Nostalgia from Remastered Video Games
A tale as old as time
Truth be told, I’ve been going through it this past week. Life has really taken a crazy turn for me in a lot of ways I was unprepared for. It’s not easy, but I’ll get through it and it will be alright in the end.
So, that being said, I figured I’d write something a bit different this week. For me, video games have always been a fantastic means of escapism and an opportunity to put yourself into another world for whatever time you see fit. What’s more, many of these experiences carry with them a massive feeling of nostalgia.
For me, there are a few notable games that shaped my childhood, and have since seen massive remasters. These games have been given either full remakes, or at least graphical overhauls, that have given their fans fantastic opportunities to revisit experiences from their childhood in a wonderful new light. In this post, I’d like to highlight two of them.
#1 Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
This fantastic game frankly deserves its own post. As a young child, this game was my first experience EVER playing a video game on a computer. I remember my father purchasing this for our home computer and him finally giving me permission to play it.
This title is a fantastic example of a remaster done right. Westwood Studios originally developed Command & Conquer back in 1995, and would later go on to develop a number of games in the series. Then, in 1998 they were acquired by EA Games. EA has a long-standing reputation of acquiring small, wholesome game development studios and then later shutting them down. That’s exactly what happened to Westwood in 2003.
Luckily, in 2018, EA contacted Petroglyph Games which is a studio that is made up of many of the previous developers from Westwood that worked on C&C. Over the next few years, Petroglyph worked closely with members of the C&C community to develop a fan-built remaster of the original Command and Conquer.
Not only were the graphics improved, but many fan-requested features such as matchmaking for 1v1 battles were added as well.
There’s an amazing documentary by Noclip on YouTube that outlines the full story of this remaster. It’s very likely that I’ll be writing a subsequent post about this, or its sequel Red Alert 2, very soon.
#2 Halo: Master Chief Collection
The second game that I want to touch on is an undisputed titan of the video game industry. I’m of course talking about Halo. This franchise of games is another example of an extremely nostalgic set of titles, with each game holding its own spot in people’s hearts. In an attempt to not drone on about its many ins and outs, this game was ultimately made great by its compelling storytelling and exciting multiplayer experiences. This remaster does an incredible job of combining all of those experiences into one.
In The Master Chief Collection, you are given 5 different Halo games. This includes Halo 1, 2, 3, 4 and Reach. All of their campaigns are playable, in order, with remastered and updated graphics. All of the maps and game modes from every single game are playable online, too. In fact, you can opt to search for ALL OF THEM at the SAME TIME. As someone that grew up playing Halo 3, 4 and Reach, this is incredible to me. The nostalgic feeling of being able to just hop into the exact same game that I played as a 12 year old on my Xbox 360 just blows my mind, and it takes me right back to a time when life was a lot simpler.
What’s the point?
As always, I want to leave these posts with a closing note on what my main take-away is. I started this post off by stating that life had taken a turn for me recently, but that video games are one thing that I turn to to help me through tough times. Nostalgia is a funny thing, and it can make us feel safe when things might not be so great. For me, while I’ve been going through it recently, it’s been comforting to play these games and to escape for a while. I’m thrilled that there are so many developers, many of whom I’d like to cover here in the future, that are concerned with maintaining these experiences so that all fans get to experience them, new and old. These games are an integral part of a lot of people’s childhoods, and I’m glad they’re being given the intention that they deserve.