Topic: Anyone else getting tired of remakes?

I love all the remakes and remasters as the majority of them are games I haven't played and now will finally get a chance to play. And even those I personally have played will still provide a chance to a new generation to try them.

In terms of medium-effort games to create, I would much rather get a remake of a good classic than some new Mario Lacrosse game or whatever else random mediocre sports game.

I admit it's kind of crazy the recent direct includes 4 remakes/remasters in the Mario franchise and I personally don't want all of those games, but considering it also includes 2 major brand new Mario franchise games as well, I definitely can't complain about getting more overall games than we would otherwise.

Nah, I'm good with them. I think it's a good way to introduce classics to a new generation or to give players another chance if they missed out on it the first time around.

I would buy Mario Lacrosse

Depends on the remake.

I'm happy with the Crysis Trilogy as I missed out on it on PS3.
Same with PM: TTYD (on GC).

NFS: Hot Pursuit is fine as its a great game (online) and there's nothing like it on Switch.
Burnout: Paradise is a bit too old and I'll never want to hear "Paradise City" ever again.

It was good to be able to re-play Deadly Premonition 1, Double Dragon: Neon and Scott Pilgrim but they didn't really add anything new and in fact DP1 is not even the Director's Cut edition so content was taken away...

@AndroidiOS okay but the thing about Scott Pilgrim and Double Dragon is that those weren't really remakes, those were just straight ports.

@N00BiSH I think to be fair ALL the games I mentioned are ports and not remakes.

It... depends.

I've played RE4 too many times to count and I would have never asked for a RE4 Remake. I was very skeptical they could remake it all things considered. Yet it ended up being a fantastic remake and it did something remarkably well. That is, it allowed me to rediscover the game again. Few remakes can do that. It also stands on it's own and I can continue to play RE4 (2005) and enjoy it.

Metroid Prime will always be my all time favourite game. It was just the perfect game at the right time for me. Metroid Prime Remastered really found a sweet spot of upgrading the tech and making the game more accessible (modern system, controls, and a competitive price point). Will I play it again? Yes and I likely won't go back to the Gamecube original.

Pikmin 1 & 2, I regrettably missed out on the Gamecube. Do I think the remakes look enticing? Not really and I am a bit disappointed (from reviews and impressions) that this game didn't get more attention but it still statifies a need or solves a challenge. Pikmin 1 & 2 aren't easily playable today on mondern hardware, excluding ROMs.

Paper Mario: TTYD. Does it need to be remade? Not really. The original game holds up extremely well but there is a significant challenge -> that game is absurdly expensive today.

I am all in the camp of remaking games if they help solve some core challenges. If they're simply rereleasing the game without any significant quality of life features or solving a broader issue within it's own context, then I am in different.

I think where discussion gets interesting is that line between priotizing the development of existing games vs. new experiences. What internal impacts were there at Nintendo or any other developer when they chose to prioritize a remake over a new entry, IP, or other experience?

I think it's also very important to understand our current market context. Large AAA develop is extremely expensive and like a large boat or barge out at sea, it's difficult to simply shift course. Management are looking for ways that have significantly less risk with inflation, consumer spending habits, and other external factors that are impacting sales. We see it time and time again, developers creating new studios or IPs (Immortals of Aveum, Callisto Protocal, Redfall etc.) taking risks, games don't meet the sales, and they suffer for it. This is why remakes and sequels are quite popular at the moment. Diablo IV, Street Fighter VI, Alan Wake 2, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4 etc.

We also have this other challenge right now, of the post-pandemic effect. Where a multitude of releases, that may have been planned to be released early on, were delayed to 2023 or 2024. It's extremely competitive and if you're not offering the absolute best experience, or a brand / game you recognize, your sales will likely suffer. Think for one moment just how many games were released in 2023, and look at October. It's insane. Independent developers have been on the other side of the spectrum, with more agile development teams, producing products that are more unique, cost significantly less to make, and are very accessible. They're also mixed into these same challenges. Imagine Dave the Diver as an example, how many sales could it lose on Switch or its earlier PC release contending with games like Diablo, Baulders Gate etc.

So it's a bit of a necessary evil in my view. Keep production teams going (AAA level) on projects that are at least some what motivating (depending on the IP) and that will generate revenue to cover their operating costs and hopefully turn a profit. The market won't stay like this forever. Consumers will continue to experience fatigue, just as you have OP, and eventually the spend will reduce over time, shifting the pendulum back to taking more risks into new IPs and projects.

