8 Remasters That Made Video Games WORSE

4. Flashback

assassins creed
Ubisoft

Delphine Software's 1992 cinematic platformer Flashback was a punishingly difficult, yet unique and laudable title. At the time, its methodical puzzling and platforming gave a sense of realism, setting it apart from its contemporaries Mario and Sonic. The game's story was also well received for its pacing and gradually unravelling mystery.

Paul Cuisset, Flashback's director, decided to remake the game in the early 2010s, with his studio VectorCell due to interest from fans in seeing the franchise revived.

However, VectorCell managed to do it in just about the worst way possible, stripping away everything that had made the original unique and creating a vapid platform shooter that was, ironically, utterly forgettable.

The remake's platforming was simplified significantly, demanding none of the care that had once been required of players. A heavier emphasis on much easier combat turned the game into a generic run-and-gun shooter for a lot of its runtime, and 2.5D environments were insipid in comparison to the original's beautiful hand-drawn backdrops and rotoscoped animation.

With an expanded story came some truly bad writing to boot, with a lot of the original plot points revealed early on and all mystery lost. The reworked protagonist himself, however, was the worst offender.

At one point early on in the game upon picking up a new item, he says, "Awesome sauce".

Says it all.

Contributor
Contributor

Neo-noir enjoyer, lover of the 1990s Lucasarts adventure games and detractor of just about everything else. An insufferable, over-opinionated pillock.