help me brainstorm some classic games

[Limewater]

Beat-em-up
Double Dragon, Final Fight, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)

Fighting
Street Fighter II Turbo (Arcade)
Mortal Kombat (Arcade)
Soul Calibur (Dreamcast)

Platformer
Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
Super Mario World (SNES)

Shooter
Galaga (Arcade)
R-Type (Arcade)
Ikaruga (Dreamcast)

Action
I don't know what this genre is

Adventure
The Legend of Zelda (NES)
LoZ: A Link to the Past (SNES)
LoZ: Ocarina of Time (N64)

Driving
Test Drive (PC)
Outrun (Arcade)
Pole Position (Arcade)

Puzzle
Tetris (Gameboy version)
Adventures of Lolo (NES)
Dr. Mario (NES)

Rhythm
Guitar Hero (PS2) (yes, I know it's not the original)
Samba de Amigo (Dreamcast)
Donkey Konga (Gamecube)

Simulation
Sim City 2000 (PC or Mac)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (PC)
Pirates! (PC)

RPG
Final Fantasy (NES)
Ultima 4 (PC)
Dragon Warrior 3 (NES)

Sports
Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)
RBI Baseball (NES)
NBA Jam (SNES or Arcade)

Strategy
Warcraft 2 (PC)
Romance of Three Kingdoms (any)
Rampart (Arcade)

[GryeDor]

Awesome

Wanted to reply before reading other contributions so as to remain unbiased, but I'm excited to read what other people wrote!

Lots of hybrids in here, like Archon could be both Sim (chess parts) and Action (fighting parts), Shining Force is strategy and RPG... Nukem DOS is pretty platform heavy. Either way lots of fun games in here... the only one I listed that I haven't actually played is Pocky & Rocky. I listed it though because it LOOKS so freaking fun.

Beat-em-up: Battletoads Series (NES, SNES, GEN), TMNT 4: Turtles in Time (SNES)

Fighting: Eternal Champions (GEN), Smash Bros. Series (N64, GCN, Wii), Street Fighter 3 (DC)

Platformer: Commander Keen (DOS), Yoshi's Island (SNES), Bucky O'Hare (NES)

Shooter: Duke Nukem (DOS), Goldeneye (N64), Doom... duh! (it's everywhere...)

Action: Shadow of the Ninja (NES), Archon (tons...), Pocky & Rocky (SNES)

Adventure: Gargoyle's Quest Trilogy (GB, NES, SNES), Monkey Island Series (DOS, PC), StarTropics (NES)

Puzzle: Adventures of Lolo Series (NES), Goblins Series (DOS), Humans (DOS)

RPG: Earthbound (SNES), Paper Mario Series (N64, GCN, ...haven't played the Wii one), Robotrek (SNES)

Sports: Dusty Diamond's All Star Softball (NES), Super Dodgeball (NES)

Strategy: Heroes of Might and Magic 1-3 (PC), General Chaos (GEN), Shining Force (GEN)

[Erik_Twice]

Beat-em-up
Fighting
Platformer
Driving

Don't know enough to make claims about those genres.

Shooter

Counter-Strike (PC) Slow, squad based gameplay
Quake Live (PC) Fast, kickass, Quake.
Team Fortress 2: (PC) Definitive class-based teamplay with an unique mixture of several influences.

Adventure

The Secret of Monkey Island
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
The day of the Tentacle

Puzzle

Tetris the Grand Master 3: Terror Instinct (Arcade)
Portal (PC)
The Incredible Machine: Contraptions (PC) In this game you build complex, rube-goldberg-like devices to fulfill your goals! Very diverse and fun. AFAIK, this is the best version of the saga.

Rhythm

Beatmania IIDX: Not only it's was the first modern rhytmn game, it is still around since then, with another new release having a location test. Availble on PS2 and emulators. Also probably one of the hardest games around.

Dance Dance Revolution: One of the most popular rhytmn games, the physical part of the game makes the game a lot of fun to play. Availble on dozens of platforms but the best option is downloading Stepmania, an emulator.

Those are the most representative games of the genre, the others are not as close as those two.

Choosing between Pop'n'Music and Taiko seems meaningless to me, Guitar Hero and Rock Band don't seem as good as Guitar Freaks and Drummania to me, mainly due the notecharts, tough RB is much more polished in that regard.

While I think that Pump it Up is a better game than DDR, it is not as well-known and lacks the awesome simulation that Stepmania offers.

Simulation

Simcity 4 (PC) Best game in the series
OpenTTD (PC) This is a vastly improved version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Incredible replay value and lets you build huge networks.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (PC) While less polished than 2, it's probably the best on the series. Building is just incredibly fun in this game, you can be very creative.

RPG

Diablo II (PC): Great dungeon crawler. Fun to play and has a great cooperative mode.
Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (NDS) While I enjoy Pokemon more for it's multiplayer aspect it's undeniably a good, solid series for both single player and multiplayer. The competitive side of the game is like a Magic: The Gathering lite, a hidden information game with strategy building but without the huge cost associated to MTG.

