Alright, while the term 'remake' is often understandably met with disdain when it comes to movies/cartoons (With a few exceptions here and there), video game remakes are the exact opposite with at least 90% of them ranging from good to a perfect replacement for the original. Out of the game remakes you've played, what are some of your favorites? (Also keep in mind that there is a difference between a remake and an HD port) Here are some of mine: Kirby Superstar Ultra for taking arguably the best old-school Kirby game of all time, changing none of the old stuff and adding new stuff to make for a more fun and fulfilling experience. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga+Bowser's Minions mostly because I really love this game and I'm just glad I now have it on a console I use often. Not a fan of how they replaced the Starman theme with this generic tropical beat, but that's a nitpick. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. I was debating whether or not I'd go for this when all I heard was that they were adding a few new quests to give you a more complete ending, but I can't believe how much these additions actually improved the overall experience. Metroid: Samus Returns for taking what was originally an average installment and making it one of the best in the franchise. Could have done with more boss variety, but still.
I was a big fan of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary back in '11 and the Halo 2 Anniversary remake in '14. Those games were my childhood. Same with the original Gears of War and its Ultimate Edition that was slightly differed, but the graphics were 200% improved. Although I don't have a PS4...haven't used one since the PS2, the remastered Shadow of the Colossus looks like a fantastic rendition
I'd say that the best remake I've ever played would have to be Metroid: Zero Mission. The changed almost everything from the original and all of those changes are for the better. Also, pretty much any remake of the older Final Fantasy games is guarantied to be better the originals with added content, updated graphics as well as some bug fixes and/or general improvements to gameplay. This comes with the notable exception of the mobile and Steam versions of Final Fantasy 5 and 6, which for whatever reason have had a complete change in graphical design that is a major step down from the originals.
We are going to differentiate between a remake and a remaster in this thread, right? >.> I have admittedly played very few good remakes. The first ones that come to mind for me are Star Ocean: First Depature and Star Ocean: Second Evolution on PSP, but those were the only versions I played, so it's difficult to say how good those are comparatively speaking. Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver were great, but playing Crystal recently has made me realise a lot of the changes weren't as huge as they seemed comparatively speaking. Also, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which easily remains the best MGS title to date. Too bad it's a Gamecube exclusive and it seems highly unlikely it'll get ported to Switch. A lot of the time I actually prefer the original titles; you lose a lot of the old-school charm in remakes. Although the Final Fantasy remakes typically do this right by giving you the option to listen to the older music - III and IV on the PSP did this. Some just don't make the transition very well, either - the Crash Bandicoot trilogy was mechnically awful, and Metriod: Samus Returns was shown for a poor quality title thanks to AMR2 giving us the remake of Metroid II that we deserved...that wasn't developed by MercurySteam, who should not have been allowed near Metroid after they royally ballsed up Castlevania on the same console. Then there was Conker: Live and Reloaded, which utterly destroyed my faith in humanity. ...yeah, I hate remakes. xD
I played a remake of H3, H3 anniversary this year. It isn't an official game, but it was made exactly the same and worked on for years, so well that you'd think bungee came back and actually made H3: Anniversary. (To braviary) you should try it.
I agree that Metroid Zero Mission was more enjoyable than the original Metroid, and that Kirby SSU is one of the best things ever (though it was only marginally larger/better than the original). Though there were many things I didn't like about it, Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask had some pretty significant improvements. Nerfing Zora's swimming and the Stone mask, the atmospheric aesthetics of the end of the third day, precision forward time travel, Twinmold's fight, a few other things. I don't like how every boss was tweaked to fall into the same rut of "attack its eye!", and I wish the dungeons had been made even harder than they originally were with a sort of Master Quest difficulty, but I'm still glad I bought the game. Final Fantasy 4 on PSP was really nice that it had the game itself, The After Years, and the little in-between things all on one game disk. It was good to have all that accessible. And of course, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Those are probably my favorite Pokémon games to date.
