The best classic games you would NOT recommend

[marurun]

I recently watched a video on YT about good starter shmups that teach you about the genre and, I gotta say, some of the selections were baffling. They were NOT starter games and not good teachers. So that got me thinking, what are some of the best or most critically acclaimed classic games you would NOT recommend to others and why? And I mean broadly recommend, because there are always exceptions.

I'll start with a couple shooters:

R-Type - This is an awesome game and I can't recommend it to folks these days. It introduced a lot of important elements to shooters that are found to this day. This was a hardcore arcade title which required a lot of memorization in the later levels and was not forgiving at all. It was also not good at teaching you how to play it. It expected you to do the work. And for that reason, as much as I personally love the game and as important as it is to the genre, I would not recommend it.

Ikaruga - A shooter that's a puzzle game. Arguably a very high quality shooter, I can't recommend it. Looks good and sounds good, but the black and white switch mechanic and the scoring system are definitely not accessible and require work to understand. Would likely turn off players who aren't already heavily invested in either shooters or hard puzzle-style gameplay.

[MrPopo]

I mean, it sounds like there's an implied "for beginners" in the question. Would you not recommend Ikaruga to someone who 1CCs DoDonPachi?

[marurun]

I mean, it sounds like there's an implied "for beginners" in the question. Would you not recommend Ikaruga to someone who 1CCs DoDonPachi?

No, I'm not sure I would. Ikaruga and DoDomPachi are not entirely overlapping. I think the assumed is more "for general audiences" or perhaps as a blind recommendation. My two examples are for games that are generally unforgiving, but I would also argue a game like Mario 64 isn't one to recommend, either, because newer games do essentially the same thing but better.

[Capitulation007]

I think a lot of critically acclaimed classics are amazing in context but terrible as general recommendations today. Many of them assume patience, memorization, or genre knowledge that new players just do not have, and that can kill the fun fast.

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

Most of the 8-bit computer RPGs have been surpassed, except perhaps Ultima IV, but that one seems to expect you to have already played earlier entries!


I like to believe Ikaruga got some folks into Radiant Silvergun, which in turn got some folks into proper danmakus. Perchance?

[PartridgeSenpai]

I have this sorta thought with lotsa old 8-bit games I play (as my reviews thread posts likely have gotten across quite frequently) <w>
A LOT of old 8-bit games in particular are just so damn player hostile. I'd find them really hard to recommend to someone not particularly familiar with those sorts of games if only because they have so much DNA with old arcade experiences.

So much of newer games in various genres have evolved so drastically away from their roots that it can make recommending classic ones quite hard. One space I run into this quite frequently is with RPGs. I certainly prefer my RPGs to have more of a focus on a well-written story, but I can still have more than enough fun to see something through to the end if it's a more mechanically-focused experience. My wife, on the other hand, really prefers a quality narrative if she's going to be putting that many hours into a game, and this makes recommending a lot of classic RPGs next to impossible for me. SO many old RPGs use story more as just an exciting but shallow connective tissue for its mechanics that there's not much room to recommend stuff with how much more narrative-centric experiences in the genre have become in the past few decades. Like, it's not like I could never recommend games like FFIV, FFV, or Chrono Trigger to *anyone*, since they're all still quality games in one way or another (even if they're not my cup of tea), but to someone more interested in RPGs as narrative experiences first and foremost, there's precious little among 8-bit or 16-bit (or hell, even 32-bit) stuff that I can recommend without hesitation <w>

[marurun]

Like, it's not like I could never recommend games like FFIV, FFV, or Chrono Trigger to *anyone*, since they're all still quality games in one way or another (even if they're not my cup of tea), but to someone more interested in RPGs as narrative experiences first and foremost, there's precious little among 8-bit or 16-bit (or hell, even 32-bit) stuff that I can recommend without hesitation <w>

I would argue even in the current era there are real problems with RPG narratives, and that an RPG's narrative is very unlikely to be able to salvage boring or damaged mechanics. I find rather frequently that either a simple narrative and simple characters are stretched too long or the narrative is too convoluted or melodramatic and collapses under the weight of its own worldbuilding or bad philosophy. Obviously I'm a lot picker in this area than most, but I think that balance between an appropriate level of story and character depth and the appropriate mechanical game length is a very careful balance. I would probably not recommend many RPGs to someone without knowing they were already an RPG fan. It's a tough genre to love if you're not already pre-disposed.

[Ack]

The RPG narrative issue is further complicated because of the player-creates-the-narrative approach inspired by Dungeons & Dragons in Western RPG design. Is there a story in Eye of the Beholder? Yes, but the narrative is more about how you as the player overcame the challenges of the dungeon than it is a grand tale.

Also, control schemes can vary wildly. I wouldn't recommend Ultima IV immediately to someone new to RPGs without a caveat that they should find a document with the commands. Rudimentary and clunky UI can hamper an experience and keeps a lot of folks from going back, especially with RPGs.

Yet at the same time, some genres see a lot of simplicity that I find easy to appreciate. Like if someone were new to fighting games and wanted to try 2D fighters, then Street Fighter 2: Turbo is not a bad choice for getting basic concepts down.

[QUAG BOI]

zelda 1

i love the game but even i used a map when i first beat it
but the map i used only showed the dungeon locations
i figured out the rest and beat it on my top loader NES

most modern players would probably find it too confusing and difficult.

in my opinion zelda 1 is less of a puzzle adventure game like the other games.
and more like a proto souls like

its absolutely not friendly to new players
especially since most of them might not think to look up a map

i can only recommend it if you already play a lot of old school hard games

[o.pwuaioc]

5-year-old me loved Zelda 1, so I'm not sure what's wrong with these modern gamers.