The Crash trilogy and Pac Man World are all still really fun to play. I think the gen as a whole has held up way better than the NES, those games are unplayable to me but I can play and enjoy a good amount of 5th gen games.
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3D action games from the PS1/N64/Saturn era that you think have aged well
- Thread starter Oscarzx n
- Start date
I had the game on my 3DO and loved it. Too much evil strategies to do. But it needed 2 players since solo mode was barebone
Starfox 64 would deserve to be on this list of not for the framerate in spots
Some games push their systems too hard, or relied on flashy presentation or compromises that lost shine once they were no longer the latest thing. Other games focused on strong fundamentals and performance above flash.
As such I'd say clean solid performance games of the era have aged extremely well (Mario 64, Banjo, Virtua Fighter, Tekken 3).
Whereas sub 20fps games, or stuff trying to be 'realistic' beyond what the hardware allowed, like some pre-rendered stuff and games focused on 90s 'multimedia' (eg FMV games) have aged poorly, because what was once used to mimic or attempt being more advanced than the hardware allowed is now just as compromised but now lack the 'wow' value that got it over the line at release.
That said there are counter examples. RE2 is still great despite using one of the 'compromise' methods, and something like Body Harvest is just so creative and unique I can see past the performance.
This also makes me think of how games that are more abstract often age better. I still play and love quite a few 8/16 bit sports games. But will happily never play a Saturn/PS1 sports game ever again in most cases.
On Saturn:
Bulk Slash (main character is 2D)
Willy Wombat (same)
Steamgear Mash (it's ok, but looks pretty good)
On 64, most well-known games, apart from camera controls, stand up pretty well.
But, give any gamer who only plays PC/modern consoles exclusively a 3D game from that gen, and chances are good that they won't enjoy the experience.
Bulk Slash (main character is 2D)
Willy Wombat (same)
Steamgear Mash (it's ok, but looks pretty good)
On 64, most well-known games, apart from camera controls, stand up pretty well.
But, give any gamer who only plays PC/modern consoles exclusively a 3D game from that gen, and chances are good that they won't enjoy the experience.
Nobody is literally arguing that exposure to air, moisture and time has caused them to turn sour. When someone says something aged well or poorly they're implicitly talking about how it has kept up (or failed to keep up) with changing tastes and rising standards.
Fist of the North Star was a pretty fun beat-em-up that did an amazing job translating the artstyle of the anime.
While it has some control quirks that are "of the time" and it never ended up getting released in the USA, Terracon holds up pretty well.
Just tried it out. I would say yeah, it holds up. It's simple and pretty easy but it controls fine and looks good enough. I'll probably keep playing tonight, just finished the first 3 areners.
Oh that's great. Are you playing on real hardware or an emulator with higher resolution?
3DS version of Star Fox made me appreciate how integral the unique N64 stick is to the game. The tension and travel of the stick works perfectly with the targeting system and snap back. It just doesn't really work with the circle pad. And I'm usually the last person to say anything complementary about the N64 or its controller.
Mega Man Legends 2 has basically modern dual analog controls. The combat is still heavily dependent on lock-on, but simply navigating and interacting with the game feels like it had firmly established a foundation for modern 3D action games.
Bringing up PC games from that period is honestly kinda cheating.
PC game controls pretty much haven't changed since the 90's. Most PC genres, especially first person shooters, haven't fundamentally changed at all since the era of Quake and Half-Life. Some would even say that games like Thief 2 and System Shock 2 are more complex than most modern first person games.
The console versions of some of these games might be up for debate though. I wonder if N64 Turok 2 would feel fine to anyone playing it for the first time today. Maybe remastered Turok 2 with its smoothened out framerate. Turok 1 has its problem with the fog but I don't remember it being that big an issue with Turok 2. Turok 2's levels are also still huge by today's standards.
Both this and Mega Man Legends were basically 3D Zelda clones -- Ocarina before Ocarina.
Real disc, real psone. I saw you're post and said I think I have that game. Sure enough it was ain a lot of long boxes I bought off Facebook. Playing on a crt with s-video.
Dark Savior and Powerslave for the Saturn come to mind. I think these fit the criteria and hold up well.
Omega Boost for PS1 was a rad Panzer Dragoon-ish game. (I guess this one doesn't fit but leaving it here cuz it's that good)
Omega Boost for PS1 was a rad Panzer Dragoon-ish game. (I guess this one doesn't fit but leaving it here cuz it's that good)
Perfect Dark is still crazy fun, particularly if you play the remaster on XBox 360/One/X. Strong single player campaign but the mission mode and the combat simulator settings in multiplayer are endlessly fun.
Bomberman 64 multiplayer holds up insanely well. This drew a crowd at my birthday a couple years ago and it went all night, people laughing hysterically, playing the suit pieces and just loving the spherical explosion chaos. I also personally adore the single player campaign with it's cheery soundtrack and candy-coated retro 64 visuals but I realize it might be a little slower paced for some. Sadly, Bomberman Hero does not hold up as well (though the soundtrack is top-tier).
Banjo-Kazooie is still rock solid. Though I prefer Mario 64, I think the first Banjo has actually aged more gracefully. The control feels tighter, the camera is better and the collect-a-thon nature feels brisk and addictive. Unfortunately the latter is diminished in it's admittedly impressive sequel which requires tons of backtracking across a massive and multi-connected world, but if you're up to the task it's just about as good as the original.
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