Most overrated "classic" games (anything before the PS2)

[Tren Shapiro]

I haven't really played Fire Emblem but if we are talking Tactical jarpigs , FF tactics takes the crown of most overated,. Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle were better

If not being as good as Tactics Ogre makes an SRPG overrated, the entire rest of the genre is overrated.

 

[Mayor Cody Travers]

Civilization III, lacks the cheesy charm and (due to hardware limits) the mod scene of it's predecessor, civ II. They made the civ leaders intentionally ugly for some reason in this one as well.
There is nothing this one did that it's predecessor or the ones that came after it did that was much better.

Civ III was the very game I was thinking of posting. You're not just right on the leaders though - they made EVERYTHING ugly from the world map to various displays. I don't know why besides perhaps the power of 3D even if it was still an isometric view. It's a direct step down from Civ II or even Civ I. Thankfully Civ IV stepped up and Civ V's deco aesthetic really brought back the concept Civ could be a lovely-looking game.

Spoiler: Ancedote time.

Civ II by contrast is my favorite for visuals and aesthetics - pretty but simple and direct sprites, but what really struck at me is the "museum" aesthetic. You see it in the title screen background with the collection of art, yes, but then you realize the menu graphics are meant to evoke a museum display with the pretty marble and information on them surrounding the actual game map. I came to this conclusion seeing not just many actual museums - in particular the Smithsonian ones - that would show exhibits in such a basic yet pretty manner, but the collected editions of Civ II featuring some beautifully-sculptured face in turn reminded me of seeing such things in person or a graphic from them in said buildings.

 

[X Prime]

If not being as good as Tactics Ogre makes an SRPG overrated, the entire rest of the genre is overrated.

Your terms are acceptable.

 

[skykiii]

I tried to play the PSP version of FF Tactics, got bored after about two stages.

Honestly the entire FF series is one of those I can't stand anymore... except for FF4 and Mystic Quest, oddly enough. They were what got me into RPGs but at the same time I always felt there was something wrong with them. For a long time I remember telling people things I didn't like and being told "that's just how RPGs are" (one thing I recall hating was how you get into a battle every two steps). It's a good example of how people take advantage of ignorance... as I played more RPGs I came to realize a lot of what I disliked about Final Fantasy was in fact NOT inherent to the genre but just Square's particular design ethic (as I sometimes have similar issues with their non-FF games).

Random, but every time I see the initials "BK" I read it as "Burger King" which has made some posts in this topic unintentionally hilarious.

 

[cybertoaster]

Zelda: mentioned all over the thread and I'm glad it is because its easily the most overhyped, overrated series of all time and its shit, it is the quintessential baby's first RPG and like a harry potter fan zelda fans refuse to leave the training wheels behind.

DKC: didn't like it back then, dont like it now. The graphics didn't impress me back then, you really had to be nintendo bumkin who never went to an arcade or saw an AES to think those graphics were mindblowing. The gameplay was too fast for mario and too slow for sonic.

Doom: I'm gonna piss a lot of people off but I never liked the series, even as a kid I wasnt that impressed with the graphics with the exception of the ever hated doom3 because that lighting engine was really amazing back in the day, but it wasn't a great game just one you play once and put down, same with 2016 and eternal.

Quake: QA3 was unironically good but playing the first quake was a fucking chore, way too much nostalgia with this one. Didnt even bother with 2.

Duke Nukem 3D: "haha you can pay the strippers and they show booba!". The rest of the game was ass, the story was ass, duke himself is cringe but the devs were going for cringe on purpose, they unironically believed that was a cool guy.

Flight Simulator: shit shit shit, always was shit, the graphics were shit, the framerate was like 5fps, the gameplay was shit, its just a big turd that keeps going because some boomer executive at microshit keeps pushing for new ones and refuses to die.

Starcraft: you know a game is shit when asians really like it. Almost every other RTS out there is better than this overrated autistic bug simulator.

Sega Rally: who liked this game? why it got so much praise?

Metal Gear Solid: the controls were shit, the graphics were so blurry you could barely see anything and the story was convoluted shit with cringe voice acting.

Half Life 1: one of those cases were the sequel was way better than the original, which sucked ass. The only reason people cared about this game was Counter Strike.

Fallout 1&2: really wanted to like these games but its janky as fuck and boring to play, truly a game carried entirely by its writing and style.

All point and click games, specially from lucasarts: only autists and boomers played these, yet its fans specially the ones of monkey island, will never ever shut the fuck up about these games.

Psychonauts: boring shit platformer, also fuck tim schaefer that watermelon seller and his pretentious ugly games.

Tekken: even toshinden was better.

Shenmue: how much I wanted to like this game but its just so fucking boring, a tech demo that got out of control and probably helped bankrupt sega.

Nights: this was supposed to beat mario64? seriously?

