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[StreetsofBeige]

No doubt modern games looks and sound better, but any ancient games (same or different franchise, or same kind of game) that just felt better to play than modern games? It doesn't have to be from the same franchise (ie. old RPGs are better than modern RPGs because of.....).

16-bit EA NHL over modern EA Hockey
- That arcadey gameplay will always feel better than modern sports which have that floaty forced animation thing where it seems you dont have full control

- Manual goaltending. Any good 16-bit gamer could both skate and play goal keeping tight games having the winner win 1-0 or 2-1. Nobody does that in modern games. I'm not even sure you can even do manual goaltending now. If so, I have never known one person to do it. Taking the goalie spot in online gaming, nobody seems to do unless there's 6 players and one person has to be goalie. Back when I played EASHL, if there's 6 gamers in a lobby, some gamers would back out and play a separate game as nobody wants to play goal. Way too hard compared to the old days

- Cheese goals were there, but easily prevented by any defender or manual goaltending. In NHL games since the 360 days, some cheese goals are impossible to defend unless patched (floaters from your own end of the ice, the curve/drag shot. Even in NHL 98, if you did a fast shot along the ice from the boards to a goalie's stick side, he'd wave at it, miss, and a goal scored 80% of the time

- No AI teammates with the puck. You controlled all puckhandling. Optional AI controlled teammates in modern games are totally unpredictable with the puck (especially in EASHL online gaming). It's flipping a coin whether you'd get pylon bad shooting AI, or godly cpu AI that can skate and pick corners from sharp angles. I remember playing EASHL where there would only be a few players on the team, we'd play 1 forward, 1 defence. We didnt trust the cpu being both d-men, and it was a good choice to feed the cpu wingers as they could shoot insane shots scoring from any angle in a fraction of second. It was like the physics model didn't apply. You had to get lucky if you got the good cpu AI that game.

 

[Deerock71]

Gee whiz, I'm gonna go with Live A Live. It's bonkers that the core of this game is almost 30 FUCKING YEARS OLD!!! AH-AHHHHHH!!!! HERE'S YOUR FUCKING BLAST FROM THE PAST!!!

 

[rodrigolfp]

Quake. Feels better than any "controller only" shooter.

 

[Damigos]

Anything Mario from the Snes era feels better than modern day platformers.
Also old school gran turismo (eg GT3) feels better than most modern day racers

 

[Rac3r]

ESPN NFL 2K5

 

[Trogdor1123]

Blades of steel!

 

[ShaquilleOatmeal]

Tetris.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Quake. Feels better than any "controller only" shooter.

Quake feels good with a controller too, same with Doom. They just have perfect mechanics that honestly still haven't been topped.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Quake feels good with a controller too, same with Doom. They just have perfect mechanics that honestly still haven't been topped.

Nah. Too slow and with deficient button layout.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Fifa 12-13 feel much better than anything done 10 years later

Pes 2005/ps2 winning eleven is still the greatest footy game ever made.

 

[JimRyanGOAT]

Fear (AI)
Half-Life 1 & 2 (Impeccable pacing and atmosphere)
Knack (GOAT)

 

[AJUMP23]

ESPN NFL 2K5

This is the one they sold for $20. And it was brilliant.

 

[Cao Cao]

What are ancient games for you? NES/SNES games?

 

[dcx4610]

DOOM (1993) - Fast, chaotic, satisfying.
Mike Tyson's Punch Out - To this day, probably one of the best reflex games. Sublime controls. Hard to put down once you start playing.
Ninja Gaiden - To this day, nothing has replicated the precise controls and super fast twitch response of Ryu. Why has there been no NG4 with all of the 8-bit revivals?

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[bitbydeath]

Shooters in general were better IMO.
No health recharge, no weapon layouts, they were made to be fun first.

 

[SeraphJan]

Most shmup games for me

 

[KàIRóS]

TLoZ: A Link To The Past

Super Mario 64

Goldeneye

Megaman X

Castlevania: Symphony of The Night

Shadow of the Colossus

Resident Evil 4

 

[PanzerAzel]

Super Metroid remains to this day one of the best controlling games I’ve yet to play.

 

[Shifty]

Outrun 2 still curbstomps modern racing games.

It's unashamedly a video game before anything else, all about tight mechanics, exciting presentation, and throwing newton's second law of motion under the bus for the sake of fun.

Not once does it ask you to tune your shocks, balance your suspension, or upgrade your body kit in order to feel good. And it'll never gip you with intentionally bad rolls on a daily roulette spin.

 

[pqueue]

Shadow of the Colossus

going to disagree on this one.

game is good. controls were not.

 

[Kataploom]

Anything Mario from the Snes era feels better than modern day platformers.
Also old school gran turismo (eg GT3) feels better than most modern day racers

Really? I beat it fit first time last month and can't stand how sloppy Mario is, can't run a couple seconds without going backwards at the end to stop him from falling into something I wasn't supposed to and it alone made it a very hard game to play for me... Maybe for the people that have 30 years playing it frequently since they were children it's a non issue

 

[Fess]

Final Fantasy 7
Except for the horrible framerate it’s still the top tier JRPG. The over world, the air ship, the mini games, the story, the music, the strategic combat, the… everything!

