100% agreed.

Totally.  I mean I'm standing there on a stone block in the Marble Zone as it slowly drifts across a pool of lava.  And the funny thing?  Sonic is giving me the side-eye because he's been standing still too long and he's "bored."  Why would you design your character to do that when you're the one who designed this level where you have to stand still?

I think my problem with responding to this thread is that I always am aware of the limitations technologically and graphically of the time. Games are from the eras they are from. Certainly I don’t feel the same enjoyment, but I don’t think that makes the games less awesome.

Contra’s one hit kill and clunky controls make it difficult to play the game these days, and there’s not much motivation for me to get back into the game, but I wouldn’t say it isn’t awesome. That same narrative plays out in my head with almost all games I would put into this category.

And the jumping isn't precise enough for some of the actual platforming.  I tried to replay Sonic a few years ago...  just wasn't happening.  Meanwhile Mario World aged fine.  

I was tempted to say 3rd gen as well

But honestly, always found them to be pretty bad, never  manged to enjoy them

4th gen aged well though  

The only 3rd gen game I genuinely enjoy is Super Mario Bros. 3.

I’m sure you weren’t of gaming age when these games were released. Gen 3 may be tough to look at or play for modern gamers, but at the time, these games were as impressive as today’s Zeldas, CODs, Skyrims, Elden Ring, etc. None of us said, well this looks and plays ok for now. 

But I definitely understand how the games of the 4th gen made gen 3 a relic of the time. In those times steps between generations were staggering. I still love Metroid, but Super Metroid makes it feel like a prototype. 

Symphony of the Night:
I went to play this again for the first time in 20 years or so. I've previously ranked SotN high among my favorite games but... I don't think I can stick to that anymore. I feel like the main issue is the lack of interesting abilites, at least during the first sections of the game. Can't remember whether it gets better later on. Anyway, as a result a lot of your time is spent just running/dashing and slashing through the same areas. This is the case in most Igavanias, but in the sequels you would get a plethora of abilities to experiment with which would stop things from getting too repetitive.

I also feel like the castle design isn't the best. There are plenty of long corridors without good shortcuts and just a few warp points which makes backtracking more frustrating than in other metroidvanias.

There's also the fact that exploring new areas is one of the main strengths of SotN. While I don't remember details, I do remember the general layout and look of the castle which does make it less exciting than the first time around.

So what does hold up? The controls are still among the most precise and satisfying in any 2D game. Alucard is still impressively well animated and the game looks great in general. The music is good. And exploring new areas and enemies is still fun.


Tbh I think there are just a handful of games from the 90s that are still on par with modern games so I don’t mean to pick on SotN in particular. But it was one of my favorites and one I expected to hold up.

Also FFVI and FFVII. I haven’t played them for a long time but I know that the random encounters would drive me nuts at this point.

Checked myself on 3rd gen games to see how they hold up for me. Only really played NES from 3rd gen.

Games I still get the itch to play from time to time:
Super Mario bros 3, Punch out, RC Pro Am 2

Games I enjoyed fairly recently:
Teenage mutant ninja turtles 1 and 2, Deja Vu, Bobble Bubble, Snow bros, Chip 'n Dale 1 and 2, Gun smoke, North and South, Dr Mario

Games I have enjoyed but did not enjoy recently:
Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2, Spy vs Spy, Double Dragon, Tetris, Bomberman, Jackal, Ice hockey, Duck tales, Mario bros, Darkwing duck, Batman, Shadowgate

Games I never really enjoyed in the first place (but maybe should have):
The Legend of Zelda, Adventure of Link, Final Fantasy, Metroid, Mega man 1,2,3... , Battle toads

Might need to do the same for later generations just to compare. A lot of games was only great for its time but I still like quite a few today. I think that the Zelda games in particular suffered a lot from me playing the third game in the series before them. I guess the same is true for a lot of games where one tried a more recent game in the same series or genre. A lot of games I still like today after recently playing them are fun because of multiplayer.

Pokemon

Just in general. It's weird, I replay old games a lot but for whatever reason I just can't replay any of the Pokemon games except Red and Blue out of nostalgia. Maybe cause I figure it's better just to wait for the next one.

Banjo-Kazooie

Still not bad, but hasn't aged as well as Mario 64. The puzzles aren't challenging enough and for the most part the platforming isn't good enough either. There are a few parts that are still great, but most of the game is just good.

Donkey Kong Country

The computerized graphics were impressive back in the day, but it's just a decent platformer that doesn't have exceptionally interesting mechanics or amazing level design.

Mortal Kombat 1-3

It had blood. Aside from that these are pretty mediocre fighting games.

Sonic Adventure

I think the Sonic segments of the game actually hold up surprisingly well. The Tails levels are good too. Everything else is mediocre or bad, and the overworld is boring.

Spider-man Shattered Dimensions

I actually really liked this at the time, but then tried to play it again and just wasn't feeling it. Not helping that the new Spider-man game is so much better. Maybe I'll give it another shot one of these days.'

Final Fantasy 7- Still pretty good, just not as amazing as a lot of people thought at the time. The battle system is just too simplistic and rarely offers a real challenge. I never had to think all that much on how to load out my characters, except for the two weapons. Story has some strong points but sometimes awkward pacing, and many characters don't really get a chance to shine. Soundtrack still fucking rocks though.

Super Mario Bros - Obviously one of the most influential games of all time, but kind of meh overall. After the first couple of worlds, the game doesn't really have anything new to show you. It's still fun, but it gets a little repetitive. In comparison, Mario Bros 3 has novel level design to the end.

Smash Bros Brawl, 4- It's just hard to find a reason to play these anymore with Ultimate existing. Melee's mechanics give it a unique niche and SMash 64 has its clunky charm.