How to Remake a Video Game

If there's a commonality between all the various industries that make up the monolithic "entertainment business," it's that you never make something new if you can get away with remaking something old. The rapid updates in graphics technology over the existence of video games is staggering. We've gone from side-scrolling classics like Super Mario Bros. to modern, immersive experiences in a variety of genres--shooters like Halo and Bioshock, role-playing games like The Elder Scrolls, and strategy games like StarCraft II.

Because of the sharp advance in graphics, sound, controls and storytelling--even within the past few years--it's not surprising that video game publishers have been in recent years pushing out a small but steady wave of remakes of classic games, in addition to the usual sequels and spin-offs.

Making a remake, however, is not as simple as slapping a new cover on an old game. Some remakes serve as a cynical attempt to suck up more cash before a failing franchise sinks, or else an attempt to jump-start the series by going back to basics. On the other hand, the original game in question might have a fiercely loyal fan base or be the root of many a warm, nostalgic memory that game developers are quick to capitalize on, especially releasing the original game on new platforms--such as the recent remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 3DS. Both reasons come with different approaches to a remake, and different pitfalls.

A studio could just simply pretty up the graphics, or enable compatibility on a newer generation of hardware. In recent years there have been a glut of remakes that are mostly just up-rezzed to HD resolutions, especially if they were originally console games, e.g., Resident Evil 4 HD, Ico & Shadow of the Collosus, MDK2, etc. But the problem is that many of these games age poorly--even if they were great during their time, nicer framerates and textures don't mean that you can spruce up game mechanics that were dodgy to begin with, or controls that were finicky the first go-around, like Beyond Good & Evil HD (1).

Another danger of remakes and ports is that they can often function worse than the original game, especially if not given enough time for development. RealMyst is a great game that replaces the original Myst's point-and-click, prerendered style with fully navigable 3D worlds. Playing it now is a blast, but at the time of its release it ran hopelessly slow even on fast computers (2).

Fixing the mistakes or quirks of past games is difficult and takes more development time and resources, but it could even backfire on the developer; fans are fiercely devoted to even the flaws of their games. Microsoft took a somewhat novel tack for remaking the seminal shooter Halo: Combat Evolved on the eve of its tenth anniversary. They elected to change absolutely nothing about the original game's single-player component. Instead, Microsoft collaborated with Saber Interactive to create another graphics layer using the same code as the original game (3). Players can switch back and forth from the 2011 and 2001 graphics in real-time, creating an instant game development history lesson.

Even with Combat Evolved Anniversary, fans aren't entirely happy. For some, the updated graphics stray too much from the aesthetic Combat Evolved's original developer Bungie envisioned. For others, not selling the entire original multiplayer component enabled for Xbox Live is a cheat. That's the danger of any remake--every player will have different expectations for the game.

Are the constant remakes a bad thing? Not necessarily. Even great games are eventually unsupported with advances in hardware, and getting new equipment to play the old software can be very difficult (see " Playing Legacy Games on Old Macs" for an example.) And there's no putting a price of reliving a piece of one's gaming history.

References
* (1) Patrick Kolan (March 2, 2011). "Beyond Good & Evil HD Review". IGN. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
* (2) Ron Dulin (November 7, 2000). "RealMyst Review". Gamespot. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
* (3) Andy Robinson (October 6, 2011). "Halo Anniversary Dev: Our Tech Won Over Microsoft". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved October 31, 2011.