard to go back to.

They're missing a lot of the features we've come to expect in open-world games. They can be frustrating with the crazy difficulty spikes out of nowhere, the no mid-mission saving. If you die, then you gotta go back and do everything all over again.

All you had to do was follow the damn train, that meme. (engine rumbling) - All we had to do was follow the damn train, CJ! - [Jake] "San Andreas" has by far the best mission design of the trilogy, but there's still a few parts that slap you across the face outta nowhere with some confusing mechanics and weird, fiddly controls that just make them miserable to play.

If you've played, you know what I'm talking about, stuff like the remote control plane mission or the airplane training stuff, or of course, like I said before, following the damn train. In situations like these, San Andreas was a little too ambitious for its own good, but that only slightly detracts from the overall package. For an open-world crime game, it's still one of the best, even 20 years later.

It's got some of the best, most memorable characters in the entire series, and the celebrity voice work is absolutely stellar across the board, they got Samuel L. Jackson to play the bad guy, it's perfect. The rags to riches story actually feels earned here with the length of the game, and it helps that not literally everyone you work with is a total bad guy for once.

Yeah, they're all criminals, but there are some actually likable characters here. It's not high art but it's got that excellent Rockstar writing and just vibe to it. The music as well, it's a legendary video game soundtrack.

Now, if they would stop removing those tracks from re-release, that will be nice. At least they can't patch my original PS2 copy. Yeah, I still got it.

For someone going back to San Andreas after experiencing modern open world games, it's gonna feel jarring for you younger folks. Let's be honest, the game does look kind of ugly. Still looks better than that Definitive Edition re-release, but the the crazy ambition of the game either way just puts it on a level above almost anything else.

This is Rockstar games at their most maximalist, and it's all the better for it. Next over at number six, "Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. " Now, this all-time classic is definitely showing its age, but it's somehow still one of the most satisfying management games out there.

The first "Rollercoaster Tycoon" is great, don't get it twisted, but the sequel is the true greatest of all time, the game that even modern park builders struggle to emulate. It's the template, it's the ideal management game because it's so perfectly captures something we've all dreamt about. I mean, what kid hasn't thought about creating their own amusement park or have the idea about the craziest, most over-the-top rollercoaster?

It's a simple but such a perfect idea for a game. The actual park management stuff is in depth, but not too technical that it stops being fun. For us, this is the part of the game that modern park builders kind of struggle to match.

Sure, "Planet Coaster" looks about a thousand times better than this game, but the actual game part of it isn't quite up to snuff. With the original "Rollercoaster Tycoon 2," the park building and the actual management is fun to engage with. It's just like a well-rounded game.

(buttons clicking) If you don't care about budgeting and maintenance or any of that boring stuff, then just give yourself a ton of money and build whatever you want. Make the most ridiculous rollercoaster imaginable. Make the true theme park of your dreams, man.

It doesn't matter. Just do what you want. "Rollercoaster Tycoon" doesn't care.

This is a management game where the fun part is different depending on who you ask. Some people prefer that park management, some people want to build aesthetically appealing parks and some people just wanna like torture the guests and try and murder as many park goers as possible. Either way, it's just a fun game and a true classic.

(rollercoaster wheels clacking) Next, over at number five, "Metroid Prime" from 2002. Now, I know this one is kind of obvious and it did get a re-release on Nintendo Switch, but we just wanted a good excuse to talk about it. "Metroid Prime" shouldn't have worked.

I mean the idea of combining a "Metroid" game with a first-person shooter just sounded like a disaster waiting to happen, but they somehow made it work. It's better than just working. It's great.

It's one of the best games of the early 2000s, but what's so much more impressive is that its success has never really been replicated. Yeah, and it came out with two sequels to somewhat diminishing returns, but other than that and a smattering of some smaller style games, there's never really been anything quite like "Metroid Prime. " Going back and playing the actual 20-year-old original may take some getting used to because of the control scheme, but that recent remaster I mentioned just brings back traditional two-stick look and move controls, so it's the easier game to jump into.

(dragon roaring) (laser blasting) But I still think the original holds up, even if the remaster is undoubtedly the better game. What makes the original so remarkable though is how they managed to almost perfectly translate the side-scrolling "Metroid" games into first person. It doesn't feel like an FPS, it feels like a "Metroid" game, just from a new perspective.

