August 10, 2007
by: Lucas DeWoody
AMN counts down the top 10 best video game remakes of all time.
Remakes are essentially a hallmark of the games industry. If you have a good idea that spawns a lot of sequels, spin-offs, and maybe (in some cases) a kart racer or two, that groundbreaking idea is bound to be remade sometime in the future to cash in on the loyal supporters. The thing is, sometimes those remakes turn out even better than the original masterpiece.
With that in mind, it’s time to count down the top 10 best remakes of all time. It doesn’t matter what console, or how old it is. All that matters is how much the remake significantly improved on an original classic.
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</center> 10) Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
Platforms: Game Boy Advance
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: HAL: Labs
Why we picked it: Though Kirby’s Dreamland for Game Boy was the first appearance of the character, Kirby’s Adventure for the NES was where we first saw the series take its modern form as Kirby gained his ability to mimic the forms of enemies he consumed. 2002’s Nightmare in Dreamland is a complete remake of Kirby’s first landmark game. The level design of the original NES game was left almost entirely identical, but all of the visuals and music were overhauled to modern standards with new mini-games added, a save system, multiplayer modes, Meta Knight unlockable in single player (with a unique move set), and a highly refined gameplay engine based more off Kirby’s Super NES outings, yet mirroring the mechanics of the original NES game.
The game is interesting because nowhere in its marketing or packaging is it listed as a remake, yet it is. The game was originally created by HAL (under direction from series creator Masahiro Sakurai) to stand on its own, but Nintendo later decided to market it as a companion game to the currently running Kirby anime they were selling across the globe. The anime is gone and forgotten, but this brilliant remake still stands on its own merits. Though the engine and artwork would later be recycled and deluded in a number of inferior farmed out sequels, the original remake stands the test of time as a brilliant platformer, and a fitting reintroduction to the first landmark classic for one of Nintendo’s most underappreciated franchises.
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</center> 9) Conker: Live & Reloaded
Platform: Xbox
Publisher: Microsoft Games
Developer: Rare
Why we picked it: Rare had just been bought by Microsoft, and was having to undergo a rough developmental transition to the Xbox. When they split with Nintendo, they lost a lot of staff, as well as access to a treasure trove of franchises they had once worked on to much success. Rare needed a quick and easy project to work on to get themselves going in the right direction again.
That project turned out to be Conker: Live & Reloaded, a remake of the N64’s infamous classic Conker’s Bad Fur Day, the one Rare game Nintendo outright refused to publish. The original game was notorious for its perverted jokes, excessive (and sickeningly hysterical) use of violence, sexual innuendos, and the countless movie parodies. The remake didn’t add a ton of new content, but what was there was more than welcome including a new story chapter and the vastly expanded 16-player multiplayer mode. The star attraction though was the massive graphical overhaul the game received with visuals superior to that of most Xbox 360 launch games, and fur shading to extents that had never been seen in a game before. The soundtrack also got a live overhaul from the original composer, Robin Beanland. Outside of some silly bleeping of certain four letter words (which arguably makes the game funnier), this is easily the definitive version of one of gaming’s most infamous and hysterical adventures.
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</center> 8) Super Mario All-Stars
Platform: Super NES
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD)
Why we picked it: The Super Mario Brothers games rank in the hearts and minds of most gamers as being among the greatest of all time. Their gameplay is time tested, and the fun factor is immortal, yet one thing always bogged them down—8-bit visuals. As timeless as the games are, the fact that their graphics were limited by 8-bit hardware always made it quite clear which era they hailed from. After the NES was proclaimed dead, Miyamoto and crew saw fit to lift the games out of their primeval 8-bit form and revitalize them with new life and charm on the 16-bit Super NES. History has proven that the majority of 16-bit titles hold up better visually over the ages than their 8-bit counterparts, and the Super Mario series was no exception. Suddenly empty black skies were filled with twinkling stars and snow capped mountains. Frozen bushes and clouds that dotted the plains came to life, and characters began to walk with ease and grace. Super Mario Kart composer Soyo Oka arranged Koji Kondo’s famous soundtracks to give them new life and vitality. Previously silent title screens came to life, and the rest of the score was re-imagined with sampled orchestrations that outshined the originals, with a few new ones added to round things out.
