Old games are in. Retro is hot right now. It seems like every indy title and half the AAA games are trying to cash in on 80s and 90s nostalgia as they attempt to recreate the classics. Heck, half of the games are remastered versions of video gamings greatest hits or spiritual successors to the series that are doomed to wallow in a sequaless void. This isn’t to say that any of this is a bad thing. Everyone knows that Silent Hill and Castlevania both deserve new entries. Granted Mighty No. 9 and Yooka-Laylee didn’t live up to player expectations.

Unfortunately, Yooka-Laylee was a perfect example of how the old games don’t always hold up. Even though Yooka-Laylee is a young game, it was too loyal to the old formulas for its own good. In fact, going back and playing some of the old classics can be an exercise in frustration at best and can destroy your precious childhood memories if you aren’t careful. Some games just don’t hold up anymore.

Before anyone decides to go raging in the comments or sending me death threats, none of the games on this list are bad games by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, most of the games are some of the best games of all time and among my favorites. That being said, they are on this list for a reason. What was once revolutionary is now far behind the times. These classic games just so happen to show their age worst than most.

25 Dead And Buried: Tomb Raider

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The first Tomb Raider, aka Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, went from being one of the most influential games of its time to a complete joke. Lara’s high-flying adventures are a far cry from the first installment of the series. It is less action-oriented than the other games. Most of the focus is on simple puzzles. What action is present is laughably easy. All you have to do is hold down the trigger, Lara does all the aiming for you. This might have something to do with the fact that the game didn’t support analog sticks, had terrible prompt detection, and a horrible camera. Although the game plays like garbage today, it was groundbreaking at the time and laid the groundwork for every action-adventure, platforming title that followed it.

24 Barely Passable: Banjo-Kazooie

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Banjo-Kazooie was the first game that I ever played. It will forever hold a special place in my heart. It was a challenging and inventive title for the six-year-old me and sparked a lifelong passion. Captain Blubbers, the crying hippo, was also the source of horrific childhood nightmares, but that’s besides the point. Banjo-Kazooie was one of the first 3D platformers and was a masterpiece. Of course, it was also a Rare title, so this wasn’t surprising. However, trying to control Banjo nowadays is like trying to herd a greased up cat on ice. The controls are stiff and the camera refuses to behave. Half the time you can’t even see what you’re trying to jump too and it’s near impossible to gauge the distance. Plus, the way they talk in the game is really obnoxious.

23 Remastered, Yet Still Troubled

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The reviews for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy say it all. Even though it was remastered, it just couldn’t keep up with the times. The game is ridiculously hard, but not in any kind of way that’s fair. This isn’t a “get good” situation. This is a "pray the hit box is working and hope you jumped in the right direction because there is no way you can see where you’re going" kind of game. Heck, at a point, Crash runs towards the screen and you’re expected to dodge oncoming obstacles that you don’t see until the last second. It’s moments like that where luck is a bigger factor than skill. However, if you thought controlling Crash in the remastered version was hard, the original version was downright impossible. There was no analog stick and the controls were incredibly stiff and uncoordinated. Crash probably should have stayed in 1996.

22 Missed The Mark

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We can thank the oversaturation of first-person shooters to the N64 title, GoldenEye 007. This game proved that first person shooters could be fun both as a single-player and multiplayer experience. Players got to experience firsthand what it was like to be James Bond. It was also the game that standardized sniper rifles in first-person shooters. Unfortunately, it predated double analog controls. That meant you had to stop moving in order to aim. The game is a nightmare to control. The levels were poorly mapped and all of the multiplayer maps were just copied from the singleplayer campaign. GoldenEye also released with critical acclaim and a near-perfect score. However, it would be laughed out of the market if it released today.

21 Racing To The Bottom

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The Mario Kart games are some of the few party games you can play that won’t completely ruin friendships. Mario Kart just mostly ruins friendships. All joking aside, these are games that beginners and advanced players alike can enjoy. It almost single handedly invented the kart racing subgenera. It’s just unfortunate how poorly the game plays today. The racetracks are fairly uninspired. Item boxes were pictures on the track that would turn red and become useless after one use. The coins worked in a similar manner. The music was boring. It laid a lot of groundwork for the franchise, but the pseudo-3D game just doesn't hold up. Thankfully, this is why we have remastered tracks and plenty of other, newer, titles to play with.

20 Scary, But Unplayablel

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It doesn’t matter what anyone says, Resident Evil can and will scare the pants off you. No matter how old the game is, that will never change. Unfortunately, just because it will still give you nightmares, that doesn’t mean the game aged well. In fact, the terrible voice acting alone is enough to scare plenty of gamers away. If you don’t cringe, you’ll end up howling on the floor with laughter. It can break the sense of tension that the game works so hard to convey. Resident Evil’s control scheme was designed to increase the tension as well, but it’s often unbearable. Poor controls are still poor controls, no matter their purpose. Thankfully, the game was remade twice and a lot of its problems were fixed.

