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Nostalgia aside, are old games still fun to you?

Hell yeah, I love buying and experiencing retro games when remastered, made available via backwards compatibility or through GOG. There are a ton of games I never was able to play growing up as I only had a GameCube, then a PS3 (was never allowed to play PC games).
 

Schmick

Member
List of games I still enjoy playing from time to time:

Super Mario Bros (original trilogy)
All NES Mega Man
Contra
Tetris (Gameboy version)
Sonic (Original trilogy)
Wonderboy in Monsterland
Street Fighter 2
Most point & click adventure games on Amiga
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge 2 (Amiga version)
Cannon Fodder
Alien Breed
Another World
Mortal Kombat (trilogy)
Killer Instinct 1 & 2
Metal Gear Solid
Tekken 3

Good games are just good games - nostalgia doesn't change that, but it's a plus.
ok now.... i just want to play Cannon Fodder. I'm literally in the GOG store right now.
 

KAL2006

Banned
2D games from SNES, Genesis, GBA, PS1, PS2 and DS have aged well

3D games I can't go back, graphics and gameplay has improved so much. Id only go back to PS3/360 era
 
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Laptop1991

Member
Depends how old, i don't really play any original pc games from the 90's anymore, a few from the 00's, mostly up to 10 years ago really and i will mod them to look better if i can, i'm all for the remaster,s and remakes if they are done well, which unfortunately isn't always the case.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Absolutely. Old games are my bread and butter, modern gaming really doesn't do much for me.

Lots of PSX games aged poorly but there are dozens, if not hundreds, that are still worth playing. Same with SNES, NES, Genesis, Saturn, etc.

Guess it just depends on how old you are and what you played back then. I was playing Aladdin on the genesis last weekend, first time in probably 2+ decades and it was just as good as I remembered.

Also plowed through Star Fox the other night on the SNES, still an awesome game.
 

Kimahri

Banned
Recently replayed Baten Kaitos and ICO, both fantastic experiences. I've replayed a lot fo old games lately, dating back to SNES era, and I'm en joying most of it. The things that don't hold up so well are early attempts at things that has seen a lot of iteration over the years. Take MediEvil for example. Very early 3D game, and is just horrible by today's standards althout it was kinda groundbreaking back then.
 

Daymos

Member
I'm 100% addicted to Gran Turismo 2 right now. Realism kind of killed the experience for me. I love buying the car, upgrading and experimenting.. and then dumping them and repeating. Actually learning how to drive them kinda sucks. Like repeating tracks over and over losing over and over in modern racing sims, zzZzZzzzz
 
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NinjaBoiX

Member
Yeah, loads. As long as the game is fairly simple in design like Tetris, Peggle, etc. Early games with contemporary design sensibilities and basic 3D graphics will obviously seem very dated.
Not in general, fuck no. But some are, like f.ex. Doom and Halo CE.
What the hell is f.ex?
 
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rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Tons of them and not only for nostalgia.
There are some exceptions, but in general no, they are part of the past, in this environment we should appreciate technological development.
The exceptions are those games that have made history and from which the technical development started.
Haha what??? So after you play Flight Simulator 2020 you almost only play it as almost everything is technologically inferior???
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Family Guy No GIF
 

Fbh

Member
Lot's of older games are great not just because of Nostalgia.
Was just talking about this in another thread but I really think a game like Chrono Trigger is better than the vast majority of modern JRPG's. Between the fun and unique setting, the enjoyable combat, no random encounters and the great pacing with little to no filler, I think it's a much better game than the vast majority of bloated 60 hours long JRPG's in generic fantasy settings we have today.
 
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Early 3D games are the one’s that seem to hold up the worst. Some of the most painful ones to play are some of the early 3D console games where they have controls that are designed around a controller that wasn’t really made for 3D games, along with 10fps framerates, fog walls 15 feet in front of the player, and objects that are so low poly you can’t really tell what they’re supposed to be. While PC was generally better for earlier 3D games (Quake still holds up to an extent for instance) a few of the clunkier 3D PC games like Alone in the Dark are pretty hard to get into at this point without nostalgia goggles firmly in place.
 

Silvawuff

Member
I feel a lot of older games have a difficulty curve (or time requirement) that I probably wouldn't enjoy today, as an adult, with limited time to play. They are still important games though, and I will cherish my previous time playing them.
 

22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Depends. If it controls like ass I can't be bothered. I have a hard time readjusting to stiff controls..
 
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Paasei

Member
Definitely. Thief 2, Fallout series and some TES games & Hitman instantly come to mind as older games.

Most because of mods and others just because they truly are good and playable games even today. Same with some 2D RPGs for like the (S)NES. They don’t need nostalgia to remain fun.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Good Games are good games. Time doesn‘t matter in that regard. Often I find myself having *more* fun with older titles than the bloated, mindless, MTX filled trash that we get from most AAA game designers Over the last 10 years.
 
Yes. Been playing Resident Evil on Switch and it is remarkable how good it is. Fixed camera is just awesome for these kind of games and becomes a mechanic in its own right. As much as I like the 3D Resident Evils, I do believe they lost something by "upgrading" from fixed-camera pre-rendered backgrounds.

