Best Classic Adventure Games

WayForward's half-genie hero arrived in 2002 — a year after the Game Boy Advance had replaced the Game Boy Color — making it one of the most technically accomplished and rarest GBC games. Shantae uses belly-dancing transformation magic across a connected world of villages and dungeons, combining Arabian Nights aesthetics with Metroidvania-style exploration in one of the handheld era's great hidden gems.

Insomniac Games' gem-collecting adventure placed players in the wings of a young purple dragon exploring vast, colorful worlds. Spyro the Dragon's open, exploratory design and warm personality made it an instant PlayStation classic and launched one of gaming's most beloved franchises.

Core Design's archaeological action-adventure introduced the world to Lara Croft, one of gaming's most iconic characters. Tomb Raider's blend of environmental puzzle-solving, platform navigation, and intense combat in imaginatively designed ancient ruins was genuinely revolutionary for 1996.

HAL Laboratory's 1989 NES puzzle game — Adventures of Lolo follows the blue ball protagonist rescuing Princess Lala from the Great Devil across 50 rooms of block-pushing, enemy deflection, and crystal heart collection puzzles. HAL's puzzle design is precise and satisfying, making it one of the finest NES puzzle games.

Silicon Knights' dark action-adventure casts players as the vampire Kain in a gothic top-down odyssey through the cursed land of Nosgoth, combining Zelda-style exploration with morally complex storytelling far ahead of its time. The game's fully voiced cast, Shakespearean dialogue, and willingness to question whether the protagonist should save or doom the world established Blood Omen as a landmark in mature narrative gaming and launched one of the most acclaimed dark fantasy franchises in PlayStation history.

The Dreamcast's definitive Resident Evil experience and the first entry to abandon fixed camera angles for fully 3D environments. Code Veronica's Antarctic setting, complex Ashford family narrative, and dual-protagonist structure made it the most ambitious Resident Evil story to that point.

Yu Suzuki's open-world narrative game effectively invented the interactive drama genre — Shenmue's Yokosuka setting, fully simulated daily schedules, forklift racing minigame, and obsessive environmental detail created the blueprint for the living-world design philosophy that Grand Theft Auto III would later popularize for mass audiences. Ryo Hazuki's revenge quest against Lan Di unfolds with a patience and deliberateness that remains singular in game design history.

The coolest game on the Genesis — two alien funk lords crash-landed on Earth and must collect their spaceship parts while avoiding Earthlings. A procedurally generated roguelite co-op adventure 30 years before the genre existed.

Rare's ambitious collectathon platformer sent Donkey Kong and four Kong companions through eight enormous worlds in pursuit of 3,821 collectibles. Technically impressive and generously sized, DK64's scope is both its greatest strength and its most criticized aspect — a game of extraordinary content that some consider bloated.

Capcom's 1993 SNES top-down action-adventure based on the Disney animated series — Goof Troop follows Goofy and Max rescuing Pete's family from pirates across five island stages. Two-player co-op, hook-based combat and puzzle solving, and a Capcom polish level that exceeded the Disney license. An early Shinji Mikami production.

One of the most beloved and unique games in the Pokemon franchise. Pokemon Snap places you in a research vehicle on Pokemon Island, tasking you with photographing 63 Pokemon in their natural habitats. The scoring system rewards creativity and discovery, making every run through each stage feel fresh.

BlueSky Software's 1994 Genesis RPG-action game based on the Shadowrun tabletop RPG — completely different from the SNES Shadowrun, this version follows Joshua, a street samurai in a cyberpunk Seattle, through a third-person action-RPG perspective with a contract-based mission structure, hacking, magic, and a more open-ended approach than the SNES linear narrative.

Nintendo's 1990 NES action-adventure exclusive — StarTropics follows Mike Jones through tropical island dungeons to rescue his uncle, blending Zelda-style puzzle-dungeon exploration with baseball-throw combat in a contemporary Pacific Island setting. One of the few Nintendo-developed NES games never released in Japan.

Human Entertainment's 1995 survival horror point-and-click sequel — Jennifer and two other protagonists navigate the manor of the Barrows family as Bobby, the Scissorman, hunts them. Clock Tower on PS1 features multiple protagonists, ten endings based on survival decisions, and a unique horror mechanic where running is often less useful than hiding.

Sega's Master System action-RPG set in the Golden Axe universe — Golden Axe Warrior takes the franchise's fantasy setting into a Zelda-style overhead adventure with dungeons, magic axes, and a quest to recover nine crystal shards from Death Adder's dungeons. An underrated SMS exclusive that delivered Zelda-caliber exploration to Sega's home console.

Sony Cambridge's 2000 PS1 sequel to MediEvil — MediEvil 2 relocates Sir Dan to Victorian London in 1886, adds new weapons including a Tesla staff and blunderbuss, introduces the interchangeable hand mechanic allowing Sir Dan to swap limbs for different abilities, and continues the undead hero's darkly comic adventure through a Jack the Ripper-adjacent mystery.

Capcom's dinosaur-based survival horror — essentially Resident Evil redesigned for faster, smarter predators — features real-time creature AI that makes the Velociraptors genuinely terrifying rather than scripted obstacles. Regina's infiltration mission in Secret Operation Wipeout demonstrated that the studio's survival horror formula could absorb a radically different threat profile without losing any of its tension, and the game stands as the PS1's finest horror experience outside of Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill.

Hudson Soft's 1987 action-RPG set in the world of Xanadu — Faxanadu (Famicom Xanadu) is a side-scrolling action-RPG hybrid where a warrior returns to the World Tree to find it under attack by Dwarves and must ascend through towns and dungeons seeking the elven king's wisdom. Platform action, experience-based leveling, magic words for save passwords, and a quest that takes 10+ hours.

The bizarre feudal Japan-meets-robots platformer starring Goemon, Ebisumaru, Sasuke, and Yae blends non-linear overworld exploration, town-based puzzle solving, and giant mech battles against boss fortresses into a package of cheerful, confident absurdism that N64 owners largely overlooked. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is one of the N64's most overlooked gems — a game that trusts the player's tolerance for the ridiculous and rewards that trust with genuine mechanical variety and charm.

Atlus' 1996 PS1 JRPG — Persona (Revelations: Persona in North America) follows high school students in Mikage-cho invoking Personas — manifestations of the psyche — to fight Shadows in dungeon battles. The franchise's dark psychological beginning, before the social link systems and calendar structure of later Persona games.

Warren Robinett's groundbreaking adventure game invented the action-RPG genre with its free-roaming exploration, item collection, and monster combat. It also contained gaming's first Easter egg — the developer's name hidden in a secret room — making it one of the most historically significant games ever made.

The enhanced version of Castlevania 64 with two new characters — Cornell the werewolf and Henry the Crusader — plus additional stages, improved engine performance, and the complete content of the original game. Legacy of Darkness is the definitive N64 Castlevania experience for players willing to engage with early 3D adventure design.

A unique Genesis game — guide a dolphin through an increasingly dark undersea narrative involving aliens, time travel, and extinction-level events, rendered in some of the console's most impressive fluid animation.

A Metroid-style adventure game starring Tails that plays completely unlike any other Sonic game. Tails Adventure's item-based exploration, inventory management with the Item Case, and open-world structure where new equipment unlocks previously inaccessible areas made it one of the Game Gear's most original and replayable titles.