Its tough growing up! Responsibilities kick in and how you pictured it would be when you were younger doesn’t seem to match up to the reality. Job pressures, pressure from friends and even pressure to get out there and enjoy yourself. It all builds up and frankly its no wonder so many of us aren’t as happy as we should be.

The best way to escape it? Sink back into the videogames of your youth. Nostalgia is a strong force and the familiar tunes, graphics and gameplay from all those wasted summers are wonderfully soothing.

Here’s our list of the best!

The Sims

First on the list is everyone’s favourite simulation game, The Sims. You can choose how you play this option, either plump for the newest version, which has all the bells and whistles or goes truly back in time to the original.

The Sims 4 is the newest version of the game and features options that you could only have dreamed of all the way back in 2000! Your Sims can lose and gain weight, travel around the neighbourhood freely and even organise furniture diagonally! There are still the same kooky voices as the original and the hilarious item descriptions, but the whole thing has been majorly updated and is still a dangerously easy way to lose a whole afternoon (or four).

The original Sims, on the other hand, is so much shakier than you remember it. If you’ve played a newer version then be prepared to have forgotten just how basic this simulation was. The people are pixelated (and not just when they’re showering), the music is enough to drive you mad, yet somehow wonderfully so and furniture placement might have you pulling your hair out.

However, there is something oddly charming about this simplistic game. It’s still extremely playable, though the interactions are much simpler and the options for personalization are greatly reduced. At its core it’s brilliant.

Maybe you used to spend whole weeks locked in your room clicking away, now you’d likely have had enough after an hour or so, but its wonderful simplicity and earworm theme tunes, will have you humming that ‘Buy Mode’ soundtrack long into the next week.

Super Mario

Although games from the 80s weren’t always renowned for their storylines, Super Mario still stacks up, making it one of the most exciting games from the decade. That’s no mean feat considering the long list of great 80’s videogames! With regular new releases and the possibility to download old editions, you can still help Luigi and Mario as they struggle to rescue the princess, squishing toadstools, collecting coins and busting Bowser along the way.

Super Mario was considerably reinvented throughout the last couple of decades, the games became ever wilder, seeing Mario embark on adventures across the globe, under the sea and even through galaxies.

More recently, however, the game’s creators have pared it right back with their Super Mario Bros U Deluxe version, where the character once again moves straightforwardly from left to right in settings that you’ll fondly remember from the game’s early days. In fact, the game is not so dissimilar from its origins, except that here you can play with your friends. The multiplayer level allows you to work with your friends (or against them if that’s your preference). It makes the whole thing move unbelievably fast and truly is a howlingly-great time.

RollerCoaster Tycoon

Do you remember the days of charging everyone hundreds of dollars to use the toilet? Of building roller coasters that led directly into the sky? Guests that were unceremoniously thrown into the lake? If you do, then you were undoubtedly a RollerCoaster Tycoon fan.
This brilliant game accrued months of our playtime across the world and for good reason! It is immensely playable, has plenty of funny little quirks that keep surprising you and most importantly, it’s never really finished.

Although the original game still more than stacks up and is worthy of many hours of play, the new RollerCoaster Tycoon World is the newest instalment in the franchise. The game includes all of the old favourite features but really does bring the original bang up to date.
The coaster maker is brilliant, it’s all in 3D and feels ultra-modern and much more user-friendly than previous games. It’s been slated for its graphics quality and in fairness before the patches, it wasn’t brilliant, however, since then it has improved markedly. It should be noted as well, that the patches have come in thick and fast, so this game truly is improving day by day.

The user-generated content is fantastic also and really makes this a wonderfully nostalgic game that’s truly worth downloading.