Greg Sewart is the former Previews Editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly, current co-host of the Player One Podcast, and Producer of Generation 16.
It is 2025, and there is time for…
The 90s.
It’s a scientifically-proven fact that the best decade in gaming was the 1990s. Nintendo’s monopoly was being broken, 2D game design was nearing its zenith, fighting games were all the rage, and the proliferation of multimedia consoles was resulting in exciting new, experimental (and usually weird) games that hadn’t been possible up to that point.
And boy, if you’re a fan of 90s games the way I am, 2025 was a great year! Here are some of my favourite games released 30 years after their time.
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
- Developer: Seedy Eye Software
- Publisher: Limited Run Games
- System: Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series S/X
Ok, so Arzette actually came out in 2024, but I didn’t play it until the beginning of this year, so I’m including it anyway.
This love letter to the Philips CD-i and, in particular, its (rightfully) maligned Zelda games, is so much better than it has any right to be. I normally don’t go in for these ironic homages, where the entire goal is mainly to make fun of the games the new release is referencing. And honestly, that’s how Arzette comes off at first. It expertly recreates the amateurish presentation that those of us who experienced some CD-i platformers back in the day will remember. Most levels consist of semi-photorealistic backdrops that sometimes make it difficult to discern where platforms exist. Arzette and her enemies don’t feature any shadows, giving them a pasted-on look. And the cutscenes consist of absurdly animated characters featuring dramatic camera moves over static backgrounds, a style made infamous by the CD-i Zelda games.
Not to mention the voice actors aren’t really giving Oscar-worthy performances. A lot of the voices here belong to various gaming YouTubers. Some of my favourites, in fact, including the guys from My Life in Gaming and Digital Foundry.
I’d written this game off completely, but I couldn’t seem to escape it. So during some downtime at the beginning of 2025, I figured, what the hell? Let’s give it a shot! And you know, it’s so charming I just couldn’t put it down. The purposeful rough edges actually feel like a love letter to these much-maligned CD-i games rather than a mean-spirited joke. And when you begin to accept that and look beneath the surface, you’ll find a pretty darn enjoyable action/platforming quest!
Lunar Remastered Collection
- Developer: Ashibi Company
- Publisher: GungHo Online Entertainment
- System: Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
Keep your Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests! Game Arts’ criminally short Lunar series was my favourite in the ’90s. My undying dedication to the Sega CD add-on probably had a lot to do with that, but that doesn’t mean these games weren’t masterpieces.
And while I wish the original Sega CD games weren’t trapped on dead hardware, we did get a couple of incredible remakes on the Saturn and PlayStation a few years later. This year, GungHo packaged Silver Star Story Complete and Eternal Blue Complete together and released them across modern game platforms.
The Lunar Remastered Collection doesn’t necessarily tick all the boxes one might expect with modern, especially when it comes to the sort of quality of life improvements we’ve been seeing a lot more lately. Outside of being able to speed up the battles, you’re pretty much playing uprezzed versions of the old PlayStation releases. Well, except for one major difference. Despite his public angling to be a part of the process, Victor Ireland and Working Designs were not involved with these remakes. What does that mean? Mainly, that we have an all-new cast of voice actors and, more importantly, the original difficulty level of the Japanese games rather than the unbalanced mess of the old Western releases.
Being able to play these classics on modern hardware without relying on 25-year-old discs that may be starting to decompose is a net positive. And especially sweet considering we were robbed of the original Sega CD games on the Sega Genesis Mini 2 a couple of years back, thanks to a rights dispute between Sega and Mr. Ireland.
Speaking of 90s RPGs, the Suikoden HD Remasters came out in 2025 as well. They didn’t make this list because I didn’t play them (yet).
Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection
- Developer: Digital Eclipse
- Publisher: Atari
- System: Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Digital Eclipse has hit on an incredible formula with their Gold Master Series. And I think I speak for almost any gaming fan who was around in the 90s when I say that I was so excited to see them take on Mortal Kombat. Fighting games owned the decade, and Mortal Kombat was one of the two crown jewels of the genre. It was groundbreaking! The digitized graphics, the gallons of blood, the fatalities! Everyone was playing this thing.
