N. Sane Trilogy: How PS1 Games Have Aged 【ThorHighHeels】
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
- Did Crash Bandicoot age poorly? Do tank controls suck? Clickbait questions in the description? ok.
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Just as a quick heads up, I don't think there'll be a video out next week. I'm currently working on a couple of projects at the same time, and I don't wanna rush any of them. So you're gonna have to do without me for one wee week I'm afraid. Also, I dunno if anyone cares or not, but I do have some So I've Been Playing videos coming up soon as wel. Not sure what impression I'm giving by making so much different stuff, but that series is definitely not dead (the world needs more obscure PS2 game reviews still). I'm also working on another retrospective as well. I'm very much having fun working on that. So uh, yeah! Lots of cool stuff on the horizon, I just don't want to rush it out the door just to meet a made up deadline.
Cheers for watching & stuff also. I don't say this very often, but my channels been growing pretty fast (for my standards) over the past year, and the support I've been getting in terms of comments & likes has been genuinely great too. It's like, making this shit is fun and rewarding enough as it is, but getting the feedback that I'm getting, makes much more betterer & funner then I could ever express without getting really corny. So I wont.
mang you bae. just do what you want when you want. we love your stuff so just take your time with it and don't over do it. loving the content :)
ThorHighHeels yea man, good shit bro
I really enjoy all of your content, so seriously just do what you want to do. I got into your channel thanks to the So I've Been Playing series, but these kind of vids are just as awesome.
I'd much rather you wait til you post something your happy with than you rush your content and put out half arsed stuff. Your channel will continue to grow Im sure. Good to hear you are busy.
I suggest a name change to "fraudulent gaylord"
Dude, your point about the aesthetic beauty of the original graphics is spot on. It's like an expressionist painting: the lack of detail allows the imagination space to work.
I think you can make a distinction between games that "haven't aged well" and games that "show their age"
For example, I'd argue the NES Mega Man games are still a lot of fun, if you can look past their simplicity compared to what came after in action platformers. However, there are still things I miss when I replay them, like the ability to save my progress or even simple things like not having to hit Select to move my cursor at the start screen. Games of that era also get a lot of love because so many were "the first game to do" this or that.
Not so much for, say, the first Dragon Quest game. It still has a lot of charming things about it, but I really don't think anyone is gonna be recommending it unless it's literally their first JRPG.
I've recently been replaying a lot of PS3 games, and it's crazy how many games even of that generation feel dated. Before COD standardized the FPS control scheme and Demons'/Dark Souls refined the 3D action(/RPG) genre, you can see developers were still struggling to get controls down.
That's a really good way of putting it actually. Kinda wish I had thought of that haha.
When I can't save at comfortable intervals is the only thing I ever real feels "ages" a game, unless it's a conscious design choice, otherwise it's still a matter of "do I or do I not enjoy this game"
Thanks to emulators, savestates and romhacks, these games can be "fixed" to have quality of life updates, better textures/models or lost and new content, you can decide how you customize the experience for yourself specifically.
Man I miss pre-rendered backgrounds.
Which is why I never minded tank controls, in these games alone. The cinematic angles made it worth it.
I didn't even know what tank controls were until recently when I played the Resident Evil 1 remake (I had never played RE) and I love them. They're so, so, so good in that game and I wish they would make a return in the survival horror genre (but first that genre would have to be revived lol).
Tank controls and pre rendered backgrounds are a thing of the past. Tank controls are limited yes, but way too clunky to be fun. Also not to mention a good amount of the angles in the old Re games were plan awful. Not being able to see because of the camera is not scary. Good lighting and building atmospheric tension with good sound design is. Tank controls won't be coming back because of how god awful they are. There's a reason Re4 changed the camera. By the time Re3 and Code Veronica came around, Capcom understood that the camera angles and tank controls no longer worked with the games design.
Don’t we all?
@@godfrey4461 i thought zombies off screen slowly approaching were scary, the onlyold re games I have played are 0 and the remake of the first one. And I enjoyed the fixed camera angles a lot in 1.
I'll say this, I miss experimental controls, even if they sucked. Games sorta play the same way mostly nowadays? The curveballs come in the gameplay and mechanics but, nothing like Killer 7 where you go like ''wow this feels fucking weird'', in a way, learning to play a game can be a mechanic on its own, it's like, the feeling when you first play something like ace combat, down goes up, up goes down, it doesn't make sense till it does, and it's rewarding in its own way, the control scheme is as much of an important aspect of the game and can tell and make you feel something as well as the mechanics, what you're seeing, hearing and feeling.
So like, all that to say, I hated that phantom pain throw the MGS menu system in the garbage for a more modern control scheme.
Pre-rendered graphics were pretty rad.
That shit looked cool to me, reminds me of messing around in photoshop, Blender or Ms Paint.
Your channel is criminally underrated, I love the arguments you put forward. Very well thought out even if I don't personally agree with some points, the editing is also great, hope more people discover your work soon :)
Thank you!
ThorHighHeels keep it up man :D
There are quite a few PSX games that have a consistent simple clean art style that I think gives them a kind of timeless appeal.
