For some people, remake is a dirty word. For the most part, we have Hollywood to blame for this, with Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Hitchcock's classic Psycho starting a relative flood of bad recreations of older films. In more recent years, this has culminated in the horror remake craze, where just about every slasher film from the late 70s and early 80s has either been remade, or a remake is in pre-production. Remakes are seen by executives as being relatively safe due to audiences' familiarity with the source material.

On the other hand, remakes are not seen in such negative light when it comes to video games. In some cases, limited technology available at the time has limited the creator's vision, or has made a game very hard to revisit or almost unplayable at a later date. In this week's Warp Pipe, I thought we'd spend some time looking at games I'd like to see remade.

Most wanted remakes

I admit that I am a little surprised by the lack of remakes we've seen in recent years, especially with costs of video game productions spiralling out of control. At the same time, we've also seen remakes that you can either deem unnecessary (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes) or not up to scratch with the original material (Dracula X Collection's retread of Rondo of Blood), with very few achieving the goal of bettering the original game (Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Resident Evil). I've tried to focus on including games that really need a remake, due more or less to the fact that they are difficult to get into in modern times. As such, you'll find no mention of Final Fantasy VII in here.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest Developer: Konami Format: FDS, NES, PC First released: 1987 Simon's Quest is set seven years after Simon Belmont's defeat of Dracula in Castlevania. The whip-toting hero discovers that Drac put a nasty curse on him during their last encounter, leaving him with crippling injuries and only a short time to live. In order to break the curse, Simon must find Dracula's remains, revive the evil lord seal him inside Castlevania and defeat him again. The game veered away from Castlevania's straight-up platforming action, instead focusing more on adventure gameplay with light RPG elements. The unguided, non-linear adventure of Simon's Quest proved to be pretty frustrating for many gamers, giving it a reputation for being notoriously difficult. Townspeople were the source of most of the player's clues for what to do next, but the caveat is that some townspeople are actually on Dracula's side, and will tell Simon lies in order to stuff up his quest. Simon is pretty weak, and his strength and abilities must be increased by increasing his experience and levelling up, yet the amount of time you take to reunite Dracula's body parts affects the ending you get. Simon's Quest also has a day and night cycle, which has a great effect on which enemies you encounter, and their numbers. It's pretty easy to justify wanting a remake of Simon's Quest. The game's non-linearity has become a crucial part of the success of more recent Castlevania efforts. The translation of the game's script is also less than perfect, leading to the game's difficulty being far more crushing than it was intended to be. Simon's Quest's visuals and gameplay also make the game a lot harder to revisit now than any of the other NES Castlevania releases. Given its importance in the Castlevania canon, it needs to be in a more playable state. The game needs to preserve its original style of play, so perhaps a remake on one of the handhelds or digital distribution services would be the best way to approach it.

Simon's Quest needs a fresh coat of paint

Snake's old adventures are hard to get into

Metal Gear 1 and 2 Developer: Konami Format: MSX, PS2 First released: 1987/1992 The first two Metal Gear games deal with Solid Snake's earliest missions with FOXHOUND; the infiltration of the fortress Outer Heaven in the first game, and the rise of Zanzibar Land as a nuclear power in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Each mission was a solo infiltration mission, putting Snake up against incredible odds and bipedal nuclear-equipped behemoths called Metal Gear. The Metal Gear series didn't reach the forefront of video game franchises until the release of the third game Metal Gear Solid. Until that point, Snake's second adventure was largely thought to be Snake's Revenge as opposed to the true canonical sequel in Metal Gear 2. While the original Metal Gear sold a million copies on the NES, the game is largely incomplete and inferior to the MSX original. Those facts aside, both games are not only incredibly dated, but large portions of their story have been retconned, especially by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Again, a remake of the early Metal Gear games can be approached in two ways. The first way would be to preserve the game's original perspective, and redraw the backgrounds and sprites at a higher resolution (or use detailed 3D models). All of the games' characters would also need significant improvements to their animations to bring them up to modern standards. One could release this version on a digital distribution service or handheld console. The other way would be to recreate Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 in the full 3D, heavily cinematic stylings of the Metal Gear Solid series. Whatever the case, Kojima and his team need to bring everything in the series' highly convoluted plot back into line, and give players an opportunity to discover the earlier games in the series. A full 3D recreation would need to be done on one of the two HD consoles.

