Reboots And Remakes We Actually Need
My picks for franchises that should return and games that need a modern take
Remakes, reboots and remasters: like them or not, they’re here to stay.
So far this decade, we seem to have been inundated with the 3 R’s, to the extent where remakes and remasters are themselves, hyped, anticipated points on the gaming calendar. Now, I’m not here to debate the validity of this industry trend or to claim certain games ‘don’t deserve’ to be remade; projected earnings, shareholders and video game developers ultimately dictate which games deserve to return.
That being said, if it were up to me, these are the games and franchises I would choose for a comeback.
Honourable Mentions
Before I get onto the list proper, I want to cover a few, relatively high-profile picks I’ve decided against including and a little bit as to why.
TimeSplitters - For over a decade, since I first played TimeSplitters as a kid, I desperately hoped for a new game. A few attempts have been made to revive the TimeSplitters series: a petition to then-owners Crytek that narrowly missed its goal and the TimeSplitters Rewind fan project has been in development since 2013.
A new TimeSplitters did begin active development a few years ago but according to David Doak, series creator (and Dr. Doak in Goldeneye) the whole project fell apart and if it had returned, it would have been nothing like the series we knew. I’d rather it stay a happy memory than be ruined.
Quake - I chose Quake but really, any classic 90’s shooter can go here, especially the arena-based multiplayer ones. For a start, Quake never had the easily digestible narrative and setup that Doom did; I’ve played Quake before and I just had to Google what actually happens in that game, something about slipgates and extradimensional threats.
More than that though, I think Doom 2016 and Halo were the perfect evolutions of classic 90’s FPS gameplay, furthermore, the expectations and trends have moved on, arena style multiplayer just isn’t popular anymore; Quake Champions never really went anywhere.
KOTOR (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) - KOTOR I and II are my favourite RPG’s of all time… and I want Disney and the rest of modern Star Wars to stay as far away as possible.
The remake of KOTOR I does supposedly still exist and will come out but all signs point to it not being in active development and the way the new writer was disparaging the original’s writing and characters made my skin crawl.
F-Zero - I’ve played SNES F-Zero and watched Gameplay of F-Zero GX, it might be a me thing but… I just don’t really see what’s so special about it or what it brings to the table if it returned. I’d much rather see Wipeout come back or some new IP’s in the genre for once.
Resident Evil Code: Veronica
I’ve spoken about my love for Code: Veronica before and a remake is heavily rumoured for the future but we have no solid news yet.
Resident Evil C:V is the only direct sequel to Resident Evil 2 and follows Claire to Rockfort Island Prison in her continuing search for her brother: Chris Redfield, of Wide Chris Redfield and boulder punching meme fame.
I’ll cut to the chase: Veronica was overly long, had some really annoying backtracking, was packed with irritating voice performances, unavoidable crap that could end your save file if you didn’t see it coming and was generally lacking in balance, doling out loads of weapons and ammunition to make up for the fact that the enemy counts were frequently obnoxious.
Resident Evil 5 is perfectly playable today, Resident Evil 6 is still quite young and newer Resi fans love Claire, give us the remake, Capcom.
Resident Evil 0
I can’t talk about Resident Evil games that need to be remade and not mention RE0, which is also rumoured to be down the pipeline.
To put it mildly? Zero is an absolute mess of a game. You play as both Rebecca Chambers from RE1 and convict Billy Coen, it takes place a day before the original game and you get to explore a nearby training facility but people only remember the train… because it’s the only good part of the game.
No item boxes forces you to haul around mounds of crap and dump it on the floor in the next available safe area, the plot is absolutely insane, the locations besides the train are boring, the new enemies are infuriating, I could go on and on but the point is this isn’t a great game and its lukewarm reception directly led to Resident Evil 4 and the series abandoning its survival horror roots for 12 whole years.
It needs a second chance. As much as I can’t will myself to finish Zero, even after multiple attempts, there are definitely the bones of a great Resi in here.