I can think of a number of racing game series where the physics, gameplay and graphical fidelity have improved, but the art style peaked on the PSX. Ridge Racer Type 4, Wipeout 2097 and Wipeout 3, Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and arguably even the original Gran Turismo have an art style that is yet to be matched, and I don't think they ever will be. There is a beautiful simplicity to the menus, loading screens and HUDs that modern games don't even generally attempt to emulate.
"I don't think many people would pick Crash."
The N Sane Trilogy is the second best selling platformer this generation.
It is funny to think about this. When I played Zelda for the first time, I found it refreshingly constrained having come from the Apple 2e where I was trying to play games like The Bard's Tale which featured you getting murdered outside of the first building and then you were hosed because you didn't have enough cash to resurrect your party members you'd just spent time buying stuff for, and there was no clear objective etc. That said, I played Zelda brand new with a Nintendo Player's guide right next to me, and games like The Goonies 2 would've been nearly unplayable without a walkthrough. There's certainly an art to refined interface design that becomes easier when you learned from the mistakes of everyone who came before and also have fewer technical limitations to consider while building a game now.
I sure miss those classic horror games. I like pre-rendered environments in games with fixed camera angles, as well. Don't think I didn't notice that unexpected song from the Rule of Rose OST used halfway in the video, either. :)
Im from the early 80's. Old retro games is my thing and quite frankly the "aging" gameplay and graphics don't affect me much, because I just simply put my mindset towards the year when the game was made and the tech and limitations behind it and appreciate the game for what it could achieve back then. Yes most retro games haven't age nicely and specially if you play them with the mindset of a "modern" gamer that has been spoiled by 4K resolutions and 60fps.
One of my favorite things to have come out of the indie scene in the past few years is the repurposing of PS1-style graphics for use in lo-fi horror games. Take a look at the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc and you'll see a ton of low-poly PS1-style games that make good use of that aesthetic. Although PlayStation games look dated today, the relics of their time like tank controls, shimmering pixels, fog, and blocky models all made for creepy atmospheres that people are still trying to replicate 20 years later
I love how this era looked, something so abstract and surreal, especially the backgrounds and looming angles
crash bandicoot was pushing the playstation to the very limits of its potential its technologically quite amazing what they did to fit that many polygons into 2MB of video memory
Same with Thunder Force 4. I'd even say this game's 16-bit graphics rival those of some early PS1 games
Most if not all other PS1 games of the time had to fit entire levels in to ram which obviously limited the detail they could put in. Crash streamed chunks of the level in and out when needed which let them put a lot more polygons on the screen. They also used single colour polygons wherever possible which effectively doubled the performance again.
@@bloodypommelstudios7144 what you're saying doesn't make sense. streaming geometry off the disc let's you put more geometry in a level, not on the screen. it's not so impressive given its linear levels.
@@minamur Yeah that's true but that means a given size level can have a higher polygon density by streaming which in turn means more polygons will be on screen at the same time.
@@bloodypommelstudios7144 no, it could have more variety maybe, but the gpu doesn't get faster by streaming geometry off the disc. and you certainly couldn't load from the disc and do a second rendering pass in the timespan of a frame.
For me the art style has a lot to do with it. When I heard of the N-sane trilogy being released I booted up Crash warped on my PS1, 3 hours later I had completed almost a third. Cartoony art style age better than 3D polygon adventure games like the Tomb Raider. As long as the controls are tight. Nostalgia probably also plays a small part, I can still play the original super Mario games (or rather Giana Sisters) like any other newer on my shelf.
Agreed. Pre-rendered backgrounds and cell shaded games especially. Look at Windwaker vs Twilight princess. Donkey kong country has aged better than DK64. Jet set radio looks better than Tony Hawk games from the same time. Most 2D games have aged better than early 3D. Abes oddysee looks better than Lara croft and prince of Persia. Might be why Nintendo is hesitant with the N64 classic.
Welp it's all about the fact that time goes by, we age without even noticing it and all the stuff we loved becomes old and uninteresting for the yong ones, many people of our age will stop playing or play less due to obligations... that's life, it's better if i just enjoy my "old" stuff and respect what others love, even participate and adapt with the times, if you're a teenager or in your early 20s just avoid using the word "old" to mock people, cause age is just age, and don't forget that people who make the games you love are propably older than you. anyway, imma go cry now. and play some Sekiro.
It's weird because two of my favorite games of all time are on the PS1: Xenogears and Parasite Eve. While I absolutely love seeing these games emulated with much higher clarity, I don't know if an entire remake would ever be more appealing than the original to me. There's definitely an aesthetic appeal to it, an acquired taste. As for what you said about FF7, I do think it still holds up as a wonderful work of storytelling. At the very least, the original FF7 was much better at conveying its story than any of the later FF7 compilation stuff, or even later Final Fantasies. Yeah... in fact no Final Fantasy since 7 has been able to tell a story as successfully, even with all the fancy ass graphics.
I've discovered your channel like two weeks ago and you got some really cool videos! You found yourself a very interesting niche within the retro gaming scene. The PS1 era was like a 3D Wild West frontier, so many new genres and ideas that saw the light, some better than others. Also, as a fellow Dutchman, salute!
