Disclaimer: There are some spoilers for Resident Evil 2 (2019) in this post.
In the past year, two games have come out that managed to devour most of my free time following release. I spent weeks at a time completely enthralled by them, doing multiple playthroughs and obsessively completing the various challenges and tasks offered by their achievement lists. This isn’t unusual behavior for a gaming enthusiast. What is unique, however, is that both of these games were remakes of games that came out 20 years ago.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy released in September 2018, after many rumors suggesting it would be Activision’s follow-up to the smash hit Crash N.Sane Trilogy. I was hyped beyond belief, because, while I enjoyed Crash back in the day, the original Spyro holds a special place in my heart. Many late ’90s weekends were spent playing the game at my best friend’s house, taking turns trying to uncover all of the game’s secrets.
One of the strengths of the original Spyro trilogy was its stellar art direction. The color palette and character designs give the games’ worlds a dreamlike quality. Spyro Reignited Trilogy nails this aesthetic, in my view. The updated visuals maintain the otherworldly fantasy presented by the originals, with added pop in the form of unique dragon designs for the first game.
I keep finding myself telling people that all 3 games look like I remembered them looking as a child, and I think that’s the biggest compliment I could give them. I loved them enough to get all of the trophies and achievements across both the PS4 and Xbox One versions. The only complaint I had was the rightly-criticized lack of subtitles, but that was eventually fixed in a patch.
The other game that captured my leisure time recently was Resident Evil 2, released in January. The 2002 remake of Resident Evil is one of my favorite games of all time, so I had high hopes for this one. I always liked Resident Evil 2, but Capcom’s slight change in direction by giving the remake a more serious tone and presentation was welcome to me.
Unlike the original game, I actually did find myself getting a little scared when Mr. X would appear or a licker would would turn hostile after I thought I walked past it undetected. The game provided me with some great anecdotes to share with friends, such as the time I couldn’t tell where Mr. X was and boldly decided to run out of the room I was in, only for him to burst through the door as I opened it and toss Claire into the far wall, prompting a startled yelp from me. I had his patterns in the original game memorized, but his bigger role in the remake gave me many fun frights.
Even with the focus on more serious scares, I think the game strikes a nice balance between being faithful to the source material and adding new surprises. The RPD looked like I imagined it as a child, to echo my Spyro sentiments. All of the characters look amazing, and I feel Claire’s new outfit fits her style perfectly. Marvin’s expanded role is another change that I appreciated, as I felt more attached to him when he met his end this time around. I honestly didn’t mourn the loss of the moth boss as some people did, and felt the redesigned plant-based enemies in the lab made up for its absence. Overall, the experience felt fresh and exciting, despite my having played the original several times over the past 20 years.
People often complain about the abundance of remakes, remasters and re-releases in the modern gaming industry, but I love the potential to breathe new life into classic games that they provide. If we get more remakes of my childhood favorites with love put into them, I can’t see myself complaining.
Kay Talks Games 