They Changed It, Now It Sucks/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of They Changed It, Now It Sucks in Video Games include:

  • Gaming in general...you get fans who whine about formulaic games, not finding anything different, and crying for new things. So now games try and do something different, you know, to spice it up a bit or set it apart from other games...But guess what? Now everyone cries, They Changed It, Now It Sucks and that it's a worthless gimmick and refuse to give experiments a chance saying "But we never WANTED That kind of stuff!". Shame, because video games are very keen to asking a council of Cabalists what a "Game" is, and if it's not pressing buttons or killing people, it's not a game. Ironically if you ask people about the mouse, which uses similar but smaller scale technology, they won't tell you about anything "Gimmicky" about that...despite that the key difference was that they actually gave the mouse a chance.
  • When the Roblox devteam updates something or something happens to persuade people to buy Builder's Club, all hell breaks loose on the fourms. ALL HELL. Better bring your fire extinguisher.
  • Jagged Alliance: Back in Action gets the FULL treatment before even being released! At the time of this writing there is only the demo, yet but people whine all about it being to hard, that the turn based style is gone, that there is real time action, that you are not bound by fields anymore and so on and so on. Appearently they did something new and now the whole franchise is tainted.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising seems to be getting this for being a "Star FOX copy" rather than the 2D Platformer/Shooter that the original was. People claiming this probably only watch the on-rails sky portions and comment before even seeing the ground portions. (Which make the game more akin to Sin and Punishment.
    • Even then, there are people who bash on the game for deviating too much from the original, calling it a generic Third-Person Shooter. Not only does the 3DS actually have, you know, the power to make something heck of a lot better than a 2D Metroid clone, it's brought the series up to today's standards and will probably let it live on as another one of Nintendo's flagship series.
  • Counter-Strike suffers from this in loads with fans going to obscene lengths to remain pure. Version 1.6? They ruined it compared to 1.3! Version 1.3? They ruined it compared to 1.0! Version 1.0? They ruined it compared to the Beta! Not to mention Counter-Strike: Condition Zero or Counter-Strike: Source. Some extreme fans even argue that Counter-Strike can only be played in a superior fashion (yes, they do mean performance-wise) with genuine pre-millenium hardware.
  • Elite Beat Agents got a lot of this before it came out with fans complaining "It's not a Japanese setting!" (despite that it was supposed to not be this) and "Ashlee Simpson? Cher?!" Some even went as far as to call it a rip-off despite being made by the same company. When people actually got to play (and with the gameplay upgrades and still-goofy setting) this has abated significantly.
  • This trope perfectly describes the Need for Speed series' fanbase reaction to NFS ProStreet doing away with the cop chases in NFS Most Wanted and NFS Carbon in favor of something more realistic and organized. EA responds by going back to the well with NFS Undercover. NFS Undercover also happens to be the worst-reviewed game in the series. Take That, fanbase!
  • While almost universally regarded as an improvement on at least the last couple of games before it, Tomb Raider: Legend saw a lot of contention among both the fanbase and others, for very linear level design, easy puzzles, too much action and spoon-feeding sidekicks. Along with some considering Lara's changed personality too much in the direction of Lighter and Softer... and accusations of her getting too much character development.
    • Tomb Raider: Anniversary went a long way to satisfying those irritated by most of the above things, but causes some division over certain character design and storyline changes from the game it is based off. Plus there are certain room cuts that are near-impossible to defend as anything other than being due to time constraints; especially when they contrast with brilliantly remade sections.
  • Neo Contra. Konami decided to try something new, changing the game to an Ikari Warriors style overhead run-n-gun. While not completely unredeemable like the PS 1 Contra games, it was criticized for its short length and lack of difficulty compared to its Nintendo Hard predecessors. Konami saw the error of their ways, and changed back to the classic style for Contra 4 on the DS.
  • When Square Enix games are ported, they frequently get new translations. If the old translations were completely incompetent (like Final Fantasy IV), no one really cares much. But heaven forbid the original was halfway competent, particularly if it was written by Ted Woolsey (who had to work within time constraints and the limitations imposed by the need to fit the game into a 24 megabit cartridge and Nintendo of America's censorship policies.) The script may be an outright improvement, but fans will whine left and right.