I think Crash aged better than other platformers of the era I din't even play it that much back in the day. The biggest mistake people make when they start working in 3d is forgetting everything they know about 2d. Most early platformers fell victim to this but the Crash team were hyper aware of this so rather than trying to reinvent the wheel they tried to keep/modify what worked from 2d platformers.
They effectively reduced one of the 4 dimensions (including time) in each view/style of play. They used a novel animation system which allowed a more spritely look than the janky bone based systems everyone else were using and they streaming the level in chunks (kinda like how 2d systems updated their tile maps) rather than having to fit entire levels in to ram. The coding was absolutely genius too for it's time.
Sweet I got first dibs today! Good to hear about future projects and upcoming videos man. Take your time because you know we're all gonna watch the shit out of them. Secondly! I couldn't agree more about the world needing more obscure PS2 games. Your channel has turned me on to so really beautiful games that I missed back in the day. Like Killer 7 and Haunting Ground. I actually just picked up a copy of Disaster Report the other week. So far so good. I'm only an hour or so in, but any who I'll stop rambling and watch this High Heels feature. Good luck and God speed Lord High Heels.
Thanks dude! Again, it's really cool to hear that I actually inspired you to pick up some games.
Gaming is iterative. Croc for example laid a lot of the framework for Mario 64, a game that totally holds up today. My first game was Duckhunt/Wolfenstein 3D on shareware, so I see the advantages of modern innovation but just because we've moved on from those design decisions, it's still a great way to go back and see how games have evolved and with the right mindset and knowledge of where the industry was at the time you can learn to enjoy a game despite it's older design philosophies.
I'd disagree that Mario 64 holds up today. I grew up playing 3d platformers on the ps1 (Croc, Crash, Ape Escape) so I wasn't expecting anything perfect when I went in however if we even ignore the camera issues, it still hasn't aged well. While Mario controls decently, the collectibles ruin the game, being kicked out of the level seemingly randomly depending on which star you get as well as the poor draw distance on things like coins.
i don't think it is iterative. for a while it seemed to be, but games were just riding on technological progression. games are like any art form, new works coming out of their times and reaponding to their past. there isn't any progress though.
PS1 graphics are so charming... I really love those early Tomb Raider graphics with those walls made of big, dancing polygons. I really do! I wouldn´t even use that "soft filter" option PS2 had to play PS1 games. And the JRPGS in PS1 and PS2... Damn, so filled with inspiration and charm. Now go and play FF XIII or XV and do the comparison... Japanese game developers were gods in PS1/PS2 era, so I don´t mind the old graphics.
Man... watch this video, reading all the nice comments here, and reminiscing about past sure brought something in my eye...
I have a very long story with gaming, filled with all the twist and turns fitting for a drama. And being a very nostalgic person, not only in the sense that I want to re-experience my own experiences but other people's experiences (yeah I know, it's weird), the meaning of "ageing" seems blurred to me.
Not wanted to write a long comment (which I still did) , I'll discuss some things
* *"Time to get familiarized"* : Dark Souls' difficulty is often exaggerated (to the point of becoming a meme). I thought why is so, the answer I came up with was that it took more time to get familiarized than other games.
It's as you said, modern games feel very familiar now so they are very _adaptable_ . Not like back in the day when 10 different developers made 10 different control schemes for game in same genre
* *RTS/RTT* : One of the best thing about it is that if you are familiar with the genre, you can mostly likely pick up any of the newer games.
But that largely comes from the genre not evolving past that point.
* *RPG(computer and console)* : Ye Old PC RPGs were meant to be a serious simulation of tabletop RPG mechanics into video game form, only for them to branch out into many different directions.
Ultima went to the route which we are not the features of a Western RPG, Wizardry stuck to it's DnD like roots, and few Japanese people looked at those two, combined it, streamlined it and made it controller friendly, and gave birth to a whole new genre.
One of the many reasons older computer RPGs are harder to pick is that you need to be familiarized with the rules to be able to understand what you are even doing. JRPGs, aside from a few, are much more player friendly ( More info : ruclips.net/video/sglKS-HfZMw/видео.html )
Modern RPGs employ JRPG like streamlining to cut out all the "ageing" aspects.
this is a good comment
The majority of Ps1 games and before are still terribly fun (and iconic). The gamers' taste is changing, because the actual generation is slowly passing on.
I don't think there's anything wrong with linear, open world or non linear is often a gimmick that just doesn't need to be there. It can be lazy, makes people believe they have more choice than they actually do. Sometimes non linear is rather nice, I like both worlds from time to time.
Do you like the woah meme? Xd
It's getting a bit old now, but there were definitely a few good ones yeah.
A game doesnt "age well" when a certain aspect of the gameplay is restrained by limitations. N64 FPS games with bodypart-based damage have this problem because precise shooting was a problem without two sticks.
So as an example Doom64 holds up much better than the original Turok2.
If it plays well and as intended by the developers then it ages well. Wethever its a bad game or not thats a separate issue.
Also, you need to take the correlation between gameplay mechanics and game lenght. Castlevania does just fine because its gameplay is just fine for the entirety of the game which is 1 hour at most, and has the stage desing to compliment.
