Top 5 Playstation Classics That Need to Be Remade

Reviving old properties has been popular since classic franchises started being revamped with upscaled graphics for PS3 collections, which by and large did quite well. With the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy going down a hit and an upcoming remake of Final Fantasy VII on the way, we’re going to count down our top 5 other PS1 classics that could benefit from being brought back to life with current-gen gaming technology!

5. Ape Escape 1

Some of the PS1’s most famous titles are platformers, with other classics like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro being honourable mentions for entries into this list. One of the most unique and fun platformers of the time, though, was that of Ape Escape. Players control a kid named Spike who is tasked with capturing an army of apes sent through time to try and rewrite history. It featured fun and inventive gameplay, where players had to use various gadgets to capture the apes while traversing a slew of different environments. The franchise featured a PS2 sequel (which has made an appearance on PS4), but since the last entry into the series was in the early 2000s, we’re way overdue to crack out our Stun Clubs and catch some renegade primates again.

4. Syphon Filter 1 & 2

While stealth games like Splinter Cell and Hitman are old hat now, one of the first PS1 franchises to popularise the genre was Syphon Filter. It incorporated a good mix of stealth with puzzle-solving gameplay and had story elements reminiscent of James Bond or Mission Impossible-type narratives. The games followed protagonist Gabriel Logan as he needs to thwart some kind of world-threatening scheme, and he needs to not only find allies to assist him, but also has to race against the clock to defeat whatever cataclysmic plan his enemies were scheming up. Since the Metal Gear Solid franchise has seemingly reached its end, Syphon Filter is one of the few popular PS1 franchises that could attempt to pick up that mantle of best stealth-action series, should it be remade, of course.

3. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Before God of War and Devil May Cry were the hack ‘n slash heavyweights they are today, Legacy of Kain was the game leading that genre. Besides featuring a solid combat system and some platforming elements, the primary novelty to the Soul Reaver series was the main character Raziel’s ability to shift between two planes of existence, the material plane and the spectral plane. Shifting between the two appropriately was necessary to traverse the environments successfully and added a cerebral component to the game that wasn’t all too common back in 1999. The macabre and dark world of Nosgoth is also intriguing, as is the fraught revenge story that the series is based on. A multiplayer game set in the Legacy of Kain world entitled Nosgoth has been confirmed by Square Enix – but it’s neither a hack ‘n slash nor a traditional single-player game, so while it does sound interesting, it’s not truly a further exploration of the Legacy of Kain universe, unfortunately.

2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania has seen recent entries into the series with the Lords of Shadow titles, but the most celebrated game from the franchise is undoubtedly Symphony of the Night. It’s a side-scrolling action-RPG that follows the son of Dracula as he has to fight his way through the vampire lord’s castle and eventually face off against his father in a bid to protect humanity from his wrath. Besides having a gameplay system that has aged surprisingly well, the setting of the labyrinthine castle is an intriguing and enjoyable environment so large it seems to contain several smaller worlds inside it. The Lords of Shadow series reintroduced the famous franchise to a new generation, and since Lords of Shadow 2 had a mixed reception, a potential avenue to revisit the Castlevania universe might be a return to some of its classic games.

1. Metal Gear Solid

Considering how this game has almost transcended the genre with its popularity, it’s really the most significant candidate for a fully-fledged modern remake. Unfortunately, the original creator Hideo Kojima had a falling out with publisher Konami, so the Metal Gear world is caught in limbo at the moment. A remake of 1998’s Metal Gear Solid has been discussed by fans ever since the launch of the PS3, but despite a few murmurs that something along the lines was in the works, it’s never come to fruition. July 13th, 2017, marked the franchise’s 30th anniversary, and fans expected some news with regards to games or other media, but Konami has been surprisingly quiet, although they assured fans that the series was still important to them. A fan-made HD remake using the Unreal 4 Engine was in development for a while, but was abruptly canceled with no explanation, so longtime fans wanting to revisit Shadow Moses are likely going to have to wait for some official news from Konami… or more likely, just dust off the old PS1 and go old-school.

What game would you love to see an HD remaster of? Let us know by tweeting @MenStuffZA and commenting below.

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