By Mark Valdes, Staff Writer
REVIVAL: Videogames of the past are being given new life…now in high definition!
When you think about what makes a remake, you usually ask yourself; “How do you know if a remake is done right?” Well, it is usually found out by examining the original product, and the remake inspired by it and then comparing and contrasting the two. This way, the flaws of one of the works, and its strengths, are compared to the flaws and strengths of another. However, when giving this criticism it is important to do it well. When critiquing you need to identify the flaws and strengths unbiasedly while respecting the meaning behind the thing you’re judging.
To begin with, however, we must define a few terms. First of all, a remake is, as the name suggests, a re-make of something. In other words, it has been rebuilt from the ground up. Though certain plot points, characters, settings, or themes may be the same, the game is ultimately a reimagining of the older version. A remaster, however, is when the original game is simply changed in a way that makes it run smoother, or look better. It is a fresh coat of paint on an original wall, whereas a remake is rebuilding that wall entirely. In the videogame industry, remakes are common practice, and video game remakes have been done numerous times sometimes well, and not so well.
An example of a remake in gaming being done right is Black Mesa which is a fan remake of Half-Life 1. This remake uses the new flashy “Source” engine to improve the original engine used by Half-life 1 and to make the game look more intense. Half-Life 1 had no multiplayer in the game itself but a multiplayer mod you had to install. In order to fix this, Black Mesa had multiplayer built in as a main option instead of a mod. Another welcome change was the final boss of Black Mesa. The final boss of the original Half-Life 1 game had nothing wrong with it, but the developers decided that they wanted to do something a little more flashy, so without completely changing the aspect and meaning of the game’s ending boss, they overhauled it. Black Mesa is truly a great remake and keeps the plot and theme of the original game very well, while updating it and making it look better.
An example of a remake gone wrong is Pokemon: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire(ORAS). Pokemon ORAS are not bad games at all, but compared to the originals they simply cannot compare. ORAS’s goal was to capture the feeling of the Hoenn region in Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, and to reimagine the region with new and exciting additions. While the games succeed in adding on to the original story and content, the game fails to capture the real feeling of the originals. It is seen with the overly complicated way of capturing the main game’s trio of legendaries, the golems. In the original game, the way to capture these pokemon was to read braille, which would tell you to put a certain pokemon in the front of your inventory, and another in the back, and go to a hidden cave. Once in that cave, you would release the three legends, but would then have to track them down and go to another cave, and read yet more brail for instructions on how to battle the pokemon you were hunting. In modern games, this exact method is kept, making you still have to turn to Google as a solution. Whilst some pokemon fans call this a reference to the past, is it really to be expected of a child (the game’s main audience) to read braille and follow complicated instructions? The game’s previously challenging battles were downscaled to easier battles that require little to no strategy. The original Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald were challenging games, to say the least, and that challenge is all but gone in the newer remakes. While the game’s main audience is children, even a child would have no problem beating the game with ease, and that doesn’t make for any meaningful moments or memories. In addition, the remakes have far less soul than the original games. In the original Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, all pokemon were given brand new sprites, making them look fresh and exciting. In the new 3D games, all models are reused from Pokemon X and Y, as are the “animations” for battle, if you can call them that. Pokemon look like soulless puppets, only moving an arm or a leg in their idle animations. Most insulting of all is the removal of the Battle Frontier which was in the original game’s third installment, Pokemon Emerald. The battle frontier was a fan favorite, offering fans something to do on the side other than just battling for the main game. It was a large facility allowing players to battle their way through dungeons to defeat the final boss of each dungeon for a reward. But in ORAS it was removed, replaced with the “Battle Maison,” which was a single building that allowed players to battle trainers endlessly until they inevitably lost to some cheap tactics. In an interview with Junichi Masuda when asked why ORAS had no battle frontier he states because “nowadays players get bored and frustrated more easily and they aren’t interested in things that are so demanding/challenging.” which was found devastating to hear by many fans who believe that to be simply untrue. If there are players willing to invest hours of time into breeding the perfect pokemon for online play, there are players willing to battle in the battle frontier, as a way to level up and train pokemon.
Any video game can be successfully remade, but it takes respect for the game and the fans that love the game to create a remake that respects the original title and does it proper justice. The fans must be respected too, as they are the audience for the remake of the game. It is a great idea to have a knowledge of what qualities it takes to create a great remake, because when a remake is done right, it can introduce a whole new generation to a game title, and can draw in old fans, reminding them of the love they had for the game when it was first released. But when done poorly, a remake can sour the taste of the original game, highlighting flaws in the original title as well as adding flaws to the new one.