If the game was 5 hours long then yeah, the gameplay would feel very simplistic halfway trough.
That jumping puzzle in Tomb Raider... I played it when it was a new game, and it sucked then, too.
Pre-rendered backgrounds allow an artist to perfectly capture a scene. Sculpture is great at capturing a subject, but not a scene. Something about creating a 3D recreation of something lacks the framing and focus of a 2D medium.
Now when you use 3D to make a 2D Image, you get the best of both worlds, and that's why Riven is an example of why pre-rendered backgrounds can look fucking amazing, and why we should still use them.
I'd tell you to go play Riven, but it's never gotten a modern rerelease, and thus is about as easy to play on a modern PC as it is to pick fly shit out of pepper. To summarize the game, it's a sequel to the game Myst with a focus on learning about a simple alien culture from another universe, who were given technology by the antagonist. You have to put on your anthropologist pants so that you can rescue someone from that universe, and trap the antagonist there before the world crumbles due to the antagonist's actions.
Take a culture that worships animals, and has art and architecture both similar to ancient middle eastern styles, and totally alien with twists such as spherical houses held up by scaffolding to be able to build extremely rough terrain, then mash that culture with steam engines, trams, and mystical energy sources.
The pre-rendered graphics of the game really allowed the artists to frame every little thing in the game, directing your attention to important details, as the game at its core is about studying the world to find solutions to puzzles, thus visual world building is important, so by tightening your focus to what's important, you are more easily able to become familiar with the world around you, and find patterns.
I recommend looking up videos of Riven, because while the game is a bit clunky, the art is amazing, and the world building is top notch. I want to frame a few of the pre-rendered stills, and put them on my wall, I love them that much.
I always watch your videos when going to sleep! It's a great feeling, falling asleep to your voice and way of talking! Good night, everyone!
the shitty textures to film grain analogy is flawless lol
great video btw, love your stuff ;)
Age is an interesting thing to consider. I mean I am the weird exception where my tastes have changed so much over the years. I only loved platformers and shooters when I was 6- 10. Open worlds around 12-16. And a strange mix of either indie or niche games now. Also old console games. I mean I grew up with the AC games. But now I hate them, so much. I think to me, Halo CE and Halo 2 has influenced my tastes. The campaigns I mean. My parents wouldn't get online subsciptions, and I thank them for that. Smaller worlds and campaigns with detailed environments that could tell their own story. While also having cinematic cutscenes. But mostly levels that are small, but have enough content to satisfy
Also lesser known platformers from the ps2 era. My parents were to cheap to get games normally. So they bough so many pirated copies of lesser known games. But thanks to that, I played games like Scaler and Blinx
Man, I love when you mention Echo Night in tour videos. More people should check those games out.
I still need to check out 2 and Beyond. Echo Night was a really interesting game.
Complaining about having to adjust to new controller configurations means you're ageing badly,not the game
wow your prediction that ps1 graphics were going to come back was absolutely spot on
PS1 games didn't even look good back then because arcade graphics were so much better back then compared to consoles. Then Dreamcast came out in 1999 and PS1 games looked like they were at least two console generations ago.
I think equating technical fidelity with looking good is kinda missing the point tho.
This is an old video but I just wanted to share how I looked at Megaman to enjoy it because it took a bit to click. It's a series of 1-screen platform puzzles and the goal is to solve the bite-sized chunk in front of you. it makes more sense when thinking of it as a puzzle platformer rather than a kinetic run-and-gun experience like Contra. This doesn't apply to all Megaman gameplay but I do think it led me to enjoying the Megaman Collection I got (for free with another purchase) more than I did when I was trying to play it like a game where I just blasted through without thinking. It's like Castlevania kind of but with more of an emphasis on verticality.
I always saw ps1 Crash like the original Super Mario, a easy to grasp platformer that can be played at any time, they are so "video gamey" that i don't see any point to make a serious critique on them, I don't know how to put it really but it's like making a serious critique on checkers.
That's why I love emulators. You can take a PS1 game and make it look close to a Dreamcast game with the right graphical tweaks. You can improve the textures, and stabilize the shaking that a lot of PS1 games suffer from and improve the aspect ratio.
I don't think Zelda was the first open world game. Two years before that there was a cool Atari 800/Commodore 64 game called "NYC: The Big Apple," in which you play a tourist in New York City who can go from place to place at will, with each place having minigames you can start and stop at will and play in any order. You have to play these games in order to recover lost items, I believe. You arrive in the city by car, and can freely drive around. If you disregard the traffic lights you can end up in an accident and your car will be towed to an impound garage which runs up a bill every minute it's in there (including the minutes when you are playing minigames in various locations). You have to park at a parking meter and if you stay away too long your car is towed for that reason as well. I can't remember if you could get pickpocketed in the street or not, but that might have been in there too.
Coming back to an older video and seeing that jump in subscriber count, wow!! omg!
9:59 this is great self awareness
God I love having some Jojo EoH music in the background of my video game review thingy 👌
Gotta love this channel
I know I'm 3 years late but just watched the video and spent a while trying to figure out where I'd heard the song that comes at around 10:00 before and it's from rule of rose, a song I've heard countless times! What a beautiful song from an incredible sound track. I have been working my through your videos and they are all so good!! Thanks for making them!
