In a little under a month, my all time favorite video game is getting its remaster released. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door comes out on May 23rd and I CANNOT wait to get my hands on it. My GOAT is getting a remastered port to the switch so I can play it on the go!
I damn near screamed when they announced it! I haven’t been this excited for a remaster since Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby and that doesn’t compare to the joy I felt. With its drop just around the corner, it got me thinking of what other games I’d love to see get a remaster or at least an update to a newer game engine. So here’s five (7) video game remasters I’d love to play:
Gears of War 2:
Gears of War 2 is my favorite entry to the series and one of my favorite Co-Op campaigns of all time. It takes a solid 3rd person shooter recipe in the first game and turns up the heat. Everything felt better in the second game and with them already having remade the first game, they’ve proven they’re capable of doing it with the peak of the series too. I played all the way until act 4 with my brother the same day we got it and it remains one of my most fond memories with him. Please Microsoft. I’m begging you. I want to take the fight to the grubs on the Gears 5 engine.
Dead Space 2:
Just like Gears of War 2, Dead Space 2 is a sequel of a game that already has a remaster that rocked! So I’d love for them to remaster the second game as well. Also in a similar situation of Gears 2, as much as I enjoyed the 1st one, 2 is peak for me. It was the first horror game I truly loved and not for just its jumps. Actually especially not for it’s jumps, jump scarred are the cheapest form for horror in my opinion. But it’s theme and atmosphere (sometimes lack of)? Beautifully horrific.
Tony Hawk’s Underground 1 and 2:
THUG 1 and 2 are personal childhood favorite skateboard games that, in the first one, take your created skater on the path to becoming pro. You slowly rise to fame and have serval bumps along the way to keep you humble. And then there’s THUG 2. Which is the bat shit insane sequel that took the wackiness of the series to a whole new level. To be honest I don’t have much to say about these games. I won’t be able to sell you on them, but anyone who’s played them is nodding their head right along with mine.
Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker/Twilight Princess:
Okay, okay! Yes they both technically have HD released on the Wii U…but come on! Hot Take Incoming: These are my favorite 2 Zelda games (that aren’t on the Switch) and just like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, I’d love to be able to play them on the go. They are two very differently themed games in the Zelda franchise, but they’re so damn good, Windwaker with the most unique (until Breath of the Wild) take on the LoZ formula and TP with a much darker (literally) tale revisiting the lands of Ocarina of Time. I’d love to explore them again and watch my friends play through them for the first time as well. Zelda fans have been eating these past several years, so this is probably awhile off, at best.
The Last of Us: Part II: Remastered
LMAO this is a joke. The series has more remasters (3) than actual games in the series (2). DLC doesn’t count
Oblivion:
I’m just going to outright say it. Oblivion is better than Skyrim…in a lot of cases. Graphics, scope, mechanics and pure size? Skyrim crushes. But to the things most important to RPGs (besides mechanics) such as characters, lore, story, factions, and side quests, Oblivion is vastly superior. But similar to how I’m more likely to recommend Fallout 4 instead of 3 or New Vegas to someone, I’d pick Skyrim. A lot of people I know can’t deal with the clucky, buggy, and graphically inferior early Xbox 360 Bethesda games. They prefer the clucky, buggy, prettier games of Skyrim and FO4. I don’t blame them at all. To some people graphics are everything. But if an Oblivion remaster ran on the Skyrim engine with the Skyrim leveling up mechanics? People would come flooding to my side of this argument. All the major factions quest lines are superior, the story itself is more interesting and less hand holdy. The side quests are an absolute blast compared to how many of the Skyrim ones almost feel like chores. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild in Oblivion alone clear all the side stories in Skyrim.
I really hope they make all of these one day, but sadly, outlook bleak. Especially for Oblivion, with Bethesda currently working on Elder Scrolls VI and then Fallout 5 after that. We would be lucky to see an Oblivion remaster before the year 2035.
