 |
What's old is new again.
(The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD)
|
This console gen, and the one before it, were no strangers to game remasters. From games that came out a few years ago such as Skyrim and Darksiders II to decade-old ones such as the Crash Bandicoot trilogy and Final Fantasy X/X-2 games. We've reached a point where there's too much remasters being released every couple of months and that it's a good thing. Game remasters have received a negative rep in the past years as players perceived that it led some companies to focus less on creating new IPs and instead work on polishing some of their older work. I used to feel the same way too, though I've come to change that stance a few years later. While I did own systems such as the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 when I was young, I didn't fully explore each of the console's library of games.
My proper jump into the gaming scene was back in the early days of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, so it's clear that I missed out on a decade's worth of great games. That and I didn't own systems such as the Dreamcast, GameCube, and original Xbox, all of which had their own respective classics waiting to be played. Remasters offer new and old players alike who either missed out or wanting to revisited a game to experience a better version of it. It's thanks to remasters that I got to play the likes of Resident Evil REmake, Persona 4, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and the Metal Gear Solid games. Unsurprisingly, all of them are on my all-time favorites list after getting the pleasure to experience them.
Granted, the quality of a remaster varies from publisher to publisher as there have been some stinkers in the past. This is evident by the recent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, in which Activision retroactively added microtransactions to a game that didn't have them in the first place. On top of that, the game's multiplayer map packs were separately sold as DLC at a ludicrous price. Another example was the ill-fated Silent Hill HD Collection where Konami foolishly lost the source code for Silent Hill 2 and 3, leaving Hijinx Studio to remaster unfinished builds of the games. The remaster ran terribly on consoles, with inconsistent performances and game-breaking bugs throughout both titles. This resulted in it being labeled as a subpar remaster and in a way highlighted the incompetence of publishers. A real shame since I was one of those who never got to play the Silent Hill games.
In the same vein of emulators, remasters help to preserve old games and offers a second chance for those missed out on a game to play an improved version of it. It's understandable why some aren't too keen on the concept, especially if said remaster isn't far off the original game's release as we saw with the likes of The Last of Us Remastered and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, but again, they're mostly like for those who missed out on the original release. The industry needs innovation to grow, that's completely true, and let's face it developers aren't that dumb; they know that they can't rely on remasters forever. It boils down to the individual in the end. I've missed out on a lot of games growing up, so I'm enjoying some of the remasters we've been getting, but I can still understand why some are sick of them, especially with the way some publishers have handled them in the past.
Comments
Post a Comment