Countless piles of games have come and gone over the past few decades. Almost all of them have been forgotten and often their only sin is becoming outdated. The system they're on is hard to find or the graphics and controls are just extremely outdated. In an era of the Dual Shock Controller with its analog controls and extensive buttons, the old d-pad and one to three button controllers look archaic. To make the old gameplay ideas stand out again they need to be redone to show off their true glory.
In selecting our list, we weren't interested in games like Pac-Man that would do the exact same thing in 3D that they did in the original 2D, but games that had some great ideas or were just too much fun to forget. We thought long and hard about our favorite old games that needed an extreme makeover and came up with dozens of names. After taking out all of Craig's choices we felt like we really had something. After taking out all of Fran's ideas, it got even better. Finally, we have honed it down to a few ideas that we just couldn't ignore.
If any developers are out there reading this, we're urging you to go out and dig up some old cartridges and plug in your NES or Genesis. You won't regret it and will find that "old" doesn't mean "bad." Otherwise, check out our entries for games that need to be remade.
Return Fire
Developed by Silent Software | Published by Prolific
3DO, 1995
What it Was: Sweat and screaming. Return Fire for the 3DO was about rekindling that usually dormant baboon within all of us -- the one that profusely sweats and furiously screams while trying to hide a cherished banana from a deadly attack helicopter. A capture-the-flag based vehicular combat title where absolutely everything in the entire world was destructible, Return Fire forced players into that Furious George mode and into some of the most heated heads-up multiplayer matches known to mankind, or at least what mankind knew of at the time.
The noble armies of Brown diligently fought against the nefarious armies of Green on a variety of tropical islands. These two bitter rivals used jeeps, tanks, missile launching mine layers and helicopters to seek out and then seize a randomly dropped enemy flag from a variety of real and decoy structures. Just getting it was hard, returning it was nearly impossible. Did you squander your mines? Can your jeep avoid the helicopter rockets? Is the way blocked? Is Furious George about to become Decomposing George? Everything exploded, everything was smooth, and the level of polish and balance exhibited throughout was unrivaled for many years to come. Return Fire made for some very happy baboons.
What it Could Be: It could be Battlefield. It could be Battlefront. It could even be Battlezone, but it should not be any of those, nor should it be "just" Return Fire 3. The original's appeal, which has yet to be successfully duplicated, stemmed from delivering an uncanny degree of approachability within the confines of an absurdly simplistic kind of relentless action title. What it did, the lacking sequel managed to undo with sore polygonal environments, sparsely populated locales, and the same game tacked onto a different shell. We don't want that, and we don't want Battlefield. We want Return Fire, right and proper.
A tight adaptation of Snowblind's famed Dark Alliance engine could create the enormous, but lush environments Return Fire would now need to remain true to the original, but still technically competent. Given the current shift toward developing and maintaining multiplayer environments for savvy middle Americans to go nuts on, Return Fire would also make ample use of the types of online play modes offered today, but would give us the opportunity to enjoy four, eight, or 16 player matches on top of the baseline two we found nearly a decade ago. Still, the game, though updated technically and with more players, would remain true to the original (add physics and eye bleeding particle effects).
Pure combat and reflex smoothed over a rudimentary strategic model that emphasizes easy to understand paper, rock, scissors rule-sets and a bit of luck are what contributed to the original Return Fire's immense critical success and generally fond reception. Screwing with that would be disastrous, so leave the stupid on-foot, space lasers, and mutant rabbit ideas on the cutting room floor. We need the same thing, only prettier. Take DA, keep it top-down, add the same vehicles, the same easy to understand Capture the Flag based game model, develop a newer Rampart-inspired base construction and maintenance setup between rounds and throw sixteen players in an online environment where they can wager real cash against one another and track stats... Presto chango, we never stop playing until the subpoena comes.
