When Remakes/Ports Are Better Than Their Predecessors

Remakes and ports are just fine and dandy in my book. When we have too many where budgets and time could go toward new projects is when it bothers me. There's plenty of excellent remakes and ports, and this list pinpoints several of them. These are better than their predecessors in (almost) every conceivable way.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2)


Enter the jungle with Naked Snake with an all-new camera perspective. No longer are you confined to static camera angles as now you can rotate the camera a full 360 degrees! Add in a movie viewer, an online deathmatch mode, and new maps for the cute and charming Snake VS. Monkey mode, and you have one solid title.

Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Wii)


Armed with the Wii remote and nunchuk, you can get pinpoint precision that dual-analog just cannot compete with. Some say this makes the game too easy, but then I do knife-only, rifle-only, and no upgrade runs to make up for it. Armed with all of the bonus features (costumes and modes) of the PlayStation 2 port, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition is the definitive version for the time being. That all depends on how the HD port turns out.

Skies of Arcadia Legends (GCN)


Vyse and the gang return in this port of the Dreamcast classic. What was lost in music quality was gained in new sidequests, boss battles, and cutscenes. The random encounter rate was cut down, so you didn't run into a battle every three steps. Good luck hunting down a copy though as this bad boy can cost a pretty penny online.

Super Mario All-Stars (Wii, SNES)


Take four classic games, one of which wasn't released in the West, and rebuff them with crisp 16-bit visuals to make four awesome titles. In this collection there's the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (known as Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan whereas they know our SMB2 as Super Mario Bros. USA. Recently a collection was released for the Wii. Essentially it was a ROM dump, but it gave consumers a second chance to pick up these classic games.

Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)


Cel-shaded chibi-styled robot masters and Mega Man all lead to one charming title. The ability to play as the eight robot masters, create your own levels to share with the world, and play on multiple difficulties added quite the longevity to this humongous mega-package. It's just a shame that we haven't seen a sequel to this game as most of you PSP owners didn't pick this one up.

Klonoa (Wii)


The original Klonoa, the one this Wii remake is based off on, was on the PlayStation 1 under the guise of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. The Wii version introduces crisp and clean visuals, and loads of post-game content that is bone-crushingly difficult. Although the game will last you but a few short hours, it's less than thirty bucks, and it's the type of game you'll want to play through over and over again.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP)


Adding Balthier from Final Fantasy XII as a playable character including a host of new features including a new translation and stylized cutscenes, the PSP port of Final Fantasy Tactics, subtitled War of the Lions, is one of the PSP's best titles. You're sure to put near hundreds of hours sinking your teeth into this massive tactical RPG.

===

There's my list of ports and remakes that far outclass their originals. What games would you like to see in part two? Send me a signal (i.e. a comment), and I'll look into it! Be sure to vote on April's new poll as well.