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Nostalgia aside, are old games still fun to you?

Jigsaah

Gold Member
I recently played through The Matrix: Path of Neo on the OG Xbox. Janky as the controls were, it was still fun.

I still play Phantom Dust from time to time when people are on. I will be buying old games soon as my Switch arrives. So I'mma say yes...old games are still fun.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
First off don’t say Nostalgia is the only factor in playing an “old” game, next old games like Majoras Mask reminds me of smart game design, a little edgy, risky and is good at keeping eyes on it. I can't figure out why todays games can’t do that.
 

th4tguy

Member
Even as a kid, I never really cared for the arcade style games. I still don't, but there are lots of retro games I do enjoy. Retro games are great!
 
Some of them are, but it's not the fun that I am looking for when I am playing older titles, their ability to make me feel impressed by a video game is what usually increases my interest. I haven't heard of "Planescape: Torment" until 5 years ago, imagine my reaction when this game became the definitive way for me to experience an RPG game while there are thousands of games already out there. It's difficult to find variety in video games for me these days, which is why "Dune 2000" while being the game that doesn't really exist anymore looks and feels much more interesting than any other RTS video game out there.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Lot's of people here saying the PSX/N64 era has aged badly, but I disagree. I think a lot of those games have their own unique style thanks to their limitations, and a lot of charm alongside that.

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Some of the games from this gen ran like ass yeah, specially on the N64, but I still think there's a LOT to enjoy from there today.
Biggest problems with those games are the stiffness, and a lack of free camera. Definitely takes some time to readjust to not being able to move the camera around. Going back to Ocarina of Time or GC Metroid Prime in recent times was quite a shock for me, even if you can readjust quickly. But yeah, a lot of games from that time could still win people over with a few QoL adjustments such as free camera, button remapping, and a little fps boost to keep at least a stable 30fps. Good game design doesn’t get old.

Speaking about camera controls, I think Mario 64 still works. Wonky, limited camera controls is better than none. Granted, I was there when SM64 released, but replaying it in the Switch 3D collection I had some of the best gaming time in the last few years.
 

kalecsan

Banned
It's the same reason, albeit modified, that Roger Ebert didn't think video games were art; video games are an interactive media. Times change, and people change. REMOVING the nostalgia factor, I would not get the same joy from Super Mario Bros. as I did 40 years ago, give or take. I defy anyone to counter this salient point.

It doesn't make sense for anyone to "defy" your subjective enjoyment of Super Mario Bros, as it's obviously a subjective experience. Myself, like many others, love old games even more now that in the times we originally played them.

Also I really like the work of Roger, but I wouldn't take any opinion seriously about the medium from a guy that didn't beat a single videogame in his life. Art is learned though experience, not trough rationalization.

He is from another world, thus didn't make the obvious cognitive connections that binds the cinema narrative with the game narrative. For him, both operates under radically different mechanisms, when in reality, the diverse tools are, in the end, a means to an end. The end being provoking something in the person watching/playing. Both highly subjective experiences to all people, the "interactive" part is irrelevant, as all art is interacting constantly with the subject expectations and mental responses to the spectacle.

There are plenty examples of videogames with strong thesis and themes, without lacking in interactivity: Shadow of the Colossus, Dark Souls, Xanadu Next, Vagrant Story, etc.

Both games and movies grown old, as all art does. But the craftsmanship of good cinematography and good game design is timeless.
 
I honestly cant play now games like Contra or whatever, just dont care for those old skool arcade games but i was pleasantly surprised just how playable even today Policenauts and Snatcher were. No, im not a Kojima nut-hugger, but I do enjoy these games. Basically today I play games for the story so I think any old skool game, I can play as long as it has a good story. I had the retro bug about 8 years ago and then I just sold off all the stuff I accumulated, realized I dont play it at all and am too busy with newer games.
 

tsumake

Member
It's the same reason, albeit modified, that Roger Ebert didn't think video games were art; video games are an interactive media. Times change, and people change. REMOVING the nostalgia factor, I would not get the same joy from Super Mario Bros. as I did 40 years ago, give or take. I defy anyone to counter this salient point.

As a cineaste, who gives a shit what Roger Ebert thought? It’s a different medium.

I’m sorry you can’t enjoy things made in the past. There are plenty of people that like SMB, like myself, and other old games. Your salient point sucks.
 

