Remasters We Really Need

gamesreviews.com:

I’ve written a lot about remakes and remasters lately, but by and large they have been for games that are already easily available. Where’s access to the titles we really need?

Like, sure, it’s fantastic I can play Grand Theft Auto 3 on my Xbox Series X. But Liberty City Stories is forever trapped on PSP (or PS2 if you want the inferior version). Same goes for Vice City Stories.

There are two entries in one of the most major franchises of all time that are just not playable in any sensible way. Wikipedia tells me they’re available on mobile stores, but it doesn’t appear for me when I search.

They could have been DLC for the GTA Trilogy collection. Lord knows they sold enough copies to make that profitable. But no. They remain, to me, trapped on PSP or PS2.

And that’s really what this article is about. There are so many fantastic games that have never been re-released and yet hold an important place in gaming history. For the sake of simplicity, I’m only going to talk about games in major franchises in this article, because by default they deserve a release. I could write endlessly about Mad World, the Resistance trilogy, Jet Set Radio Future, Timesplitters, Eternal Darkness and so on. And they should be released. But they don’t have the benefit of the doubt that major franchises have, and that’s a story for a different day.

I’m also not going to touch on games that have already been remastered. It’s a tragedy that Sly Cooper got an HD Collection on the PS3 and remained trapped there forever (today via cloud). But again, if there were value in re-releasing it, it would be re-released.

Already mentioned are the two GTA games that are completely in limbo, and I’m going to mention Metal Gear Solid 4 in the first line too.