The Wacky World of Remasters, Remakes, Reboots, & Reimaginings

Remasters, Remakes, Reboots, and Reimaginings... oh my! 

Ryan and James sit down at the campfire for the third episode and discuss The Four Horsemen of "RE" type titles; What defines each of them, personal favorites, and teeter on the line of rebranding into a Resident Evil podcast. James has a very normal and calm reaction to Shigeru Miyamoto helping announce the shadow-dropped Star Fox 2026 Direct, and puts his detective skills to the test in a rapid-fire quiz of determining what "RE" title is being described from the back of the box.

Games Discussed

Final Fantasy V
Pragmata
The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD
Halo The Master Chief Collection
Resident Evil (2002)
Resident Evil 2-4 Remakes
Final Fantasy VII Remake
The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening (2019)
Ratchet and Clank (2016)
Mortal Kombat (2009)
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
Star Fox Zero
Super Castlevania IV
Super Mario All-Stars
Star Fox (2026)
The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door (2024)
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
Miitopia (2021)

Links Mentioned

The Star Fox Scale - @CottrelloVision

Special Thanks To

• Cover Art - @Falah
• Logo - @Psyonyx
• Music - Robotic Park by Kyon

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Stay Cozy!!

Transcript

Intro

James 0:00

Like in some ways the uh Neanderthal rules was maybe a little more collaborative where like I did have to truly guess that was my role in that, but you also had to give me the question, you know, with the rules you have. So it's kinda like it's like a co-op game. Yeah, yeah.

Ryan 0:17

It's the campfire! We did it. Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of Co-op Campfire. Yes, raise the roof. James is raising the roof already, and we are so excited to be here on our third episode. So, James, how you doing?

James 0:47

I almost felt like this was I'm sitting at a sports game and I'm like, you're hyping me out of the tunnel. You know, I feel like I should be running out, you know, like waving, like, let's go, let's go, you know. It is hype worthy.

Ryan 0:58

We're on our third episode. We just debuted and it was an awesome debut. And we just wanted to immediately thank our new campers for joining the campfire.

James 1:06

Just great. It was great to see all the fan mail, all the feedback. Really just like Ryan said, wanted to get that quick shout out because we've been super excited. I've been I've been itching to get to this recording. So I'm super excited to see what we have on the docket today.

Ryan 1:20

Woo!

What Have You Been Playing? James - FFV

James 1:21

Well, we got some fun stuff. But first, James, what have you been up to? I've just been busy. I feel like I haven't had a chance to sit down and play a video game in like a week, which is not a bad thing. I try to have a a whiteboard for like scheduling just quick tasks, you know, to-do's like later in the week things. There are maybe more urgent stuff. I list out my meals, um, like my meal planning schedule. And then something that's helped me has been a game schedule. But I've just been so busy this past week. I have stuff written down. I'm like, oh, it's just not happening today, I guess. I have been trying to finish Final Fantasy V for like three weeks now, and all I need to do is just go to the last dungeon, and I still haven't done it yet. I was hoping to have it done for the podcast, but there are some nights where I start, I'm like, all right, we're in bed, you got the switch, I'm ready to go, you know, got a couple hours, and then I just like old man fall asleep, just crash.

Ryan 2:16

Hey, you you need your sleep. That's that's important. And you want to like savor that last dungeon experience. Like, is that like the big climax of the game?

James 2:24

It is. Funny to specifically this game, I guess, or this version is pretty related to our topic today, which was not planned, but you knew. Yeah, I had a I planned ahead. You know, future James went back and said, No, no, no, wait on the other game. You gotta play this one right now.

Ryan 2:41

Your unconscious thoughts were like, no, we're gonna plant this idea. He may not be cognizant of it yet, but it's gonna be relevant.

James 2:47

I guess I'll I'll, you know, I'm playing the Pixel Remaster version, so I'll just say that, but we'll wait to get into the like actual lead-in for the topic. I have loved this game so much, and Final Fantasy is such a unique series where it's one of my favorites because it's so easy to hop into. You know, I know there are people that love to start from literally number one and watch the series evolution, but like just hop into what feels right. There's 16 games and they're all friendly, you know, story-wise. They don't connect. There's connecting tissue and a lot of the elements of like recurring enemies and spells and like game elements to it all kind of like gets added into almost every game. You expect a lot of the same stuff, but like gameplay story systems, pick the one that feels right. This is actually one of the last ones I have to finish. I only have 13, which I am almost done with, and then eight after this, and I will have played all of the main line numbered Final Fantasy games. Oh wow, that's a cool gamer achievement to have. It's just nice. It's it's hard when your favorite game genre requires you to like commit a minimum of like 30 hours for one game, and that's like lowballing it. So when you have that time 16, it gets it gets kind of dicey.

The Joy of FFV's Job System

James 4:06

So, what makes five unique out of the rest of them? There's a personal answer just for like my own enjoyment of this final third section, but to answer your question maybe more directly, the first three games, it's pretty much turn-based. Technically, it kind of matters on like the turn order isn't quite like black and white, like it is my turn, and then it is their turn. There's like speed stats and stuff. Then they start getting into like semi-real-time elements where it's turn-based, but you have to act fast, or you, you know, enemies will take your turn while you're doing stuff, and then they kind of get a little whatever they want to do after like 12. But five is a part of the Super Nintendo trilogy of games. They did four, five, and six on Super Nintendo, and this game introduces the job system. Well, this is not the first introduction of it, but this is maybe the best iteration of it. Uh characters do not have classes, like pre-defined classes. You think of certain RPGs where like this guy is my thief in this game, or this is my healer. You can make anybody anything at really any time. So it's really cool to be able to flex around and experiment with team compositions and stuff. Uh basically, in the story, you will get access to a new set of classes at certain intervals, and then you can literally just hit the menu, say Barts, I want you to be a warrior. There you go. He can now equip swords, he has all of his warrior abilities, he's good to go. The fun part of it is when you start leveling up. So you have your regular XP, and then you have the experience for the jobs. You get both when you win a battle, and as you level up the jobs, you will get access to permanently equipable abilities that you can use outside of that job. So, like if I wanted to swap Bart as a warrior or a berserker, and he gets access to like I can two-hand a weapon and does more damage. I've learned that skill, but now I want to swap him to a ninja, and then I can now equip that two-handed ability while still having the abilities and skills of a ninja. You just start building a list of abilities and you can really like mix and match, and just it literally is on the fly. Super awesome, and it's just total freedom. Sometimes you feel like maybe a class is falling behind, or like there's certain parts of the game where it's like, Man, I wish I had this thing, or I wish I had this ability. Well, you can. Sometimes it's a fun puzzle to be like, how do I best clear this dungeon? It was like magic a bad idea here. Do I need to start like retooling my party to be more melee focused? Are there a lot of group enemies where I can do like this big AoE attack? Like, do I need summons? Like, do I need a summoner? That is what makes five so beloved is its job system. It's just so it's very simple, but it allows for total player freedom and it's just excellent.

Ryan 7:00

It sounds like the game pushes you to be dynamic with it, it presents you with different challenges where it forces you to experiment a bit.

James 7:09

Kind of leading into like why I love the last third of this game. There's a tower that you go to that if you went to it blind, you would be confused because they don't really give you context. They just tell you to split up your party, two groups of two, and you're like, okay, I guess I'll balance it out, or you know, maybe I'll get a healer on one, and then but no. If you go talk to villagers in a nearby town, they'll tell you that this tower is infamous for like magic does not work on the left tower. You will not succeed if you bring any kind of magic to the left tower. So as you gather clues and more information, kind of works with the job system. You may have a well-balanced party, but what I had to do is I had to take my two melee characters or the ones that had the most melee abilities that I've like acquired over the game. They're going right, and then I've got my mages on the left. If you like try doing the opposite, they will literally absorb and heal, or you will miss attacks and stuff. So it's a cool way to implement building your party rather than just brute forcing it or just kind of utilizing the same abilities. Like they kind of incentivize you to like play around with the composition and stuff.

Ryan 8:18

Nice. And how easy is it to like audible? You said like I have my melee guys and I have to put them in the right tower. If you didn't have any melee guys, like how easy is it to audible to a build like that or get like a new build running for your current needs?

James 8:34

It's maybe not like as optimal as you want it, but it is super easy to do. And that's a nice thing in the story is when you get a new set of jobs to experiment with, that's like a new, like, ooh, exciting. I got new stuff, you know, like where you get a new power-up in an old game or something, or a new move you're excited to try out. It's like, here's a new set of like four different classes I can just level up or experiment with. And so you just click on the menu and you can swap into a fully playable class that's like ready to go. But it is fun to like mix and match and maybe more optimized when you have more time to level up. But if you're ever in a bind or it's like I'm stuck here and I just need to equip the right cop, and maybe they're not quite leveled up yet, it still works. They're just you don't have like the permanent abilities you can bring outside of it.