19 YOUR LIFE GONE FOR GARBAGE

The bard has this new song called "Run If You Know What's Good For You." I don't think it's going to be a hit myself. [Image via level1undercon/Youtube.com]

As SAO rightly pointed out: “When was the last time you heard of someone playing EverQuest?” Once upon a time, EverQuest was the go-to MMORPG. It was one of the first of its kind and was massively popular in the late 90s. Fans referred to it as EverCrack. The 3D engine was fairly impressive for the time period. It ran for 16 years and released 23 expansions. However, World of Warcraft and time lead to its fall from grace. Yet, despite its popularity, the game had a ton of pitfalls. For example, the game has no quest log or any way to track the progress of the quests you’re currently working on. Plus, the game is literally impossible to complete. These odd design choices along with a handful of head-scratchers severely date the game.

18 Legends Lost: Super Mario RPG

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For most people, the word Mario brings to mind the old platformer Mario Bros. games, Mario Kart, or even the Smash Bros Series. Younger fans might instantly jump to Mario Galaxy or the upcoming Mario Odyssey. However, one of the series greatest titles is the more obscure Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. This 1998 role-playing strategy game released with critical acclaim. Although it featured all of the familiar Mario characters, it felt and played like a Final Fantasy game. The only thing holding it back at the time was that it released at the end of the Super Nintendo’s lifespan. The N64 arrived only a few months later.

Unfortunately, fans of the game have a hard time with it now. Role-playing games and video games, in general, have changed. Many consider the game to be boring with little to no variation in the combat. The game is too long and tends to overstay its welcome. Several of the featured characters aren’t even a part of the series anymore.

17 Driving Off Course

Via: whatwouldwadedo.blogspot.com

If you Google the best games of all time, chances are that Grand Theft Auto III will end up someone on those lists. Fans and critics alike adored the open-world slaughterhouse that it provided. The influence Grand Theft Auto III had on development simply cannot be understated. It’s also one of the reasons sandbox games and mature games are so popular. Unfortunately, despite all the praise it got, it had a ton of major pitfalls. The game handled poorly, even for 2001 standards. Some modern fans have likened the gameplay to torture. Poor aiming and camera controls really hold the game back. Hopefully, fans of the series won’t weep too hard since some of the other Grand Theft Auto games seem to be holding up a lot better.

16 Sorry Commander

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Hopefully, the bombshell that was Mass Effect: Andromeda will make this pill a little easier to swallow. I’ll be honest. I didn’t play Mass Effect in its heyday. I jumped into the series almost a decade after the first game came out. I can say from personal experience that this game did not age well at all. As a modern-day gamer, it is virtually unplayable. The controls are about as intuitive as an M.C. Escher painting. A potato gun would probably have been more effective than the weapons in the game. Don’t even get me started on the M35 Mako. This isn’t to say the game is bad. It went down in history for a reason. Everyone remembers this game fondly for its engaging characters, choice driven story, and the RPG elements that let you personalize your Commander. However, if you want to relive the game, I suggest you go find a Let’s Play on Youtube.

15 So Old, So Crusty

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Who remembers playing John Madden Football on the Apple II? Not me. However, John Madden Football helped to revolutionize the sports games genre by actually making it look like a sport. Before 1988, football games were comprised of Xs and Os. They had little to no strategy and didn’t offer any special plays. John Madden Football was the first sports game to use a full team and utilize real plays from actual games. Of course, they didn’t have the licensing to use the real NFL teams. That wouldn’t come until later installments. There are plenty of other glaring holes in John Madden Football. By today’s standards, this “life-like” game is about as close to reality as a child’s sock puppet theater. John Madden Football still has its merits as a teaching tool, but it doesn’t make for much of a game.

14 No More Fog! 

Via: Silenthillmemories.net

The fog in Silent Hill gave the game a claustrophobic and unsettling atmosphere. However, that’s pretty easy to ignore when you realize the only reason why the fog is in the game in the first place was because of hardware limitations. The pop in for the first Silent Hill game was so bad that covering the background in fog was all they could do to save the game. To make matters worse, the fog is a staple of a franchise because of this game and isn’t in any hurry to go away. There are a ton of better ways to achieve the same effect.

Time really took its toll on Silent Hill. Heck, even the story and acting aren’t really as good as you remember them. To make matters worse, it isn’t even laughably bad like some of the other entries on this list. Silent Hill is a depressing slog. A lot of the puzzles are unbelievably ambiguous and solving them is more guesswork than anything else.

13 Level Passwords Are Evil

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The Metroid series has had its ups and downs. Although the two upcoming Metroid games hold a lot of promise, the series wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. It, like plenty of other franchise, had its problems. Thankfully, the issues with the original Metroid are not likely to return anytime soon. The most glaring problem with Metroid was the 24 character password you needed to save your progress was unforgivable. Although The Legend of Zelda, the first game to feature internal save files, released several months before Metroid, it didn’t have the benefit of a modern save system. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the labyrinthian game didn’t have a built-in map. The only way to obtain one was to buy the correct issue of Nintendo Power or hand draw a map. Granted, this isn’t an issue today. 

