This article is retarded. EVERY game in 10 years will be "overrrated" in the sense that it can't stand up against modern games, because, you know, technology advances.
But don't tell me that Zelda OoT is overrated because when I play it (with my eyes bleeding yeah) I still think it's one of the best games of all time.
Okay, there is no way to quantify "overrated" so it is apparent that this article is talking about the authors opinion. (I would like to see the underrated games of all times list!)
However, my personal understanding of overrated would be games that scored really high, but sold poorly. For example "Just Dance Wii" scored only a 2.0 on IGN, but it has almost 4 million copies in a year. This game is clearly underrated as it is a huge success. Any of these game lists that can't be supported by numbers is games that the author just didn't like, so a better name for the above article would be "All time games that I just didn't enjoy!".
I'm wondering why SM64 is on there and not every other Mario game. SM64 is probably one of the greatest games ever because it was fairly revolutionary for its time. Mario hasn't done anything since then. This list is decent, but I don't agree with it entirely.
Final Fantasy 7 was one of the greatest games of all time, and was the top RPG(still is)
@Danteh is right though given enough time every game will be overrated. Hell Modern Warfare 2 went from being just about everyone's favorite game, to being overrated, in a matter of 6 or 7 months.
"Scrooge yeah, this guy just took all of the greatest games and called them overrated. Pretty stupid list"
I agree most of the these games deserve their praise while some most notably the Wii games are not Overrated, everyone who has played a game before this generation of consoles will know that the VAST majority of Wii games Suck when compared to any game of the other consoles or the previous generation.
007 Goldeneye and Zelda OoT were actually good. And GTA4 isn't overrated, it was overhyped. Also, where is Uncharted 2? that game is extremely polished doo doo.
FFVII, Ocarina of Time, Mortal Kombat, Mario 64, Golden Eye 007.
To say these games are overrated is complete nonsense, and the author knows it, he's just saying it for hits, that much is obvious.
FFVII was a title that pushed JRPGs to new heights. Although now JRPGs are not nearly as good as they used to be, FFVII was released at a time where games had just entered the 3D realm. To say this game was overrated is like saying the NES was overrated.
Same with Mario 64 and Goldeneye 007, both of those games were the FIRST to actually take advantage of new technology and take it to new heights and set benchmarks for all other developers. Without Goldeneye to pave the way with its popularity we can argue that we would not have our Halos and CoDs of today. Or the leap to that kind of sophisticated FPS gaming would have been delayed. As far as Mario 64, if the author of this opinion piece were to read about the impact Mario64 had, his foot would be in his mouth.
As far as MK and Ocarina go, they were both extremely fun ... I cant argue that they set the pace, but I had endless hours of entertainment with those 2 games ...
Needless to say, I disagree with the author...haha. :)
I like GTA4, but it really is the pinnacle of overrated. Having such a high score on metacritics and not really expanding upon everything San Andreas had... And Gears of War 2 may have been a bit lazy sequel, but call of duty should have definitely made the list first.
On that list, you have some the highest rated games of all time. Just looking at the picture of the author explains a lot. When most of these games were a their peak he was probably to young to play them.
I agree with quite a few of these, actually. I'll always have a soft spot for Final Fantasy VII, though, as it's the one game that got me into 1) RPGs and 2) storytelling in games generally. Sure, parts of it are clichéd and laughable now, but you have to remember what a revolution that game actually was.
Gears of War can go to hell though. Always hated that series.
I agree with FFVII being overrated. FFIX, VI, and IV are better.
The characters are terrible. Let's see, you have a spiky, haired emo who has amnesia and has no clue chicks dig him. Barrett = walking stereotype. Cait Sith is the worst character every. A cat on a moogle? Who thought of this? Yuffie is annoying, but thankfully she's optional. Sephiroth = momma's boy who killed a flower girl behind her back.
Translation and writing are pretty bad. I remember Cloud's epic line after Aeris died. "My eyes are burning!" LOL!
Battle system is average, but it's also a step-down from the previous games. FFIV & VI let you had 4-5 people in battle while FFVII only let you have 3.
Your an idiot if your going to bring up graphics from a game thats 13 years old. And yes it goes without saying games from 13 years ago had back graphics.
Yeah, GTA IV especially. Look, it was a great game, but you know what was a better open world game? Vice City. And Mafia 1. And Red Dead Redemption.
GTA IV was okay, I think the real mind-blower was the design of Liberty City. It's gorgeous. It's just, well, a little less juvenile a story than, say, San Andreas. Actually, speaking of which, add San Andreas to the list of better open world games, too.
