Good Old Games That Age Well to This Day (HD) and Those That Don't?

Hey! I've been wondering about your opinion, list, of good games in its time that still look good to this day (of course with dated graphics, but still look classic, nostalgia, and hold up quite well for many years) and the level design that can hold up to today's standard, like WarCraft 3 (amazing art st*le to this day), Zelda Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy before FF VII especially FF IV and FF VI, Super Mario 64, Tekken 3, Golden Eye 007 etc. and games that considered ones of the best during its time, but age horribly like FF on PS1, Resident Evil franchise before RE4, the first Half-Life, the first Crash Banditcoot on PS1 that we kind of amazed how juggy they look now with unimpressive in-game engine cut-scene. :(

Tell me about your opinion and list of these games plz! I kind of want to know what actually make games remain wonderful for over a long time.

That's easy for me, if a great game doesn't have framerate problems/clunky controls, then it's ageless. I can play any game, if the said game is great for me, but that wont neccesarily hold true for all people, because aged mechanics hindering enjoyment is entirely subjective.

Like your example of the first Half Life. For you, it might have aged bad, but for me that statement is a mind rape because i just can't comprehend what could have possibly aged in that game to prevent enjoyment. The AI is better than in most games released today, the framerate is fluid without any inconsistency, the controls as solid (m/kb), there's a variety of well designed weapons with great gunplay, the environments are great aswell.. And so on.

Hey! I've been wondering about your opinion, list, of good games in its time that still look good to this day (of course with dated graphics, but still look classic, nostalgia, and hold up quite well for many years) and the level design that can hold up to today's standard, like WarCraft 3 (amazing art st*le to this day), Zelda Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy before FF VII especially FF IV and FF VI, Super Mario 64, Tekken 3, Golden Eye 007 etc. and games that considered ones of the best during its time, but age horribly like FF on PS1, Resident Evil franchise before RE4, the first Half-Life, the first Crash Banditcoot on PS1 that we kind of amazed how juggy they look now with unimpressive in-game engine cut-scene. :(

Tell me about your opinion and list of these games plz! I kind of want to know what actually make games remain wonderful for over a long time.

Kleeyook

i agree with most of your list. i especially think OoT has aged the best, its graphics (although not as good as todays) still look good and charming, and its controls measureup to todays controls too. mario 64 also aged well, but not as good as OoT

in terms of the playstation, i still enjoy MGS1.

generally im not picky with graphics, as long as i can tell what the things in the game are, and the framerate is good, ill play it

That's easy for me, if a great game doesn't have framerate problems/clunky controls, then it's ageless. I can play any game, if the said game is great for me, but that wont neccesarily hold true for all people, because aged mechanics hindering enjoyment is entirely subjective.

Lucianu

Completely agreed. If a game doesn't have a bad frame-rate/clunky controls/bad camera, it's ageless. Hence why older RPG's are still perfectly playable. But I've often found that many people will play an old critically acclaimed game, not like it, and say to themselves "This game obviously hasn't aged well". Even if it still runs fine and has good controls.

But to be fair, I do feel that there are some genres that simply don't age well though due to later games in the genre having evolved so far. The beat 'em up genre is an example of this. I find that Streets of Rage and Final Fight aren't very fun today. Yes, they control well and the games run smoothly. But they're incredibly shallow and extremely repetitive. Mainly since they've got a substanical lack of moves/combos and you're facing the same enemies over and over. Not to forget that there's little to no unlockables in the games. Play Castle Crashers today and you'll see that it improves upon them so much making them feel obsolete and dated.

Super Mario 64 is another exampke. It was was a brilliant game in the day, but I feel that it has been outdone in a lot of aspects by platformers released in subsequent generations, making it feel rather dated.

That's easy for me, if a great game doesn't have framerate problems/clunky controls, then it's ageless. I can play any game, if the said game is great for me, but that wont neccesarily hold true for all people, because aged mechanics hindering enjoyment is entirely subjective.

