Games that are overrated due to nostalgia

I have a theory on older games; they remain good if you played them when they were relevant and are extremely dated if you only played them years later.

I can still play Ocarina of Time and enjoy it, but that's because I've memorized the game and don't have to get stuck on what used to be the frustrating parts the first time I played it. On the other hand, I played Final Fantasy 7 for the first time in 2012, and it was such a grueling experience I gave up within 4 hours because I was just running around trying to accidentally discover what I was supposed to do.

That exact same thing happens in Ocarina of Time , but I know all of the random NPC's I have to talk to in order to keep the game moving forward. I think that plays a big part of it.

• Final Fantasy VII: This game is still claiming relevancy due to boners. Gamers with nostalgia boners and fanfiction writers with lady boners. Either way, this game has aged poorly.
• Super Mario Sunshine: Attack me all you want, but this game is way overrated. I really hated the addition of FLUUD because he actually aged this game.
• Sonic: Sonic is to video games what the extreme sports craze was to the 90s and 00s. It was very cool at that time and everyone in school was talking about it, but once the dust settles, people hardly talk about him anymore. This is the opposite of Mario Bros that have stood the test of time.
• Blizzard as a company: Blizzard is what this board THINKS Nintendo is, a currently mediocre company getting by on past games and former glory.

Shenmue is so over-rated that they actually had to remake it to appease the over-ratees which is impressive in itself.

The ever-lasting (alleged) appeal of Mario jumping up and down and collecting shit like a twat is unbelievably over-rated and a good reason to question the sanity of the clowns who keep demanding they deliver this crap repeatedly.

Everything Ghost likes (he has only a handful of titles from the entire history of gaming) is an unmitigated disaster.

Witcher 3 is a movie game massively loved by all the Sony movie game haters on here who have never owned a Sony console. Hypocritical asshats? Yes, yes that's exactly what they are.

Red Dead Redemption 2, incredible critical reception, loved and adored by many, and one of the most boring games ever made. Ever. Not a movie game as things actually happen at faster than walking pace in movies. Another game wildly acclaimed by Sony movie game haters can I just say lolz?

Witcher 2 and 3.

I respectfully disagree. Splatoon, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ring Fit Adventure, Animal Crossing, Mario Odyssey, etc., will stand the test of time. The only modern Nintendo concept that I see that we'll look back on and be like "huh?" will be Super Mario Maker. Mostly because of the execution. I like the idea of companies allowing gamers to show off their creativity, but Mario Maker is just awful. It's too many gamer made levels. They should've taken the Fortnite approach where they make most of the meat of the game, but allow gamers to make levels as well.

A concept like that is similar to baking Holiday themed desserts with your kid. Like you allow them to help decorate the cookies and cakes, but you don't allow them to make it by themselves.

I don’t really believe in the term “overrated” because to me, it’s a very selfish word. When anyone uses the term “overrated”, their argument becomes completely moot to me.

To me, all I get from the word “overrated” is:

“The critics/media/journalists/fans views doesn’t align with mines so they’re wrong, and I’m right“

It’s a word that haters and naysayers hides behind in an argument.

Are we talking games that were good when they released but have aged poorly, or games that were overrated from day one? Big difference.

All the "good" sonic games.

@vatususreturns: yikes! A bad experience with KOTOR? man I love the combat in kotor. The force powers and building my own saber for buffs. One of the goats if you ask me.

Nope. Play a shit ton of old games, probably more so than newer games.

Halflife, Quake, Doom, Last Blade 2, Tomb Raider II, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear etc...

In the case of something like Rainbow Six, I would argue they have legitimately devolved.

It depends. I have played some older games that I didn't play during the time they were released and they were engaging and good.

Totally fair. I think it all depends on how the design of the game holds up, and I think a lot of that has to do with genre, as some have aged better than others.

What's improved in game design more than any other aspect over the last 20 years is guidance, and adventure/RPG games like OOT and FFVII are genres that used to have very poor guidance, but that was also a learning curve for developers as games got more complex moving into 3D, and there were a lot more ways for the player to get lost, stuck, or generally confused.

It's unfortunate it isn't more well known. SNK seem cursed to remain on the peripheral.

But yes, the emphasis on the basics building blocks, extremely high damage combined with the extremely high risk/reward of deflect, desperation moves and pre-game choice of power/speed have much depth but still feel like a distillation of everything I love fighting games hammered down to purity.

SNK always made brilliant looking games, but even by their standards this game looks incredible, arguably their best and arguably the best looking 2D fighting game made.