Out of this World
Developed by Delphine Software | Published by Interplay
MSDOS PC, 1991
What it Was: Trial and error was once a key gameplay mechanic. Over a decade ago, difficulty and quality were directly related to how many times a player died and had to restart a level. Out of this World, a stylish, 2D action-platformer-puzzler, was the epitome of trial and error and broke many a keyboard. Oh yeah, it was real good. Trapped on an alien world with absolutely no explanation and no understanding of what had to be done to escape, gamers navigated a goofy red head around wonderfully designed locales and interacted with a variety of giant, ghostly white, block-headed aliens. Oh yeah, it was real, real good.
What it Could Be: Forsaking trial and error may seem like not remaining true to heritage, but a new Out of this World could learn from a little Deus Ex, a little Prince of Persia, a bit of Project Eden, and a lot of ICO.
The first goal is to maintain the same sense of familiar wonder. We find the mystique associated with Out of this World largely attributed to the art style. A remake, technologically inspired by XIII or even Advent Rising (to a less cel-shaded extent), can deliver the same lost in space love the original so effortlessly exuded. Moreover, given advancements in gaming narrative and control, it would be just as possible to leave the mute protagonist and his gimpy cohort silent, thus focusing on what's important: the puzzles, the platforming, and the panache.
This is where Eden and Prince come in. Both games, driven off logical puzzles melted to the environments themselves would blend beautifully with Deus Ex's scope, background fiction, and interactivity. Since the original Out of this World was not a far cry from the original Prince of Persia in terms of control, the combination of titles and styles is only natural, sort of like what Oddworld Xbox was supposed to be, but never managed to evolve into.
For a giggle, why not give this new 3D platforming puzzler a twist and have players eventually control the part of an alien lost on Earth and attempting to escape the same series of traps and deliberately uncooperative villains our stranded human had to encounter in a galaxy far, far away. Give us puzzles, give us art, give us style, give us block-head control.
Tobal No. 1
Developed by Squaresoft | Published by Squaresoft
Sony PlayStation, 1996
What it Was: When a weird blue rooster-man with white wool spread over his body in primped poodle fashion can clasp a giant pink bull-ogre by the tail and swing him around a mat, it's fighting heaven. Tobal had this, a developed RPG-ish quest mode, 60fps graphics, buttery animation, and a grappling system unmatched within the traditional 3D fighting arena. There was also a robot and a bunch of aliens. What the hell the game was about, we won't ever claim to know, but it played fine, mighty fine.
What it Could Be: The Japanese only Tobal 2 was a perfect example of could have, should have, would have, didn't. That game used the glorious base fighting model of its father, threw in roughly 200 playable characters, a more developed quest mode, and a bunch of slick special moves, but we never got it. Pathetic how exactly one unlockable character is enough for Dead or Alive 3 to become le great, but the 200 of Tobal were rarely, if ever praised. No longer! Tobal 3, for a PlayStation 2 near you as soon as we're elected presidents of everything, will shame every other fighter on the planet. We'll need a few things first: high-res graphics, animation that makes PoP bow in shame, physics driven collision detection, and freaking English.
The last need may seem most trivial, but it is imperative that the eventual Tobal 3 include support of the English language, right down to our many verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Once in place, this English will better allow the would-be Tobal tournament participants the Americanized world over to enjoy a revitalized grappling system that's position, weight, momentum, and timing dependant. It'll also help us deal with the frustration normally associated with picking through the now 500 unlockable characters, (if Tobal 2 could do 200, we can expect no less than 500 this time around). These brawlers, pugilists, wrestlers, and space-kung-fu masters will be derived from characters originally found in every Square-Enix game since the dawn of time.
Complete with online play, Tobal 3 will immediately become the "greatest fighting game with a goofy name" ever made. Fluidity, responsive controls, slick graphics, online fighting, a tag mode, a character creation tool and in-game physics will make Tobal 3 the beater to beat. Will it happen? Of course! As soon as companies realize making money is of no importance whatsoever, Tobal 3 will begin development. Expect coverage then.
