Modern day remakes of classic video games like Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy and Shadow of the Colossus PS4 remaster are a marvel to behold. They each preserve sensibilities reminiscent of early gaming eras while also retreading familiar ground through a modern lens in an effort to appeal to newer audiences. Many dormant IPs have the potential to align themselves well in the modern era while preserving the core elements that made them great in the first place. The following list contains those titles that developers should consider remaking next.
Classic Games That Deserve Remakes: Dino Crisis
Dino Crisis is, in many ways, the dinosaur version of Resident Evil. Using a similar third-person perspective, players are tasked with exploring a mysteriously abandoned facility as red-haired protagonist Regina.
Boasting impressive visuals and encouraging players to explore environments through scattered notes and contextual elements, Dino Crisis succeeds in immersing players in its lizard-ridden reality. A remake could work very much in the same vein as Capcom’s Resident Evil HD or the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake, giving players options to play with the original’s third-person perspective or over-the-shoulder.
Classic Games That Deserve Remakes: Eternal Darkness
The GameCube classic Eternal Darkess: Sanity’s Requiem is a game that deserves a remake for how well it subverts expectations and flips horror genre tropes on their head. Specifically, the title seeks to actively mess with the player’s own mind through the use of a meter that continuously tracks each protagonists’ sanity level. The further characters stray from logic, the more likely the odds that controls are reversed.
Levels themselves may also begin to wrap around endlessly, causing users to doubt whether or not they were going the right way in the first place. The game even does the unthinkable and makes players think that they’ve deleted their save files accidentally. It would be interesting to see if today’s players would be able to take all of Eternal Darkness‘ clever tricks in stride.
Classic Games That Deserve Remakes: Silent Hill
If Konami would ever like to redeem itself for the cancellation of the Hideo Kojima-directed Silent Hills, a full-blown remake of the original entry in the series may suffice. Though something in the vein of Capcom’s Resident Evil HD would be nice, Silent Hill deserves an audiovisual makeover, as those two aspects of the game haven’t aged all too well.
The level design, narrative, and gameplay could all go untouched, as the title was one of the first that capitalized on the idea of atmospheric horror. Though Konami has diverted its efforts to other revenue sources, this remake could be a great way to step back into game development.
Classic Games That Deserve Remakes: Parasite Eve
Square Enix has quite a few great IPs in its portfolio that deserve modern day remakes. The first is Parasite Eve, an original PlayStation game starring a New York City police officer named Aya Brea who’s caught up in a dizzying narrative featuring hordes of demons and hellfire. Environments crumble at the player’s feet as Aya circumvents oncoming orbs and flies in the air with an assault rifle in tow.
Though Square may have to invest quite a bit to make it all work with modern visuals and a more cohesive plot, a Parasite Eve remake may be just the thing to shake up an industry saturated with similar-looking military shooters and battle royale modes.
Classic Games That Deserve Remakes: Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is regarded by some as one of the greatest JRPGs of all time. It revolutionized the genre by eliminating random encounters and allowing players the ability to fight enemies directly on the map. It’s also incredibly complex, as side quests flesh out characters to an astounding degree and multiple endings encourage repeat playthroughs.
A remake of the game today would simply need to give the game a fresh coat of paint—one similar in vein to I Am Setsuna or Octopath Traveler. Its gameplay and narrative could, for the most part, remain untouched, as Chrono Trigger is still revisited by many JRPG fans to this day.
Classic Games That Deserve Remakes: Vagrant Story
Vagrant Story went under the radar for far too many PlayStation users back when it released in 2000. The action adventure dungeon crawler is, in many ways, responsible for evolving the concept of real-time battle systems found in popular titles like Dark Souls.
It principally gave players a vast arsenal of weapons to choose from, each capable of being modified and transformed according to personal preference or the situation at hand. Vagrant Story was ahead of its time and sadly never received a sequel. Should Square want to ride on the Souls phenomenon sometime in the near future, a remake of Vagrant Story may be just what it needs.
Classic Games That Deserve Remakes: Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Conker fans have had it rough since the fur ball’s days on the Nintendo 64. The original game was sort of remade by Rare in 2005 as Conker: Live & Reloaded, but it left a lot to be deserved by fans. In particular, Live & Reloaded censored core aspects of the original game that made audiences fall in love with the series in the first place, like the “Great Mighty Poo” song.
With Microsoft seemingly listening to its fan base more and more in modernity, an uncensored, full-fledged remake of Conker’s Bad Fur Day could make its way onto the Xbox One or future Xbox console soon. Here’s hoping every swear word gets put in next time. Plus, with competitor Sony bringing back its mascots, there’s been no better moment to see Conker back in action.
Since its inception in the 1970s, gaming has produced countless experiences that deserve to be enjoyed regardless on when they were made. Although, some games are harder to go back to after time has passed and standards have changed. Remakes and remasters can help bring those titles up to modern standards where they can still be studied but also enjoyed by new and returning audiences. In a medium so focused on the future, it’s important to look and back and remasters help us do just that.