    • Similarly, Final Fantasy Tactics got a new translation with the PSP port, with the original script having been notorious for Engrish and riddled with translation errors and widely criticised at the time of release for how utterly inept it was in light of the serious subject matter. Fast-forward to 2007 and the new script was immediately derided for not being as "campy", and the corrections to the numerous mistranslations and language errors completely ignored. Changing the names of characters didn't go well with fans either
    • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was scorned by many Tactics fans for the art style and the story becoming "too kiddy" compared to the first Tactics that was dark and gritty. This opinion has not changed for A2.
    • And the same thing has repeated itself for the new translation of Chrono Trigger. The script is a lot closer to the Japanese script now, which has led to some amusing diversions (namely that the "Good Morning, Crono!" advertising campaign is quoting a line that was changed for the new script), but also a few like Frog no longer speaking with Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe, which is a mortal sin according to some people.
    • Speaking of Chrono, the transition to Chrono Cross received (and still does) this reaction from fans.
    • Fans have been known to say that that the retranslation in the Game Boy Advance version Final Fantasy VI is "drier" and that Kefka has been made into a more serious character. This is an outright lie!! Exactly two of Kefka's one-liners were modified at all; one turned "HATE HATE HATE HATE (etc.)" into a long list of seemingly random insults, and the other is that after seeing Figaro Castle dig under the sand, he declares Edgar a "son of a submariner/sandworm" (depending on the version). What's more, Kefka gets new one liners.
      • Seriously, the advanced version changes a rather ordinary line about him ordering his soldiers to eradicate those who stand in their way to "There's a reason 'oppose' rhymes with 'dispose'!"
      • The apparent source of confusion over this is actually a fansub that was produced for the game's SNES version, which was more faithful to the original Japanese version and did remove most of Kefka's more humorous moments due to a combination of the Japanese script's jokes not translating well to English, and the translator just thinking that villains should always mean Serious Business in any event.
  • The official forums for StarCraft 2 are constantly flooded with complaints about changes being made to the graphics, army unit rosters, and interface. Most of the released changes are improvements to make the game simpler and more efficient to play, but a very vocal segment of the player base thinks of compensating for the slow, clunky interface as part of the challenge of the game, and that the changes will remove physical skill from multiplayer. Another segment thinks that strategy games should be about strategic decisions, not about who can click faster. These complaints have been around almost since the moment the game was announced to the public, and persist to this day.
    • One of the most popular complaints among self-styled progamers (opposed to actual progamers, who have remained relatively quiet) is that units gather minerals and gas much more intelligently, and move in formation, which dramatically reduces the overall amount of necessary clicking. How to mine and how to move units are the very first two things players learn when making the transition from complete newbie to even the lowest tiers of casual play. Adding to the irony is that Blizzard added a multitude of activated abilities to each faction which do require skill and planning to use properly, which compensates for the loss of action in micro and macro.
    • The game has gained a lot of post-release backlash and hate. People say that the changes Blizzard made are bad like making country music for the Terran, splitting the campaing in one third, changing the way the missions are played... And don't even start about the new Battle.net, especially with the custom games.
  • Diablo III is already getting this with people complaining that it's now Too Colorful. They've even started a petition wanting to replace the entirety of Diablo III with Act 3 of Diablo II. Numerous Counterpetitions have already been launched, and Blizzard has pointed out why Darker and Edgier graphics would be implausible or unplayable.
    • Nevermind that no one plays Act 3 in Diablo II in the first place.
    • This one's easy, just have a Real Is Brown option like in Uncharted, except don't make it an Easter Egg and only silently mock people who use it.
  • Here's a fun experiment - go into a games forum and loudly claim that the remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, has superior voice acting because Mei Ling was never supposed to have a Chinese accent anyway. Actually, maybe you're better off not doing that.
  • The Silent Hill series has suffered from this ever since the second game came out (it was dramatically different in theme and tone from the first game) and every new game in the series inspires rage in a certain segment of the fanbase. There's even a 'documentary' series called The Real Silent Hill Experience half of which talks about the first four games, the other half a non-stop bitch fest about every game in the series after the fourth. Basically, the fanbase has two camps: Those who appreciate the series as a whole, and those who hate any game in the series Team Silent did not create.