Metroid II: The Return of Samus Developer: Nintendo R&D1 Format: Game Boy First released: 1991 After a team of soldiers sent to the Metroid home planet SR388 is wiped out, the Galactic Federation contacts bounty hunter Samus Aran to finish their task; the elimination of the Metroid species. Samus is the only one in the galaxy with intimate knowledge and previous contact with the species, and is considered ideal for the job. Of course, nothing is as easy as it sounds, as Samus soon discovers the Metroids have begun to mutate into all sorts of gruesome beasts. Metroid II: The Return of Samus is almost a lost game as far as the series goes. Its release on the Game Boy had somewhat limited availability, and thus was not as wildly popular as its predecessor or successors. At the same time, the story and features introduced in the game are vital to the development of the series, particularly when it comes to Super Metroid. Most proponents for a Metroid II remake feel that the lack of colour, zoomed in perspective and high difficulty in combination with the game's non-linearity (and lack of map) are the main things that need to be corrected if a remake is to be successful. Frankly, I just want to see it in colour. Nintendo had previously planned a remake of Metroid II when it launched the Game Boy Color. Several brochures and press materials issued in 1999 showed an in-development version of Metroid II DX, which would have been an enhanced colourised version of the game similar to what Nintendo accomplished with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX. The project was cancelled for undisclosed reasons. Since then, many fans have taken it upon themselves to produce unauthorised versions of Metroid II, such as Project AM2R, which is using the technology from later games in the series such as Metroid Zero Mission. I'd like to see Nintendo produce an official remake on either WiiWare or Nintendo DS using similar technology.

Metroid II is thought to be inferior due to its lack of colour and in-game map

Panzer Dragoon Saga is one of the finest games most of us will never play

Panzer Dragoon Saga Developer: Team Andromeda Format: Saturn First released: 1998 In a post apocalyptic word, a boy named Edge serves as a soldier in the Imperial army. He is assigned to protect an excavation site that has yielded many ancient antiquities. After fighting off an attack from some mutated creatures, Edge discovers the fossil of a young woman embedded into a wall. However, a rebel faction led by the mysterious Craymen attacks the site, seizing the fossil and shooting Edge and his companions. The force of the shot knocks Edge over a cliff to certain death, but he falls into an underground reservoir. While attempting to make his way back to the surface, Edge encounters a flying dragon which appears to communicate with him on a spiritual level. Edge decides to take revenge on Craymen and recover the fossil with the help of his newfound friend. Panzer Dragoon Saga strays far away from the rail shooter formula of its predecessors (and successor), opting for an RPG-like approach. The game allows for free-flight on a dragon while moving around the vast overworld, and a point & click style interface when on foot. The game's unique, highly cinematic battle system is considered to be one of the best in the genre. The system, which is real time, gives players three action gauges which tied to different types of moves and are depleted and replenished depending on the moves you make. Dragons can also morph, which will greatly affect their stats. The game's visuals were amongst the best of the Saturn's 3D games, and the ambient soundtrack is considered to be one of the best ever produced for a video game. Unfortunately Panzer Dragoon Saga was released when the Saturn was in a serious decline, and Sega was ramping up for the release of the Dreamcast. While the game saw a wide release in Japan, its release in the West was limited to 30,000 copies in North America, and much less than that in PAL territories, which has forced its asking price up to $200 on secondary markets. Potential ports have been ruled impossible by the game's director who has stated the source code for the game has since been lost. Team Andromeda was split and absorbed by various other Sega divisions after the game was complete. Any remake of Panzer Dragoon Saga needs to leave the game's plot, gameplay and music (outside of re-recording/remastering) untouched. One would find that most original or potential fans would have been happy playing the game as is, but a polish up to, or beyond the visual standards of Panzer Dragoon Orta would be highly appreciated. I'd like to see any potential remake of the game published on one of the two HD consoles, to give it the visual polish it deserves.

Resident Evil 2 Developer: Capcom PDS 3 Format: PSX, PC, N64, Dreamcast, GC First released: 1998 Two months after the incident in the Arklay Mountains, infected rats carry the T-Virus to the nearby urban centre of Racoon City. The virus spreads like wildfire through the city's population, turning them into the living dead. Fate arranges a meeting in the deserted metropolis between Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie cop on his first day in the city, and Claire Redfield, a college student looking for her brother. The two are quickly separated, but vow to escape the city and discover the cause of the nightmare. Resident Evil 2 is widely held to be the best of the "old" games in the series, referring to those which maintain the fixed camera perspective with pre-rendered backgrounds and 'tank' controls. Despite being the best selling game in the series, Resident Evil 2 has virtually been ignored by Capcom while the original game has seen a number of ports and remakes. Resident Evil 2 didn't even get recreated for The Umbrella Chronicles last year. A remake of Resident Evil 2 can be approached in one of two ways. They can remake it in the same way as the original game, with high quality models and very detailed pre-rendered backgrounds. Alternatively, and probably more preferential would be remaking it in the same vein as Resident Evil 4. The city setting of the game would provide the necessary enemy numbers, and the plot/areas of the game could slide in relatively unchanged. They could even use the opportunity to make it tie in better with Code Veronica and Resident Evil 4. I'd like to see it remade for the Wii using the Resident Evil 4 tech.

Capcom repeatedly ignores Resident Evil 2 when it comes to remakes

Next Week

The Warp Pipe's subsections seem to have been disappearing over the last couple of weeks, so I think a subsection medley is in order.