I don't think PS1 era games have aged poorly at all. People just need to give a game some time and learn the physics and know that it isn't impossible to control.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is one of the few NES games that I would say has aged very well (like fine wine). It's still celebrated (more than the original, even) and shows up near the top of Best Games of All Time list for a reason.
Other games that have aged well for the system include Kirby's Adventure, Mega Man 2 & 3 (and the other games, I guess), Contra and Super Contra, and DuckTales.
There are definitely some games for the NES that were made completely irrelevant by the SNES, however. There are still avid fans of the original LoZ, but most would say that Link to the Past perfected 2D Zelda. The original Metroid was made entirely obsolete by Super Metroid (and later Zero Mission). Final Fantasy VI on SNES is the perfected version of the NES FF formula, and the system also boasts classics like Chrono Trigger and Earthbound (which DESTROYS the original Mother).
N64 has not aged particularly well, aside from perhaps some of the Rare titles (Banjo Kazooie and Tooie still hold up fairly well). Mario 64 is an odd duck, with certain elements holding up perfectly (Mario still feels great to control, and the level design is still fantastic for stages like Bob-Omb Battlefield and Whomp's Fortress), and others completely falling apart by today's standards (the Camera, which was amazing for the time but sucks compared to anything you see GameCube and onwards, as well as the linear levels' design). There's also Star Fox 64, which has aged pretty well, but you also have Goldeneye, which has not AT ALL. The original Smash Bros is completely irrelevant today (unless your name is Isai). Even Ocarina of Time shows its age in a lot of ways.
Funny thing is, though, I grew up on GameCube. My opinions on these older consoles - that SNES (and Genesis) aged well, while NES and N64 did not - were influenced by the games I've played in the last 15 years. I think GameCube did for N64 what SNES did for the NES - make many of its games irrelevant. Super Mario Sunshine - for all its rushed development, padding, and odd decisions - has a far better camera and even silkier controls than Mario 64. Wind Waker does the same for Ocarina of Time (again, hurt only by rushed development which caused padding and odd pacing). Super Smash Bros. Melee is still relevant to this day, blowing the original out of the water. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is essentially a wholly polished, more entertaining, more inventive version of its N64 counterpart. I can point to almost all of my favorite GameCube games and say "this makes the N64 version look bad by comparison."
It may look like that on a surface level, but I still disagree. This idea of games becoming "irrelevant" or "obsolete" is a weirdly antiquated quirk of gaming culture. If you're even considering looking beyond what's right in front of you, you're essentially a connoisseur, and as such should be open for the fact that different eras give rise to different games. If it's good (or historically important, or at least interesting), it's worth playing - regardless if another, superficially similar, game happens to also be good or better.
the super nes is literally a super nes; same basic capabilities, just a lot more. so it's unsurprising there would be more refinement. similarly, the gamecube is a more mature 3d console.
nes and n64 were breaking new ground. particularly in the n64 generation, nobody knew what they were doing, nobody knew what a game was supposed to be anymore. that's why i find that generation fascinating.
so maybe you appreciate refinement over experimentation.
Now there's people who think even PS2 and xbox games aged badly, and it makes me feel old as shit
something being aged is just a way to justify an opinion. I grew up with a PS1 as well but think some megaman games are great, castlevania 1 is one of the better games on the NES and I have no problems with locked jumps. Tank controls are fine and even though there are better control schemes out there, there are definitely worse feeling games to play. Ape Escape has one of the more strange controls schemes in gaming acording to many but it ends up being my favorite game.
FF7 suffers because I hate ATB.
People want to make their opinions more valid by giving an excuse as to why they don't like something or do, but for a game I love, all I can say is that I don't understand why ape escapes controls are a turn off when they are hardly an issue, yet I can't imagine pushing through FF7 because I hate playing a turn based game while waiting for a timer to either stop me from playing or rush me.
In the end they are all decisions made by people, just like the decisions made to take baby the game for me or leave me to do whatever I don't want to do.
OK, I know this video is a few years old, but I've heard you say it a few times on different videos... 8:25 the phrase is "suffice it to say" not "suffisive to say".... Just a heads up (I know I'd want to know).
6:27 the MUSHA music killed me lmao
Can't believe this vid has less than 10k views. This is genuinely the only good N Sane Trilogy take I've ever heard.
a lot of times a person says a game aged poorly because they don't adhere to conventions that later developed. but if you can't take a game for what it is because you're hung up on conventions, how are you going to deal with unconventional *new* games?
I know what you mean with ageing purely. I loved Secret of Mana when I was young and I emulated it some years back. Uff, the comebat did not age well. It's still playable, but it's hard to get back to it after all the changes and improvements in the last two decades.I also played secret of evermore, which used a similar combat system and has similar problems. Except I did not have any nostalgia for SoE.
But I#d wish they'd do a remake or remaster os Terranigma. That game is still fun to play even on an emulator with less responsive controls.
I also think Grandia 1 could make for a good remake, too.