On a more positive note, the pre-rendered backgrounds in this game are absolutely stunning and the soundtrack is fucking bone-chilling, seriously, the training facility’s different themes make me feel really uncomfortable even just sitting here listening to them.
They really composed pure terror and anxiety in audio form for a game about leeches that sing opera.
Command And Conquer
Command And Conquer is probably the most important franchise in the history of the real time strategy genre.
It wasn’t the first, it might not even be the best but every game in the genre that has launched since owes Command And Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert 1 a debt of gratitude, these 2 games shot the RTS to massive popularity and laid the foundations for one of gaming’s greatest series; Kane from Command And Conquer actually holds a Guinness World Record for being gaming’s longest running villain.
C&C remained popular throughout the 2000’s with both the Red Alert series and mainline games selling mountains of copies, so what happened?
EA happened.
Both Red Alert 3 and C&C 4 weren’t received that well by fans and after that, besides trying to shovel a few shitty mobile games and online-only projects based on the IP, EA just gave up on the franchise; even the 2020 remasters were barely supported post-launch.
The RTS landscape is very different now compared to the early 2010’s: Total War is in a state of seemingly perpetual decline and new releases in the genre tend to be homages to past games with limited budgets, a well-funded, well-made and well-marketed Command And Conquer could really do numbers I think… but I doubt it’s coming back.
Jak And Daxter
Jak And Daxter is one of my absolute favourites from the PS2 era.
The first game (which I actually haven’t played) was a more typical platformer but then Jak 2 was an edgy, GTA-style open world with guns and Jak 3 went full post-apocalyptic and added this huge desert with buggies and rocket launchers; that was a bit of a trend in PS2 mascot platformers it seems, Ratchet and Clank 2 also had a big desert planet. These games were seriously awesome and though I wasn’t allowed GTA as a kid, I saw Jak 2 and 3 as a worthy substitute.
I loved this series. I remember getting Daxter, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and a PSP for Christmas in 2008 and it being the most awesome thing ever. Jak 2 also has the dubious distinction of being known as one of the most bullshit difficult PS2 games, I never did manage to finish it as a kid.
Unfortunately, Jak And Daxter never really made the jump to PS3. Naughty Dog found seismic success with Uncharted and then went with The Last Of Us when development for Jak 4 wasn’t going well, then they just never got back to these games apart from the once in a generation re-release.
I hope that changes someday but Sony has made the bold choice to make every exclusive they release boring Oscar-bait, so I doubt it.
Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell was to Metal Gear Solid what Silent Hill was to Resident Evil: the darker, purer representation of the genre that while not quite as popular still grew a passionate fan base and a well-loved series of games.
I recently played the original Splinter Cell for the first time and while I couldn’t finish it due to a scratched up disc that even my resurfacing machine couldn’t fix, I played up to the CIA HQ mission and thoroughly enjoyed my time; I also played bits of Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory years ago, these games are really great.
Stealth is one of those genres that just hasn’t really survived to the modern day and it’s disappointing.
I think so many games including half-baked, annoying stealth sections and mechanics (hide in the tall grass, stand in a locker for 3 minutes, riveting) really ruined perceptions of the genre for outsiders, furthermore, Ubisoft started to dick around with this franchise and it slowly, steadily declined in quality.
Rainbow Six
“But Scanlines! Rainbow Six Siege is popular!” No no no my friend, I’m talking about the real Rainbow Six.
Before Siege gave us a bunch of zoomer-coded operators with stupid charms and camos there was the original Rainbow Six series: Raven Shield, Vegas 1, Vegas 2, there were a lot of these games. R6 Stood out because you weren’t quirky characters with quippy dialogue, you were just professionals doing a job: faceless grunts working for a department, dispassionately executing the enemies of world peace.
The series did see a little bit of dumbing down for a more casual audience but the foundations were always there. Rainbow Six was hardcore, the player died in a few shots, you had to coordinate with your team and use your equipment wisely to survive; I can’t tell you how many hours I spent playing Terrorist Hunt in split-screen with my brother and with friends online, the layout of Library from Vegas 1 is burned into my brain, deep knowledge now.
