10 Retro Games That Have Thriving Esports Communities (2025)

Gamers return to beloved retro classics for an abundance of reasons. Nostalgia transports fans to an earlier time while playing retro games, and trying out an old series today is an excellent way to appreciate classic titles. Revisiting retro games brings pieces of media history to the present, and their age gives them added meaning in the context of newer franchises.

Fans of certain retro competitive games have been keeping the titles alive for decades. Fighting game classics and genre-defining strategy games alike maintain an active community of competitive play. Despite retro competitive games' age, players continue to discover new tactics and strategies.

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10 Age of Empires II

Age of Empires II pits players against each other in medieval real-time strategy combat. Competitors start their empire as a few workers in the Dark Age and transform it into a thriving kingdom in the Empire Age. Managing resources, buildings, and manpower is essential for building an army powerful enough to conquer opponents.

Age of Empires II allows players to choose from 45 different civilizations with their own unique bonuses, technologies, and units. Players can go head-to-head in 1v1s or team up in matches with up to 8 players in 4v4. Though the Age of Empires series has had numerous entries, Age of Empires II received an HD remake in 2012 as well as a remaster in the form of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition in 2019.

9 Counter-Strike 1.6

With Counter-Strike 2 just released, it may seem odd that the original Counter-Strike still has a competitive scene. Diehard fans continue to play Counter-Strike version 1.6, strafing and sneaking around classic maps like Dust and Inferno. Though casual play is almost non-existent, small teams around the globe maintain fan servers and set up competitions.

Counter-Strike's competitive popularity is primarily due to its high skill ceiling and ability to run on limited hardware. Counter-Strike 1.6 can now run on basic computers and setting up a server for play is relatively easy. Because the game is now 23 years old, tips and guides on how to play are widely available.

8 Super Smash Bros. Melee

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Super Smash Bros. Melee, the sequel to the original Super Smash Bros., features quick and explosive combat with a roster filled with Nintendo's most iconic characters, like Link and Mario. Rather than depleting the opponent's health bar, attacks build up a damage percentage. The higher the damage percentage, the farther a character will fly when hit. The goal of each match is to knock opponents out of the stage.

Since its release, grassroots Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments have been a staple of the fighting game community. Though titles in the Smash Bros. series are commonly considered party games, there is a wealth of techniques and strategies to develop in competitive play.

7 StarCraft

The original StarCraft is legendary in the competitive gaming community. To this day, StarCraft is known for its finely tuned balance and its high level of competitive play. Players fight as one of three races, the technologically advanced Protoss, the hordes of insectoid Zerg, or the versatile human Terrans. Quick thinking and strategic planning must both be employed to overcome rival strategists.

StarCraft was most popular in South Korea and much of the game's meta stems from the strategies developed by competitive Korean players. Today, StarCraft II reigns as the king of strategy games in eSports, but fans are still mastering the micromanagement of the first in the series. The original StarCraft is now free for those who want to experience one of the first eSports.

6 Heroes of Might and Magic III

Heroes of Might and Magic III remains one of the most expansive turn-based strategy games. The gameplay is split into three parts: Town development where players purchase buildings and combat units, map exploration where players send heroes to gather resources and engage in combat and tactical hex-based combat sequences where players command their armies against AI monsters or rival armies. Mastering all three sections allows the player to quickly build powerful armies and capture more towns.

Heroes of Might and Magic III was a pioneer of online gaming, and--though the built-in online mechanics have not aged well--fan mods have kept the title alive since its release. The first-ever Heroes of Might and Magic III world tournament was held in January 2022 and the strategy classic maintains a substantial following on Twitch. Twelve differing factions and an endless number of maps ensure that every match plays out in its own unique way.

5 Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow

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While the world of Pokémon has become ubiquitous, no iteration is better known than the original 151 Pokémon of Gen 1. Fans constantly debate the merits of the Pokémon sequels, reminiscing about the great creature design or the unique gameplay additions of a specific generation. Gen 1 has the most simplified mechanics, limiting the Pokémon pool, movesets, and types to those in the original entries to the series.

The advent of the free web app Pokémon Showdown has made playing Gen 1 Pokémon easier than ever. Pokémon Showdown allows players to select and customize their teams automatically, foregoing the capturing and training in mainline Pokémon titles. Nostalgic fans can relive their dreams of being a Kanto Pokémon trainer while getting to know the mechanics of competitive Pokémon.

4 Super Mario Kart

Super Mario spinoffs have truly taken lives of their own and the Mario Kart series is no exception. Super Mario Kart contains all the core DNA of the Mario Kart series: a roster of eight Mario characters race on one of 20 tracks, using battle items and driving skills to get ahead. The game's graphics used the SNES's Mode 7 to simulate 3D racing before polygonal graphics were widely available.

The Super Mario Kart community continues to hold championships, not only for the standard racing mode but also for the game's item-based battle mode. For fans interested in the highest levels of play, online leaderboards post the world's fastest times for each track. Both types of competitive play demand intimate knowledge of every track and the game's retro driving controls.

3 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

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Fans adore The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, not only for its lavish design or innovative mechanics but also for the way it captures the heart of the Zelda series. A Link to the Past blends the classic magical adventure of Zelda with wonderful pacing that thoughtfully introduces new mechanics and areas. The game also features the two parallel overworlds of the Light World and the Dark World, almost doubling the size of the initial map.

The organization of dual overworlds, a plethora of dungeons, and numerous unlockable items make A Link to the Past a perfect candidate for a logic randomizer. The randomizer mixes up the location of items and randomly reorders the events of the game. In randomizer competitions, players try to complete the game the fastest through optimal gameplay and knowledge of the game's world.

2 Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting

Even 30 years after the first Street Fighter game, competitive fighting game players are still returning to the smash arcade hit, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Street Fighter II introduced move combos and a roster of unique playable characters, tenets that would become central to the fighting game genre. The original arcade controls used an eight-directional joystick and six attack buttons, controls that can be replicated with a Fight Stick or mapped onto conventional controllers.

The introduction of Turbo increased game speed and allowed players to attack and react quickly. This change kicked the competitive capacity of Street Fighter II into high gear because of the precise timing needed for combos and special moves. Fans and critics list Street Fighter II as one of the best games of all time, and it continues to be a standby at fighting game tournaments.

1 Tetris (NES)

Tetris remains one of the most iconic video games ever made due to its approachable gameplay. The classic real-time puzzle game keeps it simple: blocks of different shapes fall from the top of the screen and disappear when they are placed into a completed row. The speed at which blocks fall gets faster over time, and the game ends when the stack of blocks reaches the top of the screen, leaving players with their score based on how many rows they completed.

Tournaments such as the Classic Tetris World Championship have been the source of many strategies and techniques for optimizing Tetris. One such technique called "rolling," where players tap the back of the controller into their fingers, has redefined the game. The current world record for NES Tetris is 6.4 million points.