The recent Sony conference announced a large collection of up to 13 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games for several early platforms, including FC, MD, SFC, GB, etc. The previous tribute to this classic style, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Schrader’s Revenge,” was also announced to generate buzz and will be released this year. Nintendo’s launch event announced a number of remakes such as “Ex-Mission 1st”, “Taiko Rizen 5” and “Time Warrior”.
In addition, we can also see the resurrection of the classic old game “Snowman Brothers”, and even the relatively cold “Musou Yanliuji” have announced the launch of the sequel after 22 years. Not to mention the “Moon Wind Magic Legend Immortal Moon” and “Super Confusion Star Wars Zero” series of three games that have been released, similar to the old games that have been resurrected there are many more, and the future may continue to emerge.
Although the past era we can also see a lot of old games port and collection version, such as Konami has been launched in the PSP above the “Cosmic Cruiser” series and the “soldier bee” series of the collection.
But the current renaissance trend and the past has many differences, such as the emergence of more and more remakes, in addition to the resurrection of many series in addition to the launch of the port version or remake version, will also launch a sequel, many sequels and the previous work is separated by more than 20 years or even 30 years, such as “Tekken 4”.
Tekken of Fury 4
In general, this is inextricably linked to the development of the Japanese game industry itself and the rise of independent games around the world, as well as the diversification of demand among today’s players, and of course the huge hardware sales of the NS is also an important factor.
For many old gamers from that era, to see so many old games resurrected can be said to be a very happy thing.
What are the characteristics of this renaissance?
Looking at this wave of resurrection of old Japanese games, it is easy to see several features.
There are many companies involved
Both big companies like SE and small companies like Inti Creates are keen to do this. Several major Japanese game companies have expressed a strong desire to resurrect classic IPs.
For example, at the end of February, Tomoya Asano, the producer of Yakuza Traveler, said in a live event at SE that President Yosuke Matsuda is now asking them to make full use of HD-2D to recreate a lot of classic SE titles.
In this broadcast, Tomoya Asano said that the president asked them to discuss various game remake possibilities. So they made a list (excluding of course projects that are definitely not reliable like Mahjong games), the most notable of which are remakes of various works Square and Enix have released on SFC consoles, such as their already released Raisha Strike remake, and a future remake of Time Warriors to be released.
Sonic Mania is the product of collaboration between fellow enthusiasts and officials.
As an old Japanese gaming powerhouse, Konami has made some moves in this area.
The company has been working mainly on sports games in recent years, and there are only a few non-sports games such as “Momotaro Subway Showa Heisei Order and also the fixed number” and “Heartbeat Memories Girl’s Side 4”.
But Konami has a large number of classic IP, such as “Soulcalibur” “Castlevania” “Silent Hill” and so on, have not been renewed for a long time.
So Konami carried out an independent game competition last year, inviting independent game developers to produce sequels or replicas of their classic games, and the best works will likely receive Konami’s help to become commercialized works. At that time Konami opened more than 80 classic works including “Cosmic Cruiser”, “The Great Thief Goemon”, “Legend of Magic City” and “Salomon Snake”.
Such a scene is unprecedented for such a large company to make such a concentrated and intensive firm statement to resurrect those old classic games of the past.
A masterpiece of the generation: FC version of “Cosmic Cruiser 2 Gover’s Wild Hope
Across generations and platforms in particular
The remake of “Chrono Warriors”, “Taiko Rizen 5” and even “Snowman Brothers” is not too surprising, after all, the original had a great reputation back then and still has a certain degree of discussion….
But like the “Yashida” series and the “Cotton Witch” series of resurrection is very rare.
The new generation of players may rarely know “Yashida”, this series is the late 80s to the early 90s more active, and at that time a certain fame STG, created by Compile, in the Sega handheld platform and the console platform launched a number of works, in the Sega eight-bit console SMS and handheld GG above, this series of graphic expression can be said to play the function of the The limit.
