Like any of these lists it’s just an exercise to make us think about what we like(d). I’ve mentioned it before, but my favorite moment I can remember is finding the Civilization 1 box in the store and reading it. I couldn’t get home fast enough to open that box up and read the manual and play the thing. But today I would never choose to play that over Civ IV.
So each approach has their value. Civ I had the bigger impact on me so one one list it would be judged higher, but on a ‘what would I play now list’ it wouldn’t make it.
*yes I know my example is comparing 2 games from the same series instead of comparing 2 different series, cut me some slack :-)
This complicates the discussion then, because I guess we kind of have to unpack the baggage we’re carrying when we make these kind of lists.
For me, if I’m going to put down a list of “best ever” then it implies I’d still be willing to put any of those games in and start playing again, right now. Otherwise how can it be the best? It’s just a list of “man, this one is great, that one has aged pretty well, and oh yeah, that one is kind of crap.”
For me, that doesn’t automatically exclude older games - I’m more forgiving of dated graphics or control schemes or whatever if I still enjoy playing. For some people, that’s not the case. But I think classics can be recognized as such even if every element hasn’t aged terribly well. For me, Wizardry puts so many roadblocks into proceeding that you almost have to cheat, make backups. I would not go back and play the older iterations. But I would play an older Ultima. Have, in fact. They can be beaten surprisingly quickly once you know what you’re doing. I’d say Ultima as a whole has aged pretty well and would probably go on my top 5.
I mean, I get it and understand your point. I find value (or fun) in both approaches but I can see how trying to judge a game through the lenses of 30 years ago … complicates things.
I played my first Metroid, Zelda, and Final Fanrasy games in 2003-04. I was a Genesis kid, so my experience with Nintendo stuff was basically Mario and Mega Man. And a few odds and ends like Top Gun, and various multiplayer games.
But they absolutely hold up. Super Metroid is still great, Final Fantasy games hold up well (even the NES ones are playable, if sometimes rough). You can drop Age of Empires and still have a good time, but generally older PC games age worse. Honestly old flight sims and games like TIE fighter generally age best from that era, I feel. Those and old shooters like Doom and Dark Forces, because the controls are less intrusive.
But god, I tried playing some of those old DOS era and older RPGs and it is rough. They’re almost impenetrable with horrid control and gameplay. Wizardry is the worst in this respect. Ultima definitely better. And a game like Darklands is even tolerable.
Pre mouse, keyboard dependent, games tend to age the worst, IMO, and I say this as someone who mostly lacks at the time nostalgia for anything pre-2003, aside from Sonic and X-wing ca TIE Fighter.
If it’s not on GOG. Basically, instead of making 4 characters, you make 20, and its set in Poland, after WW3. The other cool thing is, you don’t know when war will break out, so as your making your character, there is a chance that war will break out and give you one final year.
But if war breaks out too late, you may find the character is rich, but too old to be of use, and have to start again.
Or to young to be useful. Thankful, the characters will get experience during the game as well.
I actually think pre-mouse games can have pretty elegant interfaces if you learn them. For me the era of the early GUIs (late 80s/early 90s) is often tougher to deal with.
Unless an interface is egregiously awful it’s usually not a dealbreaker for me; it’s more that it adds an hour or two to the learning curve, which may or may not be worth it depending on the gameplay underneath. (I am distinguishing interface from something like ‘stick feel,’ which is absolutely essential in action games and has been since at least the '80s.)
Just like Gordon, the keyboard only games often take more time to get used to than the intuitive mouse-navigation, but it is my experience they are also often more pleasant experiences once that hurdle is jumped.
I really enjoy keyboard only games, then and even now.
We did have some overlap and I did play and like all of the games in your list. I did include King’s Quest in my ‘impact on me when I first played them’ list. There has got to be a better title for that list.
