The goal of every developer who wants to create a remake should have this in mind. They should strive to create a more accessible game than the original through updated visuals and controls. The goal is to create a healthy balance of adding new content alongside the original stuff, and keeping what made the game great in the first place.
These remake projects are massive undertakings that are not to be taken lightly. In the end, the number one goal should be to surpass the original as far as reviews go. However, very few games have scored better according to Metacritic. Even some of these examples barely scraped by with a victory.
7 Dead Space
Dead Space is one of the newer remakes, which kicked off 2023 with a bang. Now, there is technically a tie here. The Xbox 360 and Xbox Series X scores are both at 89 on Metacritic. However, the PS3 version got an 88 in 2008, while the PS5 remake of Dead Space got an 89.
By a thin margin for console players, this makes the remake the “superior” game, although any fan will attest that the original still plays amazingly well today. It was a horror classic in 2008, and it’s a horror classic today. The only difference now is that there is a prettier version to choose from.
6 Demon’s Souls
Demon’s Souls created a phenomenon in the gaming landscape. It changed gaming forever by introducing players to a deep risk-reward system in 2009 when it released on PS3. There was no other game like it at the time, and that made it stand out.
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Since then, FromSoftware has continued releasing games in the Souls series, as well as Soulslikes such as Elden Ring. Other developers even copied the formula like Koei Tecmo most recently with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. The PS3 game got an 89, but the remake got a 92 when it was re-released on the PS5 in 2020. It’s still one of the system’s best-looking games, which may be why it scored a bit higher.
5 Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light is the first game in the now-iconic Fire Emblem franchise. It released on the NES in 1990 as a Japanese exclusive. The first time Western gamers got to play it was in 2009 via the DS remake under the new name of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. Usually, when long-lost Japanese games get remakes in the West, the original games are forgotten. For example, the original NES version of Final Fantasy 3 has still never been officially released outside of Japan, even after the DS remake.
However, in an odd turn of events, Nintendo did release the original Fire Emblem as a Nintendo Switch Online game in 2020, meaning that it did eventually get a review score. It was quite low, too: a 63 compared to the DS remake’s 81. For historical purposes, it was cool to see the NES version of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light released outside Japan, but it is archaic by today’s standards.
4 Metroid Zero Mission
Metroid was released on the NES in 1997 in North America. Later, it was remade for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 under the new name Metroid Zero Mission. Interestingly enough, Nintendo also started putting out NES ports on the GBA under the Classic NES Series banner. Metroid was one of those games, so it did eventually get a review score.
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Like Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the original Metroid was found to be too archaic by modern standards of the early 2000s, which is a major reason why it got a 58. Metroid Zero Mission got an 89 and unlike the NES original, it does still hold up as a game decades later. Both it and Metroid Fusionare great Metroidvanias on the GBA.
3 Pokemon Omega Ruby
The Pokemon series, at this point, is expected to churn out remakes in the off years between major mainline games. Pokemon Black and Pokemon White are the next in line. Will they get remakes in 2023, 2024, or sometime later?
As for the GBA generation, Pokemon Ruby got a review score of 82 on Metacritic, and the remake, Pokemon Omega Ruby, got an 83. The interesting thing of note with these games is that Pokemon Sapphire is not on Metacritic so there is no comparison for Pokemon Alpha Sapphire which got an 82. Overall, it’s another thin margin of victory for the remake category.
2 Resident Evil 2
For the most part, even though the plethora of Resident Evil remakes are technically better, the scores don’t always reflect that. This is true for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil 4. The only exception to the rule is Resident Evil 2.
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The PS1 and N64 versions are at an 89, whereas the remake got a 93 based on the Xbox One version. Realistically, will anyone truly prefer to play the original game with its clunky tank controls in 2023? Probably not, but there is a case to be made here that the older version’s poor controls could make the experience more terrifying.
1 Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza was a late release on the PS2 in 2006. It did not get the love it justly deserved and, was quickly categorized as just another Grand Theft Auto clone. The game barely remains in the green on Metacritic, with a 75.
The Yakuza series remained a niche interest in the West until Yakuza 0 was released in 2017, and it attracted a bigger crowd. After that, Sega seemingly got invigorated to start remaking the series and Yakuza Kiwami is the first game’s remake. The Xbox One version got an 81. It could be argued that it’s more like a remaster than a remake, but it added so much more than visual upgrades that it has to make this category.
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