8 Video Game Remakes That Were TOTALLY Justified

Looking at the games industry these days and its seemingly endless slew of slated reboots, remasters and remakes, it would be easy to think that publishers might be getting a little bit creatively bankrupt.

Who'd have thought, eh?

After all, why push innovative and unproven new IPs when you can just add some visual polish to a known cash cow and carry your money home on an ocean liner?

It's not like there aren't any exciting new projects on the horizon - for example the likes of Atomic Heart, Judas and Lies Of P - but with the amount of attention lavished on remakes like Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill 2 and countless others, it's hard not to find ourselves wondering what year it is.

With the latest rumour being that a remake of Horizon Zero Dawn is on the cards, it may well be time to grab some of these studio execs by the lapels and give them a good shake.

However, not all remakes are (re)made equal. Over the last few decades, plenty have come along that for a myriad of reasons were well worth it. Whether they added much-needed quality of life improvements to their original counterparts, integrated popular aspects from later games in their respective franchises or reworked themselves into entirely new experiences, the following remakes - while not necessarily replacing the originals - are absolutely deserving of the critical acclaim they received.

While remaking the classic PS1 Tony Hawk titles may not have seemed entirely necessary, it makes much more sense given the wider context of the franchise as a whole.

After years of critical acclaim, the THPS series was beginning to lose momentum, with the popular Underground titles giving way to the overly easy and somewhat stale American Wasteland. Project 8 and Proving Ground were admirable attempts at a back-to-basics approach, but these were then followed by Ride and Shred: a pair of barely functional, gimmicky, peripheral-centric disasters.

There wasn't another mainline Tony Hawk entry until 2015's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. With the Tony Hawk licence about to expire, the game was rushed out unfinished in just a few months, and was plagued with bugs and glitches to the point of being unplayable. It was a sad end to what had been a classic series.

With the franchise all but dead, it took another five years until Vicarious Visions released remakes of the first 2 THPS games in all their next-gen glory. Returning to beloved locations such as School II, Downtown and Venice Beach is an absolute nostalgic joy, and the inclusion of various mechanics from later games like reverts and spine transfers allows for the kind of absurd lines once only possible in those titles.

Cashing in on nostalgia has rarely been so satisfying.