Ryan 9:22

Well, that sounds interesting. I'm getting like fantasy life vibes from this of the easability of like it encourages you to job switch very often.

James 9:32

Yep. There's some arguments to be made. So, like in the follow-up in Final Fantasy VI, and even before in Final Fantasy IV, they created unique ways in the story. They were predetermined classes, you know. In Final Fantasy IV, Cecil was a dark knight, but his redemption arc and his evolution as a character builds into his class, which does change during the game. You can't really do that in five where it's like, I'm just a guy, you know, I'm an adventurer, and then you're just kind of multifaceted. So they can't really utilize that in a lot of ways. They kind of do it, they kind of hint that one of your characters is like more magically inclined, or like, oh, he learned all of his spells and stuff, but like you really do whatever you want. They can't really use those same tricks or like storytelling mechanics when the classes are predefined. But I think the gameplay freedom speaks in its own way outside of like the story aspect of it. That's awesome. And my last shout out, I just love an RPG or any game where note-taking is incentivized, even if it's now where I like take a screenshot. I love that stuff, and that really harkens back to like when you were playing games as a kid or you had your strategy guide, or like all the way back in like Zelda 1, you didn't really have a lot of direction, or if you got any information it was important to write down. Love that stuff. Dropping you into the the third act of this game, you can just kind of go straight to the end. You've got everything you need, but they very clearly lay out side quests for you and like they give you the premise, and that's it. We kind of know where the 12 legendary weapons are, we know where that tower is, but like go there and find it. Or we have these four tablets that speak of hints of like the ultimate white mage magic. You start going to towns, like talking to people matters. They give you important information and clues. Sometimes you find a map in somewhere that's like X marks the spot, and now I know where to go. And it's just such a fun adventure aspect. Even some of my favorite RPGs, like Paper Mario or Gatails game, don't really have a lot of that freedom. You know, it's a little more linear adventure, you know, with side quests, but these feel like purposeful and like making you think and like experimenting with the jobs and stuff and tackling different problems or late game enemies, and it's just like all culminating and just like the vision is fully realized by the end of the game, and it just it's been awesome. It's been a long time since I've played an RPG where I've enjoyed side questing as much as this game.

Ryan 12:05

Or the amount of time you've put into it.

James 12:07

Well, and the thing is, like, if I truly want to do quote unquote 100% this game, I've long passed the ability to do that. There's missable enemies or items, or like, do you really want to level up every single job and get like you're not gonna do that on a normal playthrough? You know, I think the expected time to beat this game is like 25 to 30 hours, and I've probably doubled that. I literally at this point, I just have the final dungeon. I've already gone to part of it before realizing I was there, and then I warped out. But I just have I just have to go back and just go through the dungeon, beat the final boss, roll credits.

Ryan 12:45

Well, best of luck when you get there. I'm looking forward to the update when you finally uh wrap things up.

James 12:50

Awesome, man.

What Have You Been Playing? Ryan - Pragmata

James 12:51

Well, what about yours? What have you been up to lately?

Ryan 12:53

Oh my gosh, I have been buying into the advertised hype of Pragmata, the father-daughter-like action adventure game. It's so good, James. I I love it. It's like sometimes I just have like a gut instinct about things like going into the Mario movie. That's an easy one. We were both so excited when that first got announced. And it's so nice to just be able to enter into consuming something with the expectation that like I'm just I'm just gonna have fun. It's gonna be great. Like low, low-key expectations. That's awesome. Right away with Pragmata, when I first heard about it the three times it was announced in the directs or whatever, uh, I was immediately hooked by the adult child, uh robot child dynamic. She's already like an innocent child, but now she's an android who literally doesn't know about human things. You just get more of like opportunity of teaching this childlike android about things and her just being excited about everything and just seeing the joy of everything, like is so fun, and it's such a nice contrast to the situation you're in. I keep thinking it's like dead space, but not scary, which is great. It's like a happier version of that. There's still like crazy things that like come at you with the robots, but that's really about the most it's not scary, it's just like intimidating. There are some robots that show up that are just like crazy, and you're like, oh god, I don't want to mess with that. And then it puts you in a situation where you have to, but it's just more of like a space AI themed kind of game. I mean, like going back to Diana and Hugh are their names. It's also funny, the dialogue is kind of like quote unquote gamer dialogue at first, like that you feel like it's especially from the trailers, you're like, oh gosh, they're really trying to push this. But it it becomes very endearing. And again, it goes back to that dynamic of like, oh, I'm just a father figure teaching my daughter about this thing and her being excited about it, and you latch more onto like, oh, but she's excited. So it's like I kind of expected this dialogue, but whatever. And then you digress from that in a way, it just becomes a lot more natural as you just let yourself go into the game.

James 15:11

So I think about a lot of the games that we grew up with around like the GameCube PlayStation 2 era, like the 360 Wii kind of days. My mind is like thinking escort mission, and you think about those missions being the most obnoxious, even if it's a nice character moment or you like the character, it is like the thing of the game that you always remember as being like bad, but you've explained this in a way where it feels endearing. You're pushed to do this, it's elevating the dialogue, which at first comes across as maybe a little cringy in certain areas. What separates this from like that kind of experience?

Ryan 15:52

Uh, well, if we want to get into gameplay, that's actually interesting because I don't think that was really advertised in the trailers, at least that we saw, like with the game awards and the Nintendo Direct. Diana is extremely essential. They make that very clear the first moment you two are together. There's a scenario where like a robot pops up and you try to shoot it, and you're doing like a hundredth of damage, like your pistol is not doing anything. And then Diana makes it clear like, hey, I'm an android, I can hack. And that is controlled by your four right buttons.

James 16:28

So the face buttons?

Ryan 16:29

Yes. So you target the robot, and then a little box pops up, the hacking grid, and you use those face buttons to move the reticle around. And depending on how you move it to the green dot and how you go through other yellow dots that make your hack more effective, once you get to that green dot, it will open up the robot's panels and then exposes the weak spots. You quickly learn that you you target, you hack, and then you shoot. And it's such a satisfying loop. I've not gotten tired of it yet. You do that for every single enemy you fight, and it's just such a like, yeah, teamwork moment. And there's stuff where like Hugh will be like, ha, leave the shooting to me. And Diana's like, Okay, I got him. And it like it sounds cheesy, but it is so fun in the moment. And it's just like they're just such a good team together.

James 17:20

I think it's really important that you establish both parties being important or valued or valuable, especially in like a gameplay sense, but it seems like it's all connecting in every aspect of it. There's the father-child relationship of mentoring and like teaching, but also she's incredibly helpful in gameplay and they both appreciate each other being there, and it just is like a nice loop of just everything working really well together. Have you felt like the enemy variety has been good? It sounds like you just haven't gotten tired of, you know, doing the loop, but not sure are there enemies that kind of challenge you on, you know, do you have to platform around or dodge a little bit more for these guys, or do you have to like go behind certain enemies to hack them?

Ryan 18:06

Uh, kind of all of the above. There's not like a humongous, humongous variety. I think there's like eight core enemy types within the first few levels that you go through. But they're set up in different situations enough where each little area that you fight them in is unique. Again, like I've not felt tired fighting anybody. Even walking down a hall that I have like maybe two times and seeing the same robot, it's still satisfying. Like that scenario of just like robot open up and I shoot. They got the foundational loop great. That goes back to my original gut reason of oh, they nailed that, they nailed the foundation, so the rest of the game's gonna be great. Like they just built on that, and that's what great games do.

James 18:49

That's super exciting to hear. It's been on my radar,

The Capcom Comeback

James 18:52

and I guess just shout out to Capcom. They have kind of killed it this year, and for a long time, they have been excellent as a developer. They've released Resident Evil 9 Requiem this year, Monster Hunter Stories 3 came out earlier this year as well, and Pragmata. Like, that's that's a heck of a year, you know, for game releases. And I think back really doesn't feel super long ago when it was like 2007 through like 2011. Capcom felt like it was in the dark ages. They had bad releases, they were outsourcing games to like Western devs, and those were just kind of middling projects and things. You had like that weird bionic commando reboot and the on-disc DLC. I don't know if you remember that for some of their stuff. Like it was just such a different time, and now it's like I'm always so excited to get to a Capcom release. It feels like an event.

Ryan 19:45

Yeah, they've really sharpened up over the years, and Pragmata is just another one you've got to try sometime. I will happily report and give that a go. All

Defining the Four "REs" and James's Very Calm Miyamoto Rant

Ryan 20:03

right, campers. The topic of remasters, reboots, remakes, reimaginings, all the rees has been coming up, especially with the latest Star Fox direct. We will get into that later. No, no, no, no, no.

