Retro games that disappointed you the most.

[JustLooking123]

Me and the boys dancing to this bop:

Also i saw the opinion about FF7 that most of the guys here have and i have just one thing to say...i agree, 7 is good but it´s always overrated as the best one, hell i saw the Maximilian Dood vid (the ps1 best game ranking) where one of his friends said "FF never got good past 7" and i was like "But 9 exists?, in the same console even", i mean, yeah i like 7, it´s good, but my eternal love goes to 6 and 9, man those two rocked the heck out of my world.

Very well said, i was about to say almost same thing!
I think most of these was effect of "the first" which resulted in overrating games... like first rpg, first ff, first 3d rpg, first shining force, etc...
Also somethings have a golden place and time, and these games were lucky to be in right time and right place.

I have my own share of "firsts" too!

Edit: I actually wanted to quote RageBurner post! but quoted Michael Frank's post by mistake! nevertheless, what Michael Frank said was worth quoting too!

 

[Michael Frank]

Very well said, i was about to say almost same thing!
I think most of these was effect of "the first" which resulted in overrating games... like first rpg, first ff, first 3d rpg, first shining force, etc...
Also somethings have a golden place and time, and these games were lucky to be in right time and right place.

I have my own share of "firsts" too!

Yeah, it´s always the same, "Mega Man 2 is the most iconic", "FF never got good past 7", "Doom 2 is the most iconic fps of all time", and i mean, yeah those are good, but there´s always better, it´s weird to have such civilized conversations with people these days on the internet, usually it goes the opposite way when someone points out that something is overrated.

 

[RageBurner]

Yeah, it´s always the same, "Mega Man 2 is the most iconic", "FF never got good past 7", "Doom 2 is the most iconic fps of all time", and i mean, yeah those are good, but there´s always better, it´s weird to have such civilized conversations with people these days on the internet, usually it goes the opposite way when someone points out that something is overrated.

The folks here are pretty chill, it's an oasis of tranquility, really.

 

[Vir_Tual_Player]

For me its gonna be Half-Life. I know the game is a classic and its a major release in video game history but I never was able to enjoy the game. I always get lost with the level design, the platforming feels awfull and I overall never felt like I enjoyed my time playing it. Even though I tried to play it several times during my life.I always prefered Red Faction, Quake or Medal of Honor which all released during the same timeframe. It doesn't help that now FPS games make me motion sick when I play them.

 

[RageBurner]

For me its gonna be Half-Life. I know the game is a classic and its a major release in video game history but I never was able to enjoy the game. I always get lost with the level design, the platforming feels awfull and I overall never felt like I enjoyed my time playing it. Even though I tried to play it several times during my life.I always prefered Red Faction, Quake or Medal of Honor which all released during the same timeframe. It doesn't help that now FPS games make me motion sick when I play them.

I'm simple minded when it comes to FPSes and I prefer the arena flavors of Quake and UT. Precision platforming in an FPS doesn't blend well.

 

[Clippy]

Yeah, it´s always the same, "Mega Man 2 is the most iconic", "FF never got good past 7", "Doom 2 is the most iconic fps of all time", and i mean, yeah those are good, but there´s always better, it´s weird to have such civilized conversations with people these days on the internet, usually it goes the opposite way when someone points out that something is overrated.

ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME THERE IS A BETTER FPS THAN DOOM2???????? HOW DARE YOU YOU [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]!!! I WILL UNLEASH THE FURY OF A 1000 SUNS UPON YOUR [REDACTED] ASS FOR YOU HAVE COMMITTED THE GRAVEST SIN OF ALL - YOU DARED TO BE WRONG ON THE INTERNET AND IN MY PRESENCE NO LESS!! YOU GODDAMN [REDACTED]!

Yeah, I know I'd have to misspell at least half the message to be more authentic. Also, my pick for the most iconic shooter of the 90s happens to be Duke Nukem 3D and even then I recognize the fact that the likes of Blood, Quake or Unreal are technically superior games. Heck OG Doom is superior to 2 in pretty much every way. If only it had the Super Shotgun. Luckily modern source ports remedy that handily.

The folks here are pretty chill, it's an oasis of tranquility, really.

