Talking Point: What Games Are You Nervous To Replay In Case They Don't Hold Up?

Doesn't bother me if they hold up on not. I still play past games just for the sake of playing them.

Final Fantasy XIII-2. I remember being obsessed with it when I first played it along with Resident Evil 6 around the same time. Recently went back to RE6 and absolutely hated it. Worried I'll feel the same about FF.

I guess it would be Sonic Heroes. I loved, loved, LOVED the game back in the day but I know it’s far from perfect. I’m pretty sure my opinion on it would lessened playing it nowadays but it still has a spot in my heart.

I used to be pretty worried, but now that I've fixed up all my old consoles and have been replaying favorites...none of them have disappointed!
Though my brother now hates Goldeneye's archaic controls, and fair enough lol.
Maybe... Mystic Heroes? Which I guess means it should be next on the list!

I play RE4 every couple of years and it's exemplary every time! I still prefer it to its remake (which is also great).

I've only played through Tales of Symphonia once (in 2004) and loved it, but I couldn't get into Tales of Vesperia. Now I'm concerned about going back to Symphonia.

I wish I never played Sunshine on 3D All Stars and kept my memories of playing the original as a kid intact. Had some fun with it but it was mostly just frustrating. No desire to play it again

@larryisaman

I know what you mean,
so much jankier than I remembered.

The only older games that typically don't hold up are those that I haven't played before. I'm more tolerant of primitive design choices in older games that I've grown up with, but I'm open to being surprised. For example, I loved the Resident Evil 1 port on DS (never having played the original on PS1), and despite the tanky controls, scarce ammo, and limited saves, I played the absolute hell out of it, completing the campaign at least six times across both difficulties. Similarly, I've been replaying Orcs and Elves on DS recently (one of my absolute favourite games of all time), and even after all these years, I still love it to bits. I just wish that we got the sequel on DS, or better yet, on modern hardware (which was sadly exclusive to pre-smartphone mobiles).

I still love Pokémon Gen II to bits, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to young fans (though I'd recommend the originals over the underwhelming and very sluggish remakes). Unfortunately, both Johto and Kanto suffered in Game Freak's efforts to make both regions accessible. Johto was too brief an experience (in desperate need of an expanded map, which we didn't get in the remakes), while Kanto was neutered due to memory constraints.

But there's something about Game Boy games, even the painfully mediocre ones, that tickle that nostalgic itch.

And give me The Sims 1 over the hideous abomination that is the current instalment any day of the week. I still love the original (and the early handheld games), warts and all.

I'm replaying Pokémon Blue and although the game has its moments, I can't believe how grindy the game really is. Also I loathe the Safari Park mechanics.

Typically, a lot of older RPGs are quite grindy, so it's a good thing a lot of emulators allow to play at double speed, or even higher to mitigate part of that problem.

I expect that RPGs I played as a child would hold up less well than pretty much anything else as I suspect gameplay ages better than story / characters / presentation.

Skies of Arcadia: Legends, Tales of Symphonia, and Golden Sun are probably the games that best fit the question. Other RPGs may also hold up poorly, but I don't have such fond memories of them. I think this feeling stems mostly from disliking Tales of Vesperia, which seems to be considered an excellent Tales of game. Grinding and missing QoL would probably also contribute.

I know that older Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games hold up because they're some of the few games I've replayed. Pokémon Red doesn't really, but more because it's missing so much that Gold added and that does hold up rather well.

@tgt Golden Sun is still highly enjoyable. Although it does have a bit of a rough start, with lots of dialogue. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Really? I think that Link's Awakening on Switch is way better than the original, and personally I think the "confinements" of the world are what make it cool! The world is small but that also means every inch of it is interesting and its still full of content. And personally I think the game usually does a great job of making sure the player knows what to do next, especially in the Switch version.

None. I don't worry about such things.

A few years ago, I started replaying Pokemon Yellow after being spoiled for years with the newer mechanics. Stopped playing it after reaching Celadon City.

I wont not play a game because they don't hold up .. but its definitely not as good as it was....play jedi outcast 2 was hard enough back then... The metal gear solid games have aged like old cheese the controls are abysmal and were even something you had to get used to back then....but I won't not play a game because its too old or whatever there's something nostalgic of revisiting these places .. lately I've wanted to play Yoshi's Safari on Snes again but that's almost impossible because of needing a super scope to do so again ..so I'll just listen to some of the music on YouTube every now and again

I honestly think that every game I ever truly loved holds up just fine. The games that don't hold up are usually "graphics first" games, but I have always seen through this and sought out the deeper stuff. ✌️

As far as being "afraid" to revisit them, lol what a weird idea! I play mostly old games, and when I'm not discovering new-to-me and often would-be-classics, I'm replaying those golden oldies 🥰 I've revisited just about every game I can think of and generally they are just as I remembered them.