Strategy

Civilization IV: While V is out already, a sizable part of the Civ fanbase, myself included felt it was not as good as IV by a long shot and lacks the huge polish of the previous version. For now, this is the best Civilization title.
UFO: Enemy Unkown: (PC) Also known as XCOM: UFO Defense.
Starcraft 2: (PC) I think it's both one of the best and one of the most representative.

I may look greatly biased towards the PC but it's just because I don't know much about the most common console genres.

[BoringSupreez]

Strategy

Civilization IV: While V is out already, a sizable part of the Civ fanbase, myself included felt it was not as good as IV by a long shot and lacks the huge polish of the previous version. For now, this is the best Civilization title.

That is, it's the best if you've got Beyond the Sword installed too. If you have that too, then CIV4 is certainly the best in the series. I loved the random events.

[Erik_Twice]

That is, it's the best if you've got Beyond the Sword installed too. If you have that too, then CIV4 is certainly the best in the series. I loved the random events.

The expansions really brought a lot of polish, that's undeniable. I still think that vanilla Civ is better than the complete III and better than V when it was just released (I heard that it has been heavily rebalanced with patches, so it may not be true anymore)

[Evildeadmanwalking77]

Conversation with Flake and DSH last night has me thinking about CLASSIC games that I've missed out on. For each genre listed below, name me the first 3 games you think of as being synonymous with said genre. The first games you'd think I was a videogame moron for having never played. (Include which console version you'd recommend as well). Any era, any system, all brainstorming appreciated.

Beat-em-up
Fighting
Platformer
Shooter
Action
Adventure
Driving
Puzzle
Rhythm
Simulation
RPG
Sports
Strategy

Here we go:

Beat em up:
River City Ransom (NES or GBA, Tie for me)
The Warriors (Xbox)
Golden Ax series (Genesis)

Fighting:
TMNT Tournament Fighter (NES & SNES, another tie)
Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee (Gamecube)
Eternal Champions (Sega CD)

Shooter:
Loaded (PS1)
Duke Nukem (PS1)
Final Doom (PS1)

Platformer:
Bonk's adventure (TG 16)
Toe Jam & Earl (Genesis)
Kid Chameleon (Genesis)

Adventure:
Venture (Atari)
Zelda (NES)
Goonies II (NES)

Action:
Star Wars: Battlefront series (PS2 & Xbox)
Splatter House series (TG-16. Genesis, & Xbox 360)
Brutal Legend (Xbox 360)

Driving:
RC Pro Am (NES)
Super Mario Kart (SNES)
Road Rash (Genesis)

Sports:
Pro Wrestling (NES)
Tecmo Bowl (NES)
Ice Hockey (NES)

Puzzle:
Dr Mario (Nes)
Tetris (Game Boy)
Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (Nes)

Strategy:
Worms (PS1)
Risk (Genesis)
Spy vs Spy (Nes)

I'm not into RPGs and couldn't think of anything for simulation or rhythm.

[Breetai]

Beat-em-up
Double Dragon II (NES/Genesis/PCE/Arcade))
River City Ransom (NES/PCE)
Vigilante (SMS/PCE)

Fighting
Street Fighter II (every system ever made from 1991 onwards)
Fighting Vipers (Saturn)
World Heroes 2 Jet (Neo Geo)

Platformer
Tempo (32X)
Astal (Saturn)
Pitfall (2600)

Shooter
River Raid (2600)
Life Force (NES/Arcade/Saturn/PS1/PCE)
Raiden (PCE/Jaguar/SNES/Genesis/PS1/Arcade)

Action
Xexyz (NES)
Little Nemo: The Dream Master (NES)
Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (NES/PCE)

Adventure
Metroid (NES)
Golvellius (SMS)
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (SMS/PCE)

Driving
Outrunnners (Genesis/Arcade)
Ridge Racer (PS1/Arcade)
Daytona USA (Saturn/Dreamcast/PC/Arcade)

Puzzle
Tetris Plus (Saturn)
Saturn Bomberman (Saturn)
Panic Bomber (PCE/SNES)

Rhythm
don't care, sorry

Simulation
Railfan (PS3)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (PC)
Extreme Warfare Revenge Wrestling (PC)

RPG
Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
Phantasy Star IV (Genesis)
Wild Arms (PS1)

Sports
NHL Hockey (Genesis)
NHL 94 (Genesis/Sega CD/SNES)
Mutant League Hockey (Genesis)

Strategy
Civilization (PC)
Ogre Battle (SNES/PS1)
Shining Force (Genesis)

[noiseredux]

River Raid (2600)

does River Raid have an end, or is it a constant loop until you eventually die?

[Hobie-wan]

River Raid (2600)

does River Raid have an end, or is it a constant loop until you eventually die?

Loops forever like most old games. War of attrition.

[Breetai]

River Raid (2600)

does River Raid have an end, or is it a constant loop until you eventually die?

Loops forever like most old games. War of attrition.

Yup