Games too good to replay

[FootloosePhoenix]

I'd prefer to face my nostalgia towards a game head-on by playing it again at a different time, actually. Sometimes an old favourite game does live up to its previous memory, after all. In fact I've been replaying A Bug's Life on my Vita, which is one of the very first games I ever played (used to have it on PC, then I bought it again quite awhile ago as a PS1 classic) and I must've spent countless hours screwing around in it or watching my sister play. Golly, I remember how neither of us could get past Thud for so long, then one time my sister managed to beat him and I excitedly watched as she whizzed through the rest of the game. It's still a surprisingly decent platformer, all things considered. Thud is cake now on the other hand, though trying to gather all the grain in that level is not.

Either way, I wouldn't replay a game in order to preserve its memories in a simpler time, but I will say I'd be hard-pressed to play The Walking Dead again. The experience just wouldn't be pure. My interpretation is that it's not meant to be replayed; I learned something about myself from the way I handled those situations where you had to make a decision before the timer ran out and that really added to my engagement with the story and characters. Being able to anticipate and decide in advance for the sake of seeing everything would miss the entire point of the game, in my opinion. I wanted to play it again as soon as I'd finished it since I am naturally curious about what happens when you make different choices, but the Internet can help me with that anyway.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Final Fantasy X.

There is just so much to do and complete that once you've completed the game, you would not want to think twice and go through it all over again. I mean, you would after a long time and after you've been bitten by the nostalgia bug, but not for many, many years.

 

[captnb2thep]

Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts 1.

I'm planning on buying the HD remakes, but I'm a little bit scared that the magic won't be there anymore.

 

[doomed89]

Nothing is too good to replay, there are some games that have aged too badly to replay though lol.

 

[Legion]

Most heavily story based games I think.

The reason is because the first time I experience a story I can be swept up in it, but my mind will inevitably start analysing it if I experience it again, to the point where I start noticing all of the flaws or poorly written aspects and it kind of ruins it for me.

Similarly in a lot of things the first experience is the best because it's all new and exciting, but once you know what to do the charm starts to become a bit lost. In open world games for example a lot of the fun is in the exploring, but once you know where to go and the most optimal way of doing things, the excitement is gone.

It's not that the games have gotten worse, it's that the experience is largely based upon discovering the unknown. If you know what is going to happen before it does, then it just isn't as enjoyable.

 

[Bad Jim]

Too good to replay? Madness!

If you replay it and it's not as good as you remembered, you're still getting more fun out of it than if you leave it on the shelf and never play it.

Plus, I find that a lot of old games, like Doom, seem very dated when you look at the visuals but when you start playing again you realise they're still pretty fun.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

I don't really like to replay games to begin with. I'm kind of strange that way: I love to reread books, but games: not so much.

But games I really do not want to replay because it might tarnish my memories of it: the Longest Journey.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

I think most older gamers would agree that games from 1+ generations ago haven't aged too well, but we love them all the same.

I'd like to take the question in a slightly different direction, that being the game that I enjoy but would not enjoy a second time. Games for me that fall into this category are games like Spec: Ops the Line, the Witcher(1 or 2), or at this point in time even Bioshock Infinite.

The games were well done and I'm glad I spent the money on them. However I will probably never play Spec Ops again, it was too depressing. Infinite falls in the same boat. Witcher had a well thought out fantasy world with a rich story. At the same time the interface and gameplay were too unwieldy, and I doubt the cinematics can be skipped. So I'll simply cherish the memory, but probably not play them again.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I don't think the thread title means the same thing as what you're asking...

Anyway, I don't really hold many illusions about the games I played while I was growing up. I've replayed most of the ones I really loved, like Sonic the Hedgehog, Banjo-Kazooie, Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Final Fantasy VII/IX, Halo, Knights of the Old Republic II, etc. and for the most part they still hold up. Some have dated visuals, some have terrible pacing, some have vastly different ideas of level design compared to modern games, but they held up against my nostalgia anyway.

There is one game for which my rose-tinted goggles shattered when I replayed it, though.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

It made me so sad...

Whats wrong with Adventure 2 D:

OT: Nope, not a one. I regularly replay many of my games from older generations and I love and enjoy them all the same.
Sometimes the difficulty and poor controls make me more frustrated than I used to get but I still love and enjoy them.

 

[EquestrianGeneral]

I played Telltale's "The Walking Dead" once. ONCE.
It's my favorite game of 2012, but I can only handle it once. That ending... T-T

 

[shrekfan246]

There is one game for which my rose-tinted goggles shattered when I replayed it, though.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

It made me so sad...

Whats wrong with Adventure 2 D:

A lot of things.

Especially if you're a completionist.

I did type up a review back when I had played it again, but just to summarize:
The pacing is horrible. Levels are broken up unevenly and have some odd transitions because of the fact that three characters per story are all sharing the spotlight at once.

Rouge's voice acting is some of the most embarrassing stuff I've ever heard, and only Robotnik and Shadow are really any better.

The graphics are somehow worse than Sonic Adventure DX.

The treasure-hunting levels are somehow worse than Sonic Adventure DX (probably mostly down the infinitely worse radar, but also more nonsensical level design).

Speaking of the treasure-hunting levels, the treasure-hunting levels. Tails/Robotnik's mech levels might be out-of-place, but they at least still actually work. But having to play through the Knuckles/Rouge levels again, I was reminded of why I rarely ever replayed them back on the Gamecube. It doesn't help that the camera is utterly broken in those stages too.