Like your example of the first Half Life. For you, it might have aged bad, but for me that statement is a mind rape because i just can't comprehend what could have possibly aged in that game to prevent enjoyment. The AI is better than in most games released today, the framerate is fluid without any inconsistency, the controls as solid (m/kb), there's a variety of well designed weapons with great gunplay, the environments are great aswell.. And so on.

Lucianu

But to be fair, I do feel that there are some genres that simply don't age well though due to later games in the genre having evolved so far. The beat em up genre is an example of this. I find that Streets of Rage and Final Fight aren't very fun today. Yes, they control well and the games run smoothly. But they're incredibly shallow and extremely repetitive. Mainly since they've got a substanical lack of moves/combos and you're facing the same enemies over and over. Not to forget that there's little to no unlockables in the games. Play Castle Crashers today and you'll see that it improves upon them so much making them feel obsolete and dated.

SpikeyAss

I feel you lack experience with the said games, you're not facing the same enemies over and over, in Streets of Rage 2 for example, there's a wide variety of enemies to beat each with different moves, different tactics, and a good deal of bosses, each ofcourse very different from each other. Beat 'em ups are repetitive in nature, but damn do i love that repetitiveness. I don't find it tedious, but enjoying. Especially with two players.

I can't comment on Final Fight though, never played it.

I've begun to dig into the Mega Drive library recently since i never owned one before, and i've ben playing the Streets of Rage series for a wile now, so everything is very fresh. I've found a ton of incredibly good games for my pleasure, heh.

Mario Bros. 3 (NES), Contra (NES), Mega Man (NES), OutRun (SAT), After Burner II (SAT), Space Harrier (SAT), Doom (PC, XBLA), Mortal Kombat II (PSN), SSFIIT (3DO), Sonic (GEN), Mario World (SNES), Yoshi's Island (SNES), Donkey Kong Country (SNES), ALTTP (SNES), Super Metroid (SNES), Chrono Trigger (SNES), Mario 64 (N64), OOT & MM (N64), Banjo-Kazooie & Tooie (N64), DK64 (N64), Wave Race 64 (N64), SOTN (PS1), Chrono Cross (PS1), Half-Life (PC), Shenmue (DC), ect.

I feel you lack experience with the said games, you're not facing the same enemies over and over, in Streets of Rage 2 for example, there's a wide variety of enemies to beat each with different moves, different tactics, and a good deal of bosses, each ofcourse very different from each other. Beat 'em ups are repetitive in nature, but damn do i love that repetitiveness. I don't find it tedious, but enjoying. Especially with two players.

I can't comment on Final Fight though, never played it.

I've begun to dig into the Mega Drive library recently since i never owned one before, and i've ben playing the Streets of Rage series for a wile now, so everything is very fresh. I've found a ton of incredibly good games for my pleasure, heh.

Lucianu

I don't understand how you could disagree. Because it's a fact that there's very few different enemies, and that you're facing the same ones over and over, however, obviously everyone is going to percieve this differently, like how we both have.

In Streets of Rage 2, there's only five different types of enemies in the game - three basic thugs, the bikers, and the woman who use the electrificed whips. Towards the end of the game bosses from the previous stages will pop-up every once in a while, but that's all.

Beat 'em ups are repetitive in their nature, definitely. I attempted to imply that in my original post. But in the example I used, Castle Crashers, the game constantly feels fresh and takes a long, long time to become repetitive; a lot of different characters instead of just 3 or 4, different pets you can carry around with you (each with their own bonus - like more damage, helps you find secrets etc), many different weapons, plenty of secrets to find, not everything is linear and scripted - some parts are laid out differently each time you play through the stages, many more moves and different combos overall etc. The game just improves on the Final Fight and Streets of Rage games so much for me. I loved them as a kid, especially Streets of Rage 2 (I must've spent hundreds of hours on that game), but to me they feel very obsolete and dated now thanks to later games in the genre greatly improving upon them. I found that the A.I in them was very bad as well. Even on the hardest difficult the game was too easy thanks to the game's bad A.I. You can just go up to them and hit them > pause for a second > hit them and they can't even do anything. It even works on some bosses...But I am aware that this trick works on a lot of beat 'em ups, not just exclusively the Streets of Rage or Final Fight series.