The music as well is also distinctive in its sombre tone.

Overall, it's ok.

Most games from the PS1/N64/Saturn era.

Also: Morrowind.

Granted, the question then is: were these games ever good in the first place?

Honestly, any Bethesda title.

Influential but bad in so many regards.

A lot of what holds up them up is the modding community, hundreds upon hundreds spending years on a game long after Bethesda has moved on.

come on. mention Tomb raider over Doom, Quake, Half life in same sentence is disgrace to them.

Tomb raider was one of the worst game of its time.

Great dishonour.

How can a game be overrated due to nolstagia?

Nolstagia means that you've had an enjoyable experience with something in the past thus creating a 'trigger' in your subconscious. When you relive that trigger in the present, it takes you back to that joyous mental state. Therefore, if you had an enjoyable experience with this, that only means that it was great for its time, hence it not ever being able to be labeled as overrated.

What you meant to ask was, 'In hindsight, what are some games that are overrated?'

By perceptionally viewing it through a distorted lens time inextricably distorts, compounded by a child's undeveloped brain.

Therefore, something something.

Most fighting games, hack n slash games, stealth games that have outdated controls and levels. They tend to be worshiped by a very vocal group that often mistake difficulty for inconvenient mechanics.

Disagree. A lot of their games are still pretty good on Rare Replay. Perfect Dark is still highly playable, I play the Xbox 360 version these days and it's still fun.

DK64 has you collect too much, but Banjo Kazooie imo was better than Mario 64. Mainly because collecting stars as a concept seemed silly to me. But my main problem with Banjo Kazooie is that it's just a bit too easy. But honestly, todays 3d platformers have never bettered what Nintendo and Rare did back with the N64.

I'd say some games haven't aged great but many are still playable. Conkers Bad Fur day is still decent.

Super Mario Kart. It doesn't handle well and the AI blatantly cheats, and every game after it has outdone it.

It's an awful single player experience with rubberband ai. Nintendo are so lazy when it comes to advanced ai or physics.

Max Payne actually destroyed entire early tomb raider series alone. that is why Max payne still age well and tomb raider now play like crap.

What conan said

Few games really stand the test of time, so I'd argue that all but a handful are "overrated" in the modern context due to nostalgia.

This is why context is so important. I generally find myself enjoying games I played at release even if they're 20+ years old, while I don't enjoy games I missed out on and didn't discover until much later.

Yeah I like it now only because of the story, characters, and rich SW lore....but everything else is crap.

KOTOR 2 is much better in terms of gameplay but if you dislike KOTOR 1 that much, you probably won't like KOTOR 2 to be honest.

Interesting, "overrated" because of past experiences but now critiqued using presentism?

Mario Kart 64. Wasn't received too well critically even back then, but lots of people fondly remember it. Playing that one now is... yikes?

Max Payne, Stalker, or Deus Ex…take your pick.

I'll change my previous statement to include almost all of the older games from gen six and before. Even if you don't care for the content of newer games, or their lack of creativity, they do control better and they tend to have much better qol features that even the loudest old schoolers can't live without any more.

Naughty Dog as a company

The 3D games from that PS1/N64 gen are like 99% unplayable. It was a period of transition where technology and game design needed to catch up. (less of an issue for the 3D PC games, though some of them also aged badly at least the performance and mouse/keyboard countrol makes them tolerable). The console games from this era had more severe technical and control limitations. PS2 is where most of that got ironed out and where the "art" started to come through more (and that's why you can slap a "remaster" on a PS2 game, and it can hold up even today so long as they don't botch the 1080p/30 or 1080p/60 emulation... and obviously provided the game was worth playing in the 1st place).

Disagree on classic JRPG's though. That's the one thing that definitely holds up from gen 5. 2D games and JRPG. Hell 2D and JRPG even from SNES era still hold up with some pretty good artwork and game design. NES era is where it's more strained.

@2Chalupas:

Yeah, not arguing they don't "hold up". As a matter of fact, would rather play the classics than most of their modern counterparts. Classic JRPGs were much better paced, and typically much more tightly designed experiences. Kept the bloat and busy work to a minimum. Offered up more varied and interesting scenarios. Were more focused on the player having fun.

