Part one of "Five Games that Should Get HD Remakes," focused on some classic games that I wanted to see remade. They HD remake craze continues to take the industry by storm and Sony has become a leader HD remakes by releasing collection with games that are optimized for this console generation. So here is my second list of five games I want remade HD.
5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Peace is a lie there is only passion. The dark side allows us to explore the spectrum of the force. I remember my oath on Korriban as well as the blue-lightning shocks that I sent coursing through the overloaded corpse of the dark Jedi Uthar Wynn. Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is a roleplaying originally released for the Microsoft Xbox and later released for the PC. The game is set nearly 4,000 years before the first film in the "Star Wars" franchise. The game had a better narrative than any of the prequel films and made players feel like a Jedi Master or a Sith lord better than in any Star Wars game before it. If you haven't played this game you need go do so right now. The plot twist is wait for it ... Legendary!
4. Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that was released by Sega in 1991 for the Sega Mega Drive. There were two sequels in the Streets of Rage series and a Game Gear conversion. The gameplay is real simple, enemies walk onto the screen from both sides player have to defeat each opponent to progress through eight locations, known as rounds. It may not be ground breaking but it was fun to play, especially when you had a buddy join in the fight. I would like to see this game released with either cel-shaded comic inspired graphics or with 3D character models fighting in a 2D plane. I would make the fighting system similar to the Batman: Arkham Series. The above video is from a fan made remake of the game that looks pretty awesome. Maybe Sega will pick up from these guys and release it on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.
3. Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf
Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf is a shoot 'em up video game by Electronic Arts. The game released back in February 1992 for Sega Genesis and was later released on several other systems including the SNES. Desert Strike was inspired by the Gulf War and depicts a conflict between an insane Middle Eastern dictator and the United States. Players fly an Apache helicopter and attempts to destroy enemy weapons and installations, rescue hostages and capture enemy personnel, while managing supplies of fuel and ammunition. If you have seen what Dice has done with vehicles in the Battlefield series, it becomes clear just how cool this game could be on modern consoles.
2. Smash TV
Smash TV is a 1990 arcade game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell. The Home versions of the games were developed for various platforms and Acclaim Entertainment published most. The theme of the game is a lot like the film "The Running Man." and involves players competing in a violent game show, set in the future. Players moved from one room to the next and battle enemies as they advance from all sides. This game has huge potential to be remade with from the ground up with elaborate game stages and HD graphics. It is time for a sequel or a remake. The above video is a review of the Xbox Live version of Smash TV by Classic Game Room HD.
1. Jade Empire
BioWare had a teriffic run of fantastic RPGs on the original Xbox. The follow-up to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire was just as good and in some ways better, because it was original intellectual property. The game was inspired by Chinese mythology inspired world and gave us an original and wondrous story based on traditional martial arts. Players can discover and develop new fighting styles: martial arts, weapon styles, magic styles, support styles, or transformation styles. Combat is is in real time, granting players control. This was the beginning of Bioware's action oriented RPGS. I call it the spiritual predecessor to Bioware's Mass Effect series, which of course was also influenced by KOTOR. This game just needs a spring cleaning and it could be a hit on Xbox Live and PSN.
Click here to see the first list of games that need to be remade in HD.