Almost all games from the N64 look like crap now.
However, most SNES games still look amazing.
2D is king, etc.
However, most SNES games still look amazing.
2D is king, etc.
Name one game that you think has aged well and one that hasn't - CHAT WITH THE STAFF!
- Thread starter tendo82
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Pac-Man aged incredibly well. When releasing Pac-man C.E. they barely changed it and it still works.
Not so well... I would say Streetfighter 2. I used to love that game to death, now it just seems so simple. Yet nothing much has changed in the fighting genre. It's probably just become too familiar. (Mortal Kombat is a more obvious choice but was that ever really that good?)
Not so well... I would say Streetfighter 2. I used to love that game to death, now it just seems so simple. Yet nothing much has changed in the fighting genre. It's probably just become too familiar. (Mortal Kombat is a more obvious choice but was that ever really that good?)
In the past few years I'd say COD4 has aged well, still has plenty of people playing despite their being another COD game out, one that hasn't in the last few years? GTAIV, got old in a few months
Aged well: the original Unreal Tournament. Character models show their age up close (like when setting up your player in the menus), but in game they work well and the environments are still nice. The texture overlays they use when looking at surfaces up close still give me a little bit o' glee. Controls are tight and game plays awesome. My fave shooter ever.
Aged badly: I dunno, tons. Oh I gotta pick one? Ok, um, PS2 era GTA games. After seeing GTAIV and booting up GTA SA OH MAN does that game look like crap! They need to infuse some of its fun into the next sequel tho, can't put my finger on it but somehow GTAIV has lost some of its replay value.
Oh and Indy and the Fate of Atlantis is still cool, along with Day of the Tentacle. Played both thru last year on an adventure kick. Unfortunately I can't suffer thru the graphics and sound of the og Maniac Mansion anymore.
Aged badly: I dunno, tons. Oh I gotta pick one? Ok, um, PS2 era GTA games. After seeing GTAIV and booting up GTA SA OH MAN does that game look like crap! They need to infuse some of its fun into the next sequel tho, can't put my finger on it but somehow GTAIV has lost some of its replay value.
Oh and Indy and the Fate of Atlantis is still cool, along with Day of the Tentacle. Played both thru last year on an adventure kick. Unfortunately I can't suffer thru the graphics and sound of the og Maniac Mansion anymore.
Well: Doom... totally solid and more playable than a few of todays shooters
Badly: Rainbow Six- Hard to believe how good this looked at the time when it looks so clunky compared to titles that have come out in the last year or two.
Though I love Bioshock, the enemy design and character models leave a lot to be desired.
Badly: Rainbow Six- Hard to believe how good this looked at the time when it looks so clunky compared to titles that have come out in the last year or two.
Though I love Bioshock, the enemy design and character models leave a lot to be desired.
Aged well? Starcraft.
Still one of the most fun RTS games I can play, still balanced, doesn't need a CD now, it's ten dollars so you can get anyone into it, still has AMAZING music, and you have a Lan option or Battlenet which still works (Since a lot of older games lost their net-host by now)
Hasn't aged well? Dune2000
This was a really fun RTS back in the day, but now if you play it you have to struggle with getting it on a computer, dualboot, or virtual machine with windows 95/98 (or 2000? can't remember) and afterwards the options for actually getting a lan game are minimal... Then you realize you can play a game like C&C3 or Red alert 2 and get the same game, with new support/graphics (although red alert2 has a similar lan issue, ffffff)
Still one of the most fun RTS games I can play, still balanced, doesn't need a CD now, it's ten dollars so you can get anyone into it, still has AMAZING music, and you have a Lan option or Battlenet which still works (Since a lot of older games lost their net-host by now)
Hasn't aged well? Dune2000
This was a really fun RTS back in the day, but now if you play it you have to struggle with getting it on a computer, dualboot, or virtual machine with windows 95/98 (or 2000? can't remember) and afterwards the options for actually getting a lan game are minimal... Then you realize you can play a game like C&C3 or Red alert 2 and get the same game, with new support/graphics (although red alert2 has a similar lan issue, ffffff)
Ocarina of Time, for me, has aged superbly. 11 years on and I still can't pick fault with it.
Oblivion, on the other hand, after just a few short years, seems clunky, clumsy and ugly.
Oblivion, on the other hand, after just a few short years, seems clunky, clumsy and ugly.
What has aged well? Tetris. Still as addictive to play now as it was back then, graphics wise, nothign really TO change. And now its available free on flash game sites, and on most mobile phones.
