Many gamers grew up playing the old-school games that have been around longer than many in the industry. The characters they played, the worlds they explored, the battles they waged, and the music they listened to were all part of their childhoods.
There aren’t a lot of games that have aged well over the last 20 years. Most of them are too repetitive, too grindy, or too much of a time-sink. Video games have come a long way in the last 20 years, but there are still games that feel like a downgrade from their glory days.
The Crash Bandicoot series
Crash Bandicoot is a gaming icon, so it’s crazy that the series has been around for so long, and yet there has still been no announcement of a new game. The most recent installment was in 2004 when Crash Team Racing went on to become one of the best-selling games on the PlayStation 2. Sadly, it wasn’t seen as a worthy sequel to the original Crash Bandicoot, which was released 11 years beforehand. While Sony has said that there are no plans to make another Crash game in the foreseeable future, the IP may be revived in some form.
Fifteen years after the first Crash Bandicoot game debuted, the original and some of those early titles are still popular among hardcore gamers. Plus, because they’re so readily available to play at https://www.gamestalgia.net/games/playstation and similar websites, more and more gamers are discovering them each day. Given this sustained fervor, it makes sense that a new one is almost upon us, titled the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and the anticipation for it is quite high.
The Pokémon
If you were born in the ’90s, you probably spent countless hours playing Pokémon. That world was a magical place: you lit up grass fires to attract the attention of fire-breathing dragons, battled ghosty psychic types at the Viridian Forest, and played with a team comprised of 790 different creatures. But, as the years pass, the Pokémon universe shows its age, as the once free-roaming creatures are now confined to the confines of the games and video games.
Will the Pokémon franchise ever die? Hardly, with new games already announced for the Switch and 2 more Pokémon games under development. But to look back in time, as a whole, I think we’d have to say no. Nearly 20 years have passed since the original games came out on the Gameboy, and 4 more have been released since then. Of course, that leaves us with a whole lot of Pokémon to discuss, but this list is far from exhaustive.
The Digimon
There was a time when Digimon was the most popular thing ever. We’re not pulling any punches here; Digimon was the most popular thing ever. However, nowadays, the series is a bit more niche than it once was. Sure, there are still some fans out there, but this isn’t the same “Digimon craze” that we all grew to love in the early 2000s.
Digimon was one of Japan’s most popular and successful kids’ shows. However, the appeal faded as the series went on and the demand for a new Digimon game by Bandai went down. After the game’s development was shut down, some of the series’ fans began to work on the Digimon fan games that are still available today.
Super Mario
Super Mario is one of the most recognizable video game characters of all time. He is a plumber who fights off enemies, makes friends, and saves the world. He is also one of the most influential in video games. A combination of nostalgia and innovation fuels super Mario’s success.
Super Mario is a Nintendo icon and a cultural phenomenon. While the character has been around for thirty years, his charm remains undiminished. This is partially due to his longevity and partly because he has been through a lot in his time. While his adventures have been meticulously recreated for modern audiences, some things still have yet to be retold. Here are five Super Mario games that you may have forgotten about.
Tekken
Tekken has been a staple part of fighting games since its debut in 1994. Since then, it has spawned dozens of sequels and even a few spin-offs, but you wouldn’t know it is based on the games’ relative obscurity. There’s a metal band named after the game; a movie adaptation is in the works, and it even had its spin-off anime series. The only thing that hasn’t been adapted yet is a Tekken fighting game in mobile form. That may change soon.