For those not in the know, demakes aregames that have been remade, but in such a way that they could run on gaming hardware from a bygone era. From Bloodborne to Furi to Final Fantasy 7, we’ve seen demakes made by fans and developers alike. What makes demakes so fascinating is how these titles capture the spirit of modern games while simultaneously distilling them down into a retro form factor.
While every demake is neat, I’d say that it is pretty rare that they are flat-out better than the original game. Which makes sense, as a PS1 version of Bloodborne isn’t likely to hit as hard. However, I think there are some games that would benefit greatly from a demake. Games that would be better off being simplified, or, at the very least, would benefit from a retro aesthetic.
Black Myth: Wukong
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Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG rooted in Chinese mythology and based on Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.You shall set out as the Destined One to venture into the challenges and marvels ahead, to uncover the obscured truth beneath the veil of a glorious legend from the past.As the Destined One, you shall encounter powerful foes and worthy rivals throughout your journey. Fearlessly engage them in epic battles where surrender is not an option.Aside from mastering various staff techniques, you can also freely combine different spells, abilities, weapons, and equipment to find the winning strategy that best suits your combat style.
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Black Myth: Wukong is a game that does a few thingsverywell: it features a number of novel abilities, and it is stuffed with exciting boss battles that tend to require the player to utilize parry-like counterattacks. Unfortunately, the game falls supremely short in its level design. The stages take a metroidvania-esque approach to progression, but are overly large and largely uninteresting. I just don’t want to spend my time haphazardly stumbling around a dessert or a frozen lake.
Do you know what game was released around the same time? Nine Sols. A2D, metroidvania, soulslikethat featured parry-centric combat and was packed with incredible boss battles. Front to back, it is a brilliant experience. You see where I am going with this, right? Wukong would benefitgreatlyfrom the demake process. A simplified Wukong would almost certainly feature less faffing about in large, uneventful biomes, allowing players to get straight to the boss-fighting goodness. If Wukong took a page out of Nine Sols' book, the end result could be glorious.
Starfield
Starfield is the first new IP from Bethesda in a quarter of a century, launched for the next-gen Xbox Series X|S and PC. Taking place outside our own Solar System, you play a member of the Constellation, a collective of explorers set on discovering new worlds.
A game with a grand scope and scale is always going to be impressive. However, while the idea of limitless possibilities and endless new experiences sounds incredible, the end result often ends up lacking that feeling of intentionality that makes a well-designed game so appealing. That’s most certainly an issue Starfield suffers from.
A good demake takes the premise of a game and reinterprets it. I think if you look at a game like Star Control 2, you could get a pretty solid idea for how Starfield could be distilled down into a simpler, more constrained experience, that would almost certainly lead to a game that is more fun to play.Sometimes less is more.
Life is Strange
DON’TNOD Entertainment, Feral Interactive, and Square Enix bring you a story rich game about a young woman’s life where player chocies matter and determine how the story goes. An indie hit, the game also features a defining soundtrack that sets the atmosphere for the story.Life is Strange is an award-winning and critically acclaimed episodic adventure game that allows the player to rewind time and affect the past, present and future. Critics describe it as Twin Peaks meets Heavy Rain or Gone Home meets The Walking Dead but with time travel.Follow the story of Max Caulfield, a photography senior who discovers she can rewind time while saving her best friend Chloe Price.The pair soon find themselves investigating the mysterious disappearance of fellow student Rachel Amber, uncovering a dark side to life in Arcadia Bay. Meanwhile, Max must quickly learn that changing the past can sometimes lead to a devastating future.
Life Is Strange is a game with a strong fanbase that hella loves its characters and world. More than anything, it is a title driven by its script, not its gameplay. It isbasicallya modern take on the adventure game genre. I can’t shake the feeling that the transition to 2D would benefit it greatly.
Life Is Strange is not at its best when you are spinning the camera around, looking for the object the game wants you to interact with. The forced perspective used in classic adventure titles would help declutter the experience, so that people could get back to ruining Max’s life by forcing her to make terrible decisions. As god intended.
Pokemon Sword and Shield
Taking budding trainers to the UK-influenced region of Galar, Pokemon Sword & Shield adds 81 new Pokemon, Dynamax and Gigantamax transformations, co-op Max Raid battles, and the open-world Wild Area.
Look, it isn’t a secret that the most recent generations of Pokemon have been somewhat disappointing. However, while the 9th generation has a number of detractors, the 8th generation’s Sword and Shield entries areparticularlyscorned. Maybe it is time for Nintendo to admit what is so obviously true:Pokemon works better as a sprite-based, 2D game.
I get it, Game Freak is notoriously stubborn, but justlookat Sword and Shield, those are some ugly games. Meanwhile, the first five generations are all straight-up gorgeous. Game Freak isn’t willing to invest the time and money necessary to make a modern Pokemon game that maintains the same standards we saw in the first five generations, so why not just go back to what worked? As an added bonus, by starting with a demake of Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, they can right a past wrong in the process of chasing greatness once again.
