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Your 'must play' games / series every generation?!

Thanks for all the contributions so far, very interesting. Also very obvious who read my post thoroughly and who didn't but I enjoyed all the interpretations anyway.
 
Mario and Zelda and nothing else comes even remotely close. While there are a lot of really consistent series that remained good through multiple generations like Metal Gear, Dragon Quest and DOOM, Mario and Zelda are always on the vanguard and are synonymous with sheer pristine excellence. These games have defined 2D gaming, then 3D gaming and both had probably their best titles being released 2 years ago featuring classic series design done in a unique way. They never had a ridiculous stark reboot, they somehow just keep the momentum going with core elements intact.
 
For me personally it's always a new Zelda entry.

I bought a Switch just for BOTW and a Wii U just for the Zelda HD remasters just this year.

That and Persona. P5 was my first entry into the series and now I'm always going to be making sure I get every new entry. It's probably my favourite JRPG ever made, next to FFX.
 
Zelda, Mario, Metroid (when possible), Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Metal Gear (RIP), And begrudgingly, mainline Final Fantasy though it has been rough since 9. And obviously GTA since PS2.
 
Legend of Zelda is must play every generation, how they're able to keep the series fresh decade after decade is crazy to me and you don't get a new mainline game every 3 or 4 years.
 
Tomb Raider. I've played them since the original launched. After TR4 they've been pretty hit or miss and I wouldn't really consider them must play game anymore for most people. I still like playing them and buy them on release though.
 
Mario is the obvious answer, even the lesser entries are solid games.

Zelda has had too many misses but I still feel compelled to check them out for whatever reason.

Resident Evil is a must, although after 5 and 6 last Gen I was worried it was over.

Mortal Kombat has a solid entry for every generation except the 5th Gen.

Dragon Quest never misses its mark.

Grand Theft Auto, although I personally think 4 was awful and 5 was meh. If 6 doesn't do anything for me I might just skip the next one.

Also a big fan of Etrian Odyssey, intrigued to where the series will go now that the handhelds have been retired.
 
Fourth Generation: Chrono Trigger / Super Metroid / Zelda: A link to the past / Final Fantasy VI
Fifth Generation: Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Metal Gear Solid / Final Fantasy VII / 007 GoldenEye
Sixth Generation: Shadow of the Collosus / Silent Hill 2 / Metal Gear Solid 2 / GTA Vice City
Seventh Generation: Fallout 3 / Uncharted 2 / Metal Gear Solid 4 / GTAV / The Last of Us / Demons Souls
Eighth Generation: Red Dead Redemption 2 / The Witcher 3 / Bloodborne / God of War



That was hard
Beautiful list. You have the exact same taste of games as I do. That makes you a man/gamer with exquisite taste in videogames.

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I've tried to play Mortal Komabt on every system/generation possible.

So far all I am missing are the Amiga ports of part 1 and 2, Jakks Pacific TV plug in for Part 1, all the mobile games (that'll never change), Mega CD version of Part 1 (I havent even played an emulated version) and the PS1 version of MK2.

I've also only played a handful of the NES bootlegs (of which there seems to be something like 15-20 different bootlegs of MK games). Also I would love to own an MK NES bootleg if anyone has one for sale (I have the Hummer version "MK4" on my Coolbaby 600 in 1 already)
 
Halo
Mario
GTA



These are the only ones that had enough of an impact I will buy them no matter what.

The rest is filler, enjoyable filler, but not what I came here for.
 
Franchises I give my best to play:

Mario
Zelda
Megaman classic, X and Zero
Contra
Castlevania
Metal Gear
Resident Evil
Devil May Cry
Smash Bros.
Dark Souls
Street Fighter
Dragon Quest
Final Fantasy (FF1 to FFX)

Most of them I'm trying to beat previous iterations since I didn't complete them all. Too many games but I'm working on it! There are many individual games I find must play also, like the original Fallout or God hand.
 
Fourth Generation: Chrono Trigger / Super Metroid / Zelda: A link to the past / Final Fantasy VI
Fifth Generation: Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Metal Gear Solid / Final Fantasy VII / 007 GoldenEye
Sixth Generation: Shadow of the Collosus / Silent Hill 2 / Metal Gear Solid 2 / GTA Vice City
Seventh Generation: Fallout 3 / Uncharted 2 / Metal Gear Solid 4 / GTAV / The Last of Us / Demons Souls
Eighth Generation: Red Dead Redemption 2 / The Witcher 3 / Bloodborne / God of War



That was hard
Didn't have a console until the fifth generation, so here's my list.

