Ah, first post of the new year ladies and gentlefolk. Welcome and I hope you all had a pleasing entrance into the year of the monolith.
To start us off the new year, I figured I’d gather together 5 essential remakes for you to get your teeth into if you’re new around these parts or perhaps you just missed them along the way (shame on you if that’s the case). Right, let’s go:
Ah, not only a famous franchise of films but one of the most famous vector arcade games created. Atari’s Star Wars isn’t the easiest choice of game to remake but Minionsoft managed it with aplomb.
Not only is it a fast, faithful and graphically updated version of the game but it’s also accessible.
Minion later went on to remake The Empire Strikes Back for the 2008 Retro Remakes Competition (also available from the site link above) but through the fault of the original designers as opposed to the sterling remake, it’s not even in the same league.
2. Head Over Heels (Retrospec)
Perhaps the most famous remake from around these shores, Tomaz Kac and Graham Goring’s gloriously beautiful take on the Jon Ritman classic is scarily 7 years old now and still looking every bit as wonderful as it did when it was first released.
The timeless nature of the pixel art and the clever game design is something that really, most people should experience at least once.
Even if the doors are wrong.
Knot In 3d was perhaps, a few too many years ahead of its time. Taking the Tron Lightcycles concept into 3d on a 48k Spectrum sadly was never going to quite work despite being a brave move.
Years later, along came Nenad (of Rescue The Beagles fame) who saw the potential and gave it the life it needed and a place on hardware that could do the design justice.
See also: X-Out’s Multiplayer take.
An absolutely massive undertaking of a reasonably obscure (but memorable) BBC Micro game, Cholo is an adventure game set in a Tron-esque world. Take over robots, collect rampaks and careful with that nuclear reactor, Eugene.
An early example of what we’d later get to know as the FPS genre and a lovely, updated remake from the Ovine boys.
5. Manic Miner: The Lost Levels (Headsoft)
It’d be remiss of me not to include at least one Miner Willy game and to be fair, it is a tough choice. However, Manic Miner: The Lost Levels for the Nintendo DS is a great piece of work.
Inspired by a Stuart Campbell article in Retro Gamer which tied a number of “extra” screens from alternative versions of the game into a coherent-ish narrative, MM:TLL is the great Miner Willy Game that sort of never was.
Bonus Stage: Other games to consider
Demon Attack. Simple put perfect update of the Atari 2600 game.
Zektor. Sokurah’s glowing take on the 1982 Sega arcade game.
3d Ant Attack. Uncle transmogrifies Sandy White’s isometric classic into full 3d.
Wild West Hero. A 1:1 remake of an under appreciated entry into the universe of arena shooters.
Monty On The Run. Removing the escape kit makes the remake more essential than the original game.
Vectors Revenge – Yars Revenge. Compulsive and HSW approved.
Some of those games are nearly 10 years old, which makes me feel really old
How long before we see Retro re-remakes
>How long before we see Retro re-remakes
Been there, done that.
(Omega Race 2009)
[...] out the retroremakes new post – They very kindly put CHOLO in their top 5 essential remakes to [...]