What are some older games that you think still hold up gameplay wise?

I recently bought Dark Messiah of Might and Magic in the Steam sale and I am blown away by how the combat and the general "game feel" holds up. The talk I've been hearing for years about how it has some of the best first-person combat in gaming are not wrong. What are some older games (lets say 10+ years) that you think still hold up gameplay wise and are still fun to play?

Super Mario World is pretty alright.

Man you are gonna get a whole lot of these, given how pretty much all SNES shit aged like fine wine, but... Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Super Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country.

Metal Gear Solid 2 (honestly all of the numbered entries) still plays great, I play them all once a year. same with God of War 1-3 (and of course the newest, best entry). Resident Evil 4, Bully, GTA 3, Tony Hawk 3, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Max Payne 1/2, all games I replay every couple years.

10 years isn't that long

Day of the tentacle... still funny as hell.

Super Mario World

X-COM: UFO Defense

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Crash Team Racing from PS1 (1999) , I play it every once in a while, loved it as a child, love it now. One of the best kart racers ever. Plays extremely well, drifting and boosting around is just so much fun! Ever since Crash Trilogy Remakes came out, I've been hoping for a remake of CTR, it would sell like crazy, trust me! It had a brilliant and long story mode, VS and battle modes, lots of tracks and a decent roster of characters.

Just remake the graphics like in the trilogy remakes and perhaps add online racing and we're set! PS4 really lacks arcade racers of any kind, and I'm so jealous of other platforms having stuff like Forza Horizon or Mario Kart, it's mindblowing that Sony hasn't done an arcadey Gran Turismo spin-off yet, considering how awesome Forza Horizon series is and how well it was received. Sorry, I went a bit off-topic.

Funny you should ask since I've been playing a bunch of awesome old games recently:

Metroid: Zero Mission is fast, gorgeous even now and the gameplay is smooth as butter. It distills the essence of Metroid into one super fun and digestible game, and I love it.

God of War 1 and 2 are still awesome character action games. Some of the few games that force you to get better as a player on higher difficulties.

Castlevania 1 and Mega Man 2 still hold up as fun, hard as hell platformers. Super Mario 3 and World are still great to go through as well.

Okami is my second favorite Zelda behind Majora's Mask.

And Pokemon Pearl being the first Pokemon game to keep me interested long enough to beat it says a heck of a lot.

Based on my GOG collection of 1000 games, I'd say most older games hold up really well in terms of fun. Most of them are actually better than modern ones, especially strategy, management and FPS games. If I have to name specific titles It'd be: the Anno series, Patrician 3, The Dig, Syndicate, Redneck Rampage, Krush Kill 'N Destroy, Syberia, Space Colony HD … to name a small fraction of really good games, still fun to play.

Likewise, most of my PS2 games are still plenty of fun, especially racing games and JRPGs. I still play games on the original Xbox, '360 and PS3 as well. Mostly racing games, but also other genres. To name a few titles: Forza Motorsport 2, WRC Rally Evolved, Burnout 3,Ratchet and Clank, Dark Cloud 2, The Thing, Dragon Quest VIII, Drakengard, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Project Gotham Racing 4, Black.

Obviously, if an older game is still fun to play, that should mean it holds up well.

I love the old Tomb Raider games, 2 and 3 especially, 1 less so. I would also say Ace Combat 4, 5 and 0, I also still love the Prince of Persia games on PS2.

Dungeon Keeper. It's still a fairly unique combation of RTS, FPS and god game that plays smooth and was never matched by any other game. It looks old, but plays modern and still feels fresh.

Quake 3 is still the undisputed king of smooth FPS gameplay.

While being an old RTS, Fields of Glory kinda holds up. It's a bit weird to have no simple click and the unit moves there command (it opens up a small window with movement options instead), but the game still plays well for a 1993 game. Bit like a Total War game in RTS mode where you command whole companies at once.

Mass Effect 2. I replay this at least once a year. I keep hoping for a PS4 remaster/collection so I can finally put away the PS3, because ME2 is the only reason I have it still hooked up.

How has no one said Punch-Out? As far as I'm concerned, it holds up the best of any NES game.

Fallout 1 the game is too old, yet a lot of fun. The only downside is that main missions have a counter and if it counts to zero, the game will be over. So, you might want to have a guide on your side in case you get lost.

Chrono Trigger was ahead of its time and, considering most RPGs learned nothing from it, still is.

Ratchet & Clank 1, Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal and Ratchet Deadlocked. The Jak games as some else mentioned. The original PS2 versions of Kingdom Hearts 1, granted that I've gotten used to using L2 and R2 for camera control for that game specifically. Demon's Souls since it's pretty much Dark Souls 1 give or take some nuanced details. Devil May Cry 3. Mario 64. And Star Fox 64.