Daniel Thomas MacInnes

GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
This week, I’ve been playing Symphony of the Night on Sega Saturn, thanks to the new English translation. So, obviously, my answer is yes. A good videogame is a good videogame.
 

Deerock71

Member
As a cineaste, who gives a shit what Roger Ebert thought? It’s a different medium.

I’m sorry you can’t enjoy things made in the past. There are plenty of people that like SMB, like myself, and other old games. Your salient point sucks.
I think you guys are entirely missing the point that I enjoy the older games; I have great fondness for tons of old games. As a human being, I'm not able to separate the nostalgia that I have for them however, so that's why I'm saying I wouldn't call myself a good control subject. To me, only those that weren't there at the time are candidates for this experiment.
 
It really depends. Some games still play just fine while others feel extremely outdated and I can't play them anymore. I guess I got used to so many quality of life improvements that it's difficult for me to play games without them. Kind of like going back to the original EQ and trying to play it after being on WoW for so many years.
 

tsumake

Member
I think you guys are entirely missing the point that I enjoy the older games; I have great fondness for tons of old games. As a human being, I'm not able to separate the nostalgia that I have for them however, so that's why I'm saying I wouldn't call myself a good control subject. To me, only those that weren't there at the time are candidates for this experiment.

You can’t separate yourself from nostalgia and look at a game objectively? You can say “this game reminds me of better times, but I know it’s not really a good game.”
 

Deerock71

Member
You can’t separate yourself from nostalgia and look at a game objectively? You can say “this game reminds me of better times, but I know it’s not really a good game.”
Better to have a subject with no rose colored glasses to wear.
 

HYDE

Banned
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.
I’d argue Super Mario Bros. 3 kicks Super Mario World’s ass, and that Punch-Out!! kicks Super Punch-Out’s ass. But Super Metroid kicks OG Metroid’s ass, and Zelda ALTTP kicks OG Zelda’s ass too. So it’s not always the case, imo.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
They don't say old is gold for nothing, the likes of Blur, Burnout revenge, Jade Empire, Top Spin Tennis, Panzer Dragoon, Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, 4, Republic Commando have not been bettered on the cutting edge consoles of today let alone the PS4 and Xbox One days...
 
Some are, other aren't. You're welcome.

Now, about nostalgia.
In my case, nostalgia doesn't indifferently make old shit look better than it once was.
Sure, it gives a special flavour to games that still look or feel good, thus enhancing the experience.
But for the games that don't stand the test of time... Man, it just makes me fall from higher, leading me to a bigger disappointment.
That's how nostalgia glasses actually work.
 
I still play the Sonic games but I hard a hard time with the controls in Lion King, for instance, as well as Landstalker. But I'm all for tips!

The issue here is that a lot of lists i've seen on the internet over the years are marred by entries which were popular at the time because they were impressive for what they were - (shoddy) arcade ports, sports titles, and other questionable titles that i have no idea why they're listed as something good apart from the nostalgic feelings they evoke from the authors.

The Sega Mega Drive is action 2D scrollers incarnate, with a couple of excellent RPGs thrown on top. Here's what i think is the cream of the crop:

Phantasy Star IV
Shinning Force II
Thunder Force IV
Gaiares
Eliminate Down
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Alien Soldier
Gunstar Heroes
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Castlevania Bloodlines
Streets of Rage 2
Rocket Knight Adventures
Mega Turrican
MUSHA Aleste
Battle Mania Daiginjō
Panorama Cotton
Contra: Hard Cops (JP version is far more easier)

Here's what i think are great games to play once you're done with the cream of the crop:

Elemental Master
Alisia Dragoon
Thunder Force III
Sonic 2
Revenge of Shinobi
Beyond Oasis
Dynamite Headdy (recommend JP version with the translation patch, the localization cut content out)
Gleylancer
Ranger-X
Ristar
Shining Force
Splatterhouse 2 & 3
Twinkle Tale
 

6502

Member
Yes.

Regularly (as in weekly) still play wave race 64 and sega rally. Often leads to sega ages or diddy kong racing or someother pick up and play retro game. Ntsc fzero x was a recent pleasant surprise (i thought pal was fast).
 

