Games that are actually worse than you remember.

[gutsman004 81]

So I had not played this particular game since 2003. I knew it was not the best game out there but still thought it was pretty good. 

I had a yearning to play this game yesterday so I did. Man..... The game is clunkier than I remember with weird camera angles and clunky,awkward controls. The animation seems very amateurish and the voice acting is largely horrific. I have not played too much of the game yet to make a final revised assessment on this game,but initial reports are not good. 

The game? Mega Man X7.

 

After seeing the animation for this game,I think It was the inspiration for the animation in Mighty No. 9. 

 

I love all things Mega Man,but man....

[Nugfish 581]

Little Mermaid was one of my favorite games on the NES as a kid. I never owned it but I can remember renting it often when nothing new came in.

When I bought the cart as an adult, I could not believe this was the game that I put 30+ hours in as a child. It is probably still a good game and I would have to fire it up again to remember what was so disappointing, but it was miles away from what I remember. 

On the flip side M.C. Kids is far better than I gave it credit for...

[m308gunner 352]

The entire Atari catalog. Played tons of it as a wee lad. Flash forward to when I'm in my 30s. Played 10 seconds of each game and never have to go back again.

[Darth Vader 150]

57 minutes ago, Nugfish said:

Little Mermaid was one of my favorite games on the NES as a kid. I never owned it but I can remember renting it often when nothing new came in.

When I bought the cart as an adult, I could not believe this was the game that I put 30+ hours in as a child. It is probably still a good game and I would have to fire it up again to remember what was so disappointing, but it was miles away from what I remember. 

On the flip side M.C. Kids is far better than I gave it credit for...

I think Little Mermaid is still a pretty good game for what it is. In a sea of bad games for the NES, this is definitely not one of them. It may not be as good as you remember but it's a solid game.

46 minutes ago, m308gunner said:

The entire Atari catalog. Played tons of it as a wee lad. Flash forward to when I'm in my 30s. Played 10 seconds of each game and never have to go back again.

Couldn't agree more. Atari was my first system and I played the shit out of it. Got a bunch of hand me down games and had close to 150 Atari games before my family lost everything we owned in a house fire. I remember staying up late with those atomic colors and blaring sound effects pouring over me from out of my 2 dial television. I love the memories of those games but that is it. I've tried to go back and play some but with the exception of a handful of games, they are all pretty horrible.

[Hammerfestus 3,166]

Comix Zone.  I remember it being awesome and I played a lot of it but playing it now? The enemies take way too many hits to kill and there is too much cheap damage.  Or maybe I’m just not as good at it as I remember.

[MachineCode 159]

Same here for Atari. I start my retro gaming at the NES or Commodore 64. I like the original arcade games, but Atari VCS is just too rough for me. Pitfall being the only exception 

[Jono1874 144]

Super Double Dragon. That game was awesome when I was like, 12. Sadly, at 29, I realize that it's a slow paced, meandering, mess of a game. I still like it, but it's definitely flawed.

[peg 335]

The N64, it's even worse than I remember it.

[mbd39 1,677]

I don't think that Sonic the Hedgehog has aged that well. It's not as fun as I remember. Stages keep repeating themselves and it gets tedious, especially the underwater parts.

 

 

[mbd39 1,677]

39 minutes ago, Darth Vader said:

I think Little Mermaid is still a pretty good game for what it is. In a sea of bad games for the NES, this is definitely not one of them. It may not be as good as you remember but it's a solid game.

Couldn't agree more. Atari was my first system and I played the shit out of it. Got a bunch of hand me down games and had close to 150 Atari games before my family lost everything we owned in a house fire. I remember staying up late with those atomic colors and blaring sound effects pouring over me from out of my 2 dial television. I love the memories of those games but that is it. I've tried to go back and play some but with the exception of a handful of games, they are all pretty horrible.

How do you feel in general about games that are played for high score? If you get into the mindset of playing for score those games can still be challenging and fun. Kaboom and River Raid for example.

 

[JamesRobot 5,009]

11 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

How do you feel in general about games that are played for high score? If you get into the mindset of playing for score those games can still be challenging and fun. Kaboom and River Raid for example.

 

Fuck yeah.  Some of my all-time favorites right there.  I wish I could hook my Atari up to my TV. 

[Jono1874 144]

26 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

I don't think that Sonic the Hedgehog has aged that well. It's not as fun as I remember. Stages keep repeating themselves and it gets tedious, especially the underwater parts.

 

 

Sonic 1 is definitely paced weirdly and the lack of spin dash kind of messes up the game.  The Switch version tries to fix these problems by adding in both the spin dash and the drop dash, but the levels aren't designed with them in mind so you have to basically memorize the stages for them to be truly effective at gaining and keeping momentum. Forget even trying to use either in Marble Zone or Scrap Brain Zone.

I love Sonic 1, but you're definitely right.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Jono1874
phrasing

[MachineCode 159]

16 minutes ago, Jono1874 said:

Sonic 1 is definitely paced weirdly and the lack of spin dash kind of messes up the game.  The Switch version tries to fix these problems by adding in both the spin dash and the drop dash, but the levels aren't designed with them in mind so you have to basically memorize the stages for them to be truly effective at gaining and keeping momentum. Forget even trying to use either in Marble Zone or Scrap Brain Zone.

I love Sonic 1, but you're definitely right.

I’m the odd man out in that Sonic 1 is my favorite, even without the spin dash. It just has a certain vibe to it that the others (especially 3) don’t. I love the levels, the chunkier assets, the music, all of it.
 

IMO, I think Sonic CD absolutely sucks to replay. The time travel mechanic just ruins the pace and the level design sucks. No flow. Sad because it had everything it needed to be the best, but the gameplay is just crap.

