In the last three years alone, we’ve seen dozens of remasters that never seemed fitting to begin with. Here’s five classic titles that truly deserve a remaster treatment.
So many games release on a monthly basis, often burying players underneath a backlog of titles to try out. And yet, even with all of these brand new games, we still make time to revisit older titles that gave us pleasures long ago. Time can be a cruel and fickle mistress; not all gaming consoles get to survive after years of service or accidental destruction. Even if a replacement is found, the concern then comes down to spacing — can over 25 years worth of consoles be fitted onto a entertainment cabinet? How do players get to enjoy that particular game of theirs when the chips are down and certain options aren’t viable for themselves? Remasters…
Remasters bring old titles to the new generation of consoles and the list below only details a small portion of titles I believe should be brought into the new age.
Knights of The Old Republic/KOTOR 2
Who doesn’t love a good Star Wars game? Lightsabers, mystical Force powers, choosing to be good or join the dark side…
Star Wars has all the right materials for gaming projects. Unfortunately, there’s not been many games set within this universe as of late, minus the recent Battlefront, a title that did a fairly good job portraying the Star Wars atmosphere. Knights of The Old Republic, better known as KOTOR, let players choose which side of the Force they wanted to be on and dug deep into the galactic war between Jedi and Sith. Both KOTOR games truly made me feel like a user of the Force. With its tactical RPG combat, dialogue choices that affected how the galaxy shaped around the player and gripping story, Knights of The Old Republic and the sequel would receive a warm welcome on current-gen systems.
Viewtiful Joe
At the time, Viewtiful Joe was unlike any game I had experienced before. For a 13 year old kid who just started getting into anime, this game fit the bill and blew me away. The game had a simple plot: find your girlfriend, save the day and look cool doing all of that.
Well, Viewtiful Joe certainly looked the part; what made this game truly awe-inspiring was the gameplay mechanics. The game was made to look like the player was the cameraman, filming all the action for the protagonist Joe. Being able to freely slow down or speed up time and zoom in on the action yielded different results…that could be extremely useful when going up against numerous baddies. Honestly, Viewtiful Joe is just the kind of simple game we could use right now and with the enhanced graphical power on the current systems, this title would truly stand out.
Jet Set Radio Future
With a game like Jet Set Radio, any number of things could be pointed to as evidence for why this particular title should get remastered. Let’s start off with the soundtrack, which incorporates songs from various artists that the mainstream music culture is unaware of. To this very day, I consider the soundtrack to be a critical component of what the style of JSRF conveyed through its art and content. Not to mention, the beats are awfully hard to resist when the urge to head bop comes along.
Then there’s the art style itself. Beautiful, unorthodox and I’m sure I could find a few more words to describe it but simply put: the game would look absolutely amazing if a remastered version ever came to pass. The idea of just cruising around on rollerblades as I tag graffiti on walls and pull off insane tricks on rails still gets me excited about that 1% chance where JSRF becomes relevant again.
Legend of Dragoon
If memory serves me right, Legend of Dragoon was the first RPG I ever completed. This amazing game was given to me by a cousin who didn’t enjoy it and thought I should have it. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure as the saying goes and within the first hour of playing, I remember being hooked thanks to the combat features.
After playing a few turn-based RPGs where a simple button command is all that’s required to attack, Legend of Dragoon made the experience much more engaging and ultimately more satisfying. Having to correctly time button inputs for multiple attacks moves was unheard of by me at the time — I thought this combat was leagues better than simply one button inputs and still do. Transforming into a armored, winged Dragoon was also a highlight of the game. Each character had a unique transformation animation, which gave me pleasure to watch each time.
Legend of Dragoon has a huge cult following behind it and even though it was ported to the PSN in 2012, I know fans would love to see Dart’s adventure on the PlayStation 4.
Onimusha Franchise
Capcom has been on a roll with remastering titles, most noticeably from their Resident Evil franchise. While they’re at it, maybe the Resident Evil games set during feudal Japan could make a comeback as well? I’m talking about the PlayStation 2 Onimusha franchise where players slashed through hordes of undead with a samurai sword and other mystical powers.
Onimusha really is the feudal Japan version of Resident Evil and honestly…this game doesn’t get enough credit even with the amount of similarities between both franchises. Zombies? Check. Puzzle Rooms? Double check. Crazy monster boss fights…you get the idea. Onimusha even inspired Hideki Kamiya to work on another famous Capcom franchise known as Devil May Cry. It just makes me reminisces about the olden days when Capcom blew our socks with almost every project the company worked on.
These games meant something to a lot of people, whether they grew up with them or were already experienced gamers and decided to try them out. We’ve all been there, in a moment where we’re brought back to the past, reliving a gaming memory that was once left buried in our subconscious. With remastered titles, the chance to bring back such joyous memories exists. As for the games I put on this list? Two out of the five I had to go out my way to ensure I could play them once more; the other three haven’t been played in years. Remastered games get a lot of flak for being called lazy, but I think there are a lot of truly worthy games in need of the remastered treatment.