    • Silent Hill 4: The Room, although a good game in its own right, had gameplay way too different from the rest of the series, partly because it wasn't originally supposed to be a SH game, and lacked much of the horror atmosphere of its predecessors (e.g. no darkness requiring a flashlight).
      • The funny thing about this is that Word of God stated that the game was always supposed to be a Silent Hill title.
    • Silent Hill 5: Homecoming is viewed this way by fans of the first three games. It changed the combat system to be less clumsy, and didn't stick precisely to the original trilogy's "mythology". Though it's still a good game and is viewed by about half the fanbase as a worthy addition to the series, the other half (rather loudly) says that the American developers just don't get the series -- which is a bit odd, as Silent Hill is and always was, according to the developers, intended as an homage to American horror and was inspired by such American films as Jacob's Ladder and Eraserhead.
    • This seems to be the fate of the newly-announced "re-imagining" of the first game on the Wii, which has changed the formula far more than either of the previous two games. Oddly, many fan complaints focus on the inclusion of a touch-screen phone rather than any of the more drastic alterations.
    • There's already complaining from fans of the series that since Akira Yamaoka is not composing the music for Silent Hill 8, it's "not really a Silent Hill game."
    • People are already screaming Ruined FOREVER with the recently announced ninth game Book of Memories, which is just an action-packed multiplayer game that has nothing to do with the original storyline.
  • A shitstorm of games becoming easier to appeal more to newer fans and to dispel complaints of games having tedious elements (such as requiring the player to grind due to a lack of Leaked Experience or removing Guide Dang It moments) improved or removed entirely, or having the balance worked out has emerged. Especially with the recent spike of Casual gaming.
    • Fans of point and click adventure games had whined about the emergence of adventure games where the player could not make the game unwinnable through Guide Dang It moments or even get a game over by the character being killed. This meant that a player could brute-force their way through the game via Trial and Error.
    • Some such fans complained that the games required less thinking since it was possible to use every single item on a plot barrier without getting a game over for getting it wrong or even saying a wrong conversational option. Despite that these were actually features of adventure games that were criticized by gaming magazines and non-fans alike.
    • Other fans complained about games like Torin's Passage including an in-game hint system that was entirely optional.
    • Some fans even complained about games like King's Quest V removing the requirement to type in commands on the keyboard, meaning that players would not have to type "Look" on every screen or know that a 2x2 pixel square on the ground was a tile that would be important for a puzzle, or even that something that looks to be part of the landscape is in fact an item you should pick up.
    • A similar reaction was seen with the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition "Oversimplifying" the game, despite that 3rd edition started off the same way compared to Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition.
    • The announcement of optional features in a Zelda game that would enable people to get a hint for puzzles or even watch the game play itself has caused an absolute bawfest amongst self-proclaimed hardcore gamers who cannot have fun experiencing the story or enjoying the gameplay unless it gives them a challenge. It has not actually been announced whether or not these features would even be required, meaning a solution would be "Don't like it? Don't press it!" or varying difficulties.
  • The Wii in general has been complained about that there were not enough hardcore games, despite that puzzle games and "casual games" with a staff of maybe 30-100 people can be produced for a fraction of the time and money of a "Hardcore" game with a much larger staff and budget...or that the PC actually is covered in "Casual games" like Diner Dash and Bejeweled and has been since it emerged as a gaming platform.
    • What? No More Heroes 1 & 2 and MadWorld aren't hardcore enough for ya? Nintendo doesn't generally advertise these kinds of games for the Wii in order to keep the family-friendly appearance. There are plenty of good games, you just have to look through all the cheap shots at motion control.
      • No More Heroes was almost a complete commercial failure on the Wii. They later went back and made the game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 when they realized how little support Nintendo and Wii owners would give that kind of game. Yes, these types of games do exist on the Wii, but most are cross platform or sell poorly.
    • The problem is that people confuse casual and hardcore games with the violence level (like the person above me). They think that violent games are hardcore while kiddie-looking games are casual.