Aged badly... ooo a toughy of what to choose. Gonna go with Age of Empires 1, my sister reecently got all 3 AoE games plus expansions, and is working her way through them all. So I gave it a shot while she was off doing whatever and found it woefully different to what I remember, even on full settings the graphics hurt my eyes slightly, the AI of the units was retarded, as they kept trying to walk through cliffs/trees, or running back and forth while getting shot at. Totally summed up by fishing boats that went out, fished, then came back but got stuck on the coast about 2 squares away form the port, so would continue to sit there for ever and day unless you intervene... Oh, and 50 unit cap seems pretty laughable now with giant RTS games you can get.
AoE2 on the other hand is still pretty good fun
Aged badly... ooo a toughy of what to choose. Gonna go with Age of Empires 1, my sister reecently got all 3 AoE games plus expansions, and is working her way through them all. So I gave it a shot while she was off doing whatever and found it woefully different to what I remember, even on full settings the graphics hurt my eyes slightly, the AI of the units was retarded, as they kept trying to walk through cliffs/trees, or running back and forth while getting shot at. Totally summed up by fishing boats that went out, fished, then came back but got stuck on the coast about 2 squares away form the port, so would continue to sit there for ever and day unless you intervene... Oh, and 50 unit cap seems pretty laughable now with giant RTS games you can get.
AoE2 on the other hand is still pretty good fun
i don't think i'm enough a gamer to be able to say which games have aged well or not, but i think that Zelda: Ocarina of Time has aged supremely well.
as for not aged well? weeeelll... i dunno, Pong did kinda wear out its welcome...
as for not aged well? weeeelll... i dunno, Pong did kinda wear out its welcome...
There's loads of games that aged well, but one that stands out in my mind is Contra III: The Alien Wars (known to the PAL-goers as Super Probotector). Over 15 years after it was released, and the mechanics are still more refined than other entries in the Contra series. The graphics are decent to look at; the audio is slightly dated, but catchy; and the gameplay is still fun to play through, especially if you haven't played it before. Another thing that hasn't changed after all these years is the challenge level; it's still a difficult game, and downright brutal on Hard mode.
A game that hasn't aged well, or has been rendered unplayable through future iterations would be Super Smash Bros. for the N64. It was fun when it was first out, but Melee completely outdid it in every way possible: More characters and stages, updated visuals and audio, and the inclusion of trophies and several different play modes. Ironically, Melee has suffered the same fate now that Brawl is available. I doubt I could ever play either one of them again after all the fun I got from Brawl.
A game that hasn't aged well, or has been rendered unplayable through future iterations would be Super Smash Bros. for the N64. It was fun when it was first out, but Melee completely outdid it in every way possible: More characters and stages, updated visuals and audio, and the inclusion of trophies and several different play modes. Ironically, Melee has suffered the same fate now that Brawl is available. I doubt I could ever play either one of them again after all the fun I got from Brawl.
StarCraft and Counter-Strike 1.6 have been around forever and still have hundreds of thousands of people playing them online + major tournaments with serious money and huge amounts of professionals. Who knows how SC will handle its sequel but CS has actually rebuffed attempts by Valve to obsolete it with prettier but uninspiring sequels (CZ/Source).
Megawads are still coming out for Doom 2. There's still a thriving Doom 1-2 + custom speed run community. It's ugly as sin but there aren't any games like it anymore that combine ridiculous player movement and hundreds of interesting monsters -- plus the BFG is just way too fun.
I played Chrono Trigger several years ago for the first time. I'm not a big fan of RPGs in general but I really liked CT. Amazing music. Makes for even more amazing OC remixes.
Games which didn't age well?
Diablo 1. Solid game if only for the dark and foreboding atmosphere and some solid enemy combat designs but the graphics are so bad they hurt gameplay -- good luck trying to find items on the pixelated gray brown floor. And you can't run. Running like D2 would probably hurt the claustrophobic style, but still, it'll make you want to claw your eyes out in town. There could be some compromise here.
Ocarina of Time was somehow my first Zelda (followed by Majora) but I was playing Mario 1 when I was a little kid. I somehow missed the whole Zelda thing. Went back and played A Link to the Past and it's much better. OoT's mind numbingly slow text, hollow cinemas for the sake of having cinemas, and the idea of the empty and boring Hyrule Field being impressive date it badly. It's also ridiculously easy. It still has good qualities (dungeon design, some music) but it lost a lot of that 1998 luster.
Old school Resident Evils. Embarrassing to play anymore. Like parodies of paraodies which forgot the original source material. The coolness of zombies / science gone wrong + atmosphere is soon interrupted by obnoxious door loading sequences, dialogue so bad it's bad (it doesn't come all the way around the dial to funny, as some propose), the inventory, and strange controls.
