it’s time to take off those rose tinted
glasses and be honest okay let me handle
this welcome to watchmojo.com and today
we’re counting down our picks for the
top 10 video games that age badly oh
yeah this is happening for this list
we’re looking at games that aren’t
necessarily bad
many of these see frequent enjoyment
today but over time have fallen far
behind in standards of graphics design
controls or gameplay hey wait stop the
games we’re considering for this list
had to be well-received at their release
so games that were broken buggy or just
not fun to begin with do not qualify
number 10 Mortal Kombat
the most infamous aspect of this
fighting franchise is its hyper-violent
fatalities however some of you may
remember that in the first entry
actually pulling off one of these
fatalities was far more frustrating than
fun the controls are clunky and
cumbersome and the fighting system that
leads up to these gory finales is far
too simple with fighters only having two
or three special moves and no combos
it’s also worth noting that the
digitized sprites weren’t even that
good-looking back when the game was
originally released so stretching them
into HD does them no favors subdued Oh
win number nine Metroid
metroid was a huge innovator in game
design with multiple abilities to unlock
and an open map to explore but some
design choices are incredibly
frustrating in hindsight
first the game has no map so you would
either have to remember the layout
perfectly or stop and plot it out on
paper yourself if you were lucky enough
to have the 29th
issue of Nintendo Power that would work
too but if you didn’t you can totally
forget about Google because it’s 1986
after all even if you’re gonna try today
there still no getting around the
archaic password system upon death you
are given a 24 character password to
enter when restarting to maintain your
progress internal saves like I said bro
it’s 1986 forget about it
number 8 Silent Hill this landmark
survival horror game for the PlayStation
1 taught us just how scary a video game
could be but actually playing through it
today is kind of a chore there are the
discouragingly ambiguous puzzles then
there’s combat which was obviously meant
to be avoided at most times but is very
clunky and imprecise just moving around
can be difficult and when you’re on the
run from some sort of monstrosity it can
often lead to death lastly there’s the
fog initially added to mask the
technological limitations of the system
the series is now sort of stuck with it
since it’s become a staple of the
franchise
number seven Star Fox one of the
earliest examples of 3d on home consoles
and the first game by Nintendo to use
polygons Star Fox was a much hyped title
while it was novel at the time looking
back the levels are incredibly bland and
the game has a slideshow framerate the
3d models are nothing more than colored
blocks and the game lacks the targeting
reticle that would be so useful in later
entries on the whole this feels more
like a prototype for what would be much
better realized in starfox 64 which has
aged surprisingly well in comparison
especially for a 64 game number 6 Virtua
Fighter the very first 3d arena fighter
this game is victim to the rapid
improvement in polygonal modeling the
blocky characters are lacking in detail
and the arena’s are effectively just
large squares stuck in the middle of
various locales the fighting itself is
really stiff and lacking the finesse
that 2d fighters of the same time we’re
already perfecting combos are short and
don’t chain together so there are many
options besides a quick string of
punches and single kicks thankfully like
Mortal Kombat this series became much
better with new iterations
we’re number five final fantasy seven
this one will hurt some feelings but hey
it’s not number one while final fantasy
seven remains one of the greatest JRPGs
of all time it’s also really ugly
the out of battle character models are
awful blocky things with faces which is
baffling considering how the game uses
much better models while you’re in a
battle pre-rendered backgrounds also
have a tendency to show the game’s age
and when played on a larger screen look
very very blurry this muddled art style
is actually the result of a conflict at
Squaresoft between those who wanted a
newer more realistic style and those who
wanted to maintain the look of the
previous six games
no wonder fans wanted remade but which
aspect do you change
number four tomb raider yet another
early game that fails to hold up as well
as its successors Lara Croft’s first
adventure was decidedly low on action
and high on puzzles that’s not a bad
thing in and of itself but the action
that there is is so mind-numbing ly easy
that it’s difficult to forgive when
you’re approached by an enemy Lara
immediately locks on with her guns and
all you have to do is hold down the
shoot button until everything dies mix
that in with some bad camera transitions
no analog stick support and some very
spotty prompt detection and you have a
game that could have been a lot better
thankfully those who pick up Tomb Raider
