gaming Best/worst video game remake/remaster?

[Magic Note 2,738]

Which do you think is the best and worst video game remake or remaster? I don't remember if there was made a thread like this or not on here, but here goes:

Best - Super Mario All-Stars. The fact it added a save feature to several of the games that needed it, updated the graphics and remixed the music to 16-bit always wants me to come back for more. While it does have a bit of issues, like brick physics not being 100% accurate, it is what I'd call one of the best remakes out there.

Honorable mentions: Metroid Zero Mission; Pokémon FR/LG, HGSS, ORAS; Halo: The Master Chief Collection (PC)

Worst - Secret of Mana. How do you go wrong with remaking a beloved SNES classic? By having an English voice cast that was criticized for being polarizing, introducing game-breaking bugs, and remixing music that honestly didn't needed to be remixed in the first place. There's probably more issues, but those are the big issues with them. Just stick with the original and find a couple QoL ROM hacks if you can.

Dishonorable mentions: GTA Trilogy: The "Definitive" Edition (good thing I dodged a bullet with this one); Realm of Shamanock DX (I'm probably the only one who played it, but it's a Zelda Classic/ZC game that makes things worse to an already shoddy quest/game); Silent Hill HD Collection (didn't even have the first game, and introduced bugs/glitches/errors that weren't in the original Silent Hill 2 or 3)

Edited April 29, 2022 by Magic Note

[Misty Shadow 7,080]

Best to me was the Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy III because it was a necessary remaster, one that finally gave us an English edition of the original 2D game with updates that make it better than the Famicom/NES version. Worst to me in personal experience is tough, since Silent Hill HD Collection is the only bad remaster I believe I've played, but I was kind of disappointed in the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection too for only including the Sigma versions of the first two games. I really wanted to try out the original XBOX games as someone who never got the chance, even if I understand that lost source codes are difficult to recover (which is also what happened with the Silent Hill collection). I can't make that same excuse for the Cloud-exclusive ports of the remastered Kingdom Hearts games for the Switch though, the Integrum Masterpiece. Even my friend who loves Kingdom Hearts and being positive about games would tell you to stay away from that version of those games, for the love of God. 

Edited April 29, 2022 by CloudMistDragon
Edited out the extra "though".

[The Recherche 29,965]

Best would likely go to The N. Sane Trilogy for me. It does have some pretty big issues; some big enough to ruin it for some folks, understandably enough, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the games. Really, they only seemed to benefit from all of the features added, and the remastered music and visuals are stellar. There are probably better ones I am leaving out, the Resident Evil 2 remake especially, but N. Sane is the one I have the most experience with.

This is more of a personal thing, but as for Worst Remasters, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl come to mind. The only edge it remotely has it removing the HMs, which did a lot to hold the Gen 4 games enjoyment back. Other than that, it is just an uglier, easier, less featured, utterly creatively inept version of Platinum, but reverted back to Diamond/Pearl for obvious rea$on$.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

Oh god; the best BY FAR would be the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy for me. You're talking about three amazing PS1 platformers that were not only already great but have even been improved (Spyro 1 especially) just speaks to the about of love and care that went into it's creation. It's just SO GOOD. <3

The worst would be the PS3 remaster of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Warrior Within and Two Thrones were fine). I mean, there's only so much they could do with the early PS2 graphics, but damn the sound was absolutely TERRIBLE! You shouldn't have to fiddle with audio settings just to make a game playable. Infuriating!

[Megas 27,061]

Best: Resident Evil REmake, both the first game on the Gamecube, and the REmake 2 on modern consoles, both took the great, though (charming)corny games and gave them a much needed update in both presentation, gameplay and fear-factor. Both are very unsettling games with tons of great QoL improvements that make them very difficult to go back, at least going back to the original RE1(RE 2 Remake is different enough from the original and the original RE 2 still holds up pretty well for me to go back to it)

Honorable mentions: Metroid: Zero Mission, Link's Awakening remake on Switch, Pokemon FireRed, Megaman Powered Up/Maverick Hunter X, Xenoblade Definitive Edition

