When Nostalgia Isn’t Quite Enough Anymore
Games keep moving forward, franchise or no franchise. Even when your favorite series is begging to return to yesteryear. As trends, audiences, and technology change, some beloved stalwarts just haven’t managed to adapt with the times. You know how some games look and play like they’ve been stuck in a time capsule? That’s not an accident. Here are twenty fandom favorites that can’t quite seem to hit their stride with modern gamers.
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1. Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear’s penchant for info-dumping and cutscene-fests grows tiresome if you’re not invested in its stories. You want to enjoy it, but it doesn’t let you play. Now more than ever it feels directionless without Hideo Kojima at the helm.
2. Silent Hill
Horror is hot right now, but Silent Hill is still perfecting how to go mainstream with it. Unpolished mechanics and clunky movement undermine what could otherwise be satisfying scares. If you’ve never played it when it came out, chances are you won’t start now.
3. Command & Conquer
RTS games are niche now. Command & Conquer never really transitioned away from outdated interfaces or concentrated on online play enough to develop much of a community outside veterans. If the nostalgia factor is taken out, the game is pretty much irrelevant today.
4. Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor was one of the best military shooters. That was before Call of Duty and Battlefield stole the spotlight. Elements of it still shine through, but it never adapted to quicker run-times.
5. Guitar Hero
You remember when plastic instruments were cool, don’t you? Everyone does! Problem is, they’re cluttering up attics across the country. Guitar Hero needs a new gimmick that actually fits into modern gaming.
6. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
Skating still plays just as buttery smooth, but that’s only if you memorize levels like you used to. Casual players these days crave more advancement than scoring tricks can provide. The simplicity of the game is both its weakness and its strength.
7. Mega Man
A classic game through and through, Mega Man will never change. Sure, you admire its commitment to tradition, but that doesn’t mean you have to like it. Too hard? Old school? Kids these days won’t stick with it.
Daniel Benavides from Austin, TX on Wikimedia
8. Dead or Alive
Don’t get us wrong, Dead or Alive has great mechanics. It’s just buried under obnoxious characters and flashy presentation. People simply aren’t willing to excuse that level of excess nowadays.
9. Banjo-Kazooie
Who doesn’t love Banjo and Kazooie? Everyone fell in love with them at some point or another. The problem is, friends: love doesn’t invest you in their weird collectathon gameplay anymore.
10. Splinter Cell
Stealth has come a long way to empower the player, but Sam Fisher likes to stand you up. At least when you do make it undetected, you feel like you earned it. Most of today's stealth games feel a lot cooler and more high-risk than Splinter Cell does.
11. Fable
Fable had the right idea by promising huge consequences for players actions, but it never truly delivered. These days, players can tell when a game isn’t all it says it is. With two very clear choices, the game simply doesn’t hold up.
12. Castlevania
Konami let one of their flagship franchises wander too far. Castlevania is at an identity crisis between sprite-heavy side-scrollers and Metroidvania fair. Because of this, it struggles to capture new players.
Alex C from San Francisco, USA on Wikimedia
13. Earthworm Jim
Remember when Earthworm Jim was cool? It had such a weird sense of humor and style. Too bad that sense of humor doesn’t play quite as well without the innovation of its gameplay to support it.
Nikita Kachanovsky on Unsplash
14. Ultima
Want to know the difference between classic RPG’s and modern ones? Ultima. Sure, it was instrumental in establishing the genre. It was never very welcoming to newcomers, however.
15. Prince of Persia
Few games can match the sheer fluidity of a well-timed/platformed Prince of Persia game. Except you never know what version you’re gonna get! Something so inconsistent can’t maintain an audience.
16. Alone in the Dark
Survival horror was built on the foundation Alone in the Dark laid. The problem is, developers took notes to create bigger and better games. Playing Alone in the Dark these days is like taking a step back.
17. Myst
You take an action in Myst, but do not receive immediate nor frequent feedback on your surroundings. Modern gamers want to know if they’re doing things right. Myst just assumes you are.
18. Worms
You like blowing up your friends with a bunch of worms with weapons as much as the next guy. The Worms game just doesn’t know how to adapt that formula to hold your attention longer than an hour. It was an amazing party game, but it’s time has passed.
19. Contra
Challenge runs rampant through Contra’s DNA. Contra was great, because it was hard. Nowadays, the souls games have replaced it fully and did it better.
20. Crazy Taxi
Few games encapsulate that arcade spirit better than Crazy Taxi. It’s a shame players these days want more from their games than pure buckets of adrenaline. While the game has a progression line, it doesn’t make it clear enough.
