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Ignoring the lack of updates if the game is buggy, games back then were also more focused on quality and make gamers replay the game with unlockable features based on skills, not money. I can't count the number of times I played Metal Gear Solid games over and over to unlock new features playing the hardest difficulty and with handicap features, and also to find Easter eggs. Speaking of Easter eggs, you'd lose a number of hours exploring every nook and cranny finding them!
I love my old school games and will never stop playing SNES, 64, PS1, and PS2, but there were plenty of crap games on those systems too. Just like how indies and Minecraft and Soulsbornes right now are dope as hell, but everyone complains about Ubisoft and EA so much you'd think that they were the only publishers in the 2020s. There's been solid titles and shovelwware every single generation ever since the Atari 2600. Also, the games that a lot of us grew up playing that have gone down as "the best games of all time" like FF7 and Goldeneye would be considered borderline unplayable by kids today.
BRING BACK MANUALS.
Give Tunic a try. The in-game manual is a central piece of its overall puzzle.
Tunic is great! The dev said he wanted to replicate the experience of playing a game in a different language that you don't quite understand at first, and he made it perfectly. English is my second language, and it reminded me of the times trying to play games before I understood it, struggling with manuals and dictionaries.
The special edition comes with a physical manual, but ironically the player shouldn't open it until they 100% the game. It's like a spoiler.
This is me in Italian. I don't know why it never occurred to me that anyone would experience the same with English, but knowing about it makes me feel so much better.
The amount of depth in that game is mind blowing. It's funny reading reviews/comments of people complaining about the rewards for the secrets that make it obvious they got the solutions online. Figuring out the secrets IS part of the reward!
Manuals?
Don't you like logging into the same game 6 months later and the entire game mechanic and progression system have been changed???
If you want to read some manual you know where you can.
Most people don't know about, or don't remember, the old bins filled to the brim with garbageware games. Back when shit was still the wild west and people were releasing crap left and right.