Gaming nostalgia can be a wonderful thing. Just hearing the PS1 sound still gives many people a pleasant feeling. But the nostalgic glasses are deceptive! What was once a great game for you is now real crap by today's standards. You should now steer clear of the following classic games.
These 13 cult games have not aged well
Everything used to be better! Or maybe not? As children, you probably played one or two video games that you remember quite well. But be honest with yourself. Were these games really that good? Or do you just still have rose-colored glasses on?
Advertisement
We once asked our editors which games they really enjoyed playing back then. but would no longer be worth looking at today. The result is a series of pictures that offer a little insight into our editors' childhoods, tell personal stories and at the same time tell you which 13 games you can safely leave behind on your next flea market visit.
It actually hurts my heart a little, but I just have to put it so harshly: Starwing (known outside Europe as Starfox) can now only be viewed as a historical excursion to find out what the first action games with polygon graphics looked like. Because the answer to that is: terrible! Without counting: Nowadays the left earlobe of a spaceship pilot probably has more polygons than a complete level back then. The crude, mostly textureless 3D models twitch with feelings seven frames per second through the equally angular hordes of enemies, which makes precise aiming and smooth evasion a mere pipe dream.
Starwing is torture for nerves and retinas these days – it doesn't help that Nintendo made a real effort back then to keep track of the gameplay Lots of small details to creatively differentiate it from other shooters. Only the story, which is largely told via radio messages, still manages to quickly grow on Fox and his wingmen. Actually surprising, given the absurd story about a few animal space heroes and their monkey adversary.
Markus Rehmann
Advertisement
I was young, I had hardly any money and my computer barely had enough horsepower to run Word and my browser at the same time. Then it occurred to me Supercar Street Challenge just right! Activision's racing game completely captivated me at the time – especially because of it Extensive options to optically tune my body. However, when I think back to the game today, the first thing that comes to mind is – even for that time – absolutely ugly graphics a.
The game was released for the PC as well as the PS2, but looks more like a PS1 game. Added to this is the catastrophic control of the vehicles, as well as the incredibly extensive soundtrack, which felt like it had three different songs up its sleeve. This game will never find its way onto my hard drive again.
Robert Kohlick
Certainly was Chameleon twist Not a totally bad game for the Nintendo 64. It appeared with the wave of platformers like Banjo-Kazooie, Gex 64 or Super Mario 64. The highlight was that the chameleon's tongue was controllable and you could catch enemies with the long part or jump yourself over abysses. Not bad at all, but not really good either.
But I played it for many hours back then because I came up with my own game with my sister. In the options menu you could listen to all of the game's sound effects individually. We then spent hours listening to these effects and making up our own story about them. The sound effects were, so to speak, the soundtrack to our own fantasy. Totally crazy, but we thought it was funny at the time.
Matthias Kreienbrink
Racing games? Cars? No story?! It's not really for me, but it did me back then Project Gotham Racing 2 somehow completely captivated. I don't know why myself. I had enough other great titles on the Xbox, but PGR2 promised me that certain something; Adrenaline and mind-numbing racing funwho I didn't know.
I spent entire evenings playing it, alone, just the campaign. I remember it fondly to this day, but would I ever touch it again? Never. My racing chapter is closed.
Marina Hansel
Online MMORPG with an anime look and also free to play? Bring it on! At least it was back then Fiesta Online the perfect one for me free alternative to World of Warcraft. I spent it with a friend hundreds of hours in the game and even joined a clan. Fiesta had a firm hold on me back then.
Nowadays, however, I notice more and more the negative aspects of the game: a story without any connection, repetitive collecting and farming tasks, etc never-ending grinduntil you finally reach the next level. Thanks, but before I go out and slaughter 75 bats again, I'd rather play another round of The Witcher 3 – Wild Hunt.
Robert Kohlick
When I Harvest Moon – A Wonderful Life When I played it on my Gamecube, my expectations were still quite low. When I was eight years old, the game seemed to me too quite complex: Soils of varying quality, so many animals to take care of and so many residents.
