I know that remakes and remasters are contentious, but let's pretend whatever game in question you're thinking of is handled with the utmost care by your favourite devs and they absolutely nail it.
Mine would be Shadow of Memories (called Shadow of Destiny in North America). It's legitimately one of my favourite games of all time but it kinda flew under the radar and I haven't met many people who know of it let alone played it. Seeing it get modern graphics, maybe some expanded mechanics, would be soooo cool.
I was talking to my SO about it recently and we both kinda agreed you'd probably have to update the core gameplay so it would be a little more interesting/engaging but overall B&W was fun. Hell, even Spore redone properly (aka not by fucking EA) I would love too. That one always makes me sad to think about, and we've not really had anything like it since.
Not sure if it's been done already, but Zelda LttP would be cool. I haven't played Echoes of Wisdom though I like the art style and could see it working well.
I don't think Nintendo is capable of doing anything to Link to the Past other than ruin it.
A lot of the Zelda games that got "remasters" mostly had their resolutions and brightnesses increased, to the point that the Wind Waker remake has problematic amounts of bloom. Makes me think someone important at Nintendo has cataracts. So if you want to "remaster" A Link to the Past, run it through an AI upscaler and turn a desk lamp on your screen.
The few that have gotten ground-up "remakes" like Link's Awakening...I kind of liked the art style they chose, it fit the tone of the game pretty well, going with quartets for the music is a stroke of genius, WHY DOESN'T THE FUCKING D-PAD WORK? The original game was designed for use with a D-Pad and either 4- or 8- way motion. I get that modern gamers might instinctively reach for the analog stick, but bind movement controls to the D-pad too, especially if you're not going to bind anything else to those controls. Nintendo never doesn't fuck this up. They made an entire console based on a revolutionary new way to fuck up the controls.
So what you'd get out of a first-party re-release of aLttP is a blank white screen you control entirely with the gyros.
My wishlist is Final Fantasy Tactics, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and Xenogears. A Xenogears remake likely isn't ever happening so I'd be happy with a remaster, and it's practically an open secret at this point that an FFT project is in development. It getting the Tactics Ogre Reborn treatment would be lovely, but what I really want is an orchestrated soundtrack. Here's hoping it doesn't get cancelled. 🤞
As a genre, 4X is still kicking around, but I'm not even sure if SMAC is beloved enough to get the treatment. Good voice acting would be essential.
Honestly, looking at how modern game development studios handle remakes, I wouldn't want them anywhere near any of my beloved games. I haven't played a single remake in the last 20 years where I felt like the studio that made it knocked it out of the park.
Also, I strongly believe good games should not be remade, and only remastered/ "deluxe remastered" (where even if the game is remade, its a 1:1 faithful recreation with additional features and gameplay mechanics being optional). Remake the games that weren't great, give them another chance at big success.
Sonic 2006
the XenoSaga games (don't @ me XS fans, you know the combat and boss design in those games were terrible, 1 had DOMO Carrier, Tiamat, and whatever was going on in Song of Nephilim)
The game feels like it gradually got worse as the game progressed, but that was typical for JRPGs back then. Still had plenty of great moments, though!
Deus Ex. When I first played it I was amazed by the graphics and I specifically remember being impressed that your character was reflected in mirrors. I've been replaying it recently and the graphics are obviously very dated, but it also doesn't run smoothly on modern hardware. My PC gets louder and louder as I play it and eventually the game starts to stutter and I have to restart it.
I would love to see F.E.A.R. with updated graphics. Preferably just a remaster, but if it was remade in the same spirit as the Dead Space remake was, I'd be down for that too, especially if they brought back Fettel's voice actor.
I'm not particularly a fan of either re-makes or full remastered but I'm a big fan or, for example, when Xbox upgraded the resolution and FPS or backwards compatible games.
I would love to see Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes again and have a similar service on Switch for GameCube games.
Yes, we got X3FL in 2021 AND X4, but X4 is a very different game and X3FL is just a heavily scripted X3AP (more or less).
It's a more-than-me years old game with a lot of mods that keep it enjoyable to day – as "enjoyable" as it can be, that janky piece o' junk – but I feel about it the same way I feel about Halo 2: imagine what it could have been, if the devs had the resources they could have today. (if you say "X4" I'm going to fucking flip)
When I first played FL I thought it came out with all the others *^*
I don't outright dislike X4, but IMO it feels too... streamlined, in a way.
You've got less wares, less ships, less sectors, no jumpdrive (yes I see the reasoning, no I still want the jumpdrive), the Xenon lost their aesthetic just to look like Mass Effect reapers, and fuckers stole my magnificently redundant ship classes. Can't have ship in Detroit.
The entire Ultima series for sure. I think those were the first CRPGs I played. I loved Ultima: Underworld I & II, but I was never able to get Ultima VII: Pagan to run properly on my computer. (And, holy fuck, that was 30 years ago.)
But also The Elder Scrolls: Arena, TES: Daggerfall, TES: Battlespire, TES: Redguard, and TES: Morrowind. The first two TES games would be challenging to make, given that many of the areas were randomly generated, rather than being designed.
I’d love to see Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask get a full remade release, bundled together into one game ideally. Sure we got the 3ds remakes but I wanna see it back on home consoles, like tp and ww HD.
There is a GitHub project working on a recompilation of both of these for PC. They've got Majora's Mask working and are working on OoT. Looks beautiful, runs buttery smooth, and has custom controls with a free camera.
I had the same thought initially, and unfortunately it wasn't just GTA. However, IMHO Diablo II Resurrected was an amazing exception, and I'm sure there are others. Plus, the OP's question was probably about an ideal case and they wanted to know what people have been missing from the past.