I don't watch youtube to have my thoughts provoked! Seriously though, I'm 37, still play as many old games as new (and er.. mid?) and started with a Commodore 64 - but the truth is I find all games, as with movies and music, are enjoyed best with the mindset of the era and approaching almost any media with this in mind brings the most enjoyment. There is so much to agree with here. Im playing the orig Castlevampiria myself at the mo and those f-ing medusa heads! Dead by Head. So many times.
P.S - i've been buying and enjoying the music of a certain German/Japanese friend of yours and sheesh, thats some good shiz! I'm Serious This Time has emerged as my fave so far but iv'e got so much more to go. Seriously, thanks so much for your work - you are bloody awesome at what you do.
I didn't even click on this, it just auto played, after 3 minutes of playing in the background, the whole topic grabbed me. nice video dude.
I mostly stuck with emulation and soft modded ps2 for pretty much all of my teenhood. Probably weird for my age, but i kept going back to older games mainly the ps1/ 2 era. basically trying to play catchup for the most part. So i got accustomed to all the dated but fun elements like the old dudes of the 90s era. Sometime I'm glad I kinda fell behind cuz I just find shit that just fits... well, me. Like, fits me like a warm blanket. Game length, music, art style, gameplay direction that i find genuinely interesting and inspiring to me as an (admittedly amateur) artist. Maybe I'm too impressionable at my current age but i did not take the word "inspiring" lightly. The Onimusha series, 10.000 Bullets, VF, basically most games that have some semblance of a cult fanbase/a fanbase not big enough to have fanart when searching and also haven't had an HD collection of any kind so I have to search roms myself or see this channel to see what weird shit I can get into also please Onimusha 3 HD come to me god dammit Jean Reno license!
I didn't even know what tank controls were until Resident Evil 1 REmake REmastered and I fucking **love** them. They make that game sooo tense (Keep in mind I had never played an RE game before).
Also, I played Mega Man and Castlevania for the first time just recently and loved them both so, naturally, the notion that I only like them because I can't remember what's bad about them rings very hollow for me.
I agree that the term "aged poorly/well" is dumb though.
I find myself dancing between the two stances, and as you say, both mindsets have their merits. On the one hand, I don't even like modern games that have so many caveats ("it's fun after the first 8 hours!"), but on the other hand if people enjoy it and I disagree with their mindset, who am I to judge them? So long as people don't waste a ton of money because they bought into others' fanboyism, I don't mind.
As for Crash, I don't think its aged poorly as such (even my criticisms of CB1 are limited only to the controls), but some may think that because of how few games can compare to it. Combat, story and characters seem to be more important than the actual platforming, especially in indie circles. There's a few unique games that strike out like Shovel Knight or Poi, but I think they'd have a lot less wind in their sails had other platformers been like them or if their mechanics were like Crash. Bugger, I've tangented.
Sorry Thor, but this video was too intelligent for me. The best part was when you said Poopydoodoo. I want that as a ringtone, and my door bell.
I rate this 11 trousers held high out of 10 belt shops.
EDIT: Just wanted to add that you needn't worry about not having any new videos; you spoil us with your dedication to the channel, and if ever you need a hand with anything, you'll have our support. ^^
Dude I discovered your channel with the ff fashion video and now im on the quest to watch all your videos
Doom is a game that has aged perfectly, probably the most "well-aged" game ever.
Never played doom once and had fun, in fact I get bored.
Good point! I played Doom for the first time 4 or so years ago, and had a great time. The only thing that felt kinda old-ish to me, were the key card hunts. That's a thing you don't really see in first person shooters anymore, and probably for good reason. But other then that, it was one fun ass game.
ThorHighHeels It kinda takes away the challenge by removing key hunting but i guess that mechanic doesn't fit in modern FPS games compared to the old or isn't necessary to the atmosphere/play field your in.
I mean after ep 1 doom level design gets worse and worse because it was rushed and doom has bad level design from the start
While the source ports and updated editions make it better the original game itself has aged too
I once was friends with a guy who refused to play a lot of ps1 games because he cant stand prerendered backgrounds.
Yeah we arent friends anymore
I'm forever gonna defend FF7 for the theatrical animations that would never work with higher definition models
the first zelda game was made to get people to pay for telephone guidance or something silly like that.. i'm pretty sure that was a thing although i don't know anyone that used that option. but there are like magazines now that nintendo power was instantly popular.
9:45 -There is a rocking chair
9:48 -Let's rock!
The clip from 7:32 actually made me stressed. Fuck that jumping puzzle. I love old Tomb Raider but FUCK that jumping puzzle
I played through Dino Crisis recently. I didn't use a PS1 gamepad. I used an old PS1 Hori Arcade fight stick. Tank controls and fight sticks just works so well. I don't really no why but it feel sbette rthan a game pad. Maybe its due tousung a whole hand instead of a thumb, I don't know why but everything flowed really well. I'm finding much the same with Parasite Eve 2. And yo might think "But what about the aiming/R1 to aim Square to shoot?" Worked like a charm. Due to the position of buttons on the old Hori stick you can hover about three buttons with your right hand easily. No more gamepad claw from long use.
