Rollercoaster Tycoon.
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Crypt Worlds is still such a classic.
Piss never goes out of style.
MGS relies on sexism and pigeonholed women to form characters. Even worse it is used to further the development of male characters. This is seen with Skullface in Ground Zeros and the cassette (which is honestly one of the most uncomfortable moments as a woman not mentioning the end). The franchise itself goes from pastiche to very exploitative at the end.
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ahaha yeah gen 4 really makes it obvious when a pokemon has a ridiculous amount of hp i guess.
chansey is pretty rare though so you don’t really have to worry about it
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Gen 4 needed Platinum badly I am amazed at decisions made for version exclusives in D/P. The remakes of Gen 2 also fixed several issues.
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Oh!
Devil May Cry 3. There’s something in all the other DMCs that holds up poorly or wasn’t that good to begin with, but the worst in DMC3 is one lame gimmick boss and the annoying late-game faux-angel enemy type, and that’s about it. Besides those issues, the game is damn near perfect, and easily has the best narrative of any other game or piece of media in the series. The fact it embraces Dante and Vergil’s goofiness while treating everything happening with complete sincerity and making it work never ceases to amaze me. I have legit cried at one scene in that game, the same game that also has a scene where Dante plays a terrible solo to nobody for no reason on a magical succubus bat electric guitar.
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I think Star Control II is very playable still, despite its age. My games discussion group played through it last year, and everyone picked it up pretty quickly.
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Sonic 3 is the oldest game I love that could have been released yesterday and won GotY awards. +Knuckles is an all-time greatest expansion pack.
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I’ll preface this by saying I’m a superfan (if you couldn’t already tell), but pretty much every Pokemon game has held up well for me. When Nintendo released Blue on the 3DS virtual console, I replayed it and was really surprised at how fun it still was. Or how much I really liked the old sprites. Ditto for Silver. Maybe that speaks to how little the core systems of that series have actually changed over the years (or how little they’ve needed to).
Can I say Majora’s Mask holds up? Is Majora’s Mask old enough to hold up? I guess it must be—that game is old enough to vote in the US. I guess I’m more surprised that, after all this time, there still isn’t all that much out there that’s like it.
What decisions out of interest? I’m probably gonna pick up Platinum when I get paid.
Within D/P there was a lack of fire types with many being post game. This plus a lot of the later game tank options like Tyranitar or Aggron being exclusive to Diamond. Platinum added a lot more whilst fixing some of the issues which IV has overall. It isn’t like trying to swim through treacle as much.
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Dreamweb 1994.
A walkthrough may be required, but the story is compelling. The game hints at the possibility that the main character is insane rather than special, and the dialogue reflects this. The gameplay may be a little dated, but the story holds up. This game still haunts me.
Planescape: Torment 1999.
https://www.gog.com/game/planescape_torment_enhanced_edition
“What can change the nature of a man?”
Every dialogue option in this game affects your alignment. This makes you reflect upon every choice, and forces you to ask what sort of person you are. Your character also has no memory, and once you establish what sort of person you want to be you have to come to terms with what you once were.
When I played this game I learnt about myself. How many games can do that?
I dunno if it’s cheating to bring up something that already got a retrospective on Waypoint, but Freelancer (2003) holds up in a lot of ways. It probably helps that space shooters were basically dead as a genre for the next decade, so it’s a game I ended up revisiting a lot in that time. Oh, and Jennifer Hale is in it.
Problematic writing aside I think all the Metal Gear Solid games hold up as games.
Personally the original Solid is my favourite of the bunch and holds up largely for its iconic atmosphere and pacing. I think the game is simple enough that the gameplay itself only really falters when it asks for precision (for example crawling between laser grids and the sniper wolf battle).
I think many of my favourite 3d mascot games hold up as well, Rayman 2 is just as fun ass platformer, Ratchet & Clank 2 and Sly Cooper 2/3 both had some pretty tight gameplay and great character work (if a handful too many frustrating mini games). Not to mention Super Mario 64, still feels really good to move around in that game.
I go back to these games every few years and still find them to be fun; I’m sure nostalgia drives much of the reverence, but you know immediately if something feels clunky to play.
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The first Sly Cooper holds up so well, I’d argue even better than the later games. I prefer the closed structure of the first one to the open world in the later games. It’s a short game, but that’s the only gripe I have with it (other than some wonky design in the swamp sections). I’m also a major sucker for the 3rd person rail shooter section at the end.
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I mean, Majora’s Mask is older than a lot of games we’re talking about, so of course it counts. I do think it holds up for sure, but I do think it can be punishing for modern players because of the difficulty of figuring out what to do before the time limit runs out.
Shadow of the Colossus was my pick as well. I just replayed it last month and I think it would be just as highly regarded if it released today as it was in 2004.
I just beat Tony Hawk Pro Skater for the first time last week (never got around to just getting every tale all the way through) and honestly, that game holds up pretty well. It’s a little rough around the edges when compared to literally any of the other ones since they add manuals, reverts, getting off your board, etc. But the first THPS feels so pure in a way that really makes it feel not insane crazy (like what some people do in like the recent THUG Pro mod) where it can feel like real skateboarding but still a bit of that sweet arcade action.
A fool: “Metal Gear Solid’s commentary on nuclear weapons is corny and a bit dated”
Me, wise, looking at Fallout 76: “Shut the hell up, nerd”
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i love tetris and i always will
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