It's time for me to conclude the Retro Gaming Blogging Challenge. It's been a great ride and I've been having a blast reminiscing about those early days of my gaming career. All good things must however come to an end.
Todays topic is remakes. It's a tough one to handle. While a part of me would like remakes of every good retro game there's a part of me holding back. Maybe those old gems should simply remain untouched? Let them go down in time as the masterpieces they were and not let them become sullied by the chance that the potential remake might be bad.
Remake vs. remaster
I want to start off by defining the difference of a remake vs. a remaster. They're two terms I often see mixed up. I've seen people buying a remaster and expecting a remake. Claiming the developers got lazy and just released the same game with improved graphics while that's exactly what a remaster is.
A remaster is simply an enhancement of the original product. You take the finished product that you had and you make some extra enhancements to it. This often comes in terms of upgraded textures or increased resolution options. For older games this often makes them look less pixely. Look at it like re-painting your house. It's the same house in a different color.
The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Halo: The Master Chief Collection are examples of remasters. They're the same games with a few added features. Upscaled graphics and a more convenient save system to name something.
A remake is something different. A remake is a brand new game that's based on another game. It doesn't have to be old, but it often is. The game is rebuilt from the ground and up. They make a whole new game. Hence the term remake. In a remake you don't simply re-paint your house but you built a new one from the ground up.
This allows the developers to take in use new technology which in turn allows them to do more with their game. The remakes generally follow the same story and plot as their original game but the mechanics and visuals are brand new.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake and Resident Evil 2 Remake are, obviously, examples of remakes. They're re-imaginings of the old games brought up to todays standards both in terms of graphics and gameplay.
Choosing my games
Choosing games for todays post was hard. There's so many great games that could have been chosen but how would they actually be remade? What would be the point? I'm convinced that the likes of Super Mario World can't be remade into a good format. They would have to make it into a 3D game for there to even be a point and then it would be to far away from the original product that it couldn't even be called a remake anymore. It's just a new game.
With this as a base of thought I've chosen some games that would work out in a new and modern format. That would enhance the experience and that could tell the story in another light. Let's get to it.
Pokemon 1st, 2nd & 3rd generation
I'm convinced that if these games were to get remakes, and if it was done right, would generate some huge sales. Yes, it's actually been done already with the Pokemon: Let's Go games that were released in 2018. While I had a lot of fun playing Let's Go: Pikachu! I still want more.
My dream has been, for years now, to see a Pokemon game in the style of The Legend og Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Let's see Kanto and Johto enhanced. Let's see it bigger. Blow them up into huge worlds that can be traversed. Introduce new encounter mechanics. Introduce a new battle system. Introduce new catching mechanics. Just put some real thought and energy into it and this could work.
Every time I think of this I'm always so baffled that it hasn't happened yet. Not necessarily as a remake but it hasn't even been done as a game for the newer generations. Pokemon is such a huge franchise that I can't see a scenario where it would fail unless it was executed really poorly. Poor execution really isn't a part of Nintendos repertoire.
I'm convinced that this has been up for discussions several times over at some sort of board or development meeting. There must be a good reason for why it hasn't been done yet. It just seems like such a no brainer to me.
Golden Sun & Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Two of my all time favorite games for the Game Boy Advance. Great role-playing games with rich and long stories that I'm sure would be successful remakes. I'm convinced they would turn out great if made in a style similar to Dragon Quest XI.
Maybe they could find a way to remove turn based combat while still keeping the Djinns relevant. I imagine this would work out just fine if the Djinns enhanced or gave the main characters new abilities instead of being stand alone abilities themselves. They would still remain relevant and highly useful.
While I could pick up and play this game today and still not feel its age a remake would be nice. The world is so big and the characters are so interesting that I would love to see it re-imagined. A whole new view point.
More Zelda games
They've already started with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake for the Nintendo Switch. While I haven't gotten around to play it yet I've heard that it's great. It looks really good to. What they've done here is they've remade the game from scratch while keeping the gameplay elements and the story the same as the original. It's still a top down adventure game but in 3D instead of 2D. It looks completely different yet it's the same game.
I would love to see similar remakes of A Link to the Past, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. These games are so memorable and the format is a classic one. I don't think they would work out in any other format. A 3rd person adventure game like the modern Zelda games wouldn't do them justice. Let's see the worlds and graphics re-imagined with the same style og gameplay. Some things don't need changing.
These are games akin to Golden Sun where I could go back and play them in their original format today and have loads of fun. I can only imagine a remake of the visuals would strengthen the games.
I'm gonna end it at three, and thus ending the Retro Gaming Blogging Challenge. If you haven't seen the challenge yet you should go check it out. Even though I've just finished my run yours could still begin. The challenge doesn't have a time limit and it doesn't have to be done over consecutive days. Post at your own leizure! There's still entries coming in from several members who has just started their adventure. Check out the #retrogamingchallenge tag to find all of the entries. Both old and new.
Before signing off I want to thank @marcoquin for coming up with this challenge. It's been really fun to both participate and read all of the amazing entries that's been coming in.
This has also been my first long blogging challenge. I'm looking forward to entering more of these in the future.
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