Where do you stand on Remastered Games?

So I thought I’d ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind, remastered games, where do you stand on them?

Now I’m for some and against others in this awfully grey area of games development but that’s all down to my personal preference.

With the rise of console sales booming this generation as PlayStation 4 sales hit 22 million units as of March 31st 2015 and Xbox One following with 12.5 million units sold as of March 2015 it makes sense to re release some of those popular games that people might have missed to make a quick buck but are they really necessary. With the list getting longer and longer as the days go by and details coming to the front of the news with Devil May Cry 4 getting a remastered release are these games what the consumer wants?

In my mind there are perfect examples of games fully deserving of a remastered release. The first title that comes to mind is Naughty Dogs post apocalyptic action adventure horror survival The Last of Us,  its first release on PlayStation 3 on June 14 2013 and its remastered counterpart following a year later on June 29th 2014 received critical acclaim and praise earning it an average metacritic score of 95/100. Following strong sales figures on the PlayStation 3 of 7 million units sold in 2013 the Playstation 4 exclusive sold a further 1.5 million units on its day one release not including digital copies which brings the estimate close to 2 million units sold, now to me that sounds like a giant success and a smart move as The Last of Us released on the PlayStation 3 close to the end of its life cycle and capitalised on a market dominated by PlayStation 4 sales.

There’s games we hope and pray for to get a remastered release, certainly me, like Squaresoft’s classic role playing game Final Fantasy VII. Instead of getting that fully remastered version we instead get a re release of the classic game on new platforms. Originally sold on the PlayStation in 1997 the game follows Cloud Strife a mercenary that joins an eco terrorist group called Avalanche to stop a mega corporation evily named Shinra from draining the planets life source and using it as an energy supply, later to find out things are a lot bigger than Shinra, Cloud and his friends become involved in a larger world threatening conflict with the awesome Sephiroth the games main antagonist. Instead we get multiple re releases on all platforms first coming as a digital release for the PlayStation 3 and PC and the recently announced PlayStation 4 digital release, with those all important trophies we all love and crave. A definite must buy in my books.

We can hope I guess.

Then there’s games I’m completely unsure of, like the recently announce DarkSiders 2 remastered with no details on when the game will be released I’m unsure on weather this title did well enough in the first place to demand a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release, but what do I know, as a casual gamer in the DarkSiders Franchise I played the two but never to full completion but enjoyed what little experience I had with the game, maybe it’s because I got stuck both times.

Players take control of Death, one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, in this action role playing hack and slash game, though the average metacritic score for this game was a high 84/100 the game still only managed to sell 1.5 million units with THQ then stating ‘The game did not perform to our expectations’ now owned by Nordic games will this game have a better remastered release or is it destined to fail once again?

So there we have it, a brief look at remastered games, some a huge success story going from strength to strength like The Last of Us Remastered, some getting a re release of sorts with updated trophies like Final Fantasy VII but not a fully remastered game and one hopefully not doomed from the start in the form of Darksiders 2.

So where do you stand in this argument?

Do you feel every title should be given a chance or do you think they’re wasting time and resources they could be spending making new IP’s or games for well established franchises?

Give us your thoughts and join the discussion below.