I agree. At least Mafia II's story is good. Not perfect. But good. GTA IV hides itself in being gritty and realistic but it's really juvenile. Niko escapes Eastern Europe to begin a new life and just begins killing again...it's like, really? And he shows NO reluctance at all.
In Red Dead you have a character with a family, who's fighting for something, and who doesn't really like what he's forced to do. I LOVE RDR.
I'm tempted to try RDR but... with respect, The Family motivator for protagonists is SO cliche. especially with children. perhaps I'm jaded from too many tv crime dramas, but too often I see children just being used as a cheap way to elicit the viewer's sympathy.
also in GTAIV Niko travels to America deliberately intent on resolving old Eastern Euro conflicts. remember the 'That Special Someone' trailer airing prior to the game's release??
@n to the b - I think it's not about the children - it's about the fact that John Marston has quit the life of being an outlaw to settle down because he no longer wanted that life. His family is then held hostage by the newly-formed FBI (or, more accurately, the FBI's predecessor) and has to return to a life he thought he'd escaped. It's in the ending where it's so poignant and beautiful. I can't recommend RDR enough. It's that good.
Also, while Niko returns to track down a traitor, in general, what he wants to do is become a normal American. He wants a girlfriend, a house, a car. What he gets is murdering people left and right but he never seems to have any problem with it.
Don't get me wrong, I love GTA IV. I think it's amazing. I just think it isn't quite as good as some other similar games.
it isn't really underrated. if you compare gta4 to its predecessors you will see that for gta, it was bad. if it was a new game, or first gta in 3d world, everybody would love it. but, for a game that follows the footsteps of san andreas, it was so bad that only reason it isn't hated is a couple of things here and there. like a cool graphic, some nice voice actings. many things went wrong with it
GTA4 was great in my opinion. Every now and then I go back and play it because it's just so long it never seems like its going to end. OOT and SM64 are not overated at all. The games have that something special that you can't quite put your finger on or maybe its just quality. FF7 is not overated. I played the game again recently and found small things that I forgot was in the game like Dean and dressing as a woman etc... The game was way ahead of its time in the sense of how it immersed me again without a catch. You can't go wrong playing the game on your PSP. I'm serious the game does not look that old it looks quite good. FF9 is also a very good game that is underated in my opinion. The rest of the list I can see where he is coming from. Goldeneye has been surpassed by almost every shooter. MK I think doesn't deserve to be their either as a pioneer in the fighting genre. Good discussion article non the less.
I kind of agreed with the 10-4, but then it just got crazy. HAHAH
This article was made to just blast some of the greatest games of our time. I got the lolz from this... but most of these games are revolutionary, not overrated.
In hindsight, many games seem overrated because current games which have the same scores are much improved. Years from now, another great game will receive an A+ and people will compare it against Uncharted 2 and see how much better it is than Uncharted 2. But as of right now, Uncharted 2 is an A+ compared to contemporary games. So people shouldn't forget that.
LMAO I know exactly where this guy is coming from. I wrote a blog on N4G (only a couple of clicks away if you want to make yourselves even more angry) about pedestal games, games that are remembered for being amazing but actually aren't and I more or less nailed the top 4 on this guys list lol.
The thing is and A lot of people are saying this, If you look at an older game that was a basis of an entire generation, Look at Super Mario 64, Golden Eye and Oot being prime examples, and then get the smart Idea to try and even compare them to the games of this day and age you going to be called out. Cause you can not do that its like saying the cars of the 80s are horrible cars compared to the cars of today. Your point is valid but not only stupid its the basis for all stupidity, of course with time comes advancement and improvement on how things work. But advancement does not equal or even necessarily mean inferior or useless. If your going to talk about objects of the past stop putting them up against objects of the Future ITS moronic in every sense of the word.
A game that is held in high regard should be a game that can stand the test of time. Goldeneye and ff7 have not stood the test of time as goldeneye is just unplayable now due to bad controls and FF7 has been improved upon with every entry in the series, be in graphically, gameplay or story.
The greatest games should be games that don't age, games you can pick up these days and they are still amazing to play and look at, to name but a few are Chrono Trigger, Streets of Rage 2, Donkey Kong Country, Ico and many more. If a game wants to be remembered as being one of the greats should be measured not by how good it was at the time, because obviously it's going to be amazing at the time, but how good they are now because the best are the ones that will forgo improvements in technology and stay amazing.
I know I finally sat down and beat it this year, I still enjoyed it mind you but I guess I missed the Bus by a couple years cause best RPG ever would have to be Crono of FF6.