There’s no reason Rainbow Six couldn’t return but now the brand is associated with a bunch of stupid characters and E-Sports.
Historical Total War
Total War used to be an RTS series based on history: it wasn’t always too accurate and the socio-economic part of running an empire was mostly ignored but the thought was there. The music was atmospheric, units carried banners and battle standards, this immersion (and the quality of the gameplay of course) is what made the franchise so beloved.
Medieval II has one of the greatest soundtracks ever composed.
Around the mid-2010’s though, things began to change.
Creative Assembly were given the Warhammer Fantasy license and began to develop games based on it, milking them dry with Paradox-style DLC, worse still, historical Total War games virtually ceased to exist with all their non-Warhammer titles still having a fantasy slant.
Troy was based on the Trojan War with stupid hero characters and the option to play with mythological creatures, Three Kingdoms was similar and with layers of Crusader Kings-style diplomacy layered on top.
Since 2016, historical Total War has been dead.
Rumour has it that Sega are displeased with Creative Assembly and that the next game: potentially based on Star Wars, might be their last chance. I can’t say I feel much sympathy.
The Getaway
I think every gamer on the planet has imagined what a GTA-style game would look like based in their city, or their country; for Londoners, this dream came true with The Getaway and its sequel: Black Monday.
The Getaway was an open world crime franchise set around central London in the mid-2000’s, it contained real cars, you played as both the rozzers and the crims, it had a true to life road layout and an authentic, persistent grey sky. Truthfully, they weren’t amazing games but hey, that’s why they deserve a second chance; I don’t see much talk about The Getaway abroad but in the UK and Ireland I always hear them brought up as really having captured the soul and culture of the time.
I owned the demo disc that had a mission from Black Monday on it and at the time, I remember thinking the graphics were insane.
Unfortunately, British developer Team Soho was closed down and The Getaway 3 was cancelled, the studio’s staff would form the bulk of PlayStation’s London Studio which churned out SingStar and other peripheral games for the next few years; they also helped with Killzone 2 before also being shut down.
Nights
Nights, in the absence of Sonic, sort of became the Sega Saturn’s mascot, though thanks to the console’s struggles and the fact that only 2 games were ever made in this franchise, this funny little dream demon has only a cult following.
Frustratingly for fans of Nights, Sega have included the character in countless cameos in other games and yet they refuse to do anything with the IP.
It’s quite hard to see what they could do with Nights: the arcade/score-attack genre isn’t exactly popular and the original game can be a bit love it or hate it for some people but even a £20 Double-A Nights game with just a set of new courses would be enough.
The fans are starving, Sega, let them feast.
Nights is the kind of niche franchise where I think an indie spiritual successor could end up appearing someday and becoming the fans’ new home.
Killzone
The Killzone trilogy was a highlight of 2000’s Sony for me.
Sabotaged by the media trying to label it a Halo killer (a label refuted by the developers) Killzone was actually more akin to a World War 2 shooter but in a sci-fi setting and handled themes like foreign intervention and generational trauma; it feels very raw to play and does an amazing job at humanising a fascist regime and making its adherents believable and sympathetic human beings, not moustache-twirling monsters.
All that aside… the Helghast look unbelievably cool: a mish-mash between Nazi German and Soviet aesthetics making an incredibly intimidating foe, the art-style is awesome. Don’t cancel me.
Killzone was always well-liked but it was never quite a flagship franchise for Sony, furthermore, Killzone 3 was nowhere near as good as the second game and Shadow Fall: a launch title for the PS4 was straight up awful.
Dutch developer Guerrilla Games now makes the Horizon series and has stated in the past that they don’t plan to return to the IP, which is a damn shame.
Crackdown
The original Crackdown was a surprise hit on the Xbox 360. Bundled with access to the Halo 3 Beta, a lot of people bought the game just to have a taste of the pure bliss that was to be that multiplayer but once the dust settled people began to play Crackdown and realised it was good: great, actually.