  • Most MMORPG gamers who enjoyed games like EverQuest and Ragnarok Online have been up in arms against World of Warcraft and Guild Wars's attempts to appeal to people who did not like games that required the player to grind a lot, and how many new MMORPGs were trying to reduce the amount of grinding required and to offer descriptions for spells and abilities. But despite this, Game magazines, gaming websites, and other such forms of media actually praise an MMORPG for not putting such emphasis on grinding or punishing the player for dying by removing experience or even causing a delevel. (Which would be hours upon hours of work)
  • Star Wars Galaxies was once a thriving MMORPG with lots of devoted players. Right up until the Combat Upgrade which essentially revamped the entire core mechanic and almost everyone quit in disgust.
    • Which, though, sounds like a very reasonable stance if it changed the entire core mechanic.
    • The worst part being that the NGE came only a few months later, rendered most of the previous upgrade useless or replaced, and basically boiled the entire leveling system into World of Warcraft with Jedi. It didn't help that the new interface and mouse were simply dumped into the patch, without support being added for many items. They effectively changed the entire game's UI without bothering to change the game world.
    • Worst, it was changed literally overnight, and negated the third expansion (Trials of Obi Wan) a week after it was launched!
    • A prime example of Nostalgia Filter as well since Star Wars Galaxies was considered one of the most poorly balanced, poorly implemented systems out of any MMO by the active player base prior to the combat upgrade. Both the CU and NGE systems were far better balanced and more functional, even if both had additional flaws.
  • The Halo series. The bitter rage and hatred the most hardcore Halo fans showed at the relatively minute changes between Halo and Halo 2 is nothing short of embarrassing. For some fans, making the Elites speak English or adjusting the graphics on the plasma pistol overcharge are unpardonable sins.
    • Let's not even get started on the people who still demand the return of the first Halo's Pistol, ignoring the fact that it was MASSIVELY overpowered.
    • Fear not: Almighty Bungie hath heard the pleas. The Halo pistol is coming back, though only in Halo: ODST.
    • They got it again in Halo:Reach, but with reticule bloom, many were unhappy.
    • And now with Halo:Combat Evolved Anniversary coming out with everything exactly the same as the original Halo:CE, the response has been mixed to positive.
  • Super Smash Bros. Melee is known for its fast-paced duels, very technical combos, and very useful physics exploits. All of that was changed in Brawl, which was designed to be less reflex-demanding; the gameplay is slow (even with Sonic), the physics don't allow "true" combos, and the physics exploits from Melee and Smash 64 were removed. As a result, Captain Falcon became one of the worst fighters in the game. While Brawl succeeded as a game that new players can enjoy, many of Melee fans were extremely disappointed.
    • Some were disappointed at the removal of certain features or characters, like Race to the Finish and Mewtwo, although most of these had some kind of replacement (Subspace Emissary, Lucario). Granted, not everyone's happy with the replacement.
  • The world's best Ikaruga player complained that the Xbox Live Arcade port of the game was "horrible" because it slightly altered a few of the bullet patterns and enemy placements that he had probably spent months meticulously memorising. Of course, he regained his high score and then complained.
  • Inverted if unbeknowst to the fanbase with the official translation of the GBA rerelease of Tales of Phantasia, which is hated by the fans of the DeJap translation of the SNES version for being more accurate, and not containing a bunch of adult humor that was never in the original. Also played straight with the reaction to not use the romanization in the Japanese version There's also the whole "Ragnarok/Kangaroo" thing, but other than a couple errors it's a largely faithful translation (almost boringly so).
  • Zelda series:
    • The first sequel to The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II the Adventure of Link, received a lot of flak for going from an overhead perspective to a side-scroller with RPG Elements.
    • To accomodate gamers who typically play with the Wiimote in their right hand, the Wii version of The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess not only featured a right-handed Link (who, in nearly all other games, had been obviously left-handed), but flipped the entire game horizontally, geography and dungeon puzzles included. Lefties and righties alike were up in arms over this change.
    • Wind Waker received many of a fanboy's outrage for Link's cel-shaded look, with rants spewing up about how "Celda" had destroyed the series forever and made it a "baby easy kiddy game" (actual quote). Of course, these complaints came about a year and a half before the game was released. When the game came out, it got a lot of flak for changing everything, from making the game take place on an ocean, to using a boat instead of a horse, etc. Basically, it wasn't like Ocarina of Time, so now it sucks, according to the fans. Twilight Princess brought back the horse and the realistic adult-looking Link, but it was complained about some other things.
