Surprised Pikmin 1 & 2 didn't make the cut.
I have bought none of these. I don't plan on buying any of them although I may yet crumble on Metroid Prime. In the past, I've bought some remasters or rereleases of games I'd already owned but now I rarely ever want to do it. Unless it is a significant remake, I find there is often little value to it aside.
I supposed I will do a write-in candidate and give my vote to the Batman Arkham collection as I do want to pick that up for Switch at some point. I had been hoping since the Wii U launched that perhaps Arkham Asylum would get ported to a Nintendo system. Earlier this year, my cousin had played that game for the first time on PC and was telling me how much he was loving it. I brought up then that I had been hoping for awhile it might finally get ported to Switch especially after all sorts of other big releases from the past had been getting brought over like Borderlands, Bioshock and Portal. I do have Arkham City on Wii U but Arkham Knight wasn't released for Wii U so 2/3 being new games is still a worthwhile package. (And after all this time of wanting to play Arkham City on Wii U, it still sits unopened on my shelf so I could almost treat it as 3 new games if I play it on Switch first.)
We certainly do live in an age of recycled media, which can be nice.
Yes and no. It can sometimes be a bit frustrating when you see a lot of games you've played before filling up a release schedule making it seem like there's less new experiences being made. Especially right now as Nintendo is likely saving up software for their next system. Super Mario RPG, Mario VS Donkey Kong, Thousand Year Door, Luigi's Mansion 2. At least Another Code has the Wii game that never came to North America. But with all that and stuff like Advance Wars 1&2, Metroid Prime Remastered, Pikmin 1&2, Kirby's Return to Dreamland. I've been pretty happy with the Switch Apps for SNES, N64, etc for being able to replay games I've played before or already own on the original systems but have the convenience of being able to boot up right away. It may make it harder for Nintendo to be able to remaster some of those titles now in the future like they did for Super Mario RPG unless they remove them from the system. But maybe there'd still be a market for those games done in new HD graphics. For example, would there be gamers willing to pay full price for a Donkey Kong Collection of the 3 SNES games with updated HD graphics, remastered soundtrack and maybe a few tweaks?
Of course, as my Backloggery shows, I can't complain too greatly about games getting re-released since there's still so many I've yet to get around to playing so it should make it easier for me to do that. And I am glad when a port is something that came from a non-Nintendo system and was something I missed out on before like the Arkham games. Yet there is one more negative I see about this rise on of compilations and re-releases. It almost seems to make sense these days to skip a generation of gaming for like 5 or 6 years. Then when stuff gets ported to that next generation you're likely to get the best version of that game. Look at the Switch. Tropical Freeze got the additional Funky Mode if that's appealing to you. Pikmin 3 came with all the additional paid DLC. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came with all the paid DLC and has ended up having even more DLC now made for it. Super Mario 3D World came with the additional Bowser's Fury content. Heck, even look at something like the BioShock or Arkham Collection. You can potentially buy all three games for the cost (or less) of what one of them would have been when they first individually released. You might end up saving more money this way by not having to buy everything piece meal when it is first released with the base game and then DLC or every individual entry. Plus, then everything will seem more fresh when you re-enter the scene as you catch up on that missed stuff.
Still, there's a few negatives to that. For one, there's no guarantees that everything you might want to play would get ported later on. Stuff can end up becoming obscure instead. In which case you might have to pay a higher price for some games but maybe it balances out. With Nintendo's experimentations on controls and devices, it has resulted in a lot of software tied to some platforms that may never leave them. Look at how many Nintendo games for the GameCube are still tied to that system. Switch may have now beat Wii in being the system with the most GameCube games that have been available on it. Another thing has been the shift in the industry to try and follow the World of Warcraft route in Games as a Service and have titles that keep getting content and events released for months or years to keep people playing them usually online. However, when the next iteration comes out then that userbase may move on (or just naturally peter out) so that if you were to try it years later than you may have missed out and find it a husk of what it had been. I think about something like Splatoon or Super Mario Maker, especially now with the online for the Wii U being terminated.
Hmm, it seems I've rambled enough on this subject now with no clear conclusion so let's call it a post!
Poll
Topic: 2023 NWR Forum Awards - Best Rerelease or Compilation (Read 1250 times)
