The nominees for the 10th edition of the video game awards will be announced in just under 90 minutes (watch live here), and people are looking forward to see what gets a shot at the video game equivalent of the Oscars. Why, we even tried to predict what will get nominated in our own little series of articles.
However, the ceremony has had many categories that were added and removed throughout its history, and one of these categories is Best Remastered. It was only awarded 2014, and the contestants were... well, mostly ports of games from the seventh generation of consoles to the eight. We can see why it was discontinued.
That said, a lot has changed since 2014, and Remasters (as well as Remakes) are both more involved and more numerous from year to year. So should the category be reintroduced? Let's discuss!
Port vs Remaster vs Remake vs Reboot
Before we get to whether the category deserves to be reintroduced or not, we need to discuss some terminology. The distinction between the four terms listed above can be very murky, so we'll try to draw some lines between them as best as we can. Keep in mind that these are the definitions we are using, and you might find other ones on the internet.
First up, a port is basically just making sure the old game works on newer hardware (or concurrent or older, but for the purposes of our discussion we'll just focus on the old->new pipeline). A great example of this is the various compilation of old pixel-art games to newer consoles, like Capcom with Mega Man or Konami with Castlevania.
A remaster is a game that improves on graphics and gameplay while trying to maintain the experience as close to the original as possible. For instance, Metroid Prime Remastered basically redid everything that has to do with character and environment models, while keeping the core gameplay experience the same as the original. Same goes for Shadow of the Colossus on PS4.
A remake does what a remaster does, while also altering some elements to a fairly high degree, like significantly different gameplay mechanics or stories. This year's Resident Evil, Advance Wars 4 and Dead Space remakes are perfect examples of this, where the overall picture was the same, but there were small differences between them and the originals.
Finally, a reboot is a complete re-imagining of a property while keeping the name and some surface-level elements. Examples of this include the various Princes of Persia that have come over the years and are yet to come, that one 3D Bionic Commando, Castlevania Lords of Shadow, DmC: Devil May Cry, Prey (2017), and more.
Of course, there can be arguments on what falls under which category. Despite the name, games like the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters or The Last of Us on PS4 could be argued to be closer to direct ports. Is something like The Last of Us Part I a remaster of the original, or is it different enough to be categorized as a remake? And we won't even get into the FFVII remake trilogy, which, without spoiling anything, is more of a spin-off or sequel. The only category that's somewhat clear-cut is the reboot, which tends to be very different from the original.
Link's Awakening on Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Switch
Awarding the Best Remaster
So now that we have the categories, which ones should be considered for the award? For our money, we think only remasters and remakes should count. Ports are too similar to the original to be considered a new entity, while reboots have the opposite problem of being too different to count as the same-ish game.
As for which titles in particular could make the cut, this year has brought us a good number of contenders: Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, Metroid Prime Remastered, Like A Dragon: Ishin!, and Advance Wars: Re-Boot Camp were all very well received. That's 5 games to fill the category right there, and they're good games.
Lastly, there's the matter of whether there will be enough titles to fill this category in the future. Obviously, that will depend on what studios decide to do, but it's clear there's a lot more remakes happing now than there were in 2014 (for better or worse), and it's a pretty big facet of the industry that an event like The Game Awards should acknowledge.
Do you think the reintroduction of the Best Remaster category is warranted? Should they do it, regardless of the amount of remasters/makes that come out? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
None in my opinion.
I don't think we or authorities which creates award events should reward remasters or remakes. It sounds weird to me to give an award to a game that already took the same award before. It might sound like all-star awards between good old games but didn't we already do that before. Let's talk about an example and pretend like we awarded a game with a game of the year reward. Giving the same game Remaster of the year simply is the same reward.
It might sound weird to you but I even don't think remastering should exist and/or should be promoted by community. In my opinion, these promotes are stonewalling the posibilities of new and unique products. I mean, gaming world already is so limited with original ideas, games around have already same mechanics with a little different tweaks. Most of unique games come from indie world nowadays, most of AAA games are simply use either old and boring system/mechanics or same system/mechanics with another AAA product and my concerns I talked about above step in this exact point. Most of remakes and remasters are old AAA games. Promoting and rewarding these causes two bad things in my opinion; first is, it promotes old systems/mechanics so community wants more of them and people get same games with new cosmetics like an undead with make-up which is rotten inside but beautiful to look at. Second, game companies starts to make more remakes and remasters or they create new games with systems/mechanics those remakes or old games have because it can be sold easier than a new unique system/mechanic because they were embraced and loved before. You can understand that, it is a simple human behavior to abstain from unknown.
I think this is also a bit about new generation vs. old generation people. You can make a little search and find tons of comments/threads in manners as "the real mmo was runescape, the games you are playing now are not really mmos" etc. or vice versa like "Stick with your rusty old games with old technology while we play betters" etc. So old guys want their old games back with new tech, and young guys have no problem with old games as soon as they have new tech and it causes my concerns become problems. They and I all are playing old systems and mechanics with new cosmetics and in my opinion that's bad for ecosystem of gaming world.
This situation here is same with graphics card issue. Today, you can play almost all games with ultra quality on 1080p with a middle or worse tier card and we all know that most generic way of gaming is 1080p but 2k/4k gaming happened and it is a complete shit show in my opinion.Gaming companies creates technologies for 4k and tries to market that. There is no tech leap for better quality. Sources of gamers (which is either your devices' raw power/ability and your money) goes to 4k instead of better visual systems. There is the technology to create almost realistic CGI but we can't see them in gameplay because we need to spend our resources to 4k. This is a pitiful marketing trick and i really hate it so much.
So, remakes and remasters does the same thing to systems and mechanics as what 4k does to graphics technology. It causes a loop to make us play the same thing over and over again. It is easier for companies to remake games instead of creating new and risky ideas and I honestly think that we shouldn't promote them if we want new cool systems or mechanics or even new genres.
Don't get me wrong, if i was 18 years old and never played an old game before and want to try that, i also want it to have new tech so remakes have that opportunity, young people can enjoy what an old guy enjoyed before but there should be a limit in my opinion.
I'm 32 years old, if you give me a The Might&Magic: Heroes III remake, i can play it for a year now but I faced the truth that if i stuck my old enjoyements, I can never taste newer ones so we should let it go and give a chance to new and unique stuff. We must be brave if we want to see development and growth in technologies and systems. Think about a planet with its natives. If you have better technology to go there, you will invade it, you will name it like they didn't, you will educate them and assimilate them like they have no history, like what Europe did on natives of Americas before. If you don't, they will do the same to you.
This remakes and remasters delay and milk us. We deserve new unique games and genres with better systems and mechanics instead of undeads with make-up.