The end of the last
generation of video games saw a trend in the creation of HD ports of sixth
generation games. Now we're in the eighth generation this trend has
moved on to porting seventh generation games to the newest console to
keep them relevant. Whether this porting process is a good or a bad
thing is down to personal preference. My opinion on the matter is
that if you don't add anything in the porting process or if the game
has aged well anyway then there's no point in creating a remaster.
Some ports have been
great, there's been the Kingdom Hearts HD collections, The Legend
of Zelda HD ports, the recent Resident Evil (Gamecube remake) port
and the Oddworld HD ports (of Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath).
All of these have either added new or modified content to the
original game or have been introduced to platforms that the games
previously weren't on, which I think is great as it introduces new
players to the games and gives old players a reason to replay them.
There is however a dark
side to HD and eighth gen ports. Some can have the opposite effect of
the examples I previously gave and ruin (or unnecessarily change) the
experiences that the original games offered. The few that spring to
mind are the Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD collection which only offered
the first and third games in the series and replaced the original game's music, the Silent Hill HD collection which removed fog from Silent
Hill 2 which takes away from the original version's atmosphere as
well as revealing graphical flaws not present in the original, Silent
Hill 3 features different voice acting and Silent Hill 4 is
completely absent and the Hitman HD collection, which isn't as bad as the ones
previously listed but it simply doesn't give the games enough of a
visual upgrade to warrant the HD remaster.
All of those are flaws
which shouldn't exist in a HD or eighth gen remaster, a remaster
should have no missing content from the original games, it should be
mostly the exact same experience but if a particular aspect of the
game is dated or otherwise flawed it can be changed.
But I'm getting off track.
This is a list, not a lecture on what makes a good remaster. This is
my personal top ten games I would like to see receive HD or eighth
gen remasters and why, starting with my least wanted to my most
wanted. I'm not going to put games which are already receiving
remasters on the list and I won't be putting games which are portable
or anything below sixth gen on the list (just because the likelihood
of them actually getting a remaster is lowered substantially if
they're that old or exist primarily on a portable device).
10
Grand Theft Auto III, Vice
City & San Andreas
It's very strange that
Rockstar (the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series) haven't ever
done a remaster. While I do respect them for that (because they are
focused on the creation of new games) it would be great to see the
older GTA games with more updated graphics and controls.
The shooting in GTA V
feels great but the lock on system seen in the older series games
does feel a bit restrictive and clunky in comparison. Other than that
small detail though the games have aged very well. Perhaps adding the
ability to swim in GTA III and Vice City would be a good idea, though
I am aware that the shooting mechanic being changed and a swimming
mechanic being added would take a huge amount of work, but it
wouldn't be impossible. Other than those two things I wouldn't want
much to be changed besides the obvious visual upgrade.
Perhaps a complete Grand
Theft Auto Remastered pack could even be created, not only featuring
the PlayStation 2 titles but GTA 4, Liberty City Stories and Vice
City Stories too? Even a remaster of Bully would make me happy. Red
Dead Redemption Remastered would make a lot of people happy too (but
I've never played it).
A remaster of the
PlayStation 2 trilogy of GTA games will probably never happen due to
them now being available as PS2 downloads on the PS4, but you never
know what the future holds.
9
Destroy All Humans! 1 &
2
This is one of the only
games on the list where it's been implied that a HD remaster could be
in the works. The company which now owns the rights to the series is
Nordic Games (it was previously owned by the now closed Pandemic
Studios who created the original Star Wars Battlefront series) and
they have implied there is a future for the series but given nothing
concrete.
A remaster of the first
two games (or even a remaster of all four of the existing games) would be a
good test to see if people are still interested in the franchise
before creating a full on sequel or (more likely) a reboot/remake of
the original game.
I personally really liked
the original Destroy All Humans!, it was darkly comedic, featured an
impressive amount of weapons, destructible environments, very
entertaining psychokinetic powers and a good amount of difficulty. I
very much appreciate the 1950s B-movie feel and it adds a ton of
charm to the game.