I think part of the difference might be that I began in the 8 bit era, so I've seen roughly the entire modern gaming trajectory and can reflect on personal experience in every era since. If you don't remember before internet, or before analog control, or before smooth polygons, I kind of feel sorry for you because you are a bit like a bored child in an art museum when it comes to retro gaming. 😂 no offense? ✌️

It's not so much that I don't want to replay games in case they don't hold up, it's more that once I complete a game, there is very little to make me want to come back to it, unless there is a New Game+ mode with added features. It's something that I have always had a problem with when it came to Nintendo games.

For example, as much as I love the Zelda series, if I completed a game like OOT, TP, TMC, or BOTW, I have very little, if any, incentive to play it again. I already know what happens, I know where all the secrets are, so that sense of wonder and accomplishment of playing it through for the first time is lost.

In comparison, playing a game like Genshin Impact, with frequent updates, new characters and quests, on top of limited-time events, keeps me coming back for more. It has far more replay value than most games I have played.

Heck, even the recent Stellar Blade for the PS5 (as generic of a story as it is) gives you an incentive to play through the game again, in order to collect new outfits (some of which are only available in New Game+), as well as get the different endings to the game. And now there is talk of DLC and expansions to the base game, and even a possible sequel.

So I do wish that Nintendo would look at what some other game companies are doing to increase the replay value of their games and perfect on that formula with their own library of content.

I played these games once and done because they are disappointing.
Don't even think to get the remaster version.
1. FF XIII
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. PK Out of the Shadows
4. Chicken Little

None
I play old games all the time. I'm generally able to keep in mind that they are old games, and sometimes gameplay mechanics and game design were not at their best.

I'm more afraid of replaying the same game too often and getting tired of it.

Pretty many Zelda entries on the list, and probably rightfully so.

honestly for me i end up finding more games from my past that i end up enjoying more when replaying than i do find games that i enjoy less.

though there are also a bunch of my fave games from the 16bit and psone/ps2 eras which i only played years later, in snes case it was because i had a mega drive/genesis growing up and in psone case a lot of classic rpgs never made it to europe.

this is a reason why i valued things like the virtual console (RIP) and psone classics services so much alongside retro collections/remasters since i love the idea of being able to buy old games, since these games are new to someone.

@DjinnFighter
yeah i agree that its good to keep in mind a lot of the limitations of the time and that certain common aspects (such as camera control) hadnt been perfected yet but when putting myself in that mindset ive been able to enjoy a lot of older games for the first time years later due to reasons mentioned prior.

@-wc- People don't choose what era they're born into, so I don't know why you felt the need to end your comment that way.

I replayed Eternal Darkness recently, and it definitely is a lot jankier and cumbersome than I remember. However, the atmosphere and storytelling is still superb, which is why it is so memorable to me

It has to be said, even with improved controls on XBox, Goldeneye really doesn't hold up (single player at least). Which is such a shame

Good question! I did a 3 play (each alingement) of Eternal Darkness not too many years ago. For me, it more than held up. It was just as chilling, engrossing and nerve wrenching. Can't say I felt it being slow or janky myself.

My favorite childhood game SMB3 didn't hold up, it's a 7/10 by modern standards, so now I refuse to taint any other memories.

I've never been worried about going back to an older game and I'm also struggling to think of one that I didn't enjoy returning to. I've replayed the likes of Goldeneye, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and still think they're wonderful to play and if anything I much prefer to revisit older games than play many modern ones

Have to have a long think about it to find something I am not sure of playing again, as I find most games from my childhood I still hugely enjoy and have played because of NSO. They were ever green quality.

Secret of Mana remains my favourite game of all time and gets regular revists. I will always adore Yoshi's Story and keep playing that over and over. Kirby's Fun Pack, Kirby's Dreamland..they keep getting regular plays.

Hmm. Honestly, I think it would be some straight Wii games, not optimised for Switch, that I would struggle playing with today. I was never a fan of the control scheme or graphics of it.

