Most overrated "classic" games (anything before the PS2)

[byuu]

How do you manage to get lost in Doom for long?
It has a map, you move so fast that you traverse the whole map in like 5 seconds, and the persistent dead bodies mark where you've already been.

 

[skykiii]

@Product Placement already mentioned that the jp version was much easier. I'm just amazed I got good enough to play the whole thing and get all the endings.

2 games that come to my mind that get praised to high heaven but I don't get are:

- Star Ocean Second Story. The translation is a mess, very literal, that the translator decided to always go for "I see" instead of permutations was incredibly grating to me. Combat felt clunky as fuck where not paying attention a second would snowball everything to hell. If I hadn't broken the game in half following guides I would have dropped it much earlier. The story is a mess and you need to do a ton of busywork to get actual context for the villians and it's still a pretty retarded plot. Finally, the Sci Fi aspect I was banking on was a lie since it's your standard medieval magic setup with subtle space faring insinuations. I liked the graphics but outside of that I don't get it's cult status at all and how it ends up at the same level as Xenogears, Lunar, Grandia, Wild Arms or Suikoden. Nostalgia may be why I value those more than Star Ocean but I know I would have dropped it like a rock after a few wipes to some spell nuking Rena and revival stuff being prohibitive at the start.

- Planescape Torment, this one I fully take blame. Everybody has told me the narrative is amazing, and I can see that there is love in the writting, but I was a console kid and I honestly am unable to click with the mechanics of the game. I'm told I can avoid combat for everything but I just feel like I'm desperately shift + right clicking randomly all the time and even then fuck my pathing and die half the time. Will end up reading a Lets Play but I just can't get into it after trying 3 times.

As for something more mainstream that I played during it's heyday... Yeah, another vote for Tomb Raider (2 in this case), I just found it boring. Sonic Adventure is another, I got lost looking for the next level in the hub world and dropped it. Liked the actual levels but that hub was cancer. I can think of others like Resident Evil 2 but those are more not being my cup of tea than being overrated since I never enjoyed survival horrors, I can at least recognize that much.

Oh god, I remember trying Star Ocean: First Departure on the PSP.

My biggest problem is that almost immediately, it becomes just going from place to place for no other reason than because its the next spot on the map.

I know not everyone here is a fan of JRPGs, but one thing that helps make them work for me is A) when I know what I'm doing and B) I know why I'm doing it. But so many JRPGs play out like an anime where they'll introduce a strong initial premise, but then devolve into "go to town, solve local issue, go to town, solve local issue, eventually remember what the big major premise that started your journey was..." This is exactly what Star Ocean First Departure did, and I lost interest almost immediately.

It didn't help that--like you said--the sci-fi element which was the series whole selling point and core appeal turned out to basically be a lie.

 

[std::string]

How do you manage to get lost in Doom for long?
It has a map, you move so fast that you traverse the whole map in like 5 seconds, and the persistent dead bodies mark where you've already been.

To be fair, the automap in Doom sucks.

 

[Pissmaster]

How do you manage to get lost in Doom for long?
It has a map, you move so fast that you traverse the whole map in like 5 seconds, and the persistent dead bodies mark where you've already been.

Getting lost for any length of time in a game that's supposed to keep your blood pumping and the action flowing is anathema. You can use the map to find your way out, but you shouldn't really have to. Same goes for a lot of shooters of that era. I think Duke Nukem 3D would have been a lot more fun if it were just a linear sequence of Duke saying funny things and blowing up increasingly bigger enemies and buildings. I mean, that's what I would have had more fun with as a child.

3d platformers before Mario 64 were notoriously shitty.

Yup. There aren't very many good 3D platformers overall, and even fewer that stood the test of time. For every Psychonauts, there are dozens of Earthworm Jim 3s and Gex: Enter the Geckos.

 

[byuu]

Getting lost for any length of time in a game that's supposed to keep your blood pumping and the action flowing is anathema. You can use the map to find your way out, but you shouldn't really have to. Same goes for a lot of shooters of that era. I think Duke Nukem 3D would have been a lot more fun if it were just a linear sequence of Duke saying funny things and blowing up increasingly bigger enemies and buildings. I mean, that's what I would have had more fun with as a child.