It's not all bad--I had a ton of fun with the Sonic/Shadow levels and the Chao Garden will always be adorable and addictive--but really, I don't know if I would say it's worth slogging through the 2/3's of the missions you'd need to do to be able to access all of the actual good content in free play.

 

[Djaevlenselv]

None spring to mind, but I will say that Tomb Raider didn't age very well.

Even though the Atlantis levels remain as disgusting as snot.

I just want to tell you lacktheknack, that if I have nightmares tonight I am SOLELY blaming your profile pic

OT: I find that most 8/16-bit console games I replay actually hold up pretty well; Mega Man, Super Probotector, Soul Blazer trilogy, Super Mario World, I still think these games are pretty great. I'm more worried about the N64 games. I did play Blast Corps a while back and to my immense relief found it to still be a pretty good, even great, game. I've been holding back however, from playing other games I loved such as SM64, Lylat Wars, DK64, Perfect Dark, Turok 2, Pilotwings 64 and Diddy Kong Racing, exactly for this reason.

Mostly though, I experience this with older PC games. I recently looked up the original civilization, which I remember fondly and played a lot of 16 years ago. Now I find it overly clunky and impenetrable.

Mind you, I think it could be very interesting to try to judge what games have lost their shine because they aged poorly, and which ones were just remembered fondly, but weren't actually that great to begin with.

 

[The_Echo]

The Walking Dead. I loved that game, but I will never play it again.

Unless you're of the mindset that you want to see all the possible scene variations, there's really no reason to replay it anyway.

 

[GreenShirtsFTW]

I think most older gamers would agree that games from 1+ generations ago haven't aged too well, but we love them all the same.

I'd like to take the question in a slightly different direction, that being the game that I enjoy but would not enjoy a second time. Games for me that fall into this category are games like Spec: Ops the Line, the Witcher(1 or 2), or at this point in time even Bioshock Infinite.

The games were well done and I'm glad I spent the money on them. However I will probably never play Spec Ops again, it was too depressing. Infinite falls in the same boat. Witcher had a well thought out fantasy world with a rich story. At the same time the interface and gameplay were too unwieldy, and I doubt the cinematics can be skipped. So I'll simply cherish the memory, but probably not play them again.

I agree with you on Spec Ops. I started my second replay, but couldn't get past the first level... It just didn't feel right.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

There is one game for which my rose-tinted goggles shattered when I replayed it, though.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

It made me so sad...

Whats wrong with Adventure 2 D:

A lot of things.

Especially if you're a completionist.

I did type up a review back when I had played it again, but just to summarize:
The pacing is horrible. Levels are broken up unevenly and have some odd transitions because of the fact that three characters per story are all sharing the spotlight at once.

Rouge's voice acting is some of the most embarrassing stuff I've ever heard, and only Robotnik and Shadow are really any better.

The graphics are somehow worse than Sonic Adventure DX.

The treasure-hunting levels are somehow worse than Sonic Adventure DX (probably mostly down the infinitely worse radar, but also more nonsensical level design).

Speaking of the treasure-hunting levels, the treasure-hunting levels. Tails/Robotnik's mech levels might be out-of-place, but they at least still actually work. But having to play through the Knuckles/Rouge levels again, I was reminded of why I rarely ever replayed them back on the Gamecube. It doesn't help that the camera is utterly broken in those stages too.

It's not all bad--I had a ton of fun with the Sonic/Shadow levels and the Chao Garden will always be adorable and addictive--but really, I don't know if I would say it's worth slogging through the 2/3's of the missions you'd need to do to be able to access all of the actual good content in free play.

Oh God the treasure hunting levels. Those were so damn annoying.
I enjoyed everything else though. Differing opinions and all that

 

[The Madman]

I have to agree with others in saying I absolutely loved The Walking Dead by Telltale games, but I have no intention of ever replaying it again.

 

[captnb2thep]

Heavy Rain, its not because it was so mind-blowingly spectacular that it can't be tainted by a second playthrough, it was just a very interesting and unique experience that was unique to me and my choices. I feel no need to play it again with different choices, I was plenty satisfied with one playthrough.

 

[Klumpfot]

There aren't any games I've held off on replaying for that reason, although I probably should have. Several games (most recently Mickey's Wild Adventure on the PSX) are nowhere near as good or fun as I've remembered them being. Don't give in to the temptation, people!

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

Okami, based on the title of the thread. It is by no means perfect, and there are a number of parts that annoy me, but it doesn't have a terrible amount of replay value (at least for me) and the story is something I'll always treasure. No need for me to replay it for at least another 3-4 years.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Of all the generations to date I feel the first awkward steps into 3d and blocky polygon aesthetics of the n64 era have aged the worst. Also, I'm much more... 6 foot 4 than I was when I was 8 so that controller just does not fit in my hands the way it used to. I can still go back to majora's mask and ocarina (though frankly thank fuck for the virtual console ports) because they're more about the story, exploration, and problem solving than percision platforming and such but almost everything else... not so much.

Also anything that's a collect-a-thon. I started playing Jak and Daxter again on the ps3 and I realized I don't have the time for that kind of game anymore, much less replaying one I've already completed 100% all those years ago.