(Image description: A woman's hand holds a brown gift wrapped package with a picture attached by twine. The picture is of Boromir in the Lord of the Rings, saying "It is a gift".)

I'm trying my best to dive back into the past and play all the gems that I missed as a kid because I was either born too late or too much of a kid to consider playing them. I found myself really disappointed going back to the old mario nes/snes titles because they felt really bad to play as I've become accustomed to modern platformer design sensibilities (like coyote time and responsive movement).

Are there any oldies+goldies that have stood up to the test of time and not shown their age in the same way? Or are so good that they're worth playing despite showing their age? Preferably avoiding racing, sports, and final fantasy-esque titles. Not really interested in anything more recent than PS2 era either.

I already have Earthbound in my sights as it isn't one I've played before but it comes highly recommended.