Students offer up ‘classic’ games to return to this year

Are you in a gaming slump? Can’t find any new video games titles that pique interest? Well, how about some old “classics”? As we hit 2025, a quarter of the 21st century has passed involving 25 years of new innovations regarding the medium of video games. 

Impact discs started to become popularized in the early 2000s with the beginnings of the Playstation 1 releasing in 1995, which then led to later 2000s hits like the Playstation 2, the Gamecube and the original Xbox. Computerized gaming began to evolve as digital platforms such as Steam allowed for indie games to really take off as they no longer needed big gaming companies to publish games on their consoles. Regardless of what your stance on gaming is, many find themselves nostalgic for games from their childhood, students giving recommendations on what their fellow peers should return to and play.

Sophomore Faith Rodgers expressed her love for Mario Kart Wii for the Nintendo Wii released in 2008, being the 6th in the popular Mario Kart racing series. If you are currently reading this article and are enrolled in high school, there’s a high chance that you had a Wii growing up and an even higher chance that you have played Mario Kart Wii. Mario Kart Wii is the second best-selling Mario Kart game as well as the second best-selling Wii game selling over 37.38 million copies, so it can be difficult to find a Gen Z who hasn’t played Mario Kart Wii and doesn’t have a great nostalgia for the game. 

“Me and my sister grew up playing it all the time when we were younger, despite me not being supposed to be up late. I’d wait for her to come back, and we would play it quietly, and she’d always win,” Rodgers said, “Others should play it because it’s a more original version of Mario Kart and it’s a little more difficult due to not having as many options for your karts.”

Similarly, junior James Kimble suggested another game available on the Nintendo Wii in addition to its availability on PC and even mobile play on phones. The original World of Goo, created by indie developer 2D boy and released in 2008, tasks you with creating large structures with balls of goo to solve various puzzles throughout the game. Even now with World of Goo 2 that came out on the Nintendo Switch in 2024, Kimble fondly recalled the original game and its extensive game experience.

“It’s a childhood game of mine, and its themes have kept with me all these years, plus it has a ‘god-tier’ soundtrack. The music is used in like half of all video essays; you’ll know it when you hear it,” Kimble said.

Finally, to wrap up this list, we have to travel back to 2001 and explore the town of Silent Hill in Konami’s horror game, Silent Hill 2 suggested by senior Aidan Fobian. Although, yes, Silent Hill 2 is the second in the series, many argue you don’t need to play Silent Hill 1 to enjoy this game as Silent Hill 2 does away with the previous characters from the first entry and constructs a new narrative again set in the town of Silent Hill. 

In Silent Hill 2, protagonist James Sunderland receives a note from his wife who had previously died three years ago. Sunderland eventually heads to the town of Silent Hill to investigate the letter only to find monsters and demons lurking around the town. Still determined to investigate the note, he continues to search for his wife while struggling against the town of Silent Hill and its inhabitants. Playable on the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 along with its remake playable on PC, Playstation 5 and XBox Series X, Fobian argued that to most people, it is the definitive horror game.

“If anyone has any sort of interest in storytelling through environment or foreshadowing, or interest in writing complex relationships and characters, play this game. This game is a masterclass in storytelling and setting,” Fobain said. “It’s such a good game that it ends up making the other two games Silent Hill 1 and Silent Hill 3 lacking in comparison, even if they are good games.”