Great game design is timeless, so in that sense, games that were excellent twenty or even thirty years ago will still be excellent. But there are other things that contribute to a video game that do become dated as time progresses, whether that’s visuals, the quality of voice acting, the UI, the writing and storytelling, or at times even mechanics that just don’t hold up very well anymore. Many of those things often come together in games that may have been stellar when we first played them, but just don’t hold up as well anymore. This is a feature about 14 such games.
GOLDENEYE 007
As far as its legacy is concerned GoldenEye 007 on the N64 – as one of the first good shooters on a console – will always remained untouched, but in terms of sheer quality, the game hasn’t aged very well. Aiming and controls are a bit of a nightmare by modern standards, owing to the N64 controller’s limitations, and it’s something that obviously affects the whole experience. Meanwhile, much like many other games from the N64/PS1 era – many of which will be on this list – GoldenEye’s visuals don’t hold up very well either, and the mucky quality of draw distances and textures also often gets in the way of the action.