Worst: Honestly hard to get worse than GTA Trilogy or Silent Hill HD, so I'll throw my hat for Starfox Zero. First, how do you bring back a dormant franchise? Remake a game that's already a remake(Starfox 64 3D). How do you find a way to jettison a franchise's revival even further? Immediately follow up that remake with yet another remake of that same remake, but this time with awful motion controls and incredibly boring walker segments. We get it, Starfox 64 is the only good Starfox game, but thanks for both making SF64 a bad game on top of making me sick of that game instead of making something new after so fucking long. This shit doesn't add any new interest in the franchise, it doesn't bring anything interesting to the table, it just makes people fucking sick of Starfox 64. I mean, the damned bonus pack-in Starfox Guard was better, at least it's different

Dishonorable mention to XIII, glitch filled of little known but cool shooter that gets rid of it's most appealing trait(the artstyle) in favor of something even more bland and was thrown on the shelves with absolutely no quality control

Edited May 22, 2022 by Megas

[KirbyFluttershy 2,517]

Well as a nintendo player, I know there was some of the best remakes I know about

Best remakes are Kirby Super Star ultra which is a remake to the original version of Kirby Super star for SNES. It has all the original modes from Kirby Super star and has new modes to play and controls were a lot better though.

Honorable Mentions would be Kirby Nightmare in dreamland, Pokemon FR/LG/HG/SS/ORAS/BD/SP, LoZ Link's awakening remake, and Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,347]

Worst:  Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for GBA, all that can be said, just don't go near it  

[Envy 5,998]

Favorite Remakes: Final Fantasy VII Remake is so good. It should be the gold standard for old games should be remade. The first three generation of Pokemon remakes (FR/LG, HG/SS, OR/AS) were also really good remakes. They updated the originals to be more in line with the modern games. Especially important for thef irst two generations which are very dated.

Favorite Remaster: The Kingdom Hearts ones were really good. They remade the OSTs for KHI, II and select other BGM from the series. It was such a pleasant surprise compared to Nintendo's remasters.

I can not speak of worst in terms of technical aspects or screwing up a game, only in terms of ambition and worthy of a purchase.

Worst Remakes:

Pokemon Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee: How could they release such a conservative remake of a Gameboy game on the Switch for $60? Ugh. Also the fact that it was a downgrade from FR/LG and only contained Gen I Pokemon was so bad. Even worse now that Gen I Pokemon are so crammed in our faces and I'm sick of them. In addition the forced motion control catching and lack of battle was such a bad move. I'm really happy to see that GF has seemed to not be interested in making more of these. It was a large fear of mine for a while.

Pokemon BD/SP: My fears of further remakes being in the Lets Go style may have been put to rest, but.... what we got was a shadow of the former Pokemon remakes, anyway. An excruciatingly conservative approach that completely bucked the trend of bringing the remade game up to the standards and style of the current Gen. Plus, the graphics just look straight up cheap. They pale in comparison in comparison to even LGP/E in that regard. It's like they just upscaled 3DS games. They hardly look any better than the original D/P. Hardly any reason to buy them.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D/Majora's Mask 3D: These suffered from the same as BD/SP. They're just too darn conservative. By the time OOT3D was released, OOT had been available to play in so many formats so many times. I love OOT, but when I picked up a remake of it, I expected better. Instead I got pretty much just the original OOT with what looked to be a mere texture update and an update to Link's models. They didn't even remake the OST. Jesus christ. What a waste of my money.

MM3D, of course, followed in the same vein.

I legitimately thought that OOT3D was a remaster masquerading as a remake until I finally saw comparison pictures of the same scenes. It's actually remade. Just remade to look, play, and sound exactly like the originals. What a waste of development time.

Remasters? I tend to avoid remasters. Zelda's remasters are really underwhelming, though. Compared to Kingdom Hearts games which were bundled and got a remade OST, these games are released individually and with nothing great changed.

[BritishBrony2012 719]

Best remake/remaster- Spyro games. Not sure about worse.

[baba_booey 4,299]

Best remake would easily be both Crash N Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy for me. Pretty much hit all the right notes I had wanted to see in a remake of both games - improved visuals that still largely stay true to the original, added polish and tweaked physics to make it feel like a new game.

Best remaster I would probably say is the 2011 PC/360/PS3 port of Sonic CD due to the improvement in the original games’ physics and upscaling to widescreen and 60FPS. Just too bad it was delisted and you can’t acquire it legally now until Sonic Origins releases.

Worst would be Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for GBA. The amount of slowdown, screen crunch, weird physics glitches and so on make this classic game almost unbearable to play.