      • And among those complaints was the fact that the game was a clone of Ocarina of Time...
    • Also in Wind Waker, Link almost lost the ability to swim, having an "air meter" that slowly ran down until he would drown and return to wherever he entered water. People complained. Then, in the sequel, The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass, Link lost his already-limited ability to swim, instead gaining Super Drowning Skills. People complained again.
    • Nevermind that in other Zelda games, Link couldn't swim at all unless you got a certain item.
    • The fanbase hasn't proven unpleasable yet, however, it's pretty doubtful that just letting him swim freely would help.
    • Phantom Hourglass used stylus controls without the option of button or D-pad control. Immediately, there were cries of how the touch screen on the DS was useless and stupid, and that Nintendo should have made a D-pad mode available. In the game itself, there's a subtle Take That against complaining fans in the form of a ghost who laments he wouldn't have died if he could have used the D-pad.
    • There has been a flood of topics on GameFAQs showing patents for a game that shows an easy mode and a normal mode for a Zelda game (though it hasn't even been confirmed if the game will be Zelda). The easy mode has in-game videos that shows the player what to do if they are stuck. People are naturally complaining that this new change will destroy the Zelda franchise as they know it.
    • Now, it's the train in The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks that has ruined Zelda forever. Curiously, most of the people complaining about the changes also seem to be the ones who complained about Twilight Princess being too similar to Ocarina of Time.
    • Now that Spirit Tracks is out, fans found another (but at least slightly justified) reason to complain: The dungeon length was significantly cut down in comparison to other games, even to Phantom Hourglass. Part of the people who complain about this, claim that It's Easy, So It Sucks. Never mind that only the first dungeon is actually easy and that the rest of them in reality only differ from other game's dungeon through their shorter length. Even the bosses are surprisingly tricky for a handheld Zelda.
    • Nintendo patented a saddle controller for the Wii, and immediately people complained about having to sit on a children's toy to ride the horse in Zelda. Except that the patent never even mentioned Zelda, and the accessory only exists as a drawing. Basically, expect any news about the upcoming Wii game to make the series Ruined FOREVER.
    • After a short gameplay demo was shown at E3, the series' newest installment, The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, has somehow managed to become both this and It's The Same Now It Sucks.
      • I can just hear the fangirls ranting about how Link now wears pants instead of the usual tights.
    • When Miyamoto revealed that he had felt guilty for years that he had made the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time too difficult and so had taken measures to make the Water Temple easier to navigate in the 3D remake, some Zelda fans were angry that the Water Temple had been made slightly easier and a few claimed that it ruined the entire remake.
  • Nihon Falcom did something similar to Zelda II with Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, and mercifully changed it back afterwards. It did, much later, receive an overhead remake in the form of Ys: The Oath In Felghana for Japanese PCs, which was later ported to the PlayStation Portable, with the latter version getting an official localization by XSEED Games as part of a partnership with Falcom.
  • Mass Effect 2 was generally praised by fans and new players alike, but a decent contingent of Mass Effect 1 players decried the shift from weapons that had infinite ammunition (and used a cooldown to control rate of fire) to disposable heat sinks that act, in the view of many players, as little more than an excuse to introduce clips and ammo to the series. The shift from outfitting each member of the team fully with weapons, armor, and the like to a system of researching Shepherd-specific and squad-wide upgrades was also flamed by some as being too simple and depriving characters of similar class of uniqueness.
    • There was also the matter of exploration. In Mass Effect, gaining resources for improvements came in the form of driving the Mako around small planet maps. Many fans disliked these segments as both boring and hard to control. Mass Effect 2 replaced them with a planet-scanning mini-game that directly reaped resources to spend on upgrades. While possibly an improvement (at least in terms of time), general consensus still disliked it. This ended up being a case of They Changed It Now It Sucks even though the replaced element wasn't well received anyway.