Final Fantasy anynumber: when I learned about the final fantasy house it finally clicked that everybody who praises these games is mentally ill.

Jet Set Radio: the controls were so goddamn bad and the gameplay so repetitive,

Syndicate: why was this popular? who played these games?

Xcom: same as above, I never got the appeal.

Street Fighter 2, alpha and all that: my theory is that coomers bought it for cammy's ass.

Sonic 3D blast: why did the press like it? why anyone did? it was such a godawful turd of a game, the controls were shit like if sonic was sliding on butter all the time or something, and the soundtrack was really gay. Basically the point at which sonic games went to shit.

Metroid: if zelda is baby's first RPG this is baby's first adventure game, and again they never shut up about it.

Castlevania: shinobi was better, but then again nobody had a master system.

 

[RX-78]

nobody had a master system.

I am dead certain the only people on the planet who owned master systems were 40yo eurotrash, who in turn gave way to the 45yo cultists who still pretend sonic was ever good.

 

[byuu]

I am dead certain the only people on the planet who owned master systems were 40yo eurotrash, who in turn gave way to the 45yo cultists who still pretend sonic was ever good.

Wasn't the Mega Drive backwards compatible to it?

 

[Tren Shapiro]

Zelda: mentioned all over the thread and I'm glad it is because its easily the most overhyped, overrated series of all time and its shit, it is the quintessential baby's first RPG and like a harry potter fan zelda fans refuse to leave the training wheels behind.

Zelda is not an RPG.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

The problem with asking this question is it's super subjective what is and what isn't overrated. Also, being overated doesn't make a game good or bad. It just means lots of people know and talk about it. For me personally, the 3d Collect a thon games like Crash Bandicoot and Banjo Kazooie always bored the shit out of me. I find the gameplay really repetitive and dull. The almost autistic task of collecting shiny things for hours never appealed to me.

Earthbound is an okay game but the online community sucking it off is clearly made up of exceptional individuals.

I don't agree with this. Earthbound is a great game that just got overhyped and has a cult like fanbase around it. It's still really fun and charming.

 

[Wesker]

The problem with asking this question is it's super subjective what is and what isn't overrated. Also, being overated doesn't make a game good or bad. It just means lots of people know and talk about it. For me personally, the 3d Collect a thon games like Crash Bandicoot and Banjo Kazooie always bored the shit out of me. I find the gameplay really repetitive and dull. The almost autistic task of collecting shiny things for hours never appealed to me.

I don't agree with this. Earthbound is a great game that just got overhyped and has a cult like fanbase around it. It's still really fun and charming.

I remember really loving Crash as a kid but thinking about it in hindsight, I don't think I would like it now even updated. A lot of PS1's magic back then was that it was a console that had 3D animation and it was new to everyone. Even bad games then were mindblowing just from the presentation. Although I would probably have some sense of enjoyment playing it now since I have such a nostalgic love for PS1 graphics.

 

[BrunoMattei]

This thread is awful. No offense. It's just "I have a hot take and I will shield myself by sprinkling safe choices among my hot takes."

Be a fucking man. Get on your soap box and say you hate the thing and brace for the nerd rage you fucking pussies.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

Be a fucking man. Get on your soap box and say you hate the thing and brace for the nerd rage you fucking pussies.

Your most beloved game from childhood fucking sucks, thats right, i said it.

Kid you should feel ashamed.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Your most beloved game from childhood fucking sucks, thats right, i said it.

Kid you should feel ashamed.

Be a fucking man and say the game or are you just a fucking NIGGER?

 

[Hammerstein]

Chess, fuck chess.

 

[Golfing on the Moon 1971]

Suikoden 2. While yes, it is aesthetically superior to the first game and inventory management is no longer a chore, the story is inferior to the original. The original was a tight, 15 hour long war story with impact. How many party members died? 5? And those weren't side characters you didn't care about either. Those were main liners who were best friends with the MC and had been with him since the beginning, and some of them died pretty horrifically. And that's not getting into all of the other people who died and the villages that were wiped out. It had that dire war story feel I wanted. The epilogue with the somber music playing showing the fates of everyone involved was bittersweet, and I thought "wow, that was a great game!"

In S2, nobody you care about dies. The main cast have impenetrably thick plot armor. The story was also 45 hours long and starts to outstay it's welcome long before you began pushing into Highland. Still a fun game but not the masterpiece it's made out to be.


Final Fantasy VII. All the fun is crammed into the dieselpunk dystopia on Disc 1. When people think of FF7, they're thinking of Midgar. The rest of the game is forgettable, a 2nd rate rehash of FF6. The world outside Midgar feels empty and small. No one's fondest memories are of disc 2. FF7 was also the turning point of the franchise, when it stopped being a series of games about exploration and gameplay and started being moviegames.