12 Gotta Skip ‘Em All

Via: Youtube (SRG)

Don’t kill me. I love Pokémon as much as the next person, but generation one did not age well. Although it can be argued that the games haven’t really changed since 1996, the small details and altered design choices make a huge difference. The balancing system for the types was completely off base. Psychic type Pokémon were basically gods, since bug Pokémon were their only weakness. Except, there was no such thing as a powerful bug Pokémon, not back then. Additionally, there were only a handful of party sprites and most didn’t look even remotely like they Pokémon they were supposed to represent. The final nail in the coffin are the numerous bugs, including dangerous and game breaking glitches present in the games.

11 Forget It

Mortal Kombat is arguably one of the most influential games of all time. The extraordinarily violent fatalities shocked and amazed gamers. The scandal that arose from the game was so bad, the US Government called a Senate hearing on the matter. This hearing lead to the creation of the Interactive Digital Entertainment Software Association (now called the Entertainment Software Association), the ESRB rating system, and E3. Of course, that didn’t mean performing a fatality was easy. In fact, it was more of an exercise in frustration than skill. The fighting system was laughably simple and the controls were clunky at best. Each fighter had a handful of special moves while combos were nonexistent. Plus, the blatant sexism and racism is pretty hard to ignore.

10 Creeping Along

assassinscreed.wikia.com

The Assassin’s Creed series is one of the most acclaimed series around. Although the first game was intended to be a Prince of Persia title, it managed to acquire an identity of its own. The first game, while certainly not the best of the series, was considered one of the best games to come out in 2007. Unfortunately, it really hasn’t aged well. The stealth is an absolute chore, especially since you move at a snail's pace. Moving invisibly through crowds required a button push, something that later games would automate. All of the side missions were the same handful of quests repeated. Trying to collect all the flags wasn’t even worth it. Plus, the sudden difficulty spike followed by a complete drop in difficulty for the final boss was laughable. Later games would greatly improve on the formula. Unfortunately, the first Assassin’s Creed only appeals to completionists and die hard fans now.

9 Polygonal Mess

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Put the pitchforks away. The first Star Fox for the SNES was a polygonal mess of a rail shooter that acted more as a beta for Star Fox 64 than anything else. Star Fox was one of the first 3D home console games and it looks it. The frame rate is painful to watch and the simplistic level designs and backgrounds get boring really fast. Not to mention that the SNES controller only had a d-pad. Add this to the lack of a targeting reticle and you might as well be a sitting duck. This is surprising when you consider that it was dubbed the Best Shooter of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. Star Fox 64, unsurprisingly, managed to age a lot better than its counterpart.

8 Did You Miss The Ending?

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Although Half Life 3 will probably never arrive, fans of the series still have the first two games to fall back on. It’s just too bad that Half Life made it onto this list. Like most of the games here, Half Life was a revolutionary title that brought a whole new level of meaning to the word “immersive.” The combat was totally imbalanced. Speaking of imbalanced, 90s platforming anyone? No, didn’t think so. For some reason, the fact that the default movement speed would make Sonic jealous only made things worse. Add in some clunky controls and you are in for a bad time. Half-Life is just one more game that you are better off watching on Youtube instead of playing it yourself. Especially since the vastly superior Half-Life 2 is available with some Half-Life 2 Aftermath mods that include maps for the unfinished Half-Life 3.

7 Medic Required: Team Fortress Classic

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Most people are far more familiar with this game’s predecessor, Team Fortress 2. The cartoonish style and hilarious characters are nonexistent in Team Fortress Classic. The original Team Fortress was a lot darker and far more serious. This is unsurprising when you consider that it was actually a Quake II mod. However, Valve did eventually separate the mod and ported it onto a different engine. Even so, without the comedic sense of the sequel, it just blends into the crowd. It was filled with bugs. Granted, one of those bugs lead to the creation of the spy class in Team Fortress 2. However, a bug is still a bug. Plenty of other multiplayer team shooters are better and worth more of your time and money; especially Team Fortress 2 since it’s free.

6 Falling Off The Rails

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The skateboarding culture of the 90s, as well as Tony Hawk’s popularity, helped to feed the excitement around Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. However, the game was able to stand on it merits. The controls were well done and the levels were peppered with little secrets and gems for players to find. Kids lost hours to this game without any regrets. Although what you could actually do was limited, it was enough for kids at the time. Now, it just doesn’t stick the landing. The lack of combos and tricks is a glaring omission by today’s standards. That’s honestly where Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater falls. It just doesn’t have any of the innovations of the sequels. It isn’t the game’s fault, but it is enough.