Are older games good?

[Legend]

A great movie from 50 years ago is often better than movies made today.

Is a great game from just 20 years ago better than most games made today?

[the-pi-guy]

Good question.  
I'd argue that games benefit more from better tech than movies.  Games get pretty much all the same benefits as movies plus gameplay benefits. Like making gameplay fluid or even possible in the first place.

A game like Bloodborne just couldn't exist 30 years. Whereas with movies, I don't think there are any movies that just couldn't exist 30 years ago with worse effects. (although maybe you could come up with some).

Heck the limitations brought great creativity. A lot of movies 30 years ago get more credit for their special effects than new movies a lot of times:

How 'Jurassic Park' Revolutionized Visual Effects, Inspiring 'Jurassic World' | Hollywood Reporter


With all that in mind, I would still say there are great games back then, that are better than most today.  

Super Mario Bros feels timeless to me.  
Super Mario RPG still makes for one of my favorites.
Age of Empires 2 feels pretty unique even today.  And it still manages to be popular on Steam.  

[kitler53]

overall,.. a simple no will suffice.

once you remove "nostoglia" most of these ports and remakes are just not that good.   not terrible mind you,.. but not that good.   



2 years ago i got a raspberry Pi and replayed a lot of the classics i loved as a kid.  i'm sorry but super mario bros 1, 2, and 3, are just bad by todays standards.  if it released today it would be dismissed as "mobile garbage".  actually every nes game is trash imo.  every single one i tried was just horrible to play.  it was great in its day but but not anymore.

super mario world holds up better.  overall the snes holds up okay i guess.   ..but even still there is a lot of stuff that is just very dated.  much of what improved is in how games are saved,.. auto saves instead of save locations.  i guess some indie games build today still use that but it feels dates.  so i guess as far as 2D goes things haven't improved that much. 

ps1/n64 era is also just horrible.   soo many of those games just didn't have 3D figured out yet.  really awkward controls in this era.  i can't think of a single game in this era that aren't bad by today's standards.

ps2/gc era starts to get okay again.  the spyro remaster i'm playing now is kind of bad but okay.  the ratchet and clank remaster was excellent but they really overhauled the gameplay to meet the modern standard.  most of this era is passable but still feels pretty dated.

ps3/ps4/xbox 360/xbox one.  i'd consider this whole batch "modern".   not much has changed here outside of graphics. 

wii.  thank god waggle is dead.  these games were all terrible when they were played the first time.   lots of games were worse because of the wii mote like zelda, smash, and metroid.  smash in particular was practically unplayable if you didn't have a gamecube controller to use.  the games that really needed motion controls (like wii sports) were hard to keep my attention for an extended period of time.  mario kart wii is the only thing that really came out of this era that was really great because of the wii mote.   galaxy was great too but not because of wii.  it mostly played like a gamecube game which is why it was good.

wiiU.  no comment.  i skipped it like everyone else. 

switch.  i still think the "hybrid" thing is overplayed.  its a fudgy handheld with tv out.  it's not new and it's not innovative to game play in any way.  it's a minor convenience and comes at a massive cost.  ...massive cost as in the system could have just been a home console with much better hardware for the same cost.   frankly this should just be lumped in with ps3/ps4/x360/Xbox One as far as i'm concerned.  it's a "modern" console so long as you pay the extra $120 to get pro controllers in place of the shaming joy-cons.

ps5/xboxX.  i just hope it doesnt' feel too much like ps3/ps4/x360/Xbox One.   i need to see some real updates to gameplay or i'm going to be a bit bored with next gen no matter how fast games load.


psvr.  i think i'll look back on these games someday with the same disdain i have for nes and ps1/n64 today.  but right here and now,.. these games feel really new and awesome.

[the-pi-guy]

Nah most mobile games suck because touch screens aren't replacements for buttons and even worse sticks or microtransanctions...

[SWORDF1SH]

Some games old up and still great games. Old 3D games don't age well tthough.
Games today are generally better. You might be able to pick out a few gems from the past that modern games can't match but I'd say very few.

[Legend]

Some games old up and still great games. Old 3D games don't age well tthough.
Games today are generally better. You might be able to pick out a few gems from the past that modern games can't match but I'd say very few.

I think old 3D games are just starting to become retro. Lots of indie games are going for that look and soon it should be pretty popular.

The gameplay though, bleh. Ironically I think controller innovation and gameplay innovation have made games age far worse than graphics. Mario both in 2D and 3D has barely changed but other games would be pretty poor today even if they were graphicly remastered.