Games That Didn't Really Age Well

[G-Boobie]

Vagrant Story. I love that game, but goddamn: I cannot stand looking at it anymore. Also, the idea of a game that can screw you to the wall to the point where you have no choice but to start over after thirty hours of gameplay is one I can't get behind anymore.

[annoy fanboys]I watched my girlfriend try and play through Final Fantasy VII a couple months ago. She had no prior FF experience and couldn't get past the second disc, due primarily to the crap translation and horrible graphics. [/annoy fanboys]

Resident Evil. Especially on PS1. The Gamecube version is fairly playable, but how I ever tolerated the tank controls and terrible static camera is beyond me.

While we're at it, Silent Hill hasn't aged particularly well. I hope Silent Hill 2 ages better.

[Jon R.]

Vagrant Story was still quite nice, although the last time i played it was with the enhancements of ePSXe's plugins. Silent Hill 2's kind of a weird one though, since the non-tank controls ended up being more confusing when changing screens than the usual tank-style. Nice PC port though.

For me, the big one is pre-3D racing games. I remember playing the hell out of Top Gear on the SNES with a friend way back when, but today i can't imagine how anyone ever managed. I just can't get a handle on the pseudo-3D perspective anymore.

StarFox too. Couldn't care less about the flat shaded models, but the framerate is completely intolerable to me now. For someone who still has the StarFox jacket from the competition in his closet, this was an especially amusing discovery. The Genesis Hard Drivin' is in this camp as well.

Pretty much anything 2600. My earliest memory is of playing Yar's Revenge, but today there's actually something vaguely unsettling about 2600 games. First-gen stuff for anything up to the PSX tended to have a sort of pocket-universe vibe, like NES Kung-Fu or Metroid, which i still dig. You know, not quite there, but still has enough to connect to you with via the sprites and the music? Even simple things like title screens go a little ways in that regard. The 2600 though, until its later days, you just turn on and get some barely recognizable objects, a black background, and soundeffects that are as disconcerting as holding a conversation with someone who hasn't learned to use his indoor voice. Plus, most of the games didn't have any problem with plonking you down unceremoniously and with jarring effects.

Or maybe that's just my recent bout with Airlock speaking.

[RadiantSvgun]

I can actually still play resident evil, silent hill, and vagrant story with ease. However, Mystaria, Shining the Holy ark, and Legend of Oasis, I can't bear to play.

[mercarian]

While I loved FF7 (and still do), it just doesn't hold up graphically anymore.

Pokemon Snap was another great game, until you beat it then it became really boring really fast.

I also thought that the older Street fighters were better then the newer ones.

Altered Beast was another great game in the day, that now seems to move really slowly.

[DragonmasterAlex]

I still play the first Resident Evil sometimes, it is almost as awesome as it was ten years ago.
But Tomb Raider, now that's a game I can't stand anymore. I used to love the first PS1 game, but today, those damn controls just make me wanna puke. :puke:

[Rob2600]

Ice Hockey on nes has aged much better than Blades of Steel because BoS went for realism, Ice Hockey didn't. Both games are still a lot of fun to play, but BoS looks like crap while Ice Hockey shines (graphically) in my opinion.

To me, Blades of Steel still looks great, whereas Ice Hockey has always had a cheap, outdated look to it.


Growing up, I constantly played the Atari 2600, but I have almost no interest in playing it now. It's like trying to go back to having a 19" black-and-white TV in the living room or driving a Model T car. Sure, those things were amazing at the time, but our standards and expectations have evolved.

[The 1 2 P]

For starters, Rad Racer for the Nes. It just isn't very much fun to play anymore.

[JunkTheMagicDragon]

i was busy playing diablo and aoe during the birth of 3d gaming, so i don't have any nostagia for the old 1st-gen 3d console games. so most ps1 and n64 games have aged terribly for me because of the generally terrible (by today's standards) control schemes.

dc games to a lesser extent are affected because of the lack of a second analog stick, but it's not such a problem that i can't enjoy some quake after a few minutes of fiddling with the button mapping.

i also have a lot less patience with nes games than i did when i was a kid. if i'm not having fun within a few minutes now, i quit. when i was a kid, i had the "i paid $50, dammit i'm gonna have fun" attitude.

[GamerTheGreek]

On PC hands down Nascar Racing by Papyrus. I used to be a master at that game even with the talladega cheat to take off the restrictor plate i used to blast laps over 215 or 216 mph. Now going back its so pixelated and ew that i couldnt do that again even if i had all the time in a week and a mission statement.

[ZP3]

I might anger a few people here, but I cannot stand the resident evil remake on the Gamecube. I never played the original back in the day, but the controls are just too clunky for me to handle.