3D games from the '90s that still hold up today

I certainly wouldn't go THAT far. It's a bit indulgent and cringy at times but I think at its core the game isn't bad. Square Enix has certainly milked it for all it's worth but they do that with every title it seems.

SM64 maintains a pretty solid framerate, has an excellent soundtrack, gave people an "open world" to freely discover without a timer long before that was standard practice and is still one of the most speed-run games based partially on how tight and responsive Mario is. Why would so many people be constantly speedrunning a broken game with garbage movement? It took years for other games to get on the level and even then the creators admitted that they were copying SM64 (I'm looking at you, Banjo Kazooie Team.) There's also a reason most platformers released AFTER SM64 followed its same format of hub worlds with different timer-less stages to enter based on collectibles. Spyro, Banjo, SA to a lesser extent, and even Diddy Kong Racing.

I'm in no way saying the game is perfect but for the time and IMO now the game is more than playable and enjoyable. Maybe it's nostalgia glasses but I still play the game on a yearly basis and have a blast.

In other news a game that will always be timeless for me is Silent Hill 2. I just finished it up again for I believe the fifth time and it never gets old. Although I'm sure others will say the combat sucks but I never found it all that bad.

 

You know, when square enix had a good sale going on on their publisher store, I bought like 3 of the kingdom heart games for something ridiculous like 5-10 dollars each brand new, and I couldn't finish any of them. it was horrible

 

Do people REALLY find those games THAT bad? I'm not sure what's so bad about them. They're certainly not my favorite games but I never found them all that bad.

 

Well I think it's because I play so many video games unless they're absolutely amazing I'm numb to them, like a drug addict. ATM I'm addicted to Grand Kingdom (clocked almost 80 hours the last 10 days on it. I have too much free time)

 

I think first party and second party N64 games hold up pretty well if you run them in an emulator in higher resolutions. Playing any games on N64 hardware is not very pleasing experience even though you can get used to it. Using RGB or HDMI mod with de-blur function certainly helps but not much.
Can't say the same for PS1 games even though I love the system.

 

Have you tried emulating PS1 games?

 

Not much. I can imagine the increased resolution helps... Texture warping gets probably eliminated too.

 

No, it doesn’t.

 

A lot of those Japanese only 3d fighters seem to hold up.

How to fix Kingdom Hearts

Replace Donald and Goofy with Cable and Deadpool

There you go. Sadly this can't happen now since Disney is Petty AF about Fox.

 

Interesting seeing Episode 1: Racer brought up as I gave that a shake last week, still pretty playable though I find some of the tracks can blend into the background a little making it difficult to see what's going on, at times.

Started Shenmue (never played it in '99) - clunky af.

I will forever maintain that Super Mario 64, even to this day is the one 3D Mario game that has Mario controlling just right. Jumping feels like it has some weight & oomph behind the initial take-off whereas I've felt Sunshine & the Galaxies are way more floaty.

Played Mickey's Speedway USA for the first time, too and it likely would've blown my mind back in the day; aside from the AI kicking my ass it handles very, very well.

 

A decent indication if a game has been aged well, is if there's any modern games that tries to mimic it. Strafe, that looks like Quake I/II, comes to mind.

This is highly personal, but I feel games with voxels are as nice looking as ever. That's probably just nostalgia though.

 

Are we talking about graphics or gameplay here? Or both?

 

Certainly not interface.