Resurrecting Old Games, What Works?

There has definitely been a resurgence of old games being made new again through various methods. Unfortunately, any time you reinvent an old classic you risk either alienating the original audience or not making it appealing enough for the a new audience. "Capcom has been at the forefront of the recent remake boom, re-imagining a number of their classic titles as downloadable games. Bionic Commando, for example, was given a high-definition 2.5D makeover, and a rockin' remixed soundtrack with Bionic Commando: Rearmed. Capcom also re-released a new version of Street Fighter II on the way, with the lengthy new title Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Interestingly, both games are coming out near new entries in their respective franchises: Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando. But the question remains, how do you decided what games will still appeal to the current gaming audience? " What games can be counted amongst the success stories, and which can be chalked up as utter failures?

Comments

pong

[Xaositecte]

it's a conundrum;

Anything with a strong amount of Nostalgia for it is going to suffer from the fans who still play it proclaiming "they changed it, now it sucks" - See: Fallout 3, or any remake of Master of Magic ever done.

At the same time, some really great work has been done with remaking old games. I, for one, LIKED fighting the Enclave alongside a Giant mecha that spewed anti-communist propaganda.

ask a 12 year old

[bigattichouse]

My son will easily say - wow, you're right dad - Megaman rocks. cha-ching for Nintendo Wii. He came into the gaming scene after the "progression of graphics", so he easily yawns as 4 extra FPS or slightly enhanced visuals - he wants playability. Caught them playing pac-man on one of those joysticks that plugs into the TV. He laughed at the graphics, but they kept right on playing for an hour or so.

Re:ask a 12 year old

[D Ninja]

Exactly.

Nintendo's release of old games to the Wii is absolute genius. Those games were so popular for a reason. It wasn't for their killer graphics - it was because they held your attention and entertained you for hours. Good graphics are nice, but good graphics are a dime a dozen and are relatively easy to reproduce. But to have the storyline and the immersion of a game like "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" is rare thing.

Like you said, your son laughed at Pac-Man graphics, but Pac-Man is a very good game. Same as the many other "oldies but goodies" that exist out there. I think, as players become bored with their new Wii games, they'll start checking out some of the old titles and will be pleasantly surprised at the quality of those games that captured my generation's attention. And, of course, at $5.00 a pop, it's hard not to do an impulse buy.

Re:ask a 12 year old

[Haoie]

Easy to learn, hard to master.

That makes a good game a great game. And many older titles have that charm.

Re:ask a 12 year old

[White Flame]

Nintendo's release of old games to the Wii is absolute genius. Those games were so popular for a reason. It wasn't for their killer graphics - it was because they held your attention and entertained you for hours.

That has little to do with the age of the game. The ratio of garbage to memorable has most likely stayed similar. These old "classics" are just the very few games that have survived the quality filter, out of myriad lumps of crap.

Re:ask a 12 year old

[Eil]

Nintendo's release of old games to the Wii is absolute genius.

No, it's something the die-hard gamers have been begging Nintendo (or someone) to do for at least a decade. It's not a coincidence that every time a new console or handheld is hacked to run homebrew code, emulators are the first applications to be ported. Nintendo could have made a killing many times over by selling PC-based emulators and game ROMs online at something like $1 a pop, but instead they chose to sue and harass the emulation community. (I.e., their fans. Sound like a familiar story?)

But what irks me the most about the Wii thing is that the old games are pretty damned expensive. According to this page NES games average $5 and SNES games average $8. That's quite a lot of money just for a trip down memory lane.

Re:ask a 12 year old

[Jorophose]

32-bit Playstation wiped the floor with the Nintendo 64

I wouldn't
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quite call
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it wiping
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the floor with...

Re:ask a 12 year old

[everett]

As opposed to the $50 and $60 price tags those games carried when they were brand new? What you're not realizing is that to a generation of gamers older than you (most likely) that price is an INCREDIBLE bargain. And still even if you had a working console to this day, those are the prices I would expect to play for cartridges at flea markets/auctions and in my opinion is a completely reasonable price to pay. If you're going to pick something to complain about these games for, price should not be it.

Street Fighter?

[acehole]

Pfft, I'm holding out for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix-Remix.

Need I say more?

[Neil Blender]

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Re:Need I say more?

[hedwards]

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Hmm, looks like that one got by you.

Re:Need I say more?

[webgrappa]

Is that an HD version? (-:

Re:My favorites

[SpicyLemon]

Contra 4 came out for the DS a while back. It's very much like Contra 1 (which you can unlock). I thought they did a pretty good job with it. It's a little short, but there's a lot of mini games and mutliple difficulty levels.... and achievments......

Here's a link to the wiki page on it: Contra 4

As a retro gamer...

[infinite9]

I have a few tips for anyone trying to revive an old game. First and foremost, don't screw up the controls. Don't try to recreate robotron for example on a console with only 1 directional control (gameboy sp, i'm looking at you)

Also, rather than a old version and a new souped-up version of an old game, I'd rather see 1 game that starts out looking like the old one, but with 100 little options that would allow you to customize the game. Extra visual enhancements would be great, like tempest on the jaguar, but make them optional. And what about more options? Xevious with 50 solvalous would be nice for example. Or speed ups/slow downs. Or new levels for an old game. New weapons. Be creative. Provide more options. Don't just churn out crap and hope to milk us old guys.

Re:Working my third shift

[binarylarry]

Yet you still find time to post on ol' Slashdot.

You're right, that is a bad analogy.

Re:Depends on gameplay and nostalgia

[Moridineas]

You should look up "BGTutu." It lets you play through the original Baldur's Gate using the BG2/ToB engine. That solves a lot of the resolution/interface issues.

Of course I do agree that a full modernization of the games would be best ... I gotta say though, I think BG would lose something in a full 3d engine.

Desert Bus

[Captain Spam]

We need Desert Bus resurrected. Only this time, in full 3D, rendering the entire trip at once, requiring a ton of RAM and video power in addition to six hours of time for the trip from Tuscon to Vegas.

Plus a more photorealistic bug splattering on the windshield after five hours.

How about hanging them on a cross?

[erroneus]

I have heard somewhere that it might result in resurrection a few days later. Not tried is myself though.... but there is this old indian graveyard too.

Anyone else want a network enabled version of...

[MMC Monster]

M.U.L.E.?

Considering how often it was called a revolutionary game, it's surprising that there's only been a couple remakes, with none of them working on modern hardware and internet aware. :-(