DOOM: The Dark Ages
DOOM: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the DOOM Slayer’s legend. In this third installment of the modern DOOM series, players will step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell.DOOM: The Dark Ages is a dark fantasy/sci-fi single-player experience that delivers the searing combat and over-the-top visuals of the incomparable DOOM franchise, powered by the latest idTech engine.REIGN IN HELL -As the super weapon of gods and kings, shred enemies with devastating favorites like the Super Shotgun while also wielding a variety of new bone-chewing weapons, including the versatile Shield Saw. Players will stand and fight on the demon-infested battlefields in the vicious, grounded combat the original DOOM is famous for.STAND AND FIGHT -Experience an epic story of the DOOM Slayer’s rage in this cinematic and action-packed story. Bound to serve as the super weapon of gods and kings, the DOOM Slayer fends off demon hordes as their leader seeks to destroy the Slayer and become the only one that is feared. Witness the creation of a legend as the Slayer takes on all of Hell and turns the tide of the war.DISCOVER UNKNOWN REALMS -In his quest to crush the legions of Hell, the Slayer must take the fight to never-before-seen realms. Mystery, challenges, and rewards lurk in every shadow of ruined castles, epic battlefields, dark forests, ancient hellscapes, and worlds beyond. Armed with the viciously powerful Shield Saw, cut through a dark world of menace and secrets in id’s largest and most expansive levels to date.
Doom: The Dark Ages is a solid FPS. In a world where the other modern Doom games didn’t exist, I’d probably say it is anexcellentgame. But they do exist, and it feels hard to deny that The Dark Ages doesn’t feel a little watered down in comparison. The difficulty has been reduced greatly, and the encounter design feels less deliberate and well-thought-out. It feels like Doom: The Dark Ages focuses more on spectacle than on providing tense, visceral, heart-pumping action. The solution feels obvious: it’s time to go back to basics.
A demake of The Dark Ages could deliver some of the raw visceral impact of classic Doom, help the game recapture its difficulty balance, and revisit some of the Doom level design principles of yesteryear. Before things completely go off the rails, Doom should rediscover its roots, and what better way to do that than with a demake of the most troubled game in the modern era?
Okay, I am pushing the definition of “popular” here, but I like the idea of this demake so much that I’m looking to get away with one.
Castlevania: Legacy Of Darkness is a very cool game. Not only does it star a werewolf, which is always a plus, it also features an enticing, gothic world filled with some pretty cool boss encounters. However, while Legacy of Darkness feels better to control than its clunky predecessor, try as they might, Konami was never able to fully wrangle that camera. Despite finding Legacy of Darkness to be a very compelling package, and thinking that it was a noble attempt at transitioning the Castlevania formula to 3D, it just never worked as well as you’d want it to.
But do you know what would fix the camera control issues and clunky controls? Flattening everything and putting it in a form factor that simply makes sense. There is no doubt in my mind that a 2D version of Legacy of Darkness has the potential to be an all-timer. It is time to accept that Castlevania just doesn’t work in 3D, and, in the process, give the best attempt a new lease on life. It deserved better than to languish in its crude 3D form.
Street Fighter 6
Street Fighter 6 continues the long-running fighting game series from Capcom. It adds World Tour and Battle Hub modes, and also includes the option to switch to a more accessible control scheme.
A lot of the picks on this list are, to some degree, criticisms of these games. However, if you look atmy 2023 GOTY list, you’ll see that I think very highly of Street Fighter 6. Two years in, I’m still enjoying it greatly. I have well over a thousand hours played. However, while I think Street Fighter 6 is super rad, and I think it looks great, it still doesn’t look as good as Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.
A quarter of a century later, using all the latest technology, Capcom still hasn’t been able to top it, and when I look at Third Strike, I can’t help but feel that sense of longing. Do I want to see what Marisa, Kimberly, Aki, and Manon look like in sprite-force? You’re damn right I do. In some ways, this is a less interesting demake, as it would largely be an aesthetic change. But what an aesthetic change it would be. The heart wants what the heart wants, and I won’t apologize for that.
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 takes place in a ruined area around Washington D.C. two hundred years after the Great War. In a game met with critical acclaim, you must traverse this wasteland looking for your father, while solving the mystery of his disappearance.
The first two Fallout games are absolute classics. However, back when Fallout 3 was being developed, the top-down CRPG genre was largely seen as being unprofitable. Well, we now live in the era of Baldur’s Gate 3 having set the world on fire, so there has never been a better time to take the series back to its roots. And aFallout 3demake would be abrillianttoe dip.
For starters, the base game still has a lot of charm, butits visual style has not aged gracefully. Additionally, replacing the clunky gunplay with the original duology’s take on turn-based combat would be a fantastic upgrade. And the issues with the main campaign’s writing? Well, Microsoft owns most of the studios that were formed from the bones of Interplay Entertainment, so they could even have some of the original creators help shepherd this demake.
However, even without doing a once-over on the script, shifting Fallout 3 to the timeless aesthetic of the original games, and adding turn-based combat back in would be glorious. This is the demake thatneedsto happen!
