Current Events > Which Nintendo era aged the worst?

(+) Yeah! (+)

My first thought was N64 but then I saw NES and voted for that instead. Those games just really struggle with a lot of playability stuff - things like saving the game etc.

the Wii U, in the sense that the Switch made it obsolete.

as far as visuals go, then N64 - a lot of the games being 3D look really bad now.

The wii, thing was sold on a gimmick of being active while gaming.

The NES. Obviously. The NES has like 2 games worth playing that aren't named Mega Man.

N64. A lot of those games are just janky. It was an awkward transitional time for games. There's still some fun gems, though.

Bass posted...

N64. A lot of those games are just janky. It was an awkward transitional time for games. There's still some fun gems, though.

When Golden Eye did not hold up, it made me sad.

It's objectively the NES. No saves, clunky controls in every game, uncomfortable controller. Nothing on that system has aged well except for maybe Mario Bros. 3, which has a superior version on the SNES, so it doesn't even have that going for it.

Sonic_Cannon posted...

My first thought was N64 but then I saw NES and voted for that instead. Those games just really struggle with a lot of playability stuff - things like saving the game etc.

boxoto posted...

the Wii U, in the sense that the Switch made it obsolete.

Bass posted...

N64. A lot of those games are just janky. It was an awkward transitional time for games. There's still some fun gems, though.

All of these, though my Wii U is still set up as a Zelda box between the HD ports and VC downloads. Plus MP Trilogy.

N64 probably. Proto 3d looks a lot worse than pixels to me. I can see NES being an answer but there are still a lot of games I still take for a spin. Off the top of my head still play both Zeldas, Mario1,2,3, Crystalis, FF1, RC Pro Am, Contra, Double Dribble, Dr. Mario, 1943, Tecmo Bowl. Thats just me though.

NES.

Nobody can seriously tell me that they'd rather play games like Wrecking Crew and Ice Climber over their output on any other system.

Yeah stuff like SMB3 and Kirby rock but they also rock on the future systems along with a lot of other stuff.

For years Ive basically only played pre-PS3 era games.

I can never get over how bad the N64 aged. In spite of having a ton of nostalgia for that entire generation, theres nothing I actually want to play.

I dont have that issue at all with NES. It has the superior SMB3 aesthetic.

I'm voting Wii.

I definitely enjoyed some of the games it had (Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Mario Sports Mix, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Sonic Colors, etc.) and its motion controls when they were done well. Really fun system there, in my book.

...but looking back now, I kind of wasn't too impressed with it myself and adding to the few odd design choices that I wasn't a fan of (Wii Remote Plus obsoleting the Wii Remote and especially the Wii Motion Plus accessory, to name one of them), it was the first Nintendo system to alienate most of the third-party space that resulted in some games either being "stripped down" to varying degrees or downright cancelled, not helped either by the smorgasbord of shovelware polluting a good chunk of its library (this is "normal" for most successful consoles, yes, but this often made me feel like Nintendo and its developers had gotten a little too comfortable with their games at times); yes, the third-party library here is quite massive and helped make Nintendo a huge killing in that era, but for me...a great third-party library isn't always on how many are there. The Wii also happened to be the first Nintendo home console to give me actual disappointments, with Super Smash Bros Brawl and Wii Party still giving me traumatic memories to this day and age.

I could probably go on regarding my overall thoughts on the Wii these days, but while I (again) still found enjoyment in that system and still (somewhat) label it as a "classic", all of the fond impressions I had for it had gradually withered and I felt that many of the ideas and features I liked from it were done better by other home consoles from Nintendo's hands. The least thing I can say about the Wii is that I still enjoyed it much more than the Nintendo DS, which is undoubtedly my least favorite Nintendo system of all time for giving me even lesser fond and fun times than the Wii did, as well as doubling-down on its touch screen idea on many ways than my much-preferred "map and inventory" management setup.

SNES with zero votes so far

as it should be

There's a reason indie games almost always go for an SNES look and never go for a n64 look. When they go for an NES look they just look drab and boring.

