Classic video games and how well they hold up

[GeneralMacArthur]

I went back recently and replayed Ocarina of Time.  It struck me that if this game came out today it would still be really fresh and appealing and fun.  Just some minor graphical updates, maybe making the polygon style an intentional art form, is all it would take.

On the other hand, last year I tried replaying Final Fantasy 7 and dear god does it not hold up.  Most modern releases of it include a button you can press to speed the game up by 3x and even then it's tedious and unfun.  This is a game we played as kids over the course of a month in our basements, getting a new piece of the story every day and talking about it at school.  That's not how people experience games today.

What classic games hold up really really well?  Which just don't hold up at all?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Ultima Underworld is surprisingly playable for a 31 year old game.
Age of Empires 2 and Heroes of Might & Magic 3 also aged well.

[dead0man]

I played SMB3 not too long ago, it's still fun.

[7,052,770]

The 1990 Lord of the Rings PC game by Interplay is still superfun:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.R.R._Tolkien%27s_The_Lord_of_the_Rings,_Vol._I_(1990_video_game)

I'm serious. I've thought for years that it should get a re-release on Steam.

[Mr. Smith]

Tomb Raider is about as good as you can get for 3D without a thumbstick. Much better on a Sega though.

Can't believe this is "classic", but Super Smash Bros. Melee is amazing...hardly different from Ultimate, which tells me Melee is the standard.

[Blue3]

Lord of the Rings Online (still getting updates! beautiful scenery, great plots and lore)

Age of Empires: Age of Mythology

Civilization IV

Spore

The Sims 2-3

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Star Wars Episode III video game adaptation

Lord of the Rings Return of the King video game adaptation

[Samof94]

The first KOTOR holds up REALLY well.
Gen 2 (GSC) of Pokemon holds up despite its limitations(and its own glitches, nobody evolved by using a burn heal:moon ball erroneously is coded that way).

[Progressive Pessimist]

I find that most do if you can get past the graphical limitations of the time.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

There has never been a video game better than Pong, although Pac-Man comes close.

[Meclazine for Israel]

C64

Paranoid
M.U.L.E.
Karateka
Snokie
Impossible Mission
Racing Destruction Set

Some companies make C64 games in 2023. Unbelievable.

Top 10 2023 games

https://youtu.be/UkjPoxsXygc

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Most don't really hold up, games tend to age fast, a lot faster than other kinds of media such as music and film.

Even GTA V on PS3 lol if you are used to GTA V on PS4/PS5.

What does hold up are games that aren't too reliant on graphics (but mechanics also age a lot).

Even the game I play the most (EUIV) is showing its age, despite it being 10 years old and that is due to continuous updates but the engine limits mechanics from evolving or becoming more complex and the map is not on same par as other games. So EUV would make sense, issue is kinda it would be very barebones and probably take years to get on the same par as EUIV and could flop for that reason easily, esp. if they also simplify mechanics or complexity like the map too much.

The call of dutys do reasonably well (like MW and MW2), the FPS shooters had good graphics. Crysis for instance doesn't feel like 2007. Or even Crysis 3 holds up well today, but at the time it was known for being unplayable since no-one had the CPU to play it. Same for The Last of US. GTA V on PS3 also had great graphics (even if it doesn't feel like it today anymore).

Pokemon games hold up well imo. The classics like Emerald remain very playable.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Anj example of a game that I played that felt unplayable today is Zoo Tycoon (the first one)

Playing Planet Zoo in comparison... feels like a different world (though it's quite complex and the mechanics of franchise might mean it can get outdated quickly). It's sad that they really haven't added birds or more marine creatures, though i'm okay with dinosaurs being left out (same studio owns Jurassic games franchises too).

Also CIV IV also feels graphically too outdated despite having played it like 10-15 yrs ago when i started getting into these type of strategy games (before i even was politically interested)

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

Super Mario 64 aged well, given how common open world games are today

[Independents for Nihilism]

There has never been a video game better than Pong, although Pac-Man comes close.

Tetris, though

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

There has never been a video game better than Pong, although Pac-Man comes close.

Tetris, though

Oh yeah, that's also very good.

[dw93]

I've been playing the first Donkey Kong Country in my spare time. It aged great!