The 'Games that hold up' thread - Page 2

I know exactly what you're talking about and I could have sworn it was called Castlevania. But no. According to this handy link: http://castlevaniadungeon.net/Games/hc.html it is absolutely a Castlevania game and used the same name as the console series in Japan, which was directly translated to "Haunted Castle" in America rather than given the "Castlevania" portmanteau.

Handling's a little clunky still, but the variety and quality of level design (Hong Kong always has a fond place in my heart) as well as some excessively brilliant RPG customisation does agree with this.

It's even still quite good looking for a game of that era.

Goldeneye has not aged well, nostalgia's always going to protect it. We're so used to the improvements made to the GTA games each incarnation that GTA3 is now ever so slightly unpleasant to control, which is wonderful - considering that the excellent Chinatown goes back to the roots of GTA2 - which I think has aged better.

Super Mario Bros. still hols up so well. The sequels obviously do, but that very basic formula is still very appealing. I have so much goddamn respect for that game.

There must be a glitch in the matrix because I got a very weird and specific sense of deja-vu from some of the earliest posts in this thread, right down to wording and animated avatars. Enough so that I checked the date and time stamp a few times... Odd.

Anyway, to contribute I offer Super Mario World. That game will never get old. In my humble little universe there is no doubt it ranks high among the Best Games Ever. When I bought an SNES with my own hard earned cash back in the day and that was included (with two controllers no less!) it was gaming nectar sent from the gods. The fact that I have a GBA cart of the game now and a few gizmos that can play it from time to time makes me happy. I was playing it not that long ago actually.

Off topic... neither version likely hold up AT ALL, but Pit Fighter on the Genesis was fun enough at a firnds place that I wanted a copy of my own. I got a copy of it (once again with my own hard earned cash) for the SNES and it was terrible. I think it's the only time a video game purchase had me on the verge of tears. Luckily the dude at the local game shop helped me out a little and I was able to get rid of it ASAP and acquire Super Adventure Island... Tears abated. I still can hear the soundtrack from that one, so sort of back on topic once again (but not really).

I regularly revisit both Star Control 2 (in Ur-Quan Masters format) and X-Com: UFO Defense and both of these games still do what they do remarkably well.

On the retro PC theme, I have dug out my disks for all of the Infinity Engine games recently (Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, and Planescape: Torment) and I've started doing the necessary Google research to figure out how to make them playable on my system. I have no doubts about BG2 and PS:T, but I have to admit I'm curious to see how the others hold up.

Seems particularly appropriate this week with the new one hitting tomorrow, but I loaded up Rocket Knight Adventures the other night just for shits and giggles, and got two stages from the end before I even realizes 2 hours had passed.

That game is still a nearly perfect platformer.

Same goes for Jumping Flash, which I maintain is the only game from the PS1's first wave to weather the years.

Utterly true, still play to this day and still discovering new ways to get through sections (sometimes you have to mess with the A.I, but the designers knew that someone would attempt it)

That and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines hold up for me (combat will never be good, but goddamn the story telling and atmosphere is fantastic).

Theme Hospital still hold up for me too.

I do find myself revisiting old favourites from time to time. The first Prince Of Persia and The Secret Of Monkey Island are among the best games I've spent xbox live points on, Rome:Total War may simply one of the best games ever and I do like dipping back into Warcraft 3 when I get the urge occasionally

I'm deeply concerned by the lack of Contra love in this thread.

Then again, perhaps it's because I love fucking my teammate over on the vertical levels by jumping faster than him until the bottom of the screen kills him.

Bloodlines borders on being broken at times, but it was ambitious enough.

I got given a copy of Theme Hospital on the PSN and ended up losing many hours to it all over again recently. It's still damned good, i'd imagine the same applies to Theme Park.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time is still a classic game. It was a re-invention for the series and every Zelda game since has drawn gameplay, character designs and elements from it. A Link to The Past is classic stuff as well.

I'll second the love for Super Mario World. I still remember finding the bonus levels and thinking it was cool how beating them would change the appearances of the levels and enemies.

The Donkey Kong Country games were big favorites of mine. Yeah, their visual effects were more celebrated than their actual gameplay, but they were still a lot of fun. I felt Part 3 was underrated and they hold up much better than DK 64.

If ever there was a game that deserved a remake with a better fighting engine and more polished finish it's Bloodlines. That games ambition was fantastic, it's just a shame the game engine couldn't live up to it. When it let its atmosphere take over tho it was a fantastically immersive experience.

Good call on Psychonauts, as I happen to be about to return to Lungfishopolis.

And, ehm, yeah.

One can only hope. It had a "I can't believe I didn't think of it" conceit: marry sandbox game-play with a traditional martial arts "you killed my father" storyline and heaping plates of fighting game mechanics. And rambling around Hong-Kong was cool, almost felt like I was a tourist. Though having to be a dock worker (in the first game) for like 6 months (game-time), not such a good idea.

I'd like to believe that the sequel sold like shit here because most people in the US realized that, outside of being a shut-in or a teenager living in a society filled with rape simulators and the effects of having two nukes dropped on it, there's no fucking reason on Earth to play those games if you're an able-bodied and social person. There is literally nothing to do in Shenmue that you can't do in real life if you're healthy, active, and not a total pussy.

