What beloved game just doesn't hold up these days for you?

[Boxman214]

I'm piggybacking on the thread written by sweaty dungus (https://forums.destructoid.com/threads/mario-sunshine-does-not-hold-up.177/). They wrote about how Super Mario Sunshine just doesn't hold up today.

Made me wonder. What other games don't hold up tofay? Obviously, this is extremely subjective. But what is a beloved game (either one that you loved personally, or thst is loved by the larger gaming community) that fails compared to modern gaming standards? And what is it that makes it fail?

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is Crash Bandicoot. I didn't really play it as a kid (no Playstation). So I picked up the Remastered trilogy as an adult. And I think it's AWFUL. Straight up evil design. Completely unrefined gameplay mechanics. It feels super janky and incredibly unforgiving. And this is with a remaster! I'm sure it's even worse with the original.

How about you?

 

[RiffRaff]

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is Crash Bandicoot. I didn't really play it as a kid (no Playstation). So I picked up the Remastered trilogy as an adult. And I think it's AWFUL. Straight up evil design. Completely unrefined gameplay mechanics. It feels super janky and incredibly unforgiving. And this is with a remaster! I'm sure it's even worse with the original.

yes. Not a fan of Crash 1. But Crash 3 is great and holds up well imo.

A lot of NES jrpgs don't do it for me anymore. I tried to replay FF1 on the NES mini. Fuck is it boooooooooring!!!! I'm afraid to play my beloved FF6 on the SNES mini because of how slow it is. It was greatly improved on the GBA because battles went much faster. I ain't got time for slow random battles anymore. I got games to play!

 

[Granadico]

I love Sonic Adventure 2 Battle but damn is that game janky lol some of it is charming but some if it is just pretty bad 3D controls. I've always been good about tempering my expectations for games by age so it doesn' tusually bother me.

 

[NSPillow]

I love Sonic Adventure 2 Battle but damn is that game janky lol some of it is charming but some if it is just pretty bad 3D controls. I've always been good about tempering my expectations for games by age so it doesn' tusually bother me.

I have fond memories of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, but I will leave them in the past. I don't think I'd have much patience for them anymore.

Off the top of my head these are a few of mine :

Dark Cloud 2. I played that game for hundreds of hours the first time. 100%'d it. Collected everything. I tried playing it again when it was released for the PS4. Landed with a total thud. Guess when I played it the first time it was a case of right place, right time. That being said though, this game did imprint a love of procedurally generated games that's still with me today.

Final Fantasy VII. I don't think people remember how obnoxious the mini-games are in this. I don't think anyone likes them, they just kind of ... tolerate them. Either way, it felt so tedious that I couldn't even find it in me to get out of Midgar the last time I played. Ah well. At least I still have VIII and IX.

Vigilante 8. I don't think anyone will ever understand how much I loved this game. But the remake on X360 and subsequent attempts to go back to the original have reminded me that these games aren't really that fun. So, let me ask this: Does anyone know of a modern car combat game that actually plays well?

Medievil. Good lord, the controls and collision detection in these two games are atrocious. I thought maybe they'd've fixed it for the PS4 remaster but nope. I know some people love these games (I used to be one of them!) but I find them completely unplayable today. Of course, if they ever remaster the second one I'll be the first in line to buy it ... Because even when I know better I still view these games with rose colored glasses.

 

[Xeo]

Prepare to be upset with me...
I grew up in the 80's, started with my dad's Atari 2600 and got my own NES in 1989. Despite this, I don't hold a lot of nostalgia for games from those two generations. Coming back to the NES for the first time in a while with the NES Classic I realized...these games don't hold my interest anymore. It's not about the graphics, I don't care about that, it's about how simplistic a lot of them are. And the NES games I still like were either often more advanced, or I just really enjoyed the games, like Castlevania 3 for example. But also even a game like Friday the 13th. Yeah, that game is known to be notoriously bad, but going back to it again...it holds up in my opinion. It's kinda janky, but it was really ambitious. It has a lot going on, and I appreciate that. But to be honest, maybe it's just the novelty of a Friday the 13th game where you get into a Punch Out! style fight with Jason Voorhees, I dunno. (One way or another, to be fair I loved this one as a kid as well.)

