It really is amazing how much a lower resolution can make something less powerful look good because of how your brain can fill in the space. Quake 1, especially at the original resolutions, aged so much better visually than Quake 2 did.
Another nice example of this is the (libre!) game Meteorite, which is similar to Metroid Prime but at a very low resolution https://github.com/Bauxitedev/meteorite