anniversary won’t see the majority of
these problems number 3 Resident Evil
that was too close
you were almost a Jill sandwich you’re
right oh the early days of voice acting
the infamous master of unlocking and
Jill sandwich lines have spawned
countless jokes and parodies it might be
handy if you the master of unlocking
taken with you these hilariously awful
performances conflict with the horror
that the game is attempting to convey
this is dangerous there are terrible
demons ouch
and although the tank-like controls
definitely increase the tension when
you’re playing they also feel really
awkward and unnatural plus the presence
of two vastly superior remakes gives you
no reason to revisit this original Jill
know you don’t want to go back out there
number two Grand Theft Auto 3 yeah
I can as the first GTA to step away from
the top-down perspective players here
felt much more connected to the mayhem
they were causing however with this
closer look came a few new problems the
most notable is how bland all the
textures are you’ll spend a lot of time
looking at lifeless gray roads and
buildings and as you’re cruising along
you might notice that there’s no map
although a physical one was included in
the box the best you’ll get in-game is a
mini-map showing only your immediate
surroundings I can set this baby to
detonate but I still can’t use a piece
with these hands here this rifle shell
pew pops some heads
although Vice City certainly didn’t age
beautifully either it definitely
benefitted from a stronger art direction
before we unveil our most contentious
top pick here are a few honorable
mentions good proceed down this corridor
for your next test
number one goldeneye double-oh-seven
this much-beloved shooter for the n64
has no doubt been the life of many
parties but has nostalgia clouded our
vision to the numerous issues plaguing
it first
the characters are lazily animated and
oddly proportioned next this is a
shooter that predates dual analog
controls and while it definitely
controls better than say to rock having
to stop moving in order to aim precisely
he’s borderline blasphemy for a
multiplayer FPS then there’s the
multiplayer maps literally copy pasted
from the single-player organic feel my
eye these layouts make no sense and you
know it do you agree with our list which
games do you think really show their age
I told you don’t worry I’ll just go and
get some fresh air and be eaten by a
monster for more interesting top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com got it yeah thanks
glasses and be honest okay let me handle
this welcome to watchmojo.com and today
we’re counting down our picks for the
top 10 video games that age badly oh
yeah this is happening for this list
we’re looking at games that aren’t
necessarily bad
many of these see frequent enjoyment
today but over time have fallen far
behind in standards of graphics design
controls or gameplay hey wait stop the
games we’re considering for this list
had to be well-received at their release
so games that were broken buggy or just
not fun to begin with do not qualify
number 10 Mortal Kombat
the most infamous aspect of this
fighting franchise is its hyper-violent
fatalities however some of you may
remember that in the first entry
actually pulling off one of these
fatalities was far more frustrating than
fun the controls are clunky and
cumbersome and the fighting system that
leads up to these gory finales is far
too simple with fighters only having two
or three special moves and no combos
it’s also worth noting that the
digitized sprites weren’t even that
good-looking back when the game was
originally released so stretching them
into HD does them no favors subdued Oh
win number nine Metroid
metroid was a huge innovator in game
design with multiple abilities to unlock
and an open map to explore but some
design choices are incredibly
frustrating in hindsight
first the game has no map so you would
either have to remember the layout
perfectly or stop and plot it out on
paper yourself if you were lucky enough
to have the 29th
issue of Nintendo Power that would work
too but if you didn’t you can totally
forget about Google because it’s 1986
after all even if you’re gonna try today
there still no getting around the
archaic password system upon death you
are given a 24 character password to
enter when restarting to maintain your
progress internal saves like I said bro
it’s 1986 forget about it
number 8 Silent Hill this landmark
survival horror game for the PlayStation
1 taught us just how scary a video game
could be but actually playing through it
today is kind of a chore there are the
discouragingly ambiguous puzzles then
there’s combat which was obviously meant
to be avoided at most times but is very
clunky and imprecise just moving around
can be difficult and when you’re on the
run from some sort of monstrosity it can
often lead to death lastly there’s the
fog initially added to mask the
technological limitations of the system
the series is now sort of stuck with it
since it’s become a staple of the
franchise
number seven Star Fox one of the