[CMR 470]

Zelda OOT -  Too much talky, especially from that stupid owl.  I forgot how boring the first half of the game was.  I need to just make a save file that starts me out in the fire dungeon, but I can't bring myself to play through all that.

Secret of Mana - Enemies take waaaaaay to long to kill, and on top of that you have to wait for your attack to charge back up.  I still love it's predecessor on the GB though.

Flashback - I used to love this game, but now I just don't have the patience for it.

[mbd39 1,677]

11 minutes ago, CMR said:

Zelda OOT -  Too much talky, especially from that stupid owl.  I forgot how boring the first half of the game was.  I need to just make a save file that starts me out in the fire dungeon, but I can't bring myself to play through all that.

Secret of Mana - Enemies take waaaaaay to long to kill, and on top of that you have to wait for your attack to charge back up.  I still love it's predecessor on the GB though.

Flashback - I used to love this game, but now I just don't have the patience for it.

 

There' s just something so enchanting about SoM. Maybe it's the graphics, music and general atmosphere.  I've beaten it multiple times as a kid and an adult and it still holds up, IMO. But I'm not an RPG fanatic.

 

[Richardhead 2,169]

4 hours ago, peg said:

The N64, it's even worse than I remember it.

I came here to say this. I’ll add that it gets even worse every time I try to play a damn 64 game.

[Nugfish 581]

1 hour ago, CMR said:

Zelda OOT -  Too much talky, especially from that stupid owl.  I forgot how boring the first half of the game was.  I need to just make a save file that starts me out in the fire dungeon, but I can't bring myself to play through all that.

Secret of Mana - Enemies take waaaaaay to long to kill, and on top of that you have to wait for your attack to charge back up.  I still love it's predecessor on the GB though.

Flashback - I used to love this game, but now I just don't have the patience for it.

I see the merit in flashback and Mana but putting OOT in this list is crazy talk!

It seemed like every time I walked into Electronic Boutique people would be going on about how good OOT was and I'd think it sounded lame. Fast Forward 20 years - I popped it in for the first time this summer and I was both blown away and incredibly frustrated with my childhood-self for never even renting it.

 

[CMR 470]

1 hour ago, Richardhead said:

I came here to say this. I’ll add that it gets even worse every time I try to play a damn 64 game.

I love the 64, but I only emulate it now.  Unfortunately it seems like they're making emulators too accurate and they're starting to emulate the slowdown and frame drops.  Anybody know how to lock Project 64 into 60fps for every game?

 

29 minutes ago, Nugfish said:

I see the merit in flashback and Mana but putting OOT in this list is crazy talk!

It seemed like every time I walked into Electronic Boutique people would be going on about how good OOT was and I'd think it sounded lame. Fast Forward 20 years - I popped it in for the first time this summer and I was both blown away and incredibly frustrated with my childhood-self for never even renting it.

 

I've always hated the kid link parts.  The game only starts getting fun to me after you get the master sword, and only starts really getting awesome around the fire dungeon.

[MachineCode 159]

9 hours ago, Richardhead said:

I came here to say this. I’ll add that it gets even worse every time I try to play a damn 64 game.

I thought that only once about the 64 like 10 years ago but it was due to playing it plugged straight into an LCD. The awful scaling and input lag just ruined it. Early 32bit and N64 require CRTs to have a chance of being enjoyable 

But I will concede that Goldeneye is nowhere near as good as we thought back in the day. SLOOOWWW!!!

Edited November 23, 2019 by MachineCode

[arch_8ngel 1,597]

I never played OOT until after Twilight Princess, so it never really impressed me in the first place.

Secret of Mana is definitely one that I remember being better, but replaying it now it feels incredibly clumsy from a control standpoint.

 

On the NES, Astyanax was a childhood game that I could one-life any day of the week.  But revisiting it 25 years later, it is ROUGH and nowhere near as tight as I remember.

[Hangoin 11]

The original Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis was one of my all time favorites as a kid. When I emulated there was a lot of slowdown and frame drops in some places. I thought it was just an emulation problem but when I hooked my genesis up for the first time in five years......... oh dear... I got a lot of respect for the game but ooh dear...

[Darth Vader 150]

14 hours ago, mbd39 said:

How do you feel in general about games that are played for high score? If you get into the mindset of playing for score those games can still be challenging and fun. Kaboom and River Raid for example.

 

That's cool. I'm still down with the Atari 2600. Like I said, there's still a handful of games I still enjoy playing. Kaboom being one of them, if I could ever get a paddle that works well enough. Also, Keystone Kapers is one of my all time favs and Pitfall is definitely better on the Atari than any of those crap versions they released for the early Nintendo and Sega systems. 

[captmorgandrinker 1,540]

Yeah, you Atari haters are nuts.

It's the perfect choice for when you only have about a half hour to play games; there are plenty of fun and cheap titles to choose from.

@Darth Vader- there's a few guys on AtariAge that sell reconditioned paddles; they're definitely worth it if you play enough paddle games.

[MegaMan52 1,958]

I really liked Mega Man 2 when I was a Kid, and of course I still like it now (Mega Man is my favorite video game series). But, the game does have several flaws and doesn't deserve all of the praise it receives.

One other problem that this guy didn't mention: if Mega Man gets hit when there's lots of flicker, he actually moves back farther than he normally does.

Edited November 23, 2019 by MegaMan52

[MuNKeY 241]

Kid Icarus comes to mind as I remember enjoying it years before and having it on my favorite list then returned back to it and I just couldn't do it kept getting lost in the "dungeons" and I was like "this seemed way more fun than this, what the hell happened?"