I'm willing to hazard a guess that average user age might be a factor. I survived the early, wild west internet where calling people all sorts of names was the order of the day and while it was fun while it lasted I've mellowed out considerably over the years. I haven't acquired the paranoid fear of certain words that seems so pervasive these days but I ain't unleashing my slur machine for no reason like a loose cannon. It probably also helps that trolling and flaming were never really my thing. I passively enjoyed them for what they were but this cozy place ill needs them.

 

[JustLooking123]

I'm willing to hazard a guess that average user age might be a factor. I survived the early, wild west internet where calling people all sorts of names was the order of the day and while it was fun while it lasted I've mellowed out considerably over the years. I haven't acquired the paranoid fear of certain words that seems so pervasive these days but I ain't unleashing my slur machine for no reason like a loose cannon. It probably also helps that trolling and flaming were never really my thing. I passively enjoyed them for what they were but this cozy place ill needs them.

Diversity is gold!

 

[RageBurner]

You knew this was coming, right?

 

[Clippy]

You knew this was coming, right?

Would be disappointed otherwise. What is an old gamer? A miserable little pile of references!

 

[thecatillaccat]

This is gonna be a biggun: Final Fantasy VII.

Let me set the stage: It was around 2004. As a PC guy I stumbled upon Breath of Fire 4 and Final Fantasy VIII. JRPGs were never big outside of consoles (well, until recently I suppose) so it was a pretty new experience for me at the time and I liked it a lot so I decided to ask papa Google for other games in the same vein. Ultimately that was my rabbit hole into emulating pretty much everything under the sun but before that I learned that there were a few native PC ports.

There was one game in particular that everyone raved about - Final Fantasy VII. Pretty much every opinion out there was that it's a mind-blowing, life-changing experience. A 13/10 at least. So I grabbed myself a copy, installed it, launched it... And I hated it with a passion. I hated the character models, I hated how clunky it was, I hated how slow it was, I pretty much hated everything about it.

It's been two decades since then and I can say that the game has grown on me somewhat. I beat it multiple times and I think it's a pretty good game. I can safely say that the hype train soured my initial experience moreso than anything else. Had I played it back when it first came out chances are I'd be singing its praises to high heaven just like the folks who recommended it to me back then.

The way I feel about it now is pretty much the same way I feel about the entire series: Good games worth a playthrough (especially IX) but there are better JRPGs out there. Lunar games blow the 16-bit entries out of the water, Shadow Hearts series does the same to the PS2 era FF.

My favorite, likely most played game of all time. First played when I was 12 - it's a classic. It's fantastic. And it is also deeply, painfully flawed and utterly infested with crap assed minigames and a middling at best translation. But I had the benefit of it being the NEW HOTNESS and jumping right from a Sega Genesis to the opening of Final Fantasy VII unexpectedly one very fluey day. It stuck.

Post automatically merged: Tuesday at 1:19 AM

Mine is gonna be odd. Toki Going Ape Spit for NES. I saw it on Nick Arcade when I was 6 or so and HAD TO HAVE IT. I got Dragon Spirit: The New Legend and Kabuki Quantum Fighter instead. Also, Dragon Spirit is a top three shooter on the system, maybe even top, and I won't die on that hill - but SOMEONE will.

Anyway. Toki. Emulation and Nesticle appear lo and behold one day in 1999ish like a thief in the night and...it sucks. GOD it sucks. I loaded up something called Destiny of an Emperor instead and lost a month of my free time.

 

[JustLooking123]

I'm willing to hazard a guess that average user age might be a factor. I survived the early, wild west internet where calling people all sorts of names was the order of the day and while it was fun while it lasted I've mellowed out considerably over the years. I haven't acquired the paranoid fear of certain words that seems so pervasive these days but I ain't unleashing my slur machine for no reason like a loose cannon. It probably also helps that trolling and flaming were never really my thing. I passively enjoyed them for what they were but this cozy place ill needs them.

>>>> Diversity is gold! <<<<

You knew this was coming, right?

Would be disappointed otherwise. What is an old gamer? A miserable little pile of references!

That's what happens when inexperienced players go somewhere they shouldn't and prematurely talk to last bosses!

