Which retro game should be remastered? | Team Talk

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As the cold and dark days of winter begin to subside, it’s got us feeling strangely hopeful, wistful even, for the excitement of the year to come, and the prospect of more games.

But we’re an old fashioned bunch around here, so we don’t want to get too carried away with anything too “new”. Fortunate then, that GoldenEye 007 is back on both Switch and Xbox to serve up a re-release fit for the world’s greatest secret agent, and the PC strategy classic Age of Empires II now has a definitive edition on console for the first time.

Since some titles aren’t lucky enough to have a full remake like Dead Space, what’s a game that does deserve to be served up to a new audience as a remaster? If you’ve got a top pick then let us know on Discord.

​by Team PTC

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​@james_parry

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Bushido Blade | Chris Brand

When I started, what I believed to be, cursory research for this topic, I was not expecting to find that a lot of my favourite retro games have been remastered or re-released, in some fashion. Sonic Chaos has even made the list, despite being one of the weaker Sonic titles of that era. Slightly stretching the definition of retro yielded similar results, as Metal Gear Solid is said to be getting a touch up, Halo: Combat Evolved is with us for the second time and I've already waxed lyrical about Twisted Metal.

Somehow, with remasters being handed out like sweets on Halloween, one game was left sitting in the corner, its scarred hands outstretched like a hungry orphan in a Dickensian novel. Still just as much of a novel concept today as it was then, Bushido Blade is a beat 'em up without health bars.

Bouts can be ended quickly as it takes only one precise strike with a sword (or another, stabby, pointy thing) to finish your enemy, though this, naturally, makes one a little more cautious than in a traditional fighter. Whilst it's not quite a death sentence, taking a non-fatal blow to a limb can hinder your movement or attacking options, making each mistimed swing a huge risk. It was incredibly fun, right up until the boss fight against Katze, with his gun and his cheating.

A more up-to-date version with online multiplayer would surely be infuriating, in the best possible way, but even a simple remaster could scratch the itch that no other game can reach. The only modern games that come close are Chivalry and For Honor. Though the latter lacks the potential for a one-hit kill, there is a focus on defending and outwitting your opponent.

Red Alert 2 | James Parry

We’ve been spoiled by remasters in recent years, with The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection being a particular highlight, which made picking a fruit ripe for revival challenging, but after hours of head scratching I finally realised it had been staring at me all along – Red Alert 2.

While console releases of strategy games can be hit and miss. The control style adopted by the very experienced team at World’s Edge for the aforementioned Age of Empires II port shows that the control scheme can be adapted sensibly – and if all else fails you can always plug a keyboard and mouse in.

I’ve mentioned before that Red Alert 2 is my favourite strategy game, but to play it in multiplayer on console would be a game-changer. The campaign would hold up to the remaster treatment too, since the bones of the game are in good functional shape, so it’s just a case of widening out its audience.

Tie it up with Game Pass for an exclusive launch window and you’ve got an instant captive audience who are already warmed up on AOE and keen to try out more strategy games. Plus, magically releasing it in a few months time would keep the strategy momentum going for the Xbox release of Age of Empires IV, which left many fans (including me) behind thanks to being PC only.

Diddy Kong Racing | Liam Andrews

The return of GoldenEye 007 is a welcome comeback, but there’s another title from the studio’s back catalogue that I’d like to see made playable on modern hardware: Diddy Kong Racing.

I didn’t know this, but there was a remake of the classic N64 racing game turned up on DS some years ago but it somehow completely passed me by, or I totally forgot about its existence. While I could easily pick up this version and play it on my 2DS XL, I’d still like to be able to play the original version of the game on a TV.

I never owned the original game, but a good friend of mine did and I used to thoroughly enjoy stopping over to play it. I remember being hugely impressed by the addition of planes and boats as drivable vehicles (particularly the latter) as I’d only ever gotten to drive Mario Kart’s more grounded vehicles.

Seeing as Rare is now a Microsoft studio, and how that complicated GoldenEye’s recent release on Xbox consoles and Switch, I’m not too confident we’ll be seeing Diddy Kong Racing any time soon, but I suppose there’s always a chance. In the meantime, I might have to try that DS remake.