The engines were ported from the source code (which Nintendo still possessed in those early days), and thus the gameplay was identical (with the exception of some minor bugs that were removed such as Super Mario Bros.’s infamous Minus World), yet the games felt new and fresh thanks to the revitalized graphics and sounds easily making these the definitive versions of the series. Having the whole series on one cartridge for the price of one certainly didn’t hurt either. Super Mario All-Stars may only add a fresh coat of paint, but sometimes that all you need when the source material is already so perfect.
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</center> 7) Star Fox 64
Platform: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD)
Why we picked it: We know what you’re thinking. Why is Star Fox 64 on this list? Well technically, Star Fox 64 is a remake of the original 1993 FX-Chip powered classic. Miyamoto himself confirmed as much in a 1997 interview. Nintendo’s EAD team took all of the concepts from the original classic and built on them while borrowing a little from Sega’s Panzer Dragoon series to create a game that is the definition of the shooter genre at its peak.
The story is roughly the same. Nintendo borrowed some elements from the old Nintendo Power comic, and added elements of their own to make a more cohesive timeline. The game began with a retelling of the betrayal and death of Fox’s father James McCloud, and how his son would reunite the team to go and destroy the evil Andross using one of the well designed flight engines in any video game. The majority of the game was spent on a predetermined path, yet everything felt free flowing and natural. Control was perfect, bosses were insane, and the progression through the solar system was non-linear which increased the replay value ten-fold. Nintendo also saw fit to borrow some gameplay and story elements from the unreleased Star Fox 2 (Star Wolf and All-Range Mode) to add new life to this complete revision of the original game. Star Fox 64 is not often regarded as a remake, but it really is, and also stands as one of the very best.
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</center> 6) Prince of Persia Classic
Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gameloft
Why we picked it: Of all the games to come out in the late 80’s/early90’s that are deemed as historically relevant pieces of interactive art; significant to the advancement of the craft, one of the most important (and often least recognized) is the original Prince of Persia. How fitting then that after a successful and critically acclaimed revival during the course of the past several years, the original landmark has finally gotten the royal makeover it deserves on a next-gen console. The game has been ported a few times before (as well as upgraded), yet never as extravagantly as this overhaul.
Gameloft recreated the entire game from scratch, replicating the original control scheme (for better or for worse) to the smallest detail, yet managed to smooth out annoying issues that plagued the original version. The visual style was reinvented to more closely resemble the modern installments in the series, and all the cut scenes were reanimated in beautiful 3D along with a brand new orchestral soundtrack composed by Arnaud Galand. Checkpoints were added along with a ghost to race your best completion times, and so much more. As a remake that appeals to veteran’s nostalgia while catching the wavering eye of the inexperienced, few remakes hit the nail on the head quite like this one.
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5) Tomb Raider Anniversary
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Eidos
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Why we picked it: Laura Croft, gaming’s original vixen, fell from grace in tandem with the gradual decent of her creators at Core Design, yet she rose again in fine form at the hands of Crystal Dynamics with the 2006 game Tomb Raider: Legend. After her return to the forefront, the 10th anniversary of the series was quickly approaching, so Crystal Dynamics and Eidos decided that it was time to celebrate the rebirth of the series with a faithful re-imagining of the original game utilizing all the gameplay advancements that have come to light since the series inception.
Though Tomb Raider Anniversary was primarily developed on the outdated PlayStation 2, the results were so astounding; critics and gamers alike had a hard time caring. Laura herself had over 7,000 polygons—over three times the number Solid Snake had in his last PS2 appearance. The gameplay was completely overhauled with a more natural free running system, leaving the ancient grid-based movement of the early games back in the stone-age where is belongs. New areas were added, and all of the original content was recreated with the utmost attention to detail, paying homage to all the little details that only series fans would notice. There were also multiple paths through levels, bringing the gameplay to over 15 hours in length. Though the remake is actually a bit shorter than the original, the ride is so much more satisfying, making Tomb Raider Legend one of the most complete and enjoyable remakes of recent years.
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</center> 4) Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Platform: GameCube
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Silicon Knights/Konami
Why we picked it: With such a cinematic gaming masterpiece as Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid, a remake was of little surprise, but the developer and home console for the project was. Solid Snake was at one point the defining character of the PlayStation console, so it came as a bit of a shock when it was announced that a remake of arguably the PlayStation’s defining game would be appearing on GameCube at the hands of then-exclusive Nintendo second party developer Silicon Knights, under supervision of gaming idols Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto.