I recently bought Streets of Rage 2 again on PSN and played it for a while with a friend because the game was free for Playstation Plus members. We use to play the game non-stop together as kids, but we both find it very boring now....The awesome music and the elements of nostalgia are the only satisfaction I personally get from the game anymore. I still got all of the trophies though, but it did only take like two hours to get them all.

Hey! I've been wondering about your opinion, list, of good games in its time that still look good to this day (of course with dated graphics, but still look classic, nostalgia, and hold up quite well for many years) and the level design that can hold up to today's standard, like WarCraft 3 (amazing art st*le to this day), Zelda Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy before FF VII especially FF IV and FF VI, Super Mario 64, Tekken 3, Golden Eye 007 etc. and games that considered ones of the best during its time, but age horribly like FF on PS1, Resident Evil franchise before RE4, the first Half-Life, the first Crash Banditcoot on PS1 that we kind of amazed how juggy they look now with unimpressive in-game engine cut-scene. :(

Tell me about your opinion and list of these games plz! I kind of want to know what actually make games remain wonderful for over a long time.

Kleeyook

I'd say Onimusha 2, Killzone 1, FF7-2 Dirge of Cerberus look good. I'd even say FF7 on ps1 looks good still. (the backgrounds looks great for a ps1 game)

I don't understand how you could disagree. Because it's a fact that there's very few different enemies, and that you're facing the same ones over and over, however, obviously everyone is going to percieve this differently, like how we both have.

In Streets of Rage 2, there's only five different types of enemies in the game - three basic thugs, the bikers, and the woman who use the electrificed whips. Towards the end of the game bosses from the previous stages will pop-up every once in a while, but that's all.

Beat 'em ups are repetitive in their nature, definitely. I attempted to imply that in my original post. But in the example I used, Castle Crashers, the game constantly feels fresh and takes a long, long time to become repetitive; a lot of different characters instead of just 3 or 4, different pets you can carry around with you (each with their own bonus - like more damage, helps you find secrets etc), many different weapons, plenty of secrets to find, not everything is linear and scripted - some parts are laid out differently each time you play through the stages, many more moves and different combos overall etc. The game just improves on the Final Fight and Streets of Rage games so much for me. I loved them as a kid, especially Streets of Rage 2 (I must've spent hundreds of hours on that game), but to me they feel very obsolete and dated now thanks to later games in the genre greatly improving upon them. I found that the A.I in them was very bad as well. Even on the hardest difficult the game was too easy thanks to the game's bad A.I. You can just go up to them and hit them > pause for a second > hit them and they can't even do anything. It even works on some bosses...But I am aware that this trick works on a lot of beat 'em ups, not just exclusively the Streets of Rage or Final Fight series.

I recently bought Streets of Rage 2 again on PSN and played it for a while with a friend because the game was free for Playstation Plus members. We use to play the game non-stop together as kids, but we both find it very boring now....The awesome music and the elements of nostalgia are the only satisfaction I personally get from the game anymore. I still got all of the trophies though, but it did only take like two hours to get them all.

SpikeyAss

That's natural, ofcourse. I understand, you played it a great deal of time as a kid, from your post i could conclude that you know the game inside and out. I never played it before, hence our different opinion. I would feel bored aswell, if i were in your shoes.

I know, they are obsolete and outdated, i can't disagree, since that point is irrefutable fact. 90% of the games out there from the past are outdated and obsolete, MGS1 is horribly outdated compared to the later games in the series, yet because of a marathon that i had earlier this year playing the entire series for the first time, i consider MGS1 to be the best in the series, i love that game a lot.

