Remakes, Remasters and Sequels. What we want...

Guest Blog post by Adam @AngelicWiganer / @snoopfozziefozz

Who doesn’t love a remake, remaster or sequel to one of their favourite gaming franchises? I know I do. The last couple of years alone we have seen some amazing titles such as Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Tears Of the Kingdom to give us that buzz we had been craving for so long. I’ve no doubt there are many more games we can look forward to in the next few months. Tekken 8 is one that I am really looking forward to.

However. There is always the need for more. Is it lazy to do remakes and remasters and sequels of games? I don’t think so. It gives the player more of what they want and especially with the technology available to game developers these days, there is no end to what they could recreate for us.

Think of all the games out there you have played in the past, think of all the games you may have recently played. Now think about what you would like to see in the future from those IP’s from your favourite game developers. Here are my picks for remasters, remakes and sequels.

F-Zero
Did anyone else get really excited at the last Nintendo Direct? The anticipation of seeing Captain Falcon’s blue vehicle and then the lovely 16-bit graphics of Mute City. Hoping that in a few seconds time we would get a glorious new F-Zero racing around at maximum speeds. Then it turned out we were getting F-Zero 99!

Don’t get me wrong I think F-Zero 99 is a lot of fun and really is a clever idea from Nintendo. But it wasn’t what I wanted. It’s criminal to think the last real F-Zero game was twenty years ago back on the GameCube with the fabulous F-Zero GX. I just don’t understand why Nintendo aren’t bringing this quality franchise to this generation. Could it be they’re concerned how the Switch can handle a high fast paced racer, given that we know it struggles with frame rate sometimes in games when there is too much action on the screen?

Maybe the next set of hardware from Nintendo can bring us that high octane futuristic race to us once again and we can bask in the views of Mute City once again.

Final Fight
Side scrolling brawlers have had somewhat of a resurgence in the last couple of years with games such as Streets of Rage 4, Final Vendetta and the awesome Shredders Revenge gracing us with their presence. I think now the time would be perfect to bring us another instalment of Final Fight. We’ve seen Metro City being used as a hub world in the recent edition of Street Fighter. I think it would be so much fun to bring Cody, Haggar and Guy back to us for another mission to take down the Mad Gear gang.

Capcom have always insisted that the Final Fight and Street Fighter franchises are within the same type of world. Could you imagine if we could bring some of the Street Fighter characters into a 2d scrolling environment, or even create some new characters who could cross over into Street Fighter games at a later date, whether that be DLC for Street Fighter 6, or the inevitable Street Fighter 7 ? Come on Capcom make it happen.

Earthworm Jim (NTSC SNES)

Earthworm Jim
Back in the 90’s there was a plethora of platform games which came out on both the Mega Drive and the SNES. Each game developer hoping to try and create the new Mario or Sonic. Plok, Mr Nutz, Bubsy all come to mind. None of them were as good or as quirky to me as Earthworm Jim. We can forget about the dodgy attempt at 3d on the N64. Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 I feel were really good games. Good level design, lovely graphics, decent sound track and it was silly. It didn’t take itself too seriously and that’s what made it fun for me.

I think a new Earthworm Jim game could work in this generation, whether it sticks to the classic 2d origins or ventures again into the world of 3D who would know what’s best. We’ve seen what the PS5 can do with a game like Ratchet and Clank. Would Sony or Microsoft be interested in taking this IP and making it super special for us. I genuinely think there is enough nostalgia for us older gamers to bring it back. I also think a new polished artwork style combined with the silly humour would resonate with new younger gamers too.

Gauntlet
I had to think about this one in terms of how you could recreate Gauntlet to cater for a modern audience. No doubt about it Gauntlet was an arcade classic. Whether you selected Warrior, Elf, Valkyrie or Wizard you know you was in for fun battling the demons in the dungeons to escape to the exit collecting treasure and keys along the way.

I think there could be three ways you could recreate or reimagine it. Number One would be an action style RPG where the four characters start an ultimate quest to the end. Number 2 a potential rogue style game in the form of Diablo or Hades which could keep that traditional top down view. Or Number 3 a team based game similar to that of the recently released Exo-primal where you battle through waves of monsters levelling up your characters and as you do, unlock parts of the story. Could this one happen? Let’s hope so.

Guardians of the Galaxy
My last pick is a personal favourite of mine. I genuinely feel as though this game released a year or so ago is a true hidden gem and did not get the recognition it truly deserved. It’s an awesome third person action game with a great plot, fantastic combat and an epic soundtrack with complimented everything so beautifully. Eidos Montreal did a great job in developing this game.

I would love to see Star-Lord, Drax, Groot, Gamora and Rocket in another romp around space battling their enemies along the way. A sequel would have been music to my ears, especially as this game was such a departure from the Avengers game, as no DLC, no micro transactions and a true fulfilling single player experience.

So that’s five picks from me. What would your picks be? Give me a shout and let me know. In the meantime stay tuned here for more content from me.

​Guest Blog post by Adam @AngelicWiganer / @snoopfozziefozz

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