What games do you think should NEVER be remastered, because they're close to perfect as they are?
Any games where a remaster could never stack up to the original.
Inspired by this post, asking the opposite, what games do you think are worthy of a remaster: https://lemmy.ml/post/6091201
I would have said dead space until the remake came out and blew me away. So if the devs really care about it no game is untouchable to me. You can always play the original.
Yea I think it's not necessarily the game, but what the remaster looks like. If they get super lazy with it, then it's not worth it. A proper remaster would be great
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/quszkv/increasing_poly_count_doesnt_always_make_sense/
I’d say the same thing about resident evil 2 and to an extent resident evil 3.
The Game.
God dammit.
It's been years. Literally years.
Well played.
sigh
I have lost the game...
Fuck I lost the game.
Portal 2 is 12 years old and still looks incredible.
I just played the portal series this year and it was so much fun. I might go back and play the second one.
Now I want to go replay Portal, both 1 and 2.
Pong.
If you change it, then it's not Pong.
But the paddles now have 3 entire dimensions.
Tetris? Any remake they've made was basically just a texture pack?
I will say Tetris Effect in VR is a legitimately transcendental experience. I've had trips that felt less meaningful and awe-inspiring than that game.
The Next Tetris actually has some neat mechanics that allow for some crazy gameplay moves. The pieces will fall apart once they come to rest, if the blocks are a different color, and they also merge together if they are the same color. It made for some interesting games
The original Rollercoaster Tycoon is perfect in every single way.
OpenRCT is a massive improvement. Your point is invalid.
You thinking that something can't be improved on is not a good reason for it to not happen.
I remember over a decade ago when people were whining about a rumored Silent Hill 2 remake (long before Bloober Team even existed). The argument was as presented here: They shouldn't do a remake because it can't possibly be as good as the original.
You know what I have to say to that? A Silent Hill 2 remake would not erase the original from existence. So who cares? If the remake ends up sucking, go play the original. Simple as.
Funny enough, it's an even more effective thing to do today in regards to Steam games. For example, it's really sending a message about the state of Payday 3 when Payday 2 has several times higher 24 hour concurrent player peaks. It really makes it clear that people wanted more from the franchise and were simply unhappy with the newest product.
For real, this. The remake was bad? Oh no, good thing the original is probably still very accessible over multiple platforms these days.
You ask me, the problem with remakes is that the industry isn't focusing on games that aren't as easily available and could genuinely benefit a lot from a facelift and some tweaks under the hood. Stuff like Parasite Eve, where the original media also feels sort of timely or relevant.
What you say it not always true though. Sometines the original game is killed in favour of the newer one
That's almost never a thing with remakes. Counter-Strike 2 replacing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the one that would be most recent and is probably why you're saying this. If not, you're probably thinking of similar such soft relaunches after large updates (which arguably applies here, though the change is so substantial that they really shouldn't have outright replaced CS:GO).
That's a completely separate issue and should realistically have no bearing on whether or not remakes should be made. You should focus your anger at the true problem, which is that Games as a Service is fraud. Don't let them entangle your feelings on this such that you accept things like a remake replacing an original game as not only normal, but also an inevitability.
Dang man no need to go full gung ho misundstanding on what op is saying. It's just theoretically speaking...chill the fuck out. I'll go ahead and say Halo 3 for my answer.
Thanks!
No such thing, technology gets better and even games that feel perfect today would be better with newer UI, smoother framerates, or better controls.
Of course you can say that the original Super Mario Brothers needs to exist still so people could keep working on speed runs, or just cause of the history, but a better SMB with new controls and smoother gameplay should always be on the table.
I mean, the original SMB quadrilogy was one of the first remasters ever (they messed up the brick breaking physics in SMB1/LL though, so I prefer the original or a fixed ROM hack of All Stars for those.)
Phantasy Star Online. They've tried to release sequels over the years - Universe, PSO2 - and failed miserably at capturing what made Episodes 1 and 2 great. There's no way they would be able to just update the graphics without trying to "improve" something in the gameplay, or changing the loot system, or adding MTX, and would just fuck it up again.
PSO is so good that even now, 23 years after it launched on Dreamcast, there's still hundreds if not thousands of people like me that still play regularly. Whether that's offline on their GameCube or online in Blue Burst on PC on a server like Ephinea.
