Games That Actually Aged Well

[ShiraNoMai]

While there certainly have been some games we played growing up that may not have been as good as we remembered, there are actually some legitimately great games that have absolutely stood the test of time and are just as enjoyable as they were then with no jank/ugly graphics.

Share some titles you think have think aged like fine wine and deserve recognition for it!

I'll start:

[Cory]

Pokemon games just keep expanding and seem to age well, in my personal opinion. Though, I can't say I've played them all at this point in time.

[Dragon Lord]

I don't have time to provide screenshots of the games before I need to go to work, but some games that I feel have aged very well are:

Any of the SNES Final Fantays games
Chrono Trigger
Super Mario RPG
Super Mario World
Super Mario Bros. 3
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Basically a large majority of the SNES RPGs have aged really well and are still great to play today. I'll post more when I have more time.

[Kyng]

I think Railroad Tycoon II has aged pretty well.

It was released in 1998 - and, its graphics honestly look good for a 23-year-old game. Furthermore, I think the core gameplay (with its wide variety of trains, and sophisticated economy, including its own stock market) offers good depth and still holds up today.

I've been playing it for nearly 20 years now, and I can't see myself ever stopping!

[Karo]

I honestly think Earthbound has aged really well and it definitely is still just as enjoyable to play now as it was earlier.

I tend to agree with Night Lord that most SNES games have aged really well!

[Moonface]

After seeing it being played on Twitch, I have to say that Metal Gear Solid 3 ages stupidly well. I've played a little of it, and while I never got very far, it was stupid how good the game looks for a PS2 title and I don't know any other game that presented itself and its story in the way MGS3 does during the time it was released. It just feels so ahead of its time in so many ways and is also one of the few games based in realism that hasn't aged like trash, since that type of visual style is usually the quickest to fall apart as time goes on. It probably helps that despite being based in realism, the character models aren't going for super fidelity textures and hair styling that ends up aging badly like a lot of 7th+ gen games do because they went heavy on the intricate detailing of hair and such that doesn't age up well. Newer MGS games obviously have way better models but they don't make the MGS3 ones (I can't say for other MGS games because I haven't really seen them) look garbage, unlike say Uncharted where the first game really didn't age up well visually.

[ShiraNoMai]

Pokemon games just keep expanding and seem to age well, in my personal opinion. Though, I can't say I've played them all at this point in time.

My one problem with Pokemon aging is that all the quality of life stuff they add throughout the years gets lost and becomes a tedium you didn't realize at the time (or if you did, let it pass) and it does dampen the experience. I think a great example of this is shown off in the recent Diamond and Pearl remakes: They removed the newer feature of limitless TMs and kept it as originally made in that era of there being limits. It made it much more scarce and hard to consider who to give what TM cuz once used, it's gone forever.

Other than that, the visual styles of all pre-3D have aged beautifully.

[Dragon Lord]

Infinite TMs is a terrible system anyways. Not bringing it over to the D/P remakes was the right decision. They should be something that you have to carefully think about using.

It might have made things more convenient for online competitive battlers, but they can just go use Pokemon Showdown if they don't want to have to worry about not having access to certain moves.

[Moonface]

I wonder if Pokemon games could benefit from a system where TM's are still limited to one but you can get more of them in exchange for doing something or for the in game currency. So if you want it on another Pokemon you can but it comes at a notable cost so you can't be abusive with it. Maybe make it that the currency is exclusively for TM's and you only get enough to buy a few extras but not one extra of every TM, so you have to carefully consider between buying an extra of one TM over another?

[Dragon Lord]

Something like that could work. Maybe you can get a type of coin from beating the Elite Four that you can spend in a special TM shop. You can get them, but you're gonna have to spend the time and effort in beating the Elite Four repeatedly to get them.

[Moonface]

Something like that could work. Maybe you can get a type of coin from beating the Elite Four that you can spend in a special TM shop. You can get them, but you're gonna have to spend the time and effort in beating the Elite Four repeatedly to get them.

That could be a good way to get them. I think there would still need to be a limit though, or just make the costs go up each time you purchase an extra TM because eventually you'd get so overpowered by repeatedly fighting them that it wouldn't be a challenge and more just a time sink, so the time would need to increase as the challenge potentially goes down.