But beyond being supremely popular, Mortal Kombat was so hugely consequential! When it finally hit home konsoles, it served as a barometer of Nintendo’s family-friendly image vs Sega’s assumption that gamers were getting old enough to handle a bit more adult-oriented content.
Those ESRB ratings on all your games? Thanks, Mortal Kombat!
The Legacy Kollection treats the series with the reverence it deserves. There are reams of footage in here, classic interviews with the team alongside modern takes from creators Tobias and Boon, and the extended team. In a game where character sprites were based on VHS footage of real actors, it’s not surprising that there is just a load of behind-the-scenes home video for the first few games. And it feels like Digital Eclipse serves up most of it in this package.
I have to applaud how deep the developers went, as well. Mortal Kombat was such a cultural touchstone by the time it reached home consoles that just about everything under the sun got a port. I love that I can play the Game Boy and Game Gear games in this collection. Not that I want to play them very much, mind you, but I love that they’re there. In fact, if anything, I wish Digital Eclipse had gone a bit deeper! How about the Amiga version of Mortal Kombat? Or the Mortal Kombat Tiger handheld?
Legacy Kollection isn’t perfect. It was a bit more buggy than most Gold Master Series upon release, and some of the settings were screwy. But most of that seems to have been patched out now. Endless difficulty options, on-screen moves, infinite Fatality time, and more all make it so you can dial in the difficulty to pretty much any preference and enjoy this landmark series however you like.
I can’t wait to see what historic franchise Digital Eclipse takes on next!
Earthion
- Developer: Ancient / Bitwave Games
- Publisher: Limited Run Games
- System: PC, Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, Sony PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Sega Genesis (eventually)
I’m a bit of a Sega Genesis nut (please check out Generation 16 on YouTube), and in the early ’90s, the console was a shooter powerhouse. Thunder Force III, Gaiares, MUSHA, honestly, the list just goes on and on. And while the Genesis has seen incredible aftermarket support over the last couple of decades, nothing is quite as exciting as Yuzo Koshiro’s Ancient creating an entirely new shooter for the console!
The wait was excruciating! But I’m happy to say that it was totally worth it. Earthion does things I don’t think any of us thought the Genesis was capable of. The graphics here are just out of this world, and the music ain’t too shabby either. I’m not sure I’d say it lives up to Koshiro’s masterpieces like Revenge of Shinobi or Streets of Rage 2, but it still sounds great!
Along with eye-popping visuals comes extremely solid action. Earthion is fast and frenetic, filled with big bosses and some pretty sweet cut scenes. All of this is accompanied by a power-up system with a pretty cool risk/reward setup. As you power-up, you’ll have to make some choices between whether to give yourself more armor or more secondary weapon slots. Furthermore, the only way to power up is to grab a special item and hold on to it until the end of the current level. Of course, said item takes up one of your weapon slots.
I love shooters, but I’m not very good at them. This is likely one of the big reasons my favorite of all time is Radiant Silvergun, where your ship would retain upgrades between play sessions.
Earthion does something very similar, giving players a code at the game over screen, which can be used during the next session to bring the ship back up to its current level. It’s a great feature for those of us who lack the talent to make a run through the hardest difficulty level with a default loadout.
Seriously, if you’re a Genesis fan, you have to play this game. And hey, if you want to do so on original hardware, that’ll be an option too in the near future.
Terminator 2D: No Fate
- Developer: Bitmap Bureau
- Publisher: Reef Entertainment
- System: Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Movie-licensed games were ubiquitous back in the ’90s, and as most folks remember, they were usually trash. For every Aladdin or Jurassic Park, there were countless Wayne’s Worlds and Batman Forevers. Just pure shovelware cash-grabs. But when the odd good ones came along, it was always pretty cool to see how inventive game designers would interpret the best scenes of your favourite movies.
