Who to enhance with a gaming face-lift?

"No. No graphical updates. If you can't go back and enjoy old games as they are, then maybe you need to go back and explore your roots."

You know what? Screw that! I was born in the 70s and played the living shit out of the classics. I don't need someone telling me I need to explore my roots. I love those games and always will, but if I want some shiny new graphics with my classic gameplay, what exactly is wrong with that? There's no reason why the companies can't keep releasing the classics in their original form along with updated versions. If you don't like it, don't buy it. But don't ruin it for the rest of us.

If you want classic game play, then support games like the aforementioned Viewtiful Joe. It's not much, but it's all you can do.

And stop telling people like me that if I don't like it, don't buy it. I'm really god damn tired of that. It's a false choice and about as intellectually honest as Republicans telling people that if they don't like America they should just leave.
Maybe I WANT to play a classic game. Maybe I DON'T have a working NES anymore. What do *I* do, hmm? Just sit it out and wait? Spend a hundred dollars+ on an old NES and a copy of Mario/duck Hunt?

Are you for colorizing old TV shows and movies? A lot of people aren't. The same logic applies to video games. Some of it is based on emotional attachment, some of it it based on principals.

Like I said, if you want more old-skool classic game play, support it and DO something about it.
For christ sake, this is the blogosphere. We just saw in November that when we DO come together and make ourselves heard, we can get results.
As I recall, Joystiq recently had a poll asking if we'd buy 2D games and the result was overwhelmingly 'yes' (I could be mistaken, but I don't think I am..)
With that kind of support and the sheer number of video game blogs and comics (with blogs) out there, why the hell ISN'T this community coming together and pushing for more 2D game play??

At any rate, it's pointless to keep remaking things over and over. Most of it will just look dated again in 10 years, anyway. Are we going to RE-re-make Mega Man 2 AGAIN?
I'd much rather have a new Mega Man game (...kind of..) that keep re-playing the same thing over and over again with nicer visuals.

Given the lack of creativity over all in the video game industry, admittedly the thought of developers going back and exploring THEIR roots is appealing...but I'm too much of a pessimist to feel it would do any good.

I really loved how in Viewtiful Joe the graphics were grainy and gross until you turned Viewtiful, as if the film quality suddenly increased. I'd like to see a game that played with the evolution of graphics like that. It'd start in 2-D, and the number of colors would slowly increase, and then the number of moving sprites would increase, and then you'd get Mode 7 eventually, then polygons, then really primitive 3-D, etc. It'd be like Spore, but involve the history of video game technology instead of the whole universe.

"Maybe I WANT to play a classic game. Maybe I DON'T have a working NES anymore. What do *I* do, hmm? Just sit it out and wait? Spend a hundred dollars+ on an old NES and a copy of Mario/duck Hunt?"

If you're so into untouched classics, but not inclined to spend money on an older system, then maybe you should invest in a Wii and download the VC versions of those old NES games.

"Are you for colorizing old TV shows and movies? A lot of people aren't. The same logic applies to video games. Some of it is based on emotional attachment, some of it it based on principals."

No, I don't like colorized shows and movies. But I wouldn't hold it against a game creator or movie director if they felt the need to revisit their original creation with new visuals/audio/etc because they didn't have the time/money/studio support/technology to deliver something closer to what they initially intended.

Alfred Hitchcock made a remake of his film The Man Who Knew Too Much. Sam Raimi remade Evil Dead. Comic book companies have been retelling the stories of Batman, Superman, Spider-man for decades. (I'm not going to use George Lucas as an example because he's a tool.) But what's wrong with game studios revisiting old games and giving gamers updated visuals, etc? Chances are the purists are still going to have access to the originals thanks to game compilations, downloadables, and unlockables. But if the purists make a big enough stink they have the potential to kill any studio's plans to make remakes for guys like me. And I think that sucks.

I love the old 2D games, but there's no reason those 2D games can't keep their integrity while sporting new HD graphics and animation.

"People need to get off of Final Fantasy 7's testicles. The game's plot was mediocre, the graphics were appalling even for its time, and character development were nil for most of the cast. The only reason it recieved as much praise as it did, was because it was the first 3D final fantasy, and it was hyped to no tomorrow by Sony (even went as far as to say the cutscenes were real gameplay, Sony even lied back then). "

Oh ok. Everyone, you can shut up now, Moonfire said we have to.

Anyway, although I do think FF7 is not the best FF out there, it is definitely a GREAT game, a great final fantasy on its own. The graphics were crap for the time? To be a relatively early PlayStation title, I don't think so.