I would be happy with
either a remaster or brand new game in the series but if a remaster
was to happen I wouldn't like too much to be changed. The addition of
a more unrestricted co-op mode in Destroy All Humans! 2 would be good
(in the original you couldn't stray too far from the other player
which ruined the open world aspect of the game) and the addition of a
co-op mode at all in the original Destroy All Humans! might be a nice touch.
8
TimeSplitters 1, 2 &
Future Perfect
TimeSplitters is a series
which is beloved by many people and yet hasn't seen a sequel or
remaster at all in eleven years. For a long time TimeSplitters 4 has
been rumored to be being developed but these rumors have never come to
fruition. More recently a fan created game called TimeSplitters:
Rewind has been being developed but this seems to be focusing on the
multiplayer elements of the existing games rather than creating a
whole new TimeSplitters experience.
While not being as huge as
Halo, TimeSplitters proved to be a successful console first person
shooter, in particular the second and third games received very high
praise, which makes me wonder why a remaster has never been on the
table.
Rather than being a huge
fan of the competitive multiplayer I was more of a fan of the
co-operative campaign which spanned lots of different eras of Earth's
history (and future) which kept things varied and TimeSplitters 2
introduced more objective based missions which were fantastic.
I would like to see
slightly modified controls for a remaster of TimeSplitters 1 and 2
because they don't work quite like modern first person shooters and
as such this can feel a bit clunky. An online mode featuring all the
game modes and maps from the three games would be amazing, but I
would be happy with just the base games with their story modes and
local multiplayer modes intact.
7
Super Smash Bros. Melee
A lot of people consider
Melee to be the best Super Smash Bros. game. While I completely see
why, because of it's adventure mode, character roster, brilliant
event matches and fast paced gameplay, I disagree that it's the best
one. The reason for this though could be easily fixed with a
remaster.
My issue is all about the
controls, sure the experts can pull off some fancy and very technical
moves but for a normal player they just haven't aged that well. It
feels like there's a slight delay with the button presses and attacks
just don't feel weighty because of this. It's not something I noticed
when I played it back in the day but after playing the newer installments it is something that puts me off. The controls just haven't
aged well.
But fix this and add an
online mode and it would be sure to sell like hot cakes. Even a
remaster of Brawl or the original Super Smash Bros. would be great,
but I think it's Melee everyone would like to see.
6
Super Mario Sunshine,
Galaxy & Galaxy 2
I don't see any reason why
these Super Mario games couldn't be remastered for newer consoles.
Super Mario Sunshine in-particular could do with a bit of a face-lift
and the FLUDD mechanic would work very well with the Wii U gamepad.
The Gamecube Zelda games have been remastered so why not Super Mario Sunshine?
Super Mario Galaxy and
Galaxy 2 would be slightly harder to remaster because of the motion
controls used in the originals. But instead of waving the Wii Remote
around to collect Star Bits we could use the Wii U Gamepad's touch
screen.
They could even add some
Mario based mini games to play on the Wii U Gamepad in a similar way
to how Super Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros on the DS had some
nice little mini games.
Plus all of those games
are really expensive to buy, so having all of them on one disc would
probably be quite good value for money. But Nintendo always seem to
sell HD remasters as separate games, which is fair enough because the
remasters they have made are some of the best and they obviously put
a lot of care into creating them.
5
Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Technically Rayman 2:
The Great Escape is a fifth generation game but there was a remake of
the original Rayman 2 for the PlayStation 2 called Rayman: Revolution
(or Rayman 2: Revolution in North America). It's this version of the
game that I would like to see remastered due to it being the most
complete version of Rayman 2 available.
Rayman 2 has been ported
and remastered so many times on many different consoles from the
PlayStation, Dreamcast, DS and even iOS, so it's not entirely out of
the realm of possibility that a remaster could be on the table for
eighth gen consoles too. Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc had a HD remaster on
seventh gen consoles so it seems Ubisoft (the company that creates
the Rayman games) are open to remastering the Rayman series.
