Normally I'd rec a bunch of obscure stuff, but since you say you have limited exposure, here's a bunch of games from different genres, most of which are widely agreed on. If you know which of these you like and dislike, that'll make a good jumping off point for more specific recommendations.

NES: Fire 'N Ice, The Adventures Of Lolo 3, Megaman 2

SNES: Kirby Superstar, Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island

Gameboy: Link's Awakening DX

Gameboy Advance: Advance Wars, Fire Emblem

I’m interested in the FF series but have no idea where to start either 🤷‍♂️

Final Fantasy 6 for the SNES. It was localized as Final Fantasy 3, so if you see that on the SNES, that's also the right one.

They're all fully separate but 6 and 7 are widely considered the peak, and 6 is shorter.

If you play that and think "I want an intentionally dumber plot and smarter RPG mechanics" then play 5.

I lately played Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain on a PS5 and this game's a hot garbage AND a masterpiece at the same time.

The story is cliché and unique. It made me want to be done with it quick but also kept me extremely captivated. The gameplay is awful but feels great.

No, I don't mean it sometimes is great and sometimes it's horrible. Did you know that water can be hot and cold at the same time? This game was giving me this kind of vibes.

PS1: MGS, Tekken 3, Silent Hill, Shim Megami Tensei (remake of the SNES version just got an english translation a couple years ago)

SNES: Contra 3, Castlevania Dracula X

GBA: Warrioland 4, LoZ Minish Cap, Sonic Advance,

GBC: Warrioland 3, LoZ: Oracle of Ages/Seasons,

I seriously cannot believe nobody has yet mentioned Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PS1

I grew up on N64, IMO Star Fox 64 and F Zero X are among the greatest games ever made.

Final Fantasy series

FF6 and 7 are both fine starting points, SNES and PS1 respectively. FF Tactics is also a great game from the PS1 era, but best thought of as its own thing because aside from some visual designs it doesn't share much in common with the other FF games.

Also you should give Dreamcast a try! It's technically a generation later but emulation for it is really mature so it can run better than PS1 on some computers. Space Channel 5, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Power Stone, Samba de Amigo, Skies of Arcadia, Resident Evil Code Veronica, uhhhh Rez and Ikaruga and I guess Shenmue is cool too

for me older arcade games. just looking top of the list on my MAME rn: D&D Shadow over Mys / Tower of Doom, Metal Slug, Dragon Saber, Quiz & Dragons, 1942, Simpsons, TMNT Turtles in Time, Tempest, Puzzle Bobble 2/4, Super Mario Broths, Galaga, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, Joust, Gauntlet, Pole Position, Crystal Castles, Gorf, Bubble Bopbble, Final Fight, Out Run, Robotron.

PS1: Tomba!, Digimon World, Spyro 1

FF series but have no idea where to start either 🤷‍♂️

All the games stories are completely separate and you can play in any order. All the PS1 era ones should be good.

Metroid: Zero Mission is fantastic. It's pretty much the perfect remake of the original metroid, there's zero wasted content, the game has great pacing and is made to be beaten in under two hours, and the game actively encourages sequence breaking via morphball bombing, making it a really replayable title (The game has unique ending artwork for sequence breaking the shit out of it and beating it with less than 15% of the game's items). Played it for the first time this year so I can confirm it has aged gracefully like wine or a graceful and hot immortal vampire guy or something idk

they should have called it Peak: Peak Peak imo

The PS1 had some great ports of arcade games that afaik don't play well in MAME. Tekken 1-3, Ridge Racer, Soul Edge, Rival Schools, Ehrgeiz, Star Galdiator, are some. Duckstation is a fantastic emulator and a favorite of mine.

N64: Mario Golf is a good one to throw a podcast on for.

I've only dabbled in emulation to play things on my phone, so I only really have suggestions for Gameboy Advance games, but here they are:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Golden Sun 1 and 2

Harvest Moon

Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green

PS1: THPS, Crash, Gex, Vigilante 8, Syphon Filter/2, gta/2

GBA: golden sun, loz:la, wario land, Emerald is the superior Pokémon game.

Nes: double dragon 2, super dodge ball, ice hockey, kings of the beach, mt's punch out, rc pro-am, tmnt the arcade game.

Surprised no mention of Pokemon Pinball on GBA. Your pinball is a pokeball and you catch, evolve, and hatch pokemon throughout your run. You "travel" across areas for different types, play mini games, and unlock legendary pokemon. Only game I've played repeatedly to try for a better score. That shit is addictive. I wish they would make a new one, but I know they would fuck it up.

For gba there are a bunch of fantastic pokemon hacks. I've played glazed before and I've been playing pokemon unbound. For gba golden sun is also funtastic

This year has been about Fire Emblem for me. Played through a romhack or two from the GBA era and played through Radiant Dawn, the Wii entry, with a randomizer that was really fun.

