Gaming Remakes

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

March 23rd saw the release of the hotly anticipated remake of 2005's Resident Evil 4. Based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam and the current 93 on Metacritic, players and critics alike are eating it up. Despite this overwhelming success, the prevalence of remakes and HD remasters this year concerns me just a little bit. RE4 is the third significant remake to release in 2023, preceded by a total remake of the first Dead Space game and a graphical remake of Metroid Prime.

My fear is that these remakes are going to be taken as a sign by publishers that success doesn't lie in moving forward, but in looking back to the things gamers really liked in the past and cashing in on them. While I am currently on my second playthrough of RE4make, some part of it can't help but ring hollow in me. While a great game, it feels like a substitute for what was definitely not a spooky game: Resident Evil 8.

How do you guys feels? Are you excited about this trend of remakes, or would you rather that developers focus on bringing out new products? Additionally, how early is too early for a remake?

 

[Dizzi]

Well sometimes we want a remake lile WW so we can play on switch...

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

Well sometimes we want a remake lile WW so we can play on switch...

I only want a remake of WW if it cuts Tetra's weird transformation into Zelda and instead makes her into a companion.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I stopped caring about the onslaught of rewhatevers and just take them as they come, can't even have consistency in the titles
feels like people want remakes of every freaking 10+ year old game anyway

 

[Azure Sage]

I think a healthy mix of both is good. Making old games accessible, even if they aren't remade, is an important practice. It should be perfectly possible to allocate resources to this without taking away anything from developing new games.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I'm fine with remakes as long as they happen in reasonable amounts and don't get to a point where they release more often than new games. I'd like to think we'll never get to a point where remakes are more common than a new game release.

As for how early is too early for a remake, well it depends on a few factors. First, has it lost accessibility by being stuck on an old console? Second, does the game need some major update to even be playable anymore by modern standards? If the answer to both of these are yes, than a game could use a remake. If a game is still accessible, plays well, and looks good, a remake might be too much.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

I'm fine with remakes as long as they happen in reasonable amounts and don't get to a point where they release more often than new games. I'd like to think we'll never get to a point where remakes are more common than a new game release.

As for how early is too early for a remake, well it depends on a few factors. First, has it lost accessibility by being stuck on an old console? Second, does the game need some major update to even be playable anymore by modern standards? If the answer to both of these are yes, than a game could use a remake. If a game is still accessible, plays well, and looks good, a remake might be too much.

While I'm enjoying Resident Evil 4's remake, this is a trap that Capcom themselves have fallen into.

Over the past six years we've seen five Resident Evil games hit the market. Three of those games were remakes of existing titles.

 

[Turo602]

I don't have a problem with it. None of these remakes/remasters this year have felt like cash grabs. Two of the three mentioned are literally resurrecting dead franchises. The other is just as much an advancement of the series as any new entry. When they're this damn good, I'll gladly welcome more.

 

[jonexo]

It's nice to make remakes of our old favorite games but it would also be nice to play something new.

 

[Ashley the Witch]

I really prefer graphical upgrades than any added features for any re-release of a game. If a game is already good, you don't need to add stuff to fix it. Just give it modern graphics, and call it a day. It makes the game easier to get into for veterans of the game, and honestly more enjoyable for speedrunners as well. Patches are honestly sometimes more detrimental to casual players, just to fix bugs or glitches that a speedrunner uses. A clear example of this is the ability to dodge while scanning is kind of impossible in Metroid Prime, and the reason for the patch is because you can get high jump shoes early by scanning this ship and dodging at the same time. But doing so, it made the game harder for casual player trying to scan enemies while they're being attacked by them.

 

[Uwu_Oocoo2]

In a lot of popular series we have been getting more remakes/remasters than new games lately, which is kind of sad. I feel like if the time they put into remaking something was put to focused on making something new, that'd be better. Donkey Kong fans have been waiting for a new title for eons but instead got a remake of a game he's not even the main character in. Companies more than anything right now want to cash in on nostalgia. It's exactly like how Nintendo made like a million New Super Mario Bros games that were practically identical but people keep buying them bc it reminds them of the original. They know that if they slap a shiny coat of paint on something we already like people will buy it. On somethings it's reasonable, like what was stated before about older games that are unaccessible or need a general overhaul. Games like Skyward Sword? Not necessary.

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

Remakes are largely a way for companies to answer the question of backwards compatibility.

Historically, backwards compatibility was achieved on consoles by one of two ways: by integrating hardware from the past generation of systems in the new system or done through software via emulation.

Add in to this that consoles are an incredibly enticing product for consumers because they fulfill a need. They're priced reasonably, and they prioritize ease of use. In other words, they guarantee that games will just work.

If we can nail down a reason why we don't have universal backwards compatibility is because it requires console manufacturers to either include hardware from a previous console into their new console's design, which boosts the costs of manufacturing, or they have to figure how to emulate the previous generation through software, which is not a one size fits all solution.

The reason why a lot of remasters have been of more recent games.

A game's age is also a key factor in a developer's initial assessment of how to bring it to newer hardware. Depending on the game's age, it may feature enough commonalities that a simple one to one port to an updated version of the engine it runs on is how it's done. Or, the game could be old enough that it may feature enough inconsistencies with modern hardware that this leads to compatibility issues.

This is why most developers go for more recent games, because they likely still have the game's source code, so when they encounter incompatibilities during porting, they can reference the source code to find the source of the incompatibility, and ultimately correct it.

And let's not forget the march of technology. How modern games tackle lighting and rendering these days is drastically different compared to 15 years ago.

But this whole idea of remastering isn't a new concept.

 

[Guinea]

The age of remakes and remasters is upon us, now more than ever. Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy 7, etc. are selling well and for good reason, so it won't surprise me if Nintendo's next big Zelda title is an OoT remake, which in turn will have fans wanting a MM remake as well.

How do I feel about remakes and remasters? I like them if they're good!

 

[Apple34]

I feel like out action games (or basically all non-RPGs) peaked like 25 years ago and RPGs peaked like 15 years ago.

The onslaught of remakes as put above compared to just the quality of new games is pretty irrelevant in that grander scheme as far as I'm concerned.

Modern game developers just flat out have run out of ideas I think.

 

[spookyheart]

ff7r was aighty and its my all time fav one