@Philia very true actually, espsecially with the "TPP is unfinished" crowd going back to the fuckin demo of the game like "well this is much more Finished"

Hotline Miami 2. Basically people expected more of the first game without much change. Nowdays is seen as it's own beast entirely.

BioShock 2. I didn’t play it at launch, but I know it was divisive among fans and critics. Nowadays. I see a lot of praise for its gameplay improvements and story that doesn’t rely on a plot twist to be memorable. I think it’s the best in the trilogy and Minerva’s Den is amazing.

It's crazy how people just... like Cyperpunk now. Like i cant uses it as shorthand for a shitty game anymore bc most people know it as a good game now. Also, if there were ever a hill I'd die on, it will be that Wind Waker is a really terrible game.

Would Silent Hill 3 work? It was never severely hated but pretty much everyone at launch thought it was a big step down from 2 and there's still some people that think that, but recently a lot more people have taken to the game not as a follow-up to silent hill 2, but as its own game and also as a sequel to silent hill 1 and through that lens many of those same people feel it's on par with Silent Hill 2.

prey is the one for me. i was so confused why the game was disregarded so much. I'm happy people are recognizing it now, too little too late unfortunately.

Got me with dmc 2 haha.

Off top off my head I got:
- Tlou part 1 (PC Port)
- Jedi Survivor (Release - Optimizations)
- Witcher 3 (Release - Optimizations and bugs)
- Dishonored 2 (I dont remember what exactly was the issue but I think it was optimizations)
- Danganronpa 3 (When the game release a lot of the reviews [for some reason especially the Japanese ones] were negative, I think owning up to the late game / ending.)

When did FFXIII came back positively? I keep seeing online discourse trashing the game and referring to it as the "black sheep" of the series, even Square Enix lowkey seems to have shoved it into a corner given it's the only main line series title (and it's sequels) that does not have a port in modern consoles outside of PC.

It's probably just me but I feel that BioShock infinites reputation has actually gone down and was far more liked when it was released. I only say that due to how many people I've heard talk about it, in real life or on YouTube, that they used to love it but when they revisited it they were very disappointed

I clearly missed something, because Pokemon Black & White have been the best games in the series since the day they launched.

This may be a hail Mary, but RE4 and Gears of War 2.

I remember seeing entire forum threads slamming RE4 when it was released, saying how Capcom had lost their minds and ruined RE, and how RE was dead and RE3 will be the greatest RE of all time. Whether this was a loud minority or not, I can't fully remember. Now, RE4 is considered one of the best games of all time.

With GoW2, I specifically remember a lot of YouTubers using it as the poster child for how far the quality in games had dropped since the 90's. To them, it was a brainless game made for muscle-head idiots filled with boring grey colour palettes and dumb frat-bro characters. A far cry from the beauty of Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64. They especially hated how the final boss was an on-rail shooter, which in term became emblematic of the lack of imagination in shooters. Now, I'm seeing comments everywhere saying how those were the golden years, and how more games should be like them now.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney was DESPISED by the fanbase for years just for it to have a massive shift to now being considered one of the best, I had to live through the fanbase hating the hell out of it and the switchup it eventually saw was insane.

@MultiGenre I will say at this point you really should try to play it but I understand not wanting to give money to people who clearly betrayed people's trust. In the end I will say if you buy a game only when it's fixed I feel like it sends a message that the game should've been functional to get my sale earlier which for these people is a good message to send as well.

Do people actually like Day's Gone?

@MultiGenre: I dunno if it was awful initial consensus (and the actual fans of the series were certainly happy when it came out AFAIK), but considering how much praise it gets now + the fact that the Kickstarter for its spiritual successor was in the top three biggest video game KSes of all time, people may forget Suikoden II came out to pretty lackluster reviews, hence why physical copies of the only run it got are expensive as FUCK rn. And, related to what you mentioned in the list already, most of the complaints were about...the pixel art graphics being dated compared to cutting-edge games like FFVII, LMAO

Great list! Would Super Paper Mario count? It was never received poorly by journalists and professional critics, but I remember it being very divisive among Mario fans at the time, only for its detractors to reevaluate it after the Paper Mario series continued to decline in quality and realize the game wasn't actually bad after all.

