5 Video Games From The '80s That Became Cult Classics

June 10, 2026 - 07:13

The road to becoming a cult classic often starts with being forgotten. These games from the '80s have a good start on that, but all were fabulous to play. While the decade gave us blockbusters like Super Mario Bros. and Pac-Man, a handful of titles slipped through the cracks only to be rediscovered years later by devoted fans.

One such game is "Impossible Mission," released in 1984 for the Commodore 64. Players had to search a sprawling mansion for puzzle pieces while avoiding robots. Its synthesized speech line "Stay a while, stay forever" became legendary among retro enthusiasts. Another is "Elite," a 1984 space trading simulator that pushed the boundaries of what a game could do with its open-world design and 3D wireframe graphics. It was complex, unforgiving, and utterly absorbing.

"Another World," also known as "Out of This World" in North America, came out in 1986. It used cinematic cutscenes and a silent narrative to tell the story of a scientist trapped on an alien planet. The game's atmospheric art style and lack of hand-holding made it a tough sell at launch, but it later inspired a generation of indie developers.

Then there is "Maniac Mansion," a 1987 point-and-click adventure from Lucasfilm Games. It let players control multiple characters with unique abilities, a novel idea at the time. Its quirky humor and non-linear puzzles earned it a small but fierce following. Finally, "Faxanadu," a 1987 action RPG for the NES, combined side-scrolling combat with deep character progression. It was often overshadowed by Zelda, but its dark fantasy world and challenging gameplay kept players coming back for decades.

These five games may not have topped the sales charts in their day, but they proved that being overlooked can sometimes be the first step toward being legendary.