What’s a good game that didn’t age well in your opinion?

[Frickinfrik]

For me it’s GTA 3. It was amazing for it’s time. But time hasn’t been kind to it. The game is a bit unpolished in a few instances. There’s no lock on for some weapons and instead it’s a clunky first person view for aiming. The game can also be unfairly difficult in some parts of the game, such as the Expresso 2 Go mission and the Final Mission. Cars blow up way too easily, Shotguns are very overpowered in this game, the police are relentless, enemies can chip away your health in seconds, and the handling on vehicles suck. There’s really no reason to play GTA 3 today over it’s future installments.

 

[Elwiwi]

Most of the early 3d games

 

[fake-kun]

IMHO, a good game is a good game regardless of its age. If a game has "aged badly", that means it was always bad.

 

[NotGodlike]

Sonic Adventure, and it's a very good early 3d game, just, outside of 3 character campaigns (Sonic, Knuckles and E-102), others exist to pad out time... heavily... while reusing stages/bosses and whatnot...
To be fair, most early 3d Sonic games didn't age that good, I remember Sonic Heroes suffering from the same issues

IMHO, a good game is a good game regardless of its age. If a game has "aged badly", that means it was always bad.

There might be those that aged badly due to some awful mechanics or just overstaying their welcome

 

[nintara]

i can't think of a single game that i would say has aged badly that i still like, at worst they're "old but still got it" territory. the only games i would say aged badly are those from 2nd gen consoles, adventure comes to mind specifically.

 

[Stare best girl]

none, a good game is always good and a bad game is always bad

 

[fake-kun]

There might be those that aged badly due to some awful mechanics or just overstaying their welcome

So, bad games?

 

[NotGodlike]

So, bad games?

I guess being somewhere in the middle ground, but then again, it's subjective

 

[Tonberry]

IMHO, a good game is a good game regardless of its age. If a game has "aged badly", that means it was always bad.

Same here, I think.
I don't like using the term "aged" for games because it feels weird to me. I wouldn't compare a game from 1987 with a game from 2017 in terms of fidelity and technical progress because it feels unfair both ways. "Old", sure, that's objective, but not "aged".
If the game is fun, it's fun, and if I end up changing my mind on a game I used to like/dislike, the reason is usually on me just not having fun with it anymore for whatever reason.

I don't mind other people using the term though, I just don't jive with it personally.

 

[jon2]

IMHO, a good game is a good game regardless of its age. If a game has "aged badly", that means it was always bad.

Concur

Every game is a product of its own time

If it's already bad when it was released, then whatever happens it's still bad

If it's good, then it has made its mark and its legacy is here to stay

Unlike movies whose reviews are colored by the changing tastes of later generations, games are basically interactive exchanges that mostly have limitations; how a game goes around and overcomes those limitations to deliver a pleasant experience is what makes a legacy

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Not sure I agree with the premise that GTA3 aged poorly. Perhaps the newer GTA games are better by comparison, but GTA3 is perfectly fun and playable as it is.

I don't agree with the general premise of newer games automatically making older games bad. Like the original Legend of Zelda game still is fun despite the vast improvements of various sequels.

Post automatically merged: Apr 16, 2025

IMHO, a good game is a good game regardless of its age. If a game has "aged badly", that means it was always bad.

Yeah, I generally agree with this, although I'm sure there are some exceptions I can't think of right now.

 

[otogirisou]

tetris

 

[Hourai]

Persona 3 Portable. It (well, Persona 3 was, but Portable has the better protagonist) was the first of its kind and was pretty great for it. But in hindsight...

Most of the social links are Kotone - the MC - being talked at, rather than to, and she lacks the ability to express a personality hidden underneath her cheery facade outside of Saori's, Shinji's, Aigis', and Akinari's slinks. She feels like a passenger in her life, and suffers more than the usual atlus MCs fighting against being made into a self-insert because she's *also* fighting against the male MC's complete indifference to being alive in the shared slinks. The story is incredibly backloaded, taking place predominantly in the last two months.