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

Most games from the NES turn me off completely, something in my lizard brain is immediately repelled by them. I think it is due to them being beyond my age (grew up with a snes and ps2) and I think playing the SNES first gave me some sort of bias towards the NES

 

[Clippy]

Most games from the NES turn me off completely, something in my lizard brain is immediately repelled by them. I think it is due to them being beyond my age (grew up with a snes and ps2) and I think playing the SNES first gave me some sort of bias towards the NES

Haha try giving CGA or ZX Spectrum games a go. Now that's a visual whiplash that will make you think that NES is AAA (and to be fair, it was in comparison).

In that context, I wonder if we have any teenagers/people born in the 21st century here. To us grizzled old farts old games are something we grew up with and loved in part because there was nothing better at the time but to the younger crowd they're nothing more than relics of a bygone era they were never part of. It's like reading a history book about World War II. You can't relate on the same level that people who were there to witness it do. Can the young ones stomach a severe lack of comforts like maps or proper hitboxes? Can they look at flat-shaded polygons without disgust? Can they imagine playing a PC FPS without a mouse?

 

[Poltergeist]

For me personally it was Breath of Fire (SNES).

I hated how generic this game was, you fight the same bosses over and over again and they have like 2 attacks. You always don't understand where to go and how to advance the story. Pixel art is horribly cheap and uninspired, music as well.

Sometimes it surprises me how people can get blinded by nostalgia and ignore all of the bad things about a game, praising it online. Or maybe they just have a bad taste in general

 

[thecatillaccat]

Most games from the NES turn me off completely, something in my lizard brain is immediately repelled by them. I think it is due to them being beyond my age (grew up with a snes and ps2) and I think playing the SNES first gave me some sort of bias towards the NES

Oh yeah, if you started with a Super NES, the not so super NES, even its better games, are gonna look just kind of feeble and quaint and meh.

 

[Clippy]

For me personally it was Breath of Fire (SNES).

I hated how generic this game was, you fight the same bosses over and over again and they have like 2 attacks. You always don't understand where to go and how to advance the story. Pixel art is horribly cheap and uninspired, music as well.

Sometimes it surprises me how people can get blinded by nostalgia and ignore all of the bad things about a game, praising it online. Or maybe they just have a bad taste in general

First two Breath of Fire games are meh at best. I don't think anyone cares that much about them anymore unless they were their first RPG or something. 3 and 4 is where it's at and even they have some serious faults (the infuriating fishing minigame for one). There was a PS2 entry but we don't talk about it. And Capcom never did anything with the series since and noone will convince me otherwise.

 

[orionscum]

I could never wrap my head around why Sonic the Hedgehog was considered one of the best platformers, or even one of the best genesis game.
I've tried playing all the classic Sonics and I always bounce right off when they introduce you to all the bullshit slowdowns or impossible to spot enemies that leap into you and break your flow. For games about moving fast they all seemed really dedicated to wasting my time.

In that context, I wonder if we have any teenagers/people born in the 21st century here. To us grizzled old farts old games are something we grew up with and loved in part because there was nothing better at the time but to the younger crowd they're nothing more than relics of a bygone era they were never part of. It's like reading a history book about World War II. You can't relate on the same level that people who were there to witness it do. Can the young ones stomach a severe lack of comforts like maps or proper hitboxes? Can they look at flat-shaded polygons without disgust? Can they imagine playing a PC FPS without a mouse?

I was born 2001 and its a mix of stuff sometimes being so archaic it hurts, and stuff that is just as good as anything coming out today. I've been playing the OG Ultima and Might & Magic games and they are incredibly confusing at times. But it's still really rewarding when I beat a big group of enemies or solve some puzzles

 

[JustLooking123]

Haha try giving CGA or ZX Spectrum games a go. Now that's a visual whiplash that will make you think that NES is AAA (and to be fair, it was in comparison).

In that context, I wonder if we have any teenagers/people born in the 21st century here. To us grizzled old farts old games are something we grew up with and loved in part because there was nothing better at the time but to the younger crowd they're nothing more than relics of a bygone era they were never part of. It's like reading a history book about World War II. You can't relate on the same level that people who were there to witness it do. Can the young ones stomach a severe lack of comforts like maps or proper hitboxes? Can they look at flat-shaded polygons without disgust? Can they imagine playing a PC FPS without a mouse?

