30 Years Later: The Best Games From 1995 That Still Hold Up in 2025

1995 would end up being one of the most exciting years in the gaming industry, if for no other reason than that it marked a period of radical transformation. Ten years after its successful North American launch, which helped single-handedly revive a dead gaming industry, Nintendo would cease production on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The SNES was firmly entrenched as the winner of the “console wars”, but Sony had an unexpected entry into the race with the PlayStation, which would change gaming as we know it. All along the way, there were some incredible titles, many of which stand the test of time not just as some of the best games from 1995, but timeless classics that still hold up 30 years later.

• Release Date — June 22, 1995
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Fighting
• Platform — Arcade, PlayStation

While other developers were beginning to experiment with making newer, 3D iterations of popular franchises or push the envelope for what was possible in terms of an arcade fighting game’s visuals, Capcom stuck to its guns and did what it does best: craft an impeccably balanced, incredibly accessible fighter with a high skill-ceiling and some of the most gorgeous pixel art visuals. Street Fighter Alpha would help spawn its own subseries of games within the franchise that still hold up as pinnacles of the genre, and its PS1 port was an impressive home conversion that was one of the PS1’s most noteworthy early games in Japan.

• Release Date — August 5, 1995
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Platform — SNES

People have taken to calling Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island a “perfect platformer”. And while I wouldn’t necessarily go so far as to say Yoshi’s Island is perfect (at least, not any more perfect than the original Super Mario World is), it is absolutely one of the greatest platformers on the SNES, which is no small feat when you look at the roster of iconic classics in the genre on the console. One of the best aspects of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island is that it’s completely unlike any other 2D side-scrolling Mario game before or after it, cementing its place as a special title in one of gaming’s most important franchises.

• Release Date — March 31, 1995
• Developer — Namco
• Publisher — Namco
• Genre — Fighting
• Platform — PlayStation

All these years later, it’s downright flabbergasting how incredible a home conversion the original PS1 Tekken is of its arcade counterpart, helping to establish the PlayStation as the new top dog in the race to home console supremacy alongside other launch hits like Ridge Racer, Wipeout, and Destruction Derby. More than that, though, the original Tekken is still fun to play with 7 subsequent entries and decades of improvement — a testament to the core mechanics and iconic roster that the first entry introduced to the world of fighting games. When it comes to franchises that are synonymous with the 5th generation and transition to primarily 3D gaming, Tekken is one of the more important.

• Release Date — October 30, 1995
• Developer — Raven Software
• Publisher — id Software
• Genre — FPS
• Platform — PC

The release of Doom in 1993 kicked off the beginning of what we know as the “modern” first-person shooter genre, and there were plenty of clones that quickly followed in its wake. One of the only ones to get the official blessing of id Software as its publisher, though, was Raven Software’s Heretic, which it followed up in 1995 with the incredible Hexen. Three decades later, Hexen is still surprisingly unique, one of the only first-person shooter games to mix in elements of role-playing with its distinct fantasy classes, atypical weaponry, and emphasis on nonlinearity and puzzles. For evidence of how lasting an impact Hexen continues to have, look no further than the fact that its recent remaster sits on the Steam best-seller list.

• Release Date — December 5, 1995
• Developer — Blizzard Entertainment
• Publisher — Davidson & Associates
• Genre — RTS
• Platform — PC

The real-time strategy genre was, at one point, one of the most popular genres of gaming for PC owners, if not the most popular. Accordingly, there were several iconic series that got their start during the salad days of PC gaming, including Warcraft and Command & Conquer. But it would end up being 1995’s Warcraft II that somehow still stands as one of the pinnacle games in the genre, paving the way for later legends like Blizzard’s StarCraft and ultimately helping to lay the worldbuilding and lore for one of the most successful and profound games ever made: World of Warcraft. But more than just its importance to the industry and its genre, Warcraft II is a near-perfect RTS game that served as many players’ on-ramp to one of their all-time favorite genres.

• Release Date — November 30, 1995
• Developer — Sega AM2
• Publisher — Sega
• Genre — Fighting
• Platform — Sega Saturn

Where PlayStation owners had games like Tekken and Battle Arena Toshinden during the console’s first year on the market, the Sega Saturn got to have titles like Virtua Fighter 2, whose home conversion from 1995 remains one of the all-time greatest arcade ports to console. The genius of Virtua Fighter 2 comes from its relative simplicity in comparison to other fighting games of the era, stripping back any semblance of flash in favor of a mechanically rich and perfectly-balanced experience with a low barrier to entry but an incredibly high skill ceiling for those who take the time to learn their favorite fighter thoroughly.

• Release Date — December 15, 1995
• Developer — Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — JRPG
• Platform — PlayStation

The early days of the PS1 were marked by a distinct lack of RPGs, especially when compared to the library of the SNES. One of the first of several now-legendary role-playing games to arrive on the PS1 was none other than 1995’s Suikoden, which remains on players’ lists of best RPGs of the era for good reason. Suikoden is almost the perfect “beginner” JRPG, delivering a self-contained story that’s very well executed, a huge cast of characters to recruit, fun combat, and plenty of replayability for players hoping to chase down the game’s “good” ending. Before Final Fantasy VII and Wild Arms there was Suikoden, and it’s just as timeless as those two classics.

• Release Date — December 1, 1995
• Developer — Minakuchi Engineering
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Action-Platformer
• Platform — SNES

While it’s hard to top the original Mega Man X as the best game in the initial trilogy, Mega Man X3 is still a standout game in the SNES library that serves as a reminder how untouchable Capcom is when it fires on all cylinders. Notably, Mega Man X3 was designed by series creator Keiji Inafune and his team at Capcom before passing off the actual development of the game to Minakuchi Engineering, which had handled the development of all the Game Boy Mega Man titles. That change in studios did little to take away from X3‘s place as one of the best games in the series, and it continues to be a standout for featuring some incredible stages and one of the hardest boss battles of any game, ever.

• Release Date — November 21, 1995
• Developer — Rare
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Platform — SNES

One of the most amazing things about the Donkey Kong Country trilogy on SNES is that the games are one of the few series where each new entry isn’t a case of diminishing returns. Instead, each new entry in the Donkey Kong Country is arguably better than the last, with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest still serving as many players’ choice for the trilogy’s peak and one of the best platformers on the SNES.

• Release Date — March 11, 1995
• Developer — Square
• Publisher — Square
• Genre — JRPG
• Platform — SNES

Square and Enix’s decision to form a “Dream Team” to collaborate on an epic RPG for the SNES would gift players one of the greatest games ever made, and Chrono Trigger fittingly transcends the time in which it was released to remain a pinnacle of RPG gaming 30 years later. Everything about Chrono Trigger is timeless — its iconic score, its unmistakable cast of memorable heroes, its gorgeous pixel art visuals to render late legend Akira Toriyama’s artwork, and of course, its pitch-perfect RPG gameplay and story. Chrono Trigger rose to the top of the pile as one of the best games ever made at the time of its release, and it’s a position it’s never lost ground on over three decades.