Another deluge of game remakes are on the way, with 2023 already bringing fresh coats of paint to Dead Space and Resident Evil 4. That’s without even getting started on those yet to come, with Final Fantasy 7 Remake getting a second part and Silent Hill 2 yet to come. Considering the trend of remaking old games with fresh, updated gameplay and engines, these are some classic games that deserve a great remake for modern consoles.
Tenchu
- Platform: Playstation
- What is it? Ninja stealth/action game.
- Next best thing: Ghost of Tsushima
Ninjas, assassination, and stealth, what more could players want? Tenchu made a massive splash when it came to the Playstation, and even more so with the sequel Tenchu 2 a couple of years later. Playing as a ninja trained in the art of assassination, the game plays out like Hitman if Agent 47 was a little more acrobatic and a lot less dramatic.
A remake with updated graphics and blood effects would be amazing, and could make use of the stealthier gameplay elements of Ghost of Tsushima or even Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in the right developer’s hands.
Galerians
- Platform: Playstation
- What is it? Survival Horror
- Next Best Thing: Darkest Dungeon comes close.
Galerians took the gameplay of Silent Hill and Resident Evil but threw a new twist into the inventory management of the latter title. While the game has no weapons to speak of, the protagonist is an amnesiac with psychic abilities that can be used to fight mutated humans called Galerians. The catch is, if his powers are used too much they can go out of control and kill the player, leading to a more strategic and fight-or-flight-based battle system.
A remake with updated graphics and AI would fit Galerians fantastically, focusing on making players choose when to fight and when to hide much like Alien: Isolation did almost ten years ago (where is that sequel, anyway?).
Xenosaga
- Platform: PlayStation 2
- What is it? Sci-fi Turn Based RPG
- Next Best Thing: Nothing quite like it.
Xenosaga gets so unfairly left behind when discussions of JRPGs on the Playstation 2 come up. While it wasn’t quite the genre peak like Final Fantasy X, Xenosaga set itself apart with an intricate space opera with likable characters, all focused on learning the truth about KOS-MOS, a prototype weapon everyone wants to get hold of. Unfortunately for them, KOS-MOS is an augmented android and can kick ass on her own, not to mention the various turn-based battles where comrades and summonable mecha suits take center stage. The story spanned three massive entries, each giving extensive playtime and even improvements, but has unfortunately been forgotten as the developers moved on to Xenoblade Chronicles.
Even just a remaster would be okay with most fans of the game at this point, with the last sign of it being the final Part III that was released near the end of the Playstation 2 lifespan.
Chrono Trigger/Cross
- Platform: SNES, PlayStation
- What is it? Fantasy RPG
- Next Best Thing: Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest
Chrono Trigger on the SNES looked like it could be a major competitor with Final Fantasy, with a time-traveling story about preventing a massive apocalyptic event. The game wowed fans with an in-depth RPG leveling and party system while bringing the story to life with fantastic characters and time travel elements. Chrono Cross came a few years later on the Playstation, with updated graphics and a battle system that fans loved. The story focused on a different group of heroes this time though, following a story about parallel dimensions in danger that the new team must face.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
- Platform: Playstation
- What is it? Vampire Fantasy Sidescroller/RPG
- Next Best Thing: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
The best Castlevania game, and the one most in need of an update. While the graphics are still great for the look, the controls and some of the fighting can be a little clunky leading to some frustration when playing remasters. A remake in the style of Bloodstained would lend some fast and fluid combat to Alucard’s journey, and with newer systems Dracula’s Castle could be expanded like never before to give fans a return to Castlevania that has been deeply missed in the last decade.
Burnout 3: Takedown
- Console: Playstation, Xbox
- What is it? Car racing/crash simulator
- Next Best Thing: Dangerous Driving
For those bad at racing games, Burnout 3: Takedown was the answer to prayers. A racing game that encouraged crashes, scrapes, slides, and fender benders revolutionized the racing genre with a focus on not just a fast, exhilarating race, but the thrill of being able to sideswipe another car into a wall right before they can reach the finish line. A remake of Burnout Paradise came out a few years back, but Paradise just doesn’t have quite the same feel to it as Burnout 3. Plus, the Crash mode was hours of fun with friends back in the day, making players compete to cause the most destruction.
A remake with updated graphics, larger maps, and enhanced crash physics could make for one hell of a time on modern consoles.
Guitar Hero
- Console: Playstation/Xbox
- What is it? Music and Rhythm
- Next Best Thing: Nothing. Music/rhythm games have died out.
Does Guitar Hero need an intro? The rhythm game that took the world by storm began as a small developer covering songs to play with a plastic guitar controller, and nobody thought it would catch on quite how it did. Then came the sequels, spinoffs, and competitors in Rock Band that burnt everyone out on the trend after a short few years, leading music and rhythm games to die a slow, fizzling death like the beer someone dropped at a concert.
With a back-to-the-roots remake and affordable controllers, these could make a comeback. They were great party games after all, and nostalgia is always in style.
