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

[Tuhr]

Pitfall, it was developed at a time before developers realized games need endings. After beating the game you start back at the first level. You get tired of wasting your time flipping the game over and over before you decide to turn the Atari off.

Which brings me to the next point.

Ghosts N' Goblins(NES), iconic game and very difficult to play. It also restarts from the beginning at an even more difficult setting until you realize it's time to rage quit not wanting another Pitfall-like experience. Also, the reward for beating it is anti-climactic.

Not that I don't like mistranslations, mind you. Better in the intro than at the end of a hard as hell game.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

 

[Robert Newbie]

They pretty much nailed OoT. The setting, the dungeons, the soundtrack, the puzzles, the bosses, it's all perfect. The only thing that has aged are the graphics, and the 3DS version goes a long way in fixing that.

Can't say the same for Super Mario 64 though. They clearly hadn't perfected 3D platformers yet, and it shows. To begin with, the camera is annoying to put it mildly. The levels seem to be made out of random pieces that don't fit together, and they are kinda empty. The level design is just not up to par, and it makes the game less fun to play. And for a 3D platformer, that's the single most important thing. The bowser fights are repetitive and too easy. The levels don't have enough variety to them, there are too many water levels that all feel exactly the same.
Banjo-Kazooie showed how to do 3D platformers right, and there have been a number of Super Mario 64 romhacks that are more fun to play than the original and show what that engine is capable of.

You know, I think some of these criticisms of Super Mario 64 are fair. When I was a kid, I thought the outside of the castle was the most unfinished area of all. The area floats in a void, which should only make sense inside the paintings. When you get onto the Castle roof, you see that there's missing collision on at least one of the small towers. Not only that, but you cannot see the courtyard (where the boo's are) from the roof. It's just an invisible wall and nothingness. The sight of the whole area from the roof only accentuates how empty it all is. An extended section, like in Super Mario Galaxy, would have really fleshed it out.

I agree with the Bowser fights being repetitive. Batman: Arkham Asylum had the same problem: Fight regular enemies, wait for the boss to run at you, dodge, repeat. It was maddening for a PS3 game to be using a boss battle design that the industry had already learned was dull. (and repeat it for the whole game)

 

[subcon959]

I think it's the gamers that aged poorly.

 

[Jayro]

Can't say the same for Super Mario 64 though. They clearly hadn't perfected 3D platformers yet, and it shows.

You do realize that it's one of the first 3D platformers like EVER, right? Like early stages of even working in 3D space for console gaming. So of course it's aged atrociously, but it could honestly have been much worse off. Like Bubsy 3D. Now THAT was an atrocious 3D platformer. And giving horror games Like Resident Evil tank controls when analogue sticks were a thing was truly a terrible choice. Only the N64 version of Resident Evil 2 got that right with Control Type D. Leon and Clair had fluid analogue controls, and it was a godsend. Silent Hill 1 was also annoying to control.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

You do realize that it's one of the first 3D platformers like EVER, right? Like early stages of even working in 3D space for console gaming. So of course it's aged atrociously, but it could honestly have been much worse off. Like Bubsy 3D. Now THAT was an atrocious 3D platformer. And giving horror games Like Resident Evil tank controls when analogue sticks were a thing was truly a terrible choice. Only the N64 version of Resident Evil 2 got that right with Control Type D. Leon and Clair had fluid analogue controls, and it was a godsend. Silent Hill 1 was also annoying to control.

Obviously. But Banjo-Kazooie came out only 2 years later, and that game hasn't aged a day.
I think Super Mario 64 could've been a much better game if they had given it some more time in the oven, but they wanted it to be a launch title. I'm sure internal testers noticed things like the bad camera controls.
That game deserves a full remake. Better camera, better underwater controls, more polished graphics, and including the extra content from SM64DS. Instead we got Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which improved nothing. I wonder if we'll ever see a remake of Super Mario 64.

Some people actually prefer the tank controls. I agree with you though.

 

[Dothackjhe]

Not the games as a whole per se, but I think the combat presentation in every Earthbound/Mother game has not aged well. I remember that, while I was enjoying the adventure in each title, I wished they all had better combat visuals, especially when using ESP skills.

 

[Robert Newbie]

I think Super Mario 64 could've been a much better game if they had given it some more time in the oven, but they wanted it to be a launch title. I'm sure internal testers noticed things like the bad camera controls.
That game deserves a full remake. Better camera, better underwater controls, more polished graphics, and including the extra content from SM64DS. Instead we got Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which improved nothing. I wonder if we'll ever see a remake of Super Mario 64.

I think it's safe to be critical while acknowledging the restrictions of the time. Like, you can admit that the stop-motion at the end of The Terminator (1984) was jank. That's what they had at the time, and it's still excellent work. With Super Mario 64, it has its flaws, but it's still a fun game to play.

I still stand by what I said about outside the castle, from the void and missing courtyard to the invisible wall and missing collision. SM64 is still my favorite 3D Mario game, though.