Old Games that Should be Remastered

by Makayla Hughes With all of the new video games released every month, some may feel nostalgic for a simpler time of gaming. One where you didn’t have to pay $60+ for an incomplete, unplayable game, and where all of the content came with the game when you bought it. This meant no downloadable content, no new updates, no online, no subscription playing, just an old, beat-up copy of a game that might not even have a case or work half the time. I’ve been finding myself in this nostalgic mindset of the way games were back when I was younger. Growing up with gaming, I feel as if games from my childhood are better and more simple than the games of today. Not to say that the games of today aren’t fun, but I feel as if there’s nothing like these games on today’s market, making me want to play these older games even more. In my mind, they seem like so much fun because I had such good memories playing them. I spent hours upon hours on these games, so maybe they’re not as amazing as I’ve built them up to be in my mind, but here are some of the top games from my childhood I’d love to see remastered.

Metropolismania 2

Platform: Playstation 2 Publisher: Natsume; Developed by Indi Software Publish Date: August 27, 2007 Have you ever heard of this game? Metropolismania 2 was a building game unlike any other. You would start off in a town and build it from the ground up, piece by piece. You couldn’t lay everything at once — instead, you could start building more by talking to the residents of your town and gathering requests to fulfill. Sometimes these could be as easy as building a supermarket or school, which benefits everyone, but sometimes would entail something like a factory, which people did NOT like living next to. This game was about developing relationships with the people in your town because, unlike newer city-building games, you get to see and interact with the people instead of them being just numbers. It was so addicting to me as a child because it had somewhat of a story while making your way to more difficult towns to populate and it was also strategic because you had to make your citizens happy. I loved everything about it. Because of Metropolismania 2, I eagerly buy every new city-building game in hopes of finding something similar to it, but ultimately end up getting let down and selling them a few months later. Metropolismania 2 got such negative reviews, but I found it to be such a charming, interactive game. I spent hours building the most perfect towns, and I loved the amount of detail Metropolismania 2 gave to their city-building game. Give me a remaster!

Radiata Stories

Platform: PS2 Publisher: Square Enix; Developed by tri-Ace Publish Date: September 6, 2005 You might not have known my last game, but shame on you if you have never heard of Radiata Stories. Radiata Stories is an action role-playing game set in a fantasy world. The game begins when the main character joins the knights of Radiata but almost immediately gets kicked out because a level one character just kind of sucks The game really begins with you living in the City of Radiata taking on other quests to get money and just get better. This was probably the first game I’d ever played like this, and there was so much to it. It offered options, you could spend money, and you could kick everything. By kicking things like people, boxes, etc., items could randomly drop or you’d end up in a fight. It was also weird to be able to kick things because that seems to be uncommon in recent games I have played.   I never got too far into this game because of many sidequests working with the characters. I liked how different quests allowed you to have a unique relationship with the characters. Also, I had an extremely unreliable copy of the game that, when loading, would just become the black screen of death. I’d love to see this remastered to actually play more of this story because from what I remember, it was beautiful and the plot was interesting.

The Sims 2: Castaway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRVzZnsWHSk Platform: PS2 Publisher: Electronic Arts; Developed by Maxis Publish date: October 22, 2007 This might be a basic choice, but it was a fun game. As a kid, I loved the idea of spending all this time making a bunch of characters that would disappear as soon as I was done. That was sarcasm— this actually really hurt me as a child. I feel as if this game is underrated; it gave me so much joy playing through it and trying to find everyone in your lost party. I really love building games if you can’t tell, and this one satisfied me greatly with the amount of building and crafting it offered. There was also an added element of creepiness to the building because you were alone on the island, and random creatures would pop up when you’d be sleeping so you wanted good shelters. It creeped me out when things would just pop up and I’d fast-forward through the night. It was like a little jumpscare of its own. There was also a weather element, which I thought to be way ahead of its time. Like I mentioned before, this game was creepy. Even when you’d find people, you’d be alone on this odd island trying to escape. The Sims has some weird elements in their games, and that can be seen in The Sims 2: Castaway. I also distinctly remember this soundtrack helped add to the creepy factor. It was just incredible, and the game had replay value. I think you could also build a radio and it would somehow play music. I really don’t know how, but I remember my sim out there jamming to some tunes in the midst of a rainstorm. I really liked this game because it included the actual Sim mechanics where you’d have to care for your person, but you also needed to progress further through the island in order to make it home. You could also mess around as much as you’d like, which could lead to a rather long playtime. Granted, for all of these games, I could just buy a PlayStation 2 again and hoped it worked. However, I want others to appreciate these games as much as I did as a child. They were incredibly fun, and I devoted hours of my childhood to these three games alone. Plus, it would be nice to have a copy of these games that would actually load.

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Sources: YouTube Images: IGN, Kotaku,  Featured Image: Katherine Sinkovics