James 20:18

I'm gonna hop it right now. Miyamoto, you son of a son of a I yeah, okay. Literally, so for context, Ryan and I were in the background going through release week, and you know, we've got our when we're trying to get the episodes live and just kind of doing some final checks and things. And Shadow dropped Star Fox direct on a Wednesday, and I'm texting Ryan in all caps. I'm like, this is not a drill. Abort, abort, please respond. Please, what the what the fuck is this? You know? And I'm and and and smug Miyamoto just pulled out the Star Fox shirt, like ripping like a Superman shirt. I'm like, God damn it.

Ryan 21:01

We're like about to release the next day, and like shit, like, do we do we wait? Do we like comment on this? And like the timing could not have been more cursed and more beneficial, I guess, for our debut. It was just insane.

James 21:14

Funny timing, I guess, but you know, just doing an entire deep dive on the entire Star Fox series, and oh, by the way, here's the new one. But yes, we will get to that later, but I just had a bone to pick, and I just I think I I put that on our blue sky post too of just that was the one image where I just Miyamoto just with his with his grin pulling out the Star Fox.

Ryan 21:34

I'm like, I'm pretty sure one of your texts to me was just like, God damn it, Miyamoto, you son of a bitch.

James 21:40

Nothing but respect for the guy for all of his contributions to the game industry, but in this specific moment, I hate you.

Ryan 21:47

Well, it also brought about the discussion of remasters, reboots, remakes, and reimaginings. And there was a great Twitter post that got called the Star Fox Scale post, and it is It was kudos to Catrello Vision on Twitter. If you're on your device, we have this as the uh chapter image for this section. It starts with Star Fox for the Super NES, and that is just dubbed video game because it's it was Star Fox. Then we got to Star Fox 64, which is classified as a reboot, and then it goes in three different directions. We got Star Fox 64 3D, so pretty straightforward remaster. We have Star Fox Zero, which was quoted by Miyamoto and them as a reimagining of Star Fox 64. And now we've got Star Fox, not for the SNES, for the Switch 2 coming out, which is a remake of Star Fox 64. So the discussion becomes what in the heck is the difference between all four of these terms?

James 22:52

It's something you maybe don't think about, but happens quite often throughout the industry. There are in a lot of good ways, there's been a lot of remasters just to exist on modern systems instead of playing it on original hardware, it's released on current devices. There's not the secondary market or trying to find a super expensive copy of a game. It's just a nice quality way to replay it. It's kind of funny, the Star Fox example, but it's good because there hasn't been a brand new Star Fox game since zero. And what was that? 2014? I'm trying to think of when that even came out. Star Fox Zero came out April 22nd, 2016. Since 2016, it's been 10 years. And what they believed the best thing they can release, and I'm not saying this in a negative way, is that they're sticking to the core formula and just doing a remake of Star Fox 64 after all these years. So it's just interesting to talk about the purpose and intent for these things, but also defining them and what makes them unique from each other.

Ryan 23:57

Yes. When you start to think about the differences between each term, it's easy when you single one thing out. It becomes difficult when you start to compare all four with one another because there are things that really overlap. As we go through each of these, you'll start to see things that do cross over from one to the other and things that make things unique and distinct from one another.

James 24:19

I was kind of frying my brain a little bit, like I was overthinking it. No, no, no. What is this game? No, no, no, wait, no, it goes here, it goes here. No. But yeah, uh, there's definitely overlap. And I think Ryan, you did a good job of pinpointing the main point, the main distinction between each separate category. Why don't we just hop in with the remaster?

Remasters

Ryan 24:42

Yes. All right. So remaster is probably the most straightforward of them all and the most common. Nintendo loves it, loves their remasters. Is primarily focused on visual improvements. You have the base game there. It's probably all the same code, but the visuals are just more spruced up. It's more of taking advantage of a more powerful console that can actually like give you the visual experience that was desired. These kind of games are commonly appended with HD or remastered, like literally remastered. It's again the easiest one to identify. You got some examples like Wind Waker or Twilight Princess HD. James and I are playing through Dark Souls, quote, remastered right now. So that's a pretty given one. And then James reminded me of the obvious, obvious one, the Master Chief collection.

James 25:33

That to me is like the golden example. It's like a magic trick to me. It's just a fun feature where a click of a button you can swap between the modern HD visuals that they spruced up for this release and the original graphics. Just the click of a button. Literally the same game, the same code, but with a fresh coat of paint.

Ryan 25:54

That feature is an underrated thing. It beautifully displays that is truly a remaster.

James 26:00

I agree completely. I really like it, and I think that is more uncommon, unfortunately. I don't know a lot of remasters that have done that. I do appreciate when maybe a game comes with an original version. They don't do that as much anymore, but in some ways it's a little off topic. But I think of like when Metroid Prime had like the original Metroid playable on it, where like you can play a version of the original on the same remaster collection or have access to it in a way.

Ryan 26:29

Yeah, I remember when they used to do that. We are talking about visuals. I will say gameplay can still be added. The key thing here is that like the core original gameplay, none of it has been tampered with to some extent, maybe like 98% untampered. Because in Wind Waker HD, as an example, in the GameCube, you had the Tingle Tuner, which you can use to control a Tingle cursor and like drop bombs and stuff, and it was super fun. But you needed the Game Boy Advance hookup to the GameCube. So you didn't have that with the Wii U, and they replaced it with the Tingle bottle. So that might be an example of like if they could, they would have, but since they couldn't, they replaced it with something else. They didn't just like yeet that feature. They at least gave you something in return for it. At the end of the day, most of the game shouldn't be tampered with. It's just purely performance and visuals.

James 27:24

Do you concur? Yeah. This is maybe the simplest definition across the board for these. Again, it's recapturing that almost one-to-one gameplay experience with HD visuals or like meeting whatever the modern standards are of the platform that it's being released on. I was just curious, Ryan, do you have a favorite HD remaster that you've ever played?

Ryan 27:46

Oh man.

James 27:48

I gotta say, Wind Waker's gotta be up there, right?

Ryan 27:50

I think, yeah, Wind Waker is up there. I mean, just to have it like widescreen and the Wii U gamepad, easier controls. I think I've played through about half of it, but I've loved every second of it. The bloom, man, they just blew up the colors and the motion. It's just it's so gorgeous. I have to say the Master Chief collection too. I've played that at least four separate times with like four different people, and it's always fun to go back and like toggle visuals between the two, like you mentioned. So, how about you?

James 28:17

I think I'd probably lean towards the Master Chief collection, giving like the full circle experience of honoring the originals by allowing those graphics into the remaster, but also really pushing the visuals and looking at it in a different way. You know, as much as I love Halo Combat Evolved, it's an older game. You know, it is nice to see it from like a fresh coat. I've been playing the Final Fantasy Pixel remasters. That's how I've been playing Final Fantasy V. I might have some gripes with like the font and certain presentation aspects, but the spells are really, really nice. Like the visual flair that they add to some of the combat stuff is really nice. They have completely rearranged music, and in a way you can toggle between the original tracks and the new updated arrangements. So not in a graphical sense, but for music, it's really nice. Like I've been kind of bouncing back and forth. I usually start with the arrangement and then kind of go back to like the originals and stuff. It's just nice to have. But the Pixel Remaster is just a good, you know, and kind of like the Master Chief collection too, like it's just a good value, you know. The Final Fantasy collection is six games on one cart. Plug it into the Switch, and all six of them pop up. That's hundreds of hours of game. And the Master Chief collection is well, like the best way to kind of re-experience those classic shooters. 100%.

Ryan 29:37

That's another great point. Like, what's the current most convenient way to experience something? And that's what makes a good remaster.

Remakes

Ryan 29:45

Well, James, how about you take a shot at the next one? Now we're diving into remakes.

James 29:51

This is where it starts to get into the technology being separated from the original release. This is like starting over from scratch. Maybe you have a vision, you have the concept, you know, there's so much that goes into game development of like concept art and programming, and like what is even capable on the machine that you're programming for. Maybe there's a world where if we had better technology or as things evolve, we can recreate that desired experience with the new tools that we have. And I think remakes are a great way to sell that. This is where, separate from a remaster, we're talking different code. This is a completely new experience in that sense, especially when you're jumping hardware. It's a lot trickier when you're trying to port in certain aspects, or you have to emulation can only capture so much of like what was being utilized on the original hardware with the actual chipset and stuff. You know, you think of things like the soundboards and all that. This can include enhanced or completely different style graphics. They may say it's time for a complete shift in the art direction alongside the gameplay, but still kind of maintaining similar elements or a same look as the original, but just in a different way. But it's still important to remember for remakes that the gameplay and sometimes the story will very closely follow the original vision, the original game. You're still getting that same experience, but you're experiencing it through a different lens in a way. I agree.