Now moving forward into the 16-bit era, that's a completely different story, that's one of my absolute favorite eras in gaming. Several of my favorite games of all time coming from the SNES for example. But stepping back to the 8-bit gen, I just can't. Even some of the games I used to LOVE, like Star Tropics and Blaster Master just cannot hold my interest for more than a half an hour or so anymore. I hate saying that, but aside from a few select titles and series, I just can't be bothered with 8-bit era stuff anymore. It bores me to tears. And like I said, it's exclusively limited to that era, because I LOVE revisiting the 16-bit and discovering old SNES or Genesis games I didn't play as a kid. Admittedly sometimes old platformers from this era can also fail to keep my interest, but that's a problem I have with platformers period, regardless of when they released.

 

[Cygnus Rush 961]

Need For Speed: Underground for me. It was enjoyable during my early junior high years with the body-kit customization and tuners that were available in-game. If I were to try to play it now as an adult I would lose my patience with the rubber-banding A.I. and the wonky physics involved. I am more inclined to return to Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005) with a mod to get rid of the "Real is Brown" filter than replay Underground.

 

[Seymour Demonica]

I love Sonic Adventure 2 Battle but damn is that game janky lol some of it is charming but some if it is just pretty bad 3D controls. I've always been good about tempering my expectations for games by age so it doesn' tusually bother me.

Sonic Adventure 2 is a tad jank.

But, the original Sonic Adventure is a whole 'nother league of jank. I truly do think that people who still hold that game in high regard should not be trusted and thrown into a volcano. Not necessarily in that order.

 

[Roager]

GTA San Andreas. I want to like it. The city's good. The characters are good. There's a lot of ambitious ideas, and that they actually implemented so many of them on the PS2 is impressive as hell.

It's just not fun to play. The driving is okay but not great. Combat is worse than okay. The driving stops being okay when missions get strict about chases.

 

[Startyde]

Recently had a retro game night with some friends and we popped in the olde Goldeneye. Wholly gawd, it was unplayable. I don't understand how we accepted that flimsy stick controller while going blind watching fuzzy four way local split screen on a CRT.

Of they ever do release an N64 mini, I think people are going to be humbled.

 

[Xeo]

Recently had a retro game night with some friends and we popped in the olde Goldeneye. Wholly gawd, it was unplayable. I don't understand how we accepted that flimsy stick controller while going blind watching fuzzy four way local split screen on a CRT.

Of they ever do release an N64 mini, I think people are going to be humbled.

Now that you mention it...I've kinda felt that way a while about Goldeneye. I enjoyed it a lot back then too, but I've never really had a big desire to come back to it in modern times, even if given the chance. There are other N64 games that are far more under the radar that I'd be much more interested in playing these days. Such as Blast Corps, Bomberman 64, and Ogre Battle 64. Or the awesome AKI wrestling games on there. Or hell, even Harvest Moon 64.

 

[jtotal]

Twilight Princess, but only because Wind Waker exists.

I think it's funny, I was the group of people that utterly trashed Wind Waker when it was first revealed. I hated every last thing about it. I even pre-ordered the game just to get the bonus disc, and then cancel. I was that salty. And then I found myself playing it every other year.

Twilight Princess? 2004, I was screaming from my computer that E3. I was hyped. Two years of clamoring for this nugget of 1s and 0s. To get pissed off by it the time I was wolf Link in that prison. I still got through it.

Come last decade, and the HD releases showed how much the graphics held up as well, and Wind Waker outclassed it by a mile. It also released before Twilight Princess, this really driving home the differences.

I guess overall, I wouldn't be typing this if Wind Waker didn't prove me (and let's face it, most of us) wrong.

 

[Dangus Taargus]

Sonic Adventure 2 is a tad jank.

But, the original Sonic Adventure is a whole 'nother league of jank. I truly do think that people who still hold that game in high regard should not be trusted and thrown into a volcano. Not necessarily in that order.

This needs to said. Thank you. I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't unabashedly love these games because Sonic is in them and they have terrible Deadly Premonition style cutscenes and dialog. Like yeah, that stuff is cool... but go back and PLAY them. They suck.

 

[Dangus Taargus]

Recently had a retro game night with some friends and we popped in the olde Goldeneye. Wholly gawd, it was unplayable. I don't understand how we accepted that flimsy stick controller while going blind watching fuzzy four way local split screen on a CRT.

