Before it became a fad, there were a handful of games that were remade or remastered for their next generation of consoles. It didn’t seem like such a big deal back then, but now, everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon of high-def remasters. These are some of the best games that helped kick off the trend.
10) Tomb Raider Anniversary
Anniversary was the aptly-named remake of the original Tomb Raider that was released in 1996, the anniversary version came out in 2007 and gave Lara her due. Not only was she finally human looking, but all of the original locations from the game were remastered in the Legend engine. Everything was given a nice shiny new polish for the newest generation of consoles.
Crystal Dynamics did a great job with this remake, not only did it fare well critically, it sold 2.3 million copies world wide, which is not too shabby. If you loved the reboot that came out a few years back, this is a game you should definitely track down.
9) MDK2: Armageddon
One of Bioware’s earlier jaunts in gaming was original MDK2 released in 1999 for the failing Sega Dreamcast system. Instead of losing this title to obscurity, they decided to pop it onto the PlayStation 2 system in 2001.
Not a whole lot of effort went into this port for PlayStation 2, the only huge defining difference is the fact that you can choose the difficulty in the game. Nothing to really shake a stick at, but it was smart of them to port it over the system that was breaking records at the time, not the one that was ruining a company.
8) Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure was released on the doomed Dreamcast system, which is unfortunate for the blue fuzzball. Sonic really just hasn’t been able to catch a break since the Dreamcast era, his games have been “meh” at best, and not many people got to witness his first 3D appearance.
Then Sonic ran his way to the GameCube five years after being released on the Dreamcast. This port’s somewhat enhanced, and has a few extra additions, one of which is mission mode, and other is Game Gear ports that you can unlock. This version underwhelmed critically, and the GameCube’s poor future didn’t help the blue hedgehog run back into our hearts.
7) Space Channel 5
Alas, Space Channel 5 was another Sega gem that really didn’t get the love it deserved. Released in 2000 for the Dreamcast, then three years later for the PlayStation 2, both versions are a rhythm based game. Think of this like Guitar Hero only you have to use face buttons to match the rhythm on the screen.
The PlayStation version contained the sequel to the first game, plus a remastered version of the first. The only really big “remaster” the game received was real-time backgrounds, instead of all the pre-rendered jazz the original edition contained.
6) Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Chain of Memories is a pretty drastic remaster, seeing as the original was released on the GameBoy Advance and the remaster on the PlayStation 2. Four years separated these two releases and there are quite a few changes that tagged along with the new version. The new version adds cut-scenes and battles not available on the handheld version.
Square also added the “Reaction Command” from Kingdom Hearts 2 and improved upon the original soundtrack. This remastered version seems to have been the spark at Sqaure-Enix to remaster every game in their back catalog, oddly enough all but Final Fantasy VII.
These five games were just the beginning of a huge trend that now most developers are involved in. There have been so many HD remastered in the past few years that it is hard to keep track. I’m looking forward to some of them holding my breath for even more. Stay tuned for the rest of this list here at Bagogames, same Bat Time, same Bat channel!