Fifth Gen: Metal Gear Solid, Spider-Man, Tomb Raider 2
Sixth Gen: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, Ninja Gaiden, Jade Empire, Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, Spider-Man 2
Seventh Gen: Mass Effect 1 & 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Red Dead Redemption, The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings, Assassin's Creed: The Ezio trilogy, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Eight Gen: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Red Dead Redemption 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, God of War
 
Third Generation: The Immortal, The Legend of Zelda, Double Dragon Series, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy

Fourth Generation: LOZ A Link to The Past, Super Metroid, Final Fight, Brawl Brother, Alone in The Dark

Fifth Generation: Alundra, Clocktower The First Fear, Resident Evil, Vangrant Story, FF7, FF8, FFT,
Silent Hill, Breath of Fire 3, Parasite Eve, Tenchu, The Legend of Dragoon, Dragon Valor, Suikoden,
Vandal Hearts 2, Legend of Mana, LOZ Ocarina of Time, Beyond The Beyond, Dew Prism, Strider Hiryu 2.

Sixth Generation: Fatal Frame, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, Fatal Frame III: The Tormented, Eternal Darkness,
Haunting Ground, Kuon, Resident Eil Rebirth, Resident Evil 0, ObsCure, ObsCure 2, Clocktower 3, Oz, ONIMUSHA Series
Chaos Legions, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Otogi, Otogi 2, FABLE, Twilight Princess, Panzer Dragoon Orta,
Lost Kingdoms 1 & 2, Crystal Chronicles, Jet Set Radio Future, Silent Hill The Room, Phantasy Star Online Esp 1 &2+
Phantasy Star Universe 1 & 2, Shinobi, Genji D&D Heroes, Demon Stone, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance
Champions of Norrath, Champoins Return to Arms, Devil May Cry, Sword of Destiny, .

Seventh Generation: Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, Pandora's Tower, The Last Story, Folklore,
Demon's Souls, Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen, Kingdom Underfire Circle of Doom, NinjaBlade, DarkSoul 2, Journey;
DeadSpace, Dante's Inferno, Killer is Dead, Metal Gear Rising, Golden Axe Beast Rider, Dark Sector, Quantum Theory
Elder Saga, FRAGILE DREAMS, Bulletwitch, Vanquish, Kingdom of Amalur, Crystal Bearers, Lolipop Chainsaw,
No More Heroes 1 & 2, Genji Day of The Blade, Heavenly Sword, Lost Planet, Altered Species, Untold Legends,
Dungeon Seige 3, RE6, RE Revelations 1 &2, Forbidden Siren, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 &2, Beyond 2 Souls, Heavy Rain,
The Witcher 2, Alan Wake, BAROQUE, Infinite Undiscovery, N3, N3 2, NieR Replicant .

Eighth Generation: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, Bloodborne, Rime, ABZU, Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil Edition,
Lords of The Fallen, DarkSoul 3, Final Fantasy Type O HD, FF15, Ryse, Until Dawn, The Evil Within 1 &2, RE2 REMAKE,
Breath of the Wild, Lord of Apocalypse, Soul Sacrifice, Phantasy Star Nova, Zombi U, Salt & Santuary, The Coma,
Bastian, The Witcher 3, VAMPYR, Quavtum Break, The Order 1886, Ninja Gaiden Razors Edge, Devil May Cry 5, DETROIT.
 
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Latest Mario platformer
Latest Zelda
GTA
God of War - still not played latest one however
Yakuza - still not caught up
And the very latest edition from this generation is PUBG
 
People don't take the time to read OPs anymore, and copy paste their list of favorite games everywhere.
 
God of War
Grand Theft Auto
Resident Evil
Uncharted
Ratchet and Clank
Hopefully Crash Bandicoot going forward.
 
Hm. I can name a ton of high priority stuff and stuff that used to be must-play but now only Metroid comes to mind as a 'will play no matter what', and I can't even say it's because Metroid's consistently better than everything else.
 
These games when they come on different platforms I always try to check out.

Pac Man
Mario
Castlevania
Bomberman
Tetris
Mortal Kombat
Street Fighter
Soul Calibur
Tekken
GTA

What about Genres? I say this because I have played for example a golf game on every single console I have owned or played but they have all been different and as don't stick to any one particular Tiger Woods, Mario Golf, everybody's Golf etc

Football related games too (Soccer) Fifa, PES, Kick Off, Actua Soccer, football manager, championship manager, Microprose Soccer, Mario strikers, premier manager etc
 
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Forgot some

Hitman (yes I even checked out absolution)

Star Wars - ever since the arcade & Atari I have played a Star Wars game every single generation, is Star Wars the only game series probably to have appeared in some shape or form playable on almost every device capable of playing games ever? I wanna know did the Virtua boy have a Star Wars game? I don't think it did
 
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