A Case for Video Game Remakes 300
The MTV Games site has up a talk with Morgan Grey, the producer on the recent title Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Anniversary is a remake of the now-classic original Tomb Raider title and (perhaps not unsurprisingly) Grey makes an argument to Stephen Totilo that game remakes are a way of preserving gamer culture. "'We have all witnessed remakes of movies that have been modernized for us to digest that came out 50 years ago before we were born,' he said as a point of comparison. If games are to achieve the same timelessness, the classics need to be easily accessible. But anyone who has tried to play certain 3-D gaming classics from even just five years ago -- let alone tried to get someone who didn't play them at the time to put up with outdated controls, graphics or camera-work -- know that it's hard to appreciate them." Grey goes on to point out that this is less true of 2D titles; he's primarily talking about 3D games here. Any titles you'd like to see remade, like Anniversary, or even re-envisioned ala Prince of Persia?
how about some RPGS (Score:5, Insightful)
They're called 'sequels'. (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's take Super Mario Brothers. Now let's improve the graphics, the sound, tweak the controls to better fit today's control schemes, and what do you get?
Super Mario Brothers 3. Or Super Mario World. Or Mario 64. Or... you get the point.
Unlike movies, where sequels usually just continue the storyline from what came before, video game sequels (should, at least) add new stuff, improvements, updates, etc. If you want the 'Tomb Raider' experience, you play the most recent one. If you want the 'Civilization' experience, you play Civ 4. If you want a good FPS on your X-Box 360, you play the latest remake of Halo... they call it Halo 3.
And so on and so forth.
Re:They're called 'sequels'. (Score:5, Insightful)
You improve the sound graphics and slightly tweak the controls and you end up with Super Mario All-Stars.
A sequel is where you add significant features that the core gameplay revolves around. Remakes may add new features or subtly tweak things but by and large the differences between the remake and the original should be fairly minor or not drastic.
To me, remakes are more like a new edition of a book. A lot of the recent remakes can easily be viewed in this way as they have been going through and fixing bugs, clarifying story elements or in some cases expanding the game play a little bit (or making minute adjustments for balance or to keep things interesting). That's something that's not uncommon in revisions of books.
Sequels are usually a continuation of the first or another story in the same "universe". What you're suggesting is that Two Towers is a remake of Fellowship of the Ring.
Need to revive the whole Graphic Adventure genre (Score:4, Insightful)
X-Wing and Tie Fighter (Score:5, Insightful)
X-COM (Score:2, Insightful)
Zelda II (Score:2, Insightful)
Master of Orion (Score:5, Insightful)
I still play it all the time.
Out of the box it should play _exactly_ like the old game with shiny new graphics. Maybe fix the last remaining bugs (combat teleporters, ancient derelict event etc) but leave the gameplay unchanged. However, (big however), make the game as mod-able as possible (something like civ 4 maybe). Make it so we can add races, technologies, spacehip graphics as required, and you would have the ultimate game for me.
Re:A few... (Score:3, Insightful)
Autoduel
On top of Ultima 4-7, I'd add 3 also.
Other games I would like to see updated are Seven Cities of Gold, the old D&D games like Curse of the Azure Bonds and Elite. I'm sure there are a ton of them from my Apple days that I can't remember.
Re:They're called 'sequels'. (Score:5, Insightful)
Part of games being taken seriously is going to require the industry being willing to take on some measure of preserving the classics. Digital distribution is a good way to do this (id just put their entire back catalog on steam) as are retropacks of classic games (sierra did this last year with most of the adventure franchises). Remakes are another way of preserving the past.
It may be me.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Starcraft 1 (Score:2, Insightful)