Thoughts on Video Game Remakes
I recently donated to the Humble Indie Bundle 7 (mostly for "Indie Game: The Movie", but hey, a bunch of new games for 'pay what you want' is not a bad deal!) and recently they added "Cave Story+" to the games you get :o
And despite the game being introduced to me by someone I would now like to castrate thank you very much, I really loved that game and helped me deal with everything that was going on way back in high school. I decided to download this new version.
... if I were drinking a drink I would have spit out my tea at the new, higher-resolution graphics and different music that greeted me at the title screen. Not sure how I feel about it. On one hand it's ULTRA COOL to see it remade, on the other hand, I think my Nostalgia Goggles are on, in the same way that.. I suppose.. my mom looks back on my baby photos?
I wonder if that's a bad comparison, but it feels like seeing a young child you've known while s/he grew up, and now they've gotten so far in life. So successful, so well-loved by nearly everyone.
Funny thing is I don't think I felt this when the Klonoa Wii remake was announced (which I... still don't own /sob, but some people said it's not as good as the original?). Maybe because I knew that Cave Story was done by only 1 person (music, programming, art, and all) compared to a whole company. But would I feel this way with the high definition Monkey Island PC remakes*, too?
I mean, remakes are awesome, in that it's a fresh way to relive a game you dearly love, but they've always been a tricky thing to do because sometimes, even with all the highly polished new artwork and revved up musical tracks... sometimes, the charm is in the slight imperfections of the original: the quirky blocky look of simple pixel art, the distortion in 8-bit music, and even the slightest difference in wording between the fan translation and the official.
Or maybe that's just sentimentality...?
* (which I have been DYING to get, but emergency funds come first. Since they're downloadable, at least I don't have to worry that they'll run out of stock anytime soon...?)
Hi! This was originally posted at http://itsamellama.dreamwidth.org/24700.html. You can comment there using OpenID. I mainly use Dreamwidth now; please feel free to follow me there!
And despite the game being introduced to me by someone I would now like to castrate thank you very much, I really loved that game and helped me deal with everything that was going on way back in high school. I decided to download this new version.
... if I were drinking a drink I would have spit out my tea at the new, higher-resolution graphics and different music that greeted me at the title screen. Not sure how I feel about it. On one hand it's ULTRA COOL to see it remade, on the other hand, I think my Nostalgia Goggles are on, in the same way that.. I suppose.. my mom looks back on my baby photos?
I wonder if that's a bad comparison, but it feels like seeing a young child you've known while s/he grew up, and now they've gotten so far in life. So successful, so well-loved by nearly everyone.
Funny thing is I don't think I felt this when the Klonoa Wii remake was announced (which I... still don't own /sob, but some people said it's not as good as the original?). Maybe because I knew that Cave Story was done by only 1 person (music, programming, art, and all) compared to a whole company. But would I feel this way with the high definition Monkey Island PC remakes*, too?
I mean, remakes are awesome, in that it's a fresh way to relive a game you dearly love, but they've always been a tricky thing to do because sometimes, even with all the highly polished new artwork and revved up musical tracks... sometimes, the charm is in the slight imperfections of the original: the quirky blocky look of simple pixel art, the distortion in 8-bit music, and even the slightest difference in wording between the fan translation and the official.
Or maybe that's just sentimentality...?
* (which I have been DYING to get, but emergency funds come first. Since they're downloadable, at least I don't have to worry that they'll run out of stock anytime soon...?)
Hi! This was originally posted at http://itsamellama.dreamwidth.org/24700.html. You can comment there using OpenID. I mainly use Dreamwidth now; please feel free to follow me there!