I've been "Retro Gaming" or psedo retro gaming for a little less than 3 months. One thing that i've learned really quickly, is that 3-D games from systems past, don't hold up very well over time.


While on one hand, a game like Super Mario World looks like a timeless classic, a game like Sega Rally on the Sega Saturn looks like a joke.

No offense to anybody who absolutely loves Sega Rally. It was an awesome game when it was first released, but now, some 7 years or so later, it looks very poor. Part of the reason, is that any 3-D game depends on having the latest technology to make it what it is.

A game like Project Gotham Racing 2 for the XBOX, is going to live or die based on how much absolute state of the art technology is packed into it. (don't get it wrong, if it plays like crap even state of the art technology won't save it) When Sega Rally for the Saturn was first released, it was considered to be an amazing achievement. But as time goes by, the once nifty 3-D visuals look like they were crafted in the stone ages.

Now, I might be overdoing this whole take, but the thing is that I've recently acquired Daytona, VF2, Sega Rally and Virtua Cop for the Sega Saturn. While all four of these games are great games, they just don't hold up as well over time, as a games like Gunstar Herores, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 do. (These are also 4 games that I have acquired recently)

The main difference is that 4 of them are 2-D and four are 3-D. Because the two-dimensional games don't live and die by their "at the time state of the art technology", they seem to stand the test of time much better.

Now, I'm not saying that old 3-D games are unplayable, or that you couldn't enjoy them tremendously, but for the most part they just don't seem to hold up over time as well as the 2-D classics do. I will still play Daytona for the Saturn, and have tons of fun, but the tremendous amount of pop up and stuff can be very disstracting.