Replayed GE007 and PD on the 64 last weekend with some old friends from out of town. Still fun, still amazing. Did it age? Yes. Still compelling and fun? Def. No other FPS on a console has given me such longevity and pure fun.
Not sure how seriously to take this article; sure most of these games have been eclipsed NOW, but hindsight is always 20/20 and some of the games called out here were nothing short of revolutionary in their day.
I think the article looks at these games and their capabilities from a present day perspective. Yeah, Ocarina of Time may not seem like much today, but when it came out on the 64 - holy $#@*!!! It was freaking nuts, right? I wouldn't call it overrated, just the evolution of gaming.
But, then again, there are quite a few on here that do deserve the overrated tag.
wow I actually agree with not a single one on the list. This guy is just making up the reasons that he thinks the games are overrated; "some people say" and "it has been said" these kinds of statements do not mean overrated, I mean I never saw the hype of wii fit and sports, they just sold well they were not given 10/10 scores or anything, plus no one said Mario 64 was better than galaxy just that it was amazing at the time of release and can still hold its own today.
Oh and Ocarina of time is still an amazing game, and I say that not from nostalgia, but from the fact that I played it again a couple months ago.
Agree with FFVII. I like it, and still have a physical copy on my shelf, but that game's fan base has grown outta control over the years thanks to the crappy movie and other merchandising. I mean you've got young FFVII fanboys nowadays who have never even played the actual game, thanks to that movie.
Also agree with GTAIV, and I've 100%'d the game 3 times on multiple consoles, even earning the Key to the City for that launch contest. It got an assload of 10's despite being weaker than the entire PS2 series. http://i269.photobucket.com...
Aside from that, I'm not really feeling the article. Really stupid reasoning for some of them, like SM64.
Actually, GTA IV was the first GTA that I played and I loved it. I got Vice City a few months ago and just couldn't get into it, which is actually the argument they use for a lot of entries in this list. Is GTA IV a great game? yes. Revolutionary? God no.
For me - Hard Rain must be on the list. Hyped - got psyched - luckily only rented it - and it sucked. Irritating characters, unusable control scheme... all in all it was one of the all time disappointments for me.
LOL yes you are right. Heavy Rain. Serious though. It is the one game that was so hyped for months - and the great 10/10 reviews really had me going. The thing that irritated me the most was the thing where you had to push buttons in a sequence - no skill required - just press the queued buttons and the action happens by itself. And then to watch a boring cutscene with a soppy storyline... it was a depressing and soulless experience - I hope they don't make another game like that.
Move can maybe improve the controls - some of the press turn press motions for opening a door, starting a car etc could work with Move. But then again - driving the car and some of the other stuff - was like bad mini games with good graphics. It was my biggest disappointment game this year.
Last one was Lair. The game had such potential - and I actually liked the motion controls - the thing that got to me there was the interfere-as-you-play. You just get into what you were doing and the game jumps in with a cutscene and change your strategy - every 3 minutes. It was as if someone else was playing and I just got to use the controller every now and then.
OK now that that's out of way, I don't really agree with anything on this list these are some of the top selling, most enjoyable games (to most people cause i personally dont even like GTA as a series). I have played a finished every game on this list besides GTA 4, and i have to say almost none of them were overrated, that my opinion though
The memories are what people really cherish and not the game themselves. An objective person that never played those games when they were released wouldn't see the appeal now.
For example, when I was a child, I enjoyed Wrestling, Power Rangers, and even Disney Channel. Now, I can't even stand any of them but my memories of them are still great.
Nostalgia really clouds our judgment. Having said all that, there are timeless games that are still enjoyable no matter when you play them. They just aren't as common as you may think.
No "overrated" list is complete without halo series. I played halo 1 on pc - horrible experience. Insane system reqs for insanely ugly game. Played halo 3 on 360 (had 360 for 9 months) - horrible. Poor graphics, shooting at midget dinosaurs is generic as it gets, and that fabled multiplayer that everybody is screaming about is one of the worst multiplayer experiences ever.
Basically multiplayer consists of jousting to another player and smacking him with your rifle - tactic every player seem to use. If you kill them before reaching them, even better. If not, your trusty rifle smack is there. Oh, and let's not forget about homosexual 12 year olds screaming in their mics to suck their balls everytime they get upset or score a kill.
Goldeneye is overated now, but not back then. I loved Goldeneye too. Goldeneye meant countless hours spent every weekend with my friends and I kill eachother.
I still have people tell me that Goldeneye is the best console shooter ever, and that it's way better than a lot of games these days. Well, I think that time has clouded their judgement, because the pre dual analog stick setup just doesn't feel intuitive.
