Here's my take on games aging poorly. The game of course didn't change. What changed was maybe the qualities you expect in games and how those apply to games that came out in the past. That being said, I want to give some examples of where I stand on certain games and systems.

When the style of a game's graphics fits the console then it isn't perceived to have aged poorly graphically. Examples are cell-shaded games or games where pixel art was designed to fix the resolution - i.e. the 640x480 of PC games like Warcraft II.

When a game was trying for a style that exceeds the limitations of the system or resolution, then it can seem poorly executed. Examples of this are the early 3D games or simply generation-shifts/transitions in consoles.

One could look at a game like Mario Kart 64 and agree that graphically, it hasn't aged well. It's using a 2D sprite for the cart. The icons for the players and power-up are blurred. The numbers are pixelated/aliased in a way that wasn't purposeful.

It doesn't mean it's any less fun, but the game is a victim of the transitional period that the N64 represented in gaming hardware. Some games - such as Mario 64 with it's cell-shaded simple polygonal style - aged more gracefully.

Now I want to point out where I may differ in the opinions some have in how games have aged. I'm going to pick Medal of Honor - a great game with a cool aesthetic. Despite the hardware limitations of the PS1, this game does a great job because of clever design decisions.

If you compare this game to a PS5 shooter then of course it looks worse. But every element here is an artistic choice or decision. The limitations of the art form here are the limitations of the console's 240p resolution and inclusion of PS1 texture memory.

Between the dithering and the mind's eye at 240p, you get the sort of realism in Medal of Honor that you don't really get with GoldenEye on the N64. This doesn't mean either game is better than the other. But subjectively, I greatly prefer Medal of Honor's graphics.

That being said, I'm fascinated by GoldenEye's ambition. It's essentially using stick-figure men with slapdash texture graphics to let the player play through the scenes in a 007 movie. That's ballsy. Plus the gameplay isn't bad at all. And the soundtrack is great. Good game

The N64 gets a lot of flak for being the generation's worst console outside of 1st-Party, cartoony games like Mario Party. But that's not fair. If you want to pick on the game quality, you certainly can make the argument there. But not as a poorly-specced platform necessarily.

If the N64 had stuck to more traditional 2D games like Sega Saturn and PS1 did to bulk up the back-catalog, then maybe it wouldn't have been so tinged with lack-luster early-3D games that most consider junk - like Quest 64.