Games where an emulated console version outclasses the PC port?

Last I heard, Capcom was retroactively adding DRM to their games which could severely impact compatibility. I don't get why Mega Man 2 would need to be protected with spyware, but that's a big corp for you. So yeah, I'd say Capcom games might qualify.

Final Fantasy VII. The PC port is kinda bad and PSX emulators are very very good.

Both Tales of Symphonia and Chrono Cross got abysmal PC ports.

Playing the originals in an emulator is definitely a much better experience

I always preferred the SNES version of SimCity to the original PC version. The graphics and music are way better and the gameplay is exactly the same.

I bought Rayman 2 on GOG a few years ago, and it had a hard time recognizing controllers. I even tried launching it through Steam, which usually fixes all controller problems, but it still didn't work. The Dreamcast version still looks good enough, and your controller will definitely work.

Due to licensing issues, Crazy Taxi 2 has a different soundtrack on the PC from the original Dreamcast version. The Dreamcast version is the one with The Offspring.

Sonic 3 has also had music licensing issues, so the version included in Sonic Origins has a different soundtrack. Sonic Origins was also buggy at launch, but I hear that's fixed now. Sonic Origins also adds a bunch of new features though, so this one may be a tossup.

Question for y'all: did anyone buy the recent PC port of Metal Gear Solid 2? It seems to have both a lot of praise and a lot of complaints.

Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 (and their console remasters, DX and Battle).

Mods fix them up and make them better than emulation though.

A lot of ubisoft and ea single player games since they don't need uplay

Case in point Assassins Creed Black flag which requires a login at the start of search session, runs flawlessly on CEMU

Spider-Man 2 (the Sam Rami movie one) is almost a totally different game.

There is also a ton of between-consoles differences from the SNES/Genesis generation, where games with the same title are sometimes radically different. Jurassic Park, Star Trek TNG, and the Power Rangers brawler come to mind.

Extreme G 2 on pc loses the analog steering from N64, which turns out is a big deal. Throwback Entertainment made a port-of-a-port and introduced a speed hack in the launcher menu where you can slow down the game a bit, which helps, but doesn't fix the issue.

In some other cases like Hexen, there were alterations on console that I find generally more appealing, like an ost remaster or lighting effects.

The Genesis game Zero Tolerance and Dreamcast version of Expendable are games I prefer on console simply because of the control schemes on pc.

i would recon this is true more often than not for attempts at 1:1 ports. glitches are more often introduced than fixed in the porting process, so if it isn't deliberately a remaster or offers extra content, you're probably better off with the original in an emulator. if you're interested in mods, it's also worth thinking about where the reverse engineering efforts have been focused- a lot of native PC ports have been picked apart and put back together with bugfixes and new content after the fact

sonic adventure is an example of all of the above. if you want the absolute worst version possible, just buy it off steam. if you want the best version possible, buy it off steam and mod the shit out of it. fan efforts to fix an abysmal port of a port ended up creating an experience that arguably surpasses the original before even getting into all the extra bells and whistles you can mod in

fan ports are also increasingly becoming a thing, so i guess the moral of the story is this: as far as official offerings go, emulation is probably going to be better than a native port, but if a game has enough enthusiastic hackers, then they may have frankensteined something even better together

The original port of devil may cry 3 was a disaster. The only way a lot of people could get it to run at over 5fps was by deleting all music from the folder.

The port of the devil may cry hd edition (dmc 1-3) also had its issues. Especially for dmc 1, where quite a few visual and audio effects werent implemented correctly, or sometimes at all

Final Fantasy XIII is an odd case because the emulator is Xbox Backwards Compatibility. It’s apparently better than the PC port.

Persona 3 Portable

My beloved childhood game Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is much better on the PS2 compared to PC, due to being developed by a different team; having grown up with the PC version, the first time I played the PS2 version it felt like I was playing a remake because it's almost a completely different game.

i vaguely recall the retail box version of silent hill 2 or 3 for PC being not all that amazing, and later emulating the Ps2 version was a better option, not to mention the easiest option since both games for PC are not common finds. then again the PC I played Silent hill 2 on wasn’t all that beefy at the time.

maybe any games that originally were for console ported to PC with Denuvo hit this criteria. interesting question!

A number of Tactics Ogre fans will tell you that the PSP version, whether vanilla or with the One Vision mod, is superior to the recent Reborn PC release. Each version has its pluses and minuses, so it's largely a matter of taste. The port itself was fine on release, despite the recent trend of SQEX PC ports that were messy on release but were fixed later (like Chrono Trigger and Cross).

Sometimes the controls are just better on the Emulators at least on older PC ports as they would do dumb stuff like require a mouse / keyboard for menus etc.

On the steam deck in particular when getting steam versions of games with lower steam deck compatibility ratings it often comes down to odd menu issues or controller support.

Personally, I'd say anything with RetroAchievements support. Why buy new when the classic is still just as good as it was back then? I don't care much about graphics, though, so remakes don't typically offer much I care about. I don't want changes to game mechanics or content, I just want to be able to play it without needing specialized hardware I have to attach to my TV.

The older Silent Hill games had awful PC versions.

Esp 2. Playing them on a emulator is the way to go.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Hill_2

The console and PC versions of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter are entirely different games, and personally I think the console version is more fun. It emulatable.

How has nobody mentioned Sonic Colors yet?

Mega Man X.