I've only ever had true nostalgia for four Nintendo games: New Super Mario Bros, Mario Party 8, Super Mario Galaxy, and New Super Mario Bros 2. I currently own all of them except MP8, and they all hold up as well as I remember. When it comes to pre Wii era games I've never played before, however, it's very hit or miss if they live up to my expectations. I will say though, I'm biased towards all DS games except Kirby Canvas Curse.

@Bratwurst35

I think the comparison is apt. I'm not blaming them for not loving the games, it's just an observation.

The point being, experience is context, and context can be necessary to enjoy the finer things in life, especially when it comes to art and history✌️

This is an interesting question but not something I've really consciously thought much about. There were a couple games I replayed recently that I didn't enjoy as much as I remembered, but I'm not sure how much of that was because of the game itself or just because I wasn't in the right mindset when I replayed them. I replayed New Super Mario Bros. 2 last year, which is a game I always enjoyed more than most despite people saying it was bland, and I admittedly didn't have an amazing time with it. It was... fine. Again though, is it that I don't like the game as much anymore, or if I were to play it on a different day when I'm in a different mood, would I feel more positive on it again?

I've also been on a Mario & Luigi binge lately. I played through Partners in Time for the first time in years, which I always held in equally high regard to Superstar Saga despite it receiving mixed reviews. Now that I've replayed it, I don't think I would score it as high. There's still a lot I like about it, but it didn't quite hit the same way for me, but maybe that's because it's a known quantity and I already know how the story plays out. It makes it harder to fully enjoy even my favorite game, TTYD, when you know exactly what's coming next.

I'm currently playing through Dream Team and am in Somnom Woods, but man... this game has been such a chore to get through. I remember liking it when it came out, even if I felt it was a bit uninspired with the dream world functioning almost exactly like the inside of Bowser's body from the previous game. I think the reason I can't get into Dream Team is that I'm just not invested in the story or characters. The Pi'llo folk are uninteresting, and I can't stand the personalities of the sentient coin block people like Broque Monsieur. They're all just really obnoxious and unlikeable.

Every character in this game just feels shallow, like a walking stereotype with no depth to their personalities. I remember Antasma being a pretty cool villain, but I'm now realizing he's absent for like... 90% of the game. He and Bowser hardly get any screen time, so the stakes don't feel very high when you don't constantly have this looming threat over you like with Cackletta or Princess Shroob, where the game actively reminds you that yeah, the villains are actually out doing bad stuff right now instead of just chilling in their castle and waiting for you to show up. It's true the game can be a bit hand-holdy, but that isn't even the biggest problem with Dream Team.

I could look past the tutorials if the plot was engaging, the characters were interesting, and the writing was actually funny. You can tell the game is trying really hard to be "lol what, so random" with its humor, but it just doesn't land like it did in the previous games. The humor is just kind of awkward and cringe, like this one pillow master whose running gag is that he always tells people he wants to "NAP...ON...YOU" which it just kind of uncomfortable lol. It's like they're trying to hard to be funny, whereas it just came naturally in Superstar Saga. Lots of padding in places, too, that make the game far longer than it needs to be.

For as much as I've been clamoring on about a Kid Icarus: Uprising remake, it's been long enough at this point that I truly wonder if the game itself was fun, or if I was just charmed by the characters and dialogue.

Mother 3. It really hit me on the initial playthrough and I'd like to preserve that. I think after a few years when most details have vanished from my memory is when I'd be good to give it another go

I personally like Pikmin 3 more than 4 but don’t wanna go back to it in case my memories of it made it better than it was

The N64 era games are the ones that spring to mind most of all. But usually I am not scared to replay old favourites

I don’t really have a concern in revisiting games out of a fear that memories don’t live up to the product. A lot of titles have jank or poorly aged mechanics and I find enjoyment in most of them

That being said, I do have bit of a different answer, of a game that I’m turned of going back on, and that’s the 2019 PS4/PC game, Wattam. I stopped playing partway through because it was too charming and enjoyful that it didn’t seem right to play the game all in one short go. During some time off it was revealed that the working conditions at Funomena were quite abusive and heated. I don’t know if I can have the same enjoyment going through the rest of Wattam without considering how much of a terror production was, in contrast to how cheerful of an aesthetic the game has.

Love this topic! For me, pretty much every RPG from the early generations fits into this category. There are a handful of quality of life improvements in an RPG that I simply can't live without, such as shared inventories, random selection of a target if the target has been killed, not having to open and menu to Talk, etc. For example, I've always found Earthbound to be charming, but I cannot stand playing it these days because it's missing all of those modern features.

