Remasters, remaker, and even only releases of older games have proven to be a big source of money, especially in recent years. Resident Evil 2 sold many things and won various prizes of the year, Crash Team Racing returned with a great remake, Spyro Dragon got all three original remastered games and even MediEvil somehow managed to climb out of his grave. In fact, it looks like almost every old game has a chance for a second life.
SSX Tricky
The fact that the SSX franchise disappeared in 2012 is a bit surprising. The last game, confusing, called SSX, was doing quite well in terms of income and sales, and it seemed that people were still thinking enough about bombing hills on a snowboard. The closest we ever got to this series was Steep, a kind of fun snowboarding / skiing / wing suiting game in the open world that came out in 2017.
The best of the game back; 2001 SSX Tricky, a manic snowboard game in which you bombed crazy tracks and did tricks. The more tricks you did, the more speed you got, so even in straight races it was worth throwing your moves wherever possible.
Discworld
Published in 1995, Discworld was a point-and-click adventure based on many crazy books by Terry Pratchett. When it came out, it worked extremely well in Europe and the UK, although it seems that our chumsy in America did not quite get it. This was not surprising, because Terry Pratchett’s unique humor was very British, and things simply didn’t translate into American culture.
Like many of the adventures of that era, Discworld was bloody, not because it required some serious intelligence, but because it was insane. The puzzles often included absurd solutions with no logic, such as pushing the frog into Rincewind’s mouth to stop him snoring, and then stopping him scarring the butterfly. Then you use a butterfly on a lantern so that the monk is hit by a future storm and removes the cloak. Do you have? No? SURE NO! Who the hell can do that?
Lord of the Rings: Battle of the Middle Ages –II
Lord of the Rings has had many very varied games over the years, including the incredible Return of the King I played on PS2 to death. For me, though, the best part is Battle for Middle-Earth 2, RTS, where you could pit people against the Orcs and Dwarves against the Elves or just against everyone. Also, you could do things like Gandalf fight against Frodo.
As with Discworld, it seems we will never be able to play a reissue or remaster of Battle of Middle-Earth or an excellent sequel for licensing. EA released Battle for Middle-Earth and the sequel, but EA lost the Lord of the Rings license back in 2009, which means they can no longer publish any game using this IP. Currently, Warner Bros. licensed to build Lord of the Rings through Middle-Earth Enterprises, so the only way we would ever see a new battle over Middle Earth, or restore existing games, would probably be if EA, Middle- Earth Enterprises and Warner Bros. they could come to some sort of agreement, such as how Sony and Marvel teamed up to install Spider-Man in the MCU.
And while you still have a game on your PC or Xbox 360 disc, hold it firmly. A few years ago, I had foolishly lost a copy of my computer and been grieving for a month. I totally didn’t go and Torrent it. There is also a fan-made remix that will hopefully end, provided that no EA or Mediterranean business decides to stamp them to the ground.
Wizard, a wreck
The Witcher 3 has taken its place in the annals of video game history as one of the greatest games in history, winning hundreds of awards and often appearing as a favorite game ever. Placed the Projekt Red CD on the map and rediscovered the original books. It’s so big and so popular that it’s easy to forget that there were two previous Witcher games. They both knew fairly well, but in the shadow of their big brother they had been largely forgotten.
The Witcher 2 now handles the graphics standards well, and it’s still fun to play, even today. The original wizard, however, looks rugged and plays hard, which is hardly fair criticism since it launched in 2007. With the release of The Witcher on Netflix, the franchise has increased, while Witcher 3 huge number of current Steam players right now. However, many people have never experienced previous games. Repurposing seems like a financially sound move.
Project Red themselves commented on the remaster option, if I say if they ever do it, it would be a big project rather than something they would do on the side. It would rebuild the real game from scratch, which is an attractive prospect, but it’s also clear why they’re planning it as soon as possible: they’re working hard on Cyberpunk 2077 and o possibly the Witcher. 4, and without resources to work on remaking the original Witcher game.
But maybe one day we will be able to test the game that laid the foundations for The Witcher 3, again with better graphics, a user interface that doesn’t force me to commit murder and a few improvements to the game.
Storm Sled
While I was a boy, I tried to break into my PlayStation 1 as much as possible of the human game I was still watching was Sled Storm, an arcade racer with snowflakes, music by Rob Zombie, and excellent physics. Keep in mind that I’m going to talk about Sled Storm, released in 1999, and not about the sequel to PS2, also known as Sled Storm. For some reason. Seriously, developers, stop naming your games this way. It’s damn confusing.
In addition to the innovative industrial rock soundtrack, Storm Storm was in the way she played. The snow-covered tracks are covered with bumps, jumps and hills, resulting in you constantly bouncing across the track like a madman. The handling model was excellent, always kept you on the edge of control, and was never unfair or insensitive.
In terms of footprints, they were excellent and included lots of shortcuts and interesting layouts, although the snow meant they looked the same, but that didn’t help in the PS1 graphics.
Sequence Storm reminds me in many ways of one of my favorite racing games ever: PURE, an arcade racer that also featured incredible tracks, great handling and great physics. I’m not really sure if there was enough interest in Storm Story to get it back, but if it ever happened, I’d be the first in the line to listen to Rob Zombie’s Dragul songs.
Oh, and bring PURE back while you’re there. This game is great.
Kain’s Legacy: Soul Recovery
Released in 1999 for PS1 and Dreamcast, The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is actually a sequel to Blood Omen: Kain’s Legacy, though it was not originally planned.
