Retro Game Remasters — Why Are They Still Popular?
Remasters and remakes have been all the rage recently. Plenty of older games are now seeing new life through rereleases from development teams like Night Dive Studios. Games like Dark Forces Remastered, Tomb Raider Remastered, and System Shock Remake have found an audience that loves them.
Is it then that the era of remakes and remasters is here to stay? Just what makes them so popular?
1) More Accessible and Easy to Run
A large part of why these remasters are so popular is the ease with which they run. While most modern games require strong PCs, these remasters are, by comparison, much lighter on your computer specs. They don’t tend to be as taxing, and the price for these games tends to be far more accessible than your normal AAA title.
These remasters also tend to be ported to all modern gaming systems as well. Tomb Raider Remastered finds a home not only on Steam but also on the PSN, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch Store. Compared to console exclusives, more people will be able to play them and share in the experiences.
2) Bank on Nostalgia and Good Vibes
These remasters are also popular because they bank on nostalgia to sell. People love and remember the games they grew up with. As time passes, these games tend to get harder to play and get back to, with older consoles breaking and newer PCs unable to support older games.
Thankfully, remasters don’t care about the clunkiness. You no longer need to find your PS2 to play Final Fantasy X. You can just boot it up on Steam and play it on your PC or your Steam Deck. It’ll be just as good as the day you last played it, even better sometimes, too, as these remasters usually come with polished graphics and modern conveniences to make playing older games easier.
3) Games Already Proven Great
These remasters also have the benefit of already being proven good games! Game developers don’t remaster old titles that nobody cares about. They only pick games that are sure to have fans. If a game has a remaster, you can be sure that it’s because it’s got an audience that’s longing for it. While not all remasters turn out great, as the recent Battlefront Remaster proves, only the greats are chosen to be remastered. Their proven reputation is what keeps their fans going back for them.
4) Bring Together Audiences, New and Old
A fundamental part of gaming is the social aspect its fans can enjoy. However, with how far gaming has come and how much genres can change throughout the years, it can be impossible to bridge the gap between older gamers and newer ones.
Thankfully, these remasters bridge the gap between old and new. They let both types of audiences experience the greats as they once were, letting older fans relive the classics and newer fans play through an era long past.
5) Preserve the Legacy and History of Gaming
It’s easy to take for granted that games will last forever, but this isn’t possible without remasters. Countless games have been abandoned and are currently unplayable on modern systems. These games, officially termed abandonware, are now mostly lost, and it takes great effort to get these games running on modern systems. Some of it is because of digital rights issues, and some of it is because publishers and developers simply ran out of money. Regardless, good games like Battle for Middle Earth suffer this fate and are now almost impossible to play.
Without official remasters and long-term developer and publisher support, who knows when these games will have their time in the sun again? Who knows if they’ll even be remembered? Cult classics like Battle Realms and Starcraft are remembered by the current generation, but who knows, 10 or 20 years down the line, how long it will remain once their main audience has already forgotten them? Without these remasters keeping these games up-to-date, there’s a real chance they’ll never be remembered and stay forgotten.
Remasters might seem like a cash-grab move to the average gamer, but there are still many who enjoy what they have to offer and long for simpler times. From how things look, this trend seems to stay, and other great classics, once forgotten, are now sure to find their way back in the sun.
If these appeal to you, consider dropping by our Discord, and sharing in the passion we all have for the video games of the past. We at Mega Cat adore retro games, and love sharing that same passion with people of similar minds.
This article was written by Alexander Cuaycong.
Originally published at https://megacatstudios.com on April 4, 2024.