The combat also aged poorly, because it's a very rudimentary version of the One More system. Even vanilla Persona 4 upgraded it a bit. Tartarus was always horrible, though.

 

[Tonberry]

the usual atlus MCs fighting against being made into a self-insert because she's *also* fighting against the male MC's complete indifference to being alive in the shared slinks.

I’m not sure I understand. Aren’t they supposed to be able to become self-inserts if you want them to? My Door-kun felt like an amiable guy, and not particularly indifferent at all, based on the dialogue choices I gave him.

 

[Super Funky Piece]

i think a case of "aged" in the sense of something novel that was held back by hardware of the time, the first Turok comes to mind. early 3D shooter that garnered a lot of press and showed off new technologies but has a lot of concessions like the short draw distance and heavy amounts of fog, along with the usual lower framerate. i mostly think of that game in particular since the NightDive remaster that lifts a lot of those restrictions turns it into a very fun and fast FPS that just has a few older gameplay quirks that arent any detriment.

 

[Boog111]

I agree with the earlier commenters. Most of the early 3d games, even if they played great, didn't really age well while a lot of the sprite based games, that were looked down upon at the time, have stood the test of time.

 

[Hourai]

I’m not sure I understand. Aren’t they supposed to be able to become self-inserts if you want them to? My Door-kun felt like an amiable guy, and not particularly indifferent at all, based on the dialogue choices I gave him.

They have personalities, to varying degrees. Joker Persona 5 is the most notable, owing to his sense of justice causing him to act out at multiple times that he really shouldn't, that you have no control over. Such as being told to lay low, and then immediately challenging Akechi's definition of justice on an airing of a talk show. But Makoto Persona 3's correct options (that is, the ones that give music notes) tend to be him manipulating the other party, with the incorrect ones typically being him just trying to end the conversation. Emperor stands out the most, as you just encourage Hidetoshi to be overzealous until something happens for him to reconsider. While you *can* play them certain ways that don't conform to that, they do have aspects that show through their dialogue options and in interactions you have no control over.

This is not omnipresent, of course, and it's at its strongest in the Persona games. Thus far in my playthrough, the Nahobino from V has been pretty flat, as is the Demi-Fiend from Nocturne (before how he turned out in later games). The protag from Soul Hackers is just someone for Nemissa, the real main character, to talk to.

 

[Jediuser]

Spider-Man on PS1. It was a huge breakthrough at the time, but today, the camera, combat and web swinging have all been eclipsed by future Spider-Man games.

 

[OpenVMS]

tetris

I'm offended
How 'bout I see your Tetris and raise you Tetrisphere: https://retrogametalk.com/repository/n64-roms/tetrisphere-usa/

 

[Jediuser]

There's also the original Crash Bandicoot, with its awkward save system and less-than-ideal D-Pad control (problems that were thankfully fixed in 2 and 3).

 

[StoneyRokk]

I have a couple of games in mind that aged badly, but not for the reason you think;
They're amazing games gameplay-wise but they rub me the wrong way for other reasons these days.
Hogs of War aged poorly because of its blatant racism, and the first Snowboard Kids game (especially the PS1 "Plus" version) for sexualising a minor (or multiple minors in the PS1 version.)

 

[CheelaCheela's icon]

personally i think most of the N64 catalog has not aged the greatest. They are still fun games, but i think all being polygonal early 3d games make it hard to recommend to newer generations, and also because of how the n64 worked with its unique controller. Thats being said, even if game has not age well doesn't mean it isn't fun or great.

(and i personally think GTA3 falls in these categories, the game has not aged well with its funky phisics, mission structures and hilarious voice acting, but is dumb fun. I love GTA3, it wasn't even my first GTA but is still very enjoyable and my personal favorite overall.)

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.

 

[Waifu4Life]

Most of the early 3d games

Pretty much this. 3D 5th gen games are hard to go back to. Mind you, 2D 5th gen games are to die for.

 

[Adrastia]

The first Virtua Fighter. I played it a lot back in the Saturn days. But now? Umm no.