I expect were are near the peak of the remake market, and over the next 5 years, you'll see a slow decline.

Remakes aren't bad as they do give new content. But maybe remasters are stupid. I mean nintendo should really be makeing the same type of brilliant games they did on GB, GBA and gamecube

@Hwatt Excellent analysis.

Solving various challenges is an interesting idea. I think the most 'standard' goal of a remake should usually be to simultaneously hit a nostalgia bone while also making the game accessible to a new generation. The timing can be very important for the nostalgia side and decisions of whether to do a straight port, remaster with some QoL features, or completely remake will affect whether new players will like the game.

Not a game, but I thought the Mario movie hit both of these goals amazingly well — the timing ended up with a ton of adult non-gamer parents who fondly remembered playing Mario. So you got nostalgia for the parents and a fun children's movie for the children.

You can only have so much nostalgia in a short period until it is by definition not nostalgia anymore, so I agree the remake market should ebb and flow over time.

It's clear that we're nearing the end of the first-gen Switch's life. I expect we'll get loads of new games once the new console launches.

@JR150 This is less of a Switch thing and more of a general gaming thing, and somehow I doubt that the influx of remakes will stop any time soon, which is...not fun for me, as you might've figured.

@Hwatt VERY solid analysis that I mostly agree with.

@N00BiSH
You have to consider that not everyone has played these games though. Paper Mario TTYD has never been re-released outside of the Gamecube which is Nintendo's second-lowest selling traditional home console. Loads of people deserve to experience it for the first time.

Likewise, there are other games that have simply never seen the light of day outside of Japan such as many of the older Fire Emblem games. With the rumors of a FE4 remake happening, everyone will finally get a chance to experience this game in the West for the first time too.

not really

@Kermit1 Nintendo could dump a truck load and I still wouldn’t be sick of it lol! The more the better!

Switch is currently getting well over a thousand games a year, so no matter how many of those are remakes ( or the larger number that are simply not good games), it's hard to imagine having enough time to play all the brand new good games. For those who don't like remakes, ignore 'em and play other games.

@JR150 I'm fully aware of that and I agree that more people should be given the chance to play these games...in their original state. To me it's about history--getting the chance to experience what those before us played and preserving that experience to help better understand how far games have changed since then. A remake can only go so far in recreating that experience and I find they just end up falling short of that goal.

@Link-Hero I don't disagree with this. It absolutely sucks that older games have become harder to access and I understand what it means to take what you can get. But I also think that if preservation were just better and taken more seriously we wouldn't need to rely on remakes.

True but there can also be bugs and glitches that can only be fixed by remaking it. Like billy Hatcher where one level in the game has a bug where if you try to roll an egg onto a rail you just fall through it and you have to jump onto the rail for it to work. And I believe that if they make a remake and they are competent enough they could fix they bug and make it even better.

Since the conversation has shifted more towards 'why don't people play the original version', I will go with the controversial statement ( and gross generalization) 'because they were bad'.

Obviously this is an exaggeration and absolutely not true in general, but it really is true that on average controls feel better than they used to, accessibility is better, and quality of life features make overall better experiences.

Let's step back from 'bad', and just go with 'different in a way which didn't age perfectly'.

Although that midi music may feel nostalgic to us older folk, shoving a child used to better technology into that old game doesn't really give them an authentic experience — part of the experience of original games was that they were state of the art at the time. You may enjoy watching the occasional black and white movie but you are definitely not getting the same experience as people who watched it 80 years ago even if it looks and sounds the same.

In this sense the perfect remake is a game which, by updating the original, gives a new player a similar type of feeling people had when playing the original game. Basically changing it to be more authentic in some sense.

I do think there should also be better game preservation and the original 'museum version' should stick around, but that's not necessarily what most people want to play. I really like the remakes which have the updated version as well as an optional unchanged-as-possible version thrown in because then you get the best of both worlds.

Bringing this conversation back because I saw a video that has a lot interesting points on the current state of remakes:

I can still enjoy a remake if it's made well(e.g. the Sam & Max remasters and the TTYD remake) but that's not gonna change the fact that so many of them feel kinda redundant/unnecessary, nor does it change my ongoing frustration with the industry's overreliance on remakes instead of prioritizing preservation and delivering proper new experiences.