Gen Z Reacts To The Original Xbox, And It’s As Cringe-Inducing As You’d Expect

Goddamn youngsters don't know they're born...🤨

As a Gen Z-er, cringe

The duke was comically big compared to other controllers when it came out, that isn’t a generational thing.

@aj102404 Yeah I got the re-release Duke update they gave us on the Xbox One, it's hooked up to my One X that I play a lot of X enhanced classics on. I simply like it for playing the original Xbox games to give them that real authentic feel. It's kinda funny going to that after gaming on the latest version of the Xbox controller for so long, it just feels so big and awkward in so many ways.

It's like you can tell why the controller S was considered a big deal back in the day. Looking back that was basically where the current Xbox controller design began, every Xbox controller since being an evolution of that design. The original Duke however, it was a one off thing, very distinctive but quickly abandoned.

I showed my nephew whose 17 Morrowind.

He laughed at the graphics.

Laughed!

Then he asked why can't I climb the buildings 😒

I feel old

@aj102404 I really hated the Duke, and I have average sized hands. But the D-pad was cumbersome, and the face buttons (A, B, X, Y, white, black) were small, oddly-shaped, and all scrunched altogether. When the controller S came out, I jumped on it.

@aj102404 as a person with stupidly large hands...i loved the Duke. this Series controller is SMALLER than the xbox one's, which is just...unfair really...

I love them trying to hook up the Xbox to the TV. I wanted to say at least it’s not the Nintendo RC switch hook up ;D

I can honestly say that when Xbox was new I had no inclination that graphics wouldn't improve. Idk why so many people seemed to think otherwise.

@IronMan30 To understand what made the Xbox a big deal you would have had to of experienced what came before it.

@JayJ I experienced the NES, SNES, Genesis, N64 and PS1 when they were new. None of that seemed like the pinnacle and neither did Xbox but I guess I was just weird like that.

Edit: FWIW, I still have this mindset about Series X/PC (which have the best visuals of any device, obviously just console-wise for the former). I feel like we're almost at photorealism but not there yet.

@JayJ Being a PC gamer at the time, my impression of Xbox was "oh, cool, a cheap budget PC without the hassle!"

Actually....that's my impression of Series X, too. I'm just not laughing anymore.

@FriendlyOctopus I played Morrowind on PC in 2002 and laughed at the graphics then. I played it on X1 BC and laughed again. If you can't laugh at Skyrim's graphics, you need new glasses, let alone Morrowind I love TES dearly, but Gamebryo/Creation is not kind to these games....

@mousieone Internet high five for the RF controller. Radio Shack A-B-C, spring-loaded 2 position switches. NES, SNES, Genesis. Those were the days! Oh, I want to play Sonic now (gets up, reaches behind TV, "K-THUNG" ok, now we're ready!)

But you now what? We had freaking instant input switching, zero latency, and 130hz refresh. Technology is moving, but not forward.....

@NEStalgia on Morrowind, I didn't "laugh" at the graphics but wasn't terribly impressed when the game was new. I kind of realized that most of those "bigger games" (as I used to call them) just never look that nice on consoles. I'm not heavily into PC but I do know that graphics there have always looked better than on consoles. Even if they are still not as realistic as I'd hoped they would be, by now.

@NEStalgia did you see the FF video where John got his hands on one of the best CTRs and made some comparisons! It was pretty good.

@NEStalgia Huh, graphics weren't a big deal to me back then, the game was impressive on its own merits and I loved the way it looked.

Why are we continually surprised when people born today are not immediately familiar with yesterday?

I'm Gen Z. 22 years old. I grew up with an Xbox and PS2. So, this is cringe, because plenty of the earlier gen z literally grew up with this and they're trying to make it out like no one in gen Z has ever seen it. Yeah, cringe.

@Benjamin Agreed. Personally I liked the video. There's plenty of nice moments in between the slightly cringey parts. It's always entertaining to see things from other people's perspective.

Bloomin’ young people haven’t got a piggin’ clue!

But enough about those smug, judgemental millennials, I found those Gen Zs very sweet and endearing.

What do they mean you couldn't play multiplayer then? Xbox Live came out a year after the original xbox, 19 years ago. I was so blown away playing Ghost Recon online, still remember the maps now. Glad I'm old enough to have experienced so many gaming 1st's from Atari to VR. Now playing Fortnite with my 8yr old nephew who likes to "teach me" how to play games haha.

The next generation of kids will have the same reaction to the Xbox Series X in 20 years, saying that it's "retro". I had a blast with my original Xbox, still have it and fire it up on occasion.

@IronMan30 What I meant by that is just that if you were a kid who grew up in the 90's, going from consoles like the PS1 and N64 to consoles like the PS2 and Xbox was a massive leap in technology. Graphics went from very rough looking early 3D to looking much smoother and more detailed. It's not as big of a leap as going from 16-bit to 32/64-bit, but it was the next biggest thing.

It's actually incredible to look at some X enhanced Xbox originals and realize how you are looking at games that were released the same time as PS2 versions. I say that because if you were to play an original PS2 today you would probably be amazed at how bad it looks on a modern TV, while a lot of these X enhanced originals are still good to look at today.

@JayJ I did remember a lot of people talking about Xbox and PS as if they had realistic graphics, which always felt off to me. The improvements from PS1/N64 to PS2/GCN/Xbox were massive, though. Even if, as you said, not as big as NES to SNES and Genesis. I will also agree that games from that era still look fairly nice in the right context.

@NEStalgia https://youtu.be/wvYBo7CM_Uc

I got mine for my birthday

@mousieone OMG, Doogie Howser is old and gray. I need to lie down.....