    • It even happens to the characters. While fans rejoiced at the return of some of the Mass Effect cast for the sequel, forum wars on par with a Reaper attack can start if you express like for some of the new cast members, especially if they fill roles resembling past teammates. Grunt gets this the worst, having replaced Wrex, a fan-favorite, in the role of team krogan. To a lesser extent, fans of Kaiden's unflappable niceness sometimes don't take well to Jacob filling in the role. (Samara took over the role of team asari, but is sufficiently different from Liara that few people compared the two.)
    • Mass Effect 3 has already been criticized by fans for being more shooty and less RPGy, especially in light of the widespread complaints about Dragon Age 2's streamlining, from the same studio. However, this is Misblamed on EA trying to attract "the Call of Duty crowd"[1], despite the fact that the game has more customization than its predecessor, and it's entirely reasonable for Bioware to want to improve the "Action" part of their Action RPG.
  • Warhammer Fantasy Battle Online: Age of Reckoning has already begun to receive vast amounts of flak from various elements of the fandom for making alterations to the plot of Warhammer Fantasy, ostensibly to facilitate gameplay. In all fairness, Warhammer Fantasy/40K players are possibly the whiniest anywhere, complaining when any change is or isn't made (the Rhino Rush was a huge example of this. Players didn't like the fact that it was possible in 3rd Edition, and then when 4th Edition came around and removed it, the very God Damned same players complained at its removal.)
    • It took big flak when they made several classes male-only (only one is female-only, and it's pretty obviously not designed with actual females in mind).
    • Never mind that all but one of these male-only classes are for the Greenskins, who have never been shown to have females outside of the gag Spin-Off Blood Bowl. However, if they had made female Greenskin classes, they would probably have gotten complaints from the same people who complain that the Dwarf classes aren't male-only because of some lore issue.
      • Most complains are aimed at the Choas male-only (the Choosen and Murader) because they were planned to have female versons but cut due too time reasons and were paised for being not very fan servicey.
  • Resident Evil fans were outraged when Resident Evil 4 didn't have ink cartridges, obscure camera angles, Umbrella, or difficult controls. Resident Evil 5 kept the same game engine and kept some old wounds open, but changed back to the earlier games' inventory style, which has opened a whole new can of worms.
  • Dino Crisis 2 was far more action-oriented than the original, a Genre Shift which some fans did not like.
  • To keep with the whole Magic to Steampunk shift in the game's background, Thief 2: the Metal Age replaced the scary zombies of Thief: Dark Project with extremely creepy automatons. Gameplay-wise, they fit the exact same niche: both made a lot of creepy noise, both were very hard to kill, and both were very slow (to be fair, the automatons managed to be a real danger since some were fitted with cannons, while zombies only had creepiness to their name and could be outwalked). Then the game was released. Then the forums started spewing toxic ash and lava. Also, they completely removed the Burricks (cute little acid-spitting dinos), but that's a goddamn crime.
  • If you are to believe the forums, there are only three groups of Total War players: those who played the first two games and don't like the new engine because they're anal-retentive wrinkled tossers who can't deal with change; those who discovered the series with Rome and are therefore brain-dead console jocks and SEGA fanboys who wouldn't know bad design if it shat in their eyes from a great height and should therefore go back to Counter-Strike; and those who are adamant that only Shogun exists and anyone who disagrees with them most probably walks on their knuckles.
  • NS13 in Kingdom of Loathing was disliked by many players because, despite adding content, it basically nerfed every efficient (perhaps too efficient) strategy people were using as well as one or two that weren't actually that efficient. Most people have gotten over it, however. Some of the success of the recent "Hobopolis" content dump was in fact attributed to it not "pissing in anyone's bowl of Cheerios", to quote Jick.
  • It's almost a given that any time a new update is made to Urban Dead, any of three groups (the pro-survivor faction, the pro-zombie faction, and the PKer faction) will complain about game balance. Of course, given the high regard most players hold the game's creator in, they'll instead tear into one another for having made "bad suggestions."
