Remade, Restored and Remastered

We all know glorious gaming when we see if and as fans of the medium we all hope that the next big release is either as good as or better than those preceding it. The developers want to make the best games possible and are always looking to recreate the dizzying heights of their past classics.

I like playing classics as much as the next person but there is always faults with everything recreated/remastered. The emulators on my PC may allow me to have the feeling of playing my old favourites but the Super Mario Bros that I run out once every so often isn’t quite the same game I grew to love. What’s worse is that you’d think in this age of digital distribution that games would be preserved forever – and they aren’t. Anything can change the lay of the land in retro gaming; as I’m sure anyone who’s played an emulated Xbox game on their Xbox 360 will know, something as basic as a new television standard can greatly alter a classic experience.

The HD remake tactic started a few years ago and has provided us with a nice piece of nostalgia for many fans of the originals. These remakes are getting tooled up for the current generation to make everything look prettier and play smoother but what started as a trickle has turned into a flood. The success of the original reissues of God of War and Perfect Dark has brought with it a horde of other games looking for another decade of success.

The problem is that the more remakes we get the worse their quality becomes and the less true to the original formula they actually are. Players of the new Devil May Cry remake know that although Dante’s adventure did get some improvements to the gameplay the cinematics and menus looked blurry and uneven. Actually a recent article on Kotaku had several developers saying that remaking a game can take just a long as creating a fresh title.

Tomm Hulett, Senior Associate Producer of Konami's Silent Hill Collection was quoted as saying, "Game re-mastering isn't a quick and easy process. That first God of War Collection came out and did really well, and I think a lot of companies saw it as a good way to make a quick buck off old stuff. If you want to make a definitive version of a game, expect a serious time commitment. It's been more than two years since we began the Silent Hill Collection project. That's how long it took to make Silent Hill 2 in the first place."

The biggest problem is found in where the remake line is held. Do you want to keep the remake as true to the original as possible? Including bug and glitches? Or do you want to make a definitive edition that surpasses the original in as many ways as possible?

The problem sits deeply in a player’s fondness for a game – take the Ocarina of Time remake on the 3DS for example; some gamers wanted a straight port of the original N64 classic while others wanted added extras and tweaks to the gameplay. I’m always of the understanding that if it’s not broken don’t fix it but in these digital ages we have the ability to fix things quicker then before and games are generally less buggy (at least after a few patches).  These glitches in our classic games are some of the fondest memories I have of them and it didn’t stop people from enjoying them in the first place so why make a change. Just because a glitch is exploitable doesn’t mean you have to use it.

I completely understand fixing bugs that actually affect the games I’m playing and diminish the experience but to remove glitches that create humour or are loved by the fans of the game can diminish the experience too. It’s a touch scale to do correctly and one that should really be down to the fans and what they have gripes with and not some busy body looking for a quick buck… I can wish right?

So what version of a game is defined as the real version? At this point in time we have Ocarina of Time on the N64, the remade 3DS version or ones played on various other consoles and emulators. The 3DS version collects the original game well, polishes graphical discrepancies and also holds the Master Quest for those avid fans.  The answer to the question though is, none of them. Everyone from the developers to the fans to the studios tasked with remaking them will all have their own opinions whether personal or business related. Frankly they are all The Ocarina of Time it’s just down to preference.

Technically the version that preserves the drama, action or nostalgia is the ones that matters, the games that bring enjoyment to fans no matter the platform or the gamers age. This boom in remakes is just getting started and I’m sure we will find many more games being retold over the next decade. I’m also sure we will find new ways for developers to deal with the challenges of making something as good as or better than the original.