Remakes of Games That Deserve Another Attempt

[Cube]

The majority of remakes are of games that were previously popular or well received. However, I feel like some games have some interesting elements and setting but didn't quite pan out, and deserve a second chance to try and get things right. Some of these for me are:

Vampyr

Set in London during WW1, you play as a doctor who has recently been turned into a vampire. It has a very interesting idea where luring and killing innocent people will get you a ton of XP, allowing you to become overlevelled (instead of underlevelled if you don't kill anyone). The difficulty of the game does a good job at creating the the feeling of temptation to just nom on someone....perhaps on one of the more despicable people you meet. 

Unfortunately, the combat isn't particularly amazing and you can die very quickly if you are underlevelled. The quick death wouldn't be a huge problem if it was quick to get back into the action, but the loading time after death is agonizingly long. And it then respawns you with full health (which you usually have before a big fight anyway) but no blood (a power meter for special attacks and quick healing). As you typically save this for a big fight, it means that you're usually in a worse position than your first attempt. 

The game is also very buggy. It froze on me a couple of times, before eventually freezing on the same point of a mission about 6 times. Looked online and found one person who had the same issue, with starting the game again being the only thing to try. 

A remake could spruce up the combat and make it a lot quicker to get into action. Perhaps even use the vampire thing for doing respawns, borrowing from Dark Souls and having you lose some items that you have to go back and reclaim. I also think there should be more climbing and stealth options, so a more "Assassin's Creed" type city where you can take to the rooftops and be a bit more stealthy would work well. They could also add an extra optional difficulty mode where there's a day/night cycle, with the sun burning you throughout the day so you have to stick to shadows (a better designed city where you can sneak via people's houses would be important for this). 

 

Geist

A game published by Nintendo, made by the developers of a Mary Kate and Ashley game. The game had an amazing concept: you were a ghost. In a ghost form, you had minimal impact on the world. However, you could possess things. You could possess objects easily, to possess animals you needed to scare them (a quick jump scare will do), and to possess humans you had to properly frighten them. 

One of the main flaws of the game is that you spent large sections of the game stuck in a body of a soldier, and if they died, it was game over. On top of that, it was incredibly linear, and was often a singular set way (if you were lucky, two ways) to frighten things.

Taking the concept of the game and redesigning it as a more "light metroidvania" game (something that seems extremely popular at the moment) and having far more options to get past obstacles would be great. A dialogue system to make it less just shooty shooty could be great, too - for this you could add in documents/audio logs and stuff like that which enable you to lean about the people you are possessing so you can answer questions correctly. Would be a cool way to turn hidden collectables into something useful for gameplay.

[Hero-of-Time]

Super Mario Sunshine

It still bums me out that Nintendo just gave the game a minimal upgrade rather than a full remake. The game needed more time in the oven when it was released on the GameCube and it's probably one of the very few Nintendo made titles that I can think that needs this kind of attention.

The camera needs reworking, certain things need to be made more streamlined and the blue coin system could be done with an overhaul.

Baten Kaitos

Other than a few difficulty spikes in the game, I don't think this needs much done to it and it's more of a case of the game really deserves a second chance.

The game was released on a dying console and had a card battle system. Such a battle system wasn't that big at the time but these days card battling is well thought of and has been embraced by a lot more people.

Monolithsoft have a very good reputation now, with more gamers now knowing more about the developer thanks to the Xenoblade series. It's time to give that series a rest a revisit the world of Baten Kaitos. 

[drahkon]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Baten Kaitos

Still got my copy and I will play it again sometime  The game needs a remake just for its OST alone.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

58 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Still got my copy and I will play it again sometime  

 

Same. I've still got Origins on the shelf to play. It's been sat there since it launched but I never got around to playing it. I wonder how long ago that was now? 15-16 years? 

[drahkon]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I've still got Origins on the shelf to play.

It's a shame that it was never released in Germany  And back in the day (2006 was its release) I wasn't able to import games easily. I may have to give the Dolphin emulator a go, but I doubt my PC can run it  

[Dcubed]

Geist is a good shout @Cube.  Fantastic concept that was incredibly poorly executed and ultimately wasted.

Anyway, my vote goes to Epic Mickey.  Amazing concept, but ultimately just not executed very well.  It's a concept that really deserves another chance!