Bakkus

Member
I’d argue Super Mario Bros. 3 kicks Super Mario World’s ass, and that Punch-Out!! kicks Super Punch-Out’s ass. But Super Metroid kicks OG Metroid’s ass, and Zelda ALTTP kicks OG Zelda’s ass too. So it’s not always the case, imo.
I dislike how heavy Mario feels in 3 and how much momentum you build up. It's not nearly as bad in that regard as SMB1&2 is, but it's still pretty annoying. Mario World feels perfect in that regard to me. But even if you think 3 is better you have to admit the quality is far closer than the latter two examples which there is absolutely no contest about.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
The issue here is that a lot of lists i've seen on the internet over the years are marred by entries which were popular at the time because they were impressive for what they were - (shoddy) arcade ports, sports titles, and other questionable titles that i have no idea why they're listed as something good apart from the nostalgic feelings they evoke from the authors.

The Sega Mega Drive is action 2D scrollers incarnate, with a couple of excellent RPGs thrown on top. Here's what i think is the cream of the crop:

Phantasy Star IV
Shinning Force II
Thunder Force IV
Gaiares
Eliminate Down
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Alien Soldier
Gunstar Heroes
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Castlevania Bloodlines
Streets of Rage 2
Rocket Knight Adventures
Mega Turrican
MUSHA Aleste
Battle Mania Daiginjō
Panorama Cotton
Contra: Hard Cops (JP version is far more easier)

Here's what i think are great games to play once you're done with the cream of the crop:

Elemental Master
Alisia Dragoon
Thunder Force III
Sonic 2
Revenge of Shinobi
Beyond Oasis
Dynamite Headdy (recommend JP version with the translation patch, the localization cut content out)
Gleylancer
Ranger-X
Ristar
Shining Force
Splatterhouse 2 & 3
Twinkle Tale
Hey, didn't know about the cut content stuff, and I have that one on the backlog. Thanks!
 

marquimvfs

Member
Well, for me, passing the initial shock about the controller scheme and the graphics, all old games are as fun as they used to be.
 
Remove nostalgia and I have trouble playing anything from that early 3D era. All I’m seeing without the nostalgia glasses is 25 (PAL) or lower fps (Zelda OoT ran at 17fps) and blocky polygons everywhere with crap textures.

The main reason I'm bothered by posts along these lines in the thread is that the way the post is phrased sounds more like begging for a HD remake than an actual critique of old game mechanics. When I want to complain about Ocarina of Time, II remember the Water Temple, not a framerate issue that can be resolved as simply as running the game outside a N64.

People will mope that Mario 64 "aged like milk", but throw more polygons and ray-tracing at it and see how many of those people are making the same complaints:


A game that was ACTUALLY bad" would not be saved by such trivial things as technophile complexes and their fixations on graphics. There's a reason there's none for any game published by LJN.
 
Old games are a ton of fun, that's why so many new games are still just sequels of them or borrow so heavily from them. There are many cases where I find the old games are superior to the new ones as well. Less padding or filler, less narrative jammed in your face, local co-op, etc.

I actually had more fun playing Micro Machines on the NES with my brother recently than just about any new game I've played in over a decade. Even Guerilla Wars, a complete pile of shit on the NES, was a blast co-op as I was trying to save POWs while he mowed down the enemies. Legitimate belly-laughs the entire time.
 

dave_d

Member
lol, the fact someone can consider those 'old' at all makes me feel like a fucking dinosaur 🤣🤣🤣
At first I didn't consider them old given I literally played Space Invaders in a department store when it first came out.(Since there really weren't arcades back then.) I have to remind myself they're all over 10 years old which is eons in tech.
 

stn

Member
Yup. I genuinely love playing games from the SNES/Genesis era, and I still also play the N64, and certain PS1 games (ex. Tekken 3). I like good graphics but old graphics don't stop me from playing a game.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Depends on the game, MGS2 holds up pretty well.
Broken Sword is another one.
The CD Tomb Raider's still hold up too.
Silent Hill 2 & 3 are fine.
Final Fantasy X/XII play's just as it done 20 year's ago
Max Payne...not so much
 

Fredrik

Member
The main reason I'm bothered by posts along these lines in the thread is that the way the post is phrased sounds more like begging for a HD remake than an actual critique of old game mechanics. When I want to complain about Ocarina of Time, II remember the Water Temple, not a framerate issue that can be resolved as simply as running the game outside a N64.
I don’t think it’s right to excuse the state of old games by saying you can play them on better hardwares, and I don’t think that was what the thread was about either.

