Retelling the Classics - Ten Games that Deserve Top Quality Remakes Part I - Features

In this feature, Axel Cushing explores ten games that are deserving of top quality remakes (i.e. not just nostalgia paydays). This is Part II.

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Retelling the Classics - Ten Games that Deserve Top Quality Remakes Part II

Chakan

Before Devil May Cry, before Otogi, there was Chakan. The challenge on the game was definitely brutal. The imagery was dark, brooding, and absolutely phenomenal. The array of weapons and spells was practical and still managed to feel amazing. The dude was a badass and even completing one section of the game made you feel like a badass as well, before reality would intrude and remind you that you still had more to do. It's probably one of the most unappreciated and barely recognized games for the old Sega Genesis out there. And it's time he came back.

What To Do Right: Go with cel-shading, the better to connect with the original comic book series. Definitely go full 3D, six axes of movement. Expand the armory and alchemy options. Don't be afraid of the "M" rating from ESRB.

What To Do Wrong: Use smooth pretty bishonen art styles for the characters. Copy directly from Devil May Cry. Sanitize the setting for broader audience support by going for the "T" rating.

Solar Winds

Back when shareware disks were available almost everywhere, Epic MegaGames put out a quirky little title that echoed the space opera fun of Star Control, albeit with a much more focused (some would argue restrictive and railroad-like) storyline. Solar Winds, for all of its shortcomings, really was a fun little game. And if JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Star Ocean are any indicator, just because you have a tight storyline doesn't mean you can't have fun. This title could very easily go the same road as Star Ocean, or it could take a more character

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focused approach similar to Mass Effect. Either way, I think gamers might like the chance to step into the spacesuit of Jake Stone again.

What To Do Right: Expand the options for exploration and interaction. Expand ship-to-ship combat. Keep the storyline sharp. Create opportunities for not

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only character enhancement but ship enhancement. Consider adding some branching points along moral/ethical lines that affect the main storyline.

What To Do Wrong: Straightjacket players into a storyline that brooks no deviation. Go back to the 2D gameplay and the one dimensional characters.

Crusader

You may wonder why I'm mentioning this game (the entire series, really) when I've already suggested that it's poor cousin Meat Puppet deserves a remake. They both deserve remakes, but they deserve them for radically different reasons. Meat Puppet is the "redemptive" remake. Crusader is the "reincarnated" remake. It was a great series cut short (only two games were made, but five were reportedly planned out) and it's just the sort of over-the-top balls out action adventure game that never really gets old. How could anybody walk away from that?

What To Do Right: Keep the environmental interactivity. Go full 3D. Bump up the enemy AI. Make the arsenal as cool if not cooler than the original games. Maybe consider recreating the first two games much like LucasArts is redoing Monkey Island. Keep the grim and gritty cyberpunk cool of the originals.

What To Do Wrong: Steal from Halo and Gears of War. Limit the number of weapons the character can carry (you already made and corrected that mistake in the first two games). Make it a "mindless" shooter.

BattleTech

Let's get this one clear right from the get-go: I am not talking about a remake or another sequel to MechWarrior. I'm talking about BattleTech, the original wargame which would later spawn the MechWarrior franchise. Its first iteration on PC was actually closer to a JRPG than the tabletop miniatures wargame, and its second go-round was a very slow pseudo-RTS that did manage to capture the feel (and some of the frustration) of having to manage an army of trucks, tanks, and walking war machines. What was striking about the games prior to MechWarrior was the amount of effort put into not only getting the feel of the setting translated properly into the game space, but getting you the player ready to go out and kick somebody's ass. Playing those games, I remember my brother and myself keeping the manual open and reading it at every turn, using it like it was a copy of Jane's Armour and Artillery to help identify enemies and formulate battle plans. That was a genuinely useful manual for a game and it was a genuinely enjoyable game.

What To Do Right: Immerse the player in the setting. Keep the game focused as a wargame, probably RTS, but don't be afraid to add in some RPG elements to the mix. Remember, a lot of the BattleTech universe revolves around mercenary outfits, and if Jagged Alliance was any indicator, players will shepherd their units more closely if they think of them as characters. Let the computer handle the tedious calculation parts and let the player focus on tactics and execution. Definitely package in a fully featured map editor.

What To Do Wrong: Emulate Command & Conquer, EndWar, Stormrise, StarCraft, or Supreme Commander. Hire a bunch of actors (even really good actors) and create FMV sequences.

Outpost

If there was ever a game which had so much great stuff and yet was so thoroughly hobbled by bad choices, Outpost was that game. On the plus side of things, you had probably the most scientifically detailed computer game ever made. This was hard sci-fi at its best: no freaky powers, no unexplained widgets which just happen to solve problems, just 200 colonists and one shot to avoid extinction (though the strategy guide did mention that the devs had considered making an expansion involving aliens). On the minus side, you had a manual that practically wasted the paper it was printed on, a degree of difficulty even on the "Easy" setting that turned off a lot of players, and so much obscurity in everything from the tech tree to the basic workings of the colony that you wondered why cannibalism wouldn't be a perfectly rational policy to implement. For the sake of my health and sanity, I'm going to pretend that the excretable sequel never happened. Still and all, well before Alpha Centauri, this was the benchmark for simulating an extrasolar colony.

What To Do Right: Write a proper manual and package it in with the game. Obscure nothing, abstract nothing, let the player see it all. Allow the player to create supplementary colonies and facilities away from the main colony, maybe even colonize other worlds in the star system they've chosen. In the fifteen odd years or so since the game first came out, there's been a wealth of new ideas, new information, and new technologies, work those into the game. Allow for the possibility of more Earth-like worlds instead of locking the player into a "Rare Earth" model. Give players a map editor and let them go nuts.

What To Do Wrong: Do exactly what you did for the first two games.

(August 7, 2009)