Silicon Knights recreated the game from scratch using the gameplay style introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2 (including some first-person shooting), and Konami handled the recreation of the legendary cinematic quality cut-scenes under direction of Japanese film director Ryuhei Kitamura. The results were astounding in both cases. The game was historic for polishing up what is already considered one of the greatest titles of all-time, as well as being Silicon Knight’s last collaborative project with Nintendo before their departure to exclusive Microsoft development. Whether you find Twin Snakes or the original PlayStation classic to be the superior choice, it can’t be denied that Twin Snakes is one of the most ambitious and historical remakes of all time.
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</center> 3) Metroid Zero Mission
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Why we picked it: 2002’s Metroid Fusion literally came out of nowhere when it was announced, and was a welcome surprise to the 2D starved Metroid fans who hadn’t gotten a sequel since 1994. After its warm welcome, Intelligent Systems saw fit to remake the first game in the series with an overhaul fit for a king. The original 8-bit forefather has aged terribly over the years, both in gameplay and graphics, so this was more than welcome.
Director Yoshio Sakamoto (of Super Metroid fame) reproduced the original core atmosphere of the classic 8-bit game with similar map layouts, and the same general structure, but he and his team were also able to incorporate nearly every advancement that had been introduced into the 2D series since the original title, and all brilliantly interwoven into the original storyline. We were given a deeper look at the world of Zebes during the course of Samus’s first mission. New bosses were added, the visuals pushed the meager GBA to its limit, and the modern save system was brought into the equation, with a completely revitalized soundtrack. Also rounding out this killer update was an artwork section (something rarely ever seen for any cartridge game) and a full emulation of the original NES version of Metroid available either to relive the old times, or see just to compare to the remake. No matter how you look at it, Metroid: Zero Mission is one of the best remakes ever released, portable or not.
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</center> 2) Final Fantasy III
Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix/Matrix Software
Why we picked it: Final Fantasy III is the one game in the series canon that never left the homeland. Because the NES was near death by the time the original adventure was finally released outside of Japan, the other two 8-bit adventures never quite made the cut. Though II would eventually catch a late train to North America, III never would. Since the original game was far too dated to release on anything but mobiles, a remake was in order to introduce this forgotten classic to the rest of the world.
Square considered bringing the game to next-gen consoles, but turned that option down due to cost. The PlayStation 2 was considered, but due to the success of the portable remakes on GBA, Square took a gamble and brought the complete remake exclusively to the Nintendo DS. The gamble would pay off thanks to the unprecedented record-breaking success of the handheld since then as the Japanese market began to sway towards handheld gaming. The final results are simply astounding. Though the map layouts and dungeon designs are relatively close to those of the original Famicom game, everything else has been reworked from scratch to use the full power of the handheld. Under direction of original Hiromichi Tanaka (one of the main designers behind the original version), full motion video was crammed into the tiny DS card to accentuate important story points, a Wi-Fi mail system was included to aid in unlocking secret jobs, and all the visuals were redone is beautiful 3D. It is truly a sight to behold, and as warm of a welcome that could possibly be given to a game that is just now making its debut to the rest of the world. Few remakes are as complete as this…except for one.
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</center> 1) Resident Evil
Platform: GameCube
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4
Why we picked it: There is no doubt that the original Resident Evil was a landmark game; not to mention the fact that it was also the survival horror’s first major step into the mainstream gaming populace. But in retrospect, it was also a low-polygon mess of ugly pre-rendered graphics, “Engrish” filled script writing, B-movie quality voice acting, and cheesy live-action FMV. That’s why when the legendary Shinji Mikami brought the game to GameCube, the entire experience was re-imagined from scratch. Though the graphics were still pre-rendered, everything was on the brink of photorealism, and all of the original cheese-ball FMV was redone in fully animated CGI with the more modern and serious tone the series had later become known for in those six years since its inception. Though the story was the same, the telling was vastly superior with a newly rewritten script. New endings, rooms, puzzles, subplots, and unlockable surprises were crammed in for good measure.
The gameplay was also re-imagined to be consistent with the new visuals and presentation. The 180 degree turn from later installments was added (along with body language), and the running style was updated. Resident Evil was more than just a remake. Though veterans could see the similarities with the original, it was practically a whole new game. Rather than overhaul or tweak a flawed formula, Capcom completely renovated, rethought, and reproduced a game not only worthy of serving as the root of the long lived series, but also worthy of being called the best remake of all time.
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