Zelda Adventures of Link
It may not hold up as a whole but that low high attack and defence mechanic is still unsurpassed. Modern games rely too much on combos and making things look cool that the tightness and feeling that you have complete control at all times is lost.
Zelda Link’s Awakening came close with the instant shield. But that’s also an ancient game so

Most old shoot’em ups and action games
They hold up extremely well. The challenge in modern action games is 50% about controlling the camera to get an idea of what’s going on around you. In old games the challenge was to avoid bullets, enemies and scenery - while having total control.
Instead of correcting the core issue in modern games they add visual indicators that show from which direction you have a threat or is getting attacked because they know the core gameplay is actually broken with a camera showing the back of your character or spaceship.
Metroid Dread and The Ascent is the only modern games I’ve played in recent times where I started questioning if retro action games has finally been surpassed.

 

[Starbuck2907]

Fear (AI)
Half-Life 1 & 2 (Impeccable pacing and atmosphere)
Knack (GOAT)

F.E.A.R. Not only the AI, but the feeling of just sheer video gaming happiness as you shot up a room and see enemies flying, blood sprays, dust, fire, etc. all in slow mo. No game has really captured the awesomeness of F.E.A.R. since it released in 2005.

 

[V1LÆM]

Final Fantasy 7
Except for the horrible framerate it’s still the top tier JRPG. The over world, the air ship, the mini games, the story, the music, the strategic combat, the… everything!

Zelda Adventures of Link
It may not hold up as a whole but that low high attack and defence mechanic is still unsurpassed. Modern games rely too much on combos and making things look cool that the tightness and feeling that you have complete control at all times is lost.
Zelda Link’s Awakening came close with the instant shield. But that’s also an ancient game so

Most old shoot’em ups and action games
They hold up extremely well. The challenge in modern action games is 50% about controlling the camera to get an idea of what’s going on around you. In old games the challenge was to avoid bullets, enemies and scenery - while having total control.
Instead of correcting the core issue in modern games they add visual indicators that show from which direction you have a threat or is getting attacked because they know the core gameplay is actually broken with a camera showing the back of your character or spaceship.
Metroid Dread and The Ascent is the only modern games I’ve played in recent times where I started questioning if retro action games has finally been surpassed.

i'm playing through FFVII for the first time right now on Switch. obviously the graphics are really dated but otherwise the game definitely doesn't feel like it's from 25 years ago.

i've not reached the overworld/mini game parts yet (only back at Aerith's after the plate collapse) but i'm really enjoying it. the soundtrack is brilliant and already feels iconic to me after just a few hours. the battle and boss music is so good and i love the little tune after a victory! the combat feels so simple to get into so far but i know there is more depth to it.

 

[GreatnessRD]

Shit, almost anything made before 2008.

But to thoroughly entertain the post...

• WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2006
• MVP Baseball 2005
• Madden NFL 04, 05, 06 (Vision Cone was ahead of its time, but losers love to cry)
• Def Jam FFNY
• Capcom vs. SNK 2

Man, I'd be all fuckin' day. Fuck Modern games. This shit trash, lol

 

[Jormatar]

Crash Team Racing controls and plays better than any of the clones released after it, including Mario Karts.

 

[TheGecko]

All of them.

 

[Fess]

i'm playing through FFVII for the first time right now on Switch. obviously the graphics are really dated but otherwise the game definitely doesn't feel like it's from 25 years ago.

i've not reached the overworld/mini game parts yet (only back at Aerith's after the plate collapse) but i'm really enjoying it. the soundtrack is brilliant and already feels iconic to me after just a few hours. the battle and boss music is so good and i love the little tune after a victory! the combat feels so simple to get into so far but i know there is more depth to it.

It’ll only get better. It’s a fantastic game tbh. I’m playing the remake and as a fan of the original it’s honestly absolutely terrible, the only things I like there over the original is the graphics and extra story. The core gameplay is nothing like the original, feels like playing a third person action game by a dev who hasn’t made those types of games before. The original has legit strategic combat, it can get awfully repetitive at times due to the random encounters but big fights are absolutely awesome. And once you get out on the open map you’ll see the beauty of that versus a more linear approach. Take your time and explore. Enjoy!

Once you’re done, if you have a chance you should go try Fantasian on Apple Arcade too. It’s not as good, not as finely tuned in direction and has some difficulty spike, but it’s still great and the FF7 origin shines through, it’s made by the same person - Hironobu Sakaguchi. Very unique visual style, the scenery is made up from photos from diorama models.

 

[baphomet]

Outside of genres that basically don't exist anymore (shmups), I can't think of a single old game that hasn't had the controls made superior from years of iteration.