@Yousef-

yeah im pretty much "anti" when it comes to online.

I could generally leave my console un-connected and not miss a thing, but:

leaderboards? yes!
ghosts? yes please!
other creative ways to integrate networking into games more passively? maybe!

but actually playing games with other people online by myself in a room makes me so sad for some reason. id rather do almost anything else.

to each their own!

(g'day! 😄)

@niner

" There are a handful of quality of life improvements in an RPG that I simply can't live without, such as shared inventories, random selection of a target if the target has been killed, not having to open and menu to Talk, etc. For example, I've always found Earthbound to be charming, but I cannot stand playing it these days because it's missing all of those modern features."

while I mostly agree with what you've said, Earthbound has everything you mentioned except shared inventories. ✌️ Great game, I return to it often.

I am not scared of replaying it and I still go back to playing it, but it’d probably be Conker’s Bad Fur Day. I remember only having slight issues with it when I played it for the first time last year and not minding the controls, but the remake having improved controls and better gameplay have pretty much made the original sometimes a bit tough to get back to. I’d even say that if you play the remake for too long (which I did) it makes the controls for Bad Fur Day increasingly worse and more noticeable if you get used to the newer controls the remake has. Not a lot of people bring up the controls for Bad Fur Day, though I think that could also be because of how much more focused the game is on its characters, dialogue and writing, which is definitely one of the game’s strengths.

I play a ton of old games, so I don’t really think about this question a lot and I do somewhat get used to the old control schemes since the games are from a different decade and so play somewhat differently compared to modern games. I never am nervous or scared when going to replay old games I love, nor is there anything that stops me from doing so. I still love playing a lot of old games and that will never change.

Is this a thing? I can’t really think of any game that I own that I feel this way about. Even games that have remakes. I tend to play the N64 Zelda games over their 3DS remakes because I don’t enjoy playing on the 3DS beyond what is required. The core gameplay is what I enjoy and I don’t really like age out of graphics. Then again I rewatch shows and movies from my childhood like it’s the first time (rewatching Lois and Clark currently) so perhaps that is a me thing.

Final Fantasy 9. Such an influential game for me and inspired me to write fantasy.

Not worried about any game not being as good as I remembered it, just makes me appreciate the truly remarkable games more over nostalgia. But off the top of my head a few come to mind:

I used to laud Super Mario RPG as one of the best games ever made. Upon playing the remake and replaying the original, It's just good - not great.

Super Mario Sunshine likewise was one of my childhood favorites, but I've since seen the light of how terribly made it is lol.

And every Pokémon game I replay fails to hold up to scrutiny because they all play identically and are too simplistic for their own good.

I still love all these games for the memories I have of them and the impact they've had on me, but I can accept that they aren't the masterpieces I once thought they were.

Pokemon Ultra Sun was my first game period and I loved it to death, even though I got stuck on one boss for a YEAR straight. But I've been spoiled by Legends Arceus and the ability to see pokemon before I fight them, and I am definitely worried that true random encounters will ruin it for me. I'm getting my 2ds modded, so I might play it with mods... anyone know what the modding scene for the gen VII games is like?

@-wc- I get it. I have a brother who absolutely adores Earthbound too. It's very charming and I wish I could enjoy it, but these limitations hold it back too much in the gameplay department for me. I'm working off of memory but I'm pretty sure it has my first and third complaints, the third being the need to navigate two layers of menus to talk or check something. Maybe I'm not remembering that correctly. Either way, I know I'm in the minority in my distate for Earthbound.

Smackdown 2 on PSX, I don't think it will play as well as I remember it

None, I think. Game's year release don't stop me from playing them.

I find the best way to revisit older games is by giving them your full attention.

Sounds obvious right... but it's all too easy today to download 1000s of old games and just jump around them without properly playing them.

I just completed Mickey's Racing Adventure on the Gameboy Color at the weekend. It was slow to get into, but ended up being a great game - developed by Rare so I knew it would have something to it - and you can see how it later led to Mickey's Speedway USA (N64 and GBC) and of course we all know what that was followed by (Diddy Kong Racing).

I highly recommend hand-picking a few retro games and really setting yourself the objective of finishing them before moving onto another game. Can just start with 1 a month. It's a really nice supplement to sit alongside whatever new game you're working through.

Basically every non-first party game on nso.

The recently released beyond good and evil had me thinking just this.