And the pinnacle of the series that the MD above the “Mushi Yashida” can be said to be the platform on the best picture of one of the STG (shooter), sound, light and shadow effects are amazing. In addition, the same Compile company’s FC platform STG masterpiece “Ghana Fighter” gameplay is also deeply influenced by the “Yashida” series.
MD masterpiece “martial arts Yashida
However, with the passage of time, this series gradually forgotten, in the MD era after so many years inside, only some nostalgic articles and videos can see someone occasionally mention the series of interesting gameplay and the glory of the year.
At the end of 2020, the “Yashida Collection” produced by M2 was released on PS4 and NS, announcing the return of the series after many years. The collection includes several works on SMS and GG handhelds, and adds new features such as instant archiving and file reading, which received a lot of praise after its release.
In 2021, M2 took the opportunity to release the latest title in the series, the arcade game “Warblade Yashida”, to the delight of all the old fans of the series.
GG Yashida 3, a brand new title included in the Yashida Collection
Cotton Little Witch” series is also a similar situation, the series in the 90s arcade and PCE, SS and other platforms were once very popular, belong to the horizontal shooting game classic, but also and “Yashida” series like silent for many years, the recent two years also resurrected, not only launched a few works of the early years of the modern port version, but also the first generation of the remake, and then also took advantage of the situation to launch the sequel “Cotton Little Witch Rock Super Night Dream”.
And similar to the “Musashi Yanliuji 2″ this kind of popularity and influence is not so big some classic old games have been resurrected, the future may also be more.
The Little Witch of Cotton” remake
Why is it revived? The willingness of the old player base to buy
First of all, from the player’s point of view, for many old players, they are eager to play some classic old games in the past, because these old games have their fond memories, and for various reasons, part of the current 3A masterpiece is not so interested in, more want to play the classic works of childhood. Most of these old players have been in society for many years and have some spending power, willing to spend money for these old games.
But want to play those old games through the real machine, for many old players are a problem (unofficial simulation is a separate topic), a few years ago to do so to buy an old used console, but also an old CRT TV, or use the video signal adapter to connect to the current TV to play, in addition to a large number of old consoles have been discontinued, how to repair and maintenance is also a big problem.
Now old players can directly buy and play these games on multiple platforms such as NS, saving a lot of tossing and turning steps, and many of these old games are cheaper in digital format, which makes it easier to attract old players to buy.
In addition a few years ago also appeared SFC Mini, MD Mini such a nostalgic version of the new host, but such devices are only part of the built-in classic games, the coverage is ultimately limited.
Tribute and sermon of independent game developers
For new players, if they have been baptized by a large number of quality independent games in recent years, they will also have a certain degree of acceptance of these old games, which are mostly “prototypes” – because many of the independent games are paying tribute to the old classics of the past. The game, or rather from these works to draw the essence of elements.
For example, the recently released “Hell’s Souls” pays homage to FC’s “Castlevania 2”. The indie classic “Shovel Knight” is a masterpiece in this regard.
The action of the main character swinging the shovel and FC “Ninja Dragon Sword” protagonist moves almost the same, the main character jumped up and down after the attack design is obviously a reference to FC’s “Donald Duck”, special long-range attack method is to “Castlevania” tribute, and the work of the level let everyone see the shadow of “Super Mario 3”, the level is in the “world map The levels are selected independently on the “world map”, while retaining the “encounter” part of the encounter on the world map.
As games like “Shovel Knight” continue to emerge, various discussions arise, from which new players will learn about the glory of the classics that these games pay homage to, and may further want to play these old games as well.
The continued emergence of pixelated games like “Shovel Knight” has also made the pixelated style a popular trend of the moment. Some young players may have scoffed at the FC-level graphics in the past, but after playing “Dungeon” and “The Messenger”, they have become quite receptive to the FC-like graphics.
Not to mention that many independent game producers themselves are veteran gamers, and have a special affection for certain classic old IP.