Metroid 1 is like a pioneering player hating ROM hack attempt. It's not so bad if you know what to do, but that first, blind playthrough? Good luck. Let's have several seemingly indentical rooms, except one will have a random section of wall / floor be bombable which leads to the next area. Or falling through fake lava. Catchy, if repetitive, music. Limited aiming will drive you crazy.
GoldenEye / Perfect Dark are still fundamentally good games but playing them will give you a headache. It's like a power point presentation.
I'm not really sold on Half Life 1 still being as good as back in the day. It seems pretty bland nowadays I think. The enemy soldiers are really outdated, like watching an old '50s monster movie where you can still see the strings. Props for the last boss being a giant space fetus though.
Megawads are still coming out for Doom 2. There's still a thriving Doom 1-2 + custom speed run community. It's ugly as sin but there aren't any games like it anymore that combine ridiculous player movement and hundreds of interesting monsters -- plus the BFG is just way too fun.
I played Chrono Trigger several years ago for the first time. I'm not a big fan of RPGs in general but I really liked CT. Amazing music. Makes for even more amazing OC remixes.
Games which didn't age well?
Diablo 1. Solid game if only for the dark and foreboding atmosphere and some solid enemy combat designs but the graphics are so bad they hurt gameplay -- good luck trying to find items on the pixelated gray brown floor. And you can't run. Running like D2 would probably hurt the claustrophobic style, but still, it'll make you want to claw your eyes out in town. There could be some compromise here.
Ocarina of Time was somehow my first Zelda (followed by Majora) but I was playing Mario 1 when I was a little kid. I somehow missed the whole Zelda thing. Went back and played A Link to the Past and it's much better. OoT's mind numbingly slow text, hollow cinemas for the sake of having cinemas, and the idea of the empty and boring Hyrule Field being impressive date it badly. It's also ridiculously easy. It still has good qualities (dungeon design, some music) but it lost a lot of that 1998 luster.
Old school Resident Evils. Embarrassing to play anymore. Like parodies of paraodies which forgot the original source material. The coolness of zombies / science gone wrong + atmosphere is soon interrupted by obnoxious door loading sequences, dialogue so bad it's bad (it doesn't come all the way around the dial to funny, as some propose), the inventory, and strange controls.
Metroid 1 is like a pioneering player hating ROM hack attempt. It's not so bad if you know what to do, but that first, blind playthrough? Good luck. Let's have several seemingly indentical rooms, except one will have a random section of wall / floor be bombable which leads to the next area. Or falling through fake lava. Catchy, if repetitive, music. Limited aiming will drive you crazy.
GoldenEye / Perfect Dark are still fundamentally good games but playing them will give you a headache. It's like a power point presentation.
I'm not really sold on Half Life 1 still being as good as back in the day. It seems pretty bland nowadays I think. The enemy soldiers are really outdated, like watching an old '50s monster movie where you can still see the strings. Props for the last boss being a giant space fetus though.
I disagree with Battlefield 1942, despite their similariites, BF1942 is classic, it's like Diet Coke and Coke Zero for BF2 and 1942. 1942 is just different from it's sequels so much so that it's a completely different game in some senses IMO.teisjm said:
I think System Shock 2 aged well, it's still so rapidly different, and Deus Ex of course. It's just a classic
I think the original Mario aged pretty well. It was enjoyable and I think they could have just left it at the first. But I concur, Half Life 1 didn't do too well in comparison with the later Half Life games, at least.
Aged well: Super Mario RPG
The graphics were stylish and charming, the story never really gets old or tired (in the same way the story for SMB3 never gets old or tired) and for turn-based combat on the SNES, the battles were surprisingly lively.
Did not age well: Splinter Cell (just the original)
Let's face it, the game does a Jack and Jill worthy roll into the uncanny valley in the graphics department. When it first came out, it was ignorable because of the "ooooo.... pretty shadows" crowd, but even those look horrid by today's standards. And the gameplay was way too focused around waiting an excruciatingly long time for guards A and B's movements to sync up... something that seems a lot less fun when it loses it's initial innovative charm.
The graphics were stylish and charming, the story never really gets old or tired (in the same way the story for SMB3 never gets old or tired) and for turn-based combat on the SNES, the battles were surprisingly lively.
Did not age well: Splinter Cell (just the original)
Let's face it, the game does a Jack and Jill worthy roll into the uncanny valley in the graphics department. When it first came out, it was ignorable because of the "ooooo.... pretty shadows" crowd, but even those look horrid by today's standards. And the gameplay was way too focused around waiting an excruciatingly long time for guards A and B's movements to sync up... something that seems a lot less fun when it loses it's initial innovative charm.