Since when was this total shit?!?!?!

[Signa]

I think if a game was really good, it will still old up today. I think that everyone in here who has complained about Goldeneye needs to reevaluate what bothered them about the game. Dual analogues is not where the game has aged, it's the frame rates and possibly the gameplay mechanics (I happen to like them, but they feel REALLY different from other FPS games).

The games I have the hardest time playing is the no-save 3 lives, 3 continues style of game. You just end up playing the same first level over and over only to get murdered at some harder lever later. In the off-chance you get past the part you keep losing at, you usually have another 2-3 levels to pass with that one life you have left, and you have had no experience in those levels to know what to expect.

Oh, and for the record, Doom is still a good game and that isn't the nostalgia speaking. I beat it for the first time in 2008, and it was the most fun I've had in a FPS in years. It was simple, but the mazes and swarms of enemies made the game far more complex and engaging than your average "brown" shooter today.

Also, game aging comes from other games in the future doing the same thing the older game did, but better. I still think that Thief is the best stealth game ever because stealth just hasn't been as engaging in other games as it still is in Thief.

 

[dex-dex]

i don't have that problem because i sort of prefer those games.
it does not matter to me about graphics as long as it is not a punch in the dick hard. but still a challenge

 

[Kuilui]

Not at all really. A lot of my old games I still love especially my PS1 games. Final fantasy, resident evil, twisted metal, legends of dragoon ,etc. Still love them all. I haven't played my super nintendo in forever though. The memory chip burned out years ago so I can't actually save anything an expect it to be their. Oh man was I pissed when my save of final fantasy 2 was lost, ah well.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Mine would have to be Snake Rattle and Roll. It was an old NES game that I saved up weeks of allowances for bought it and could never get past like the 5th level. I tried it a few months ago and wondered why? The game was trash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyv3gIqb7I4

I feel your pain. I used to play that game non stop as a kid. I tried playing it again a few months ago and it's just terrible.
For it's time it's actually pretty impressive to try to fit a 3d obstacle course game onto the NES and I'd give credit where it was due, if it weren't for the fact that Marble Madness did it better at least 3 years earlier.

The original Final Fantasy is virtually unplayable by today's standards.
I don't mind the music or the graphics but there's virtually no direction given to the player as to what you should be doing, the combat system is flat out broken, and the XP grind is minimal when compared to the gold grinding because everything in the game is prohibitively expensive when compared to the gold dropped by enemies. God help you if you have more than one heavy magic user in your party because you need to buy all of their spells in addition to their armor and weapons.

 

[migo]

I've found that with quite a few games.

One issue is there wasn't much choice, you had one game that your parents paid for, or maybe you did with your hard earned money, and you couldn't complain about it 'cause that's what there was. You made the best of what you had.

Another is the old version of DLC - either it was arcade games which were just really hard and only gave you a high score in exchange for quarters, or it was a game that was impossible to finish and that you were supposed to call in to the help lines to get the solution. That mentality of hiding something became useless with the advent of the internet and walkthroughs. They'll still try to sell Prima Official Strategy Guides, but for the most part, games can't be really difficult, otherwise someone will look up the walkthrough and then complain about how stupid the solution is (rightfully so). That's what killed the point and click adventure game. You could even blame it on AOL, as the last adventure game for ages was Grim Fandango, right around the time AOL was sending out those 50 free hour CDs.

Finally, you've got games that were amazing in their time for doing something no other game did (or at least that you had played). Even though Pitfall did it much earlier, since Super Mario Bros didn't support going left as well as right, when Metroid did it people had their minds blown, even though it was a pretty terrible game otherwise (or maybe decent if you like that type of thing).

Gears of War, Halo, Half-Life, they're all like that too, doing some rather small tweak that makes a big difference initially but is really easy to do much better. Gears of War doesn't set the benchmark for good cover based combat, in fact it's pretty easy to do it a lot better, but it was the first title a lot of people saw that made use of it, so it's seen a lot more fondly by people who played it first than by people who came from another cover based game and went back to it.

The games that are really good in the long term are usually the later games in a generation. Kirby's Adventure is pretty fun, but it was one of the last NES games. Ristar is also pretty fun, but it was a later Genesis game. It's the same with the current gen - Uncharted 2 will always be a good game, but they had a less impressive Uncharted first. Late gen PS2 games are also impressive, especially the post 2005 ones which went for gameplay as they couldn't compete even remotely with Xbox 360 graphics, and as a result some of the best PS2 games are Persona 3 and Persona 4.

Off hand the only game I can think of that really stands the test of time and was a launch title was Super Mario Land for the GameBoy. It's still great fun today, despite being right at the beginning of the life cycle, but that's keeping in mind that Super Mario Bros had already been out for years, so it was still a refined game.

 

[Crono Maniac]

Castlevaina: SotN, seriously, it was fun for about 30 mins, then you realise it's unnessisarily difficult and has the most cheap deaths ever.

One of the only complaints I've frequently heard about that game is that it's far too easy. Speaking as one who grew up with Castlevania 1-4 (1, 3, and 4 I still play through at least once a year), I'm inclined to agree.

Mordwyl's second rule of video game design: Any game's aesthetics past its decade will suck.

