Video Game Remakes: 5 Underappreciated Releases

Remakes in pop culture are nothing new. In fact, countless classic films were remakes of pictures from the silent era, and the trend has never slowed. If anything, remakes have become omnipresent across almost all forms of media. Films, television shows, and video games are filthy with remakes and reboots, for better and worse. Regarding video games, remakes, remasters, and reboots have become the industry norm.

With graphic capabilities and intuitive playability constantly improving, it only makes sense that gamers would be more inclined to revisit their favorite experiences. Recent remake releases such as Dead Space, The Last of Us Part 1, and Resident Evil 4 have all been massive hits and tentpole entries into video game canon. However, some video remakes have not found the same level of broad appeal as these aforementioned titles. Here are just a few that could use a bit more celebration for their improvement on the source material.

Oddworld Inhabitants’ 2014 remake of their 1997 PlayStation cult classic Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee was nothing short of a revelation. The remake Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty reinvents the world of our Mudokon protagonist Abraham Lure by jettisoning into the realm of 2.5D. This may sound like a small leap forward, but the improved graphic fidelity creates a new gameplay experience. The hostile world of Abe was rendered gorgeously. All that means is the 1997 original had been kept intact and improved in almost every conceivable way.

The Oddworld franchise has always had a rabid fan base. However, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty should have had a broader appeal. It made the puzzle platforming far more accessible by adding tighter controls and a difficulty setting, something the original game did not grace players with. While the follow-up, Oddworld: Soulstorm (2021), did not live up to the promise of its predecessor, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty remains a masterful remake of a cult favorite that should have had a much broader audience.

The 1989 hack-n-slash platformer Strider was an arcade favorite for gamers looking for a tough-as-nails challenge. Players took control of the manga character Strider Hiryu and traversed a dystopian cyberpunk world. Wielding a plasma sword known as “Cypher,” gamers were besieged by legions of vicious enemies and increasingly difficult platforming obstacles. The game would later be ported to home consoles, to diminishing returns.

However, in 2014, developer Double Helix Games breathed new life into Strider on the PlayStation 3. This version of the game was a reboot that gave the graphics and controls a tight reconfiguration. Despite not having the designer of the original arcade release, Kouichi Yotsui, the game maintained the spirit of the original. It preserved the clever level of design and bone-crushing difficulty. Strider (2014) kept the core mechanics firmly planted in the confines of a 2D platformer. But it was fresh for gamers who might be more inclined to play in a 3D environment.

Hideo Kojima’s 1998 PlayStation release Metal Gear: Solid was ground-breaking. Kojima defined the stealth game based on the framework of the 1987 NES predecessor Metal Gear. Six years after Metal Gear: Solid’s release, Kojima redesigned the game with the 2004 remake Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes for the Nintendo GameCube. Twin Snakes featured updated graphics and gameplay mechanics, similar to 2001’s Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The game also included new cut scenes written and directed by renowned Japanese filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura, further galvanizing the franchise’s cinematic tone. Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes was a financial and critical hit. However, there has yet to be a rerelease at the time of this writing. The underappreciation of the game has stemmed from its confinement to an oddball Nintendo console with a wonky controller.

Movie tie-in video games have historically been universally regarded as a cynical cash grab. For every X-Men Origins: Wolverine (a game that trumps the movie it was based on tenfold), there were dozens of cheaply produced bargain bin releases littering game store shelves. One of the best examples of a movie tie-in game breaking the cycle was the 2004 Xbox release The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The game also acts as a prequel to the films Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. It's the most fun you can have pretending to be Vin Diesel.

In 2009 The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena was released. Further, this title included a remake of Butcher Bay and a sequel campaign. The remake and additional content improved upon the stealth mechanics. It also featured enhanced graphics and sound design, taking advantage of the next-gen technology of the time. Butcher Bay is a must-play for gamers looking for a first-person experience not focused on shoot-em-up set pieces. The remake (and its sequel) feel more like an expansion of an insane sci-fi property than just trite studio-mandated merchandise.

The 1986 side-scrolling arcade game, Rygar, was a hit at the time of its release. Utilizing a unique weapon known as the “Diskarmor,” players took control of a legendary warrior to traverse a hostile world inspired by Greek Mythology. It only made sense for a remake to rear its head eventually. In 2002, developer Tecmo revisited the property with Rygar: The Legendary Adventure for the PlayStation 2.

This was one of the best remakes no one seems to talk about. Incorporating solid 3D platforming and combat, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure almost acts as a precursor to the God of War franchise. The combo hit system, and incredible soundtrack, also gave the remake a sense of epic scope. While there are certainly things to take issue with, most notably the amount of downtime, the game was way ahead of its time.