Another one for me is The House of The Dead: Overkill.  I love absolutely everything about this game... other than its gameplay... It's such a shame.  All of the surrounding trappings (like the writing, the characters etc) is absolutely AMAZING! But the actual light gun HOTD gameplay here is just so piss poor! It's an awful HOTD game with shit pacing, shit level & enemy/boss designs, but it's just SO damn funny!

I really wish that SEGA AM1 could have a crack at remaking this game.  Keep the writing, characters and Grindhouse setting, but have the actual HOTD team make an actual good HOTD game around it!

Edited November 2, 2020 by Dcubed

[nekunando]

You're absolutely bang on about House of the Dead: Overkill, @Dcubed

I love the game but the slowdown and pacing definitely takes away from the experience, sadly. Now it's just a memory held to my regret..

Anyway, as I'm currently playing it I feel like Disaster: Day of Crisis could use a modern remake but I'm not sure how it would really work without being able to embrace those late noughties Wii vibes!

[Jonnas]

Great idea for a thread!

I can't agree on Baten Kaitos, as remakes usually redo everything from the ground up, and I object to redoing the soundtrack and art style, which are already perfect. BK's issues are voice, story, pacing, and some minor issues with game mechanics. All of that (besides story) can be corrected and fine-tuned with a remaster, which would keep the good stuff intact.

My own suggestions for the thread are:

The Mysterious Murasame Castle - The original Famicom game is a really fun action title that resembles a twin-stick shooter, but it is overly hard and unforgiving. A remake in either 2D or 3D is something I'd love to see.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - There's no denying that this is the least popular of the Metroidvania part of the series. A remake could essentially redesign bosses and levels while aiming to keep the creepy ambiance, muted looks, and eerie music (which you can still achieve via remake). Also, making Castles A and B more distinct.

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War - I'd say FE 4-through-6 could all use remakes, but especially this one. It's a grand scale, heavy political story with a lot of lore to explore, and a passionate fanbase (also, the sort of story that would captivate the GOT crowd). But it's so clunky and boring! Many of its mechanics are poorly explained, or overly complex, or just mindboggling (you know how you swap weapons between characters? You sell them, and then have to buy them again. Seriously). A remake could do a lot for the Jugdral saga.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon - On one hand, a lot of its charm comes from the era it was released on, and it's pretty perfect as it is... on the other, I would be very curious to see where a modern remake would take this title!

Zelda II - As unlikely as it is, I kinda want to see what a remake of this would be like. Would they keep the difficulty in fights? The obtuse puzzles? Error? Make it a Souls-like? What would the most unconventional Zelda become?

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator - I'm sure y'all didn't play this game, but this is an JRPG made by Bungie staff for the PC in the early 2000s. That combination shouldn't even make sense, but it existed, and produced this unique game, with an original fascinating world, and battle mechanics heavily inspired by Chrono Trigger. Problem is, there was a slew of problems with it, such as badly paced cutscenes, repetitive dungeons, hellishly slow zombies, and a complete absence of a soundtrack (other than the battle theme). A remake could do more with this fascinating world and setting, while avoiding all the issues the original had.

[Glen-i]

I mean, a year ago, I would have said the first PMD game, because it really needed to be updated with Super's mechanics, but that's not applicable anymore.

Don't get me wrong, seeing Explorers of Sky get the same treatment would be great, but that game doesn't need the update quite as much as the Rescue Team games did.

And then I thought of Chrono Trigger, but then, Square Enix is very hit and miss when it comes to updates to their old library. Not sure I'd want that especially after seeing the likes of FFVI on mobile. And now that I type it, Chrono Trigger still holds up anyway.

So I nominate Chrono Cross. I tried playing it a while back and it's exhausting. Long loading times, a needlessly complicated battle system and a party of characters where you don't care about 90% of them. A redo of that has the potential to let it live up to it's predecessor.

[Aperson]

After playing the 3D Remake of Final Fantasy IV years ago I was impressed on how they turned the whole SNES game into a voice acted 3D experience and it gave me hope that a similar remake for FFVI could be coming down the line. Of course, the team behind that remake wanted to make their own games and eventually went on to make Bravely Default leaving the iOS version as the only actual remake FFVI ever got since then. So for me the GBA version is the definitive version of the game, soundtrack quality aside.