I have fond memories of it and don’t want that ruined incase it’s poop by today’s standards!

@Pillowpants Nice to know. It's the RPG I'm most likely to replay. I think I tried a few years ago and bounced off the intro section and perhaps wasn't in the mood to persevere. I'd love a remake of it more than pretty much any other game

@datamonkey I played it for the first time in 2015 or so. Other than the camera (sometimes) and the stealth sections (which aren't game-ruining anyway), it's pretty great. The fact that it doesn't follow today's standards is actually what makes it good (small world, tight experience, great flow).

With so many games to get into who doesn’t want a few to scratch OFF the list? Lol. Finding out a game doesn’t jive is not bad thing at all. No anxiety need be involved.

I replay all the Skylanders games every year, they still hold up, at least for me. Same goes for Half-Life 2.

i replayed Ocarina of Time last month. Previously I had moved it down to 3rd best Zelda in my ranking. I was so wrong. It’s still number 1.

Basically every N64 game.
Both Snes and Nes games are still playable today, but even if I think that N64 was the biggest jump from the previous generation, it's 3d games are unplayable today for me.

This has never bothered me. I go back and play older games and find just as much enjoyment in them as I did back then. Heck, I'll even play older games I've never played before and still enjoy it as I would have back then.

Maybe it has something to do with me never really setting the older games aside. When new consoles come out, I'll play the newer stuff, but I'd still pull out my Gameboy on the side. I was still buying games for it in 2015, after all.

I value the good memories of games I played when I was a kid, and the nostalgia that comes with them. I'm not here to provide an unbiased, objective take. That's for reviewers.
A problem I run into is playing things I associate with bad times in my life. Or good times that were reshaped into bad memories. There's definitely games that bring that up.

For me, I think there's only a handful of games that don't live up to the original playthrough or the nostalgia. Usually, this is due to QoL features, such as camera angles, or controls, especially in the early 3D games (excluding Mario 64). In my experience, Sonic Adventure was borderline unplayable when revisiting on Dreamcast as the controls seemed widely different now that I've been spoilt to modern controls. Obviously, not completely ruling out some peripheral degradation... and ageing body ha!

Honestly I find Nintendo games age better than most. Going back to PS2 or PS3 games feel rough compared to first party n64 games.

I absolutely agree with everything concerning "Link`s Awakening". It´s simply not that mind blowing anymore after, a.o., "Shadow of the Colossus", "Braid" and "Undertale". It´s not only graphics that don`t always age that well. And "OoT" is still a great game, but THAT Hyrule is TOO SMALL. But the worst offenders are the old, brillant Point and Click- adventures by Lucas Arts, IMHO. I wouldn`t try combinations of commandos for hours to get to watch five minutes of a funny cartoon anymore. It`s a pity.

I find that a lot of my childhood games have aged well, but I've changed since then.
Particularly games like Pokémon or Zelda. It felt like a real space that I would think about even when I wasn't playing.

Nowadays I can see that this part of the story was padded, that's where the textures repeat. That mountain in the distance? Oh it's actually 2D.
I enjoy the gameplay but my immersion was lost at some point. Which I regret.

Metal Gear Solid 4. I'm a huge metal gear fan who has replayed all of the games so many times I can't count, but I played MGS 4 once. It's a great game, but it was such an emotional capstone to the series that I just don't want to ride that ride again. I have nothing but good things to say about it, but the one run I did through it was pure enjoyment. It was like a massive, playable movie that did everything right to cater to me as a long-time MGS fan, and when it was done I knew that I both loved it and wouldn't play through it again. One of my all-time favorites, but for me I won't go through it again.

I used to worry about that with Mario Sunshine and Skyward Sword, considering how many people treat them like the black sheep of their respective series. But nope, after replaying them a couple times each, I can confidently say they're my favorites.

Madness that the LA remake would be your example for this piece 😧 It's close to perfection, I LOVED it. Didn't even notice the stutter either.

Some of the first games I remember playing are the Skylanders games. I used to play them with my cousin, and also my Dad. I have a lot of nostalgia for those games. I know I remember those games as being better than they really are, so I've been too scared to replay them and taint my fond memories of the games.

I had this experience replaying the first Zelda when it came to NSO (finished it despite not enjoying it much). But then I tried it again a few weeks ago and had a blast. Different mood, I guess?

The SNES Classic gave me a few things: Secret of Mana did not age well for combat with the incessant cooldowns and spell grinding. Earthbound lives on in my heart, but man that battle system is hard to go back to. I worry that an official Mother 3 release will probably fall into that.