I disagree. 3D games age far, far worse than 2D games. Yoshi's Island is the type of game who's graphics never, ever age. Same with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. This is why Mega Man 2 still looks way better than Mega Man Legends, even though they're both fantastic games. The only way 3D graphics can prevent aging poorly usually involves unique, unrealistic aesthetics, like Zelda Wind Waker and Okami. In 20 years, Zelda: Wind Waker will still look fantastic. Twilight Princess, less so.

That being said, one should never give up on awesome old 3D games because they look kind of crappy. Just because Link constantly clips into scenery and Solid Snake doesn't have eyes doesn't mean we should give up on ever playing Zelda: Ocarina and Metal Gear Solid again.

 

[crudus]

Sonic: Chaotix 32x. I downloaded it as a ROM and that game was actually quote horrible. I was sad since that was my favorite game growing up

Though Age of Empires 1 is pretty terrible

I knew that 10 years ago

 

[laol1999]

honestly sounds like you just didnt like very good games as a kid
i like some older games more than the recent ones

 

[Dusty Donuts]

I tend to enjoy all my old games.... Yeah... They're all still fun.

I particularly still enjoy games like Mario 64 and Kart 64 which are both still relatively easy to pick up and just play.
Games like Goldeneye take a bit of getting used to, but seriously, between me and my brother we finished the game 100%. In 2009.
Third person 3D's like Ocarina of Time are pretty easy too. I don't understand why people are complaining about fiddly controls. The only problem I have are with games like Mortal Kombat, with all their freaking move combinations. Who had time to find all that out even back when it was new anyway?! It's also nearly impossible, because the CPU's are mercilessly programmed.

Ah, yes, that's another problem with retro games; unrelenting CPU programming. Like Mario Kart for instance. If you use the Rainbow Road jump trick off the ramp at the start to skip half the track, the two cheaters in the pack will always catch up to you. Regardless of your driving ability. Plus Luigi always loses.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

i always have fun when i have family over and we plug in the old N64, slot mario cart 64 in, have great fun, slot james bond goldeneye in, great fun, and its nice to catch up on them games.

however when my xbox packed up (before i got a decent PC), i plugged in the PS2, and god, was it awful, playing medal of honour frontlines i think, and i just thought wow this is shit, but i played FFX and FF12 on the PS2 shortly after and it was great.

i suppose then i depends on the game u chose.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I tend to enjoy all my old games.... Yeah... They're all still fun.

I particularly still enjoy games like Mario 64 and Kart 64 which are both still relatively easy to pick up and just play.
Games like Goldeneye take a bit of getting used to, but seriously, between me and my brother we finished the game 100%. In 2009.
Third person 3D's like Ocarina of Time are pretty easy too. I don't understand why people are complaining about fiddly controls. The only problem I have are with games like Mortal Kombat, with all their freaking move combinations. Who had time to find all that out even back when it was new anyway?! It's also nearly impossible, because the CPU's are mercilessly programmed.

Ah, yes, that's another problem with retro games; unrelenting CPU programming. Like Mario Kart for instance. If you use the Rainbow Road jump trick off the ramp at the start to skip half the track, the two cheaters in the pack will always catch up to you. Regardless of your driving ability. Plus Luigi always loses.

i was always luigi

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

This isn't all that old, but I remember putting hours and hours into Freedom Fighters for the PS2. Saw it pre-owned in Game a few weeks ago and... Wow is it awful.

Where do you live that has pre-owned copies of Freedom Fighters? I haven't been able to find that in ages.

Newcastle. I see it all the time, £10 or less.

I loved that game, and when i saw NewCastle i thought Oh you must live in PA. But then I saw your symbol for money and thought yeah no shot you live in the US.

OT: I'd have to say golden eye

 

[estoria-etnia]

Final Fantasy VII. But that's more for the translation issues in the PS1 version... >.<

I only play games from my childhood that I genuinely enjoyed and still like the story for; I typically ignore the graphics for what's going on with the characters and story. If the graphics are nice, that's a plus.

 

[LamborghiniJackson]

Ape escape for the PSP.

I locked myself in the bathroom and cried for an hour. Then I grew a beard and went back on Live to kick some ass on CoD.

 

[Twilight_guy]

AHHAHAHA!
Oh ho ho!
AHahahah!
Your nostalgia goggles fell off, bah haha ahaha oh, that's good

Actually I've watch some of the junk I used to watch as a kid and about 90% of it is complete garbage. I still like it for its connect to my childhood but its utter crap.

 

[technoted]

I still live in the days of the PS1, Master System and SNES so really none of the games I kid ever aged badly, sod all this new fangled crap long live the ye olde days!

 

[ultrachicken]

I've yet to find a 'classic' game that I enjoy. I think that the oldest game I enjoy is Deus Ex.

 

[A Free Man]

Superman 64...

No I kid. Though Age of Empires 1 is pretty terrible

Blasphemy!!!! Age of empires one is still the best game on the other side of the millenium. HOW DARE YOU!

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Blast Corps for the N64.

I recently dug out my Gamecube, and found that every game I owned for it subverted this. They're all still awesome!

Not so with the PS2, most PS2 games I tried to replay didn't thrill, so I popped in some PS1 Final Fantasys and had a blast (PS2 FFX still was good).

 

[subject_87]

A few years ago I was quite a fan of Age of Mythology, and I still play it every once in a while, and it's still pretty damn good. A 100-foot-tall Titan stomping all over your opponent's city always makes for fun times.