 

As for remakes of games I want to see that haven't actually been remade yet... I kind of want a remake of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. It's game I've played but for various different reasons (played a demo initially and then when I finally got the full game the disc freezes upon defeating the first boss). Kind of considering getting it on PS3 download for a version of the game I can actually finish but I wouldn't mind a remake of the game at all.

 

Also Burnout 2: Point of Impact. This game feels SO good to play and I don't know what they did between the first game and this one but the sense of speed and using the boost feels SO much better in this game. Once you start darting around the traffic it's so fun.

 

I would have also said Prince of Persia Sands of Time but that's actually getting a remake so... remake Pokemon Pinball! It's been years since the last one, completely bypassed both the DS and 3DS which would have perfect for the games with the two screens. The Pokedex gave Pinball and it's sequel a longevity that other pinball games simply don't have, you get a ton of replay value as you seek to try and complete the Pokedex. It was one of my favourite Pokemon spin-offs as a kid alongside the TCG GBC game and while PTCGO means we're not likely getting a standalone adventure game based on the TCG any time soon that leaves Pinball as the game I really want a comeback for.

 

 

[Happenstance]

Not that it needs another attempt because it was already great but I'd love to see a remake of Final Fantasy VI done by the Octopath Traveler guys.

[Glen-i]

On 03/11/2020 at 12:59 PM, Happenstance said:

Not that it needs another attempt because it was already great but I'd love to see a remake of Final Fantasy VI done by the Octopath Traveler guys.

That is literally one of my three "dream game" scenarios.

Which means that it's got no chance in hell.

[LazyBoy]

Mirror's edge? First one was great but undercooked, and second one missed the point entirely. Bring back the tightly constructed linearity, fix the combat, and add more content. Maybe add a chase mode?

[Mandalore]

Pokemon Sword & Shield - Take the music, new Pokemon and location ideas, give it to a developer which isn't stuck in the 90s.

 

[Esequiel]

Point blank.

Give me it on the switch and on Steam VR.

[Esequiel]

Oh also Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis please.

[Goafer]

Burning Rangers

I was always impressed by how fun it was, but it was limited by the Saturn's capabilities and plagued with awful translation (The first piece of writing in the intro has a typo in it FFS) and bugs. I'd love to see how the movement and style could be improved on a modern console.

 

Split/Second

Not really a case of me wanting to see it remade, but more that I'd like to see more games like it. It was a powerup/weapon style racer, but the powerups weren't weapons, they were triggers for traps/setpieces within the track itself. Once you'd learned the tracks, you knew where the traps were and a good driver could avoid them. The fun came from not knowing when someone would set off the traps and always being prepared for the worst. It was basically a kart style game, but without any of the bullshit random elements normally associated with powerup racers.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Goafer

[WackerJr]

I love this idea for a thread @Cube and a few games sprung to mind, including Geist as you mentioned.

Great shout on Epic Mickey @Dcubed

Pandora’s Tower (Wii)

I really enjoyed the Wii game, with the risk-reward concept of getting far enough into a level to still leave you enough time to get back to ensure you could feed your curse-laden companion to ensure she didn’t turn into a monster.  That concept alone, along with trying to build a relationship between the characters and your interactions affected this, was engaging.

I’d like to see this with HD graphics for starters, mainly to help with actually being able to see items and platforms clearly and not because you’d really see how gruesome a monster Elena would seen to be turning into (although appreciate some people would enjoy that grotesqueness!).

 

Eternal Darkness (GameCube)

The story was dark, twisted and clever.  Sometimes the psychological effects were really well done.  I know that a failed successor, Shadow of the Eternals, was once touted, and that Denis Dyack’s reputation isn’t what it once was, but in the right hands I think there would be enough interest to warrant bringing back one of the GameCube’s underrated gems. Ideally with more & surprising insanity effects to catch players off guard.

 

Space Station Silicon Valley (N64)

I loved this quirky puzzle platformer & would enjoy seeing its bizarre but laugh out loud brand of humour make a reappearance.

Like virtually all games from the N64-era it looks a little rough now (ok it looked a little rough back then!), but the gameplay of killing creatures to take over their bodies & use their unique skills to overcome puzzles is still very much viable now.  There must surely be potential to come up with many more puzzles based on this design.  (Plus if it could be released without bugs preventing you from completing it 100% then that would also be handy! 😃).