Ryan 31:31

I think the code-based, like the gameplay and the story mostly has to stay the same to classify it as a remake. As you used the word intent earlier, that's where it starts to get very important when defining here. This is purely like a technological upgrade. The new Star Fox, we'll get to it, as uh divisive as the new graphical style has been amongst the community. That's still Star Fox. That's still Peppy, and that's Falco being more of a bird. And maybe that's maybe that's Slippy with his eyes a little lower like a regular frog. It's still them, and we're still gonna get all the same levels, we're still gonna get all the same routes and everything. It's all the same. It's just now you play this game on Switch 2. That is pretty cut and dry, like a remake.

James 32:21

And to even separate it a little bit more, so we talked about the Master Chief collection, and yeah, that is technically on newer, more advanced hardware than the original games that were on. But I would argue in Star Fox's case, they're adding more new features as well. They're adding cutscenes, they're adding more story to it. There's a multiplayer mechanic that wasn't quite present in the original to the degree they're taking it. There's a lot more that's being introduced in this one rather than a convenient way to play the games, even if it's on newer hardware. One of the games, and honestly, the series, I feel like we're just on a Capcom kick today. One of the ones that sticks out so well to me is Resident Evil. This is a series that has like prided itself on giving you so many ways to experience the series, new and old. They have re-released very recently on like Gog.com and like other platforms the original games, which has been kind of absent for a long time, you know, just like those original games as they were. But for a long time, and as early as the GameCube, they were already thinking about remaking these games. You know, they had a trilogy under their belt with the GameCube, with that next generation of consoles at the time. Their big project, their first big dip into that generation was a remake of the first Resident Evil game. The same events happen. This is the same story being told. It is a little bit of a tone shift. It's not quite as campy horror. There's a lot less jokes in it than the original. It's definitely a more serious look at it. So a slight modification to the atmosphere. It's a tone shift. It's definitely a modification, but again, for lore purposes, for like telling the story of Resident Evil, it is telling the same story. There are some things added and expanded, but the same events play out that happened in the first game. You play as the same characters. All of the gameplay feels very close to the original game, but expanded. They've added more, they've added more tweaks and knobs to like how specific certain things are, durability or defensive mechanics. But again, completely rebuilt from the ground up. These are some absolutely gorgeous. I mean, this is still an impressive looking game today. Those pre-rendered backgrounds with the 3D models is like so impressive for what they were able to do. That this is a clear example of like it still stands the test of time today, like in a Wind Waker sense, of like, you know, not to undersell what we just talked about in a remaster, but I think most people prefer to play the GameCube original and like that presentation aspect ratio rather than just kind of slapping HD visuals on it. Because they have done an HD version of it gets so messed up when I say it's like they've done an HD remaster of the remake of Resident Evil 1.

Ryan 35:16

Dear Christ. But um I'm having a brain aneurysm. I I hated saying that sentence out loud. And quick uh quick call out if you want to hear more about like the graphics and the preferences there. We talk a lot about that in our last comfort game episodes where James goes more into Resident Evil 4. So check that out.

James 35:36

For a long time, that was kind of the the golden remake. Uh that was something that was relatively new at the time. There had been remakes and other, you know, shufflings of like games before that, but that was like a huge release, and that has bled into their release cadence today. They've remade the original Resident Evil 2 with the third person shift where the first game was kind of those tank controls, kind of top-down, not always, but you know, different perspective. Fixed perspective. Yes, fixed perspective. And they went ahead and did that with three and even Resident Evil 4. That's a great example. If you want to experience a game in its original form or experience it in a different gameplay sense, you know, a different experience but feel similar, Resident Evil is a great way to go.

Ryan 36:28

That's such a great point that you brought up the original Resident Evil for the GameCube. I had no idea that was like a staple because I kept thinking of two, three, and four that came out recently. That's like the new staple from Capcom of like what a remake could be. It kind of goes along with uh the Final Fantasies as well. There's some divisiveness of if you're a new player into Final Fantasy VII, do I play the original or do I play the new one? I'm inclined to play the new remake because I'm more of like an action-oriented guy. But you've even told me like the original is still worth playing. So it's just funny that like you can get value from both experiences in different ways.

James 37:08

I've really play what you want. Like, if if that gameplay style is how you would like to experience the world of Final Fantasy VII, that is your way of hopping into the series, please do. I hate that Final Fantasy VII has 13 different side projects that all it's like the multiverse of Final Fantasy VII. So even though it is a remake, that is such a loose and cheeky way of describing this game because it is its own weird, unique story that is like kind of referencing the original, and also it's it's it's it's fucked up. I can't, we we don't have the time. We do not have the time to even go into that, but I hear what you're saying, and that is exactly a good point. Just to hop back really quickly on Resident Evil, those original games are very difficult. They are survival horror defined, very tight resources managing your health, your inventory. They're just a gameplay style that doesn't quite appeal to everybody. The remakes have done a great job of introducing a lot of accessibility, not only the visual and audio expectations that a lot of these games do, but like in the gameplay sense, they have easier modes. So if you're struggling and you like enjoy the story, but you're having trouble experiencing it because it's just a gameplay style you're not comfortable with, or it's just too hard or frustrating. The remakes do a great job of giving you many different options of maybe I want the full, easy regenerating health. I just have free saves, or maybe you want to do my health doesn't regenerate, but I can save whenever I want, or you go like full classic mode and say, My resources matter, I gotta play like that original style. I think those are a great way to help let anybody enjoy these games.

Ryan 38:54

Sure thing. That's a great point. Accessibility. Any other remakes that you wanted to shout out? Yeah, we can. I mean, Link's Awakening is like one of uh Nintendo's examples of doing a true remake. Along with the Star Fox direct, it kind of indirectly confirmed the rumors about an Ocarina of Time remake. Yeah. Yeah, the rare Nintendo remakes are worth checking out. I do want to keep this moving because we could sit for hours talking about this category alone. But maybe we will. Wink. Winked. Winked. James Wink.

James 39:36

I'm not picking up what you're putting out.

Ryan 39:40

Secondary quiz. I'm not prepared.

Reboots

Ryan 39:47

So next on our category is reboot. This is where the waters are like mud. It is not to be confused with simply repopularizing a series, but we think it is more of an intention to grant gamers an opportunity to enter a series. A very classic example that was, again, lots of divisive opinions on these kind of categories of things. The Ratchet and Clank games, I guess I'll say, because they're both called the same thing. Ratchet and Clank originally released in 2002 to critical acclaim, spawned a whole series. An animated movie came out around 2016, along with a game also titled Ratchet and Clank. This is where the gameplay or the story can differ. A reboot, it has a little more flexibility to do what it wants. And I say the water is clear as mud because then you start thinking, well, is this a reimagining? It kind of crosses both ways, but if we get down to trying to classify this with one reason only, it is again the intention to bring in new players. Let's just start fresh. I'm going to college, I'm gonna have a clean slate, nobody knows me. Let's just go in. I can kind of have the flexibility to do what I want, but you're still the same human, you're still the same person. You just have that opportunity.

James 41:09

I was really scratching my head at this one, and I kind of had that aha moment. Mortal Kombat is like the perfect entry for these because Mortal Kombat has rebooted itself multiple times. You would put gameplay as the bolded expectation for a reboot, right? This is like maybe we're refining the gameplay, we're adding new features, it's on you know modern hardware, maybe it's even taking controller gimmicks into play or whatever. Most commonly, it's not the end all be all when those were put, but I'm gonna wag my finger here because what if you had a game that did both? Mortal Kombat, if you want to like pound your head into your desk timeline, they reboot it so much that, like, what's the canon timeline? What are the events now? What's different? In 2011, Mortal Kombat 9 came out. They had released the previous game was Mortal Kombat Armageddon. The entire premise of that game was like 60 characters, it's a bloodbath, it is literally Armageddon. That is the story. Like everybody's dying, your favorite characters are dead. It's the battle of the ages, you know. Damn. So Mortal Kombat 9 starts out at the end of Armageddon and plays out. So one of the characters in Mortal Kombat is Raiden, he's the god of thunder, he's an elder god, and he has an amulet with foresight that allows him to project back in time and like he has visions of the future, basically. So he's seen Armageddon play out. This was a great way to reboot the story. Raiden's goal is to like prevent Armageddon. So the story takes you all the way back through Mortal Kombat 1 and it retells everything up until that point. You go through the events of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3, some of the PS2 and GameCube games. It's a retelling of the story, it's an excuse to start back from square one, and it's a great way for veterans because if you've played up until Armageddon, you know how the story plays out, but now it's going to play out a little bit differently. What do they do differently? Does this character die? Does this character become a robot? You see Raiden trying to figure it out, and he has like just this vague premonition of like, what does it mean? Who who must win the tournament? Obviously, you expect the gameplay update. You expect it to be a better playing fighting game than the one that came before it, but they incorporate the story, like, and it's a great way for you to start. You don't have to have played eight Mortal Kombat games to jump in. They just literally are telling a time travel story and they kind of do it in a really nice way. I thought that was a great pinpoint example of like when I think of reboot, I think of this series, and they basically did it again in Mortal Kombat 1, which is real this is this is the whole game title. It gets so messed up where it is Mortal Kombat 1 in parentheses 2023. Oh my god. It is not Mortal Kombat from you know the 90s. It is Mortal Kombat 1 in parentheses 2023. Also, shout out to Doom, parentheses 2016.