When I happily downloaded the special edition for the PS4, the shocking truth hit me: The gameplay is always the same, it feels like there are four residents and five different animals. I wouldn't have been that excited about the game again.
Chiara Bruno
Great spin is one of those games that your relatives give you for Christmas because they don't know anything about video games. Nevertheless, the game of tennis managed to captivate me. The main reason for this was this built-in career mode, which allowed me to create my own character and gradually fight my way up the table. During the course of the game you were even able to level up and thus had a real sense of progression.
Then why would I ignore it today? On the one hand, Top Spin just looks old-fashioned by today's standards. The probably more valid reason, however, is this absolutely repetitive gameplay be. Every match felt absolutely the same. Variety? None. Never again – I'd rather watch paint dry.
Robert Kohlick
A “point & click” adventure without point & click and without words! The characters are animated so expressively, elaborately and in detail that the player can clearly see what is going on just by looking at the cartoon-like representation. And all of this for the Super Nintendo too? Wooooooooow!!! Rarely before and never since have I been like this Contentless PR blah blah fell in headfirst.
Young Merlin is a designer's color fever dream on banned substances, the can hardly be surpassed in terms of boredom. If the outlines of the figures and the surroundings were a little thicker, they could easily be dismissed as small children's scribblings. And the bad thing: I thought it was really good at the time! When we discussed the idea for this series of pictures, I loudly announced that I didn't have a game in my collection that I thought was good back then and bad now. Well, Young Merlin, 1-0 for you!
Mickey Auer
PS: The mediocrely cool figure on the cover doesn't even remotely resemble the Heini in the game.
Back then, Final Fantasy 7 was an unparalleled technology demonstration incredible pre-renders and thrilling 3D combat. Today they work stuttering frame rate and the low poly characters just sad. At least the soundtrack can still score points. Better alternatives: Final Fantasy 6, the pixel style is more timelessly beautiful.
Stefan Bubeck
Back when Michael Schumacher was just becoming a star, this game was a revelation for me. What I saw on TV felt so real on my tiny monitor. The legendary cars like Schumis Benetton, the Williams and of course the timeless Ferraris. Plus the famous race tracks, the motivating hunt for race victories and thousandths of a second. It's impossible that virtual driving could ever feel betterI was sure.
Today that is unthinkable for me. On the one hand, because the hyper-technical modern Formula 1 has completely lost its appeal for me. On the other hand, because racing games offer so much more today. Instead of driving in circles in the current F1 games, I prefer to race through open worlds like the one in Forza Horizon in the most spectacular super sports cars. The freedom of these beautiful sandboxes and the excellently digitized cars are simply amazing. It's impossible that virtual driving could ever feel better.
Claudio Müller
On the C64 the game was simply amazing! It was fast-paced and the sounds were so driving that I just had to play it every day. The sharp curves, the squeaky brakes, Pure tension.
When I played it the other day to feel like I was back then, I understood for the first time why my mother always got so mad when I played Pitstop 2 for hours. It is annoyingly loud, the sounds are just tiring. The game is so boring today because nothing happens except a bit of driving around corners accompanied by deafening noise. A short pit stop is the highlight of the game.
Ewelina Walkenbach
When GoldenEye 007 was announced for Nintendo Switch Online, I played a few rounds immediately after release and was horrified. how badly the controls in particular have aged. Even after half an hour, I absolutely couldn't get used to the controls and ended the game disappointed.
When I think about what a milestone GoldenEye 007 was back then and how it captivated entire groups of friends for many hours on the split screen with four players, the height of the fall was probably a bit too high…
Marco Tito Aronica
This game started everything and my entire family spent hours in front of the PC. It has felt so immersiveit was like living a second life.
When I play Sims now, all I feel is the pressure of running away from my responsibilities and preferring to do dishes in the game rather than in reality. But also Sims 1, when I unpacked it again because of nostalgia, felt stiff and strangean empty world from a bird's eye view and somehow quite scary.
Sofia Vvedenskaya