F-Zero GX. Still the best racing game.

Ultimate Muscle - Gamecube

Spawn: In the Demons Hand - Dreamcast

This is one of my favorite games of my childhood, but seeing someone describe it as "fun" to play is funny to me.

Contra: Hard Corps

Ninja Gaiden Black & Resident Evil 4 are two I keep coming back to and they still play great.

Most Nintendo games age really well. (Mario, Metroid & Zelda especially)

Arcadey sports games like THPS & SSX also age well.

Resident Evil 2! Wait, only Pat Boivin and I believe that's true.

Resident Evil 4! Pretty easy to find, since its been released on nearly every device ever, modern or during its first few years of release. Still feels as good as the game that set the new (2005) action-shooter standard.

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen.

Some say it's the perfect game.

Jak Trilogy, Sly Triloy, Ratchet Trilogy, SMT Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga 1+2, Silent Hill 2 and 3, God Hand, Devil May Cry 3, Jedi Academy, KOTOR 2, Jade Empire.. heck, I could just keep going and list all of my favorite games from the PS2 era, and earlier. Earthbound is also keeping me engaged on the SNES Classic.

60 FPS goes a long way

TIE Fighter.

Y'know, it's kinda funny this thread exists. After 2008 I struggle to find any games I would consider my favorite. That's not as big a bash as it sounds as there have been plenty of good games released after 2008 and the industry would naturally have to stagnate eventually, but I think a lot of today's games won't hold up as well 20 years down the line as something like Silent Hill 2 would. Especially considering the online requirements games have.

Jagged Alliance 2

Master of Orion 2

The original Mafia on PC still does. I played it recently again and it's still really good!

I also played Medal of Honour: Allied Assault again a bit and it's totally good too. I'd say it feels like a Call of Duty game but I guess it's more Call of Duty feels like Allied Assault. Graphics are a bit rough though.

KOTOR is still great. I was playing it on iPad the other day a bit and I think I'm gonna play through it again.

Tetris Attack! (Panel De Pon/Pokemon Puzzle/Puzzle League) is the best battle puzzler and I suspect 100 years down the line it'll feel just as perfect.

Also Valkyrie Profile.

@shivermetimbers: Silent Hill definitely does not hold up lol. I played through it for the first time like 5 years ago and it was pretty bad honestly.

It certainly doesn't play the best, but I'd be willing to bet that when compared to Destiny, it'll be looked back more fondly. That and you'd be able to actually play it. :PP

I've been playing Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 after buying the collection during E3 (as might be guessed, after EA's conference), and it holds up very well. Only problems I've noticed so far is some occasional stuttering in cutscenes and that I can't make the game fullscreen.

If we say a game 10 years old is an older game, we're talking games like Burnout Paradise and Fallout 3 being considered. And gaming just really hasn't changed that much other than graphically. Even 15 years ago, games are still comparable enough to today's mechanically. You gotta go 20 years at least to see game developers really trying to figure things out. The early 3D era is rough, but there are a lot of games that still hold up. Vagrant Story and Tomba are two good ones I don't see mentioned all that often.

@luchalma: I'd have to disagree with you on games not being that different. The indie game scene is massive now, and I'd say most of my favorite games every year are indie games, not AAA. We have far more diverse games because of the thriving indie scene, though you could say that there are far too many games coming out and the market is flooded. But it's not that hard to find the good indie games if you follow various game sites/channels.

@cubidog: lol or to each their own? I played it for the first time last year and its one of my favorite games :p.

Although it depends on what you mean by "holds up".

Do you mean "looks/plays/sounds like it couldve been made today" or "Is still fun to play". If its only the first than silent hill 1 definitely doesn't hold up haha.

I still regularly play old racing games on the original xbox (or rather, I've only started exploring these games the past couple years), Project gotham racing , forza 1, dtm race driver 2, outrun 2006. I prefer all of these to most modern (ps3-now) racing games, Outrun2006 is just insanely fast and dumb and those others Ive mentioned all have a perfect mix of arcade and realistic handling that I havent seen since.In most modern non-simulation racers the handling just feels "off" to me personally and I just don't click with em.

Grand turismo 1+2 are also still very fun and unique feeling imo. And I forgot the name of it but the same team also made 2 very generically named kart racers before grand turismo and those games are really really short/small BUT they basically already have the GT physics. The cars in it all control wildly different from each other and the tracks are full of crazy elevation and rollercoaster turns which impact your handling/speed. Still pretty awesome and unique.

