Top 10 Needed Video Game Remakes & Remasters (Pt. 2)

Leaning heavily into the “just clean the video game up and re-release it” category, I’d like to see the wonderfully weird and wacky Saturn beat-’em-up title Three Dirty Dwarves given a high-quality graphical remaster/optimization, as supplemented by fairly minimal quality-of-life improvements to address criticisms regarding tedious and repetitive gameplay. In addition, I’d suggest re-recording and/or rearranging Dwarves‘ music for better clarity (using new instrument samples as needed).

9. Dead Fear: Return to the Sea

Going from one video game for the Sega Saturn to another, I’d like to see a re-release of the obscure survival horror title Deep Fear (never distributed outside of Japan and Europe), with it given a dedicated graphical optimization like GOG’s Resident Evil collection. Aside from minor gameplay tweaks for smoother character control and movement, I’d also suggest a brand-new “arrange” mode that shuffles enemy and item placement (and maybe with new puzzles like in RE: Deadly Silence).

8. Astro Boy: Omega Factor -Recharged-

While Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the GBA is an already fantastic-but criminally overlooked-video game in its own right, I wouldn’t mind a 2.5D remake that stayed very faithful to the original title’s Western release (that saw multiple improvements over the Japanese version). In addition to maintaining the game’s beat-’em-up/shooter mechanics and its integration of Osamu Tezuka’s “Star System” canon, the 2004 Western version of the GBA original would be included as a special bonus. 

7. Tail Concerto & Solatorobo: Remastered

This video game collection would bundle together greatly enhanced graphical “remasters” of Tail Concerto for the PS1 and Solatorobo: Red the Hunter for the DS (comparable to the N. Sane Trilogy and Reignited Trilogy). The gameplay and narrative of both games would largely stay the same outside of needed camera, control, and difficulty improvements (as well as newly recorded English voice-overs), but with Solatorobo being reworked to better match the presentation of Concerto.

6. Jersey Devil: Reassembled & Reanimated!

Even though the 1997/1998 3D platformer Jersey Devil is by no means a stellar or fondly remembered video game, it still has a certain charm seen in its cartoonish but also somewhat gloomy aesthetic, as propelled by a genuinely great orchestral score by Gilles Léveillé. Much like with the entry above, I’d really appreciate an enhanced graphical remaster to make Jersey Devil look prettier (while also addressing its cited camera issues); however, I would deviate a bit further by condensing some of its more repetitive backtracking and item-collecting elements to make gameplay less tedious.

5. Hyrule Adventures: Faces of Evil & Wand of Gamelon

In what might be one of my craziest (and least possible) ideas ever, I recommend taking the infamously bizarre Phillips CD-i titles Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and remaking/bundling both together as official games done in the graphical and gameplay style of A Link Between Worlds (but with some elements from Echoes of Wisdom mixed in). Not only will these games have an entirely different look and feel to them, but they will also be given a relatively more serious tone and writing style (while still including “winks” to the original duology’s sillier material).

4. Resident Evil: Gaiden -Prologue Redux-

Taking after my Ghost Babel -Declassified- idea, I’d like to remake the one-off RE: Gaiden game released for the GBC as a smaller-scale 3D title like Revelations and Revelations 2: but staying non-canon to start a new series timeline. Key alterations include the relocation of the story from an ocean liner to a giant oil rig (that’s actually an Umbrella research site), the downplay (or removal) of Lucia’s extrasensory ability due to similarities with Natalia from Revelations 2, and a reworked ending that sets the game up as a prologue to a sequel based on the cancelled “haunted castle” version of RE4.

3. Silent Hill: Homecoming -Reborn Nightmare-

Serving as a follow-up to my concept for Downpour -Darkened Skies- from my previous article, I’d like to see a similar revamping of Homecoming in the style of the 2024 SH2 remake to address various issues that plague the title to this day. Aside from an obvious graphical overhaul, changes would include (but not limited to): a heavily rewritten story for more logical character and narrative trajectory, major redesigns/reworkings of multiple monsters to differentiate them from previous ones seen in the original SH2, and a full reimagining (or removal) of the game’s “Boogeyman” entity.

2. Mega Man X5 -Retold Story-

And serving as a follow-up to my concept for Maverick Hunter X Stories, the “Retold Story” edition of Mega Man X5 would not only be reconfigured to mitigate backtracking and other gameplay issues (such as the “timed” mission to complete the Enigma Cannon) but would also feature a repositioned story now taking place many years/decades after the MHXS version of X6. However, unlike my suggestion for changing the graphics of X6 and X7 from 2D/3D to 2.5D to match X8, I’d actually retain X5‘s 2D design (albeit, with much higher, more complex levels of detail than the PS1 original).

1. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2: Enhanced Edition

Even though I still love the original Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 despite some of their goofier – and, years later, less-than-polished – components, I admit that both games could probably be completely rebuilt from the ground up and given new life on current-gen platforms. What I suggest is developing and bundling together full-on remakes of both titles (including faithful but highly improved graphics, gameplay, and other elements), as supplemented by redone professional voice-overs, rearranged/reorchestrated soundtracks, and maybe some additional post-game content.