Terminator 2D is a wonderful homage to the best of those games. It recreates the most iconic scenes from the smash hit film, as well as a few that were only ever hinted at. Playing as Sarah, the T-800, and John Connor in a mixture of action/platform, beat-em-up, and driving levels keeps the relatively short experience fresh. And while it’s not the prettiest game you’ve ever seen, there are moments where it truly shines. Particularly, the sprite animations depicting stuff like the Terminator fight in the steel mill, or the T-800 jumping up into the cab of the big rig to unload on the T-1000. The bar fight scene alone is almost worth the price of admission.
As I mentioned, the game is relatively short. It’s padded out a bit with different difficulty levels and a boss rush. But my favorite bit is that, after finishing the story at least once, you’re presented with two key decision points on subsequent playthroughs. Depending on the choices you make, the timeline will change and present new levels (or new versions of existing levels).
It’s a very nice, unexpected touch that is basically the cherry on top of an already really nice package.
Bitmap Bureau already has a reputation for great pixel-art shooters. Wouldn’t it be great if they decided to take on a whole collection of classic action movies from the ’80s and ’90s?
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound
- Developer: The Game Kitchen
- Publisher: Dotemu
- System: Windows, Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
The original Ninja Gaiden series really set the standard when it came to narrative in an action game. And while the franchise hasn’t exactly been dormant for a long time, it’s been over 30 years since we got to hack and slash in 2D. Thank goodness The Game Kitchen came along!
Ragebound channels all the best bits of the original NES trilogy, dresses it up in slightly-better-than-16-bit visuals, and modernizes the gameplay in some fantastic ways. Through fantastic-looking level after another, you’ll be slicing your way through an endless sea of enemies, taking on one screen-filling boss after another, and amassing an arsenal of spectacular special moves.
In fact, I think that’s the main thing that Ragebound gets so right. The control in the original Ninja Gaiden was razor sharp. Ryu’s movements were quick and nimble. Very acrobatic.
Ragebound’s antagonist, Kenji, is cut from the exact same cloth. When you get good at the game, it’s impressive just how well the whole thing flows. Bouncing off one enemy, slashing another, then grabbing a wall and climbing to the next platform feels so damn natural!
Holding the original trilogy in such high regard as I do, the nods to Ryu’s NES adventures really resonated with me. Not only the cool, parallel storyline (the game starts with Ryu receiving the letter from his father and jetting off to America, as seen on the NES in 1989), but the soundtrack, which features lots of great references to the old tunes, thanks to some of the original composers contributing tracks.
The 3D Ninja Gaiden games were never my bag. It’s so great to revisit a beloved franchise the way I remember it feeling when I was a kid!
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
- Developer: Lizardcube
- Publisher: Sega
- System: Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
I don’t even have the words to properly describe how much I love Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. It’s easily one of my top three games of the year. Much like Ninja Gaiden, the Shinobi series hasn’t necessarily been on hiatus for all that long, but its glory years were definitely on the Sega Genesis.
Developer LizardCube clearly knows that, because Art of Vengeance feels like a love letter to The Revenge of Shinobi, Shadow Dancer, and Shinobi III. Right down to appearances by ninja dog Yamato.
But Shinobi doesn’t feel old. In fact, out of all the games in this list, it feels the most modern in my opinion. While the basic action definitely borrows heavily from the original games (although there are definitely shades of Metroid in here as well), the platforming feels more in line with something like Celeste or Super Meat Boy. In fact, in most levels, you’ll find at least one jumping challenge that would fit comfortably into either of those games. Some of the challenges at the end are downright ridiculous. But the controls are so precise that even an easy-mode wuss like me managed to get through it all. In fact, I was so enamored with Art of Vengeance that I just couldn’t put it down.
In fact, I thrived on the later challenges. Playing them over and over and over again until I got them right. Shinobi’s checkpoint system is generous enough that you never have too far to go anytime you screw up.
What I love about Ninja Gaiden and Art of Vengeance is that even though they’re both paying homage to very similar games from yesteryear, the gameplay and the visuals are just different enough that they’re both worth experiencing.
Yes, 2025 was a great year to be a fan of the ’90s. I knew some of this was coming, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much my favorite hobby was going to invoke my favorite era, or how awesome all of those games would end up being.