You have that. It's called Duke Nukem Forever. It's fucking awful.

Getting lost for a second doesn't kill the action at all. Even super linear fast-paced action game will give you regular breathers.

 

[Wesker]

Episode 1 Podracing for N64 is easily one of the strongest candidates I know of for "this was way better when I was a child". I liked it back in its heyday, but nowadays, it's just the muddiest, ugliest piece of shit.


Yeah, it's really crazy how admiration for Doom still persists to this day and you never hear criticism of it, like, at all. As if everyone's afraid to criticize it because "OH BUT IT LAID THE PATH FOR FUTURE FPSES!!!!" Yeah, it's great and all, and super solid of Id to release the source code and allow countless mods and shit. Major kudos there. But the game itself just isn't fuckin' fun, and I've given it many, many shots. It is a game I really wish I enjoyed, because Freedoom on my phone works very well, and there are countless mods of all kinds out there. All of this, and I just don't enjoy it because I didn't grow up with it.

I played it when it was still new, along with Doom 2 and I was very young. With the speed tech was moving at that time, shooting jpegs was out of date within like a year or two. It was fine when it had no competition, but going back to that now is a snore. It's just not fun to play. I do like watching other people play mods of it on YT clips but that's it.

I almost have the same feeling about the new Dooms honestly, but I liked Doom 3 and go back to it once in awhile.

 

[Calandrino]

As expected, most of this thread is just “games I don’t like are bad, everyone is wrong except me”.

Definitely reflect on what you're seeing ITT when you go into any other thread on this subreddit and notice that 95% of it's bitching about how modern games are for casual retards, or laughing at gamejournos for getting filtered

future you chose, frens

 

[Grub]

Earthbound. It's not a terrible game but I don't really get what's so great about it. The story and setting are pretty neat but the game itself is aggravating to play. There's all kinds of bullshit in it that wastes your time. I ended up quitting it like 3/4s of the way through because it just got too annoying.

Final fantasy 7. The characters suck, the story is stupid, the materia system makes everyone feel generic and superfluous. Why did that game even need more than 3 party members? You can just put any materia on anyone at any time it really doesn't matter which ones you pick. At least not that I noticed.

Mortal kombat. The gore was cool I guess, but it was a pretty slow and shitty fighting game compared to pretty much most other fighting games I played at the time.

I always felt the love for podracing was a cope. Like a "well it was the only part of phantom menace anybody liked so we should praise the game accordingly" sort of thing

I remember having fun with that game when I played it but the actual racing mechanics weren't that great. It wasn't a terrible game but it wasn't really that amazing either. There were lots of better racing games on the 64.

Yup. There aren't very many good 3D platformers overall, and even fewer that stood the test of time. For every Psychonauts, there are dozens of Earthworm Jim 3s and Gex: Enter the Geckos.

I feel like it's hard to make a good in 3d platforn at least compared to making a 2d platforming game. Even in the good 3d platformers there's a lot more fucking around trying to land and do precise maneuvers. If you fuck up the controls even a little bit. Your game's gonna be bad. No matter how great the graphics, character or story is. But if you've got bad graphics, characters and story, but good controls your game's still gonna suck.

It also seemed like, at least back in those days, after Mario 64 did well, that was it, every fucking platformer was now basically the same shit as Mario 64. Some kind of hub world, levels where you collect some shit, some kind of key or increasing amount of collectable shit or new ability opens the next area, rinse and repeat until you kill the boss of the game, then go collect all the shit you missed. The only thing that really separated them from eachother was their characters and whatever gimmicks they stuck into the game.

Whereas you look at 2d platforming games, you've got every kind of genre and mechanic you can think of has shoved into 2d platformers.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

Half Life, Thief the dark project and System Shock. You still get a certain breed of fedora wearers wanking over how no videogame has ever been or ever will be as good at these.