The resurrection of the “Wonder Boy” series is such a moving story, the series is the mid-to-late 1980s to the early 1990s active in Sega’s SMS, GG handheld, MD and other platforms of the horizontal A-RPG, is also silent for many years, until the emergence of the “Wonder Boy Dragon Trap” in 2017 to announce its return.
The director of this independent game, Omar, it is the original version of the work played as a child, and then crazy obsessed with it, only to be able to remake the game when the time is right, so that many young players today are also able to understand the beauty of this classic work.
These independent game producers grew up under the influence of the classic old game, their excellent works of tribute to the classics, in fact, is also an act of evangelism, I believe there will be a new generation of players because of these independent games to love the old games of the past.
Resurrection of the classic STG more and more
And NS whether in Japan or Europe and the United States have a huge influence, and many of the old players in these areas have deep feelings for the old game, because these areas have decades of uninterrupted accumulation of deep host culture, so the atmosphere to discuss and play these classic old games is much stronger.
For example, some universities in North America, many college students will often get together to play a variety of old games with the old console in the past, the influence of NS in Japan is also quite extensive, you can see a lot of people carry this console, office workers and students group about this host of discussion is also very high.
In addition, many old games if played on a large screen, the screen is too large, resulting in pixelated graphics with a strong sense of grain, but in the NS comes with a small screen, these pixelated graphics are appropriate.
So just like some independent games in the NS platform sales are the highest, a lot of comeback of the old games on the NS sales than other platforms, some games once also on the Japanese game sales list.
That’s why we saw the previously announced “Yeti Brothers” remake choose to land on the NS platform, although do not rule out that the game will land on other platforms later, but obviously the priority of NS is the highest.
Japanese game company’s multiple considerations
Finally, from the perspective of Japanese game companies, resurrecting old classic games also has various considerations such as schedule, interests and reputation.
For many small and medium-sized companies, they do not have much budget to make large-scale games, so the cost of reviving these old games is relatively low, and now both new and old players have this demand, and the installed base of NS with excellent adaptability to indie games is extremely large.
For example, the M2 company, which has been established for 30 years, has been mainly porting many old games to the new generation platform for many years, and in the past only a few Japanese companies such as M2 did so, but now there are quite a few small and medium-sized companies have joined the ranks, and even the current trend of porting classic STG to contemporary platforms in Japan is driven by M2 on its own.
A comparison of the graphics of the remastered version of Front Mission 1ST and the original version
Konami is another situation, because the company has a lot of classic IP, because Hideo Kojima and IGA and other people have left, resulting in these IPs are not responsible for research and development, so Konami on the one hand, “Castlevania” series and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series package ported to the contemporary platform, on the other hand is to open these IPs to independent game developers to create.
After all, there have been too many indie games paying homage to “Castlevania” over the years, from “Salt and Sanctuary” to “Hollow Knight” to “Origins and Elf Will” to “The Messenger,” the number of which is even hard to count.
Although Konami can choose to continue to ignore these IPs, I suspect that outside public opinion on Konami has actually caused a lot of pressure, for example, in many forums can be seen in the “Fxxx Konami” statements, players are expressed is a strong dissatisfaction with a number of classic IPs do not produce a sequel. The players are expressing their strong dissatisfaction with the lack of sequels to classic IPs.
Further, if the resurrection of these old game IP can make the reputation of the game company to improve, for the brand image of these companies also has a great benefit, after all, Konami how profit-seeking also do not want to be greeted by the players in line from time to time.
Conclusion
In fact, “renaissance” this phenomenon is very common in many fields, clothing field every few years will set off a wave of nostalgia, Japanese animation field in recent years is also a renaissance, many classic old animation to resurrect.
As for the game field, after entering the new century, due to the rapid development of the host performance, making the past era too many classic IP was buried in the yellow sand. Fortunately, a large number of independent games and old games have made a comeback in this era to show their charm, and now, it is undoubtedly a good time to dig these treasures out of the sand and let them shine again.