Of they ever do release an N64 mini, I think people are going to be humbled.

Goldeneye is fun to tinker with here and there but yeah, if I want that style of FPS, it's either Perfect Dark or Timesplitters.

 

[Roager]

Goldeneye just 100% doesn't hold up. Even within the N64 library it's basically obsolete next to Perfect Dark. And neither of those are worth playing over... Almost any shooter made since. Dangus is right, Timesplitters is the best candidate if you want to scratch that specific itch.

But I'll stand by Sonic. I'll admit I have big nostalgia for Adventure 2, but I played Adventure 1 for the first time a couple weeks ago, and Sonic's campaign was a lot of fun. Janky as fuck for sure, but fun. Of course, there's a decent chance I'm still just projecting my love for SA2. Also the other characters might be kind of garbage. But it was fun.

 

[NSPillow]

Goldeneye is fun to tinker with here and there but yeah, if I want that style of FPS, it's either Perfect Dark or Timesplitters.

I didn't like Golden-Eye when it came out, I can't for the life of me understand the praise heaped upon it. Like, was it Stockholm syndrome?

 

[Xeo]

I didn't like Golden-Eye when it came out, I can't for the life of me understand the praise heaped upon it. Like, was it Stockholm syndrome?

It was a pretty big deal when it released. It changed the face of multiplayer shooters, and was a cool James Bond experience also. A legitimately well crafted licensed game based on a film, something that was almost unheard of then.

 

[Turbokill]

RuneScape? More like Run Escape, amirite? HAHAHAH

Fuck that game. Wish I discovered FFXIV sooner. That said, I do enjoy the humor in the quests and the crafting/cooking systems. But that's about it nowadays. For as absolutely, monumentally, and biblically grindy as the game is, somehow the quests are the worst part. It takes the dumb logic that the worst adventure games have for their "puzzles" and has you apply such logic in a large, open-world. You're going to use a guide.

Also, a vast majority of your beloved NES games aren't "NES hard", they're just shit. I'm glad I started with the SNES.

 

[Xeo]

Sonic Adventure 2 seems to be a pretty big one, here. And I guess I’d have to agree to an extent.

See, I first played the game when I was 19 or 20. So not all that long ago, all things considered. But I remember someone hyping the hell out of it, because they had incredibly fond nostalgic memories of it.

So they brought over their GameCube disk from back in the day, not having anything to play it on at that time. Put it in my Wii console, then we booted it up.

It wasn’t long before I was reacting with “wait, this is it? I guess this city level is kinda cool, but I’m not sure how I feel about these other bits...”

To be fair, those Sonic levels are still pretty fun! I’ll give the game that. When it’s a Sonic game, it’s quite enjoyable. But those boss battles, and the other playable characters really hold it back.

I can totally understand that. Dreamcast era jank though, for me, I personally love it. I don't know why, but that era of gaming is damned near perfect in my eyes. Jank and all.

 

[treeburst]

First for me would be Bushido Blade.

I absolutely loved this game when I was young. So many hours playing either by myself or with others and having an absolute blast. I picked it up as an adult and I couldn't play it more than 15 minutes without being so bored I was annoyed. I couldn't figure out what made my hits lethal and what didn't, and I didn't have the patience to figure out why. I doubt I had a nuanced understanding of it when I was young; it was just a fighter that was 3D with Swords and Blood and as such blew my mind. Though, I'm disappointed that at an older age I didn't feel like I had the time to give it more of a chance.

Second for me would be Twilight Princess.

I remember when it was first revealed and the art style felt like Zelda grew up with me, and that it couldn't not be perfect. And it felt perfect when I first played it. I picked up the Wii U port, and the graphics and color pallet were so drab it was depressing for me. The tutorial was brutally long, the overworld was a chore to explore, and I just kept looking for anything that wasn't a shade of brown. Dungeons still hold up though.

 

[treeburst]

Twilight Princess is such a weird game for me, visually. Because when it’s trying to be more realistic, it just looks dated. But the more supernatural elements — such as the guardian deities? Gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous.

That's a really good way of putting it. I still think there was a really interesting "maturity" to the art style and character design that especially came through with those super natural elements. If they could have opened up the color pallet a bit I think it would have held up better for me.