Exploration is still the focus here. The Morph Ball still works exactly how you'd expect it to, almost all the essential "Metroid" abilities are here, and the game manages to add a few new tricks, like different visors and stuff that can see in the dark or let you scan things in the environment to gain lore or learn about enemies, and that scan visor stuff is great. It's where you get a lot of the story of the game, and it's so well done.

You can either ignore it entirely or seek it out, and the game doesn't penalize you in any way, but on top of all that, the atmosphere is unmatched. The music, the environmental design, and the way things interact with your character really make you feel like you're part of that world. Simple stuff like making it so rain hits your visor when you're looking up and rolls off the side of your gun.

Samus' reflection in the visor, occasionally just reminding you who you are, and of course, that sense of loneliness to this exploration, the music, the feeling, you just feel like you're on an uncharted planet. "Metroid Prime" is full of cool little moments and details like that. It was immersive on a level you rarely see in games from 2002.

(dramatic music) Now, over at number four, "Soulcalibur II" from 2003. I have to say it like that, I can't help it, but we would argue that "Soulcalibur" was at the height of its power in 2003 with this one. At the time, this fighting game felt like a real event, man.

Making an exclusive character for each console version was a brilliant marketing tactic, super ballsy, and then the game itself was easy to pick up and play, but very hard to master. It looked really great. The character designs mostly hold up even now, but that gameplay is awesome.

It's just a fun fighting game to play it. (characters speaking indistinctly) (blows landing) (characters grunting) (tense music) It's not the most expertly balanced thing, like at all, but it's refreshing playing one of these games without all like that unnecessary fluff bogging things down, like comeback mechanics and breakable armor. It's just "Soulcalibur" weapon fighting at its best.

There's a simple pleasure to "Soulcalibur II" that more complex fighting games are missing. Pretty much anyone can pick this up and play and even do somewhat well, at least if they pick someone with a staff. The presentation was stellar for the time.

It still is pretty charming now. There's a ton of extra content to keep you busy. It's one of the earlier fighting game console ports to actually feel like it's worth the asking price, because there was a lot here to keep you busy.

These days, that doesn't matter too much, but that's what made the game great back in the day. Now, all that really matters is the fighting, and in our opinion at least, it holds up. You can argue that the 3D fighting game genre is pretty much dead.

There's "Tekken" and that's about it left standing, so it's fun to go back and play a proper 3D fighter like this one. It's one of the all-time great party games. It's so easy to jump in and play.

It's not the perfect fighting game. The competitive balance is out of whack, but as far as the fun fighting games go, they don't really get much better than this one, man. (characters shouting) Now, at number three, "Half-Life 2" from 2004, I know this game needs no introduction.

It's an all-time classic. It's gone on the influence practically the entire industry. The game is carefully constructed, it's extremely well-paced, it's varied, it's exciting and surprising.

It's one of the best FPS games of all time, and on the strength of the game design, it's still holds up extremely well. Now, the graphics aren't gonna fool anyone now. This is a 2004 game, and yeah, it looks like one, unmodded, unaltered.

The revolutionary facial animation tech that we saw then is nothing compared to what we're seeing in games now. The Gravity Gun though is still an amazing piece of technology in a game. So many games have tried to copy it, but none of managed to make it as fun to use as it was in "Half-Life 2.

" It's all the little things, like the way metallic objects spark when thrown around or the way boxes break or how heavy things move differently from stuff that's lighter. Gravity guns in video games are pretty frequent, but nobody was able to match what Valve did in "Half-Life 2," how that thing felt. (guns firing) (grenade exploding) (guns firing) The only thing that got even close to that was, of course, the Gravity Glove and "Half-Life: Alyx.

" That actually might be better now that if we think about it, but yeah, it doesn't have some of the clever weirder tricks of the original "Half-Life, "Half-Life 1," and it's not quite as fast paced. There are more quiet moments in "Half-Life 2," but in terms of variety, the sequel has the original beat. You're always mixing things up with new weapons or tools or vehicles and areas, fighting new enemies, solving different types of puzzles.

It's one of the most inventive and entertaining FPS campaigns ever made. It looks old, and certain elements of design will seem outdated or a little hokey now, but there's still a lot of stuff this game does that has really never been topped anywhere else, and it's still an adventure worth playing through today. (guns firing) - I was hoping we'd get a bit farther before they noticed us again.

- [Jake] Now, down at number two, "Jet Set Radio Future" from 2002. This is another one of those rare games where if you squint at it, it looks like it could have come out last year, not more than 20 years ago. This cult classic Xbox launch title just oozes personality and style.