Realistically, I wouldn't expect a decent comeback of Guitar Hero 3 for example, but it sucks that it doesn't really work on Win10/11 anymore, and while Clone Hero exists, it doesn't have the same "story" mode as GH3 had, with characters, milestones and such. Hell, you can't even get "booed out".
Too bad that as you mentioned, even if there was demand, a random big company would just buy the rights, do some lazy upscale and sell it like it was gourmet shit.
Bonanza Bros, Blast Corps, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Vampire: The Masquerade -Bloodlines, Cruisn World, LEGO Battles, NBA Jam
Bonanza Bros would be a great couch co-op multiplayer game in a world where we need more. It would benefit from some gameplay tweaks, and adding online play and 4 players would be big.
Blast Corps was awesome, I found it to be an extremely underrated Rare game. This game in an engine with simulated rubble and crazy explosions would be a gem. I also think changing the camera to first person should be an option at the very least.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days got its cutscenes remastered. I want the full game. It was dripping in atmosphere, and I loved the premise of scouting the new worlds. The graphics could use an upgrade, and the combat could be brought up to par with KH2. But, I love the leveling system and think it would barely need touching.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is awesome and not super long. It's extremely buggy, but luckily there's a modder named Wesp5 who has spend YEARS creating an Unofficial Patch, to a point where all the cut content is restored and it's essentially feature-complete. There's a version that just patches the game, and a restored content version. I think he should be given a team and be allowed to curate content and rebalance cut mechanics for a remake. It would be magical.
Cruisn World is one of my favorite arcade racers ever. It has untouchable vibes, and I'd just like to see that with a nice sheen over it, maybe more levels and vehicles?
LEGO Battles is an RTS for the Nintendo DS. Put it on PC, nuff said.
NBA Jam is not very niche. I want a remake, and I don't care if it's up-to-date. It's the best sports game period.
It's one of the coolest concepts I've seen for PSx. It's a rhythm game that loads into the console's ram, allowing you to swap the disc to one of your CDs and could generate unique levels for your songs.
While looking it up I did find there was a PS3 port, but I don't know how good that is or if it has the same custom level feature or not. I'd love a modern version that looks visually similar but allows you to either input a playlist from a service like yt or use your own local files to generate unique levels.
From what I've seen, it looks good. Can't play the demo for the 2nd game, but from some of the footage I've seen, it looks fun. Thanks for the suggestion.
Omg shadow of memories! What a pick :) great game that I've heard barely anyone talk about :)
It feels like the rules to say an official english translation for Mother 3! Loved playing it (if Nintendo read this I did not play it)
Guiltily I'd also love a WWF Smackdown or Here Comes the Pain remaster, same arcade gameplay, same roster, or updated but just prettier and expanded! :)
elite dangerous is very close but it doesn't really capture the seamlessness you get from not having a landing mode or frame shifting.
pioneer spaceship sim is a remake in the truest sense of the word, but a remaster would fix the ui issues the original had rather than just rolling with them.
Dangerous was originally supposed to be single player only, then they got so much money they promised to add the mp... And long after the ks finished they switched to online only. I was really pissed off.
There's always X I guess
no it wasn't. i backed the kickstarter. it was always an online game, it just had "solo" and "private" modes. and they didn't get "so much money", they got like 120% of their target. they were up against the star citizen kickstarter and that got all the hype.
my main issue with ED is that they focused on building a modern Elite rather than a modern Elite 4. Building upon the ideas of Frontier: First Encounters would have made a very different game.
X is more like Freelancer meets Euro Truck Simulator, in my experience.
This might be too many, but what I want to see remade, remastered, or given complete editions (although "complete editions" may not be relevant to the post topic; and some titles may not be considered niche but whatever) are Asura's Wrath, Bloodborne, Bujingai, Bully, Dante's Inferno, Dark Sector, Dead Rising 2 (and Off the Record), The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, the F.E.A.R. series, From Dust, God Hand,Grand Theft Auto IV, the first two Gungrave games, Just Cause, killer7, L.A. Noire, the Legend of Spyro trilogy, Like a Dragon Kenzan!, Mary Skelter 2, NieR: Automata, NieR: Replicant, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, No More Heroes 2, Prototype, Red Steel 1 and 2, Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, Spec Ops: The Line, the original Splinter Cell (plus Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory, Double Agent, and Conviction), Stranglehold, Tail Concerto, Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2, Watch Dogs 1 and 2, and the original World Ends with You.
Primarily, the goals would be to either restore cut content or integrate separate DLC into the main package, offer enhanced graphics, take advantage of the 16:9 aspect ratio if originally released during the time of 4:3 screens or on handhelds, or fix bugs or address technical limitations that affected their original console or PC releases, alongside numerous quality-of-life improvements like anti-cheat and DRM removal and extensive performance optimizations. Also, we're still waiting for a PC release for Bloodborne.
Although I'm confused, why did you include Nier Replicant and Automata? Automata has already a complete version, and Replicant already had a remaster/remake/director's cut version 3 years ago.
Because I'm concerned that both their current PC versions still remain buggy messes. I'd wait until the devs provide updates on those to address these issues.
I would enjoy a copy of Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance with some spiffed up lighting effects, maybe the mech pack mechs included in the base game, and higher resolution copies of the FMV segments. I have my original copy but I can't get it to run on Linux. Wonder if there's a way to wash a CD game through Steam Play. Lutris...doesn't function as software? It's one of those magnetic "performance enhancing" bracelets, it doesn't do anything but it has convinced a LOT of people it does.
This may be stretching the premise a little bit but I would like to play the game they thought they were making when they made Ride To Hell: Retribution.
Ultima 7 I guess. I never got into it but I keep hearing his great it was.
Final Fantasy VI, because it was my first and therefore the best.
Space Crusade because it was just that fun.