Remakes and reboots are nothing new to people these days. In the past, present and future there have been several hundred remakes of movies in the theaters. But only until recently has there been a surge, in the video game industry, for High Definition remakes of video games. All around the discussion boards, the community has been clamoring for more remakes of classic video games. God of War, Sly Cooper, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia have all been remade. Even the Nintendo 3DS’s biggest titles are just remakes of old Nintendo 64 games.
One optimistic way to look at the function of video game/film remakes is that it allows people, who had never even heard of the original, to experience it and turn them into potential fans of the franchise. On the other side of the coin is that it could be stifling creativity and just an easy cash grab. This had lead to many debates, in the film industry, about whether the remake or the original is better. You simply do not have these debates in the video game industry because you can experience the game in all of its glory with updated graphics. But the potential for developers and publishers to milk gamers from the nostalgic utters does exist, just as it does in the movie industry.
George Reith of gamingbolt.com gives his perspective of game remakes. “The issue comes with how much to alter when remaking a game. The more solidified the original is in status, the more crucial this decision becomes. After all, developers would be scorned by their fans for messing with perfection. It is a fine balance that must be struck though as, with game prices being as high as they are, a new lick of paint will not be enough to satisfy gamers in our current climate of high quality gaming.” One of the best representations of the potential of remakes is the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Halo: Anniversary is Halo: Combat Evolved in all of its entirety but it had been upgraded with the latest graphical standards. The most interesting function in Halo: Anniversary is that with the touch of a button, in-game, it reverts back to the old graphics from 2001. Every journalist that has seen this effect is astounded and comments about the change from 2001 to 2011 graphics.
My opinion on remakes is that of the optimistic view. I was too young to play some of the classic video games, Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil, that came out and the remakes offer me an opportunity to experience them. However, remakes have to offer something to the people that have already experienced them though to make it worth the purchase. And in this regard, developers have to walk that fine line. In my aforementioned example, Halo: Anniversary, not only are they adding the graphical update they are also adding a story on top of the pre-existing one. The developers have said that this will indeed lead up to Halo 4 due next year. As a Halo fan, this has me interested in picking up a copy at some point.
Leave a comment below with your opinion of HD remakes.
