I know that remakes and remasters are contentious, but let’s pretend whatever game in question you’re thinking of is handled with the utmost care by your favourite devs and they absolutely nail it.
Mine would be Shadow of Memories (called Shadow of Destiny in North America). It’s legitimately one of my favourite games of all time but it kinda flew under the radar and I haven’t met many people who know of it let alone played it. Seeing it get modern graphics, maybe some expanded mechanics, would be soooo cool.
Sly Cooper and Jak & Daxter are both criminally forgotten in this era of games
I would kill for a Jak 3 remaster. I loved using the button mash glitch with Light Jak and flying around using the wings. I played through that game so many times as a kid.
Also why the fuck won’t Sony port both those series to PC?!
Good news. The Jak and Daxter series is being decompiled and ported by fans. Currently the first two games are playable on PC, they are currently working on Jak 3 and will also port Jak X.
I’d buy those!
Red Alert 2
Yes! But not into a 3D engine. Loved some Arctic circle, everyone start in the corners and have a race for the derricks and airports!
Absolutely. Keep it 2.5d
Hearty agreement here. I fired up Red Alert 3, hated the art style (and the co-commanders playing the game for me!) and bailed on the whole affair. Meanwhile I recently played through Red Alert 2 again on my Steam Deck and absolutely adored it.
Red Alert 2 was the last good Command and Conquer game in my opinion, I know Generals had a big following but I couldn’t get into anything after RA2.
How did it play on the steam deck? I’ve been playing a bit of Tiberium Sun lately but RA2 will always be my favourite, it could use a bit more balancing in multiplayer though.
Oops, forgot to reply to you!
With the custom input mapping I used (available on Steam) it played really well. Probably not as well as a keyboard and mouse but I was able to complete all the campaigns on hard without issue, if memory serves.
Multiplayer has never been my thing with RTS games so I can’t comment on that.
All good man, appreciate the reply. I’m tempted to give it a go now and see if I can set up my own hybrid control mapping using the touchscreen as a mouse and attach a keyboard to see what kind of experience that offers, I feel like it could either be decent or horrendous but worth a try xD
I used the touch pad as a trackpad mouse which worked very well for me. I also had various hotkeys mapped to the other touchpad and the rear buttons as modifiers (control and shift, if memory serves). I think I submitted my config but as my deck is in for repairs I can’t check right now (it’ll have my username attached).
I’ve seen people play it on the Steam deck but it’s not easy to control.
If you get back into multiplayer then use cncnet. They have a balance patch.
Yeh I didn’t imagine it was be that enjoyable but then I could have been wrong.
I was aware of cncnet but didn’t realise they had made a balance patch. To be fair it has been a long time, maybe i should revisit, although online I’d get absolutely stomped these days I’m sure.
A lot of medium skill people still play, surprisingly. I’m not good at all and still have roughly a 70% win rate.
The patch most heavily nerfs France, Iraq, and most importantly, Yuri.
It also fixes a metric fuck ton of bugs. Someone even managed to patch the engine to fix the input delay on lower game speeds.
Oh really? I imagined it just to be the “elite” type players left.
Not my sweet France!! XD
I’m gonna have to check this out and see what’s up with it at some point. Thanks for the info
I thought Generals and C&C 3 looked good, but I hated Red Alert 3. They tried too hard to make it Star Craft 2.
Tiberian Sun / Firestorm as well
Yes. But they need to be very careful to keep that bleak and hopeless aesthetic.
I would give my left nut for a Dark Cloud or Black&White 2 full remaster
Black & White 2 gets my vote
Dude dark cloud would be soooo good! That game was absolutely brilliant!
The games that actually need it are the ones stuck on old consoles with no forward compatibility, particularly PC. Just looking at the games still on my shelf, that don’t belong to Nintendo, and are not locked in some kind of licensing hell:
- every Burnout before Paradise
- MechAssault 1 and 2
- Mega Man: Network Transmission
- Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
- Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and MGS4 (there’s some hope here, maybe???)
- every old Ratchet & Clank game
- legacy Soul Calibur/Soul Edge games, with rollback netcode
- legacy SSX games
- Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2
- Uncharted 1-3
- the Viewtiful Joe series
And I don’t have it on my shelf, but would it kill someone to remaster the old TimeSplitters games?
I love SSX 3 and just about a month ago replayed it on my steam deck. Would love a remake of that. I was probably in the minority but I mostly liked the SSX reboot, minus all the online connectivity.
I think the lack of split-screen killed interest for a lot of us. It did for me.
Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 got a remaster a few years back.
Friends of mine reported that the game did not control the same, so I guess I was looking for those games ported properly.