 

[jufonuk]

Tetris.
Ikaruga
Street fighter 4 and before except 1
Virtua fighter

 

[WhiteWaterM00se]

There are many, honestly. Let’s start with the easiest:

Pac-Man and Tetris. (Even on modern consoles, the gameplay hasn’t changed much)

NBA Jam

Mortal Kombat 2,3U, and IX
Street fighter II, IV
Marvel vs capcom 2
Older tekken versus tekken today

Final fantasy 3, vii, X
Chrono Trigger
Ogre battle
Phantasy Star

N64 wrestling games

Ps2/Xbox era sports games in general. NHL, madden, mvp, Tiger woods golf, snowboarding, Tony hawk, etc.

Sonic the hedgehog 16 bit games versus what came after

Actual Arcade games then versus now (in general)

MS Windows Solitaire & Xbox & mobile Full House Poker versus any card game today

World of Warcraft (the first decade)

Mass effect2, Skyrim, FalloutNV, and Fable versus any western rpg since including Witcher 3.

JRPGS in the 16 bit thru psp era’s.

Wii sports versus Switch sports.

Halo 1-3 versus today

——————————————————-

I’m not being all negative. BOTW, mk8D, Spider-Man games today versus old, forza today versus old. Todays versions are the best they ever have been. Just not in every genre!

 

[cireza]

This is going to sound a bit extreme but anything 8/16 bits and arcade.

The good time when loadings were non-existent, games weren't bloated with shit. All good, carefully crafted, instant fun. On CRT.

32 bits gen is when it started going bad. Tons of loadings, ugly pixelated 3D etc... RPGs particularly suffered from the transition.

Not that I can't have fun with modern games. But it's very different.

 

[Shifty]

I can't think of a single old game that hasn't had the controls made superior from years of iteration.

That one's easy! Goldeneye and Perfect Dark take modern shooter controls and give them a swirlie in the nearest school bathroom.

 

[Naked Lunch]

F-Zero GX
It still plays - and even LOOKS - better than every comparable racing game out there.
I dont think it will ever be topped - and neither does Nintendo. Its why they quit the franchise then.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Nah. Too slow and with deficient button layout.

Yeah I mean it's definitely not overall as quick that's for damn sure, but the cardinal movement is essentially identical and that's the biggest part for me (particularly for Doom). And you need like 4 buttons to play Quake lol, there are enough shoulder buttons that you could get away just using them if desired.

 

[Big Baller]

Duke 3D's shotgun is still the best

 

[Scotty W]

Quake has a physicality that very few games have.

 

[STARSBarry]

My ex always said this felt the best to play even 20 years later.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

The 8bit/16bit/32bitish era

Castlevania Series
Mortal Kombat 1-3
All of the 2D sprite based Street Fighter games.
All of the classic 2D Super Mario games(also Super Mario 64)
Metroid and Super Metroid(sorry Prime)
Final Fantasy 1-3(NA American names)

Zelda,Zelda 2 and Link are equal to OOT/TP/WW/BOTW

 

[6502]

 

[lovetalkgames]

QB vision felt great. A truly arcade experience.

 

[RAIDEN1]

Un-rivalled and un-matched not even today's super-power consoles have anything as good as this, and back in 1996 you couldn't even get anything looking as good on PS-1 or Saturn

 

[March Climber]

Most extreme sports and arcade sports games were better and more fun(and arguably reached their peak) during the PS2/Xbox/GC era, since currently only Ubisoft now makes them for consoles/PC.

Splashdown for PS2(Also looked really good)

Outlaw Volleyball

Def Jam Vendetta 1 and 2:

Nearly everything EA Big studios made:

SSX series

NBA Street Vol 1 and 2.

NFL Street Vol 1 and 2.

Honorable mentions Aggressive Inline, Jet Set Radio Series, Virtua Tennis, NHL Blitz, NFL Blitz series and NBA Jam/NBA Showtime.

What the hell happened to sports games?

 

[DaleinCalgary]

The only genre I would say that's better way back are sports games. Today they are just overcomplicated.

 

[Sublyme]

Still the best side scrolling shooter I've played.

 

[Ezquimacore]

Soulcalibur 2 feels better than 6, dead or alive 3 feels better than 6, RDR feels better than RDR2.

 

[Shifty]

All these mentions of Tetris, and most of you probably don't know how right you are.

Tetris Effect is gorgeous, but adding Za Warudo to the formula doesn't transcend the core mechanics any higher than they've already gone. It's a snappy gimmick to enable bombastic back-to-back-to-back-to-back clears.
And 'regulation Tetris' is all about balancing for multiplayer these days, with a focus on things like T-spins (which, granted, are super satisfying), ultra-generous spin reset, and Puyo crossovers.

Meanwhile...

The Arika Research Bunker
Somewhere beneath Tokyo Prefecture
1998

Alas, the Arika Rotation System that allows this kind of blistering play... Never left Japan
It had a solid three-game arcade run, with a fourth in the works, then quietly disappeared on account of The Tetris Company's ever-more-aggressive standardization around the Super Rotation System we know today.

Terrible shame. I can understand the desire to standardize, but not so myopically that something with provable merit has to die like that.

 

[Redefine07]

Gothic 1/2 and the new fan made DLC The Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos are far better that many modern RPGs.

 

[BobbyColtrane]

Madden and NCAA 06 are better than anything in the PS3-PS4-PS5 era imo