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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Formerly Acclaimed Games

Bofferbrauer2 on 08 January 2025
JohnVG said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:
  • Bubsy comes to mind. It was very acclaimed at launch, which resulted in several sequels and partnerships coming, but nowadays it's mostly laughed or facepalmed at. Even Bubsy 3D didn't really get any bad reviews at the time, but now it's considered one of the worst games ever.
  • Battle Arena Toshiden, which got glowing reviews but later got completely overshadowed by Soul Edge and the Soul Calibur series since it did pretty much everything better than BAT, and now is mostly considered just a middling game
  • Civilization III, once considered miles better than II, is now generally seen as by far the worst of the bunch.
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was one of the most acclaimed titles on the NES, but after A Link to the Past on the SNES it'svery different gameplay to the rest of the series and sometimes absurd diffculty made it the most hated Zelda title for a very long time. Thankfully, it's slowly getting reappreciated, with an enhanced remake on PC having been made by some indie developer, so hopefully it will get it's status restored.

Bubsy 3D? got BAD reviews: SM64 was already in the market. Bubsy 3D was just awful to play after SM64. Maybe as a PSX game in late 1994, during the japanese launch...would had some good reviews. But by late 1996? and mid-1997 in Europe? it was just panned by the reviews.
So, what Sony did? buyed the studio, Eidetic, to make the Syphon Filter series games (a studio the only serious game was Bubsy 3D. Its previous "games?" were products for the Apple's Newton failed proto-PDA. But, hey, apparently it worked for Sony. Don't know how XD). They also did a Resistance game for PSP, and a pair of Uncharted games for Vita. Oh, and the forgotten "Days Gone" for PS4. Yeah, Sony's Bend Studio is the very same studio that created Bubsy 3D for Accolade 30 almost years ago.

Toshinden problem started way before Sould Edge, and was called Tekken 2. Soul Edge was later. The sequel, Soul Calibur, was not even a PSX game. Well, in fact, the arcade game runs in a PSX based board, but Namco never "ported" the game to the domestic PSX. Instead, decided to make an "upgraded port" (more like a REMAKE) for the incoming Dreamcast. That DC game became an instant classic because it was a visual shocking show for everyone, with a fan-tas-tic gameplay. Soul Calibur in DC was so impressive, it became a synonim for the machine, like SM64 was for N64. And was a NAMCO game for a SEGA console! just after PSX era!

Zelda II is a very underrated game. Not that great in graphics, ok, but it really hooked me as any other NES game never did. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first one when I finished both. And I was already a fan of the GB Zelda game (Awakening). So... it was a surprise for me, because Zelda II already had a very very bad fame since many years before I played it. A curious thing is... I never liked SNES Zelda. I do not know why, i do not like that game. I tried many times, and I can't. So...  i defend Zelda II and I dismiss Zelda A Link to the Past. That's enough to be expelled from any Zelda fan secret lodge :(

Bubsy 3D didn't get reviewed all that badly at first, though there's quite some disparity:

It's not exactly rave reviews, but they're not that bad, either for the most part, especially considering that at the time bad games generally got under 50/100. But it didn't take long to go from good-ish to trash. Less than a year after release it got trashed already by pretty much everyone, even those who rated it as good on release.

As for BAT, I menationed Soul Edge and not Tekken because BAT was fighting with weapons, just like the Soul Edge/Soul Calibur series. Tekken already put Battle Arena Toshiden on the mat, but it's Soul Edge that really delivered the final K.O. due to this similarity that Tekken 2 didn't have.

And yay, I see that I'm not the only one who loves Zelda II and didn't like ALttP all that much. I loved the duels with the Ironknuckles and hated that the knights in the SNES Zelda were total pushovers, and found that the map was tiny compared to the Zelda II map and the gameplay too random

Leynos said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:
  • Bubsy comes to mind. It was very acclaimed at launch, which resulted in several sequels and partnerships coming, but nowadays it's mostly laughed or facepalmed at. Even Bubsy 3D didn't really get any bad reviews at the time, but now it's considered one of the worst games ever.
  • Battle Arena Toshiden, which got glowing reviews but later got completely overshadowed by Soul Edge and the Soul Calibur series since it did pretty much everything better than BAT, and now is mostly considered just a middling game
  • Civilization III, once considered miles better than II, is now generally seen as by far the worst of the bunch.
  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was one of the most acclaimed titles on the NES, but after A Link to the Past on the SNES it'svery different gameplay to the rest of the series and sometimes absurd diffculty made it the most hated Zelda title for a very long time. Thankfully, it's slowly getting reappreciated, with an enhanced remake on PC having been made by some indie developer, so hopefully it will get it's status restored.

No. Bubsy was never that highly regarded. Zelda II is one of those people didn't like then but have come around on. Now realizing how good it is.

Bubsy never highly regarded?

I mean, there's a reason why it got 3 successors...



The Nintendo eShop rating Thread: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=237454 List as Google Doc:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aW2hXQT1TheElVS7z-F3pP-7nbqdrDqWNTxl6JoJWBY/edit?usp=sharing

The Steam/GOG key gifting thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/242024/the-steamgog-key-gifting-thread/1/ 

Free Pc Games thread: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/248138/free-pc-games/1/

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Louie on 08 January 2025

Starfox Adventures is a prime example of this.
The game was very well received when it released, with people praising the graphics and comparing the game to Zelda. It was seen as a worthy goodbye gift by Rare. Personally, I still think it's a great game. The graphics hold up well and the atmosphere and music are simply amazing.

However, after Starfox Adventures released Nintendo really butchered the Starfox IP. Starfox Assault on Gamecube was decent but not as good as Starfox 64. Starfox Command on DS was met with a lukewarm reception and Starfox Zero... yeah. So the tone around Adventures shifted. Instead of being seen as an adventure game (as stated in the title), people would claim "it's a bad Starfox game!" and even go as far as to say people back in 2002 were cheated because they expected this to be a traditional Starfox title, which is absolutely not true. I watched reviews of the game on YouTube a few years ago when I felt the urge to play it again and many reviewers were just going "no rail shooting, this sucks!" But everyone knew what the game was before it released.

People also compare it to a hypothetical, perfect version of Dinosaur Planet for the N64, even though we don't know what corners would have had to be cut before release if that version released. And they complain about Krystal's "sexy" design and her role as a damsel in distress - which no one gave a second thought to (*) 20 years ago... and even though no one says Peach getting kidnapped in Mario 64 or Zelda getting kidnapped in Ocarina of Time towards the end of the game devalue those games in any way.

So, I'd say Starfox Adventures is a perfect example of this. 

(* I mean, people apparently did spend quite some thoughts on it, seeing as Krystal is some kind of furry icon. But the decision wasn't seen as controversial back in 2002. I can't remember it ever being mentioned back then.)