  • Burnout Paradise. Circuit racing was replaced with an "open world" city layout, races were point-to-point affairs that required an in-depth knowledge of the city layout just to give you an idea of which road to take, and the fan-favorite Crash Mode was replaced with the compromise "Showtime" Mode that didn't feature the exact same kind of fun puzzle mechanics as the previous games. Oh, and you can't restart a race you just lost; instead you have to drive all the way back to the starting point, which is miles away. Sure, the car selection may be the best the series has ever had, Stunt Runs are enjoyable, the open world lends itself to lots of wicked jumps and fun secrets, and there's the promise of (rumored to be free) updates, including new sections of the city, a day-night cycle, motorcycles and even airplanes -- but enough longtime fans of the series were angered by this shift in gameplay focus to swear off the series entirely.
    • As well as the dropping of local multiplayer, which to a lot of gamers was probably the series best feature, as the game was perfect for a group of friends getting together wanting to see fast cars shoulder check each other off the road. Tropes Are Not Bad, after all.
  • Team Fortress 2 is in an interesting position: Valve constantly adds content to the game, which ships automatically with regular updates and cannot be opted out of. The addition of unlockable weapons that sometimes function very differently from the defaults and gave experienced players more gameplay options was the big one. Every new set of unlockables deviates further from the defaults ("items" in place of weapons, multiple options for the same slot, etc.), giving players a new reason to complain every time. They also tweak the game's mechanics from time to time, presumably to fix balance issues; players who favored a suddenly-nerfed or otherwise altered weapon will inevitably be upset.
    • Let's not forget all of the hat drama with the halo. Heck, some players wouldn't even help out teammates because they had the halo and vice versa!
    • Also, fans of the original Team Fortress mod and Team Fortress Classic HATE Team Fortress 2, ever since its final graphic style and game design decisions were unveiled -- namely the new cartoony graphical look (to draw attention away from the game's less realistic aspects) and removal of grenades (to emphasize individual class abilities and make it easier for new players to get into the game). Luckily, the Half-Life 2 mod Fortress Forever exists for people who want to play the original, or something very close to it, with more modern graphics.
    • High-level TFC play relied on exploiting physics and mechanics. In the early days, TFC was fairly close to the game's intended design. However, as time went on, more and more exploits were found. For example, the "Medic" class was more likely to be found flying around the map running the flag than actually healing people. Valve's Team Fortress 2 is essentially an attempt to recreate Team Fortress Classic as it was originally designed, not as the game became after exploiters ran rampant. Having played TFC in the days before bunny hopping and the like took over, TF2 is more like TFC than Fortress Forever or any other attempt by the old guard to recreate Team Fortress.
    • There's a mod being worked on for TF2 that re-adds grenades into the game.
    • Basically, TF2 was only good when you started playing. Every update since then has ruined the game entirely by introducing horrible things into the game like variety and unfamiliarity. Someone might do the unspeakable and catch you off guard with a weapon you're not familiar countering and ruin your K/D ratio FOREVER!
    • When the Mac update went through they changed the layout of the front page, I'm sure you can guess what everyone said about it.
    • The June 2011 'Uber Update' added a pile of new weapons and gear and made the game Free-to-Play with any financial investment being purely optional. While the game had been inexpensive (retailing on Steam for around 10 USD) for a long time, the free-line brought in a deluge of new players. Many veterans complained about the sudden influx of incompetant, novice players undermining the teamwork aspects of the game or crowding up the max headcount on beloved servers. Others felt the opposite way, reveling in the herds of inept novices running around ripe for the slaughter.
      • Interestingly, the update also revived many of the long-since-forgotten They Changed it Now it Sucks! comments from when TF2 first came out, as hardened TFC players come see what the game is all about now that it's free and feel out of place.
  • Gears of War 2 has had some changes from the original which made the Shotgun a less desirable weapon, notably the general gameplay addition 'stopping power', which slows you down from being continuously shot from the direction you're running at, making flat-out charging at your opponent a disastrous idea. This was on account of how people were often quite content to practically only use it for an entire match, completely ignoring their other standard weapons. Some people weren't happy. Even when it turned out the shotgun was made to be better and more consistent within the close ranges it was supposed to specialize in.
    • The Gears 2 shotgun was initially bugged (eventually fixed), and blindfired shots would usually go straight into the ground. Although thought to be a purposeful and welcome change by some, most of the community went into an outrage because they actually had to aim the weapon to fire it accurately (OH NOES!!).