No Man's Sky is peak hated at launch. Devs fixed it and now everyone loves it

Would PAC-MAN World 2 count for this? The consensus wasn't "awful" per se, but a lot of critics at the time gave it pretty lukewarm reviews in the 5/10-7/10 range (the absolute highest Metascore it got was 74), often times saying it was forgettable or subpar. Yet if you ask most people who have played it nowadays, they'll often say that they really liked it, and a ton of people are clamoring for it to get a remake like the first game did.

I think Super Smash Bros. Brawl might also be worth considering. I remember people used to absolutely trash the everloving hell out of that game around the time SSB4 was coming out, saying it was slow and floaty and the worst Smash game, yet I have heard loads more people in recent years look back on the game with a lot of fondness, and I've even seen a sizeable chunk of people call it the best game in the series.

@blurblur98 honestly it should get a remake cuz i think it kinda sucks lol

@Marlotix you're right, SPM was definitely a bit divisive between fans, but its another example where i think "awful" is a little too strong. people definitely loved SPM.

@blueblur98 also an example of a game that i think didn't have strong enough feelings either way. people kinda like it now, people kinda liked it then, overall its a PS2 mascot platformer. maybe pac-man fans have a strong opinion about it but generally i dont think it was terribly noteworthy.

Brawl is one i'd like to get a few more opinions on. you're right about the reception circa 4 and the reception nowadays, but i dont think it was received poorly on launch. i remember it being an absolute smash hit (LAWL) just by virtue of it being smash, let alone its individual quality. maybe other witness reports can tell me im misremembering, but i dont think it was an awful reception either. it is the best smash doe

i appreciate all the suggestions and the banter regardless

SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom was never disliked, but was considered merely "middling" until Gen Z grew up.

Mr. Gimmick is a similar situation to EarthBound, didn't exactly get a fair shake when magazines previewed it abroad, but is now considered a premier NES game.

Five Nights at Freddy's was pretty widely mocked by adults as a non-scary, cliche cashgrab when it first came out, but now it's a mainstream franchise with all-ages appeal.

Mappy is a game that didn't do well in the US in the 80s, too cute with an unconventional cabinet, but is quite popular with 2000s kids who played it on Namco compilations, especially the Ms. Pac-Man plug & play.

PaRappa the Rapper 2 was at one point considered a fall from grace, but most contemporary critics see it as the franchise's peak.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is a very by-technicality case, it was liked when it came out, meaning it's not really elegible, but did get a bit of a negative stigma once people found out it was a reskin, but now people go into the game knowing that and enjoy it on its own merits.

Yars' Revenge is considered by many to be THE best Atari 2600 game, or at least in the top 5, and that one was not liked by 80s-era magazines.

why tf is bioshock infinite on here fr. other games definitely dont belong but that is peak what is this doing here

no idea why drak 1 is on here that thing got decent-good review scores cross the board on release, the guys at ign thought it would be the next dynasty warriors lol

People came around on RE6?

this list is REAL, the gamers that trashed on all these are fucking STUPID. i like dunkey but i will always hate his mistreatment for the last guardian, bro wanted to be funny

GTA IV is also one of these, people act like it's some kind of 'hidden gem' just because it was less popular then V and SA and had a grim story and less sandbox elements.

i don't see anyone but some lunatic sonic fans claim unleashed is the best but the tide did turn for it i suppose

This is a great list but people really misremember the consensus on gen 5, only the new mon designs were trashed, I’ve looked back many times and it’s hard to find topics or posts actually whining about the games. Especially the sequels were well received when they were new

With that said I dread the day Sword/Shield get that retrospective treatment because they of all games do not deserve it, and even as a gen 5 hater I’ll agree SwSh are way worse

If you want to count fandom-specific examples, Skylanders Superchargers got a lot of crap for the focus on vehicles and lacking postgame when it came out, nowadays people appreciate the story and stuff more but it’s still overshadowed by the tiny postgame imo