Games are a totally different matter than hardware which if absolete becomes useless. It solely is a matter of personal preferance, regardless, because with board games, or video games, if it entertains you, if you're having a good time playing, then its outdatedness becomes completely and hopessly irrelevant. It's aged mechanics that could interfere with my enjoyment is wen i would consider a game aging badly, and that is subjective. I'm not disagreeing, just expressing my point of view.

Though i can't help but believe you are wrong regarding the enemy variety, like i said before, it's fresh in my memory. If i recall correctly, besides the re-used bosses that appear trough out the game (like Jet, or Zamza) there are the non-boss enemies, like the bikers, Donovan & Galsia enemies, The Signal enemies (those guys that do that sliding move), the samurai enemies, Big Ben, the kick boxers, Electra enemies, Jack enemies (those knife guys), the ninjas.. The game is very short, there's a good deal of environments, each character plays differently, so it is balanced, to me, at least.

I definately disagree with Resident Evil before the 4th, and Half- Life being unplayable. I feel like the original resident evils are always going to be good, because the gameplay is quite different, nowdays they don't make survival horror games like that anymore. I feel like most RPG games are replayable, I just recently really gotten into RPG games, I started with Final Fantasy 1, now I am playing Chrono Trigger. I feel like the 2D Rpg's are just as playable nowdays, and have certain elements that arn't done as well in 3D, like puzzles and platforming parts.

All the Snes games have aged pretty well...except for the FPS of course lol.

The PS1/N64 FPSs are more playable but sometimes if I play MOH Underground for a long period of time I get a headache trying to concentrate on what is an Enemy Polygon and what is a neutral polygon.

Spyro has aged pretty great out of the 3-d platformers, Tomba still looks great today, Ape Escape and Zelda have that nice artisticy charm to them that even with polygons they still look fantastic.

The only racing games that I can think of that aged semi well are Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. I mean...for GT trying to be a realistic game it holds nothing today, but you still look back on it from playing a new racing game and it is still playable, enjoyable, and still looks pretty good for a ps1 racer.

Metal Gear Solid aged pretty great also.

But a lot of the PS1/N64 library with the Atari 2600 struggle...because even though they are newer than the 2600...They still look almost as bad for the fact that they were the consoles that pioneered the 3-d polygons...so a lot of games look really rough....Especially the gritty realistic games.

Medal Of Honor Frontline is absolutely horrendous in it's HD re-release, the aim sensitivity is too high, the enemies are bullet sponges and it's insanely difficulty.

Medal Of Honor Frontline is absolutely horrendous in it's HD re-release, the aim sensitivity is too high, the enemies are bullet sponges and it's insanely difficulty.

KillerJuan77

I actually quite enjoy it...:P

Better than the original i thought...but oh well to each their own

That's natural, ofcourse. I understand, you played it a great deal of time as a kid, from your post i could conclude that you know the game inside and out. I never played it before, hence our different opinion. I would feel bored aswell, if i were in your shoes.

I know, they are obsolete and outdated, i can't disagree, since that point is irrefutable fact. 90% of the games out there from the past are outdated and obsolete, MGS1 is horribly outdated compared to the later games in the series, yet because of a marathon that i had earlier this year playing the entire series for the first time, i consider MGS1 to be the best in the series, i love that game a lot.

Games are a totally different matter than hardware which if absolete becomes useless. It solely is a matter of personal preferance, regardless, because with board games, or video games, if it entertains you, if you're having a good time playing, then its outdatedness becomes completely and hopessly irrelevant. It's aged mechanics that could interfere with my enjoyment is wen i would consider a game aging badly, and that is subjective. I'm not disagreeing, just expressing my point of view.