I feel like the term "holds up" is such a weird one. Like am I talking about myself, or in a more general sense? Because I can still play a lot of weird old RPGs with little difficulty, and think most of them are still excellent, but I cannot imagine recommending something like Baldur's Gate or Temple of Elemental Evil to a normal human in the Year of Our Lord 2018 without a mountain of caveats. For as intimidating as some of the new throwback CRPGs (Divinity Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity, etc) are, at least none of them require you to grapple with the byzantine mess of a ruleset that is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Semantics aside, I played Tales of Symphonia for the first time this year and had a lot of fun with it. It's not without quirks and irritants that remind you that it's a Gamecube JRPG from 2004, but it was long enough since I had played a game like it that I actually found a lot of those issues novel, up to a point. I've also been replaying Wizardry 8 recently, and while I think that game's slow pace and aggressive level scaling can sometimes be a little much, I can't think of a modern RPG that does what Wiz 8 does any better.

@ghosthouse: It's weird that you say Dark Messiah. As soon as I saw the title of this thread, my immediate thought was Heroes of Might and Magic 2.

It looks old but it's that kind of style that doesn't really age.

I still play Heroes 2 all the time.

Halo: Combat Evolved still feels and plays great.

There's a lot honestly. Since mechanics aren't neccessarily too limited by technology, age has less impact on a lot of games than you would think. First game that came to mind was the first Jak game though, not sure why. But it's a great game that holds up!

Quake 3 is a standout I think. That game holds up extremely well and remains just as fun as it used to be. The look somehow scales alright to new systems too!

Most recent games from the PS2, maybe 360 generation hold up great. We hit a spot around that time when folks cracked the code on not making completely shitty games.

The one exception was figuring out 3D games. Mario 64 did it tremendously, and Tomb Raider was really good, too. A lot of other early 3D games were pretty dicey, though.

Before then, buying or renting games was a crapshoot. There was a lot of garbage on the market, going back to as far as I can remember (I got ET on Atari 2600 as a gift). Today, even bad games basically function fine and a very much completable without a step-by-step guide. Duke Nukem Forever is totally fine, by my old man standards. I beat it, mostly out of curiosity, without any major issues. I’ve played FAR worse. I had fun with Deadliest Warrior. It’s not good, but there’s some weird fun to be had there for a couple of hours (assuming you didn’t shell out much money on it).

As for some examples (there are scores of others):

Super Dodgeball

River City Random

NBA Jam

Street Fighter 2

Doom

Doom 2

Warlords

Tetris

Dr. Mario

Tecmo Bowl

Shadowrun (Genesis)

@nutter: Whew. I came in to say Doom, glad someone else did. I mean, come on. It's so simple and fun, it's timeless.

MGS2, FF7, RE2 , and Deus Ex.

Games that are still fun as heck:

1. Yoshis Island

2. Super Mario World

3. Tony Hawk 3

4. Tony Hawk 4

5. Starfox

6. Tekken 3

7. Tekken Tag Tournament

8. Donkey Kong (all of them)

9. Metal Gear Solid 2

10. Kirbys Avalanche

11. Mario Party 6 & 7

12. Super Mario 1 - 3

13. Hangtime

Well, retro and retro-style games are still really popular, so this is going to be a very long list. For the most part, games that were fun 10+ years ago are still fun now. I would say the exceptions are 1) many NES games, aside from your perennial classics like Mario and Mega Man, which are just too ugly and difficult to control for modern audiences, and 2) games from the early 3D era, which may have been impressive for their time but now are just painful to look at - especially PSX games. FFVII, MGS and Tomb Raider were lookers in their time, but now are kind of hideous. Games in between, in the SNES era, are timeless. They still look, feel and sound great.

GTA San Andreas

I regularly play old games, so hard to say if I am biased. For example, I played Shenmue (1999) for the first time with the beasts from the east and loooved it.

That said, I have a blankspot with 90s FPS games, so I am trying to rectify that right now. These are cases where maybe I had touched or seen these games played, but never dove deep myself.

So, recently, I have played the following for the first time:

• Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
• Doom (1993)
• Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995)
• Deus Ex (2000)

Of these four, generally I find that Wolf, Doom & Deus EX hold up quite well. The first two because they are so simple and arcadey, and the last, which, after some re-keybinding, is very playable in a modern setting. Yes, much less forgiving than most FPS today, but mechanically similar to what you'd expect to play today.

Dark Forces I bet would be awesome for people who played a ton of similar FPS back in the day, but for me it is such a weird blend of mechanically simple & complex levels with some really hard to use controls (page up / down for look up / down) and a map that is so, so hilariously hard to read at first you think the devs are playing with you.

//> I will say that, in general, I don't really believe that games "hold up" or not as far as the experience of people who generally play games goes. Your skills & history with games just affect that concept too much, as will the stance you're bringing in with you, such as looking for a good time, historical curiosity, or something else.