Ill get the ball rolling.
I will definitely put up Final Fantasy 8 as the best game. period. Big claim i know but out of every single game ive played (and believe me thats several thousand at this stage) nothing has really come close.
The story is very detailed, relatable and just all round awesome. The graphics (back in those days) for a game of this scale was unreal - which brings up the point of the sheer scale of the game, 4 discs it took to playthrough the game, and you can spend literally hundreds of hours on one playthrough (just finished one myself, and logged about 300 hours for a full clear) There is a complete mini game (that could easily qualify for a stand alone game) and the musical score, to this day is still imo unrivalled, which alone would be enough to play the game. 7 was just not enough for me and 9 was too...i dunno japanese in the feel of it.
Another good contender is Metal Gear Solid 1.
Gran Turismo 2, mostly the original playstation games, alex the kidd as well was pure awesomeness - they sure dont make em like they use to
If only they combined todays graphics engines with gameplay/score/story with that of the older games
