A second chance for Shinji Mikami and Suda51's lesser-known collaboration
There hasn't exactly been a dearth of remasters over the past decade, with many of the most acclaimed titles from previous generations finding their way to modern consoles, either polished and tweaked to meet today's standards or rebuilt from the ground up.
The Last of Us, Final Fantasy 7, Mass Effect, Dead Space, various Resident Evils, a range of Nintendo classics – the list of games that have been brought back for new audiences goes on. One entry you might not expect to see on the list is Shadows of the Damned.
If you're unfamiliar with the name, you'll certainly know the visionaries behind it; Shadows of the Damned is the second collaboration between Japanese legends Shinji Mikami, director of the original Resident Evil, and Goichi 'Suda51' Suda, known for the No More Heroes series.
Released in 2011, Shadows of the Damned was a 'punk rock' action adventure game in which a Mexican demon hunter fights against the forces of evil – with the help of his demon sidekick Johnson, who can transform into a gun, torch and motorbike – to save his girlfriend.
It was published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and this year it returns to consoles and PC thanks to NetEase, the parent company of Suda's studio and Shadows' developer Grasshopper Manufacture.
GamesIndustry.biz caught up with both Suda and Mikami at Gamescom, who told us this is not the first time they have tried to revive the 2011 title.
"About seven or eight years ago, we got an offer from someone to remaster Shadows of the Damned and we thought that sounded cool," Suda explains. "So we talked to EA about it, and they were like, 'yeah, sure, but it's got to be an Origin exclusive' and that put us off a bit at the time. If it could only be on Origin, that would defeat the purpose of bringing it out again so more people can play it.
"Then a couple of years ago, around the time we joined NetEase, the idea came up again so we spoke to EA about it and the Origin thing was no longer an issue. So since we're
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