I still have fond memories of a lot of NES games and a lot of them did a lot with very limited resources, but the SNES era games just looked amazing, still do, and were smoother to play and had better qol stuff like battery saves.

N64 games just look like blurry blocky mush today, and they hadn't really figured out 3D controls at all.

im just asking but maybe I missing something but why isnt gameboy on the list

cjsdowg posted...

When Golden Eye did not hold up, it made me sad.

It was never really good in the first place if you played PC shooters from a similar time, and I say that as someone who unlocked all cheats on 3 separate copies of the game.

It's between the NES and the N64. Both struggle from being the trailblazer of their medium, NES from 2D and N64 for 3D. So the lack polish that comes from experience.

I ultimately think the NES aged worse though as not only are the games ugly they just aren't mechanically complex enough to get the same degree of enjoyment for me, that and a lack QoL features like saving just make it harder to go back to.

I'd say the Wii because absolutely everything was hyped as all fuck for it... And then we couldn't wait for the thing to be retired. Motion controls felt like stuff from the future until Nintendo made us flap our arms to fly in skyward sword. No wonder the Wii u didn't sell at all, normies must have thought it was yet another pointless add on.

Wii easily.

This is a tough call, but probably Wii or N64. Im leaning Wii because I hate motion controls more than the jank of early 3D games.

I went with N64. If you haven't played an N64 game on an actual N64 lately you'd probably be surprised at how choppy it is and how blurry everything looks. It was fine at the time because 3D graphics were new but it's aged poorly.

NES

It is one of my favorite systems, but only the very best games hold up to this day.

It's the Wii. Nothing says "it's 2007" like waggle controls. What could be easier than jerking off the controller to make Donkey Kong roll?

Probably gonna be the Wii u, because that gamepad shit is gonna be difficult to work around for future playing or emulating

N64. Everything worth playing plays and runs like shit by today's standard.

My first thought was NES, but on thinking about it further, I'm going to go with N64.

A lot of people have mentioned graphics, and early 3d was definitely a problem and one of the least appealing aesthetics.

But I also think that the controls for the majority of games were just too clunky and struggle to cope with the transition, especially with the controller they had to work with. Mario 64 is a shining example of something they made that feels good to run around, but as soon as you need camera control, good luck. Sure the console has its fair share of classics, but going back and trying to play them with modern sensibilities feels worse than NES games as you have to relearn how to work with their jankiness.

PS1/N64 visuals in general aged the worst. Those were the awkward pre-teen / early teen years in terms of video game technology.

VideoboysaysCube posted...

No saves

What, you mean you can't write down and re-input the password WZRJZ QZZZD UJ51O UIQZZ NZRZE correctly?!?

64 for graphics. NES for games (there was a lot of crap). This is a generalization. Also the N64 didn't have that many good games either. Just good sprites still hold up than blocky polygons.

party_animal07 posted...

N64. Everything worth playing plays and runs like shit by today's standard.

Runs like shit? It gets more consistent FPS than a lot of todays games

Wii did. Who really wants to go back to those motion controls?

The Wiis iconic menu music is dominating SoundCloud/Instagram remixes. If that era is to age poorly nows not the time.

The Wii era, due to Nintendo's focus on casual games and motion control gimmicks. They also tried it against on thr Switch's launch with Arms and 12 Switch but luckily they didn't take off.

N64 and its not even close.

NES had gems Id be fine going back to play any day. Mario 1-3, Duck Hunt, Mega Man 1-6, Kirby, Metroid, Town and Country 2, Ninja Turtles 2 and 3, Bucky OHare, Kabuki Quantum Fighter, Battletoads (if I feel like getting my ass kicked) and Im sure therere many more Im forgetting. Yes, later consoles refined these games further, but the NES versions still play and look decent.

Conversely, N64 games come from an era where games werent just figuring out how 3D games were supposed to look, but also how they were supposed to play. The result is games that control so poorly I cant imagine ever wanting to revisit any of them.

party_animal07 posted...

