Are there some video games that are no longer critically-acclaimed because of their decline in quality?

[thomaswiencek]

What's happening, guys? Do you think that there are some video games that are no longer critically-acclaimed because of their decline in quality?

 

[prog rocker]

Well, can mention entire companies? If so, anything Bethesda and EA does.

 

[Blockhead Pippi]

Sonic and Mega Man stick out the most to me. But that is more of an issue with the developers themselves. Cause the old Sonic and Mega Man games are still good and still receive critical acclaim, but many of the newer ones (or at times lack of new games, in Mega Man's case) are lukewarm at best.

I feel like the question is specifically addressing specific games that were once critically acclaimed but have since lost that through age. There's not really many games I can think of that fit that, since most good old games still receive high praise today. I guess Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask though may have lost some of their old charm, but they're still just as popular as ever.

...Would Mighty No. 9 count?

 

[Aulos]

The Sims comes to mind. I think Sim City, too. Both franchises are victims of EA's move to force online on everyone. The most recent Sim City came out being always-online and flopped. From my understanding, EA was going the same direction with The Sims 4, but scrapped that feature. I imagine because of the focus on online, they had not developed The Sims 4 itself with the ambition that they did with the first three The Sims titles, and thus it resulted in a very lackluster product that they still tried to cram out as The Sims 4 and now here we are.

To make matters worse, EA is not going to admit their mistake, and is dragging The Sims 4 through the dirt, by dragging out the content release schedule. The Sims games used to only last four to five years, but with TS4, EA just plans to keep on releasing content for it as long as they wish to. It's sad that EA just insists on keeping alive the longest their worst iteration of The Sims.

 

[Weiss]

The only ones I can think of are Pokémon and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Was Pokémon ever critically acclaimed? I don’t mean they were unpopular or bad but I’ve never read a rave review of Pokémon outside of Japan.

I would agree with @prog rocker Bethesda games are quickly becoming/became trash and they harm the devs they publish for.

They forced out Dishonoured 2 before it was ready which lead to Steam refunds and the effective death of the franchise. Death of the Outsider was merely away to recoup cost and deserved so much better than an “expansion”.

Unpopular opinion from from a technical standpoint Bethesda has always been horrible it was the narrative and player freedom that made their games noteworthy. The mod scene can patch games quicker than Bethesda and better having been working with that engine for what 15 years?

My adaptions to the list are Bioware it’s just a matter of time until they are amalgamated into E.A. or closed down. I also think Blizzard and Rockstar are on their way to becoming hated for the same reasons as Bethesda E.A. and Ubisoft. Although to what degree this is due to Activison and 2K remains to be seen.

Activison almost killed Bungie after all but they managed to get away.

Finally Microsoft is were once great studios go to die.

 

[TeaWest]

The first Legend of Zelda, absolutely.

It's impossible to play it without being nose deep in a strategy guide and the only way to not resort to that is to rely on friends and word of mouth. Except... in this day and age it's pretty tough to find a group of people playing like it was in the 80s.

I've never understood why other NES games from this era like Castlevania and get Milan's Secret Castle railed for being obnoxiously cryptic and yet the first LoZ gets a free pass.

 

[prog rocker]

The first Legend of Zelda, absolutely.

It's impossible to play it without being nose deep in a strategy guide and the only way to not resort to that is to rely on friends and word of mouth. Except... in this day and age it's pretty tough to find a group of people playing like it was in the 80s.

I've never understood why other NES games from this era like Castlevania and get Milan's Secret Castle railed for being obnoxiously cryptic and yet the first LoZ gets a free pass.

True. I thought I was just being a dumb kid when I couldn't play this when I was kid, but trying again this year demonstrated me that it was the game, not me. This might be the first game where I actually can blame the game and not myself for sucking at it.

 

[Weiss]

You don’t know about the National Dex issue?

What has that got to do with critical acclaim?

 

[Stratelier]

In terms of game series, Spyro the Dragon just wasn't the same after Insomniac left.

For individual games that have aged badly, the NES Legend of Zeldas (both of them) are definitely on that list. The first game was one you really wanted to have the actual instruction manual for (not impossible without it, but requiring a LOT of trial and experimentation to figure out just what you were missing where).

 

[prog rocker]

In terms of game series, Spyro the Dragon just wasn't the same after Insomniac left.

Same thing happened with Crash after Naughty Dog sold the series. Specially the ones made by Radical Games

 

[Cap'n Jack]

When I think of a game that was acclaimed on release and looked back on much more coolly in retrospect, the very first game I think of is Sonic Adventure. It’s still a popular game within the fan base, but I’m talking about critics and the general public (“casual” fans) who loved the game when it came out in 1998/99. Back then the critics were saying that it was a worthy rival to Super Mario 64, that Sonic had nailed his transition into 3D just as Mario and Zelda did, that it was a nonstop thrill ride of a game.

Nowadays I think the retrospective opinion among critics and non-enthusiasts is that Sonic Adventure is a series of flashy tricks covering up slippery controls and bad levels. It gets pretty much laughed at today, and of course everyone mentions Big the Damn Cat and his Diet Sega Bass Pro Fishing levels which were awful.