Edit: Should mention the Romhack that I was most impressed by was The Morrow's Golden Country.

I play lots of shmups like DoDonpachi, Dangan Feveron, Batsugun, Battle Garegga etc. Retroarch with runahead will make them run nice and smooth. Mega Drive and PC Engine have some great games like Gunstar Heroes, Contra Hard Corps, M.U.S.H.A., Eliminate Down, Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder, Soldier Blade, Blazing Lazers etc. Really shows how bad the SNES action library was in comparsion, especially the shmups.

PS2 era survival horrors. There was a lot of them at the time, and RE4 hadn't yet caused them to all homogenate into one uniform structure, so you'd have stuff like Silent Hill 2, and Forbidden Siren, and Fatal Frame, and Resident Evil: Outbreak, all playing completely differently.

ps1: digimon world, legend of dragoon, breath of fire 4, front mission 4, wipeout
gbc: pokemon gen 2, pokemon trading card game
gba: zoids legends, pokemon gen 3, fire emblem
nes: tetris
snes: chrono trigger, ff6
sega master system: phantasy star, ultima 4
sega megadrive: sonic, comix zone, vixen 357

Thank you all for the recommendations! At my pace - this list will last me well into old age lol

If you aren't playing with a romhack, I'd suggest Pokemon Emerald instead of Firered. But you may want to look into some simple romhacks that will add QoL from later pokemon games (along with fairy type, etc.), and that unlock all pokemon so that you can actually obtain every single one without needing to trade.

As for recs:

Any GBA Fire Emblem game. The JP only one, Binding Blade, has a full English fan translation patch that you can apply to the rom. I've never played Sacred Stones, but Binding Blade is better for gameplay, Blazing Blade (or just "Fire Emblem" in the English market) has better story/characters. If you're already a Fire Emblem fan, then Thracia (on SNES) is one of the best games in the series; just make sure to use a guide (there's a spoiler free one out there somewhere) because the game has some really bad design that punishes the player for not knowing things (like needing a certain amount of keys before a certain level).

Megaman series on NES. Megaman 2 is one of the best games of all time imho. The others are fun, but they do get repetitive.

Super Mario World. Best platformer of its time, and probably one of the best of all time. You can play SNES version, but I think Super Mario Advance 3 (?) on GBA also has it (I think this one has the JP levels too?).

Double Dragon (on NES) is a fun beat-em-up for the time.

Frogger (on various systems) was a fun game for its time.

I'd be remiss to not recommend The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. I'm not a huge Zelda fan and even I found this to be a great game. At the time, it was simply unparalleled. Even now, it holds up really well, although its open world looks sad to anyone that's only every known modern games. I believe it's been decompiled, so there might be a PC version out there somewhere. There is the 3DS version which updates the graphics and fixes some annoyances and improves gameplay, whereas the N64 version has romhacks and (presumably) texture packs. Actually, there's a Gamecube version too if you want to emulate it on there.

On PS1, the Darkstalkers series is fun if you like Fighting games.

NES: 1942, Battletoads (also on other systems)

SNES: Aladdin

GBC/A: The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons (and/or Ages)

N64: The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, Mario Kart 64, Mario Party 3, Donkey Kong 64, 1080 Snowboarding

Make sure you've looked into texture packs for the 3D consoles. They can make a huge difference in terms of emulating the game on modern screens.

If playing SSX, unless you have a reason to prefer PS1, I highly suggest just playing Gamecube or PS2 versions of either SSX Tricky or SSX 3 (depending on which on you prefer). SSX Tricky is insanely fun.

GBA emulation was my goddamn jam. Back in 2008, during a school summer holiday, I downloaded a torrent called "GBA 1100 English ROMs", played every one, and kept the funnest ones.

Ones that are still top of the list:

• FF Tactics Advanced (replaying this on my TV with Batocera right now)
• Fire Emblem
• Golden Sun 1 + 2
• Harvest Moon More Friends of Mineral Town. Admittedly every Harvest Moon is dwarfed by Stardew Valley now, but they're still good games.
• Kirby Amazing Mirror + Dreamland
• Lunar Legend
• Medabots RPG if I'm in the mood.
• Megamans
• Metroids
• Monster Rancher Advance 2
• Pokemons
• Riviera the Promised Land (just replayed this all through last month, so tasty good)
• Summon Night - Swordcraft Story 1 + 2
• Sword of Mana
• Tactics Ogre - the Knight of Lodis
• Yggdra Union - We'll never fight alone
• Zeldas

Some of 'em are very subjective tastes, but I'd say worth checking out. If nothing else, I point people to Riviera as one of the coolest but relatively 'simple' RPGs of all time.