Games that you remember being better...

[Wolf Kanno]

Ever played a game that you initially enjoyed and then shelved and went on to other things only to come back for some good old nostalgia and instead found the overall experience a bit lacking?

I recently went back through the Xenosaga Trilogy and finally replayed Episode 3 after maybe a decade since playing it originally and was a bit more disappointed with the whole thing than I remember. I blame part of it on being so close to the Xeno community at the time and knowing about the franchise's problematic backstage drama. I likely went into the game with abysmal expectations and thus it came out smelling like roses instead at the time. Of course without those feelings, time for my gaming tastes to refine a bit, and power playing through the whole trilogy to see the series in a broader context; I kind of found the whole thing a bit of a jumbled mess and was disappointed to see a few features I loved in the series disappear for inexplicable reasons. It was kind of sad to see really. It didn't help that I did a similar type of playthrough of Suikoden earlier last year and came back from Suikoden V, another game I played sparingly for some baffling reason, and came away thinking it might be one of the best entries in the series.

Anyone else been through this?

[Fynn]

Final Fantasy VII. I used to think of it as one of the best in the series, but as I replayed the series it probably had the least enjoyable battle system that paused everything for every animation (say what you will about IX's tempo, at least the bars charged at all times), and the disc 2 was a garbled mess. It was pretty sad, yeah

[Pike]

Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow has not aged particularly well, I've tried to replay it a couple of times and it's mostly an exercise in frustration. These days if I want to replay first generation I play FireRed, which has at least got several quality of life improvements attached to it.

(this isn't to bash on the original Pokemon of course, I poured hundreds of hours into that thing on release, but it's real tough to play in 2017.)

That said, second gen (Gold/Silver/Crystal) is still immensely playable even if you aren't playing the remake. I played it again a couple years back and it still held up really well.

[Psychotic]

The entire catalogue of the Nintendo 64. Blimey, it has not aged well.

[Skyblade]

Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

My gosh, I remember loving this game. Being a sneaky sneaky ninja, trying to get through areas unseen, slaughtering guards from stealth and all that nonsense.

Finally found a copy in a used game shop and wow. That game did not age well. The graphics and the controls are both horrendous by today's standards, and trying to be stealthy with any degree of precision seems impossible.

[Slothy]

The entire catalogue of the Nintendo 64. Blimey, it has not aged well.

Mario 64 is still the best 3d platformer ever, wave race is godly, Mario kart 64 is the second best kart racing game ever and star fox 64 is still great. It also has mission impossible which is the greatest bad game ever made.

[Bubba]

The entire catalogue of the Nintendo 64. Blimey, it has not aged well.

Mario 64 is still the best 3d platformer ever, wave race is godly, Mario kart 64 is the second best kart racing game ever and star fox 64 is still great. It also has mission impossible which is the greatest bad game ever made.

I agree completely with both of you

The grainy graphics of the N64 are what let's it down. Ocarina of Time is a good example. Playing it on the N64 after playing the 3DS version (even without the 3D) is just... yikes.

My N64 still gets regular use though. You can bet that baby Bubba is gonna be playing Mario 64 when he gets to a decent age. Getting up with him at the crack of dawn every weekend will be far more exciting when this happens

[Psychotic]

The entire catalogue of the Nintendo 64. Blimey, it has not aged well.

Mario 64 is still the best 3d platformer ever, wave race is godly, Mario kart 64 is the second best kart racing game ever and star fox 64 is still great. It also has mission impossible which is the greatest bad game ever made.

With the exception of Wave Race (smurf Wave Race) I'll give you those. I was thinking mostly of Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye when I said that.

[Bubba]

Oh yeah man, Goldeneye. I booted that up not too long ago and it was just aaaagghhhh! What the smurf am I shooting at? They looked like badly-realised Minecraft characters. Plus I remember the mechanics being a lot better.

[Slothy]

Perfect Dark was ten times better than goldeneye but never got as much love so I do agree on that and ocarina. I've beaten ocarina precisely twice in my life because I can't ever keep my interest up to finish it again. Been that way work out since the 90's too so I always thought it was a bit overrated.

[Psychotic]

Perfect Dark is the FFIX to GoldenEye's FFVII.

[DMKA]

The original Resident Evil. The last time I tried to play it it felt like a chore.

That opening FMV is still so bad it's good though.

[Slothy]

The original Resident Evil. The last time I tried to play it I felt like a chore.

The original is god damn unplayable these days. No auto aim was ridiculous. There's a reason they released that directors cut. The remake is still pretty good though I think.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

I hate to say this but Morrowind is pretty tough to play nowadays. Fatigue draining every time you run alone makes it nigh unplayable. I had to install a mod last time I tried it just to remove that. I'd love if Bethesda made a new Elder Scrolls with more detailed quests/factions and creative locations like Morrowind but without some of the more dated aspects of it.

[Christmas]

Elderscroll Oblivion. Because i have turned into a dirty graphic whore.