The Sodium Podium: 5 Overrated Classic Games

Now before you ready your rage filled replies, evaluate why you hold these games so dearly. Is it because you can play them all the time to this day? Or is it because you at one point in your childhood loved this game and those warm, fuzzy feels come flooding back whenever they’re discussed?

Whatever your thought process is – here are my personal picks of games that were definitely great games, my older self considers them all to be highly overrated.

Chrono Trigger 

Yeah, I know amazing soundtrack, iconic characters, for the time it was great. Today, it is one of the more playable titles from the SNES JRPG second wave coming from SquareSoft (now known today as SquareEnix). They game was at its core another turn based JRPG with a nonsensical story that while littered with fondly remembered moments lack the GoAT factor people thrust upon this game.

I feel that the game has enjoyed a strong following not for what it is but for what it represents to a generation of gamers. Which in the same way Citizen Kane or Battleship Potemkin are seminal works in film, Chrono Trigger is for many a masterpiece, but in my opinion its greatness doesn’t extend far beyond its original release date. No matter how much I enjoyed it in my youth.

Megaman Legends 

Megaman Volnutt, is controversial yet beloved character. Megaman Legends had charm, atmosphere, decent enough voice acting. This game spawned some of the most iconic imagery Capcom has ever put out. The game had some serious issues though, that at the time we kind of just accepted.

Simply put, Megaman Legends is a testament to what gamers put up with in the mid nineties. Despite all its positives, the game was a clunky mess that in retrospect was a chore to navigate through. The charm of the characters and a desire to explore Kattelox Island really helped get me through this. Even though they tried to fix it with Megaman Legends 2, all they ended up with was a clunky third person shooter that while it looks good on a shelf, rarely goes into my PS1.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

I played it, it was fun, but I don’t understand the lasting appeal. There is almost no plot, your motivation is the same as always, the world isn’t that big (you just move really slow) and the combat while interesting at first boils down dodge, block attack, repeat.

The longevity of this game in my opinion, boils down to pure nostalgia. It’s a really polished generic action RPG that was impressive at the time but I can’t understand the long lasting obsession some people have with this game.

Goldeneye 007 (for N64)

James Bond needed a reboot after Timothy Dalton’s lackluster films, so they pulled out all the stops and went out on a media blitz to market Goldeneye as a brand not just a film. It was everywhere for a time and it was even on N64.

Goldeneye is one of those seminal console FPS titles that people fawn over. It’s got it all, memories, ease of play, iconic imagery and sound effects. But there’s one major issue the game was less of a shooter and more of a reaction tester. Whoever hit the Z button first usually won.

Now yes, I know that you could use two controllers to make it more like a two stick shooter. But let’s be honest, the game was made to be played with one controller. And despite all the attachment people have to it, the game is a mediocre shooter that happened to be the first console FPS to not completely suck.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo

This game was made during a different era. before frame data, before balance was expected from games, before you had half of the options we come to expect from a modern fighting game. It stands as one of the best trainers for beginner fighting game players trying to learn fundamentals.

Notwithstanding it’s positives, Super Turbo is a glitchy broken mess, that unless you have some serious emotional attachment to it or you are breaking it out for laughs there is no reason to attack modern games for not being “as OG as Super Turbo.” Because ST is a game that despite its lauded roots doesn’t stand the test of time and is in my opinion one of the clearest example of a game running on nostalgia.

 

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