I've been putting off Link's Awakening for the reason noted above, it was clunky then swapping items on two buttons and the remake reportedly didn't stick the landing.

Practically every 3D game on PlayStation One!

I would also like to mention that when I played the DS versions of Mario 64 and Kirby Super Star, I immediately realized I was having more fun with those versions than the originals. Same with the GBA version of Mario 3. Here's hoping the same can happen with the OG DKC trilogy.

@NintendoWife
I completely agree. It's a masterpiece. I think what he's saying, though, is that he would be afraid to go back to the original after playing the remake, which is fair.

Haven't had this too often for games I played in the past but definitely struggle playing older games I didn't originally, particularly 16 bit RPGs.
I hooked up my N64 and replayed / 1st completed Jet Force Gemini recently which I was expecting to be more of a slog than it was.

I'd be a little nervous at revisiting DK 64 and Conkers Bad Fur Day.

I also think Mila's turnwheel may have broken older Fire Emblem games for me.

I dont have fun replaying Adventure games or easy games.

The old games i play again and again are action, strategy, sport, racing, fighting games.

Now i am playing Capcom Fighting Collection, replaying 1000x each Darkstalkers games and happy.

From Nintendo world, definitely Ocarina of Time. It was brilliant to me as a kid, but last timeI tried it I couldn't recognize it anymore - really ugly and controls feel awkward.

@DemonKow
"I've been putting off Link's Awakening for the reason noted above, it was clunky then swapping items on two buttons and the remake reportedly didn't stick the landing."
🤨 But the clunky item switching is one of the things the remake fixed. On top of being a fantastic remake! "Didn't stick the landing", that's crazy... all because of that microscopic stutter that non-nerds never even noticed.

Generally I seem to be quite tolerant to "oldness". Some years back I managed to replay the two N64 Zelda's on the GC special disk (or was it Wii Virtual Console?), and a few hours in I'd forgotten about the choppiness and low-poly graphics.

I wouldn't say i was nervous about it, but i avoid replaying most early 3D-games i have (N64/PSX era), now i'm used to how things are today (Both in visual clarity and QoL features/controls), the poor graphics and frequently janky camera controls put me off.

It's sort of a "lost generation" to me, NES/SNES still hold up really well, and there are a few PS2/GC games i come back to occasionally, but first-generation 3D games? Oof, no thanks.

This game from when I was little called scaler, I love that game so much but I haven’t played it in years! They would probably never port it or bring it to any modern console but this game that I love so much I sorry I would hate if I played it now.

I have to say I don’t usually get this feeling. I go back and replay old games all the time, and I usually feel that they hold up fine (or better than fine!) I don’t really understand this feeling, although I accept that apparently a lot of people feel this way. Like, people are worried they’ll ruin their memories if they replay it and discover that it wasn’t as good as they remember it being? Does anybody feel this way about music or movies or is it only video games? I would like to understand this better.

Not worried at all. I just have to worry about how it displays on a certain tv I guess?

@Beaucine thanks I’ll probably give it another go plus it’s supposed to have small quality of life improvements anyway.

Agree with the new standards in it not having big open world etc being a bonus!

The Rocket Knight collection, I'm currently waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail. Haven't played them since the '90s and I'm kinda worried they won't be as fun as I remember.

Can't think of many recent games off the top of my head, so I'll say most arcade games from the 80s and 90s.

I replayed Shenmue a while back and had to stop due to frustration with the controls. I played that game to bits when I was about 17 and it was a fond memory. It was a revolutionary game at the time of release but hasn't aged well. I suppose JRPGs like Grandia and Skies of Arcadia would also not have aged well.

Never nervous as such but the nostalgia goggles definitely don't hold anymore on things from the Atari 2600 days for me. I'm still happy at the SNES and Amiga era and will often fire up games on those platforms. Started gaming in the mid 80's but struggle with pre 16 bit.

My biggest issue is my love of JRPGs. It's a big commitment to revisit some of those with less time on my hands. For me personally, while some modern conventions I get make it hard to revisit in certain genres because things have improved for the better, for JRPGs I still prefer turn based.

For me it's any games I've already played over and over such as Ocarina of Time. I just feel like I'm grinding through the game because I know where I'm going and know the answer to the puzzles. Also you don't have any feeling of discovery and I already know what's going to happen with the story.