PSO is such a gem from the Dreamcast / Gamecube days... There's something about the whole experience that I can't really explain or recommend to someone who didn't grow up with it. For instance, tying your attacks to a certain rhythm would be a game design sin nowadays, unless it's core to the entire concept (shout out to Chroma, what a fun alpha that was!). But it oozes early-00's charm in every aspect. And that OST!
I still hop on to Ephinea at least once a month because there's still a lot of stuff I've yet to achieve. I'll find my Heaven Punisher yet 😤
I played some of the English fan patch of PSO2 back when all the US players were on the SEA server. I thought it was pretty good, but obviously vastly different from the original. Then a few months ago I got curious and looked up recent gameplay. There's basically nothing that can tie it to the first one, and even on its own, it's utterly hollow and soulless. Watched someone just float in the air for several minutes killing hundreds of weird enemies wave after wave. Where's the fun in that? At least back in 2012-ish, PSE bursts brought some exciting moments. This video was just constant "action" with no ramp-up. Pure mobile gaming type garbage.
I'm sure nobody is down here after my ranting, but if you are, and you like games with a charming aesthetic and a slow-burn progression, definitely give PSO Blue Burst a try. It's 100% free with 0 microtransactions, and it's wholly run by fans. I don't really interact with the rest of the community, but from the POV of a forum lurker, they're all good people.
I don't often get to gush (pun not intended) about one of my favorite games ever. Can you tell? 😁
I just want great ports, like what iD Software has done with Doom and Quake. I don't care about updated visuals as long as I can play my favorite games in 1080p with modern controls.
Ironically, the Doom and Quake versions you can buy now are essentially remakes. The artwork is the same but the backend code is completely redone. Modern official Doom ports now run in Unity.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
What do you think about Alttp Redux?
Why?
The Link's Awakening remake was fantastic. I would love a similar remake of A Link to the Past.
Heroes of Might & Magic 3
you may or may not be interested in this little project https://vcmi.eu/
its a project to create an open source implementation of its engine, think daggerfall unity as an example
Dishonored.
That game looks beautiful, even if compared to some of today's AAA titles.
Updating it to Dishonored 2 level graphics would be nice though. Last time I played it I noticed some things looking dated now. But the art style is solid either way.
Honestly hard question because essentially you want a game that would be worse now. Something that playing now would tranish it then make it better even with updated graphics/movement. Or something you know the company would take a direction which would make it negative.
Something like redoing the original Super Mario 1, 2 and 3. Where the updated graphics and changes to game play takes away from the original pixel feel. As I feel Nintendo would probably use modern day Mario design.
or mass effects removal of zoooming in on mirandas butt
Agreed, SMW was actually the first thing that popped into my head when writing the post subject, SMB1-3 definitely qualify too. I'd put them all on equal footing in this regard.
Chess of course!
Oh that could be remastered so good. Claim that you implement a 64 player battle royal mode which will never exist and in the end it's only two player with only pawns + king and you can rent the other figures through microtransactions.
You had me up til microtransactions :-p
This isn't quite what you're asking, but Halo CE vs the MCC remaster. Halo: CE was superior visually-speaking to the MCC remaster because there were a lot of changes the MCC made to the lighting and textures which ruined the atmosphere of the original. That's not to say the remaster is bad, it just isn't good because it lost the original feel of the game.
When it comes to games that could never be remastered, I think Hylics 1 and 2 fit the bill for me. It's not that Hylics 1 couldn't look better, but so much of the visual style relies on photographs and claymation that it'd be very, very hard to do a proper "remaster". Hylics 2 is the same, except now there's video you have to remake instead of still images.
I’ll go as far as to say Sabre’s lighting and coloring were terrible. The covenant interiors look nothing like their original counterparts. All the creepiness is gone. Frankly they ruined the entire look and vibe of halo CE. You also can shoot objects you can’t see because their overlay trick - which is admittedly very clever - needed more polish and sanding down of the edges. Nothing worse than shooting from behind a boulder only to find it’s 6in higher than it looks and your bullets are just stopping mid air.
I only play on original graphics (the upscaling is great).
Agreed. That was the first time I had really had an attachment to an original and then played the remaster. Of course, these are my opinions, but it felt as if any level with an originally dark atmosphere completely lost it. All of the architecture was overcomplicated for no real aesthetic gain.
Being able to flip between the remaster and original with a button is a great feature, but really damned it further for me.
