Games that age well/dont age well.

Do

• Games with a heavy sense of style (eg. Day of the Tentacle).
• Well made pixel art/2d graphics (eg. Anything Bitmap Brothers still looks amazing - even Cadaver, which is more than 2 decades old now...)

Don't

• Yearly franchise updates (eg. most EA sports games) or anything that can become obsoleted by another game.
• Any game that was ever primarily intended to be technically impressive or realistic.
• Games that in some way have a connection to real world events (eg. The age-gate questions at the start of Leisure Suit Larry)
• Games with 'outdated' control schemes (eg. Non WASD movement) - particularly if there's no way to modify the controls.

@BeachThunder: When it comes to WASD controls it depends on the genre of game, last time I played Warcraft 3 I don't remember WASD controls but the game is still amazing.

@Silvergun said:

I think the Might and Magic series covers both ends of this.

On the holding up well side, the World of Xeen games (4+5) have a really vibrant, distinctive art style that still looks great today, paired with gameplay that I think nicely straddles the line between more unforgiving CRPGs and accessibility. It's really one of the best RPGs ever made.

On the other hand, the next few games with their transition to 3d had some issues. MM6, 7 and 8 are not pretty games. MM6 was the worst by a longshot, and while MM7 did improve a fair bit, it still wasn't much of a looker. MM6 Also suffered from being the first game to radically redesign the core gameplay mechanics that had remained more or less constant from 1-5. Again, MM7 refined these quite a bit, and in that regard it actually has aged really well, it's one of, if not my all time favorite game (But DAMN is it ugly!). MM8 on the other hand, didn't really improve on 7 at all, and coupled with some really questionable design choices, probably took a few steps back as well.

We don't talk about Might and Magic 9...

Overall, it just feels like New World Computing never found their feet after MM6.

This post could have been written by me. Probably. Really, I don't think Might and Magic VIII holds up all that well simply because it's kind of a mediocre game all around, whereas I think anyone willing to look past the graphics could find VI and especially VII fairly accessible as far as old CRPGs go. World of Xeen similarly, though I only beat half of it and cannot claim to have finished the darkside. It's a nice contrast from something like Wizardry 7, which while clearly a good game, wastes no time kicking the player in the balls with tough enemies.

I tried replaying GTA 3 recently, it does not look or control anything like I remember it did when it was new. Even going from GTA3 to San Andreas on the same console was such a huge leap of tech.

Almost everything from the SNES holds up darn well in most respects. Definitely a testament to the power of sprites. It's why Castlevania SoTN is one of the only games on the PS1 still looks any good today. It stinks that they're going full 3D artwork on the 3DS Castlevania coming out, it doesn't look nearly as good as the classics.

Any of the mario games age extremely well.

I definitely agree about MGS. I still think the original MGS looks and sounds great.

What comes to mind is Original XBox first person shooters that were PC ports that suffered bad frame-rates. Examples include Half LIfe 2, Warpath, Brothers in Arms, etc.

I just played through ICO HD. That game holds up remarkably for an 11 year old game.

I would say 007 golden eye has aged badly.I remember when that game came out, a lot of people played it in my neighborhood.I remember kids crying and yelling in frustration because they suck at multiplayer.The graphics suck ass now because the faces look deformed.

Pokemon red isn't really that good and pokemon silver and gold is still decent but pokemon sapphire seems more timeless than the first 2 generation games.

Metal Slug is still pretty good despite coming out a decade ago.

I agree that doom definitely holds up. I think it's because no one is doing that style of level design now. It's kind of the bangai-O of fps's where each level has its own gimic and crazy challange within the overall limited set of assets. I think orcarina of time definitely holds up as well. The mechanics are pretty much the same as any modern 3d zelda (bar stamina etc in skyward sword) and I think the music is some of the best in any game ever. The problem is graphics come back into nostalgia and become retro as time goes on. I can stand anything from the GameCube era bar really stylised games like wind waker or crazy 2D stuff like chu chu rocket, but in a few years I'll probably find them really nostalgic.

Any game that relies on "let's make jokes about everything that happened recently on the news" humor never really ages well.

Neither, sadly, do games that have every aspect of their originality copied to the point where everything it does just comes off as generic years later (even though it wasn't at the time).

@DoctorDanger99:

As Jeff has said, Hitman: Blood Money is still fantastic 6 years old.

Sonic Adventure and every Atari game come to mind when I think of games that haven't aged well. I could go on and on about games that have.

Project Gotham Racing 3 has aged incredibly well. The sense of speed and those city landscapes have still not been surpassed in my opinion.

@isomeri said:

Project Gotham Racing 3 has aged incredibly well. The sense of speed and those city landscapes have still not been surpassed in my opinion.

loved that game. best online racer ever

Max Payne hasn't aged well at all. ALL you do is shoot the same guys over and over again in empty environments.

The Legacy of Kain series aged terribly. It's too bad, since it's one of the greatest stories ever told.

Planescape: Torment aged well but it is a very niche title to begin with. Actually I can't think of anything that do not hold up well because I don't mind graphics at all as long as the gameplay is solid.

@RenMcKormack said:

seems like. early three d stuff does not age well. GOOD 2d stuff is essentially timeless, since we stopped doing it (for big games anyway besides new mario bros) as an industry.

BUT

Stuff with style still looks good. Wind Waker is older and still looks great in 3d because it was going for something specific.

Totally agree.

I would play and replay the 2D classics from the early to mid 90s any day, but the chunky early 3D graphics can be a little distracting.