By the way people, if you don't want games to be touched, just don't buy them. Period. I do want games to be touched, and others want that. The originals will always be there. As usual, capitalism will satisfy the demand.

Bionic Commando. That game rocked. I wouldn't mind updated graphics for that.

On a side note, I do own Lost Planet, and instead of collecting green pellets, you get red bellets. And the game is made by Capcom.

To all of those people complaining about updating old games, you have your right to complain, but before you do, please read the topic. There is also nothing wrong with updating old games. People were pissed with Lucas because not only did he change the old movies, he didn't make the originals available to the "purists". This is usually not the case unless it is a very rare game, and services like the VC are useful if you want legal emulation in some of these cases.

If you're looking for companies to go to all the trouble of redoing all the graphics for games, then you can be sure they're not going to release it for $10 or less on the Virtual Console. They're going to release it on a GBA or DS cart for $35 for all the effort they put into remaking the game. If anything does show up in the future for download on Wii (and not on VC, which they've stated is ONLY for original emulated games and not new content), I could see them maybe charging $20, same as an original casual download game. Definitely not less than that.

Wow! Tons of AWESOME responses to our article at weeklygeekshow.com!

We touched on this subject in a bit more detail on this week's podcast, just posted on the site. You can subscribe to it from one of the many links on the page, or download it directly from here: http://www.weeklygeekshow.com/weeklygeek_020507.mp3

Thanks again for such a great response! You joystiq peeps rule.

One of these days someone should make a 3D Zelda game. That would totally rock!

Like others have stated...only if they include the original in as well.

The idea of SoM in 3D makes me die inside a little.

...yes! Though I shudder at the thought of an outright remake of FF6 ...I'd much rather have that than a tired remake of VII...sigh. Overrated!
It should be put on the Wii only because the idea of it being on anything other than Nintendo is a little weird, seeing as that's where it started.

They can just offer both versions, and even charge separately for them, real Nintendo style.

First, everyone who keeps bringing up that Nintendo stated the VC is for emulated games and nothing else just needs to drop that cop out. Seriously. That's not the point. They can change their stance anytime they want and that's part of what people complaining is about... nothing will change if no one complains. It's a simple concept, so learn it.

I really see no reason why the games can't be touched up graphically and then released with an option to use the original or updated graphics. There are games on XBLA that have this (e.g. Frogger). It doesn't have to be a major overhaul and Nintendo are masters of rehashes, so it's not like this is some sort of technologically difficult endeavour.

Then you have the whole online mulitplayer which needs to be added... plenty of emulators do it, so Nintendo could too.

"It is disheartening to see "classic" games being dragged out on Xbox Live Arcade and Wii's VC without some noticeable graphics enhancement."

Huh? The 360 games often come with an option for revamped graphics. It's true they don't always look good, but it's still THERE. Nothing like the Wii's quick-and-dirty port at all.

"Enhanced music for Mega Man 2? How could you possibly enhance that? That's the crème de la crème of video game music right there."

Ninja Gaiden 1-3 say hello. The Mega Man games (especially 2&3) were great, but they can't touch Gaiden's drum-driven stuff.

Speaking of which, I would like to see the NES Ninja Gaiden games redone, and I don't mean the medoicre SNES compilation cart that made it look more cartoony and made the music terrible.

Make the sprites a bit bigger and get rid of the NES flicker, but other than that a very simple update of the graphics would be plenty. Then make the cinematics look fucking beautiful, and hire a competent music director to keep the feel of the original NES tracks alive, and I'm all over it. Would be a nice cross-promotion with XBL Arcade whenever they get around to doing the next Ninja Gaiden for 360.

I agree with moonfire a bit.

I enjoyed FFIX. However, I actually liked VII as well. VIII...didn't do it for me. My favorite will always be VI, though. If it got the FFIII treatment and was redone the way DS did, I'd be happy.

Streets of Rage with more animation frames would be beautiful. I don't even need the sprites to be cleaner, just give it a SNK look to it. It would be amazing.

Not every game needs to be uplifted, remember pong being remade? Asteroids? Pitfall? Yeah...those sucked as remakes. Sometimes original is just best.

Rocket Jockey , cleaned up with full LAN/multiplayer and updated controls for the Wii.

Megaman 2 had not only some of the best music of the 8-bit era, but also the best LACK of music. The silence as you pass through Wily-6 to get to the final battle is downright eerie.

And while I am not opposed to graphics/audio updates of classic titles, I do not consider the "Powered Up treatment" to be an appealing example of such. The Megaman I know and love doesn't suffer from hydrocephaly.