Remove the nostalgia glasses and you’ll see that OoT on PAL N64 is running at 17fps, squashed with black bars, and with slower speed. It’s really bad, today. And that goes for many early 3D games from that period, for the most part it’s sweet untouched childhood memories when you have nice thoughts about them, very few holds up today.

I think 2D games holds up a lot better though. I can still enjoy most late 80s to early 90s arcade games. They even look good imo, it’s pixel art.

And Dreamcast and PS2 had lots of early games that are is still holding up, more polygons than PS1 and often 60fps; Soul Calibur, DOA2, Gran Turismo 3, Metalgear Solid 2, Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance, Devil May Cry.
 
I don’t think it’s right to excuse the state of old games by saying you can play them on better hardwares, and I don’t think that was what the thread was about either.

Remove the nostalgia glasses and you’ll see that OoT on PAL N64 is running at 17fps, squashed with black bars, and with slower speed. It’s really bad, today. And that goes for many early 3D games from that period, for the most part it’s sweet untouched childhood memories when you have nice thoughts about them, very few holds up today.
You "don't find it right" what I did, so you go and do the same thing in reverse by intentionally calling out the most gimped version released in the era? That's like me saying Doom sucked because of it's framerate on old DOS PCs of the time, or the audio of a bad soundcard from the same era, or saying X-men Vs. Street Fighter sucks because the Playstation version was an awful port. Sorry, but your double standard sticks out like a sore thumb.
 

Coolwhhip

Neophyte
I could play original World of Warcraft hours a day for the rest of my life, from 2005. If Blizzard didnt ruin Classic that is. 😵‍💫

But yeah most old games you loved as a kid are very different as an adult.
 

AmuroChan

Member
Yes, a lot of old games are timeless. Every once in a while I will boot up an old classic like Warcraft 3, Command & Conquer, Chrono Trigger, Doom 2, etc and they're still incredibly fun to me.
 
Fun games, gameplay wise, are always fun for me. I love my Contras, Castlevanias, SHMUPS, Marios, and tons of old school games... I still play Doom II way too much lol.
 

WoJ

Member
I personally define "old" as anything before the Xbox 360/PS3/Wii era. The jump to HD was big and it feels like modern game design really came together in that gen.

I'm one of the few that isn't huge on the PS2 era. I get why people love it, but I enjoyed the pre and post PS2 eras more than 6th gen. I've found controls and cameras hard to go back to in the PS2 era that doesn't quite exist in the 7th gen. PS1 suffers the same way but JRPGs from that era are the exception, and superior to most of what we get now.

SNES and before are similar.

As for the topic at hand this weekend I've played Super Mario World and I regularly play that and dabble in games like Metroid, Super Metroid, Super Mario Brothers 3, and others. I prefer 2D Mario to 3D Mario and its not close.

There are countless RPGs from the PS1 and SNES era I need to replay because they are awesome.

Good games are just good. Doesn't matter how old they are.
 
I can enjoy some of them but games have become considerably better. I do appreciate what developers accomplished with the little means they had at the time, especially when it comes to creating memorable soundtracks.

That said, there are probably some exceptions. Point'n'Click adventures are kinda dead and were probably better in the 90s.
 

Ryllix_

Member
I still regularly play final fantasy 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7. They are still better than almost all RPGs today in my opinion. Also tons of NES, SNES and Genesis games aged well (Metroid and super Metroid, Mario 1, 2, 3, world, Castlevania games, 8 and 16 bit Zelda). I enjoy N64 and PS1 but those didn't age as well since they all look terrible today, especially when played on large televisions. My children are very young and enjoy playing Mario, sonic and other old games without realizing that they are old so I would assume many are ageless.
 
I have to admit, I recently bought Sonic Mania for that nostalgia, but upon playing it, the nostalgia wore off within minutes and then I was like, what is the point of this game? Go fast? Collect all the rings? Find all the secrets? There was no clear goal except make it to the end of the level, except it’s extremely easy go cross the finish line.
 
Every one of them. For old games I mean game era and before. If you mean PS3 and PS4 games then no, those games were fucking boring that were just graphics showcase filled with cut scenes that obviously don’t age well at all. But go ahead and play something from the N64 or GameCube, SNES or NES. It’s imposible for you not to like it now because those were everything about gameplay, not graphics. Gameplay is never outdated.

I could play perfect dark, super Mario 64, ocarina of time, super smash, final fantasy VII, Resident Evil 1, 2 etc and it would be amazing. In fact I’m gonna play right now.
 
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