I was born 2001 and its a mix of stuff sometimes being so archaic it hurts, and stuff that is just as good as anything coming out today. I've been playing the OG Ultima and Might & Magic games and they are incredibly confusing at times. But it's still really rewarding when I beat a big group of enemies or solve some puzzles

You were still in good times... i wonder how someone who born in 2024 will feel!
I can't help but feel sorry for kids nowadays... they missed a lot of joy, and can't taste them even if they want, the atmosphere just is not there anymore...
I'm really curious to see would there be any mind-blowing advancement in gaming in future?
I mean, it seems thanks to sheer amount of advancements during this golden period, we all gone numb! let alone those who born now!

 

[RageBurner]

I feel we may end experiencing another industry crash in our lifetimes yet.

 

[Clippy]

You were still in good times... i wonder how someone who born in 2024 will feel!
I can't help but feel sorry for kids nowadays... they missed a lot of joy, and can't taste them even if they want, the atmosphere just is not there anymore...
I'm really curious to see would there be any mind-blowing advancement in gaming in future?
I mean, it seems thanks to sheer amount of advancements during this golden period, we all gone numb! let alone those who born now!

This is something that concerns me greatly as well and we don't even need to go to any extremes like people born in 2024. We already have a budding young generation who were raised on smartphone and tablet gaming. Kids who are growing up with in-app purchases, lootboxes and microtransactions. In their eyes all those modern business practices that we find abhorrent aren't just okay, they're normal. They don't know any other model. As someone who deals with teenagers IRL quite a few of them see paying for a skin or an emote as something that people just do. Not something you unlock by performing a feat in the game. Something you ask your parents to pay for. That bothers me a lot because it means we will probably never see gaming industry return to form ever again. Well, at least we got to experience the golden age I suppose.

 

[JustLooking123]

That bothers me a lot because it means we will probably never see gaming industry return to form ever again.

At this rate, my only hope is for fire to be extinguished by fire!
sense of "being bitten" in a generation is a thing!
but when? i hope human-kind see that day!

Well, at least we got to experience the golden age I suppose.

indeed!

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

Haha try giving CGA or ZX Spectrum games a go. Now that's a visual whiplash that will make you think that NES is AAA (and to be fair, it was in comparison).

In that context, I wonder if we have any teenagers/people born in the 21st century here. To us grizzled old farts old games are something we grew up with and loved in part because there was nothing better at the time but to the younger crowd they're nothing more than relics of a bygone era they were never part of. It's like reading a history book about World War II. You can't relate on the same level that people who were there to witness it do. Can the young ones stomach a severe lack of comforts like maps or proper hitboxes? Can they look at flat-shaded polygons without disgust? Can they imagine playing a PC FPS without a mouse?

I'm barely older than the 21st century, being poor for most my childhood made me appreciate older consoles. For me, it's NES and older. Anything later than that generation, I can get into very easily and for the most part, I can fall in love with many games that would seem "aged" to many other people. Of course, my bread and butter is the fifth generation of consoles, but the fourth generation is still goddamn solid

 

[thecatillaccat]

First two Breath of Fire games are meh at best. I don't think anyone cares that much about them anymore unless they were their first RPG or something. 3 and 4 is where it's at and even they have some serious faults (the infuriating fishing minigame for one). There was a PS2 entry but we don't talk about it. And Capcom never did anything with the series since and noone will convince me otherwise.

Breath of Fire 3 is my second favorite PSX game! However, I think I'm the only person who legitimately enjoys the fishing in it. The fishing in BOFIV can get bent though.

 

[Tronky.it]

Xenogears.
Some time ago I was looking for RPG games that could take me away from the monotony of the usual titles I played - Final Fantasy IX, Crisis Core, Dragon Quest XI etc. - and in the end I discover this game complete with an Italian translation completed 1-2 years ago. The adult themes, the fascinating graphics, and the idea of an RPG with mechas intrigued me... it's a shame that a simple mechanic that I personally hate left it abandoned even halfway through the game: the rotation of the view. Too distracting, too many things to look at, too much to explore on a screen cut off at the sides. Because of this, as well as the display of the menus, I never had the courage to start Grandia, which seems like another interesting game to me.
With this obviously I don't mean that it sucks as a game - considered one of the best JRPGs if not the best ever made by the many who have played it, I probably can't get over this thing having not been born in that period and grown up with that type of gameplay .

 

[PLCMB]

Bomberman Land 3, the only thing good came out of that is the release of Bomberman Kart DX