N64. Everything worth playing plays and runs like shit by today's standard.

Paper Mario >>>>>>>>>>>> Paper Mario: The Origami King

I picked Wii.

it had some great games, but man there was so much garbage and shovelware it was ridiculous.

plus not the biggest fan of the controller

I say Wii. No one really even talks about it much anymore.

I voted Wii just because the motion control gimmicks have aged terribly.

Runner up is N64, for the fact its visuals are rough and the fact that the controller design means most existing controllers from the era are barely functional. Those analog sticks wore out pretty bad with regular use.

N64. Outside of the first party classics, the was an ocean of hideous games with awful control schemes.

I never played the n64 when it was out but Im playing it on nso and every game outside of the Zeldas are a slog.

Gamecube. It had those weird little discs, that weird controller, and it missed out on a lot of the games that were on the xbox and playstation.

No shame admitting I can't stand vast majority of N64 games these days and won't even bother buying a N64 classic if it was ever a thing.

Vast majority of the 3D games aged so bad with the awful framerates and fog everywhere. I can still play a lot of 2D 64 stuff like mischief makers and certain 3D games like Diddy kong racing, wwf no mercy, and star fox 64, but I don't have much nostalgia for the console at all. For stuff like ocarina of time I prefer the 3DS port.

Now NES and SNES? Man them sprites aged like fine wine. Gimme some of that shadow of the ninja, castlevania 3, super metroid, demon's crest and yoshi's island.

JimmyFraska posted...

Runs like shit? It gets more consistent FPS than a lot of todays games

Switch games maybe.

Here's a test, "Which system has the fewest games that a modern gamer (child/zoomer) would enjoy?"
I think it's N64.

There's plenty of games on the NES that still hold up: all the Marios, LoZ and similar games, two player games, Castlevanias, Ghosts n Goblins, beat em ups, and the Kirbies.

What N64 games hold up? SM64 (it does), Paper Mario, Kirby 64, Banjo, and Star Fox. The graphics are terrible and the controls are often worse.

I can find younger people who enjoy TMNT2: The Arcade Game. I can't find any who like OoT.

ChocoboMog123 posted...

Here's a test, "Which system has the fewest games that a modern gamer (child/zoomer) would enjoy?"
I think it's N64.

There's plenty of games on the NES that still hold up: all the Marios, LoZ and similar games, two player games, Castlevanias, Ghosts n Goblins, beat em ups, and the Kirbies.

What N64 games hold up? SM64 (it does), Paper Mario, Kirby 64, Banjo, and Star Fox. The graphics are terrible and the controls are often worse.

I can find younger people who enjoy TMNT2: The Arcade Game. I can't find any who like OoT.

Everyone likes Zelda...

9 out of 10 Wii games involved jerkin your Wiimote off so that era.

The folks saying N64 aren't considering emulation which takes native hardware out of the discussion (ie. Perfect Dark Remastered on Gamepass, Turok 1-3 remastered, Doom 64, Shadowman, etc.)

ChocoboMog123 posted...

I can't find any who like OoT.

It is many people's favorite Zelda.

Jagr_68 posted...

9 out of 10 Wii games involved jerkin your Wiimote off so that era.

The folks saying N64 aren't considering emulation which takes native hardware out of the discussion (ie. Perfect Dark Remastered on Gamepass, Turok 1-3 remastered, Doom 64, Shadowman, etc.)

Okay, but the way I'm looking at it is that the Remastered versions that have, y'know, actually workable controls, are from the generation they were remastered. Trying to play N64 games on an N64 doesn't become less clunky because better versions came out later.

I'm someone who finally got around to beating Ocarina of Time for the first time in 2023 (played the 3ds version, but still). It was fine, but there were a lot of places I knew exactly what I wanted to do and pushed buttons in a way that would do what I wanted in a modern game, but because this was N64 era, it didn't work as expected. Most often, this was because of analog limitations, where it was still only programmed to move in 8 possible directions instead of a full range of motion.