Blog:Grust's Top 10 Games that Thinks Have Aged Poorly

Many games have come and innovated the industry with new ideas and gameplay and story. But sometimes, these ideas, gameplay, and stories are improved upon in sequels and other games so much better that what was once a phenomenal game may have aged poorly as as result. So I'm going to take a look at my top 10 games that have aged poorly. Keep in mind that even if I think they aged poorly, I don't think of them as bad games, some may still be worth playing. It's just that other games have come and improved upon what these games inspired. Graphics will not be a factor into any of these. Okay onto the countdown.

10. Sonic the Hedgehog: The game that introduced us to Mario's greatest rival. This made the Genesis a worthy opponent to the Super Nintendo and inspired other companies to try to make their own mascots as well from Bonk, Aero the Acrobat, and yes, even Bubsy. But eventually the sequel improved upon the game with the spin dash which sped Sonic up easier for faster speedruns. This is 10 because this is extremely minor and the game even without the dash is still very much worth playing even having what I think is the best bonus stages for the Chaos Emeralds.

9. Resident Evil (original): When this was released, it was one of the scariest games I ever played with flesh eating zombies and tight corridors and limited ammunition. Today it feels much cheesier with dialogue sounding like it belongs in a B movie. I would say this game showed its age after the original Resident Evil 2 came out which had a much darker atmosphere and larger setting with even the police station overrun with the zombies. Still I think it's worth playing at least gameplay wise for the puzzle solving and combat. But if you're looking to be scared, there are much scarier games out there.

8. The Legend of Zelda: When this came out, it was one of the biggest adventure games of all time and the first game to be battery back upped and rendering passwords obsolete. It introduced secondary items for exploration and upgrading your health with heart containers and of course gave me my all time favorite franchise. However it was extremely cryptic and required a hotline for tips at the time. This game showed its age when A Link to the Past came out which had much more story added, introduced the Master Sword, and was less cryptic with sealed cave entrances shown so you don't waste bombs. If you have a map on you or a guide, the original is still worth playing.

7. Grand Theft Auto 3: When this came out, it set a pretty high standard and gave us the 3D sandbox genres where you could ignore the main quest and do sidequests or just goof around. It also gave moral guardians more reason to bitch at video games. This also helped to make GTA a very popular franchise. However it showed its age pretty quick when Vice City came out for one big reason, the lack of a world map so you'd have to memorize the layout by yourself. I actually recall doing that in my youth playing it. Still a big game with no map, kind of a big problem. Is it worth playing today. Hmm I'll let you decide. I kind of want to replay it for nostalgic reasons but that's not enough for me to encourage playing it.

6. Most FPS's before Halo: Halo wasn't the first FPS but it set the biggest standard for the genre by popularizing the use of both analog sticks for precision aiming. I've gotten so accustomed to this standard though that most 3D FPS's have suffered for me as far as I'm concerned. The only games I strongly think are worth playing today are Wolfenstein 3D and Doom for it's simpler design and no need to aim up or down. The closest 3D FPS I can think of worth playing today is Goldeneye 007 for the N64 for some automatic aiming and holding a button for precision aiming mode. Plus almost anything can explode and it's one of the few movie based games that don't suck.

5. Fatal Frame: When I first heard of this game I was blown away. You're not a trained combatant, you're a teenage girl searching for her older brother and you're not up against a flesh and blood creature, you're up against ghosts that can move through walls grab you even if you can't touch them, disappear at sight and can never truly die. When playing it, it scared the outright crap out of me. So when I heard a sequel was out, I was hyped as hell. That hyped was justified as Crimson Butterfly is now my all time favorite survival horror game. But after playing the original again, the gameplay suffered when I played again, the VA aged poorly, you can't do combo attacks, the Fatal Frame attack is gone, and ghosts are unfairly tougher with speedy attacks. Still it's a good game and one I'll play with the other two Fatal Frame games and Super Castlevania 4 every October. So if you're a survival horror fan, I say it's still worth playing.

4. Metroid: Technically I own this digitally on my 3DS (digital games don't count towards my game collection). When this game first arrived, it set up a game focused more on exploration with platforming jumping and secondary items like a 2d sidescrolling Zelda game. It even gave us the first female video game badass, Samus Aran who proves that women can be strong and SEXY. Take a note on that, Drunkmann. However when Super Metroid came out which along with Symphony of the Night gave us the Metroidvania subgenre of Action-adventure, Metroid truly showed how poorly it aged. This game lacks an in game map for exploring where you've gone or where to go next or what's needed to open certain doors. Unlike with Zelda above, a map for Metroid would be much more complex and you'd probably spend more time looking at the map than the game. Just stick with Super Metroid unless you have a ton of time on your hands.