Hammered, but I do know that Betrayal at Krondor has actually been on every PC I have ever owned. I learned how to adjust my memory settings just to play the game when it first came out. Ever since, EVERY computer that I build for myself has had it on it at one point in time.

In fact, right now I'm tempted to fire up a game and pump my Barding skill and then get some Thiful's Bird Migrations to increase everyone's skills, health and stamina.

The original Dungeon Keeper is still a blast. They screwed up a few things with the sequel, but it's still decent fun as well.

Yakuza 3 *is* a good bet for Shenmue fans, though somewhat lacking in the soundtrack department (which I always thought was a big part of Shenmue's sense of wonder.) Mind you Ryu has now shown up in Sega All Stars Racing; I wonder what happened in the time between the end of Shenmue II and his deciding to race a blue hedgehog and the monkey from Samba De Amigo?

Not even really a fair take on the series, which involves quite a lot of spectacular fight scenes (rooftops!), chases and martial arts, but even if it were, isn't it pretty consensual by now that doing pointless, everyday stuff *as your character* (yeah I could walk down to the harbour and start loading crates, doubtful if that'd feel anything like the minigames in Shenmue tho) is one of the big joys of sandbox games?

Contra 1 unlocked as a bonus game on the insanely impossible Contra 4. It's amazing how easy the game was once you cleared a certain learning hurdle.

Personally, I don't see the point in choosing to play a game where you do everyday stuff over getting off your ass, actually going outside, and participating in life.

At least in a game like Heavy Rain there's a point to it. They're getting students and young professionals to emotionally invest in being a husband and father by immersing the gamer in the experience. If a guy who actually had a wife and kids chose to play that game over actually taking care of his wife and kids, I'd think something was deeply fucking wrong with him.

I figure a shoot-em-up thread will pop up as some point(I even made one a couple years ago) following the recent beat-em-up thread, at which time I'll repeat my love of games like Contra and Metal Slug. I already feel like I'm saying a lot of stuff in this thread that I've said 5 times already 'round these parts so I'll try to use some less obvious examples in the future.

Well, the obvious argument here is that "doing" stuff as a character in a fictional environment doesn't really have much of anything to do with how that same experience feels in real life; a dating sim's not like dating, Sega Rally is not like car racing, war is not like Call Of Duty. It's all about exploring a world, and building your character - no problem if that's not what you want out of a game, but this whole "participating in real life" thing feels like a total red herring to me; no one's more socially adjusted because they're playing Resident Evil or Puzzle Bobble instead.

Shinobi on the PS2 is awesome. Yes, the sword kills you if you're not killing demons. Don't be a pussy, and the sword becomes incredibly powerful with the blood of ancient foes. Also: instant pit deaths. Recommended only for those with testicular fortitude, but well worth it to those who appreciate a challenge.

In a similar vein: the first (and best) Devil May Cry. Way better than anything God of War related.

Diablo 2.

They just released the 1.13 update a couple weeks ago. That's a bit nuts for a game that came out a decade ago, but I guess Blizzard is still riding that bad boy. In fact, I recently convinced a friend to purchase Diablo 2 and LoD so we could run through it on HARDCORE. Roughly around level 40 right now, and yeah, it's still Diablo. Clickclickclickclickclick OOH Shiny! It's a weird mathematical thing where you're driven to improve the efficiency of your hellion slaying through careful allocation of points. Is it really fun? I don't know. Maybe not. But it's still exactly as engrossing as when it first came out.

Blizzard know thier shit. Still play Diablo 2 from time to time and just had a Star Craft LAN party over the weekend. I would love to find a copy of Warcraft 2.

Total Annihilation is still a damn fun game.

You dream, sir. The game is holding up well (against its own sequels, even), but there's a laundry list of things God of War does better, story being exhibit A.

Time to embarass myself, but god dammit, to this day, I still play Bungie's "Oni".
Once you got the hang of it, it was pure greatness...shame Halo took over them.
Also, were's my "Myth" next gen game?

I'd say DMC3 is the best and most polished of the bunch overall, but i think we can consider Bayonetta a sorta sequel to DMC.
Also, "Earthbound", people....name one fresh RPG as original as that one.
Also, have I gone insane, or no formal mention of "Super Metroid" yet?

Some games go without saying. Same reason Chrono Trigger hasn't made an appearance yet.

Beyond Good and Evil, Eternal Darkness, any of the previous Mario Karts...

All still hold up amazingly well.

I read somewhere that until GTAIV, Shenmu was the most expensive video game ever made. I think it cost somewhere between 60-70 million dollars to make, and that was over 10 years ago. So I doubt we will see a third (since 2 did tank), but I will keep my fingers crossed.

Replaying it on the Wii re-affirms my stance that Super Mario RPG is still greatness, and is probably my favorite RPG of all time.

System Shock 2 is still very, very good...and scary.
SHODAN's voice is the second most frightening AI voice in game history.