One thing that I am missing from games is READING. I remember playing FFXV and being disappointed. One of the reasons is everything is voice acted and cinematic. It leaves 0 room for imagination. I think they need to bring back READING in games. I could go on. But I'll save my fingers. To me, games started going down hill when we had to stop reading them.
There's definitely some genres that befit a lot from having non-voiced dialogue. JRPGs being one of them as well, imo. Still, we have visual novels. Dunno if those are your thing, but if its reading you want, then there's where you'll find it.
Please do a Vagrant Story video! I wonder what you think about it
I do plan to one day, but I have like a billion other projects I'm working on already.
I understand, I will be patiently waiting then. Thanks for your reply and keep up the great work!
Holy shit I can relate to the Screwattack comment way too much
clicked the video had expectations, touched a overly covered topic lightly, used a different perspective in the video and severall other games, gives a wide spectrum of detailed short viewpoints, does not dwell on topic, I am a simple man, I click like!
I feel like my generation had a good mix of old school and current-ish stuff. Had NES, Genesis and SNES as a kid, then ps1, n64 and Dreamcast as a lazy ass teenager. Some of us more uh... more refined types stuck with games and had ps2 in our early 20s. So we saw it all unfold in real time. I kinda gave up on the scene around 2004 and went PC only for a pretty long time, but it ultimately didn't matter as more and more console games were released on PC. Most old stuff is hard to go back to. Some NES things hold up well though like Mario, the Castlevanias, Kirby. More SNES and Genesis games hold up extremely well imo. To me the later 2d games hold up much, much better than early polygonal stuff. Those early ps1 and n64 games are particularly bad as developers were working out controls in a 3d space. Meanwhile 2d was at it's peak and controls were tight as fuck. Despite that, those wonky early 3d games have a unique charm, which is the reason I started watching this channel!
While I enjoy your content, I feel like you are very slow at articulating your point in this video. A lot of gaps,,, in between what you might, or might not , be saying. ETC
Gaps? Pretty sure I didn't leave in any silences. Unless you mean it as like pacing thing. That I take too long setting up certain points, or give too much context? Which is a thing that I do sometimes.
Its definitely a pacing thing. A lot of tangents and tangents within tangents.
In some ways I think you are putting in so much attention and effort to give a balanced perspective, that your point gets somewhat lost.
Anyway, first video I haven't liked from you in ages. Just thought it was worth mentioning.
Right but at least it provides a more balanced perspective. I've seen a few other videos trying to tackle a similar topic and all of them got shat on for not being balanced at all. You can not like it of course, but you seem to be alone on that as far as my viewers are concerned, so I'm gonna keep going down the road I'm going down. Besides, this is how I like doing things. I'd rather be as balanced as I can be, and articulate my points as well as I possibly can, then make a shittier video for the sake of brevity.
Yo Im not trying to upset you dude.
Im not even saying your wrong to try and give a balanced view. I think it is the most informative thing you can do that directly benefits the viewer and enhances your opinion as it gives a firm grounding in reality.
You make videos how you want man. I thought some feedback would be helpful but its clearly not.
Nah it's cool dude :) Like, you're aren't wrong per se, I acknowledged that twice, but it's more so that I tried to make it clear that it's a deliberate choice. I'm not saying it's a flawless approach or anything either. As I said in my first reply, I do sometimes notice myself that I can take too long setting things up. But all I can really do about that is chip away at it over time, as I improve with each video. You may have tapped into a writing insecurity for me there though. So if I seemed at all a bit hostile, then that's why. But I didn't mean it that way.
I always suspected I loved you, but I knew when I heard you use Aging from Ganja Sufi. I love you.
Mario is the perfect example of aging content. He jumps on shit? Really?
I don't think I played Crash back then, I did play Spyro though. Interested in a great but forgotten PS1 franchise? The Syphon Filter trilogy deserves to get the remaster/remake treatment. Fear Effect is getting remade. Sony should bring back Syphon Filter, the developer is still around.
To respond to the video, here's my perspective: I grew up in the Wii era, and as such really jive with that console, the DS, PS2, Dreamcast etc. Still, I also grew up interested in retro games because I used to hear people talk about those games as if they were some sort of art. In my early teens, I definitely did find those early NES and Genesis games fun and have a lot of fond memories. Nowadays though, I don't have patience for that type of game design which prioritises memorisation and lacks heavy story elements.
On the other hand, starting at like 17, I got really interested in PS1 Saturn era games and to be honest, they still hold my interest and evoke a sort of nostalgia that I don't really have. There's just something about the texture work and style of these games that I can't put my finger on. Like a surrealism or something. I guess I'm not immune because a lot of DS stuff looks like that, but yeah, I still like them.
I think that as time goes on, games will become more palpable to newer generations. For instance, I can't imagine people who grew up with the PS4 or whatever will find the Gamecube all that different fundamentally from what they understand gameplay wise. The 5th gen is a sort of edge case I think. Still, I think people will be able to revisit these things and see their merits.
I don't understand what's so hard to "figure out" about tank controls. You basically just play the whole game mushing your thumb on the top half of the d pad. I mean FFS....