Ryan 44:20

Oh my god. Okay, wait, wait. So this is great debate material right here. So to review, we have Mortal Kombat Armageddon, then we have Mortal Kombat 9, correct?

James 44:30

That is correct.

Ryan 44:30

Okay. What makes Mortal Kombat 9 a reboot instead of a reimagining? I know we haven't defined it yet, but in your opinion, what is why is it a reboot?

James 44:40

So Mortal Kombat 9 goes back to 2D fighting for the PlayStation 2 GameCube Xbox entries, Deadly Alliance, Armageddon, those were like 3D fighters. They kind of shifted the gameplay to like that era. And so as a story reboot, but also a gameplay reboot, they're going not back to basics like it's a downgrade, but you know, they're saying this is going forward the gameplay style. Back to its roots. Yes. We're not going to be shifting back and forth. It's not going to be like a weird one-off, like, no, this we're back to 2D fighting. We're introducing new mechanics, but also we're retelling the story in a way where this is meant to be a new starting point. Like you said at the very beginning of this segment, this is an invitation to people to experience the start, a new start of Mortal Kombat. The story is starting back at square one, the gameplay is being reinvented, and it all comes together in that one package.

Ryan 45:38

Okay, so there has to be the intent of an invitation, as you say, to re-enter the series.

James 45:44

To bounce off a little bit more, Resident Evil 7 went back to its roots. This was a reboot of the franchise. Resident Evil became so much of an action game after Resident Evil 5 and 6, especially. I mean, it felt like the series was losing what it was. The core, the survival, the horror aspects of those original games. So 7 was a fresh start. It's a new cast. It's in first person. The focus is on horror. It's a complete reboot of the gameplay and the story from a completely new entry point that still continues the legacy. It still builds off of what came before it. But I think Resident Evil 7 is a great example of a reboot. Instead of just dragging on or making various improvements to like the action, they said, No, we are going back to square one with this.

Ryan 46:33

At risk of becoming the Resident Evil podcast, I am glad you brought up Seven. There was a gap of four years and three months between six and seven. It felt like such a huge gap of the series of like, where is my staple Resident Evil release? I heard Leon was in a city or something in six, but it was kind of weird, but I haven't heard from Resident Evil in a while. I think there is some sort of real life game industry factor into what gets classified as a reboot. Because again, the line between reboot and reimagining, which we're about to go into, it feels very muddy.

James 47:09

Maybe to just go ahead and lean into

Reimaginings

James 47:11

it. Reimagining still follows the gameplay at a pretty foundational level. It can add features, it can deviate from prior scenarios. So you would kind of question that with Mortal Kombat. Why is it not more of a reimagining if the events are going to be played out differently? Akin to like a reboot, it is an alternative take of the same premise, and you have more experience to this game than I do. You had put Star Fox Zero as a big circle this example for reimagining.

Ryan 47:41

If we're going with the Star Fox scale, it makes sense because it's got the same core gameplay we talked about in our episode one of Star Fox series. The controls for Star Fox Zero are again, lots of divisive. Just tell me how you really feel, Ryan. Just say it. Just say it. Tell me they're bad. I want to like it so bad. That's my honest opinion. And it's so frustrating. Again, go back to episode one if you want to hear that. When I think of reimagining, I think of the story being the massive difference. You know you're getting into something different right away. Hell, you could watch the Star Fox movie and be like, oh, that's a different scenario. Like General Pepper's kind of devious. Ooh, there's some kind of foreshadowing story going on here. You still have your corneria that you start off with. You still have your core squad, Falco, Peppy, Slippy Fox. You're still shooting bad guys and aliens, but it does deviate in the story. You're not doing the alternate hard route, normal route kind of stuff, and then go into the asteroid field. Like it's different story-wise. The gameplay is foundationally the same, but then it adds on different things that it focuses on. So that presents the point of it not being a remake. It is something different. It's kind of like an alternate timeline, as James was implying earlier with these kind of things.

James 48:59

I think for me, one of my first experiences with a reimagining was Super Castlevania IV. And that at the time, it was such a very unique series, and we talked about that in our earlier episodes. It wasn't established at the time. You know, they were experimenting a lot with some of these earlier games. Castlevania, I mean, was basically an arcade game. I mean, it was just a side-scroller platformer with these classic horror elements. They tried to do RPG elements in the second game, they added branching paths and additional characters in three. And then four, when you look at it, it's really like a reimagining of that first game. You have back to basics, it is a completely linear structure, stage structure. You're not selecting routes, there's no RPG stuff. It is the original game's formula. You're playing as the same main character. You fight a lot of the same enemies and bosses, but it explores different levels and layouts and adds a few more mechanics. It's not a reboot because they would shift in different directions there. That wasn't like the expected formula they continued on with. It really just felt like they took the first game and worked around it with like new hardware and some other mechanics as well.

Ryan 50:19

So even though it was called four, you still consider it a reimagining?

James 50:24

Yeah, and I think that's one of those where the title might be a little misleading. When you look at playing through Super Castlevania 4 start to finish, and you look at it side by side to one, you see how much they pull from one, not two, not three, not any of the other games that came before it. They looked at one and said, let's take a re-evaluation of this game. There are similar elements. You have characters and bosses and enemies and items that just feel like you're playing Castlevania one, but it's like in Star Fox Zero, you know, you're playing on coronary, but then it very quickly shifts from there. You have a lot of these familiar elements and you have things that harken back to like the original project, but then it deviates in its own unique way.

Ryan 51:08

That's an interesting take, because I would have called that the fourth entry in the series. It was also during a time where they were experimenting around with different things, and it seems like the core gameplay wasn't established yet. When you think Castlevania, you think, ah yes, I side-scroll and I whip, you know.

James 51:27

I think at the time it was just Castlevania 4. Most people looked at it as like the follow-up to three. They just, you know, went back to the roots or thought a little bit less. But as like gaming conversation has like expanded and we've re-evaluated a lot of our classic experiences or developer intent or things like that. You see so much pulled from the first game. It's hard not to look at it as a reimagining to where, like, you know, it wasn't established. You're right, there wasn't an established formula for this series yet. They were really trying a lot of different things, but they made deliberate decisions to go back to the drawing board, back to like square one, not in a, I guess, a reboot sense, but it really just felt like we're gonna pull from like that first experience and kind of work around it a little bit. Familiar yet fresh.

Ryan 52:16

That is so interesting. I was really so hooked on the fact that like a reimagining has to be this profound, obvious game. But now I'm starting to think from your example that every new game in a series is technically a reimagining. The thought that came up was a link to the past and a link between worlds, where the map is basically the same thing that was almost advertised, but it's a totally different story. So the question can be like, it's just a new game, it's not a reimagining. I don't know now. It kind of sounds like it is a reimagining, it's just not like an advertised reimagining.

James 52:55

This is the muddiest one for me. This is the one where it's really it's really hard to define what separates a reimagining from the rest, but I think that the intent and how much they pull is a major factor. I'm almost thinking, you know, Mega Man X. That feels more like a reboot to me, where that was like a new game kind of establishing a new formula, but like it's kind of pulling from a lot of the classic tropes and gameplay styles and things like that. You kind of think about like what does constitute a true reboot from like a reimagining or like a yeah, I it's just it's interesting.

Ryan 53:31

I will tell you, James, that is why I grouped these two together specifically, because they are so muddy. But you're absolutely right. If there is a circle chart that we do establish from this, it is these two things for the blue sky post.

James 53:44

I will do my best interpretation of our Venn diagram for this.

Ryan 53:48

So I'm supporting the can you please use comic sands and paint to create this?

James 53:56

Yes, thank you. Graphic design is my passion.

First "RE" Game Experience

Ryan 54:01

So, James, I'm curious, what was your first exposure to a re-type game, as we are dubbing it? You might have already gone into it with Super Castlevania IV, but was that actually it?

