Best Classic Action Games

Treasure's side-scrolling N64 platformer built an entire game around a single core mechanic — protagonist Marina Liteyears grabs, shakes, and throws enemies and environmental objects to solve puzzles and navigate levels — then introduced a new application of that mechanic in nearly every stage. Mischief Makers embodies the mechanic-per-level design philosophy that defines vintage Treasure craftsmanship, and its willingness to be a 2D game on a 3D console made it a genuine outlier in the N64 library.

Natsume's 1994 SNES beat-em-up based on the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers — the game features all five Rangers as playable characters across five stages, Megazord battles against giant monsters, and two-player simultaneous co-op, capturing the TV series' combination of ground combat and mech battles.

The 8-bit Sonic developed separately from the Genesis version by Yuzo Koshiro's Ancient studio. This isn't a port — it features entirely different level layouts, a maze structure, and its own score by Koshiro that many fans consider the best music in the 8-bit Sonic games. A complete standalone experience.

One of the N64's most impressive launch-window titles, Shadows of the Empire plunges players into the Expanded Universe story of Dash Rendar across both on-foot third-person combat and space/vehicle combat sequences that showcase the hardware's early potential. The iconic Hoth battle opening — piloting a snowspeeder to trip AT-ATs with tow cables — remains one of the most cinematic moments in N64 history and a landmark achievement for licensed gaming.

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.

The N64's first major first-person shooter — Turok's fog-shrouded jungle combat against dinosaurs and alien technology established what the N64 FPS would look like before GoldenEye.

BlueSky Software's sequel to their visually stunning mascot shooter sends the pre-rendered CGI robot hero into a post-apocalyptic bug-infested landscape with a wider arsenal of insect-themed morphing power-ups replacing the original's simpler weapon system. Vectorman 2 delivers the same smooth animation and satisfying run-and-gun gameplay that made the original a late-generation Genesis showcase, remaining a technically impressive send-off for Sega's underrated action hero.

Sega's groundbreaking 1982 arcade shooter was the first coin-operated game to use isometric 3D graphics, creating a space fortress assault unlike anything players had seen. Zaxxon's angled perspective required pilots to judge altitude carefully while shooting enemies and dodging walls — a technical and design achievement that defined a genre.

Capcom's 2001 PS1 action-platformer developed rapidly after Mega Man X5 — Mega Man X6 continues with Zero's apparent death, introduces Nightmare enemies that make stages harder dynamically, adds the Zero-like playable Gate and Nightmare bosses, and represents the final Mega Man X game developed entirely for 32-bit hardware.

Software Creations' 1995 SNES sequel to Maximum Carnage — Separation Anxiety continues the Venom symbiote storyline, adds playable Venom with Spider-Man across 14 stages fighting the Life Foundation symbiotes (Scream, Lasher, Phage, Riot, Agony), and maintains the two-character beat-em-up structure with hero card assists from the original.

A direct predecessor to the Grand Theft Auto open-world formula from the same studio, Body Harvest drops a time-traveling soldier into sprawling free-roaming environments spanning multiple eras of human history under alien invasion. DMA Design's ambitious scope — hijack any vehicle, explore vast maps, battle massive alien bosses — resulted in a game rougher than its ambitions but historically fascinating as the missing link between top-down GTA and the 3D open-world games that followed.

Konami's divisive attempt to bring Castlevania into 3D. Castlevania 64's gothic atmosphere, memorable boss designs, and dual-protagonist structure offered genuinely compelling moments despite its rough controls and dated visuals — and Reinhardt Schneider's vampire hunting quest captured the series' atmosphere better than the camera system deserved.

Sony's PS1 answer to Mario Party featuring Crash and friends in competitive minigame tournaments. Crash Bash's four-player arena battles — polar bear push, bowling, pogo party, and tank warfare — made it the best party game in the PS1 library despite critical reception that focused on the lack of a proper platformer installment.

Sculptured Software's 1995 SNES port of id Software's landmark FPS — DOOM on SNES delivered a technically impressive but visually downgraded adaptation of the PC original's 22 levels, retaining the core shotgun-chainsaw-BFG combat against demons in a 3D-adjacent engine that pushed the SNES hardware to its limits.

Cross the road, hop the logs, avoid the cars — Frogger's deceptively simple concept became one of the most addictive arcade games of the early 1980s.

SNK's 1987 NES top-down military shooter — Ikari Warriors follows commandos Ralf and Clark through jungle and enemy base environments with machine guns, grenades, and occasionally tank vehicles. Two-player simultaneous co-op and continuous vertical scrolling make it one of the first top-down military action games for NES.

Pit's mythological adventure on the NES — a vertical scroller turned side-scroller with RPG progression mechanics, fierce difficulty, and a devoted cult following.

The final NES Ninja Gaiden — Ryu investigates the ancient ship of doom while framed for Irene's murder in the darkest Ninja Gaiden narrative, also infamous for being the series' most punishing entry.

Sonic inside a pinball machine — Sega Technical Institute's concept game sends Sonic through four pinball-themed zones collecting Chaos Emeralds and bouncing off bumpers in one of the most creative Sonic spinoffs.

The first TMNT console game that sold millions despite its infamously difficult underwater dam level. The NES TMNT lets players switch between all four turtles — each with different reach and speed — across six areas of New York City, establishing the franchise as a major video game property.

The Genesis launch pack-in that greeted millions of new console owners. Altered Beast's transformation mechanic was innovative and memorable, even if the overall game was short and repetitive by modern standards.

Nintendo's Joust-inspired NES arcade game — flap balloons to fly, pop enemies' balloons before they pop yours, and avoid the thundercloud in one of the NES's earliest two-player simultaneous games.

The original Game Boy Castlevania — Christopher Belmont's debut pits the whip-wielding vampire hunter against Dracula across four stages on Nintendo's handheld, establishing the franchise on portable hardware despite notably sluggish gameplay.

The controversial Castlevania sequel that introduced open-world exploration, day/night cycles, and RPG mechanics — a divisive game that proved ahead of its time.