  • Initial D (Arcade Stage) 4 is a matter of debate among fans. Some welcome it as a fresh reboot of the series, but many others find it a pain in the exhaust pipe to get used to the weird physics. Worse yet, the game punishes high-speed cornering by "locking" the player's steering and making his or her car crash into the wall and suffer an acceleration penalty, and to fix this one must perform a "Penalty Cancel", which consists of releasing the gas, tapping the brake, and pressing the gas. Many players think of Penalty Cancel as a stupid technique--who the heck brakes on a straightaway?
    • As if that isn't enough, the "Version 1.5" patch of the game almost makes a new game out of an existing one by removing said exploit and steering lock, and replacing it with oversteer.
  • Purists of Puzzle League / Panel de Pon / Tetris Attack should stay very far away from Planet Puzzle League, which, in addition to providing the tried-and-true directional-pad-and-buttons gameplay, also offers the much easier stylus control.
    • Though, when there's an online mode and no mode that restricts gameplay to the D-pad and buttons...
      • Then you can use your stylus, too.
  • The citybuilder series that started with Caesar has about 10 titles, all similar in theme. Ever since the release of Pharaoh in 1999, each and every new release has elicited cries of They Changed It, Now It Sucks and Ruined FOREVER from the community.
  • While admittedly some complaints are legit, the sheer amount of Fan Dumb in Sonic the Hedgehog is downright embarrassing. Some people hate everyone but Sonic, ignoring the fact that there were plenty of characters before the game went 3D and are certainly a heck of a lot more characters in something like Mario at that point. Some people even hate everything but the first game, whining about all the characters. Mario started out with more characters in its first few games! From this logic, idiocy like Sonic Underground would be a faithful adaptation.
    • Some may think the transition into 3D [2]was a terrible idea.
    • The pinnacle of these complaints is Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Complaints range from legit criticism such as the department of the pinball-based classic gameplay to outright complaints of secondary and/or minor details, like the usage of the modern designs instead of classic in a game that was supposed be a return to the classics, among others.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic IV made several changes to the format of the series. You could now have armies without heroes, you could have multiple heroes in one army, heroes were actually vulnerable to damage within a battle and could directly enter combat, towns now had multiple choices between different soldiers to hire, soldiers appeared in their dwellings daily instead of once-a-week and the highly useful caravan structure was introduced, allowing you to hire minions from across the map without running a hero there and back. However, because it wasn't like the very popular HOMAM 3, fanboys whined and as a consequence all the changes were reverted for the next sequel. HOMAM 5 could just as well have been titled HOMAM 3 with new graphics!
  • Metroid sparked fanboy backlash when Metroid Prime was shown to be a pseudo-First-Person Shooter.
    • Metroid Prime: Hunters focused on Multiplayer. Even now, go onto an average forum and say anything remotely positive and prepare to get numerous rants about how this violates the soul and heart of Metroid and never can be erased from its history.
    • Metroid: Other M fell into this weeks before it was even released due to trailers and gameplay footage. People, once again, denouced that the game ruined the series forever with "bad voice acting" and "long cut scenes", or how the game is now all about flashy action rather than exploration. Some even go further to say that Retro handled Metroid better, even though some of those same said people proclaimed Metroid to have been ruined forever by being in first person.
  • Mario Kart has this trope for nearly everything the series did after Mario Kart 64. Double Dash!! was blasted for having a gimmicky two player per kart system, Super Circuit was blasted for not fully retaining the features of the retro tracks. and Mario Kart Wii was blasted for including bikes in a go kart game.
  • When Golden Eye 1997 was revealed to have a remake for the Wii, everyone started to cheer, but then the cheers changed to boos and hisses, saying the game was ruined because Daniel Craig was used as the model for James Bond instead of Pierce Brosnan.
  • Come to a Pokémon forum just after the release of a new generation, and you'll see this yelled a lot. New Mon designs are the biggest cause, but a lot of things seem to dredge it up, like gameplay changes, changes in how moves and natures work and how various mechanics affect mon performance, ect.
  1. ↑ which many snooty RPG fans sneer at
  2. ↑ Complete with cutscenes, lackluster controls, outta-control cameras, bad voiceover work, etc.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/They_Changed_It,_Now_It_Sucks/Video_Games?oldid=2037114"