James 54:11

I think that was it. I didn't actually play, so I played Resident Evil 4 before I ever thought about playing Resident Evil the remake on GameCube, but that was around the same time. We just never got it. I remember we didn't actually have a Super Nintendo, but my sister, she would go over to like a friend's house that had a Super Nintendo every once in a while, and I would tag along and they had Super Castlevania 4. And I remember at my grandma's I had the original Castlevania. And so I never really put it together at the time, but I think like re-examining this game, just looking at it over the years, that is what sticks out to me is just how much they pull from that first game. And so I think technically speaking, that is like maybe my first like true experience with like a re-type of game in my life. I will also shout out to the abundance of like reboots and remakes they were doing on like a smaller scale for Xbox Live Arcade. I don't know if you remember any of those, but I like Bionic Commando Rearmed is one that like sticks out so well to me. That was one that I played all the time.

Ryan 55:15

Yeah, that's a vivid memory. I remember you being so hyped about that and like telling me about Bionic Commando. It sounded so hype. Well, what about you, Ryan? Mine was a remaster, and it was Super Mario All-Stars for the Super NES. We did have an NES growing up, and we did have the classic Mario Duck Hunt cartridge, but I don't really remember playing much Mario on that. We were kind of too young for that, but we did really go ham with the Super NES era, and All-Stars was how my sister and I experienced one, two, and three, the classic Mario trilogy. I remember later on seeing like what Super Mario 3 actually looked like for the NES compared to what I had grown up with, and was just like, oh wow, it's like it's so flat looking, and there's not like the HD graphics kind of thing, like HD, you know, at the time when I thought. But it was still cool to be like, okay, I get it now. Like we had this, and it was such a tight little collection, but like here's the actual ones. I'm grateful we had that. I feel like I was still able to be part of that generation that experienced Mario as it came out, even though I was born a little after that. I think that's what remasters provide the most is an avenue to experience something as it was released and to allow newer generations to access times before their time in a updated and fun way and accessible way.

James 56:46

That's about as rock solid of a collection of all time. And like that came out in the early 90s. That was they already had that established as like a great way, like they kind of established like a great format for a remaster all the way back then. Just simple, doesn't have to be overcomplicated, just a nice coat of paint, but you're still getting the same experience. But again, it's on your new shiny system.

Ryan 57:09

I'm glad they got that practice because Switch released a buttload of remasters from the Wii U. Uh-huh. If anything good came out of the Wii U to like an objective opinion, it was the remasters that the Switch did. New funky Kong mode. Yes. Uh love it. All right, now the moment you're all been waiting

Star Fox (2026) Direct Review

Ryan 57:45

for. We did not want to skip out on this. Golly. The Star Fox direct and the announcement of the remake. Aptly timed for this conversation. James, what's got you excited about this, buddy?

James 57:58

I it's I I'm probably gonna turn on the cheese mode a little bit, but I've really learned to like really appreciate this series. Doing our deep dive was a lot of fun, really going back and looking at like the full catalog, but it's also like it's our first episode, so it's got a special place in my heart. Well, but I loved Star Fox 64 growing up, and obviously, you know, I said enough about that in the first episode. There's a lot of opinions on this game already, and it's still a month away, but that's kind of the meme is that Nintendo never has any more ideas for Star Fox than just remake or reintroduce or re-release 64, like that's the core. But we talked about it, man. That's like if you want Star Fox, this is it, this is the game, and I think that this is a great way looking at it now. You talk about like a fresh generation of people on a new console to experience Star Fox for the first time. I love a Star Fox remake like this. This is this has me so excited to replay. And again, as veterans having played this game before, it'll be fun to see what is different in this version. For us, I think that's really gonna be the cutscene and like the story expansion from that first game, which is amazing. I'm so so hyped for this. One thing it's a weird thing for me. I love story in a game, but like not too much. This is the last I will talk about in Final Fantasy VII, I promise. Props to them for making 20 different games that all connect to each other and all build off of each other in like a cool way. You know, it's like they all matter, they're all building this epic story. But my god, if you want to hop in, it is a nightmare. It is a nightmare to even dedicate like reasonable time to like experiencing this, where there's just cool stuff in Star Fox that like it gets you intrigued, but they don't really ever elaborate on it too much. What is Andros's past? Why did he become evil? Is General Pepper really the good guy here? What are the origins of Star Fox? He had his father who died, and there's just like all this weird like lore you kind of know about, but it's like just enough to like you're caught in the hype, you're caught in the mission, the moments, all the cool levels, the gameplay, but it's all in the back of your mind. It's like there's a rival team, Star Wolf, that is like just as capable as the Star Fox team that you're fighting. Who are those people? Yeah, where'd they come from? Pygma used to be on Star Fox, we know that much, you know. It's like, but I love imagining, you know, kind of like a fan canon of like the possibilities, but like I don't want it to be like I gotta play like eight different Star Fox games to get Pygma's history. Like, I don't care, I don't care that much, but like I love that they are adding more cutscenes to like expand that though. And like that feels like the perfect amount of pushing forward more moments to just make them even more epic because that was one of the things I loved of the first Star Fox 64. I hate to say it that way, but like the original star quote, the first Star Fox 64. I be I'm part of the problem.

Ryan 1:01:10

But the original Star Fox 64 release is like the reboot, James. Please, we just classified it.

James 1:01:18

Not the 3DS remake, the re-release. Oh my lord. Um, but yeah, Star Fox 64 is a game full of cool hype moments, and I'm excited to see those expanded more.

Ryan 1:01:31

It's crazy, like seeing what predictions slash what we wanted to happen. Because yeah, the cutscenes, quote me, want to see more of the lilac system and the universe and characters. Check mark. I want to see the core of what they did well in Star Fox 64, and then we jump to James. They should not get away from what makes Star Fox fun to play. And I would say 64 is like the blueprint for that.

James 1:01:56

Not too bad. Not too bad. We're both strugging right now. Did I put $60 in there? I felt like I put 60 in there. Not bad. Is that eight to one odds? I don't know. I can't wait. I cannot wait to play this game. I will love it all over again. I mean, I I guess do we do we have to talk about the the designs? I mean, do you like them? I got thoughts. I think they're freaky in a cool way. Like it feels in some way, I feel like in a weird way, it fits the vibe, it fits the aesthetic, it fits the story. It just sort of like maybe and kind of like all the way jumping back to this when we were talking about earlier for like remakes. It's like this was maybe the original vision that they couldn't do with the hardware. I don't know. I just think that these character models are like these are freaky animals flying spacecraft. I don't know. It's just, but like we have the power of the Switch too, and it just they feel right. I know they look a little jarring, but like it just I feel like it's the right tone.

Ryan 1:02:59

They look like face rig models, the software face rig. There's literally like a little raccoon guy that I thought of immediately when I saw Fox. Campers, if you want to look that up, face rig software on Steam. You'll see exactly what I mean.

James 1:03:12

What about you, man? I've talked, I've gushed enough about this, but I want to hear what you're excited about.

Ryan 1:03:17

Regarding the graphics, I agree. It was like very jarring when you texted me, like, hey, start, like, there's a direct, you should check it out. And I got spoiled on the thumbnail. I joked with you, like, oh my god, they processed them through Unreal Engine based off of my glance. But I I couldn't possibly have viewed it, like I did not comprehend what I was seeing, but it actually was. I started watching the direct and I was like, oh god, they did actually process them through Unreal Engine. But I got used to it and thinking on it more, they've done it to death of like the cartoon animal kind of Nintendo-y style. And it is cool to see that the Switch 2 can push this kind of graphical fidelity or this graphical style with it. I don't know. It's it's interesting. I mean, it's you can't say you're not interested to see how it looks. We're just talking about the characters, by the way. 90% of the game, we're gonna be seeing the environments and the gorgeous space explosions happening and going through solar with oh my god, when they showed solar with like those sun waves, god, what do you call them? Sunspots? That was incredible looking. I'm very excited for the planets. I can't wait for the Macbeth train level. Yeah, baby. That's so cool. That looks so cool. It's just gonna be interesting. And you know, if you want something interesting to look at from a game that we all now know to death, here you go. Just try to enjoy it. I mean, if it's not your cup of tea, then whatever, too. That's equally valid. It is a totally different design change. I would just encourage you to give it a chance, just see what it's like.

James 1:04:51

Quickly, I'd like to play Devil's Advocate, and this was something I was kind of thinking about as we were going through all of the re-type of games through this whole conversation, and I think that there's a common frustration for gamers that why do I need to experience this again? If it is a remake, why do I need to play the same game again? The original exists and maybe even looks better than a potentially shoddy art style or the upscaling looks weird, or there's like visual oddities or something. Like, why do I need to play Star Fox again in 2026? Do you feel like what you have seen in this direct, they have sold you on being excited for this remake?