3d platformers before Mario 64 were notoriously shitty.

The standard at the time for 3d gameplay was fixed camera and tank controls so it was a really great design feat for the time even when it doesn't hold up as well today. At least Mario 64 is miles better than going back to say, the first Tomb Raider.

 

[Colon capital V]

There's all kinds of bullshit in it that wastes your time. I ended up quitting it like 3/4s of the way through because it just got too annoying.

The Photographer falling from the sky I will say is easily the worst running gags in the game.
It's pretty funny and random at first but after the 3rd or 4th encounter you can definitely feel the need to bash this fucker's skull in with a bat to stop interrupting you.

 

[RX-78]

FF6, which was always a good game but never as good as the hilariously pretentious homosexuals that worship it will have you believe.

This, one million times over. 6 is not a terrible game but it is far from the flawless masterpiece that the swirling maelstrom of hipsters, nostalgiafags, 7 haters, and juronos desperate to name drop something that will lend them the facade of credibility have hyped it up as. Materia is just plain better than espers.

 

[Journoscum]

This, one million times over. 6 is not a terrible game but it is far from the flawless masterpiece that the swirling maelstrom of hipsters, nostalgiafags, 7 haters, and juronos desperate to name drop something that will lend them the facade of credibility have hyped it up as. Materia is just plain better than espers.

6 was a strong template for 7, but it's still a really great game. Its strength is in its party - it's the rare case of not having a true main character and instead having an ensemble cast carry the work. There are some weak members, sure, but I find the overall package to be pretty likable. Segments where the party split up and have their own stories are way more interesting here because of it - Sabin would be an absolutely throw away character in most RPGs but his little segment is one of the best parts of the game. Oddly, FFXIII would be the next FF to pull this off.

Plus, stuff like the Opera Scene is incredible. It's lost to younger people, but the SNES producing something like that was like sorcery. Also things like attempted suicide and the bad guy actually winning were not common place for Super Nintendo games, at least in North America. I adore VI and actually think XII is the one journos pretend to like in order to appear savvy and knowledgeable. Because it 'changed the formula' and 'took risks.' Even though...Final Fantasy did a pretty good job of reinventing itself with each new entry.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Episode 1 Podracing for N64 is easily one of the strongest candidates I know of for "this was way better when I was a child". I liked it back in its heyday, but nowadays, it's just the muddiest, ugliest piece of shit.


Yeah, it's really crazy how admiration for Doom still persists to this day and you never hear criticism of it, like, at all. As if everyone's afraid to criticize it because "OH BUT IT LAID THE PATH FOR FUTURE FPSES!!!!" Yeah, it's great and all, and super solid of Id to release the source code and allow countless mods and shit. Major kudos there. But the game itself just isn't fuckin' fun, and I've given it many, many shots. It is a game I really wish I enjoyed, because Freedoom on my phone works very well, and there are countless mods of all kinds out there. All of this, and I just don't enjoy it because I didn't grow up with it.

Oh god podracing
I still remember the level with these giant orange carrot....sausage..rock things you could break.

I never played Earthbound but the fact that you have to click through menus to talk and examine things is a bit irritating. Next instance of this being made easier yet still kind of frustrating is Shenmue. Thank god games like the Kiseki series and Tales games improved on it.

 

[ShitLurker]

Oh god Shenmue... it was fascinating at the start, but there was a limit to "run around aimlessly in town for an hour doing whatever and hoping something happens". It's an interesting proof of concept, but Yakuza was a true evolution that actually made it fun to play.