Final Fantasy IX. Only the first 2 discs are good, and that's because it's a moviegame where you are constantly meeting new characters, visiting new kingdoms, and there is high tension with the rapidly developing war. After disc 2, the moviegame ends and you have to go through half a dozen dungeons in a row, at which point you realize that the actual gameplay is crap and the only thing FF9 had going for it was the cutscenes. Also, the writing in the second half goes downhill. The hunt for Kuja and the story becoming about kindergarten nihilism is a snooze.

all the Mechwarrior games.

I have fond memories of Mechwarrior 4, mainly because how immersed I was in the campaign. Being a mech pilot, with you and your squad escorting a convoy with the dialogue happening over voice comms. Developing rivalries with other squads and getting to big showdown duels. In retrospect, the actual combat was incredibly duel, but I hadn't played anything like it at the time.

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Sega Rally: who liked this game? why it got so much praise?

You really needed the analogue stick to enjoy it. I was a tit who got a saturn instead of a playstation because muh Sonic. The dpad was shit playing it. Analogue controls really helped but then you realise theres only 2 cars and 4 tracks. Colin macrae and vrally were vastly superior.

 

[John Titor]

Ocarina of Time. It's a good game but it's weird that it's treated like it was peak Zelda.

 

[The Ugly One]

The thing that bothers me--and this is something I should use to revive my "astroturfed by the internet" topic... I don't particularly have a memory of Quake and DK64 being revered at the time.

Quake is a funny thing to me. My first exposure to it was just as a demo included with some magazine. It wasn't advertised or anything... I just installed it, played it, beat the demo and went about my day. I liked it well enough but it wouldn't be until a few years later I decided I wanted to own the full game....

But thing is, I actually remember a large contigent of people arguing Quake was kinda disappointing, even at launch, and some magazines I had even had "Quake vs Duke 3D" articles, which usually wound up saying that sure, Quake is technically impressive, but Duke is more colorful (in more ways than one), had a better variety of weapons, etc....

Nowadays I hear that Quake was universally beloved from the word go. Something seems wrong here.

As for Donkey Kong 64, I don't recall anyone praising that when I was a kid. Not just my friend groups but I recall even magazines and such saying it was mid, average or above-average at best, and one of the lesser of Rare's platformers. But again, now it seems like I always hear it described in positive terms.

I actually never played DK64 myself... by the time it came out I had jumped ship to the Playstation, and I just wasn't into collectathon platformers. I was in a snobby phase at the time and saw games like DK64 as beneath me.

I'm mixed on the SNES Donkey Kong Country games. Like, they were neat at the time, but now I find their gameplay a bit too basic. There's a long-debunked rumor that Shigeru Miyamoto once said DKC proved Americans will put up with mediocre gameplay for the sake of graphics. Sad he didn't really say that, because well... it wouldn't have been incorrect.

Time has filtered out the people who didn't care much for Quake 1. The fact is, it was sluggish and ugly. However, it was also one of the first games to support OpenGL and be playable on the internet. But another big however, the actual market penetration of Voodoo graphics cards and internet connections was miniscule at the time, so most people who played Quake in the 1990s only ever played grainy, sluggish, repetitive single-player campaign. The people who later went on to write for game magazines or become game developers themselves were largely harvested from that tiny subset of kids who had all the toys needed to rocket-jump in glorious 3D-accelerated 800x600. They, personally, don't know anyone who wasn't blown away by Quake, because all the other people in the game industry with them are like them.

Me and my friends played the shit out of DN3D.

 

[74164978231]

Doom: I'm gonna piss a lot of people off but I never liked the series, even as a kid I wasnt that impressed with the graphics with the exception of the ever hated doom3 because that lighting engine was really amazing back in the day, but it wasn't a great game just one you play once and put down, same with 2016 and eternal.

Metal Gear Solid: the controls were shit, the graphics were so blurry you could barely see anything and the story was convoluted shit with cringe voice acting.

Half Life 1: one of those cases were the sequel was way better than the original, which sucked ass. The only reason people cared about this game was Counter Strike.

Zelda: mentioned all over the thread and I'm glad it is because its easily the most overhyped, overrated series of all time and its shit, it is the quintessential baby's first RPG and like a harry potter fan zelda fans refuse to leave the training wheels behind.

Starcraft: you know a game is shit when asians really like it. Almost every other RTS out there is better than this overrated autistic bug simulator.

Syndicate: why was this popular? who played these games?

Xcom: same as above, I never got the appeal.

Trying way too hard here.

 

[stupid orc]

surprised no one has mentioned tetris. low skill ceiling, repetitive game play, more cash grab "alternatives" then monopoly. theres not much to say about it because it so simple but the success of tetris has never made sense to me because its not challenging enough to be engaging or even annoying. solitare is harder and more rewarding because at least you get the card waterfall.