I love playing retro games on the Switch. I play more thirty-year-old games than I do modern ones. Here I present five of my favourite retro games to play on Switch. I’ve tried to cover a broad range of genres as well as series. But one thing is for sure, there is a huge library of retro games on Switch and you never run out of old games to play.

Tetris

Tetris is the ultimate game of skill and addiction. Once you start you just can’t stop going for a bigger score or learning new ways to clear the lines block by block. It’s one of the greatest games of all time and fits perfectly into the Switch library as a true classic.

I often wonder why Tetris means so much to me personally, and usually start thinking about how pure it is in the gameplay department. Anyone can play it and be comfortable with the controls and rules quickly, then you can spend a lifetime mastering it.

Final Fight

If one game can be confirmed as single-handedly making me fall in love with arcade gaming it was Final Fight, one of the first cabs I ever had the joy to play on. As soon as I saw the characters I knew I loved the game. Cody has a cool anti-hero attitude, Haggar is so strong with his awesome pile driver move, and Guy is just so slick.

The other aspect that drew me in as a kid was the large sprites and brilliant animation. Final Fight felt special to be playing and the dawn of a new era of arcade gaming that would see them get bigger and better over several years. There is nothing quite like cleaning up the streets of Metro City one bad guy at a time.

Outrun

One thing I’ve loved about Switch is that old games get a new touch of paint in the form of new content to refresh an experience of a loved classic. A great example is the release of OutRun through Sega’s Ages line. The emulation from renowned developers M2, who have already ported many classics to modern consoles adding its touches, is excellent.

Not only does it have all the amazing gameplay from the original Arcade game, but it now has extra cars, options to tinker with your car specs and remixes of the classic soundtrack. This may not be the definitive way to play OutRun, that goes to the original sit-down cab, but the Switch port is the next best thing.

Metal Slug

I was in my local arcade back in my hometown when I first laid eyes on Metal Slug. Hearing that booming announcer yell ‘HEAVY MACHINE GUN!’ pricked something inside me and SNK’s classic run ‘n’ gun has been a firm favourite of mine ever since. I play this one regularly, more than any other in the series, for me, the original game is the purest and is right up there with the best arcade games of all time.

I can not decide if it’s the wonderful animations and characters in the enemies and bosses that constantly wade about the screen. Maybe it’s the pixel-perfect precision blasting and platforming. It could just be the very cool music and multitude of weapons and pick-ups to explore. Quite simply one of the best arcade games that is ported perfectly to the Switch.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

This entry is completely self-indulgent as it’s one of my favourite games of all time. However, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is still a true platforming classic and feels as fresh today as it did when it was released thirty years ago. The epic story of Sonic teaming up with Knuckles to take on Dr Eggman is not to missed and features some of the biggest levels of the 16-bit era.

I chose this one on the Switch due to the recent Sonic Origins compilation pack that becomes the hundredth time Sega has released such a compilation of its Sonic Mega Drive titles. In this latest pack, Sega has developed the original games into widescreen as well as fixing bugs and adding lots of extra characters in each game. This feels like the quintessential way to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles.