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.

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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.

Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP) Review

Here's the first of two Mega Man reviews. Why not? We just covered them in games I'd like sequels to. It's Mega Man: Powered Up for Sony's PSP. This is one of the first reviews along with the next that I ever wrote.

Mega Man got..... Good Score!

Mega Man returns to his roots with Mega Man: Powered Up, a remake of the original NES Mega Man game, complete with new characters, options, music, and attitude. Those who played the original NES cartridge or purchased Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, GCN, Xbox) know how it wasn't for casual gamers. There was some pretty nice difficulty for us full-fledged gamers. Nowhere near a Super Ghosts 'N' Goblins difficulty, but a difficulty nonetheless. This remains intact with this remake as do a lot of things.

The graphics are colorful and pleasing to the eye.

Firstly for changes, if you play the new style mode you'll realize that there's an edition of an opening stage as well as two new robot masters, Time Man and Oil Man. These duo of bots come with their own respective stages to master on top of the original six's levels. If you dislike the new style gameplay or changes, you can always go back to old style which is the game on a smaller screen with the opening stages, Time Man, and Oil Man excluded. Graphically the game has changed to a more chibi-inspired approach. Some may dislike it, but I personally enjoyed the colorful characters and levels. Voice work has been included which is a nice touch also. None of the voices made me cringe which is a first for quite a while. Music has been upgraded as well featuring returning themes with more modern sound and instruments-- an additional treat for audiophiles such as myself. Furthermore once you beat a boss using only Mega Man's Mega Buster, you can select to play as them in new style mode which is an added treat.

Get bored of playing as Mega? Play as another character instead.

If you become bored with either new or old style modes, you can play Challenge mode. This mode features level designs encompassing different goals. My favorite addition would have to be the Construction mode which allows for aspiring designers to craft their own levels in a variety of themed locales and settings. Each room you create is its own grid, and you can place a set number of enemies in each grid. You're able to set platforms easily, drop in enemies, and add a boss all within minutes, or if you desire, take all the time you need to create one masterful level. The possibilities with the level creator are limitless allowing an infinite number of replay value. What's better yet is that you can share your levels to anyone over Capcom's own server.

Construction Mode allows unlimited replay value.

Mega Man Powered Up is a fantastic remake of a classic game that launched the life of a gaming icon. If only Capcom would take Mega back to its roots or continue to unleash great Mega Man games such as this would Mega's career stop becoming so tarnished. Sadly, the likelihood of a follow up to this remake are not likely at all thanks for worldwide sales. Regardless, pick up this future classic if you can.

Story: Dr. Wily has betrayed Dr. Light and has taken their robots to try to rule the world!

Graphics: Colorful chibi-inspired design that may not be for everyone admittedly.

Sound: Great remixed tracks and voice work to add an extra dimension to the original Mega Man.

Gameplay: Jumping, shooting, platforming, and a pretty steep difficulty later on are what you get in this gaming gift.

Replay Value: Collecting power-ups and construction kits for created levels, playing as the various robot masters, constructing new levels, and playing through challenge mode make a myriad ways to play Powered Up.

[SuperPhillip Says: 9.0/10]
A must for any Mega Man fan unless you dislike the art style for some reason. My first PSP game and the last PSP game I've played recently after ten other games in my PSP. That should tell you something about how much I keep coming back to it.