I play the snes DKC games every year. Still feels the same. Love those games and music. Love Oot, music, world and story. But the controls tho 😂

@niner

"Maybe I'm not remembering that correctly."

I am happy to report that you are remembering it not correctly 😄

Brilliantly, the L button doubles the A button in every menu context. BUT THERE'S MORE.

The L button ALSO functions as 1 button "check" or "talk to" in gameplay, depending on context!

this entire game is generally playable with one hand! Not to sound too excited about that! 😅

I think Earthbound is the smoothest playing, most engaging, overest before you get bored RPG of the pre 32 bit gaming. 😎

anyway. yeah shared inventories. I mean I guess that's considered an inconvenience but it's really well designed, makes the game much more challenging, and when you cant just buy 99 potions first chance you get and keep every item you run across, the items themselves become much more meaningful to you.

that's my take! obv im a big fan from way back, i beat this game in 4th grade the first time, which is kind of the perfect age imo. 👍

Yup, we have been too spoiled by the modern Zelda games.
I still love A Link to the Past (never played the follow up) and Wind Waker, but can't find the first 3D Zeldas that fun anymore, besides being a big part of my childhood. And Link's Awakening became by far my least favorite Zelda.
I know I'm like those 3 annoying people that bad mouth BotW and TotK when I say that, but it just doesn't click with me anymore lol
Old Mario, Metroid and some RPGs (Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario, Fire Emblem) still feel pretty untouchable though

My fondest memories are mainly Snes ones and I feel really blessed that those games for the most part hold up well and probably always will, Starfox is probably the exception there but I still love it to bits.

The worst titles I have gone back to are not from a Nintendo console but the PS1.

3d games in abundance but so many of them trying to find their feet and very few of them play well today, many feel utterly uncontrollable. Trying out Syphon Filter was a recent example and I'm loathed to go back to the old Tomb Raiders for the same reason.

Painful to play today.

Most of the N64/PS1 era I generally avoid because the first gen 3D models are rough. A lot of 8-bit and 16-bit games are pretty egregious with being hostile to the player in an attempt to prevent short games from being quickly beaten.

But Doom on any console pre sixth generation is hard to go back to.

The first game that jumps to mind is Beyond Good and Evil. I recall liking the GameCube version but I don't really remember the gameplay, something tells me it wouldn't hold up so well to me today so I've held off a purchase. Also Shenmue, the 3rd game was such a disappointing game for me which I didn't want to believe as the Dreamcast versions made such an impression on me at the time. I bought the HD versions on PS4, but I've put off replaying them.

I've recently started to replay RE Remake though (which I though would not hold up for some reason), but it suprised me in the sense that it really does.

So many games, why replay any...

A lot of 90s Capcom games hold up very well, Final Fight being a classic example, along with Mercs, Ghouls 'n' Ghosts and a few others leading into the obvious SF2 iterations and then the more cartoony take which followed. There's something about the art style their work had during that era that held up better than 90% of other arcade games at the time.

Snes krustys funhouse

@NFrealinkling On my second playthrough of 4 right now and I must say, playing through 4 makes me love 3 even more. The only thing you may feel disappointed about in 3 is that it isn't so incredibly overly easy. Believe me, 3 is gold.

@Tayrailbridge yeah, 3 was basically the game that got me to branch out into more Nintendo franchises. I’ll probably go back for another play through sometime

Although I don’t replay many games in general (rather spend that time working through the never-ending backlog), this is an interesting topic because it most definitely is a thing- at least for me whether consciously or subconsciously.

Games, being intertwined with tech, are products of their time… and some of those products may not age as well as others. Generally speaking, I’d say I’m weary of going back to anything from the N64, PS1 era- when games were by-and-large making their first jumps to 3D spaces and environments. Camera controls, movement, inputs, 3D sprites/polygons etc. were all still being figured out and fine-tuned and a little janky tbh. Also those were the days of a lot of systems’ controllers just having one analog stick (and even in some cases no “L2, L3 & R2, R3” buttons- speaking in Sony) which obv is much different than having the standard two we’ve had now for years in most cases. Imo this is the era of games that could benefit most with the Remaster/Remake craze by updating/modernizing them with the more common controls & QoL improvements of today.

Then there’s some classics & personal faves I had such a great time with (or that I already invested too much time with) that I also avoid for many of the reasons mentioned above and in the article. But then there are also revered older titles I haven’t played yet- and still want to, but don’t want to be jaded by the issues I encounter due time gap (i.e. hoping for an eventual remaster/remake instead).

