By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - Article: Games that haven't changed in ten years

sinha on 14 August 2007

Games that haven't changed in ten years

A decade of evolution - squandered

Some games truly evolve. Prince of Persia, for instance, is now a million miles from where it started. So too, Sonic the Hedgehog and even Mario. Over the last ten years, these games have either changed direction totally, or shaken up the basic gameplay elements and crafted a similar yet far-removed experience. Some other games... haven't.

These are the games that refuse to change.

Pokemon (Game Boy, GBC, GBA, DS)

Metal Slug (Neo Geo, GBA, PSone, PS2, PSP, Saturn)

Guilty Gear (PSone, PS2, Xbox, GBA, DS, Wii)

Virtua Fighter (Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)

Worldwide Soccer Manager (PC, PSP, Xbox 360)

Crash Bandicoot (PSone, PS2, Xbox)

Street Fighter (SNES, Genesis, PSone, Saturn, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360)

The Legend of Zelda (N64, GameCube, Wii) 

 



We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that they [developers] want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine and half years? It's a learning process. - SCEI president Kaz Hirai

It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, "Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it." So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. - Epic Games president Mike Capps

We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games. - Activision CEO Bobby Kotick

 

Around the Network
rendo on 14 August 2007

Tetris.



twesterm on 14 August 2007

I was going to be upset if Pokemon didn't make that list.

And if you've played any recent version of Tetris, you would notice there are plenty of new game modes that are very different from the original.



 

MontanaHatchet on 14 August 2007

Pokemon has changed dramatically, and I didn't know Crash Bandicoot games were still even being made.



 

 

rendo on 14 August 2007

It's not about the gamemodes that are added, it's the premise and core play. Tetris is just putting ltitle tetroids into lines to get points, that's it. Zelda's save the princess/world. That's it. Pokemon is gather hundreds of little rodents, train them and become the greatest evar!11!1 That's it.



Around the Network
sinha on 14 August 2007

Saying that Tetris hasn't changed is like saying video game versions of chess or poker or minesweeper haven't changed. It may be true for the most part, but they still don't belong on this list.

A game I thought would be on the list but isn't: Madden.



We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that they [developers] want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine and half years? It's a learning process. - SCEI president Kaz Hirai

It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, "Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it." So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. - Epic Games president Mike Capps

We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games. - Activision CEO Bobby Kotick

 

mikey on 14 August 2007

Sim City games have remained relatively the same. The only major changes I've seen are visually.



EEPiccolo on 14 August 2007

DDR games. The only change was freeze arrows added starting with Max. I'm not complaining, though. I still love the game.  And I guess technically DDR's only been around for 9 years.



-Manella: Yeah... sux0rz! I hate missing out on food...
-Maya: Nick... what does "Sucksores" mean?
-Phoenix: No idea...

twesterm on 14 August 2007
rendo said:
It's not about the gamemodes that are added, it's the premise and core play. Tetris is just putting ltitle tetroids into lines to get points, that's it. Zelda's save the princess/world. That's it. Pokemon is gather hundreds of little rodents, train them and become the greatest evar!11!1 That's it.

 Once again, go play one of the newer version of Tetris; Tetris DS is a great example, there are game modes that go beyond just gaining lines (in that some of them don't even have you gain lines).



 

twesterm on 14 August 2007
MontanaHatchet said:
Pokemon has changed dramatically, and I didn't know Crash Bandicoot games were still even being made.

 Are you kidding me?  I played Pokemon Red/Blue when they were first released and then hadn't played any other version until Diamond/Pearl.  Do you want to know what the same?  Just about everything.  There were only three things that I can think of off the top of my head that were added that affect gameplay in any way at all: Pokemon carrying items (nothing huge), battling two Pokemon at once (sounds huge but it's still the exact same fight), and online (the only major change that isn't even really a change).

 Everything else has remained exactly the same.  Even the story was the same with just different names.  The different Pokemon are really the same ones with new names and a few new ability names (that do the exact same thing as other abilities) and the core gameplay hasn't changed one bit.  Madden games change more than Pokemon games.

Now, all that being said, I'm not saying that the Pokemon series is bad (I don't personally like it), but by saying that the games have dramatically you're only kidding yourself.