Or Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64.

(Worth noting that I haven't played it, as FPS games are just not my thing.)

Here's one: The original Civilization. It's very foundational, but the mechanics are rather opaque, compared to the breezy readouts of the more modern series. Plus, certain bugs kind of sway the balances in ways that kind of break things.

Games i bought in Sam's Club; Tomb Raider, the original MS-DOS version.
Then there's also Fade to Black, neither aged well. Not visually, and certainly not controls-wise, nor difficulty spike later.
And then Batman forever (Only $4), which heavily pushed the 'call in for hints on this 900 number' scheme. For the life of me i couldn't figure out what to do.

This is a problem with many games, especially those that came with manuals where what keys do what, and the intro and explanation of how to play is utterly missing. And including said manuals as pdf's certainly don't work when you have the game booted up and you can't remember which button changes the view or switches weapons or anything.

Can't really think of any. To tell the truth, most of the older games I played/play keep getting better and aging like fine wine compared to the state of gaming today. To me at least.

Talking only about PC though. Never was a console gamer.

Oh, it doesn't help that Creatures is an advanced life sim where there is no ultimate goal except for a long lived and perhaps self sustaining creature. Basically you can communicate, discipline, praise, and grab things/poke things.
I can't exactly speak for you, but I imagine there comes a point where even Akalabeth becomes quaint.

Jumping Flash was 1st-person game made before dual analog sticks were the standard with console controllers. I still had some with the game, but it took time to get used to the archaic control scheme.

I was actually imaging the former from the thread title. Doom 2016 meets this description for me, since it felt like a refreshing return to form for FPS game design when it came out, but I was less willing to put up with things like the glory kills and other modernisms after returning to it later on, especially with more options for FPS games nowadays. I actually kinda enjoyed it again when I gave it another go even more recently though, which may be partially because I'd just forced myself to finally play through Doom Eternal.

I beg to differ. While inferior to Civ 2 (which is the best one*), I still enjoy playing it. I wish it was available on GOG so I could own a legit copy.

*I have yet to play 3 and 4, I own them on GOG but haven't tried them as of today.

Honestly, my problem with Doom 2016's "return to form" was nothing of the sort. The original Dooms were self-contained sandbox levels where clearing out the levels of monsters and secrets was beneficial but mostly not necessary to progression, at least in most cases. Hell, people have figured out pacifist runs or at least minimal violence runs. 2016 was always locking you into arenas until all enemies were dead and was more or less set piece after set piece, which is fine, but I wouldn't call it "old school Doom".

Yep, agreed. The older games mostly relied on the level design and enemy placement themselves to force (or at least encourage) you into fighting, which I definitely preferred to 2016's arena fights. I still appreciated that it included elements such as secrets and no weapon carrying limit, which weren't that common in FPS games at the time.