Tbh this is kind of a regular unfortunate realization when revisiting some games on the NSO Apps :’(. Great games for their time, although not so great now when replaying through the lens of today- all these years later. Nostalgia is powerful, but not always all-powerful.

You are, and no offense intended, using EverGreen wrong.
Evergreen means it constantly generates money.
Ocarina of Time will ALWAYS sell. It is an Evergreen title.
Mario Kart will always sell from beginning of a console (portable or stationary) til the end of the console. It is an Evergreen title/I.P.

@larryisaman
Sunshine all-stars sucks because there aren't Analog Controls!

@neverbeentoiceland
Ocarina's Hyrule is DEFINITELY too small...
Breath/Tears at times feels too small too. Yet at the same time feels too big. But that is because it is so damn empty!
Twilight feels about right, but it NEEDS to NOT be segmented!

The perfect Hyrule would/should literally be a combination of ALL the Zelda games!
Many multiple, living towns!
A few cities!
Far, far, far more NPCs to make it feel more alive!
A bunch of traveling NPCs and caravans!

Every dungeon and temple all in the one game too!
A crap ton of secret cave! Burn bushes, remove trees/stumps, bomb walls!

There should be hundreds of items even if some don't really have a use ... Look at A Link to the Past! So many items, some don't even need to be used!

Ok... THAT'S rich! I literally could've pulled any game out, but the one that came to mind was Zelda: OoT and I see it leads with 7%. First, I just want to say, GREAT article. Next, the reason I say OoT personally is, despite how sublime I remember it, I just know if I went at it now, I just wouldn't get that satisfying feeling I once held so dear. The latest Zeldas have all exceeded it, same for the 3D Mario's over SM64. In fact, I'd say I have this feeling now for 1st Gen 3D games than I do back with the 2D games. I think I could still play Zelda: ALttP and Super Metroid and still have a ball with them-- And their formulas have been heavily iterated on, both by Nintendo as well as other devs. Truly a "make you think" article-- I'll ponder this more as I get ready to fire up Starfox 64...

Most of the N64. Mario and Zelda hold up, but going back to wiggling the stick to power slide in Kart 64, seeing the framerate of Goldeneye, etc., it’s an era that should be left to nostalgia and/or replayed on 3DS where available.

I feel this way about the Atari plug and play systems or 50th anniversary release. Getting a 2600 for Christmas was one of my favorite childhood gifts, but it does not hold up the way NES games did.

I started out with the SNES, and like to consider myself fairly good at seeing retro-games through the lense of their time. I have a hard time playing early 3D games from the N64 and PSX-era at their native resolution, but I think the recent HD remasters that have mostly just upscaled those graphics are very charming. Pixelart from the NES/SNES-generations can be basic, but I adore that stuff so that's seldom a problem.

My pick for this particular question is easily Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. You can certainly write a thing or two about Ubisofts numerous sandbox-games, but I always had a soft spot for them. Black flag was where AC peaked for me. I never replay these games, but I somehow finished Black Flag 3 times over a few years. Sadly, I feel like it just wouldn´t hold up graphically, narratively or mechanically if I tried to boot it up today.

I´m excited at the prospect of a remaster. Hopefully one that weeds out the present-day-sections and leave us with just the pirating adventure.

@RenanKJ I feel this way about many games from the N64 era. It was a time when a lot of games transitioned from 2D to 3D and for some this worked, but for many, it did not. Whenever I replay Ocarina of Time, I feel the same way as you do. The 3DS remakes feel much better. I'm really hoping for a remake/remaster sometime.

@Spider-Kev No analogue controls was the least of my issues with the game believe me

Stunt Race FX. I had a lot of fun with that game when it was new, but the abysmal framerate and tiny viewport make it unplayable to my spoiled eyes today. If ever there was a perfect candidate for a remaster...

@Darknyht "Doom on any console pre sixth generation is hard to go back to."

But Doom on PC with a modern engine and mods is fantastic!

SXX tricky is pretty tough to go back to, 1080 avalanche holds up though! Curious.

I won't replay anything I did not like the first time around. So This probably won't ever happen.

Jet Force Gemini is one for me.

I loved it as a kid and since it’s on NSO, I could revisit it whenever I want. I really don’t think it’s going to work well nowadays though because I’ve been finding that to be the case with any of the other N64 shooters that I’ve tried to revisit on NSO. I might be better off with just my memories.