Great Games...That Did Not Age Well (For You).

[necromanzer52]

The gameplay in halo 1 feels really clunky. Still perfectly playable, but after the sequels, it takes some serious getting used to to really get into it.

Bit of a personal one. I used to play the shit out of enter the matrix. There's still things I like about it (Still way better than path of Neo), but they get drowned out by the largely uninspired, repetitive combat & level design.

 

[Morgoth780]

I find that Mass Effect 1 plays really badly now, even though it was made in 2007. My problem lies with the combat. When playing Mass Effect 2 and 3, they feel like essentially the same game, but the latter smoothed the game out a little and expanded the arsenal of weapons and abilities, whereas Mass Effect 1 plays like a completely different game. The combat is floaty, and the weapons feel like paintball guns and that are devoid of any individual personality or characteristics, instead opting for the traditional "this gun is stronger than that gun because stats" RPG mechanic (which I feel doesn't translate all that well to firearms). As much as I enjoy the Mass Effect games, ME1 just feels like a slog to play through, and I really don't enjoy my time in subsequent playthroughs, and it has gotten to the point where I often revert to just downloading a save file with my desired choices instead of going through the game again.

Then there was the Mako...

Also, the entirety of the Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft. Love it or hate it, but Cataclysm did one hell of a number to the 1-60 questing experience in WoW, so when you go from playing the Cata 1-60 and then going into TBC 60-70, it feels like jumping straight into a relic. The questing just feels archaic, and the only way that I managed to get through it without practically falling asleep was to just grind my way through it by constantly running dungeons. Im sure that going from vanilla to TBC was like a breath of fresh air, but going from Cata 1-60 into TBC is just like breathing in an 8 year old fart. Through your nose.

I started playing the ME series for the first time last fall. I loved 1, I thought 2 was good and more focused, whereas 1 wasn't as polished but I also felt that it was more ambitious.

I'm finding 3 to be a pain to play through, to the point where I probably haven't played it in a week and a half. Whereas I finished the first two in a couple of weeks.

 

[Louis.J]

you can't queue up multiple units

I'm pretty sure you can, at least on the PC version. It's been a while though.

Well, the PC version is the only one, right? Or is there some browser version?

 

[Signa]

Probably the biggest change in perception for me is Super Ninja Boy. I still recommend the game to anyone looking for an unsung classic on the SNES, but you have to put up with A LOT of shit. The random battles are practically constant, and the platforming sections are really bad. At least you can pay to skip them with the dragon eggs, and there's no shortage of money with all the fights you get into.


Still, combining Final Fantasy with Double Dragon was pretty cool, and it's a Co-op RPG on the SNES. Just what me and my brother needed as kids.

 

[broadbandmink]

There are a bunch I can think of, but the one that really stands out is...

Super Mario Kart

Me and this other guy played this game like possessed back in the day. When Mario Kart 64 hit the market we moved on to that, and as time went by the series kept getting more sequels. Then a number of years ago I decided to give this game another spin just to go for a ride on the old tracks again.

Man, I wish I hadn't done that. IMO, the game is still solid for what it is, but compared to its sequels it just came off as bare-bones in terms of features.

But, at the end of the day, what games still hold up and which ones do not is a decidedly subjective issue..

 

[TitanAura]

Mario Kart 64 is sooooo floaty and slow compared to my nostalgia/memory of it. It kind of ruined it for me to go back and play it. Up until that point I ranked it as one of my favorite racing games in a genre I am a huge fan of.

 

[ThreeName]

Half-Life 2.

Good lord, the weapons feel so underpowered (minus the revolver), the "variety" in gameplay just makes it feel totally unfocused and, let's be honest, that ending was fuck-off terrible.

I've never been able to finish it again. It's just such a chore to get through.

 

[pearcinator]

Probably Goldeneye but only its controls. Without two thumbsticks it feels awkward.

Everything else still holds up today. In fact, it does things better than some modern games do. Such as when enemies react when getting shot. They clutch their shoulder, drop their gun and shake their hand, drop to one knee, hop around grabbing their foot etc. all that stuff is still really cool by today's standards.

That's like all I can think of really...

 

[Hero of Lime]

I can never go back to playing Mario Kart 64 after having played DS, 7, and 8 now. 64 was amazing back in the day, and it's still fun, but the newer ones are far superior.

I can't forget to bring up original Pokemon games compared to their remakes. I would take Fire Red, Heart Gold, and Omega Ruby over the originals any day, the Gameboy games in particular have aged horribly. Emerald still feels good to this day, but I prefer the remakes after seeing how excellent they turned out.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Seeing as you mention Warcraft 3. Warcraft 1 for me. Awesome story, I still don't mind the graphics too much and generally a great game when it came out. But holy crap the controls of that game! You have to press M before you can click anywhere to move your unit, A before you click on an enemy unit to attack it etc. No select units with left and move with right click or anything like that. Add to that a maximum of 9 units that can be selected at a single time, no build queues for barracks etc.

