Game Remasters: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

in #gaming7 years ago

It’s no secret that the gaming industry is a dynamic and ever-changing climate. Every day I find new reasons to be excited by the gaming scene, from the exciting ways that we play games and share those experiences with people, to of course, the new and innovative games being released and announced.

What’s more is that it is relatively new, at least in the grand scheme of things. One of the recent concerns I have noticed is the abundance of remakes, remasters and revisions being put out nowadays. Certainly I can see the argument from both sides, but hopefully in this semi-long post I’ll be able to give my idea on this subject.


The first thing is that, and this maybe goes without saying, remasters provide the new generation of gamers to experience those high points of the previous. As I mentioned earlier, gaming is constantly evolving. I really came into my own as a gamer during the era when Call of Duty Modern Warfare was still modern and when we only had around 3 generations of Pokémon game. I completely missed out on classics such as Ocarina of Time, Halo: Combat Evolved, and the first Crash Bandicoot, and thanks to remasters have been able to experience them in all their glory. Without said remasters I might have completely missed out a roster of amazing games.

This is not to say that I rely on modern graphics to enjoy a game. On the contrary, in the last few years I have gained a huge appreciation for older games, and for nothing more than the gameplay. The gameplay is the be all, end all when it comes to playing games for me. If it isn’t fun to play, even the best graphics couldn’t save it if I’m the player. Even for games I have played in the past, being able to play through them again is a joy.


Of course, remakes don’t always aim to recreate the same experience, sometimes developers return to older titles and try to improve upon them. Look no further than the most recent Doom game, or the remastered Final Fantasy 7 coming soon. Doom did a very good job at taking a franchise that hadn’t seen a great game in a while, keeping true to overall feel of fast-paced, gory, demon killing FPS action, while giving it the polish and smoothness of modern gaming. Final Fantasy 7, while keeping the title and plot of the original, looks to introduce a new battle style similar to the Dissidia Final Fantasy games, and less turn based. It is still reasonably early in development however, so these are just impressions so far, but it’s clear Square Enix isn’t looking to simply remake FFVII with a fresh coat of paint.

So it’s clear that there are pluses to remasters, between offering the same experience to new players or revising classics in a modern setting, there is a lot to love.

But what about the not-so-great aspects, because they are certainly present as well?


An argument I see pop up a lot is that remasters are just simply cash-grabs. As evidenced by the most recent Crash Bandicoot remaster, it is clear that there is a lot of money to made in that particular part of the industry. If you cater to people’s nostalgia, as well as the new audience of gamers that have arrived since, there is no doubt people will pay to play their favourite games again on newer consoles. Hell, even I am guilty of this.

Although, I don’t necessarily believe that this is such a bad thing. I understand that a lot of classic games can be found online as ROMs, but I also adore being given the option to play great games on modern consoles. This is despite shelling out money to play a game that, in essence, I’ve already spent money on when it first came out. I know what I am getting myself into though, and if I didn’t want to buy it again, I wouldn’t. Again, it’s the option I appreciate. Also going back to my previous argument, remasters offer new gamers to experience beloved games that they might not have touched otherwise.

The second thing that I see come up quite often is that with developers focusing their attention on remasters, there is less room for innovation and creativity. This is another argument I’m not fully convinced by. Maybe it’s just because I buy a new game every month or so, so there always seems to be about 10 new games vying for my attention.


The way I see it, there are a lot of segments of the gaming industry. You have games like Dota, LOL, and GTA which are constantly updated to keep the game consistently fresh. You have games where there is just sequel after sequel after sequel, such as Call of Duty, or Assassins Creed. You have remasters coming out all the time of course. And finally, you have original games. In the first three genres, the base experience isn’t being changed, only shifted slightly to the left every so often. If your base experience is fun and people enjoy it, fleshing it out and keeping it dynamic doesn’t seem like a crime to me.


Personally, I don’t see a problem here. I think we have enough great games, in a diverse range of categories, out at the moment to keep people entertained for a very long time, and this is without the constant influx of original titles that come faster than I can count. I have games on my ‘to play list’ going back 3 years that I haven’t played yet.

Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I think we have enough originality going on as it is, from both triple A and indie developers, and have little reason to believe that remasters alone will ever make that in issue. In the end, I don’t think remasters are going anywhere, and I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. Personally, I look forward to seeing what remasters are introduced in the future, and seeing what ways developers modernise and adapt classics to this current, diverse world of gaming.

But as I already said, these are just my opinions, and I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think that remasters are such a bad thing? And what games would you love to see brought back into the future? Let me know in the comments below. And until next time, stay beautiful :D

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I don't think remasters are a bad thing, I just think that remasters should actually be closer to the scale of remakes, the crash games are. Simply increasing the resolution and ironing out some bugs isn't enough for me. Crash had a great remaster, it was almost a full remake considering they are adding in cut content among other things and I'd like to see more of that.

There are quite a few games I'd like to see visually updated to modern standards but keeping most of it intact. Diablo 2 (same artstyle too!), Warcraft 3 (I think this is going to happen haha) and Demon Souls.

Absolutely! I love some of the great remasters that are being made, and yes absolutely a resolution bump and ironing out bugs simply isn't enough, an overhaul in terms of the entirety of the gaming elements needs to be done for a great remaster to be born.

Diablo 2 and WC3: Frozen Throne were amazing games and definitely need remastering!

You have games like Dota, LOL, and GTA which are constantly updated to keep the game consistently fresh. You have games where there is just sequel after sequel after sequel, such as Call of Duty, or Assassins Creed.
Aaand you have amazing game series that are now dead:

I can purchase the remaster of this series by now, but I don't think I'm ready to be punched right in the heart again..

Anyway, I agree that game remasters won't be such a bad thing, well because I'm a not-so-old video game player who wanted to experience whatever greatness that I missed out. I don't know about those who been playing games since the old, golden time of gaming, this may not be a good thing for them. Great post, as always

It really is a shame about the Bioshock series, was very disappointing as I absolutely loved and played the shit out of those games!
Absolutely man, there are many great games in the past that have been remastered, and still some awesome ones to come (FFVII for instance looks incredible), I hope you (and I) get to enjoy some of these masterpieces (in remastered form) that I grew up with as they were truly the pinnacle of gaming and I feel the gaming industry has been a bit of a let down as of late.

Thanks mate, I'm really glad you enjoy reading :D, You have some pretty awesome posts yourself mate

Good post, but I d call new doom reboot not remaster I might be wrong tho.

It is also interesting that I have completely opposite problem - no games, which sends me replaying old games over and over which comes to a point where even they aren't so interesting anymore.

So can you please give me your list of games?

The new Doom wasn't a new game (the story and levels were identical) just everything else was reworked, it's a bloody fantastic remaster but definitely not a reboot.

Fair enough, I have quite a large list that I've acquired over a couple of decades gaming and I don't think I'd be able to list them all (it'd take too long), Nevertheless all I recommend is play what you enjoy and try to enjoy what you play, sometimes its all about doing simple little things in games that brings the most enjoyment.

Thanks for reading mate, I hope you enjoyed :D

I like remasters... When they're done well! The latest example is, of course, Crash Bandicoot. The entire game is intact, but it looks, works and plays so much better. And they're not selling it for full price (looking at you, Activision). It's $40,- for 3 games, which is a great deal nowadays.

With games like GTA V, DOTA 2 or League of Legends having continuous updates works well, but at some point they tend to get too big for their own good. Or it's trying to be relevant for so long, people will get bored of it.

All in all, I think remasters should be well thought out games that are improved replicas of the original. Not direct originals with some improved textures here and there.

Absolutely! It's a steal especially for how well they've done in remastering and recreating the experience!

That is a great point, people do get bored with continuity, however at the same time at least it keeps a lot of people on board knowing that it will always be there, unlike with COD games which because of how often they're released are only really good (on the multiplayer side) for about a year until the community is almost dead.

Absolutely, I think for remasters they really need to not only duplicate the experience, but refine and redefine the experience with modern elements (in what we would expect from games now-a-days).

This post has received a 30.00 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @abh12345. They have officially sprayed their dank amps all over your post rewards. GOOD TIMES! Vote for Aggroed!

Thank you @abh12345 :D, hope you enjoyed reading mate

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