Not a fan of the "aged poorly" take when it comes to game design. Doubt it's intentional on their part, just this odd fallacy that people fall into to deflect from the fact that they're seeing the game for what it's always been. Aspects like visuals and QOL improve, but great game design isn't something that wanes over time. Makes much more sense that the person was either working with limited experience, or (more often the case) was wowed by factors outside of the gameplay that have become commonplace, or trivial. For whatever reason, people get defensive over the fact that their own perception changed and would rather place blame on the immutable game or imagine up some improved standard of design lol. Extra weird when you can point out examples of games from these various eras that are still excellent to play to this day. You'd think people would see the cracks in this line of reasoning. /tangent sorry

Back to what I meant about classic JRPGs, not saying they're bad. Just for how often I hear "BEST GAME EVER", yeah I do feel they're overrated. I have a real soft spot for games like Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star IV, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, etc. The nostalgic side of me is like hell yeah, of course the games are tops! But the realist in me understands that these games are pretty average. Experiences elevated by stories that floored me in my youth, but would do nothing for me now. Audio and visuals that seemed impossible at the time whereas now it's like yeah they're nice, but so? Obviously nothing wrong with stuff like that serving to elevate a great game, but when the core game isn't actually all that great...

Feel bad every time I see someone try Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger for the first time, after hearing the incredible hype for years, only to be like "so that's it...?". I'm far more careful about the classics I recommend these days. If the core gameplay isn't among its best elements, probably best to make that clear.

Tomb Raider definitely has better platforming than Max Payne.

Final Fantasy VII.

Honestly, wouldn't call KOTOR 2' gameplay great either. Especially that opening dungeon, holy shit.

Coming immediately off the back of Baldurs Gate at the time didn't help either.

As we know, KOTOR 2 had a lower budget and was shoved out the door before being finished. Basically end up with an abrupt ending that tries to cover up a lack of ending by making it open-ended with implication.

However, while KOTOR follows beat per beat the template, Arthurian Legend, good and evil and all that shit. KOTOR 2 goes in the polar opposite direction and does something far more interesting breaking down and criticizing elements, that's basically the role Kreia serves... She's granny Richard Dawkins, euphoric.

It doesn't really resonate with gamers as easily as a Keyser Soze "You were the villain all along!"

That game has always had bad gameplay, like most Bioware games. When it was new, I called it overrated in my brothers face who ignored me and called it awesome. :(

I wouldn't call it "bad" gameplay at all... Ive played through KOTOR several. Times most recently maybe 2 years ago. I even did an iPad run. Lol. I actually enjoy the different gameplay choices as it contrasts with all the other games that feel and play the same way. Kotor is a break from that. The story is definitely the star of the show, but the gameplay is good enough to keep you thinking.

Fable. It's combat was lousy even in 2004. Fable 2 also had completely meh combat and it came out in 2008.

The mmo style combat of Kotor has never clicked for me, so from a gameplay pov it offers basically nothing . I do think the characters/ story are worth experiencing.

The Ezio trilogy. Pretty much have nothing good to say about its gameplay. The setting was cool, the story was ok in 2 not worthy of the pedestal it has been placed on. Alot of people shit on AC3 cus of the long tutorial ... the whole of AC2 is basically a tutorial.

Max Payne 1 and 2 I can't play them anymore after playing 3.

• Half Life 2- overrated and meh even for its time, outside of the AI for its time the game was awful
• Oot- not as good as MM and WW, probably one of the most overrated games ever and this is coming from a LoZ fan....hell my daughters middle name is Zelda
• Golden Eye 007- yea it was alright for back in the day for couch co-op fun but outside of that....the game was garbage, SP was horrible and the shooting mechanics were outdone with 2 years of that game being out

@vatususreturns: I played KOTOR for the first time half a year ago, and while I did enjoy the game, it is nowhere near as good as Mass Effect or Dragon Age.

Golden Eye 007. I am glad that some of the other posters agree with me on this one.

Metal Gear Solid 2,3 and 4. 5 is also overrated, but it isn't old enough to be called nostalgic.

Tetris. How many of you guys still play it?

These^

That's an interesting one.

Def disagree. Gameplay wise 2 onwards hold up remarkably well imo.

Visually well I think "timeless" might be a bit overly generous, the strong art direction has certainly helped them hold up better than most games of their era (specifically PS2).

Yeah, MGS2 on play pretty great. Even MGS4, don't like the game, but can't really knock the systems and mechanics when they let you play. If anything, would argue we've regressed, wish we still got games like those. The modern take on stealth gameplay tends to be crouch in grass, congrats.

As for MGSV, most third person games of that style still feel rough to play by comparison. TLOU2 is the only thing since that might stack up in terms of feel and even then it's still a bit limited.

Edit: Can see the argument for overrated, but that's every game that gets the "omg best game ever" treatment. Still a good/great series of games though.

@pmanden: I still play Tetris once in a while.