Star Control
Developed by Crystal Dynamics | Published by Accolade
Commodore 64, 1991
What it Was: Accolade's genre-busting science fiction legend Star Control was a stellar blend of action, adventure, strategy, and role-playing that helped usher in a new era of in-depth gameplay and high-end storytelling. The compelling tale of the Ur-Quan Hierarchy and the Alliance was so vast and detailed that it occupied several dozens of pages in the manual alone -- and that didn't even count what happened in the game itself. Combine that with the game's terrific space navigation and battle system, envelope-pushing visuals, and the incredible amount of customization, and you can easily determine why Star Control is still considered by many to be one of the greatest gaming experiences of all time.
What it Could Be: Since the original version of the game attempted to incorporate a little bit of everything, the modern day edition of Star Control would too. But rather than keep this amalgamation of different genres limited to only a single PlayStation 2, this updated rev would need to branch out into the unknown and bring the always-needed online element to the mix. In fact, the game would be played almost exclusively online -- presented as a persistent Internet universe in which the Dnyarri, Alogolites, and other familiar races bartered, warred, and negotiated their way to complete and total universal domination.
Battles would play out much as they do in some of the more recent real-time strategy games like the Total War series with more important ship-to-ship duels taking a page from melee-based shooters like Colony Wars and Freelancer. An in-game ranking system would allow players to ascend the class ladder based on their performances in several key areas and alliances and betrayal would play an important role from both an individual and team-based standpoint.
Cool bonus features like automatic voice-masking dependant on your race, hard drive support for further expansions, and cross-platform compatibility with the inevitable PC version would insure an extra smile in the long run. But the best feature of all would be the elimination of traditional menu-screens and the text-heavy information HUBS; as our version of Star Control would be almost completely controlled from a first-person perspective and only be navigated by realistic looking icons. Easy-to-learn, action-packed, and highly interactive, the new Star Control would set new standards in complexity through simplicity.
Zombies At My Neighbors
Developed by LucasArts | Published by Konami
Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1993
What it Was: Perhaps the best interpretation of B-Movie schlock ever seen in videogames, Zombies Ate My Neighbors was the perfect example of gameplay over visuals. Though its top-down isometric view was certainly not ugly, the somewhat simplistic graphics focused more on populating the screen with hordes of enemies rather than highlighting the intricate details. But players didn't need details to identify the beasties in front of them anyway, as the incredibly large armies of werewolves, vampires, mummies, zombies, ghouls, and Jason Vorhees look-alikes were more than enough to get the imagination going. What stood out more than its rogue's gallery, though, was its unfathomable level of difficulty and 55 varied stages. From the haunted confines of an overrun mall to the backyard of your terrified neighbor, there was always something different and challenging for players to enjoy. Throw in the huge list of power-ups and some truly interesting weapons (inflatable clowns anyone?) and you have yourself the makings of an instant classic.
What it Could Be: In this day and age of multiplayer madness, an updated Zombies Ate My Neighbors would have to make due of four-player simultaneous play. In fact, we'd want to keep the game limited to a maximum of only four people so that the designers could continue to populate the screen with waves of enemies without sacrificing the framerate. Of course, this four-player feature would not support split-screen and would instead be focused on heavy Internet and possibly even LAN play, with hot seat multiplayer action showing all four characters on the screen at once.
Because of this approach, Zombie's engine would need to be built in a similar way to that of Gauntlet Legends or Hunter the Reckoning. Neighbors would also follow a model similar to those titles on a gameplay level as well and offer several RPG-like upgrades. So while various personalities could certainly improve their health, power, speed, and agility stats, they could also upgrade their weaponry by purchasing items from the infested mall. Interesting status effects like vampirism or lycanthropy could change the abilities and weaknesses of your alter egos too, and it we'd have to find a way to get those inflatable clowns back into the fray again.
The real key to keeping Zombies Ate My Neighbors faithful to its 16-bit roots, though, would be to keep boss battles huge and intense. Who could forget the epic struggle with the 50-foot baby and its incredible bottle of doom? Imagine that kind of confrontation with today's technology and you know the line to play it would round up around the block. Throw in the campy humor and same fantastic soundtrack that powered the original and the result would be a product we couldn't help but affix ourselves to.
Agree/disagree with our choices? Want to see a different classic game remade for the PlayStation 2? The drop us an email and let us know. We'll see you next time for another installment of Classics Reborn!