Ryan 1:05:32

Yes, I'm very excited. Uh, I'm also, again, like a person who has not played Star Fox 64 as much as you, James, but the graphics, that is something new they're offering. The cutscenes, I am ecstatic for. And this is a game where the story and the gameplay are on really good terms with each other, and they're not going to be fighting each other too much. So I'm excited to just like play the game again.

James 1:05:58

For the record, I'm obviously stoked. To play this game. I just from a different perspective to try to look at, they have already introduced multiplayer, a unique twist on the original just straight dogfighting formula. You know, there's like PvE elements, kind of a score attack angle to the multiplayer where it's 4v4. That was needed to keep it fresh. I like that a lot. I think it's just smart and it just kind of works. You know, Star Fox versus Star Wolf. The co-op will be fun to play through. One player flies and the other player shoots. We said that too in our wishes. Like, let's do a co-op kind of thing. Yeah. You've got uh the mouse controls for the Switch 2, might be just like a fun playthrough to try those out. Like there's enough for me. I think the price is right. I think the additions are smart and excellent. So I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Ryan 1:06:49

Now, James, going off your original question of why release the same game again, do you think it was the right decision from Nintendo to release this kind of game?

James 1:06:59

So on Amazon right now, Star Fox is the number one pre-ordered Switch 2 game. Wow. Despite some of the controversy or hype or questionable things, this is like the most popular pre-order right now for the system. I think this is a great way to jump into the series. While I would love for them to explore more unique things, we talked about how they can tweak the formula or like some of those pesky Star Fox 2 introductions that were just dormant for years. I would love for them to like really try to expand and like explore more of what Star Fox can be, but this is a great way to jump in. This is the blueprint, this is the foundation of the series. And honestly, it's a pretty decent price. I think they they know what they've got, you know. Like it's $60 physical. That's a pretty good price point for me to jump in. You know, it's like pretty low stakes. And I think this was smart to like test the waters and be like, you know what? People are always talking about like bring Star Fox back, you know, he's in the movie now, he's in the Mario Galaxy movie. Like, you know what? Let's just put our chips on the table, try it out.

Ryan 1:08:08

Yes, all of the above that from a standpoint of from the health of the Star Fox series itself, that this was 100% a good decision. You already have the formula, like you stated, that's going to work. It's proven to work, it's going to look better, do very well. So that's great to hear about the pre-orders. And you know what? That's going to revitalize interest in Star Fox series. And now they have this engine that has proven it can handle Star Fox kind of gameplay and they can run with it for the next game. And I look forward to that in half a decade of where we're gonna be when Star Fox remake of the reboot of the actual video game for Switch 2. Please god, no. Please god no. Oh, James, remakes, remasters, reimaginings, re-li,

Quiz Time! Description Detective - Name That "RE"

Ryan 1:09:09

this it's so much. But there has been a lot of fun games that have come out of it. So are you ready for another quiz?

James 1:09:16

Oh, Ryan, you know I'm always ready for another quiz. What could possibly go wrong here?

Ryan 1:09:23

So today's quiz is called Description Detective. It is where we are going to guess the quote unquote re-type game that we have been discussing. How this game works is that I will read three parts of a game's description and James will guess what the game is. Okay. If a game is guessed and one section is read, then you get three points. If two sections are read, you get two points, and three sections are read, you get one point. You get the gist. You want to guess faster. All right, and just an FYI as an addendum. All words that use the game title in the description have been redacted. So sometimes you'll hear me say, like, blank blank does this. That was the game title in the description, but it was a good hint, so I used it anyway. Alright, so question one. Blank modernizes the 2006 game of the year with all new stunning visuals and refined gameplay.

James 1:10:21

26 game of the year. I've and the thing that makes me upset, you know, and they did this so much where it's like there was a game of the year edition for everything, and it's like you didn't win game of the year. Whatever, congrats. You added new modes and an and like an extra feature. It's like and you added the DLC. Then you didn't win game of the year. I need more. I need another one. I need another one. I'm I'm angry about this description already.

Ryan 1:10:48

We're off to a great start, folks. All right, hit number two explore the vast landscape of Cyradel like never before.

James 1:10:56

Elder Scrolls 4 remastered or re-oblivion. I can't remember what they call that.

Ryan 1:11:01

Reobblivion. I love it. They got it. It's the Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion remastered.

James 1:11:07

Okay, re-obblivion. Reoblivion. Daedra gates reopened.

Ryan 1:11:13

The rest of the description is and stop the forces of Oblivion from overtaking the land in one of the greatest RPGs ever from the award-winning Bethesda Game Studios.

James 1:11:25

Factual statement. I don't care how buggy it is. That game is one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and I will fight you on that in the comments. Or fan mail.

Ryan 1:11:34

Please send please send your complaints my way. Please send your punches through the fan mail. All right. Question number two. The unknown journey continues. Now, before you give up, think carefully about that noun. The unknown journey. I did in fact confirm this was a specific thing associated with this game.

James 1:11:55

Unknown journey. Shoot. For some reason, I'm tunnel visioning. Like I know Bioshock had a remaster, and I know that that's like a huge part of like Bioshock Infinite is kind of like what the end of the game implies, but I I know that's not right, and I think I still need another one. That's just too brief. Okay.

Ryan 1:12:15

After escaping the city of Midgar, Cloud and his friends set out on a journey across the planet. James is grimacing so hard right now.

James 1:12:25

Oh, Final Fantasy VII remake. Oh, wait, no, rebirth. Rebirth.

Ryan 1:12:30

Oh, thank you. I was about to get you on that.

James 1:12:32

Good recovery. That's the problem, Ryan. This is what we introduce. So when you say Final Fantasy VII Remake, if you just play the whole game, you get the whole story, the original. But remake only takes place in Midgar. That is the end of the game when you get out for rebirth.

Ryan 1:12:47

The final part of that description is new adventures await in a vibrant, expansive world in this standalone entry of the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy. I hate that sentence so much, Ryan. I hate it so much. All right, question three. Whether you're a long time blank fan or new to the series, get ready for an unforgettable trip across the universe. That is kind of generic reading it. So I will say whether you're a long time blank and blank fan.

James 1:13:19

I gotta go with Ratchet and Clank. I mean, I know that they crossed the galaxy with them, Captain Quirk, you know. Felt like that was gonna be that. I could see a world where maybe it was like a Star Wars remaster. They re-released a lot of those games before.

Ryan 1:13:32

Yeah, I don't I don't know how many Star Wars remasters there are, but now that you mention it, there's gotta be quite a few.

James 1:13:39

They've re-released a lot of those games on like just it's the same exact game, but you know, maybe I mean if we want to like technically define it as a remaster, the big one that they teased for a while was the Knights of the Old Republic remake.

Ryan 1:13:53

Yeah, that's gonna be pretty hype. Lots of people are excited about that. What else you got for me? All right, question four. A deadly virus engulfs the residents of Raccoon City in September of 1998, plunging the city into chaos as flesh-eating zombies roam the streets for survivors.

James 1:14:11

Not to be a fake fan, I'm gonna say Resident Evil 2 remake, but it could also be Resident Evil 3 because that also takes place in Raccoon City. So I'm just gonna go on a whim and say Resident Evil 2 remake.

Ryan 1:14:21

Yeah, got it. Good stuff. Resident Evil 2.

James 1:14:26

I could not live with myself if I got that one wrong. I've gassed up Resident Evil this entire I mean, this is basically becoming the Resident Evil pod the Capcom Resident Evil podcast at this point.

Ryan 1:14:37

I think the distinction there is that it says September of 1998. So I assume that means specifically to, right?

James 1:14:44

So technically, Resident Evil 3 intersects with Resident Evil 2. So the story overlaps. Resident Evil 3 like happens before Resident Evil 2, like the events of it, and then eventually kind of intersects, and Resident Evil 3 does end after. So it's like a weird pocket of like before, middle, and after Resident Evil 2's events.

Ryan 1:15:06

Interesting. That makes sense. I remember three being like, oh, it's like another city burning and another zombie outbreak. But I would hope that the umbrella corp only allowed one of those to happen. Anyway, question five. Here we go. Set sail for a vast adventure in blank, exclusively on Wii U. Exclusively on Wii U? That's gotta be Wind Waker.

James 1:15:30

Wind Waker HD.

Ryan 1:15:31

You got it. Set sail, man. Experience a classic The Legend of Zelda title, fully remastered with stunning 1080p graphics, brand new Miverse features, and many more enhancements.

James 1:15:42

Oh, poor one out the Mii verse. Gone too soon from this world. Thank God for Pretendo Network, bringing it back. The true heroes. For some reason, and it's funny because I think there's been rumors of an Assassin's Creed 4 remake floating around, like a black flag remake. So my mind was like, no, that was that was too soon. That was too soon for the Wii U, but I'm like, Assassin's Creed exclusively on the Wii U? I know Assassin's Creed 3 made it on the Wii U. I don't know about four. For some reason, my mind was like, sail the seas with Edward.

