Where are the games we used to know and love?

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
007 Goldeneye
DOOM
Castlevania (The old ones, not too familiar with the series, but I do know Castlevanias 1-4 were good, and I know SotN was good)

And who could forget, the god of gods...
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

What ever happened to fun, yet challenging games like these? Modern games are so popular, yet they lack so much quality that older games had. Games today try to make large, epic, and commonly far too complex storylines*, super powered graphics, which for whatever reason come with a side of earth tone and muzzle flash, but very little groundbreaking challenges or gameplay. Zelda games are fun, artistic, and challenging. Mario games are challenging and fun. However, none of these focus on mind boggling graphics. They were centered on fun gameplay and challenges. Today's popular titles, for the most part, spoon fed run 'n' gun games which very little strategic challenge whatsoever. For the most part, they are too easy. What ever happened to the days when games were pretty consistently good?

*Has anyone ever noticed that the Legend of Zelda for the NES had about 30 seconds of backstory on the menu screen, but after that you are simply thrown into some wilderness that is supposed to be the "kingdom" of Hyrule? Zelda turned out to spark one of the greatest franchises ever. Why developers feel it necessary to add almost entire novels worth of cutscenes and complex foreshadowing and plot points is beyond me.

 

[Maxman3002]

It seems like a lot of the games you mentioned are N64 games (or at least nintendo games). Unfortunatly a lot of the games cannot be recreated enough to make them compair to the awsomeness of the old time games (super mario sunshine and twilight princess I found to be really bad)

Its the same with PC games. A lot of new PC games can never compair to the origional one (deus ex, C&C origional, Total Annihalation) Maybe were just getting old

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[edudewired]

dunno i think that nostalgia makes us remember games differently, also when we are young we are easier to please

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Is it really so bad that the Zelda games added a story? That was definitely a change for the better in my opinion. Otherwise, you're just a kid in a green suit running to save the princess again with absolutely no motive. Yeah, I don't like how too many new games are too simple-minded, but that's not always the case. Have you seen Okami? That was a completely refreshing experience. However, you should realize that not every new game can be groundbreaking. That's asking for too much.

 

[hacksaw116]

I concur. I was a big fan of adventure puzzle games. Kings quest, camelot, indiana jones, space quest, etc. Sierra and Lucasarts were top sellers and most of their games were adventure/puzzle based. But also, its nice to keep it simple. I found Myst to be almost too much to bear, with the slow movement and repetitive nature of exploration back and forth.

Just my opinion: Games used to have more puzzles and it seems that with the introduction of 3d engines we have ppl touting graphics over actual gameplay. I dont care how great the graphics look if the game becomes monotonous and repetitive nobody will take much interest in them. They need more engaging content!

 

[Slick Samurai]

Nostalgia is a pair of rose-tinted goggles, they make everything look different than they really are. Modern games are far superior to past games in every way. Goldeneye and DOOM to Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3. LoZ: OoT to Dragon Age: Origins. Sure, gaming would be different if it weren't for the past games, but they haven't gone anywhere. Its superiors have just taken their places.

 

[Punisher A.J.]

JAPAN............


and the 1900's, maybe early 2000's

and 2005. (don't ask why)

 

[Zacharine]

This isn't only the fault of modern games, but also of nostalgia and risen expectations.

What gamer today would be happy to pay for a Zelda game that had those 30 seconds of backstory? Everyone would be out screaming bloody murder, because they'd feel the gaming company had cheated them out of the storyline experience or was trying to sell us half-finished products.

Same with Total Annihilation. Many, many RTS games of today are far superior in control, strategy, graphics and in-game depth. Same with FPSs. Original Doom is nothing in comparison to Halo 1, Painkiller or Modern Warfare 2 single-player. Heck, even MW 2 multiplayer on PC, as broken as it is, is better than the original Doom.

Before C&C and Total Annihilation, we had Dune 2 and before that, nothing. There was little to no history to beat, no expectations from millions of gamers to live up to. So we remember those games, we remember the retrospectively good things because we didn't realize how things might have been done better and we don't compare them to previous successes because, in a way, these were genre-defining games: there were no previous successes.

Similarly, one could ask 'Why doesn't anyone make games like Tetris anymore? No need for complex graphics or books worth of storyline. Tetris was good.'

Of course no large developer makes those kinds of games, they have already been done before. Breaking the walls and creating something that is both original and good/decent is so much harder these days. When a game manages that, people complain about it not being like the old one. When they didn't manage it, people complain 'why didn't they try anything new, this is just a remake'...

Puzzle games are not dead either. See the Sam & Max episodes, the latest adventures of Guybrush Threepwood the Mighty Pirate or A Vampyre Story. The reason for the decline is simple: in the age of story driven RPG games and flashy-as-hell FPSs, a 'click on everything twice to see what works' puzzle game is just not as fun or entertaining.

EDIT: And regarding plots. They are not dead either. Mass Effect rode on the interesting storyline to get over the mediocre combat portions. Dragon Age is an excellent example of several classical fantasy plots sewn together and executed pretty well. Psychonauts had several interesting twists and turns. Modern Warfare 2 has an excellent plot, better than plenty of other games and its a bloody FPS. Even the God Of War games had more plot than what was usual for games made in the early nineties and we are comparing graphically excellent games about mass mutilation and taking on epic historical fantasy creatures to games that had pixelated 2D-graphics and text screens. Have we forgotten the Shadow Of Colossus, filled so much with interpretations, hints and signs that even professional novel writers would have their heads explode if they tried to analyze them all.

Plot in games is not dead, we have simply so many examples of plots and twists from previous games that we easily conclude 'we have seen this before, uninspiring' without actually thinking about the plot itself or how it fits into the game. Nostalgia is almost the only reason we still play the good oldies, most certainly they are not the better games here.

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

Plot is good, not bad. I site the Half Life series as my example

 

[Kud]

the reason that the games i liked are gone is because nintendo got lazy.

 

[Yumi_and_Erea]

Games were fun when they tried to kill you.
Nowadays they just spit in your face.

 

[WarmasterPopey]

Some of my favourite games of all time come from older generations of gaming. Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Medievil, Crash Bandicoot II and III, Final Fantasy V and VI, the original Metal Gear Solid (It was good, no matter how badly the ball was dropped on II and IV).

I still have all of those bar Clock Tower. Still play em a lot. While nostalgia may indeed be a set of rose-tinted glasses, I genuinely do enjoy these games every bit as much as I did back then.

Don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic modern games around to. COD4, for example. Spring with it's NOTA mod (without a doubt one of the greatest if not THE greatest RTS in existence). The Dawn of War series. Etc. But nothing can compete with some of those earlier games.

 

[Kajt]

Goldeneye and DOOM to Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3. LoZ: OoT to Dragon Age: Origins.

Numerous older CRPGs are far better than Boredom Age. Doom is more fun than MW2.

Agreed. The older FPSes (Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein etc.) are far better than most new ones, with a few exceptions.

 

[JaymesFogarty]

Plot is not dead, and I doubt it ever will be. Plot for me is probably the most important tool is driving a video game. Why did we all play Silent Hill 2? Because we enjoyed the shitty combat, and confusing layout? No, we played it because the story was so well told that we had to know what happened next. I believe that storylines in games are just going through evolution of sorts. Of course they are going to change! Games like MW2 are prime examples of games that have a confused narrative, but does that mean that all games have shit storylines? No, I didn't think so.

 

[Hiphophippo]

This is all subjective. There are great games with great stories from the past, and the same holds true now.