3. Star Fox (SNES): I remember as kid seeing stuff about Star Fox and wanting to play it but never got to. However I was blown away by the gameplay for StarFox 64 with aerial combat on many planets, space and even the sun itself, and I gave it my all to get the good ending for the game. But about 2 years ago, I helped my neighbors and got to go to my used game shop a town away and saw this CIB. I bought right away and finally got to playing, and I was disappointed. The lack of a control stick and the lack of an aiming cursor made the game so poorly aged I haven't touched it since. So no, I don't recommend this one. But I still highly recommend Star Fox 64 with it's superior controls and aiming cursor.

2. Final Fantasy (NES port):  When this first came out it not only helped set up the basics of a JRPG along with Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) but added jobs, customization and even the first sidequest in a JRPG to upgrade your classes. And of course it set up a beloved franchise that gave many great games some beloved to this day. However this is a case where the game showed its age by other ports. Sadly despite its positive qualities, the NES port was plagued by bugs and glitches, making some weapons worthless spells worthless and even some stats pointless to gain which were fixed in the PS1, GBA, and PSP ports. Even ProJared who loves the NES port doesn't recommend it. I say stick with PSP GBA, or even PS1 ports of the game and you'll truly get to enjoy where Final Fantasy began.

Dishonorable mentions

 * Early 3D graphics: 3D had to get its start somewhere and because of that, the early 3D games were blocky and unrealistic. Personally I don't care if they have if the games are still fun.  It's why the PS1 and N64 are two of my all time favorite consoles.


 * CD-i: Technically this was never a good console and was a massive failure. But I'm mentioning this to say most won't be around much longer.  Because of a poor design, a replaceable battery for the clock is hidden in an IC that has to be ground away to replace, which gives the risk of damaging the motherboard.  I threw my CD-i out when I decided to cut my losses.  Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who takes his consoles apart for maintenance.  I actually hope Retro-Bit makes their own model, though, as I want to play the CD-i Zelda games.


 * Early XBox consoles: The early models have a poorly made clock capacitor that have begun to leak acid and corrode the motherboard. So many Xboxes are gone forever because of this.  Thankfully I have a later model.  I took mine apart not too long ago and the motherboard is in great shape aside from the dust I cleaned out.  I hear early models are easier to mod though but I don't care about that.


 * Original N64 controllers: While innovative at the time, the control sticks have shown their age with parts eroded by friction. Thankfully I got the Tribute 64 controllers which work so well I even reviewed them on Awesome games.


 * Shenmue: I got the game about maybe a month when I got my Dreamcast and since I haven't played a game similar to it aside from maybe Majora's Mask I can't tell if it aged poorly (the graphics have aged well though) but I got to say.... I think the game is boring.  I have to wait for a mission to begin, the combat is annoying I'm confused by the controls and stuff just drags.  It could be a case of games everyone loves but I don't but I can't tell if it aged poorly.


 * Consoles and cartridges with battery back-ups: Well a few of these batteries are going to be die ruining save data and clock setting, but most batteries can be replaced. It took little effort for me to replace my PS2 Slim's 2032 battery when I took it apart for cleaning.  This is a case where age can be fixed.

Okay onto number 1.

And the number 1 game that I think aged poorly is....

1. Every Single Elder Scrolls Game Before Skyrim: I got into the Elder Scrolls series when I first got Oblivion and played the heck out of, getting stronger as a mage (it'd be a while before the Thief class became my one true love in RPG classes). So when I finally heard about Skyrim and what would be offered, I was super ultra excited and got the game for Christmas. The game proved to be well made and balanced with such great customization that when I played Oblivion again after a while even I was shocked at how poorly it aged with combat feeling slower and the very annoying speechcraft mini-game. When my brother found my XBox and it came with Morrrowind, I couldn't even enjoy it with each class I try just being sucky, including thief (Why Joker why have you forsaken me). Oblivion is close to being worth playing especially if I go as mage for ranged attacks and just avoid Coliseum to avoid getting that Fan, but everything else I don't really recommend. The fact Skyrim was able to make even Morrorwind which was considered a game of the year look sucky by comparison and just blow them out with superior gameplay makes every ES game before Skyrim my pick for the number 1 game (well in this case games) that aged poorly.

Like I said before just because I said they aged poorly doesn't mean I think I think they got bad though some exceptions exist, and are still worth playing. Many of these games even deserve respect for introducing new concepts or introducing great franchises so in a way a game aging poorly might actually be a blessing in disguise.

Any game you can think of that aged poorly? Let me know in the comments.