earliest examples of 3d on home consoles
and the first game by Nintendo to use
polygons Star Fox was a much hyped title
while it was novel at the time looking
back the levels are incredibly bland and
the game has a slideshow framerate the
3d models are nothing more than colored
blocks and the game lacks the targeting
reticle that would be so useful in later
entries on the whole this feels more
like a prototype for what would be much
better realized in starfox 64 which has
aged surprisingly well in comparison
especially for a 64 game number 6 Virtua
Fighter the very first 3d arena fighter
this game is victim to the rapid
improvement in polygonal modeling the
blocky characters are lacking in detail
and the arena’s are effectively just
large squares stuck in the middle of
various locales the fighting itself is
really stiff and lacking the finesse
that 2d fighters of the same time we’re
already perfecting combos are short and
don’t chain together so there are many
options besides a quick string of
punches and single kicks thankfully like
Mortal Kombat this series became much
better with new iterations
we’re number five final fantasy seven
this one will hurt some feelings but hey
it’s not number one while final fantasy
seven remains one of the greatest JRPGs
of all time it’s also really ugly
the out of battle character models are
awful blocky things with faces which is
baffling considering how the game uses
much better models while you’re in a
battle pre-rendered backgrounds also
have a tendency to show the game’s age
and when played on a larger screen look
very very blurry this muddled art style
is actually the result of a conflict at
Squaresoft between those who wanted a
newer more realistic style and those who
wanted to maintain the look of the
previous six games
no wonder fans wanted remade but which
aspect do you change
number four tomb raider yet another
early game that fails to hold up as well
as its successors Lara Croft’s first
adventure was decidedly low on action
and high on puzzles that’s not a bad
thing in and of itself but the action
that there is is so mind-numbing ly easy
that it’s difficult to forgive when
you’re approached by an enemy Lara
immediately locks on with her guns and
all you have to do is hold down the
shoot button until everything dies mix
that in with some bad camera transitions
no analog stick support and some very
spotty prompt detection and you have a
game that could have been a lot better
thankfully those who pick up Tomb Raider
anniversary won’t see the majority of
these problems number 3 Resident Evil
that was too close
you were almost a Jill sandwich you’re
right oh the early days of voice acting
the infamous master of unlocking and
Jill sandwich lines have spawned
countless jokes and parodies it might be
handy if you the master of unlocking
taken with you these hilariously awful
performances conflict with the horror
that the game is attempting to convey
this is dangerous there are terrible
demons ouch
and although the tank-like controls
definitely increase the tension when
you’re playing they also feel really
awkward and unnatural plus the presence
of two vastly superior remakes gives you
no reason to revisit this original Jill
know you don’t want to go back out there
number two Grand Theft Auto 3 yeah
I can as the first GTA to step away from
the top-down perspective players here
felt much more connected to the mayhem
they were causing however with this
closer look came a few new problems the
most notable is how bland all the
textures are you’ll spend a lot of time
looking at lifeless gray roads and
buildings and as you’re cruising along
you might notice that there’s no map
although a physical one was included in
the box the best you’ll get in-game is a
mini-map showing only your immediate
surroundings I can set this baby to
detonate but I still can’t use a piece
with these hands here this rifle shell
pew pops some heads
although Vice City certainly didn’t age
beautifully either it definitely
benefitted from a stronger art direction
before we unveil our most contentious
top pick here are a few honorable
mentions good proceed down this corridor
for your next test
number one goldeneye double-oh-seven
this much-beloved shooter for the n64
has no doubt been the life of many
parties but has nostalgia clouded our
vision to the numerous issues plaguing
it first
the characters are lazily animated and
oddly proportioned next this is a
shooter that predates dual analog
controls and while it definitely
controls better than say to rock having
to stop moving in order to aim precisely
he’s borderline blasphemy for a
multiplayer FPS then there’s the
multiplayer maps literally copy pasted
from the single-player organic feel my
eye these layouts make no sense and you
know it do you agree with our list which
games do you think really show their age
I told you don’t worry I’ll just go and
get some fresh air and be eaten by a
monster for more interesting top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com got it yeah thanks
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