Ooh, SSX, that’s a game I haven’t thought about in a while. I had a lot of fun playing SSX tricky and the reboot
NFS Underground 1&2
Wipeout
Rollcage
Twisted Metal
Twisted Metal was so good.
I loved Black when it came out.
Its not that old (although that does fit the theme) but Hotline Miami 1, and to a lesser extent, 2. Both are limited a lot by the engine, and by the small scale of their development. If they could be re-made in a new engine, with some modern customizability and QoL features, as well as added polish on things like the door physics, I think it could go a long way to ensuring they stand the test of time.
Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronical in Europe) I have never ran into a game that has hooked me like Dark Cloud 2 did. Loved how you upgraded the weapon not the character. Wouldn’t even need a remake just a Dark Cloud 3 as it like Final Fantasy each game had similar mechanics but a new story with new characters with some returning in different roles.
I came here to say Dark Cloud <3
Playing through Dark Cloud 2 right now! Looooved them as a kid, would also love a remake. 2 expanded on 1 in so many great ways but I think a modern take on it with some QoL stuff would be amazing.
Tokyo Jungle, the only reason my PS3 is not in a box. Shadow of Memories would be cool too. Not so niche but I hope a remake of Project Zero 2/Fatal Frame 2 is coming soon.
Unlikely to ever happen, but Xenogears.
Not a niche game, but: day (???) of waiting for Sony to put Bloodborne on PC.
Also, this is a bit of a tangent, but I really wish Nintendo would start putting some of their games on PC. Not even so that I can play them, I do have a switch, but because there are quite a few of them that just don’t do well on console, either performance-wise or in terms of UX. For example, I’ve been playing the new Zelda game. The game’s core mechanic involves scrolling through a MASSIVE list of objects to find what you’re looking for and the best solution the game has for this is a handful of sorting options that only get you so far when there are just this many things. Without changing any of the gameplay, you could make the experience soooo much better by:
- Letting you use a mouse on the menu.
- Adding a basic search filter.
- Letting you hotkey some echoes.
Some games just deserve better treatment than what they got from the limitations of their original platforms.
- Chrono Trigger, in SE’s HD-2D style. Do what they just did for Live a Live, change little to nothing but make it really pretty.
- Final Fantasy 8. Why 8? Because it has the most room for improvement. I expect SE not to keep FF remakes faithful, and 8 is the one that will benefit from that. Just retell the story in a better game that doesn’t punish you for leveling up.
- Kid Icarus Uprising. This doesn’t need more than a straight port really. One thing I’d really love to see though is a more competitive Light vs. Dark that restricts players to base weapons only, no min-maxing in PvP.
- Any classic Tales games that was never released in the west. They keep rereleasing newer entries, but where are the 2D classics? I especially want Destiny DC/2, Legendia, and Phantasia PSP.
- This is an extra impossible pipe dream for several reasons, but it’s my list and I’m allowed to dream. I wish the Boktai series could come back in some form. Silliest way to do it could be to sell it with a USB-C Solar Sensor attachment for the Switch, but that’s extra not happening. Even if we have to lose the original hardware though, I’d just like to see this game made available in some form…
I might be in the minority here, but I’ve been loving the FF7 remakes. I would definitely buy 8 getting the same treatment!
Diddy Kong racing! Maybe even a Diddy Kong racing 2?!
Colosseum: Road to Freedom
It’s a PS2 game where you play as a gladiator. There’s plot where you rise up the ranks to duel other gladiator camps’ champions for a chance to spar with Ceasar, and you get involved in a plot to murder him with a couple different endings based on what decisions you make.
The gameplay is some fun button mashing and the battles are fucking rad. Bladed weapons do more damage to unarmored opponents, blunt weapons can break limbs and have a better chance to knock off armor, curved swords and flails can reach around shields and armor. There’s “hunting” fights were you go up against bulls or tigers. And then the mock battles. They set up like a fake city or fake boats in the colosseum to recreate real battles from wars that the gladiators fight in.
There’s even a glitch where you bypass all of the endings and the game just continues forever with random fights at the colosseum every couple of days. Makes me think the devs were planning on making the game endless, but didn’t finish it or it got cut for some reason. But yeah, I really want a new gladiator game
Interstate 76
Excellent choice! In my vague memories it was an original game with a fun theme
Vehicular warfare in the 70s, with a really funky art and audio design.
Make it on the same engine as the mad max game
I’d love to see Darkwatch get ported to PC and remastered. Loved it on ps2 and have it working at a somewhat cranked up resolution on emulator, but a legit updated PC port would be awesome.
