As someone who isn’t necessarily big on the notion streamlining is “objectively” good game design… That more or less began to be disposed of the minute we had the technology, minus a few now-niche genres that rely on it. It was gradual, but mass market games as early as Zork in 1981, had save schemes.
I believe the only reason adult games aren’t as popular in Western countries as they are in Japan (and I think elsewhere in Asia?) is because there’s a stereotype that they’re low quality, which came about because of the ESRB (not sure about other countries’ rating systems) basically making it so there was no money in it in a pre-digital download world.
I’m going to take this as “games that I never see anyone question their quality.” (I don’t even like all these games myself)
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Kirby Planet Robobot
Doom 2016
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Pac-Man
Balatro
Steins;Gate
The House in Fata Morgana
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Gran Turismo 4
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mega Man X
Mega Man X4
Super Mario Bros. 3
Hollow Knight
Bloodborne
Elden Ring
Balder’s Gate 3
Michael Eisner once called himself “the last of the creative types in Hollywood” after he left Disney, and I can’t help but see what he meant when he said that when I look at the current American film and TV landscape. It’s like today’s Hollywood bigwigs don’t even understand why people watch TV and movies.
I kinda think this happened to Western video games too (yeah Sony is a Japanese company…but PlayStation has shown a pretty square focus on the Western market in the past 10 years.) From a consumer perspective I don’t think a new CEO is the answer. It wasn’t for Disney’s fans with Bob Chapek.
Yes. I very much remember it being uncontroversial to call the N64 retro in 2010.