And with Western games, I am of the opinion that they were just made better in the past. These days, talented developers tend to work at places like Apple, Google, etc. and have little incentive to slave away at some game studio.
 

lachesis

Member
They are fun. For example, I still love Iga-vania.
I do however think the game design choices and genres do affect on longevity... along with the art direction too.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
I can go system- by -system:

NES - Still fun.
SNES - No longer fun.
Genesis - Mildly fun.
PSX - Still fun, a lot left to discover.
Saturn - Still fun, a lot left to discover.
N64 - Still fun.
Dreamcast - Still fun.
PS2 - Still fun, a lot left to discover.
Gamecube - Mildly fun.
Xbox OG - Mildly fun.
360 - Still fun
Wii - No longer fun.
Amiga 500 - See you guys in February! :messenger_grinning:
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
It depends... some of them aged terribly bad, but some are still super good to play.

For example, past year I finished Doom I, II, 64 and Quake I on my laptop - the Bethesda released versions. Sure, they're "modded" in a sense that they now have better support to KB/M, higher resolution and better lighting; but they were AMAZING! And I had more fun with them than I did with most games I played the last decade.

A somewhat similar experience I had playing Duke Nukem 3D with EDuke32; but it was rougher than Doom or Quake, although still lots of fun to play.

Actually... I just am now interested in playing Brutal Doom. I never played it before albeit hearing good things about it.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
It depends... some of them aged terribly bad, but some are still super good to play.

For example, past year I finished Doom I, II, 64 and Quake I on my laptop - the Bethesda released versions. Sure, they're "modded" in a sense that they now have better support to KB/M, higher resolution and better lighting; but they were AMAZING! And I had more fun with them than I did with most games I played the last decade.

A somewhat similar experience I had playing Duke Nukem 3D with EDuke32; but it was rougher than Doom or Quake, although still lots of fun to play.

Actually... I just am now interested in playing Brutal Doom. I never played it before albeit hearing good things about it.
Have you played Blood? I just beated it for the first time not long ago and it felt great. A bit harder than other classic shooters tho, lots of hit scanners there.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Have you played Blood? I just beated it for the first time not long ago and it felt great. A bit harder than other classic shooters tho, lots of hit scanners there.
Never played it, but already heard good things! Is there a good source port for? Hitscan might not fright me too much, because it seems Duke Nukem 3D also had lots of it.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Never played it, but already heard good things! Is there a good source port for? Hitscan might not fright me too much, because it seems Duke Nukem 3D also had lots of it.
Remember when in Duke a pig cop could be proned instead of walking, and that meant he would shoot you almost right after seeing you? That's every cultist enemy in Blood. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

About source ports... I played it using fresh supply, which was released by Nightdive not long ago. It really sucked on launch but they fixed it and now I would say it's a very nice way to play it.
 
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Kssio_Aug

Member
Remember when in Duke a pig cop could be proned instead of walking, and that meant he would shoot you almost right after seeing you? That's every cultist enemy in Blood. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

About source ports... I played it using fresh supply, which was released by Nightdive not long ago. It really sucked on launch but they fixed it and now I would say it's a very nice way to play it.
Thanks!! I wasn't aware there was a re-release! I'll definitely check it out!!

Damn... is this the current generation definition of Ancient Gamers? I'm feeling so fucking old now!

vhs mummy GIF by Charlie Mars
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Serious talk. I’d rather go back to a game that’s between 20 and 30 years old, than one released in the last 15 years. Reason being that most games since the beginning of the 7th gen have been about refining the same elements without adding much originality, making Uncharted 1 paradoxically more obsolete than a PS2 game or even older stuff. The market has definitely been stagnating, and it’s been doing that for much longer than during any other previous gen, because 15 years is the same timespan that separated the NES from the Dreamcast. We haven’t had a true leapfrog experience in mainstream gaming in a long, long time. So, while tech may tell you otherwise, on the gameplay front it’s really much better to reload NES Contra than an early PS3 game.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
The hell...
I can still enjoy games like DOuble Dragon, Mega Man, and Punch Out!! on the NES.

The SNES has games I may have liked back in the day, but going back to them is not fun for me. Just "meh"

I'd rather play the original Super Mario Bros. than Super Mario World.
 

Pejo

Member
I think a lot of times retro games are more "fun" because they aren't bogged down by overly complex stories and endless dialogue. Much more "pick up and play" friendly. They're also harder so there's always that dopamine of beating a boss after failing 20 times. I still replay a lot of older games mixed in with the new stuff.

SotN, LttP, Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger, SoR3, there are lots of timeless games that still hold up really well today. I think my sweet spot for gaming is the 16 bit era personally.
 

Bakkus

Member
I can still enjoy games like DOuble Dragon, Mega Man, and Punch Out!! on the NES.

The SNES has games I may have liked back in the day, but going back to them is not fun for me. Just "meh"

I'd rather play the original Super Mario Bros. than Super Mario World.
Well, I completely disagree with you there. I think SNES perfected 2D while NES was just very standard archaic 2D. There is not a single franchise with better games on NES than SNES imo. Not to mention all the fantastic RPGs on SNES which NES completely lacked.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Well, I completely disagree with you there. I think SNES perfected 2D while NES was just very standard archaic 2D. There is not a single franchise with better games on NES than SNES imo. Not to mention all the fantastic RPGs on SNES which NES completely lacked.
Aye, your point on RPG's is inarguable.
But in my opinion, the franchises the two platforms shared were way better on the NES.

-OG Zelda > LTTP.
-Double Dragon II & III > Super Double Dragon.
-Mike Tyson's Punchout!! > Super Punch Out.
-Mega Man 1-6 > MMX and it's sequels.
-..and on and on

The only franchise I can see that got better on the SNES was maybe Dragon Quest and that's it.
 
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Holammer

Member
Nostalgia is a factor, but I like to think that younger gamers today could enjoy plenty of arcade games from what is my personal golden Pixel-art age between 84-94'. Before the origami polygon dark age.
16bit consoles are fine too.
 
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