Top 10 Games Made Unplayable by Google Stadia
Google Stadia was supposed to be the future of gaming. No downloads, no expensive hardware, just instant access to your favorite games on any device with a screen. That was the pitch, at least. In reality, Stadia had a rocky launch, struggled to attract players, and never quite became the streaming revolution Google wanted it to be. After a few years of slow decline, Google pulled the plug and shut Stadia down for good.If you played on Stadia, you probably saw the writing on the wall long before the official announcement. The platform never got the level of support it needed, and even its most dedicated users were left wondering if their game library would eventually disappear. When the shutdown finally came, that's exactly what happened. Stadia-exclusive games became impossible to play, and even some third-party titles were lost in the process. These were games that worked just fine on other platforms but, because they were tied to Stadia's ecosystem, are now completely unplayable.
This list is all about those games. Some were critically acclaimed, some were cult favorites, and some were just fun experiences that deserved better. If you played them on Stadia, they're gone now. If you didn't, you may never get the chance.
Celeste is not a game you would want to play on the service, as the constant input lag and frame drops will make the controls more difficult, no matter how much you mastered the game on other platforms.
The input latency makes basic punches, kicks, and special moves harder to perform, but fatalities are out of the question.
How is it that a platforming game from 2013 was made unplayable by Stadia's frame drops and input lag? It's really baffling when you consider that Stadia claimed to be more powerful than the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. For added bonus points, Rayman Legends performs better on the Xbox 360 than on Stadia, and that system's hardware was made available to consumers in 2005.
Soulsborne games are usually known for their brutal difficulty, and cloud gaming is usually known for screwing up ad nauseum. These two things should not go together.
Frame drops, input lag, and compressed resolutions make you wonder why it takes 20GB of internet data to stream a game released on the Nintendo 64 in 1997. The original game sure as hell ran better than this.
The funny thing is that 20GB is basically the storage space of ALL the N64 games combined.
Have fun with the constant input lag getting in the way of trying to gallop your horse.
Not as difficult as Mortal Kombat 11, but still unplayable thanks to constant input lag and frame drops. You'd be lucky to land a punch or kick, never mind a super art.
Also, the Nintendo Switch version of this game performs better when compared to Stadia.
Even my PS4 Slim can run this game at 60FPS. But not on Stadia, though. Yes, I am aware that cloud gaming is still a proof of concept, but Stadia kept asserting it was more powerful than anything that came before it and was the ultimate solution to playing the latest games wherever you are.
I've played this game on Switch, PS4, and PC. Those versions of the game are playable and run great. On Stadia, not a chance.
The input lag makes it hard to maneuver your character, and the visual artifacts make it hard to see what's around you. Don't forget what happens when you fail to make your star the minimum size requirement within the time limit.
I suck at this game, and everyone would on the Stadia version. The input lag would make it next to impossible to complete the first level, never mind 100% the game.