It's got an amazing soundtrack and an art design that's both extremely 2000s and also kind of timeless. (skates clattering) (characters shouting) (upbeat music) It's that beloved Sega style, all bright colors and simple, but appealing character designs mixed with fast-paced gameplay and really cool, creative environmental design. It's a great game that's a lot of fun to play even now.

Sure, mechanically, it may not be a complex thing or as complex as the original "Jet Set Radio," but for us, the more arcade style movement and the more fanciful, over-the-top level design make up for the simplified tagging system. And speaking of tagging, that's the name of the game. You rollerskate around Neo Tokyo, tagging everything in sight, feuding with rival gangs, and occasionally, battling it out with the police.

It's simple to play. It doesn't have much depth compared to other extreme sports games. The combo system is pretty basic compared to something like my GOAT, "Tony Hawk," but that's not really the focus.

It's more like an action platformer game. Just that your means of getting around is with these cool future roller skates. It's a game that doesn't try to be much more than it is.

It looks great even now, it's fun to play even now, and the soundtrack is incredible even now. (upbeat music) (characters shouting) Now, down to number one, "Halo 2" from 2004. "Halo 2" has been in a conversation a lot recently.

It just celebrated a big anniversary recently because it originally released November 9th, 2004 and it got us thinking and it's part of the reason why we made this video. "Halo 2," what else needs to be said at this point? I mean, it's "Halo.

" Going back and playing it now, yes, you can really feel it's age and there's no getting around that this is an Xbox original game from 2004. Some of the emptiness of some of the level design reminds you of that at every turn. That being said, it's still great.

(guns firing) - Hang on, everyone. (gun firing) - [Jake] "Halo 2" is such an unusual game, like a weird, beautiful miracle because it's kind of incomplete. Bungee was only able to make a fraction of what they had planned, but it only goes to show just how talented, just how much they cooked back then because "Halo 2" managed to come out and still be amazing despite what reportedly was a pretty troubled development.

The shooting, the dual wielding, the energy sword, on paper, "Halo 2" didn't make that many changes to the formula, but the things they did change, well, it changed everything. The multiplayer was next level, and while the campaign ended on a cliffhanger, it was still a massive step up from the original "Halo. " Sure, the game is up there with "San Andreas" where you'll never be fooled into thinking that this game is new, but at least with "Halo 2," it got a solid remaster as part of the "Halo" collection.

That collection took a while to get in good shape, but it is now. "Halo 2" is where the series became a true phenomenon. It wasn't just a flash in the pan with the first game.

This was the real deal, and it remains one of the all-time great first-person shooter games. Those are 10 games, but I do got some bonus ones for you, including "Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow" from 2003. This was a Game Boy Advance joint, and for some people, it is one of the best "Castlevania" games, not just on handheld, but of all time, and that's high praise for a series that also has "Symphony of the Night," but yeah.

The thing that really makes this one stand out in a good way is the soul system, where you can collect souls from defeated enemies, which can be used to augment your abilities or grant you special offensive powers. The graphics are clean and colorful, if not a little garish because of the Game Boy Advance's lack of a backlight, games had to kind of up the contrast so you could actually see what was happening on screen, but still, the music was a standout even for a "Castlevania" game, and it's just an all-around excellent Metroidvania. This one holds up extremely well.

Sure, it's obvious that this was originally on a handheld, but with modern games intentionally trying to invoke that chunky handheld look, it barely looks outta place in 2024. Also one other bonus one, "SSX 3" from 2003. There's not a lot to say about this one.

We just wanted to get at least one extreme sports game on the list today, so why not "SSX 3? " It's one of the best and most purely entertaining extreme snowboard games of all time. It is just near perfect.

Yes, it's incredibly of its era, from the art design to the music, but if you ask me, they're all positives. I mean, we're 20 years out, that means this sort of thing is gonna get popular again. That's how it works, right?

I'm getting off track here, but the main point is that "SSX 3," and really, all the "SSX" games are awesome and will remain awesome, but hey, those are 10 or so games that are still good 20 years later. Obviously, this is up for a lot of debate and there are so many games that we couldn't fit on this list, so we're definitely gonna do more. Let us know in the comments what you guys think.

We'd love to hear from you. If you like this video and you like just talking games with us every day and talking about some positive stuff, sometimes click on the like button helps us out. Thank you.

But as always, thanks for watching. We'll see you guys next time.