Looking back on old games you've haven't played in years.

[Disembodied_Dave]

One of my favorite things to do as I get older is to look back at games that I played when younger and dispel my nostalgia. Recently I decided to see how a little game called "Omega Boost" holds up. Well, "holds up" isn't really the best phrase. How the game actually is instead of how I remember it being.

For those of you that haven't heard it, Omega Boost was released in 1999 and developed by Polyphony Digital (yes, that Polyphony. They guys who make Gran Turismo.) It's basically a 3D Shmup similar to Panzer Dragoon. You pilot a gravity defying mecha and apparently there is time travel involved.

I remembered it being ridiculously hard mainly due to it's awkward controls. What I discovered when playing recently was that it wasn't nearly as hard and the controls were unique but made total sense.

I did a video for a bit more of a pure reaction. You can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFNT2P8-Q2c

Have any of you done similar things? Have you ever found a game you loved turning out to be kind of bad, or vice versa?

 

[Twinkie]

A while back, I played Tecmo Bowl 2 on a SNES emulator just for the heck of it. After twenty years, it holds up just as well as it did back then. Simple gameplay, but it's so much fun.

 

[Full]

Unless there is a remake or I care to track down anything old, I probably won't go back to them, just because I simply don't have them for one reason or the other. However I do listen to soundtracks a lot.
I played the RE4 remake recently, that game was important to me. That game obviously still holds up, as it was fairly recent to all you older folk.

 

[sanquin]

Morrowind still holds up. Rollercoaster Tycoon does too. FF8 doesn't. I see it as a bit less great as before. FF6 still holds up though. Pokemon blue doesn't hold up as much any more. Same with Golden Sun 1.

3/4 of the games I played when I was 12 and younger, still hold up to the test of time for me, really.

 

[hazabaza1]

Played Sands of Time a couple months ago. Never was able to finish it when I was younger, the combat was a bit tricky for my kid self.
Still a great game. Combat is a bit of a dick on a stick but the platforming, story, and character interactions are all well done and enjoyable.

 

[Zhukov]

I recently grabbed the Baldur's Gate games off GOG and decided to give them a whirl. I hadn't played them since, oh... 2003 or thereabouts. I remembered them as good games.

The horror. Oh, the horror.

I didn't realise how much lower my standards were back then. Apparently ten years is a long time.

 

[krazykidd]

Wild arms 1 . I did a Wild arms series marathon . 1-5 . Omg that first game was boring . Thank goodness 2-5 are amazing ! But how the hell the first game got a sequel is beyond me . Good thing it did though.

 

[bigwon]

jagged alliance 2 holds up well....tried the 'unfinished business' version on iron man mode (thanks to the recent xcom)

it didn't end well....made it to the northward building at the first outpost before getting totally ripped apart. That's sneaking through the 1st forest sector.

I'm really happy that all of these roguelike games have been coming out lately, wouldn't of been inspired to do it otherwise, real fresh way to play the game.

 

[AstylahAthrys]

I bought Sonic Adventure 2 on XBLA when it came out. It had been years since I played it on the Dreamcast/Gamecube, so I was wondering if my nostalgia goggles were on when I didn't agree with so many people who bashed it. I admit, I see flaws now, and I can see why some people wouldn't like it, but I still thought it was a really good game.

 

[JEBWrench]

Most don't hold up, some do. Fallout is still Fallout. RBI Baseball and Tecmo Bowl were the two most played video games in my University Dorm. (We even held tournaments. And this was in 2001.)

Things like Rygar, Karnov, Jackal? Those do not. And most everything in the PSX era doesn't fare too well. I remember when Battle Arena Toshinden was awesome.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Most of the games from my childhood were for the PC, and they don't even work any more. Especially since they aren't on GoG. The original NFS: Most Wanted game still holds up, though. If you can deal with some rubber-band AI, the free-roaming police chases are pretty amazing.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I tried replaying Morrowind. Yeah, I didn't get very far.

