This is my Weekly Design Inspiration, this is a space where I share some design work that has either inspired me or caught my attention for its execution or concept. The things I feature on here can include (but not limited to) branding, web design, app design, illustration, typography, video games or anything that shows creativity in a unique way.
In the last year or so we have seen many video game remasters emerging, mainly focused around the original PlayStation era. We've already had Crash Bandicoot and Spyro Reignited as well as a few titles on the horizon including the likes of Medievil and Crash Team Racing. These were all games I loved as a kid and I was originally excited when I heard they were being remastered for the current generation of consoles, however this excitement quickly turned to questions about why these were even being made. Are these games a simple homage to the originals, are they to introduce a new generation to the great games of the past, or are they an easy cash grab playing on people's nostalgia?
There's a few things at play here and I don't think there's a clean cut positive or negative way of looking at remasters. The feeling of nostalgia is definitely great and seeing what talented artists can do with the visuals of these games to bring them up to scratch with modern titles is truly amazing. The source material typically has a lot of character but was limited in its visual execution due to the technical limitations of the time. Now that graphics have evolved and the games have become iconic over the years there's a lot that can be brought visually to these games to both make them beautiful but at the same time capture the feeling of nostalgia and familiarity. I have a lot of respect and admiration for the designer and artists that brought these games to life, especially the artists behind Spyro Reignited as that game is honestly breathtaking in its visuals. While I love what has been done visually to these games that is not the only thing that makes a good game.
These titles have been selected from the thousands of classic PlayStation games because of a few factors. Firstly, they were popular games, so would resonate with the most amount of people now-a-days. Secondly, they were actually very good games for their time, they still feel great to play (the originals that is). Graphics don't make a game feel good to play, the animations, movements and controls all come together to make a gaming experience so engaging. Good graphics are simply icing on the cake. If these games were terrible to play and the gameplay was clunky then they wouldn't have been considered for remasters, it's the old case of form follows function. The benefit now is that we can have our cake and eat it with quality classic gameplay with modern graphics. It’s the core gameplay that makes these titles so much fun to revisit, which presumably why they were chosen as remasters instead of reboots, which is a completely different kettle of fish.
While I love what has been done to the visuals of these games and the gameplay elements have been recreated with some insane accuracy, there is a part of me that does feel that remasters are perhaps a bit of an easy cash grab for these video game publishers. I think of remastered games in a similar category as the Disney live action films. They are indeed a show of technical/visual prowess but they aren’t necessarily bringing anything new to the platform, they are still re-telling the same story (or in this case, playing the same game). From the publishers point of view it’s a pretty safe bet to release a remaster (or even reboot) as opposed to an original IP as there is already an audience there and you don’t need to convince people that your new title is good. It just feels a bit shady to play on peoples nostalgia in order to make profit (cough, cough Disney), and it’s a shame to see the video game industry capitalise in a similar manner.
As mentioned earlier there is also another type of game that fits into this category of “remasters” or “re-releases”, and that’s reboots. The difference between a remaster and reboot is that a remaster is a direct recreation of the original whereas a reboot takes the original IP and does something new with it. Examples of this would include Tomb Raider and Ratchet & Clank. Could these games have been remastered instead of rebooted? Possibly, however these titles are both younger than the games that have been remastered and have had more development and releases between the original and now (especially Ratchet & Clank). This means that the idea of a reboot makes sense, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the reboot will expand on the original, in the case of Ratchet & Clank it actually did the opposite. The reboot of Ratchet & Clank completely desomated the original story, characters and humor and replaced it with generic garbage. What was prevalent in the original Ratchet & Clank games was an underlying theme of sarcasm and satire, it was a commentary on big business and certain political situations. This theme was felt by the surroundings, characters and plot, however in the reboot they seem to have removed any essence of this in favour of a generic child like storyline and dialog (presumably this has something to do with the god awful feature length movie that was released in tandem with the game). They also decided to completely remove any edge or interesting characteristics from Ratchet. In the original Ratchet was rude, short with people and out for himself. It took a large portion of the game for him to start coming around to being a likable and friendly character and along this journey we see Ratchet’s relationship with Clank grow, you know, an actual character arch. In the reboot they made Ratchet a goody-goody from the start and decided to pretty much remove any interactions between Ratchet and Clank…
My point is that if you are going to reboot a game then maybe publishers and developers should consider the themes and characteristics that made the original as great as it was, not just a hollow shell that looks good and plays in a similar fashion to the original. I guess this is why remasters are a safer bet as you are essentially coping exactly what you see, so it would be hard to upset the audience, unless you didn’t copy it accurately enough. I’m still not 100% sure how I feel about all these games being rebooted/remastered, I enjoy the nostalgia and visuals, but at the same time I could be spending my time playing new titles that are actually bringing something new to the platform.
Honorable Mentions
As part of my Weekly Design Inspiration I also like to share some bits and pieces that I have seen which have inspired me in the last week. I have captioned each image with some info and relevant links so you can find out more.
Green Chameleon have created a stunning temporary site in build up to the release of a new site. Presumably this is a taster as to what we can expect from the finished product, and if that's the case I'm really looking forward to seeing what they put out. The animations and transitions on this site are honestly amazing.
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