 

[StacticShock]

the most downvotes

where do you think you are, nigga?

honestly i think the bread name should be "personal niggles you noticed against games nostalgianiggers praise" and it should slap a let's sperg category thingie because reading the thread i've noticed that many issues other kiwis face on some games i simply did not even bat an eye to, maybe because i'm a fun-focused retard instead of being a games arrr art retard.

xcom ufo was funny seeing how the game bullshitted in many ways to pad out gameplay time, getting squad wipe due to a flying saucer? no problem especially if you played xcom 2 from epic store.
shooting blindly on a muton and instakilling a random sectoid? kek, what in the fuck...

zelda oot seemed to be interesting mostly because of the way it's gated around the areas for playtime but also lore flava, you have to go to the stupid goron mountain, you have to go to the stupid ranch, you need to deal with phantom ganon painting every single fucking time and i tell you this as i played this shit the first time on a 64 emulator because back then a n64 was expensive as fuck, a link to the past i can only remember the music which was nice but the game played out as a regular snes game which means most of the gameplay will be padded to hell so you waste alot of time on it to say it was worth it due to nostalgia stockholm syndrome.

SS2 wasn't a problem at all, it was later revealed that SS2 is that way with rpg elements dialed up to eleven because critics back then called SS1 a doom clone because looks, they got pissy and made SS2 to be the way it is, with the assault rifle being the most op shit ever made with the most amount of available ammo around.

As expected, most of this thread is just “games I don’t like are bad, everyone is wrong except me”.

the games themselves aren't really the problem, it's mostly due to people being obnoxious shits about something they personally enjoyed and remember it fondly, the witcher 3 is one such case and no one mentions how the fucking combat is atrociously slow if you don't do it in a very specific way and boring besides one kiwi on the cp77 thread, course the rest of the game is fucking pristine depending if you like good narrative on a preset basis which are the witcher book series + some creativity freedom because games, i've also had a niggle against og crash bandicoot back then because it was painful to play the fixed camera sections but then again i was a young nigger and i can pass fine now when replaying it on a emulator.

anyay to keep in thread, my niggle against FF series is the samey three steps dance shit that plagues every single jrpg ever since and even so i noticed that on FF7 which is highly praised is mostly because of tifa and the victory poses because on snes they only did a small cheer whenever they won a battle but on chrono trigger/secret of mana they had win poses though and it's snes era games.

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Tomb raider, enemies take too many shots to kill and its easy to get lost trying to find keys for things

 

[Judge Dredd]

My pick would be "basically every 90s PC game" but that would be cheating. So my answer is all the Mechwarrior games.

I heard nothing but hype for these games for years, only to actually play them and find them lacking. The deep lore? Not in the games. It's in several novels that were never released in the UK as far as I can tell. The in depth customization? All the mechs are the same aside from tonnage and hitbox (except in MW4 and MW5 which fans complain about). The tactical simulation gameplay? Biggest mech wins. Get close for short range weapons, or keep your distance and spam long range weapons.

Even the fans don't seem to be fans of the games. They name drop story lines like "the word of Blake", "the merik civil war" and "the dark age", or mention characters like Dominic Payne or organizations like The Kell Hounds, but when I ask for details none are provided.

I agree on that one, it was a game I was super hyped about but it wasn't that great, SiN was the more enjoyable game that month.

Sin episode 1 was way better than Half-Life 2 episode 1, but the latter overshadowed the former. I guess Sin was always getting screwed by Half-Life release dates.

 

[Blue Miaplacidus]

resident evil

 

[Product Placement]

None of these are bad games, but are for sure overrated

Crash 3: Too many mini games, stuff like the bike or jet ski just aren't nearly as fun as the platforming levels.

Resident Evil: It is a important game, but issue is the remake of it makes the original redundant as it improves it on every level.

Super Mario Land: Just way too short of a game, then it got a follow up which totally outclassed it.

Rayman: Game is hard, no issue with that but some of comes down to blind jumps and other bullshit. Also having to get every cage in order to beat the game is just busy work, I would get it if was for true ending or some other bonus but not for the normal ending. Is a fan redo with Rayman Redemption, but not checked it out myself to self to see if it fixes issues with the og game.

Medievil: Has lot of that early 3d jank to it. Weirdly the PS4 remake which graphically is on point, kept much of the jank when it comes to stuff like movement.

 

[Fag Albert]

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 immediately comes to mind. Really cozy game, still play it from time to time. But It's gained a weirdly rabid fanbase over the years that's several degrees beyond any healthy level of attachment and treat this game like the second coming of Christ.