Are there any games where your opinion on it has changed substantially over time?

For instance, the first time I tried Metroid Prime, as a dumb kid with zero experience of the genre or series, I was taken aback at how slow and puzzle-oriented it was as I kinda expected something more like say Halo. At such, I wasn't impressed.

After going back and replaying it years later with the right expectations, however, I now consider it one of the best games ever made.

How about you?

Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2. As somebody who played Mario Odyssey as his first Mario, I despised how the games limited freedom and movement expression. Mario 64 was another one that didn't click for a while for the same reason (plus it felt nowhere near as silky smooth to control Mario as in Odyssey).

Funny how now all three of these games sit up there among my all-time favorites.

Mario 64's a game that needs to be appreciated in context, I feel. In 1996, there was absolutely nothing like it, and it laid the groundwork for a lot of what followed in terms of how movement and camera systems should work in a 3D space.

Still, even 30 years later I do feel like Mario's range of movement in 64 is fun to play around with, there's a lot of depth with stuff like the triple jump, backflip, side-flip, dive, etc.

Super Mario 64 is a masterpiece. I can understand how some may feel like it doesnt hold up today compared to other Mario games, but I agree that context is very important here. There was absolutely nothing like it, and in terms of controls, it has so much more freedom to it and requires so much more skill to control than something like Galaxy.

Ratchet & Clank. They seemed OK/kind of fun when I was younger but nothing that felt too good to play. I don't know what changed, but I've grown to like them quite a lot since then. I'm guessing it's just a general change in my taste - nothing I can pinpoint exactly, but something, since I've noticed some changes.

FF7. I was never that high on it. I tried it a couple times but just never clicked. Then 2020 not a lot to play so I decided to go in forgetting everything. Blank mind and ended up loving it. 

Gears of War. Prior to 2023 I never cared about them. Just looked meh to me but as I got more into shooters. One day just at my local games store. They had them for real cheap and I thought ah fuck it why not.  I really loved them. I been a big Gears fan since.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

All I saw at Toys R Us was that a new Star Wars game was out and begged my mom to get it even though we were there for my sister lol.

My friends and I didn’t get it at first because of the combat and I dumped it. Like a month or two later I gave it another try and it HOOKED me. Arguably top 5 game of all time and best Star Wars game ever made!!!

Super Smash Bros Melee, I played a lot of smash 64 but when I tried Melee everything was so small and fast. I did not like it. But after a few years of keep on playing smash 64 I gave it a new chance. Melee probably became my second most played game ever. I guess it helped having 4 siblings where 3 was down to play some smash most of the time, since I think it is best played as a party game.

Skyrim. This was my first visit into the Elder Scrolls universe. This type of open world game was about to become very popular. I played it for hundreds of hours. It was new to me the sandbox feeling of doing pretty much anything and going anywhere. It was a technical achievement. But now, after trying several other games similar, Horizon, Elden ring, Breath of the wild ect. I just do not want to play this type of game again. The charm for me with Skyrim was it being my first venture. Now the imo complete lack of urgency and make your own adventure path makes me never wanting to go back.

Yeah Gears is great; I loved it from the start but it's easy to see why someone who hasn't played it might write it off as just another dudebro shooter in a generation full of them. It really does stand out though with its tight, crunchy combat and dark atmosphere.

The Sims. I'm still questioning if they count as a "game", but I certainly enjoy them.

Early on when I first had PC, I'd play the hell out of Dune 2. Although I've since played various, including Dune 2000, mostly I lost interest to whole RTS genre for the 30 years since. I still agree Dune 2 being a good game, but I've just lost interest to playing anything such.
Kind of similar story with Civilization, except in last couple years I've really gotten back into it (playing 4&5).