Ever replayed an old game and thought...

[replicashooter]

"Boy was I easily amused back then".

The SNES Classic made me think this again and again with so many shonky titles with ropey gameplay that hasn't really stood the test of time at all, and most of all, simply aren't fun to play. This is one field where N excel again and again as their titles hold up so well over time, for the most part.

That said I do feel that we are currently in the midst of a golden age of gaming as the highs are simply so high and there is such a wide breadth of titles to suit everyones tastes and wishes, and most importantly, are lots of fun.

[Asura]

"Boy was I easily amused back then".

The SNES Classic made me think this again and again with so many shonky titles with ropey gameplay that hasn't really stood the test of time at all, and most of all, simply aren't fun to play. This is one field where N excel again and again as their titles hold up so well over time, for the most part.

That said I do feel that we are currently in the midst of a golden age of gaming as the highs are simply so high and there is such a wide breadth of titles to suit everyones tastes and wishes, and most importantly, are lots of fun.

This is going to ruffle some feathers but I felt this most strongly when looking back at the Amiga. With the exception of a very select few titles, I can't believe the Amiga entertained me as much as it did. I was definitely easy to please.

[QualityChimp]

Atari 2600

[Brad]

I found that every non 3d amiga game holds up really well. Every 3d ps1 game though? ... Oh dear.

[replicashooter]

This is going to ruffle some feathers but I felt this most strongly when looking back at the Amiga. With the exception of a very select few titles, I can't believe the Amiga entertained me as much as it did. I was definitely easy to please.

For sure the Amiga didn't half do that for me as well, mainly due to how new and amazing the tech was but the actual gameplay 9/10 times was tosh. Good job I pirated my little heart out and was buying 3.5" disks in bulk back then Most of my time with that machine was spent messing around with the Action Replay to look at code, making music in MODtracker or generally pissing around with a million and one different things of which gaming was a small part (the cracktros and demos had some of the funkiest music ever) but when I booted up some old stuff a few years ago I was like WTF?

Shadow Of The Beast for example might as well be called Dude Wheres My Gameplay? but got a pass thanks to the amazing graphics, parallax scrolling and music. I do however remember enjoying all 11 disks (!) of Monkey Island II which is still a great game and Lotus II was pretty good but the absolute best it had to offer was stuff like Wizball, Supercars II, the Lucasarts games (which were bested on PC via talkies), Stunt Car Racer, Rodland, New Zealand Story and Rainbow Islands but the game I played the most back then was Batman The Movie which I really dug due to a) its license b) the sheer amount of variety and c) the music but playing it now its so atrocious, ropey and cheap.

I can see why Sony said "Who the heck wants to play this old crap?" in reference to their back catalogue because without the rose tint and with a bit more honesty you can admit that most of it is a bit pants and everything has been surpassed and refined. Even modern pixelart style games do the old style now much better than they ever did then (high water classics excluded) hence the current era is the best its ever been.

[QualityChimp]

I tried replaying Goldeneye, but I thought I was getting cataracts it's so foggy.

[Neon Ignition]

Yeah, huge waves of PS1 stuff has aged too hard. The most recent game for me though is Mario Sunshine, it could be fixed in a remaster but its well below the other entries to the point where I couldn't be bothered with it.

[speedlolita]

I found that every non 3d amiga game holds up really well. Every 3d ps1 game though? ... Oh dear.

I couldn't disagree more. They're sharp and defined polygons at least, unlike that nasty Nintendo 64.

[teddymeow]

Yeah, I have.

"Knock down ginger" is nowhere near as much fun as it was when I was a child!!

[Anpanman]

Oddly I was looking at prices of Amiga's on fleabay last night and watched end to end the RSI Megademo on YouTube for some nostalgia fun.

I think I'll get something old this year (I was threatening to get a PS before Christmas) and I'm 100% sure I'll enjoy the old games, far more really than stuff on the PS4 which overall look pretty ****e to me, I've simply no interest in 99% of the stuff out there.

EDF is excellent but that has elements which hark back to the old days, Madden does play a good game though but COD Advanced although enjoyable has virtually no replay value, similarly Mirror's Edge. Really enjoying it but after it's completed it won't get played again. There isn't the urge to beat my run times like there was with say beating my lap times in Ridge Racer.

I do admit, it's me and not so much the modern games, they are made a different way and in some ways have bypassed me. Not interested in 'sharing' via chatsnap, online, trophies, seeing what my 'friends' are playing etc etc. The PS4 stays firmly offline to stop all the clutter on the desktop.

I still have a decent session on my favourite game ever Galaxian every week or two so I'd probably be much happier collecting old games I've played or old games on old consoles I've never played.

[replicashooter]

I'm the same in the old school approach to playing new games because I'm an antisocial twat and don't do any of the related hoop jumpery or antics outlined by keeping my console offline.

Would be really interested to see how your step back in time works out when fantasy and reality collide.

[Brad]

I couldn't disagree more. They're sharp and defined polygons at least, unlike that nasty Nintendo 64.

That's the PS1's best game. No way am I playing that in 2018.

[DaytimeDreamer]

I had these thoughts exactly end of last year. For me personally only the Neo Geo, PC Engine and some very select titles on different platforms here and there are worth revisiting.

Stuff that has aged horribly:

1) PS1 3D Stuff
2) PS2 3D Stuff (yeah, that too)
3) Saturn 3D Stuff

All the early 3D stuff regardless of platform is horrible if you revisit them in 2018. Hell, I remember my jaw dropping to the floor when I saw the first Virtua Fighter in the arcades. Today it just looks funny. Yeah you can look at it and remember nice moments with your pals and stuff but no way I would have fun playing this thing now.

On the other end however, having tons of stuff playing on my Neo Geo old games before going to bed! Windjammers is dope!

[Paddy]

Early 3D titles are going to look well dated these days. It makes sense that like the earliest 2D fighters there won't be much value in replaying those as they're not great titles in most cases.

I think there's something to be said about games that look dated but either have lots of charm or atmosphere about them (Nights, Burning Rangers and Panzer Dragoon Saga come to mind).

That said, yeah we do put the rose-tinted specs on when we look back sometimes.

[Asura]

That's the PS1's best game. No way am I playing that in 2018.

We're on totally different wavelengths here, because I think MGS1 still looks fantastic. Yes, it's rough, but it always was. I think the quality of the underlying art-style shows through.

Compare it to something like Syphon Filter (the first one) which has zero going for it in terms of art style, and the difference is stark.