It was even worse, the first game had a max select of 4. The sequel bumped it up to 9. Totally agree with the rest though.

you can't queue up multiple units

I'm pretty sure you can, at least on the PC version. It's been a while though.

Well, the PC version is the only one, right? Or is there some browser version?

Command & Conquer and Red Alert had console releases on the N64 and Playstation 1... for some reason.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

OP: If you found Streets of Rage 2 a bit of a downer, you should try and have a look at the fan-based remake (of the entire Streets of Rage series rolled into one). If you haven't, grab it - free download, and basically encompasses the best parts of the whole series, plus remixes of the soundtracks and newly created content and unlockable characters. A true masterpiece.

Also, funny you mention Quake 2, as I had the same experience with you, but when I played Quake 1 again I loved it at and actually had several goes at it, upping difficulty and getting really into it.

Yes, Wing Commander was also a painful thing to fire up after so long, it was THE flight combat sim for me but after the first 5 missions I just had to throw in the towel.

For my own mentions:
*Syndicate: After the FPS reboot came out, I decided to head back and re-experience the tactical magic, and it was a little bit of a let down.

*Resident Evil 4: Hailed as my favorite RE game at the time, and having finished it twice and unlocked crazy amounts of stuff, I went back in and grabbed it on PSN and somehow just couldn't get my head around the controls. How on earth did I stop and aim with the left stick is waaaay beyond me.

*Deus Ex. Anyone who played this game knows what I mean.

I'm about to dive back into my favorite series again, Hitman (starting from Silent Assassin), hopefully I don't get too disappointed.

But on a lighter note, here's a few that I came back to in more recent years and had a freakin' BLAST:
*Jagged Alliance 2 (and mods)
*Fallout Tactics
*Doom 3 (with mods)

 

[Glongpre]

I didn't realize graphics were such a barrier for some people. Graphics don't phase me at all.

But I absolutely need good gameplay or I just can't get invested because the gameplay is a chore. And most people play games for the gameplay, because it is largely the majority of the experience.

Planescape Torment is great. I played it 2 yrs ago and the story was great but it took me a few tries to get into it because of the combat. I had to set the diff to easy and treat it like I was reading a book. Near the end though it was a real struggle with all the combat it throws at you. Just ran through the final place, nobody got time for all those shadow things.

So yeah, if the game has good gameplay then I have no problem at all playing it.

Example: Doom will always be fun as shit to play. There is just no other game that feels the same as Doom, idk what it is.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Never winter nights, everybody looks like a mannequin! Morrowwind has been ruined for me by the shitty combat.

 

[Ramien Grey]

Baldur's Gate for me, sadly. I still enjoy playing the game, but when I first came back to it when the Enhanced Edition came out, I got hit hard with a dose of second edition D&D right between the eyes.

 

[mad825]

I didn't realize graphics were such a barrier for some people. Graphics don't phase me at all.

Depends on what you mean by "Graphics".

Textures don't personally bother me too much however if the game doesn't have a good screen resolution/ratio and doesn't scale the UI it can be an issue for me. Same for me with any kind of film.

 

[RavingSturm]

Starcraft 2 - started out great, personally thought it had a lot of potential but when it was becoming pretty obvious that it was

becoming focused on Battlenet 2.0 crap, e-sports, apm, Koreans, Justin Browder/David Kim's ideas of fun. Not to mention the fact that

Chris Metzen's brain damaged story telling does little to really cover any new ground and turns Raynor into a whipped idiot that let's

his not girlfriend get a free pass on galactic genocide because personal responsibilty is non-existent when you get turned into an super-

being with hordes of monsters at your beck and call.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

To be honest there aren't many I can think of. There have certainly been games I've played for the first time as an adult that I feel have aged poorly, but not many from my childhood.

The controls are a barrier for me ever playing Goldeneye or Perfect Dark again.

Pokemon gen 1 definitely has its issues. Clunky menus, limited item space, limited info on what moves actually do, questionable design choices (specifically the special stat. Partially fixed in gen 2 but not fully fixed till gen 4). I can't imagine myself bothering with them again since the GBA remakes exist.

 

[aozgolo]

Morrowind and Oblivion have been ruined for me by Skyrim, I simply can't play them now without guides and crap-tons of MODs to fix the ways that the games are broken.

World of Warcraft is another one, I get nostalgic sometimes and try to go back but every time my character classes have been dumbed down and changed to the point I no longer know how to play my own characters, making them very alien, and it's just a matter of so much being changed, not always for the better in my eyes, I just find myself missing the game I used to play instead of enjoying it for what it is now.

 

[ForumSafari]

Well, the PC version is the only one, right? Or is there some browser version?

It was ported to the PS1, they cut other aspects of the game down to make it work entirely loaded into RAM (no building animations, less music) so I am half convinced you could queue on the PC but not the Ps1. I'm going to dig my copies out at the weekend because it's bugging me now.