For the most part, a good remaster should feel as if it's a continuation of the original style, MCC's version of CE just felt like they did that a quarter of the way, then a giant mutation occurred and warped it the rest of the way into something... different
Specifically, MCC's version of Halo 1 is modelled after the Gearbox PC port of Halo CE, which is where the lighting and texture jank originates from.
Super Hexagon
Looks too complex. They brag about having twice as many buttons!
The amazing thing about SH is the simplicity - at some point I saw that someone had written a version of it for the Commodore 64.
Katamari Damacy
Hard disagree on this. The controls could be 1000% improved.
I know, because I’ve purchased the same 3 or so Katamari games each time they’re rereleased and am moderately disappointed each time that they control like blind elephants.
Best soundtrack ever.
2d art and pixel art survive well because of the inherent abstraction being part of it's aesthetician. The greater the graphical fidelity, the less the game leans on abstraction, and instead on fidelity, and then a remaster adds more visual appeal.
A game like slay the spire or katamari damacy gains very little from a visual remaster, but a game like Crysis would get a lot. Its worth noting that katamari damacy did get a remaster anyway...and its aesthetic is still what makes it look good, not the resolution. Crysis on the other hand had low aesthetic emphasis and heavy technical emphasis so refreshing the technical graphics does a lot for the game.
Nethack.
The original Sims + expansion packs. I haven't played any of the newer ones but I spent a lot of childhood playing the original with my mom and we had so much fun together.
Livin' Large was my fave expansion pack because of the servo. Such a fun game!
Dead Cells.
They're still making dead cells. And if they ever stop, a bundle with all the dlc would be welcome.
It would be a sad day if they ever stopped.
"BRUCE LEE" on the C64 🥰
I’m definitely in the minority, but remasters in general aren’t my cup of tea. I’d generally rather play the thing as it was. If a game was noteworthy for some reason I’d like to see it in roughly its original historical context, especially if it’s noteworthy for what it did with the hardware at the time. Remaking it can really take away from that in my opinion.
I don’t always mind it, especially when it makes a game that’s hard to run on modern computers readily available and has options that are faithful to the original… and sometimes it’s just nice to have shiny new graphics (like with the Spyro remakes). Other games it just seems silly for… like Bioshock and Mass Effect aren’t that old and the remasters don’t seem that different, so why bother? I guess they come as a bundle, so that’s a win? And I guess these releases are also good for consoles, but they seem silly on PC.
I won’t yuck anybody’s yums, though. If you like remasters that’s great… I just don’t really see the point most of the time, but maybe it’s because I like seeing old graphics and seeing where we came from and stuff.
For the most part I agree with you but generally want controls remapped to match current conventions. A lot of PS2 games are hard to play because they were making button layouts up as they went and it interferes with my muscle memory!
Yes the control remapping can be a big deal for sure coughsystemshockcough
I never played Spyro growing up, so I don't have the nostalgia boner for it, but my partner did. Watching them play it was infuriating. The difficulty in the first three games is based entirely on the controls being dogshit.
Paper Mario. Not that it'd ruin it, just cant do much.
Well, they're remastering The Thousand Year Door. I think it looks pretty nice, but you're right, it doesn't do much given that the original still holds up visually for the style they were going for.
Journey
That was a beautiful game!
Star Wars Battle Front 2 (2005)
I cannot tell you how many hours I burned playing Galactic Conquest with friends.
WATCH THOSE WRIST ROCKETS!!!
The original Doom and Commander Keen. And no, not because of the nostalgia, but because they're actually perfect the way they are.
What about DOOM 2016? I thought it was great. I'll admit, I didn't play much of original DOOM, but 2016 feels like what I wanted DOOM to be if there was better graphics tech available.
Not for me. Part of the perfection was that you walked through the 8bit world and see something blocky in front of you. Now, is it a monster or an item? Only two ways to find out, and one of them will kill ya.
E: also, I got it loaded on my TI-83+, and played DOOM after maths exams.
Katana Zero is pretty damn flawless!
Tetris?
Tetris Effect was pretty nice though
Tetris Effect and TETR.IO are great, to name a couple.
Dishonored.
That game looks beautiful, even if compared to some of today's AAA titles.
Acww
Pong
Not for that reason (as already explained in another comment), but because they work best in 2d or aren't popular these days anymore
Minecraft Java Edition, because of the modding support. Unless they remaster it to have LUA and improved modding support?
No games should be remastered. Leave them as they are and create new games.