In Soul Reaver you play as Raziel, the trusted lieutenant Kain in his vampire army. One day you wake up and discover you’ve grown some wings, another stage in the development of a vampire. However, Cain is not pleased that you were the ones who won it, not his, and so throws you into the hilariously named Lake of the Dead. However, Raziel’s fate was not so simple, and so the Elder God revives Razier years later and gives Raziel a ghost blade called Soul Reaver to help in his quest to destroy Cain and all his old brothers . Hell, Razier was Kratos at the time, who had no mercy in his mission to destroy Nosgoth’s vampires himself.
The story blended with the concepts of destiny and whether or not we have control over our own lives, and wrapped it all in a highly recognizable, atmospheric Gothic art style at once. Kain’s Legacy: Soul Reaver practically blew creativity and darkness, with some truly outstanding character designs and world-building. That makes me think a little about the 2003 Underworld movie.
In terms of gaming, we have an action adventure game that took place on a large map without loading screens. Razier managed to move into the spectral zone at any time to change things like water and gravity. Sometimes even the world would change. This was the foundation of many puzzles.
In fact, Soul Reaver doesn’t play everything great. For example, the combat involves a hammer attack until the enemy is stunned, then charge them with incredibly slow animation, and then move towards something sharp in the hope that the game will actually throw you at the object . In terms of staging, it suffers from being a 3D platform on the PS1, so the camera is a constant back pain and it is difficult to judge the correct jumps.
But the puzzles are mostly fine. Although, mostly.
Indeed, the Soul Reaver and the entire series are all about the story. But with a remaster or remake much of the game could be rebuilt and improved to make it much more enjoyable. While I’d like to see how each game is edited or reshaped, I’d be fine if only Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2. were handled. You can currently test both Steam games, but they get a lot of trouble on modern machines. It’s time to bring this license back, and if we fail to get the right continuation or restart, then at least let’s try Raziel’s tour again.
Monkey escape
Another classic from 1999 is my list in the form of Monkey Escape, an amazing game where you chase many escaped monkeys and desperately drag small bastards through the net with an analogue stick. It was a concept of bonker, which would probably arise in the 90s. The last time we saw Ape Escape was in 2010, there was an exclusive ban on Playstation Move, which nobody played.
My desire to revive or even revive a series with a new game could almost be a reality. There was evidence last year that monkeys might be backing away, especially since it’s the 20th anniversary of the series. And then just last week, a Tweet suggested that reports of monkey escapes appear sometime this year.
Basically, I want to chase the chimpanzees while I have a new one without telling the zoo staff to stop or ban me.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
IP Star Wars has been a hell of a roller coaster ride, from the beloved original trilogy to the most popular and no longer the modern, divisive movie trio. In terms of games, we had a large number of amazing Star Wars titles to choose from, such as the original battle front, Jedi Knight, and Republic Commando. Lately, though, things have been a lot rougher. EA won the prestigious Star Wars publishing rights and could hardly do anything about it, releasing only the new Battlefront games that received mixed acceptance, and the recent Fallen Order.
Maybe it’s time to bring back two of the biggest Star Wars games ever. I’m talking about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequels, both of which are huge RPGs developed by none other than BioWare, who seem to have the best time right now when. The Knights of the Old Republic was BioWare in top condition, spreading a brand new story in the Star Wars universe far from the movies. There is an incredible set of characters, many interesting decisions that can lead to the death of your cremations and even the freedom to descend on the Dark Side of the Force and take your friends with you. Knights of the Old Republic and its sequels are the best Star Wars stories outside of the real movies. And talk about a great turn.
In retrospect, many Old Republic Knights ended up reporting Mass Effect games. The emphasis on dialogue, difficult decisions and the many fascinating characters of the Knights of the Old Republic made him special and BioWare transferred him to Mass Effect.
A minor problem was introduced a few years ago when the two knights of the old Republic games were removed from the official Star Wars canon. However, this has changed a bit, as the new Star Wars book: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary refers to the Revan Legion of Sith Troopers, which unambiguously nods to Darth Revan of KOTOR. That could mean just an Easter egg and nothing more.
In the current state you can pick up both KOTOR games on things like Steam or GoG, and they are worth playing, but I would like to see them get a fresh coat and maybe a few improvements in quality of life.
Brutal myth
God damn this game is so criminally underestimated that everyone should be forced to play it at least once to survive its madness and brilliance.
It was 2009 when Brutal Legend was released, a crazy game built around Eddie Riggs, a legendary heavy metal roadie who was never played by anyone other than Jack Black, who was world-class and had a lot of fun. After building an epic scene for heavy metal shit, Eddie eventually rescues his band member and grinds himself with his own work. Talk about smell. But Eddie wakes up when he finds himself in a world of bonuses, where landmarks are transported directly to classic metal album covers, the S&M dolls run and Ozzy Osbourne is in charge of the garage.
In terms of play, hack and slash and drive were nothing new and those weird parts of RTS were extremely divisive. But what made Brutal Legend strange was the cast of amazing characters, a love of metal music and funny humor. With casts like Tim Curry, Lemmy Kilmister and Ozzy Osbourn as The Guardian of Metal, isn’t it surprising that Brutal Legend is something incredible? I think this is a game where you ripped electro guitar enemies, went around an adjustable hot rod, and Eddie has a real ax that has to go with his ax.
The cruel legend has become something of a cult classic, so I would recommend you play it, especially if you like rock and heavy metal. Although the version available on the PC still holds up well enough even after eleven years after the game came out, I’d like to see the game restart and come back to be appreciated by new players.