Goldeneye though, still holds a spot close to number one in my heart. However, I won't disagree with the statement that it is overrated.
Ocarina of time though... I've been playing it again for kicks on my Wii, and I think it still holds up level design wise.
Furthermore, seems to me the author is implying that Zelda has in general taken a back seat to level design, which to me is way off. I'm continually surprised by the levels in all of the new games. Although I found that Phantom Hourglass isn't as up to par with some of it's console brethren. No worries though, it's an awesome game.
10 - Yes. 9 - Yes. 8 - It was never well received to begin with? 7 - It also wasn't well received to begin with. 6 - Yes. 5 - No. Just no. 4 - A little. 3 - A little. 2 - No. 1 - Absolutely no.
Poor article overall. People should start giving less attention to these stupid articles with no quality. We are all suckers for falling for it. I still think N4G should develop some sort of section system for its articles.
The author must've been dropped on his head as a child. I mean WTF? Zelda OOT, Mario 64 pioneered new mechanics at the time, but even now they're great to play.
You can't say every game with some nostalgic value is overrated...
People say Zelda was the greatest game for it's time. It is in no way better than current games if you compare feature by feature, pixel by pixel.
Mario 64 was the best platformer for its time. Sure they've expanded since then, but very few/none are as good as Mario 64 was back then.
Also, tell me where Wii Fit and Wii Sports are highly rated? Popular, sure. But not many people regard them as top tier games or anything. You're not really using the correct term of 'Overrated' here, or at least you're changing what that term means on several occasions throughout the article. You must keep consistent. Either choose games that over sold, or games that were rated higher by critics than they deserved, or old games that are still clung onto which aren't as good as people remember them to be.
Ocarina of time most overrated?? I am no ninty fan but that game was so refreshing and new compared to the old 2D Zelda's. Also FFVII overrated, lol only if you did not play it back in the ps1 era I can understand people not being impressed with it now but, that was the one of the best RPG's ever to be released, well apart from FFVIII which in my opinion is still the best RPG.
Just my opinion, but I think this is just a horrible list.
By today's standards some of the older titles may pale. But each was significant and stunning for it's time. Hell in some cases, I'd say those games are a lot better than some of today's titles in that the developers then didn't feel the need to hold the casual gamers hand throughout. I don't remember a golden trail or hub pointing the way for me in goldeneye,LOZ, or Mario 64. and why is it that 3 of the 10 games are N64 titles that were each fantastic?? (the reasoning offered by the writer is not convincing to me.) Hell, he calls the new goldeneye a sequel and it's actually a remake.
as for the newer titles, It all sounds like typical fanboy ranting more than anything. We all know it's the trend to rip on blockbuster titles like Gears. Wer also know that the so called hardcore gamers rip on anything on the wii, But Hell, Wii sports was a pack in from day one. (MS and Sony didn't offer us that much) How do you call a fun little pack in game overrated? it is what it is. Fun. Then there's No mention of the strength training exercises for Wii fit? Whether anyone uses them or not, I assume the writer did not play the game. Make a run through those exercises (push ups, sit ups, ETC.) and then come tell me that Wii fit is just a "shallow yoga experience". It's still a far stretch from sitting on the couch.
And YES, Mortal Kombat is indeed a classic. Not only is the franchise nearly 20 years old and still running strong, but it was revolutionary in the gaming industry when it hit screens in 1992.
the only game on the list that I agree with is GTA4. too much hype and not the experience we all hoped for. But really? GTA4 is on this list and Fable 2 isn't? I liked fable 2, but talk about overrated!
There are a lot of games more deserving of the title "overrated". The judgment of the writer of this list is dubious at best.
SM64 is still one of the top 3 greatest single player games ever, because it did it with a vision that no other game had before it at that time, and with amazing graphics to boot.
Yes galaxy does it better, but thats 10+ years after, but without SM64 we'd never had experianced the magical nintendo franchise in the way that we do now.
Edit: Ah. Gotcha.
Forgiven and forgotten. Thought some foul play might have been at work.
Some of the greatest games I've played. I guess you can't please everybody. Or are you the type of guy that hates everything that everybody likes?
Finaly a list I agree with.
While I think the article is a little on the flamebait side, I do agree that some of these games were a bit overhyped.
I agree with quite a few of these, actually. I'll always have a soft spot for Final Fantasy VII, though, as it's the one game that got me into 1) RPGs and 2) storytelling in games generally. Sure, parts of it are clichéd and laughable now, but you have to remember what a revolution that game actually was.
Gears of War can go to hell though. Always hated that series.