What's a VERY POPULAR GAME that hasn't aged well?

[JuanMena]

Was reading people comparing BotW with OoT and like, found interesting how both are 10/10 games, but "everyone" agrees that Zelda OoT hasn't aged well.
And then you learn that "OoT is oVerRatEd" folks are like, kids that were born from the Skyward Sword era onwards and their first Zelda game was BotW.

That got me thinking, that people like me (growing up in the 90s, or in another way to say, old people) will agree that Zelda OoT has indeed aged well because for what it used to be back then, and the impact it had for being not only the first 3D Zelda ever, but for pulling off and pretty much cementing 3D Adventure/RPG genre bases. That means OoT has indeed aged well and that will remain true for as long as old folks are still alive.

So, in your opinion, what very popular game hasn't aged well?

 

[Xzi]

Almost every example I can think of comes from the early 3D era. Goldeneye 007 aged poorly not only graphically, but also in its controls. Mario Tennis and Smash Bros in their first iterations also feel absolutely awful to play by today's standards. Starfox 64, OTOH, is one of the few 3D games of the era that hold up surprisingly well.

 

[The Catboy]

This isn't so much of a game but more of a system, most PS2 games aged like milk left in the sun. Sorry, but PS2 has some fantastic games that still look great but a good chunk of them look absolutely terrible, especially when compared to the same games on the Gamecube and Xbox. The PS2 just had some weird-looking graphics, even for the time. This isn't to say I don't enjoy the games, but it is to say that if they have a port on another system then I am playing that port instead.

 

[RyanTheArchivist]

Almost every example I can think of comes from the early 3D era. Goldeneye 007 aged poorly not only graphically, but also in its controls. Mario Tennis and Smash Bros in their first iterations also feel absolutely awful to play by today's standards. Starfox 64, OTOH, is one of the few 3D games of the era that hold up surprisingly well.

Goldeneye I get, same with Smash to an extent, but Mario Tennis is bad? I never had an issue with it.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

Morrowind. Absolutely love the game, but my god it did not age well.

 

[Xzi]

Morrowind. Absolutely love the game, but my god it did not age well.

Ehh if you throw enough mods at it, it looks half decent and is still a better overall game than Skyrim or Oblivion.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

Ehh if you throw enough mods at it, it looks half decent and is still a better overall game than Skyrim or Oblivion.

Fair enough. Personally I think Skyrim is overrated as hell, basically unplayable without mods after you've finished it the first few times.

Morrowind is a good game, the vanilla experience just didn't age well at all. Obviously mods can fix that, but that's not really the point of the thread.

I feel like Oblivion was a good balance between the two. It still feels good enough imo, and it's better than Skyrim. Things can obviously still be improved, but that's true for anything honestly.

If the Skyblivion project ever actually fully comes around, that'd be a step towards fixing almost anything wrong with Oblivion honestly.

 

[wiindsurf]

Mario Kart on the GBA

 

[JuanMena]

Mario Kart on the GBA

TRUE!

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

Almost everything on the N64, to be honest. Every remake has proven just how underwhelming that system was. The 3DS remakes of Starfox 64 and both Zelda titles prove this beyond any doubt. Even the XBLA unreleased port of Goldeneye 007 was bounds and away better than the original, and showed just how much it desperately needed a true current-gen control layout.

Granted, they were great at their time, but all four of them were vastly improved with their remakes/ports.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

+1 for pretty much any older 3d title, but N64 games in particular stand out for aging terribly just because of how they were designed and developed around the hardware limitations the N64 had. Impressive for the time, but nowadays are pretty rough to get through, especially so for those few that have remakes as mentioned above. Saturn games are also very rough to play for the same reason.


For me personally though, a lot of Wii games I think have aged terribly now that we're 15+ years out. There are so many titles that tried to implement motion controls and work around the weak hardware limitations that in the end, after the allure of the gimmick has worn off all these years, most games on the platform that were considered "good" are pretty ass to play now.

 

[x65943]

FFVII, random encounters and blocky graphics have made the original inaccessible to modern audiences

Xenogears mostly aged well, outside of random encounters fatigue

So many early RPGs were grindfests - the original Mother for NES comes to mind

Almost every example I can think of comes from the early 3D era. Goldeneye 007 aged poorly not only graphically, but also in its controls. Mario Tennis and Smash Bros in their first iterations also feel absolutely awful to play by today's standards. Starfox 64, OTOH, is one of the few 3D games of the era that hold up surprisingly well.

SF64 is still fun, but I wish you could save between levels - was playing on original hardware lately and finding time to beat the game as an adult without saving can be difficult

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

FFVII, random encounters and blocky graphics have made the original inaccessible to modern audiences

Xenogears mostly aged well, outside of random encounters fatigue

So many early RPGs were grindfests - the original Mother for NES comes to mind


SF64 is still fun, but I wish you could save between levels - was playing on original hardware lately and finding time to beat the game as an adult without saving can be difficult

You remember beating it with nothing but skill on the original hardware, though. Nothing beats that feel.

Kids today just cannot possibly know.

 

[rushjurassicparkfly]

Diablo 1
I tried it last summer for nostalgia's sake, but that walking speed... It doesn't make it unplayable or anything, though it feels like a turn-based title at times, which it isn't (I know that they wanted to make it turn-based at one point in early development, but still...)

 

[EpikJimmer]

i would say mario 64 because the camera is shit but sm64 is my favourite game ever so I am legally obligated to not hate it.

 

[eyeliner]

You remember beating it with nothing but skill on the original hardware, though. Nothing beats that feel.

Kids today just cannot possibly know.

You can't fathom spending upwards of 300 hours on a single game today.

I spent that on FFVII (PSX) and Oblivion (X360), exploring every nook and cranny, facing and hugging every wall looking for items, quests and generally reading (or hearing) NPCs.
(the Thieves Guild final mission is completely epic, way better than whatever that Assassins Guild had)

Today there are too many games, the publishers just want to keep the money rolling and publish games almost monthly and if you are a player that wants to game, you just go to the next thing that interests you.

Specifically offline games, mind you.

 

[duwen]

FFVII, random encounters and blocky graphics have made the original inaccessible to modern audiences

I'd still rather play FFVII on PS1 than FFVII Remake on current platforms. Same goes for OG PS1 Tomb Raider versus anything bearing the name that came later.

Mario Kart on the GBA

Completely disagree. I find it equally as playable as either of the other 2 handheld entries in the series, and in terms of the '2d' sprite based games in the franchise, the GBA version is a far more enjoyable and playable experience today than the SNES original.

 

[krakenx]

Castlevania games prior to SOTN. Not being able to correct your jumps in mid-air is so painful to go back to.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

(the Thieves Guild final mission is completely epic, way better than whatever that Assassins Guild had)

I'll admit that the Gray Fox questline for the Thieves Guild is one of the best in Oblivion, but I wouldn't rank it above the Dark Brotherhood's. I'd rank them both together tbh because I enjoyed both of them that much.

---

Anyways as for games that haven't aged that well? I guess the original Darksiders. Absolutely love the game, but unless you're playing the Warmastered edition, it feels a bit clunkier than I'd like.

 

[elk1007]

While this question is entirely subjective, I think a game "ages well" when it's still fun to play in the present day compared to other games currently available.
Would you play OoT even though Tears of the Kingdom just launched?
I would, so I consider it to have aged well.

Would I play Final Fantasy 7 on PS1 even thought here are way newer FFs and even a 7 remake?
Probably not. I appreciate the game but it hasn't "aged well" in terms of playability.