I wouldn't want anything
changing mechanically in a remaster of Rayman 2, just upgraded
graphics and framerates. Maybe giving the option of whether to use
the spoken word dialogue heard in the PlayStation version or the
gibberish dialogue heard in other versions would be a good idea.
Being used to the PlayStation version it throws me off when I play
other versions and the characters don't speak normally.
4
Ape Escape 2 & 3
Why on Earth this series
has remained dormant for so long I have no idea. Hopefully with the
popularity of 3D platformers rising again Ape Escape 4 will finally
see the light of day. A good way of testing to see if audiences would
still be interested in the franchise though is with a remaster of the
PS2 Ape Escape games. They could also port the PSP version of the
original Ape Escape, but that wouldn't be likely to happen.
As with a lot of games on
this list, I wouldn't want a lot to be changed about these games
besides the graphics. They already control well and look pretty good
too, I suppose the main reason I would like this to happen is to
finally see the day Ape Escape 4 is released. With Ape Escape 2 recently having
been released on the PlayStation 4 store (as a PS2 download), I would assume a full on
remaster will never happen, but it's still promising that the series
is getting some attention.
3
Dark Souls
I'm surprised this hasn't
already been remastered if I'm honest. With how popular the Dark
Souls series has become I'm sure a remaster of the original Dark
Souls would sell a ton. Players who know the game inside out could
play it again with a higher framerate and better graphics and players
who never got to play the original but have played Bloodborne or
newer installments could see where it all began.
I wouldn't want a single
thing other than the graphics and (sometimes terrible) framerates to
be changed about this. It should obviously come with all the DLC in
the Prepare to Die Edition, but this is one that couldn't really be
messed up unless they changed something that doesn't need to be touched.
Also, they could throw in a
Demon's Souls remaster if they were feeling particularly generous.
2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 &
4
With the release of Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater 5 disappointing old and new players of the once
great franchise alike, it would be great to see the (arguably) best
games in the series come to life with a remaster.
There's so much more that
could be done with these games than a simple graphics upgrade too.
THPS3 was the first game on PS2 to have online connectivity, and with
the new generation of consoles the online modes could be resurrected and modernised.
The games could be
combined so the Create-a-Skater character you make is shared across
both games and you can access all the levels (in both games) from one screen. The
mission based objective style from THPS4 could be adapted into THPS3
levels while also adding classic challenges (where you have two
minutes to complete a list of objectives) to THPS4 to please fans of
both modes.
Even if the Pro Skater
series couldn't be remastered, maybe Tony Hawk's Underground and
Underground 2 could be. Either way, the levels, music and controls
should remain exactly the way they were in the original games. We don't need another THPS5 on our hands.
1
Fallout 3 & New Vegas
With Skyrim getting a
remaster this is probably the one on the list which will most likely
happen, however, if it was to happen I would want more than a
graphics upgrade.
The first thing I would
expect is mod support on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While I don't
use mods a lot when I play games I can appreciate that a lot of
people do and they would appreciate this feature and with Fallout 4 and
the upcoming Skyrim remaster both supporting mods, there's no reason
Fallout 3 and New Vegas can't too.
I would also like iron
sight aiming to be introduced into Fallout 3, this is a feature added
into New Vegas which uses the exact same engine as Fallout 3, so
there's no reason this couldn't be done. I would also like a survival
mode to be added into Fallout 3, again, this is something that was in
New Vegas so it shouldn't be too hard to add.
I wouldn't want voice
acting to be added or changed and other than those things I mentioned
I would like the remasters to stay exactly the same as the originals
only with much better graphics and framerates. Fallout 3 doesn't run
well on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 (which are all the systems it's on) so a
remaster would be highly appreciated by me and I'm sure a lot of
other people too.
You've reached the end of
my list! I would like to give honorable mentions to a game called
XIII which I would love to see a remaster of and Battlefield 2 which
would have the potential to have a great remaster too (especially
after they turned off the server support for the old Battlefield
games).
Are there any sixth or
seventh gen games you would like to see remastered for new consoles?
If so leave a comment below or comment on the Rob's Retro Reviews
Facebook page! I would like to hear what everyone would like to see
remastered. Thanks for reading!
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