As an adult, you have a lot of duties and worries, and finding a method to forget about them, even for 15 minutes, might be beneficial. I believe that finding something, anything, that can make you feel better is a beautiful thing. Maybe it’s reading your favorite book or playing the best mobile roulette game. It’s the nostalgia!

The concept of nostalgia appears to be evident from the start. It brings back wonderful memories when you see a game you used to play —or a game that looks like a game you used to play. But let’s take a closer look: Why does your brain desire to play this game in the first place? Video games have intrinsic and extrinsic appeal, which explains their widespread success.

The essential features revolve around classic gaming, making it a timeless experience. In addition, the game’s intrinsic characteristics are linked to happy prior experiences in terms of people and locations, making it a positive emotion trigger. The revival of interest in the retro game genre is due to both factors. Retro gaming can elicit nostalgic emotions, thoughts, and sensations.

This is an excellent example of what happens when the brain’s memory and reward systems collaborate. A sound, a fragrance, a particular image, or a concept can all elicit a happy memory, causing dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in pleasure and salience, to be released from a person’s reward area in the brain. People looking for a known trigger for a positive emotional response may opt for retro gaming. Nostalgia is thought to play a role in emotional resilience as well.

With all this in mind, we thought we would take a trip down memory lane and look at a few of the best retro games available today. These games will hopefully transport you back to your happy place.

Tetris

It’s strange to believe that a game about figuring out the best way to effectively arrange a collection of colored blocks would be at its best on a machine that couldn’t display more than four shades of greenish-gray. Regardless, Alexei Pajitnov’s opus on the Game Boy was simply the perfect marriage between game and technology.

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Image credit: ngorkapong

Super Mario World

Is it possible for a game to be perfect? We’re not sure, but finding flaws in Super Mario’s fourth main game is tricky. Super Mario World was released to coincide with the debut of Nintendo’s new 16-bit platform. It took the pattern of earlier Mario games. It pushed it to its limits, creating neatly planned levels brimming with originality and ingenuity. It introduced players to Yoshi, allowing Mario to fly with a new cape power-up. It was full of hidden secrets that urged you to investigate every nook and cranny. It’s a piece of art in 2D game design, and it set the bar so high for later 2D platformers that none have come close since.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

It’s not just the most comprehensive adventure of all time and one of the most artistically constructed games ever made, but it’s also a critics’ favorite. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the only game in history to receive a flawless Metacritic score, exceeding all other titles. It’s easy to see why, with bosses like Twinrova and Shadow Gannon and the entire epic journey from Young Link to Hyrule’s savior.

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Image credit: robtek

Super Metroid

The Metroid series’ game design concepts are currently used in several games. However, Super Metroid for the SNES is where those philosophies were perhaps refined. Super Metroid is a science fiction side-scroller that revolves around exploration and the eventual acquisition of various weapons and equipment that allow you to return to previously inaccessible areas inside the game universe.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Sega’s spiny speed merchant established himself as a viable opponent to Nintendo’s Mario with his Mega Drive debut. The magnificent loops, corkscrews, and ingenious environmental tricks in the sequel, on the other hand, revealed that his creators had the same swagger. With co-op buddy Tails in tow, this furious journey was one of the best two-player games of the 16-bit era, and it still leaves many recent Sonic titles in the dust.