Though i can't help but believe you are wrong regarding the enemy variety, like i said before, it's fresh in my memory. If i recall correctly, besides the re-used bosses that appear trough out the game (like Jet, or Zamza) there are the non-boss enemies, like the bikers, Donovan & Galsia enemies, The Signal enemies (those guys that do that sliding move), the samurai enemies, Big Ben, the kick boxers, Electra enemies, Jack enemies (those knife guys), the ninjas.. The game is very short, there's a good deal of environments, each character plays differently, so it is balanced, to me, at least.

Lucianu

I agree. When you've played the later games in the series and you then go back to the original MGS, it's hard to adjust to missing aspects in the gameplay, like having no first person view, and the game automatically zooming in when you use the sniper. It's still my favourite game in the series though. Why, you ask? I liked the story and characters a lot more. There's also many more memorable moments in the game for me than there is in the others.

I understand where you're coming from. I'm sure there are still people that greatly enjoy the Streets of Rage games to this very day. They're still outddated compared to subsequently released games of the genre. I think we can agree upon that being a fact. However, people are going to percieve the games differently. If someone hasn't played modern beat 'em ups, like Castle Crashers for example, then that will effect how they percieve the games and they will likely enjoy them a lot still.

I re-checked several FAQ's for information on the thugs but found nothing useful. I think the difficulty level might affect what enemies you're facing though...So that's likely why we've both differing opinions on something that should be a fact.

Well, I think MGS1 doesn't date as bad as FF VII and FF VIII. But yeah, MGS2 and MGS3 just look much better, they still look like crap on my HDTV though.
Old dungeon crawler games are the worst. The early D&D genre doesn't have very good level design and the dungeon is such a maze.

Kleyook

I don't see how FFVII and FFVIII have aged. In the graphics department, they still look amazing in my opinion. The pre-rendered backgrounds are gorgeous and, because of them, nothing looks pixelated and there's no warping like your typical PS1 game. The character models in VII look like they're made out of lego blocks, I know. But fortunately the character models used in the battles looks fantastic. Even then, I'm never really paying attention to the character models when walking around anyway; I'm always looking at the immense amount of detail in the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds.

The stories are still as impactful as they were back in the day, they control great, they still look great...I don't see how they have aged? In VII there are several mistranslations, but having played through the game numerous times, I have to say that they're very rare anyway. VI would take the crown of being the worst translated game in the series.

And maze-like level design in old dungeon crawlers is the main appeal of the game for most people. It's the same as the perma-death Rogue RPG's, or the really difficult puzzles in old point and click adventure games - people love the joy of it. The sensation you get from them is incredible. Yet I must admit that dungeon crawlers are a lot better with the inclusion of an in-game map.

I can pop in almost any platformer and still have endless fun. It just seems like the platformer genre, no matter how old it is, will never go out of style.amari24

Not every plattformer :p

I think 2d Arcade beat em ups are still very fun. Like Golden Axe andAltered Beast. Most arcade games actually.

The ones that don't hold up well today I'd say would be the FPSes on the Megadrive.

Good games that have aged well such as storyline or whatever

Aged Well

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2

Planescape Torment

Freedom Fighters

Star Wars Jedi Outcast

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II and III for Gamecube

Resident Evil Nemesis for Playstation - it's still fun to play even though you know where everything is and stuff LOL

Games that havent aged well

Tomb Raider I, II and III

The problem with the old Tomb Raider games is that Lara moves like a tank. That was acceptable back then but today the controls are quite horrible.

The problem with the old Tomb Raider games is that Lara moves like a tank. That was acceptable back then but today the controls are quite horrible.

nameless12345

This. You couldn't a release a game today with it's controls.

The problem with the old Tomb Raider games is that Lara moves like a tank. That was acceptable back then but today the controls are quite horrible.

nameless12345

Not even a tank, she moves like an overweight manati.

meh , Tomb Raider is still a fun game, if anything breaks it , its that you have to wrestle with the camera , not the controls per se.