Crackdown is a bit of a cult classic, so if you’ve never played it then imagine GTA with superpowers, transforming cars and you play as the police instead, picking off the senior figures of the city’s organised crime across a large open world and in any order you see fit.
What made Crackdown special was the skill system where the more you got kills in certain ways and collected certain skill orbs, the more your capabilities would level up until you could jump halfway up skyscrapers, throw entire lorries and have your cars transform into high-tech death machines.
Unfortunately, the series was in a state of permanent chaos: the studio that made the first game got shut down, Crackdown 2 was developed in just 18 months and not received quite as well, then Crackdown 3 was caught in development hell and released 5 years after its announcement, greatly scaled back and to scathing reviews.
I hope this series gets another chance but it’s an Xbox first party title which means you can guarantee it’s dead or will return as a hollowed-out husk.
Imperator: Rome
Imperator: Rome is a Paradox game that suffered a very unfortunate fate. It released half-baked without a clear niche and undersold, leading to its discontinuation a few years ago.
As it always seems to be with PC gaming, the modding community stepped up.
Today, Imperator is honestly thriving and I prefer the game to Europa Universalis 4, which it shares a lot of characteristics with; Imperator has very little DLC so if you pick it up along with those you won’t be breaking the bank and then you can play Invictus: the (generally biannually updated) mod pack where the community have kept Imperator alive and continued to add great content. I can’t recommend doing this enough.
Paradox streamers and Imperator fans actually generated such a buzz that Paradox have a skeleton crew putting out bug fixes every year or so to help out the Invictus team, I wish it were full-time development but hey, Invictus is awesome too.
Yakuza
You might be a bit confused “But Scanlines, Yakuza is still going! It’s just called Like A Dragon Now, as it always was in Japan!” This is true but… I don’t like the new LaD games.
Yakuza always had beat ‘em up style combat and took itself at least a little bit seriously, with Majima as comedic relief and substories providing a laugh.
Ever since Baka Mitai became a huge meme and a lot of new fans discovered the series, it seems they leaned incredibly hard into the comedy, to the point where it felt like LaD/Yakuza 7 was desperately trying to be funny at all times, furthermore, the shift to JRPG combat wasn’t something I enjoyed and I absolutely detested having to grind to fight bosses and seek out one specific item so I could beat the final boss.
I haven’t played Infinite Wealth since the shift to Hawaii makes the setting infinitely less interesting to me (sorry Hawaiians) so maybe things have improved.
I’d love for the series to ditch the turn-based combat someday and return to its roots but with Kiryu no longer the protagonist and most Yakuza fans, plainly, being weaboos who like JRPG’s anyway, I doubt that day will come for anime haters and JRPG-averse players like myself.
Conclusion
I tried to include a wide mix of franchises and games on this list but I also want to make it clear that it is absolutely fine (and should be more common) for a franchise to just wrap everything up and conclude.
Metal Gear Solid 6 is unnecessary, the entire Halo franchise after Reach has felt tacked on and although this opinion might get me killed, I don’t really see the need for a fourth The Witcher game.
It’s fun to revisit old classics and dream of the series that never were but sometimes, we don’t need to see something come back just for the sake of filling out the calendar.
Thank you very much for making it to the end of today’s post, I hope you enjoyed reading it and I’d love to chat in the comments below. If you’d like to see more, be sure to subscribe and drop a like, it really helps.
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Most of these series I haven't played, but over the years, I've followed their disappointing sagas and I see where you're coming from for sure.
An additional one I'd place here is Chrono Trigger. It's baffling to me that Square Enix hasn't done anything with one of their most beloved titles.
Also Sega doing anything with their post-Genesis/Mega Drive games, like Saturn or Dreamcast titles like Skies of Arcadia. Even some game collections would be nice, they could just make them digital-only, I don't care. I grew up on Genesis, but even I'm tired of playing those compilations over and over again
I found myself nodding more and more aggressively the further down I got. Great list!