Also, I recently bought the the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. I didn't remember MGS 2 having such godawful controls. Should I just skip it and go straight to Snake Eater? It IS a far better game anyway, but I had fond memories of Sons of Liberty as well.

 

[Yopaz]

I bought Sonic Adventure 2 on XBLA when it came out. It had been years since I played it on the Dreamcast/Gamecube, so I was wondering if my nostalgia goggles were on when I didn't agree with so many people who bashed it. I admit, I see flaws now, and I can see why some people wouldn't like it, but I still thought it was a really good game.

Oh that game is riddled with bugs and flaws. I can see that it's not perfect, but I still think that's a great game. The different gameplay styles, the chao garden and the multiplayer has given me endless hours of appreciation.

OT: I recently tried playing Super Smash Bros Melee after many years. Holy crap it was really different than Brawl. I remember when I first got Brawl and the differences were massive and I didn't like it as much as Melee. With time those differences were blurred and I didn't remember the differences. Then back to Melee I saw how much better Melee really was. Faster combat and a lot more balanced.

Super Mario 64. Great game when it came out, still pretty good now. The only problem is that it's no longer new and when I can remember how to get most of the stars that takes away some of the fun. Nothing wrong with how the game has aged though.

Banjo Kazooie/Tooie. These were my two favourite games for Nintendo 64. I bought Banjo Kazooie the day I got a 360 and it was everything I remember. Great game design, good difficulty scaling, creative design choices, worth replaying any time.

 

[Zantos]

Although it is still a fantastic game, I'd forgotten how... frustrating certain parts of TimeSplitters 2 are. I'm looking at you Atom Smasher.

Aside from that, maybe I just had really high standards growing up, maybe I have low standards now, but I'm still loving Crash, Spyro, Final Fantasy IX, Pokemon Red, Abe's Oddysee and Exodus, and Ratchet and Clank. Oh, and not forgetting Theme Hospital, they don't make games like that any more.

 

[Starik20X6]

I've got way too many games on my to-do pile, I don't have time to re-play old ones...

My brother was playing the original Need For Speed: Most Wanted the other day as a bit of a nostalgia thing before he plays the new one. The textures in that game are so much worse than I remember. But I suppose that'll always be the case with games that once were cutting edge graphics.

 

[everythingbeeps]

I'm sure there have been so so many, but I'll pick one at random: Gun.

When I first played that, it was phenomenal, and I loved it. So much so that when I later played Red Dead Redemption, it just wasn't nearly as good as my memory of Gun.


Then, I went back and played Gun again. Yipes. Did not age well at all.


Ratchet and Clank:UYA is probably another one. I picked up the HD Collection recently when it came out, and at the time I recalled UYA as having been my favorite of the three, and when I played through the collection, it wound up being my least favorite by far, in fact my least favorite R&C game overall.

 

[jhoroz]

These aren't really that old, but a few months back I downloaded the Sly Cooper HD collection, and they're still extremely fun to play, even if the mechanics have become a bit simplistic (I've also never played Sly 2, so was looking forward to completing that too)

 

[Zeckt]

The first lands of lore game from 1993. I fell in love with the game as a kid with its atmosphere and colorful world yet still tough as nails dungeons and it held up really well. Was finally able to finish it thanks to gog and was not bored in the least with the huge monster variety and fun puzzles and deep dungeon delving.

I loove good old hardcore dungeon romps! especially when they create a clausterphobic feel and take hours to finish one well done dungeon.

 

[Tdoodle]

I played Diablo 2 with my brother and sister for the first time in several years the other day and it's a lot easier than I remember. I remember getting battered by Andariel when I first played it but she dropped like a stone. Probably helps that we actually considered how we were going to level this time, but still.

 

[The_Lost_King]

I went back to play Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. I remembered it being rediculously hard to find my way through the level and quit on the first mission. Now I can navigate through most of the mission without help from Gamefaqs. It is also really fun to use the lightsaber,