Kinda hard to categorize. I mean child me would have lost their mind over most modern games, but back when I was a kid in the late 80’s having a game who’s gameplay was more complex than “shoot till you die” was revolutionary. As such I’m gonna rank my three picks taking into account to the era they released.

Adventure. Adventure was a goal oriented… well, adventure game. That doesn’t sound like much now but at the time it was amazing. You had to move multiple items one at a time while dodging dragons (or killing them if you had the right item) to complete the game. Add in a item stealing bat and a item randomizer mode and for the time it was a truly amazing game for the time.

Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger joins time traveling with standard “saving the world” storyline, but somehow it’s more than the sum of it’s parts. Chrono Trigger is the pinnacle of the SNES JRPG with the perfect mix of taking itself seriously and just being a fun RPG.

Binding of Issac. One of the early “Roguelike unlock-a-thon” games BoI has just the right mix of “I want to unlock a new item” and “How broken will this run get?” that keeps me coming back. Granted, I’m combining the original Binding of Issac with Rebirth through Afterbirth here, but there’s enough continuity for me to group them all together.