Ironically, the only point where I deviate from the modern consensus on Sonic Adventure is that people will still nod their heads and agree that the Chao Garden was cool. I thought it was boring!

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Both the Crash and Spyro series really suffered a big ol fashioned drop of quality once Naughty Dog and Insomniac bowed down though Crash fared better than Spyro did.

Wrath of Cortex wasn't a great start for the new era as it was basically Warped again but completely lacking what made that game fun and JESUS GAME, I GET IT, YOU LOVE YOUR VEHICLES, NOW CAN I GO BACK TO PLAYING A LEGITIMATE CRASH LEVEL, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLS!
Nitro Kart was good but in some aspects pales in comparison to Team Racing, Twinsanity wasn't too bad though Universal being Universal forced Traveller's Tales to rush the game to kingdom come and it could have been better in places, Tag Team Racing was just dog shite and a total downgrade from the other two kart games and as for the reboot titles I actually like Crash of the Titans and don't think it's too bad whereas Mind Over Mutant was a total let-down that took two steps forward with the improvements then took those same steps back with everything else including the obnoxious backtracking.

As for the purple dragon... hoo boy. His jump to the next generation was not pretty at all to say the least.

The GBA games weren't too bad (and the Crash ones were good too) unless we're talking about the piece of crap Crash and Spyro crossover
but it's the console side where everything goes off the rails and down the mine.

Enter the Dragonfly is an absolute travesty of a game that I'm surprised didn't immediately kill off the franchise, A Hero's Tail was only marginally better but that still isn't saying much and as for the Legend Of series... yeah we don't talk about those... at all. And then Activision made him the (very-short lived) mascot of the Skylanders series before quietly pushing him off to the side once the first entry sold well.

At least, they seem to be making a comeback what with the remasters though with Activision pulling off their microtransaction crap with the Crash Team Racing remaster, I'm kind of worried that sooner or later we'll be seeing the two scurrying back to their graves again.

 

[Stratelier]

Enter the Dragonfly is an absolute travesty of a game that I'm surprised didn't immediately kill off the franchise...

I played that on the PS2 and not only was it a technical nightmare, the overall design felt a little too copycat of Spyro 3 before it and the final battle with Ripto was so poorly designed it paled even in comparison to Gnasty Gnorc in Spyro 1.

Hero's Tail, to its credit, was how the game should have entered the PS2 era. The unlockable alternates (Flame and Ember) weren't much to talk about, but at its core the design was good. IIRC Spyro now double-jumped into his glide, and they finally updated his model to include that ridge of yellow spines down his back (present in official renders since Spyro 2 yet lacking in-game). And the GBA titles were actually quite fun. Not the best that Spyro could offer (Season of Ice was particularly difficult) but still fun.

As for the Legend of Spyro ... having played all three of them, I felt the story was a little too dark overall, and the combat too repetitive It's like they were trying to be Platinum Games or something, but for the most part it didn't work out very well. There's only so many times you can throw waves of enemies at the player.... The final installment definitely refined the fighting (particularly with Spyro and Cynder's differing elements) and had some genuinely interesting puzzles with the new no-more-bottomless-pits flying (and the leash that bound Spyro and Cynder together), and I liked the choice of Elijah Woods for Spyro (Sparx's three voice actors, hell no), but overall ... it was just too bleak and dark. The linearity (both in level design and overall progression) didn't do it any favors, either.

 

[Blockhead Pippi]

When I think of a game that was acclaimed on release and looked back on much more coolly in retrospect, the very first game I think of is Sonic Adventure. It’s still a popular game within the fan base, but I’m talking about critics and the general public (“casual” fans) who loved the game when it came out in 1998/99. Back then the critics were saying that it was a worthy rival to Super Mario 64, that Sonic had nailed his transition into 3D just as Mario and Zelda did, that it was a nonstop thrill ride of a game.

You know what, I can agree with this. Adventure was a good game, and an arguably important game for the franchise at the time, but it really hasn't aged well since.

I think the real issue with Adventure (and Sonic today as a whole) was that it had a lot of untapped potential. There's a part of me that wants to chalk up Adventure's problems as "First Game Syndrome", when things are still experimental and need perfecting. I mean, Super Mario 64 hasn't aged well at all either but its approach did evolve and improved with Sunshine, Galaxy, and Odyssey. But that didn't happen with Sonic Adventure. Instead we've just gotten lackluster games that tried to capitalize on Adventure's success but fall completely flat. The worst attempt being Sonic 2006. Heck I even think that Adventure 2 is a regression of the first.

Adventure had a lot of problems but what it did have was charm and a lot of passion from the team developing it. Sadly those days have long since passed.

Anyway that's just me rambling. I will say though that I earnestly do think that Sonic 3D is better than Adventure. At least in some aspects.

Edit: Also I completely agree that the first Legend of Zelda would fall under this as well. It's one thing to build a game that encourages the player to explore and figure out things themselves, but another when so many of the puzzles are nigh impossible to deduce. There's never a good indication of which bush you need to burn, for instance. Not unless you spend hours meticulously burning every single one. It's not fun. I can only imagine the frustration of a player in the 80's who didn't have the Nintendo Power magazine to guide them every step of the way.