Then and Now: The Best and Worst Game Remakes
by Jake Weston, posted on 26 July 2011 / 11,734 Views
Remakes and HD re-releases are all the rage these days, with Metal Gear Solid, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and Halo all receiving HD makeovers later this year. Of course, before the current onslaught of HD re-releases, many games were subject to full-fledged remakes, a trend that continues to this day with last year's remake of GoldenEye for the Wii, and the recent release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. We speculate that remakes will become even more prevalent as the years go by, so we at gamrFeed have gathered together the most prevalent remakes of the last few years, examining why the did and didn't work, so that future developers can possibly know how to approach remakes in the future.
The Best:
2007 remake of the original Tomb Raider, developed by Crystal Dynamics, to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary. This was Crystal Dynamic's second Tomb Raider game, following their successful reboot of the franchise with Tomb Raider: Legends.
Why it worked: Tomb Raider was a great and innovative game when it came out back for the PSOne, but like many games from that era, it hasn't aged all that well, graphic or gameplay wise. Crystal Dynamics updated the game so that it stayed true to the feel of the original game, while bringing it up to graphical and gameplay standards of the modern games. It also updated the canon of the original game, bringing it in line with the rest of Crystal Dynamic's Tomb Raider games.
For the GameCube remake of the original Resident Evil, series creator Shinji Mikami returned to the director's chair for the first time since the original game. Updated visuals and story separates this from the blocky and cheesy mess of the original PSOne title.
Why it worked: The first Resident Evil is easily the most influential game in the survival horror genre (we devoted an entire month to it, so it must be). However, it also suffered from the cheesiest voice acting the world as ever known (then again, maybe not). Since this was pretty inconsistent with the rest of the Resident Evil games, which took themselves relatively seriously, Mikami brought it upon himself to bring Resident Evil up to par, not only fixing the voice work, but creating one of the most legitimately scary games of all time, and graphics that still don't look aged.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Arguably the most anticipated game for the 3DS when it was first announced, Ocarina of Time 3D was released to universal praise when it released earlier this year. The graphics, sound and interface were updated for 3DS hardware, while still keeping that classic gameplay.
Why it worked: It's hard to improve upon perfection, so Ocarina of Time 3D didn't change much besides the graphical overhaul and 3D capabilities. Interface improvements aside, it's still very much the same game we all played 13 years ago. And that's a good thing, especially for those who may have not played the original masterpiece.
The original Metroid for the NES is one of the games that made Nintendo the juggernaut it is today. Of course, many players today find it's non-linear nature and unforgiving difficulty kinda hard to get into, so in 2004 Nintendo did fans a solid by remaking the game for Game Boy Advance.
Why it worked: Super Metroid is widely considered a masterpiece, so any similarities to the title are extremely welcome. Zero Mission decides to go this route, with pretty much everything in the remake drawing from the SNES title. The game may have been a little too linear for some, but what resulted was the perfect handheld Metroid experience.
The original Warhawk for PSOne was a fun little action title, but nothing special. It wasn't until 2007 when LightBox interactive took the game's fictional universe and developed it into a multiplayer-only title for the PS3 that the series really took flight.
Why it worked: Have you played Warhawk ? It's still one of the best multiplayer experiences around. It's core gameplay may be a copy of the successful Battlefield formula, but its infectious art-style, well designed maps and near-perfect flight controls make this game much more memorable than the one that inspired it.
The Worst:
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay for the original Xbox was an amazing, visceral first-person stealth game. For the next generation sequel, Assault on Dark Athena, developers Starbreeze Studios also included a remake of Butcher Bay, featuring updated an engine, graphics and sound.
Why it didn't work: Escape from Butcher Bay was remade with Dark Athena's engine, and it clearly wasn't meant to be played that way. Everything in the game was far too dark, even with a flashlight, and enemies received an AI-overhaul that made them nigh-omniscient, which is problematic for a stealth game.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Metal Gear Solid is considered one of the greatest games of all time, and when it was announced that the game would be remade for the GameCube with improved graphics, Silicon Knights (of Eternal Darkness fame) developing, and series creator Hideo Kojima directing, fans thought it was too good to be true.
Why it didn't work: And it sort of was. While the improved graphics were appreciated, the game added features seen from Metal Gear Solid 2, such as hanging from ledges, first-person aiming, and hiding in lockers, but the original maps weren't redesigned to accomadate for the new features, making for a game that was just laughably easy, and straight up breaking some boss fights.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
More of a "re-imagining" if you will, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories takes the characters and scenario of the original Silent Hill and updates them for a modern-gaming audience, as well as introducing a somewhat-unique psychological profiling system, where the game subtely changed certain aspects depending on your actions.
Why it didn't work: The main thing about Silent Hill is the fear of the unknown, and not knowing what lies around the corner. In Shattered Memories, monsters only appear in scripted moments, taking almost all of the fear out of the experience. Plus, the psychological profiling system only changed certain parts of the game aesthetically, meaning it was pretty much the same experience for everyone (until they got to the admittedly well done different endings).
In 2004, Valve released Half-Life 2, and their Source engine, upon the world. Featuring revolutionary physics and graphic capabilities, fans wondered what could have been if the original Half-Life had used this engine. And Valve answered their questions, when they released Half-Life: Source.
Why it didn't work: It didn't really change anything. Sure, the new physics stuff was nice, but overall it was still the same game, same graphics, textures, and everything. While certainly not a bad game by any means, fans were unhappy with the apparent laziness that went into making the port. However, a fan remake of the original, titled Black Mesa, is being made completely from the ground up using the Source engine. There's no release date yet, but you can check it out here.
GoldenEye 007 for the N64 is widely considered one of the most influential games of all time, pioneering FPS gaming for consoles and paving the way for splitscreen multiplayer. Last year, Activision tried to capitilize on that nostalgia by remaking GoldenEye for the Wii, starring current Bond Daniel Craig.
Why it didn't work: I actually thought it was a cool idea updating old Bond stories with Daniel Craig's interpretation of the character. I'd love to see him in game or film renditions of Live and Let Die or Dr. No. However, the problem with the new GoldenEye was it didn't feel like a Bond game; it felt like a Call of Duty game slapped on the Bond license. Plus, things like the graphics, framerate and AI weren't all that great, but I guess we can looked forward to that being fixed when GoldenEye 007: Reloaded hits later this year.