Sly Cooper
- Platform: PlayStation 2
- What is it? Platformer.Stealth
- Next Best Thing: Probably Crash Bandicoot
Nothing, absolutely nothing, can compare to the absolute brilliance that Sly Cooper pulled in the original trilogy of games. Each was better than the last, starting with Sly’s initial attempt to steal back the family’s fabled Thevius Raccoonus before going on to heist even more priceless artifacts and even save the world by the end. Sly and his team of Bentley and Murray were all endearing, and a remake of the first three games in the style of Spyro or Crash Bandicoot would be the perfect way to bring one of Playstation’s heavy hitters into the new generations.
TimeSplitters
- Platform: PlayStation, Xbox
- What is it? Classic arcade FPS
- Next Best Thing: Borderlands
TimeSplitters was a good intro to arcade shooters and FPS games in general on release with the Playstation back in the day, but TimeSplitters 2 was the gold standard of the series and FPS games in general for quite a while. The sequel took things in a more zany direction than the first, with agents hopping through historical periods with massive guns and even more massive enemies to take out as they try to maintain the timeline.
The scope of a TimeSplitters game today would be overwhelming and could cover more historical events than the game before in even greater detail or drop players into some major historical conflicts with much more advanced weaponry. Sounds like a good time.
Gun
- Platform: PlayStation 2
- What is it? Wild West Shooter
- Next Best Thing: Red Dead Redemption 2
Gun was essentially a prototype game to Red Dead Redemption, giving players control of an old West gunslinger as he tries to track down the maniacal preacher that murdered his father. There’s a great tale of revenge mixed in as protagonist Cole comes to terms with who he is and the truth of his family, but the game shines in action sequences, switching from third to first person for quickdraw shootouts and plenty of wagon chases.
An update in the style of Red Dead Redemption would be a great chance for audiences to experience Cole’s story in a more up-to-date way, as the original game is pretty hard to find now.
Eternal Darkness
- Platform: Gamecube
- What is it? Psychological Survival Horror
- Next Best Thing: Amnesia
Eternal Darkness was something nobody expected but everyone that’s played wants more of. The survival horror was exclusive to Gamecube, spanning different time periods as players controlled different protagonists in a centuries-long fight against the darkness. The game made use of a sanity meter, which would characters further out of their mind and even cause the game to malfunction or change depending on the level remaining. Sometimes the eyes of statues or pictures would follow characters, while at some points the game would lead to a false game over screen or pretend to turn glitch out and turn off.
A remake with expanded possibilities and expanded sanity breaks would be a delight, sparking a survival horror genre that’s been a bit stagnant on consoles lately.
Sonic Adventure 2
- Platform: Sega Dreamcast, Gamecube
- What is it? The best 3D Sonic game ever made.
- Next Best Thing: Sonic Generations
Sonic Adventure 2 was the greatest game the Dreamcast ever gave to humanity, with Sonic’s most mature adventure yet, revolving gameplay through specialized levels for each character, and the choice to play as both the heroes and villains made the game revolutionary over the already massive Sonic Adventure just a couple of years prior. The game introduced the characters of Shadow and Rouge, for better or worse (Remember the Shadow spinoff game where they gave him guns?).
Either way, a Sonic Adventure 2 remake is desperately needed. While the game is controlled pretty tight on the original system, modern-day remasters don’t play so well and only expose the game’s mechanics, which have aged like milk left out to bake on a Vegas sidewalk in July. With advances in graphics and console power, maybe Sonic Team could wow fans with a remake (or just a good game?).
dot//hack
- Platform: PlayStation 2
- What is it? Offline MMO/RPG
- Next Best Thing: dot//hack G.U. Remastered
dot//hack was both one of the most confusing game names on the shelf and even more obnoxious to get hands on these days. While the sequel series GU received a remaster in 2017, the story of that saga doesn’t quite live up to the storytelling that the original series did. Corrupted code in “The World”, a massively multiplayer online game, has been killing player characters indiscriminately and causing their real bodies to go into comas with no explanation. Kite, a new player who saw his friend attacked, has suddenly been gifted with an item called the Twilight Bracelet that lets him expel corrupted code.
There were four games in the original series following Kite’s journey to solve the mystery and bring thousands of players back was a fantastic RPG at the time, with the free-moving, turn-based battles and randomly generated dungeons based on key words. The series could use a massive graphical update, and maybe move to a Final Fantasy 7 Remake style combat.
Dino Crisis
- Platform: Playstation
- What is it? Resident Evil, but dinosaurs.
- Next Best Thing: Nothing. Nothing can match this beautiful, beautiful creation. Resident Evil 4 Remake is kind of close, though.
Capcom, what is going on? How could any developer sit on the goldmine that would be a survival horror dinosaur game with the technology to finally render dinosaurs in their full terror? Where is the remake, Capcom?!
Seriously, take the recent Resident Evil 4 engine (or Resident Evil 8, the first person perspective would be scarier) and replace every villager with a velociraptor. It’s that easy! Replace bigger enemies with a few T-Rex and boom, game of the year material.
There are so many games that deserve remakes at this point, with almost fifty years of gaming to draw from and massive advancements made in such short periods of time. With any luck, some of these may be remade (or at least made available again) for future audiences so more can have the joy of experiencing them, just as original fans did for the first time.