What about Kingdom Hearts? Didn't you love Kingdom Hearts?

Paper Mario is better.

Bloodlines has been signifigantly fanpatched with content added and restored.

Thief: The Metal Age, Deus Ex and Rune have all aged well. Outcast has aged decently considering the voxel graphics. The open world and options you have at your disposal are still impressive. I have to take offense at someone calling Thief: Deadly Shadows "passable" *shakes fist*

But why are you shaking your fist at me saying Thief Deadly Shadows was "passable"? Is it because you think it was crap and "passable" is too good for it? Or is it because you think Thief 3 was excellent and "passable" is a slight?

Just curious.

Thief III is excellent. So is II. So is I. So is Outcast.

I add Freespace and Freelancer. Freelancer is great to relax.

I love Deadly Shadows. It isn't Deus Ex: Invisible War, which it usually gets lumped together with. It was only slightly "consolized", if you will. It is excellent in my eyes, only not as much as the other two. The attempt at making an open city wasn't quite successful but it still adds up to quite the experience for me.

What's the best place to go for decent patches?

http://www.patches-scrolls.de/vampire_bloodlines.php

Install 6.9.

It includes the official 1.2 patch and all past fan patches. Choose the "plus" option when installing to get all the restored gameplay and story elements. I hear some of the companion and Camiralla mods are interesting and well done, but I haven't touched them.

Fallout 1 & 2 still hold up, especially for the opportunities to approach the game with truly fucked up SPECIAL builds (1 INT is good fun; 1 Luck + clumsy trait; 10 INT, 10 CHR and chem addict; putting all your points into outdoorsman and lockpicking).

EDIT: In fact, the classic Fallouts are so damned good, I'm suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to roll a 1INT+10CHR character, or vice versa, just to see what happens. And, speaking from experience, rolling a hand-to-hand expert in Fallout 2 is awesome.

FF Tactics is still the best at what it does.

NBA JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!

I don't know. I just didn't have as much fun with it as I did with the first two games. Perhaps I was comparing it to the originals way too much. I should probably revisit it sometime. It isn't a bad game by any means, I just didn't feel "classic" like the first two did when I played them.

I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed that Thief 4 gets shown off at E3 this year.

Perfect Dark is better to me because it has way more options than Goldeneye. It has the laptop gun, the farsight, the slayer. And then add sims to the mix and there's a shitload of different scenarios you can set up. My friend would turn off all the in-game lights, set 8 sims to 'dark', and then see which human player survived the longest. Another trick was to load a sim on your team with remote mines, send him to attack someone else, and trigger the explosions when the sim reached its target.

All that and the level designs were better. I've played hours and hours in the Ravine, the G5 (the level with that big canyon separating the really narrow hallways and ramps), and can remember reeancting THE MATRIX in that one level with the two big lobby areas.

EDIT: Heh, just realized I didn't mention the single player missions. They were kind of just there, though I do remember having fun trying to beat the levels under the time limit to get the cheats. I remember pulling my hair out trying to beat the Area 51 level under 3:00 and the Air Force 1 crashsite under 5:00. (Might have got the time limits wrong.) So many times I'd fail by, like, 5 seconds.

Boy, Rare was good at making challenging N64 games. I remember the hours spent to find all those stupid tribals and then defeating the final battle with Mizar after 50+ tries.

Overlord's list is full of winners.

Oh man, NHLPA Hockey w/blood. The greatest sports game ever made.

And NBA Jam...I miss games like this with a sense of humor and fun. I would buy a port of NBA Jam TE with multiplayer support for Xbox LIVE in a heartbeat. With the original player roster. And all of the hidden characters. And Big Head mode. "He's on FIRE!" and "BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA!" are forever burned into my consciousness. So many quarters wasted.

Thanks.

Glad you guys agree about the timeless classic status of DX!
I wish I could remember his name, but hte guy with all the implants in his face, I never had to kill him. I kept wounding him down to 1% whenever he'd show up (sub base, area 51) and then he'd run away only to pop back up ina later level with new dialog!

PS I also saved Paul by hiding in his secret room when the men in black invaded, he kills them easily by himself if you wait a few minutes

I have been playing Masters of Orion 2 a lot since buying it from GOG. Still the best 4C "conquer the galaxy" game ever.
And I am playing "Outcast" (another GOG purchase) for the first time. What an incredible game.

I never really got the whole 'games that hold up' concept. I don't believe in it. I don't think age has anything to do with it - it's a matter of how its rivals compare.

If a game has nothing better, it doesn't matter how old it is, it's still the best.

Ultimate Doom/2, System Shock 2, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Silent Hill/2, Wipeout 2097, Prince of Persia/2, Flashback, Another World, Oddworld Abe's xxx, Tomb Raider 3, Fallout/2, Diablo 2...

Most of the above are more than ten years old, but they're all easily the best in their respective genres. Age has nothing to do with it - it's rivals. All games 'hold up' indefinitely until there's something to make them feel their age.

I don't even own a current gen console. I don't think it's worth it. I'm mainly a PC guy, but when it comes to console stuff, I almost exclusively play PS1 stuff.