Super Mario 64/Super Mario Sunshine/Super Mario Galaxy/Super Mario Galaxy 2
Yes, I’m throwing all of these in together since they are all part of the same game series. After playing Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U, I can’t help but think how awesome the older 3D Mario games would look on the console. Galaxy 1 and 2 on the Wii looked spectacular to begin with, but updated to HD would be spectacular. Sunshine I think would benefit the most in HD just because of all the beautiful beach and water levels the game has. Mario 64 technically would benefit the most being an older game than Sunshine and the fact that most of it was pretty “blocky”, but I still feel the levels in Sunshine would be the ones to make most use of the HD graphics. Either way, any or all of these games in HD would make me a very happy person. Maybe a collection of them like Microsoft are doing with Halo 1-4? Just an idea!
Here is a good example how an older Mario game could look remastered. We have the Thwomp’s Fortress level from Super Mario 64:
And here is the Throwback Galaxy level of Thwomp’s Fortress in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Now just image it with BETTER graphics (aka HD) on the Wii U!!!
Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko
Poor Gex. Everyone wants Crash and Spyro on new consoles, but Gex never gets mentioned. And that’s a shame because this game in particular is awesome. While many games tried to be the “Mario” of the PS1 back in the day, for my money Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko was the closest thing we got… well, closest we got that wasn’t based on a popular movie… more on that soon. The levels were big, colourful and fun, and had lots of variation. Gex HD: Enter the Gecko is likely something we will NEVER see, but I can dream.
Come on, tell me honestly that you WOULDN’T want to see this in shiny HD glory. I dare ya. See, you can’t!
Toy Story 2
Oh hey, it’s that game I was just talking about! Yeah, THIS is likely the most “Mario” style game on the PS1. All it was missing really was an open “hub” area to access the levels. Each level, all designed from locations in the film, had 6 Planet Express tokens that you had to obtain from doing various challenges (so basically Toy Story’s version of Stars/Shines from Mario). Get enough tokens and you can advance on to another level. Boss fights every couple of levels too. When talking of TV/Film licensed games, there are only a handful worth mentioning that are actually any good. Is this the best? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s probably my favourite! A HD version of this would be incredible, and who knows, given the popularity of the Toy Story franchise, maybe one day we’ll get it. Probably not, but there is always a little hope I guess. More so here than with Gex, anyway!
With the way technology is today, surly they could transform the game from this into the actual look of the movies, right?
WWF Smackdown 2/WWF No Mercy/WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain/WWE Day of Reckoning 2
Moving away from 3D Platformers, let’s get into some WRASSLIN’ games! These 4 in particular are the cream of the crop oooo yeeeaaaahhh. HD remasters with these games could actually open them up for a bunch of improvements too. Graphically of course, but GAMEPLAY is where these games could benefit from a remaster, almost turning them into a remake. While not much has changed from the core gameplay in Here Comes the Pain, all the other games would really benefit from updating at least the grapple system. All of them feature a simple “weak/light” grapple move set, and then a “strong/heavy” set. Here Comes the Pain, and the main Smackdown/WWE *insert year here* games all have multiple grapple move sets depending on which direction you press when going into the grapple. So instead of 10 basic front grapple moves (grapple button + 4 directions weak/light and then the same for heavy/strong), you get 25 moves! Helps that these older games actually have MORE moves in them for creating wrestlers etc. That alone would add a hell of a lot to the games, allowing for much more variety in matches. Aside from that, they can also update how certain match types are played. For example, the Hell in a Cell match in Smackdown 2, while fun, really isn’t what a HIAC match should be. And for No Mercy, it would be a great opportunity to ADD a ton of new match types to it, like the HIAC for example which was never in the original game. Online gameplay would be a tremendous new feature as well. I’d love nothing more than to play Day of Reckoning 2 with people from around the world. And finally, the roster. Obviously I’d want the original rosters left intact (with updated graphics, duh)… but hey, how about adding some of the current roster into the games? New wrestling games today always have a handful (at least) of “legends”, so why not do the opposite? Include the likes of Cena, Cesaro, Bryan, Punk, Rollins, Ambrose, Reigns, AJ Lee into these old games with the original rosters. How fecking AWESOME would that be?!?! Between these and the Mario games, I honestly don’t know which ones I’d want to see in HD more!
Take the best features of all these games, and combine them with glorious HD graphics, and there wouldn’t be a wrestling game in existence now or ever that could surpass it!
Grand Theft Auto 2
Before the days of 3D open world GTA games, Grand Theft Auto was very different. Instead of what we have today, GTA had a top down view and wasn’t exactly what you would call a 3D game. And you know what? It was still awesome! The first GTA is fun, as is the London expansion, but GTA 2 for me is still the king of the non-3D open world GTA games, and would even make my top 3 for GTA games overall (GTA V > Vice City > GTA 2)! Most of what we know and love about GTA today was indeed here all the way back in GTA 2; stealing cars, running people over, killing people with a variety of weapons, cops hunting you down, doing missions for various gangs, and the ability to have a whole lot of fun! I loved stealing top of the line cars (all with parody names based on real cars) and taking them to the scrap yard for money, so I could buy more oil slicks and place them on a bridge, and watch ordinary people drive over them and fly off into the water! I miss being able to do that. OIL SLICKS IN GTA 6 OR I RIOT!!! The story, while not as big and cinematic as today, was still fun and wasn’t linear compared to later games. Each map (oh yeah, there are 3 different locations in this game!) has 3 rival gangs, and you can take jobs from each of them in order to gain their respect. Doing jobs for 1 gang over the other 2 will result in them losing respect for you, and if they lose too much respect, they will attack you any time you enter their neighbourhood! The missions range from typical GTA missions, such as killing someone or delivering drugs… and then they can also be a little deranged, forcing you to obtain taxi’s with your truck and driving them to be crushed… with the drivers still inside! For years I never really bothered with the missions, instead I would wander about the map, making money from crushing cars, and exploring the large maps. Finding a tank for the first time without the aid of a guide is so damn fulfilling! So, imagine all of this, still in the same top down view style, but with HD graphics? I think I’m drooling!
Top down view gameplay with HD graphics and all the gameplay goodness of the original game. If this was released, maybe people would finally forget about the overrated garbage known as San Andreas? 😛
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