I love the aesthetic of psx games, especially when you get rid of the jiggering by emulating. Their look that just is so very gamey is charming.
im 36 and back then i thought most games were garbage (or at least deeply flawed). Even the games that people were praising as master pieces, i thought were merely okay. What got me excited was seeing the progress games were making and imagining how amazing games would be in the future. Oh and i look forward to seeing more indie games embracing PS1 level graphics.
tbh anythings better than the oddworld "port" that had game breaking bugs and was basically just the same game but they added/changed shit for the worse
or sh2 hd
what happened to the tekken retrospective ? it was one of my fav vids
I was trying to find it too :/
Both NES and PS1 aged poorly because they were introducing revolutionary new concepts and/or dimensions. The SNES and PS2 have aged much better because they had mastered those concepts by that point.
Youre my man bro. The same spirit. Would be good pals back than i guess.
often a couple of small changes or additions can do a lot for how a game has aged. the ff7 rerelease added more saves and a speed-up feature which is an absolute godsend given how long those battles took as the console laboriously loaded summons. People don't have the same time to put into games as they did when they were kids, so little quality of life improvements can do a lot. When m2 remastered phantasy star they did it with an option to play version that had completely redone all the stats with reference to the fact that the original game was pretty much broken.
Ultimately there is no definitive version of a game, normally even on release, and it feels wrong to chuck a fit because people want to be able to re-visit an old game with new graphics or systems. That said it's a little galling when people mindlessly say a game has 'aged poorly' when referring to games that have aged as pristinely as any from the era. There aren't that many quality of life improvements to make to mega-man, castlevania, metal-gear solid, and others.
I recently played through doom 64 again and was like fuck man this is pretty creepy. I thought it was better than the much praised dead space in that regard
I SEE THAT MOMENT FROM THE LEGEND OF DRAGOON AT 2:02.... ILYSM ♡♡
10:07 - 'Get Ready Ellen Page' - LOL
18:22 I mean... holy shit it does, except for the 20 pixel humans
that rule of rose soundtrack mmmmmmmmmmm
This video just shows that art is subjective and complicated. That's why it's so hard to define it.
why do i have a feeling that the guy who whined about C. Bandicoot Gameplay is just someone who actually sucks at playing so he blames the controls and uses the "this shit is outdated" card?
6:25 oh my god,you got me 100% wright :)
Pre-render and low-poly and all that has aesthetic potential, that's pretty much a given. It's obvious even for (old) people like me who hated _everything_ on the 5th gen consoles. But, back in the day people hated on Crash because the art direction was so hideously ugly compared to the plethora of platformers out there. Sometimes, things don't age well because the design really wasn't all that good to begin with. Gameplay I can't really comment on, not exactly being _fond_ of the 3D platforming genre.
Exactly. That's your personal taste, it has nothing to do with the design not being "all that good to begin with."
What is the game at 9:59 ?
There are always 1 or 2 intriguing clips from a game I don’t recognize somewhere in your videos. You could have a bibliography of sorts listing the sources of clips you use.
Tobal 2
U may be right I play sh2 for 2 hours on dpad n my thumb ends up killing I like feels like I've done summit but could imagine that being of putting
Great video, holy moly.
thanks!
You basically came to the same conclusion I have about halfway through the video.
How was X game supposed to be enjoyed? Is that element still good?
The problem is that so many games that were revolutionary, especially graphically, or in the use of mocap or voice acting or some such...were seen as great at the time because they were unique. Not because they were well designed games.
An NES game that tried to have a riveting story or a PS1 game that tried to have mind-blowing graphics...yeah, neither of those things stand out now, hence, they have probably aged poorly.
Not in general, Vagrant Story and Parasite Eve for example pulled off a level of cinematic polish that was independent of the graphical limitations they were beholden to, but other games might not have dated so well.
Sadly, the poster (whipping) boy for aging poorly is Shenmue. It was supposed to be an earthshaking step forward for games, but in the years since, every advance it made has been eclipsed.
Castlevania or Fire Emblem SDatBoL or any other early titles that built their gameplay around a central idea that was timeless, well designed games in general, don't age.
Tastes might change, but that doesn't make them bad.
Old 30 year old here. To me, games only age poorly when the mechanics themselves are so bad that in retrospect they even override nostalgia. For example, lets compare Spyro to Ape Escape, both of which I replayed recently.
Spyro 1 came out in 1998, and Ape Escape came out 8 months later in 1999. The graphics in both games are what one might call "primitive," but they are both vibrant and perfectly convey each game's artistic style. However, Spryo 1 controls _much_ better than Ape Escape. While the camera is a little bit janky and the controls are slightly floaty, as a whole these issues are much less pronounced in Spyro and don't inhibit the gameplay in the same way they do Ape Escape. It's clear that, despite being developed around the same time, Insomniac had a much better understanding of early 3D technology than the team behind Ape Escape.
Even though I loved both games when I was young, I was only able to have a good time playing Spyro. Ape Escape was completely unplayable and actually _has_ aged poorly.
Man....in 10 years, all the kids who grew up on PS3 will come out of the woodwork, and we're gonna be calling the duty in brown arenas again..... :(