Ryan 1:16:12

I see.

James 1:16:13

With your sea shanties. Perform sea shanties exclusively on the gamepad. Call me up, Ubisoft. I've got great ideas for this remake.

Ryan 1:16:22

Alright, question six. The X knots are after the treasure behind the blank. X naught? Yes. Spelled X-N-A-U-T-S. Oh.

James 1:16:35

I gotta go with another one. I'm not getting this one.

Ryan 1:16:39

Master your badges and timing based attacks to impress the audience in a theatrical twist on turn-based RPG combat.

James 1:16:48

Theatrical. Theatrical.

Ryan 1:16:51

Theatrical.

James 1:16:53

Got it. This is Paper Mario Thousand Your Door. Got it. Well done. I text people like when I'm tired, a gif of Mario doing like the paper fold in to the bed all the time. That's what I want to do like when I get home is that exact motion. Jumping up eight feet in the air and just like actual full smooth slide under the covers. Like that is instantly asleep. Yeah. When I talk about paper Mario now, that's just the top of it. I just think about the paper Mario sleeping give half the time.

Ryan 1:17:29

I mean, doesn't that speak to how well the theme of like what if Mario butt paper just speaks to you? Like that's so cool. Yeah. All right. Question seven. This one might be a little more obvious. Welcome to the Sinnoh region.

James 1:17:43

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl for Nintendo Switch. Let's go. We're too positive on this podcast. I'm gonna talk smack about these.

Ryan 1:17:55

But James, it is rich in nature with mighty Mount Coronet at its heart. Sinnoh is a land of many myths passed down through the ages. Did they put that on the back of the box? Is that is that hyping me up? You'll either choose Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup to be your first partner, Pokemon, and then set off on your journey to try to become the champion of the Pokemon League.

James 1:18:15

What was your starter? Oh Piplup, baby. Waters for life. I usually was a water like truther. I don't know. I kind of bounced around. I started with Squirtle, but then I went grass like for a while. So I was Turtwig.

Ryan 1:18:29

Oh, Turtwig's really cute though in this game. He's like a little he's like a little turtle.

James 1:18:33

He's just a little guy.

Ryan 1:18:34

Hey, you went from Squirtle to more turtle.

James 1:18:36

I'm just a bit turtle, you know, turtle truther. I like Toytles.

Ryan 1:18:42

Turtle Truther. Hashtag Turtle Truthers Unite. I love that. Alright, James, last one. Let's bring it home. You've been doing great. Cast your friends, family, or anyone you choose in a comedy-filled adventure to bring down the face-stealing darklord.

James 1:19:03

It's gonna I feel like it's gonna be obvious what if I if I do get it. That's a pretty bold description right off the bat, but it's not quite jumping out at me, so I think I need another one. Alright.

Ryan 1:19:14

Create and customize blank characters, assign them roles, and watch them come to life.

James 1:19:21

My god, what what are you talking about, man? What I'm talking about this this sounds like a cursed Wii game where I like you add your own character. Oh, oh, Miitopia.

Ryan 1:19:31

Yes, you got there. Well done. That was the hardest one out of all of them.

James 1:19:36

Oh my gosh, I've completely forgot about that.

Ryan 1:19:39

Laugh along as your best friend and dear old grandpa team up in the fantasy adventure of a lifetime. And that blank was create and customize me characters.

James 1:19:48

When you said that description, I'm almost thinking like the 360 connect and like some really cursed, like gimmicky, like, oh, I'm in the game. It's real, I'm I'm really there. But like those games don't get remade, nobody cares about those. I completely forgot Miitopia got a Switch port. That's crazy.

Ryan 1:20:05

Yeah, man. I forgot too, and then when looking it up, it was like, oh, that's right. It was a remaster on the trend of Tamodachi Life. Although Tamodachi Life is technically, as I understand it, a completely new game compared to the 3DS version. So all right, tallying up your score, it would have been the three points possibility for eight questions. So here we go.

James 1:20:25

Ryan versus basic math.

Ryan 1:20:29

The ultimate boss way. It's too hard, it's too late. Too late. It's like 10 o'clock. I gotta go to bed. Oh my god. All right, James, you have gotten 20 out of 24 possible points. Congratulations. That was pretty solid, my friend.

James 1:20:46

Happy to take on the next one. Whatever you got for me. Now it makes me gonna go back to a lot of these games. Like I just want to play Oblivion now.

Ryan 1:20:53

Dude, yeah, talk about a hundred plus hours of gameplay.

James 1:20:56

There you go. I'm trying to squeeze in a two-hour session on a weekday just to finish Final Fantasy V, and I'm talking about starting Oblivion over. What am I talking about? There's no way.

Ryan 1:21:18

Well, buddy, thanks for the discussion. Defining remasters, reboots, remakes, reimaginings. There's such a blurry line between some of those, and then they all cross over. It just I knew it would be an interesting thing to get your take on, and I feel enlightened. How do you feel?

James 1:21:36

It was great. Remasters, reimagining, remakes, reesident evil, re resident evil. We're rebranding. Oh my god, Cavcom, please send us fan mail. Somebody from Cavcom, please, I hope.

Fan Mail!

Ryan 1:21:54

Speaking of fan mail, we would love to highlight some of our first fan mail that we got from our first two episodes. So from our Star Fox episode, this camper was framefully content, saying, the discussion of framerate with the Super NES game is interesting. It was such a marvel back in the day, we never considered the terrible frame rate. Now that we're accustomed to high frame rates, we are really sensitive to lower frame rates. In the early days of 3D games, experiencing 15 FPS wasn't unusual. We just didn't know any better.

James 1:22:26

It is an interesting discussion. And again, that's kind of our discussion today, all about like the technological capabilities of like what you're even releasing this game on. And that was a point you made, Ryan, back in that first episode was that despite my hatred for this frame rate, they designed for that. That game was built around that in mind. So to the camper's point, we didn't know any better. It didn't stick out to us. You know, we didn't first we didn't have access to games that had that 60 frames a second, like high fidelity kind of graphical experience. But Star Fox still played well back in the day for what it was.

Ryan 1:23:05

And regarding the frame rate adjustment, I remember my first experience was with Dark Souls playing 30 FPS and then to 60 FPS. And I I really just didn't understand like what's the difference between 30 and 60. It's fine. But after applying like the Dark Souls fix patch that it they had for the original version back in the day, it was like, oh, I get it. And the the glass was shattered.

James 1:23:29

Night and day. Night and day.

Ryan 1:23:30

Night and day, man.

James 1:23:31

We learned a lot about iframes that day.

Ryan 1:23:35

All right. And then from our comfort games episode, another camper who was crazy for Crash said, As a PlayStation kid, my comfort game is Crash Bandicoot. The recent remake, Insane Trilogy, was the best-selling game on the PlayStation store for months. It's just a difficult platformer that holds up even today. It's comforting for the nostalgia, great music tracks, and is always a challenge without being crazy frustrating. I feel like this was a staple one we didn't touch on because we had so many other examples, but definitely a more recent staple definition of what a remake should aspire to be.

James 1:24:13

Spyro 2, kind of in the same camp, you know, just a trilogy of classic PlayStation games that all naturally evolved from each other back in the day, but just creating a baseline solid package that includes all of these games with new ways to experience it. And it's just like there's a reason that game sold like hotcakes, you know. I mean, there's a lot of nostalgia for those older games, and it was on everything. You had it on PlayStation, you had it on Xbox, there's a Switch port. It was super accessible and just an excellent way to replay those games. It's awesome to see that you know, people are hyping up some of those classic games that they grew up with as like those comfort games, and that's what really makes them special. 100%.

Ryan 1:24:52

Campers, if you want to send us more fan mail like this, these were great. Thank you to those who did send in fan mail. Please

Outro

Ryan 1:24:59

send us. What do you want to hear us talk about? What was your favorite remaster, remake, reimagining, reboot? What do you think those are? Did we nail the definitions? What's your take? If you want to send us fan mail, you can click on the send us fan mail button in the show notes. So we'd love to hear from you.

James 1:25:16

We've also got our blue sky page as well if you'd like to comment. We always make a post when we put out new episodes. So make sure to visit that as well. We've got the links in the description. Well, campers, I hate to cut it short, but all of this talk of Re just wants me weirdly playing Resident Evil. So I think I'm getting ready to put out the campfire. I swear we're not a Resident Evil podcast. We just have really big fans of that here. This makes me want to go look at the games on my shelf and just kind of scope out some of these games. I'm really excited that we talked about all this and it was a great discussion today. Yeah, thank you so much for the discussion, buddy. And thank you, campers, for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Have a good one.

Ryan 1:25:58

Stay cozy.