Batman: Return To Arkham - 8 Ways It Proves Remasters Are Totally Ridiculous

Once restricted to the odd HD remake of a years-old gaming classic, video game remasters are here, there and everywhere these days. Determined to tap into the gaming community’s ever-present nostalgia, studios and publishers world over are pushing remasters out the door, regardless of whether or not they’ve exhibited a long-lasting cultural impact. But are gamers getting a shoddy deal?

Take ‘Batman: Return To Arkham,' for instance. Developed by Virtuos Studios a little over a year since Rocksteady graced us with their divisive conclusion to the trailblazing Arkham saga, Warner Bros.’ current-gen remake of the relatively new franchise would appear to be a tad innocuous, as long as you ignore its contributive effect to this markedly regressive trend.

Indeed, the unprecedented influx of current-gen remakes of fledgling franchises only confirms one thing – the industry is running out of ideas.

Don’t get me wrong, people have been begging for a remaster of Rocksteady’s original masterwork for years now. Calls for a remake weren’t wholly unfounded either; after all, if Capcom can somehow justify a DMC remaster, why shouldn’t Batman? It’s fairly ridiculous, yes, but in an age where publishers desperately try to pry money from consumers with micro-transactions, season passes and the sort, it doesn’t feel too out of place.

This speaks more for the unsavoury business practices carried out by gaming’s biggest companies in recent years, but while an argument may exist for extending virtual experiences with varying levels of add-on content, the humble remaster is irrelevant beyond all comparison. In Batman’s case, the mere act of updating visuals has been amazingly screwed up, as Virtuos has done away with the uniquely gothic colour pallet that lent itself so well to Arkham Asylum and City’s aesthetic. It’s absurd to think that even a remaster could fail visually, but if anything speaks for their oversaturation more, it would be the very fact that Return to Arkham even exists in the first place.

As far as throwaway statements go these days, the term ‘cash-grab’ is becoming something of a cliché.

If a game ships with a miniscule campaign and a rushed multiplayer component? It’s a cash-grab. If one releases prematurely with a multitude of bugs? Cash-grab. Season pass? Again, it’s a cash-grab.

Whilst I think that the term is hilariously overused at this point, I do believe it is more than applicable to the current state of remastered releases making their way to consoles. Arkham Asylum is barely six years old, yet now it has been deemed necessary to update its visuals.

Has anyone actually played Asylum recently? It looks fantastic, and fairs far better with the games of today than many of its contemporaries do. The same goes for Arkham City – a title that still leaves audiences gawping at its visual effects.

Apart from the odd gameplay tweak, Rocksteady’s first two Batman releases really don’t justify being remade, especially so soon after the trilogy wrapped up. But I digress, as Batman sells and Warner Bros. are well too aware of that fact.