This could be Fighting Games: The Thread. The genre is notorious for it. The current game is trash, unbalanced, lacks fundamentals, too random, and so on and we need a return to honest footsies like the last game. Then a new game comes out and the game everyone hated is now brilliant.
Of course the ultimate example is Street Fighter III. What is now a masterpiece of the genre was originally unpopular in the United States.
One thing I love about emulation and technology like fightcade is seeing somewhat obscure, weird, wacky fighting games get a second life from the type of player who enjoys messing around and breaking things. So you see games like Street Fighter: The Movie, Primal Rage, or Battle Monsters broken down by folks who appreciate the jank. It’s not so much re-evaluated to a degree that anyone would say Clayfighter is a secret gem, but there’s a better understanding that even these janky games have interesting ideas and concepts and it can be fun to explore them. I was the sicko in the 90’s who would play ANYTHING, so I love seeing Cosmic Carnage or whatever get some play.
and I’ll chime in to say I ALWAYS loved FF XIII and FF X-2. I’m a queer woman who was in the closet at the time. I adored those characters, it meant so much to me.
Yeah I was gonna mention this is happening right now with Street Fighter 6 lmao. I understand not liking the new system mechanics, but you will never catch me in a YouTube comment section saying they should bring back V-Trigger
It’s cracking me up watching the discourse from afar when I feel like this game was universally praised at launch. To be fair, updates, balancing, new characters, etc. have happened and over time players are able to exploit and/or understand mechanics on a deeper level, but it’s wild now seeing some people do a 180 on Street Fighter V now.
I will forever be absolutely baffled by the complete turnaround on Sonic Unleashed
Agreed! When it came out I remember reviews saying it was 7/10 at best, and the reception didn’t seem that different from games like Black Knight or Secret Rings (which are seen as total stinkers today). So I was really surprised when Sonic x Shadow Generations came out how many reviewers were mentioning Unleashed as one of the high watermarks in the history of Sonic (although I guess in terms of “good” 3D Sonic games, there isn’t much competition…)
And speaking of 3D Sonic, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more of a 180 on the Sonic Adventure games. I didn’t grow up with them,* and tried playing them a bit recently, and yaouch even getting through the first level of Adventure 1 was really painful. I saw a video about the GCN ports having worse lighting and some weird physics so I emulated the Dreamcast originals, but even then I was constantly clipping through things and getting tossed into the water for no reason at all, and other frustrating jank like that. Tried watching some lets plays and it was going equally terribly for those “pro” gamers on youtube.
I see how levels like City Escape were seen as really cool at the time (and are still cool now), but I’m surprised at how many people claim that the Adventures games are still good overall, even gameplay wise, and insist it’s not just their nostalgia speaking, whereas I can’t imagine anyone playing more than 5 minutes of it in 2025 and not immediately realizing what a broken frustrating mess those games are, even if they do have nostalgia for the music/stages/etc. Only thing I don’t see people defending is the Big the Cat stages, but Big is my boy so I can’t hate too hard on them (also I never got that far haha)
*[I did grow up with Sonic Heroes, which I thought was only OK back then, and it seems to still have a lower reputation now, even among Sonic fans]
What the what. I know they bankroll the first game but I have never heard of them owning the company outright. I believe most of the initial capital was provided by Kowloon Nights (i.e. indirectly Netease).
I think people really love the day stages in Unleashed, and I remember playing those back in the day and thought they rocked but the night stages were so-so. Maybe the day stages are what people think are the hallmark of 3D Sonic? I also played the Wii version which I think is considered to have better level design that the PS3/360 version.
I totally agree the Adventure games are a broken mess but I also love them because they are janky broken messes.
Not a terribly exciting choice but I knew a couple of people who hated Death Stranding pre-pandemic and suddenly 'got it’s during the pandemic here. I don’t think Kojima is a Nostradamus or anything but he knows how to read the room.
Also The Last Guardian rules and that Project Robot trailer was the coolest thing to come out of that game awards show.
That one was really interesting because that had such a fast turnaround because the world was in full pandemic mode about 6 months after the game came out. Also, anything late 2019/early 2020 feels like a thousand years ago to me.
Going out on a limb here, but I feel like this happens pretty frequently to follow-ups or precursors to massively praised entries in a series.
Majora’s Mask has already been brought up and the first Castlevania game on the 64 was the first console release in the series after SotN. Resident Evil 3/5 were let downs to a lot of people in large part due to the fact that they’re follow-ups to what many consider the best entries in the series. Heck, 3 is in between two titans and is easily swept under the rug. You could also say the same about Silent Hill 3, which I see more people giving that game it’s roses as of late. Super Mario Galaxy has the opposite happening; it was praised on release, but now is considered the inferior of the Galaxy games and one of the weaker 3D mario games.
EDIT: oh shit, not a single mention of GOD HAND. But also @Gaagaagiins hasn’t posted in here yet
Speaking of Castlevania, I know a lot of people have come around on a lot of the later Igavanias. There towards the end the reception from most was, “Great. More of these?” While my response was, “Great! More of these!” I’ve been saying Order of Ecclesia is the best Igavania since it came out. Am I still on an island?
As a Wii kid, I can confirm, I always preferred the first Galaxy, at least as a kid. I 100%ed Galaxy a few years ago and I need to do Galaxy 2 this year and see if my opinions have changed. I remember my thoughts on Galaxy 2 at the time were it felt like more Galaxy, which don’t get me wrong, it was still brilliant and incredible, but it didn’t feel as innovative, original, or mind blowing in the same way when I first saw Mario walk upside down.
FFXIII was panned for the story and linearity, but the battle system always had people who defended it. Even when I was early into my RPG history I was less into the traditional dragon quest style of fights so when I played XIII I liked how rhythmic it felt switching between the “Paradigms”
As a Wii kid myself there were many games there that were hyped up (due to how few games there were), but are completely forgotten about now. I’m thinking Zach and Wiki, Mad World, The Conduit, Red Steel? Those names all sound right but could be wrong. The only one that really broke out of that but is still mostly gone is No More Heroes.