next »

[r.kachowski]

Unlike the ReBirth revivals, the newest Rocket Knight, as revealed by 1UP, will be given a 3D graphical makeover, staying true to its 2D gameplay roots. And unlike previous Konami retro spin-offs, this one's coming to Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and PCs via Steam.

...

According to 1UP's report, the Rocket Knight sequel is being developed by Climax Studios, the UK development team that created Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for Konami. Further details and a handful of high res images of the newest Rocket Knight can be seen at the 1UP reveal.

linker

looks like crash bandicoot 

[C.A. Silbereisen]

looks like crash bandicoot 

Unfortunately, you're right. I was excited for a couple seconds until I saw that screen. Aw well, guess I'll have to stick to emulating the original on my PSP 

[konjak]

Sure is popular to remake classics and give it the "bland as hell" treatment!

[Derek]

Yeah, I don't think this looks better than the original game.

Maybe it's better in motion...

[Rynen10K]

Sure is popular to remake classics and give it the "bland as hell" treatment!

Konami needs to get their act together

I haven't played it yet, but the videos I've seen of the Turtles in Time remake look god-awful.

[HöllenKobold]

I believe that was Ubisoft that made the remake.
But yeah, bland. I was hoping for news on the Castlevania: The Adventure remake which is guaranteed to have sprites since it's one of those ReBirth titles. Screw you, let me try derailing this thread with a game about manly men whipping monsters.

[Jad]

Wtf, here is where high-res 2D graphics would REALLY have done the trick, rather than this 2.5D 3D stuff.

The original was delicious pixels, so why not go from there and see what kind of update would really build on the old graphics in an aesthetically pleasing sense? gah!

[sega]

Sure is popular to remake classics and give it the "bland as hell" treatment!

Someone on GAF compiled a 3D remake comparison list.  Although the ghouls n ghosts one isn't technically a remake, and kinda looks the best of the bunch (I added Turtles in Time to the list):













Like you guys, the first thing I thought was that the graphics were more nostalgic of Crash Bandicoot on PS1 than RNA on Genesis.

[Ishi]

Another vote for "highly disappointed with the graphics". I'm just gonna give them the benefit of the doubt for now and assume they're heavily work in progress, though if they are I dunno why screenshots would be released.

[Valter]

God Damn. Why is it that Nintendo, of all developers, was the one to get its head out of its ass and realize that 2D graphics aren't necessarily a bad thing? Bowser's Inside Story is probably the most beautiful game to come out this year, mostly by specifically avoiding shitty 3D graphics.

I suppose they can be excused for being developers working on a full scale game, but even XBLA games outclass that picture. Braid, Castle Crashers... even fucking N looked better than this piece of shit does. La Mulana did better artwork with 8 bits than you could make with your "3D graphical makeover, staying true to its 2D gameplay roots". Fuck you, Konami.

This is one childhood wonder that I do not want to see ruined. There are too many examples of decent remakes for you to get away with making something so blatantly terrible.

[C.A. Silbereisen]

God Damn. Why is it that Nintendo, of all developers, was the one to get its head out of its ass and realize that 2D graphics aren't necessarily a bad thing? Bowser's Inside Story is probably the most beautiful game to come out this year, mostly by specifically avoiding shitty 3D graphics.

Yeah, the DS is pretty much the last Bastion of 2D graphics in the realm of commercial/mainstream gaming. Also Warioland on the Wii. Great 2D graphics, great game.

I think the main problem is that modern 3D engines, with their dynamic lighting and HDR and what not are kinda at odds with the "cutesy", simple visual stylings of most platformers. It makes simple "cartoony" textures automatically look dull and often jarring against the amount of tricky post-processing that's going on.

[sega]

Here's your 2D Sparkster update:

[Melly]

That would be badass.

And I personally did like the 3D graphics in Bionic Commando Rearmed. Especially them keeping all the crazy color schemes of the NES game due to that console's color limitations. They did add yellow though.

[Alevice]

I kinda like the look of Capcom games' remakes. The UI improvements in Megaman X seems rather good. Not so in GnG, mostly because of the horribly drawn frames on the item slots and such. Otherwise it is very informative.

Prince of Persia looks decent, but not fon on the modern Prince's look.

Konami's look very insipid, and Rocket Knight/Sparkster's dosnt really look like the original in any way.

Turtles one is just horrible, reminds me of those old brawlers with poor 3d rendered sprites that were the bomb once DKC and KI came on the snes. Ack.

[C.A. Silbereisen]

Turtles one is just horrible, reminds me of those old brawlers with poor 3d rendered sprites that were the bomb once DKC and KI came on the snes. Ack.

The first thing I thought of was bland early noughties shareware games but I guess this works too.  :D

[Valter]

And I personally did like the 3D graphics in Bionic Commando Rearmed. Especially them keeping all the crazy color schemes of the NES game due to that console's color limitations. They did add yellow though.

the graphics in Rearmed were adequate. These graphics are being compared unfavorably to an early Playstation 1 game. That is not a compliment! Grr! 

[fucrate]

I could pipe in and say that the graphics wont matter to me as long as they get the gameplay right, but the reality is that if the devs don't care enough to get the look right the rest is probably gonna get thrown out the window.

I thought the BC:Rearmed was fantastic, it was 3d but everything looked perfectly nostalgic.  This does not

[Drew]

Aw man, I loved Rocket Knight Adventures on the Genesis.  I hope it turns out OK. 

The 2.5D thing isn't always bad, Shadow Complex pulled it off pretty well.  The biggest problem with that game is that the grey-on-grey color scheme coupled with the fancy, bumpy, shiny, rendering kinda made it hard to see what was happening on the screen. 

Actually, I'm kind of surprised they didn't go for grey-and-gritty-rendering with this one, the original game was colorful, but it had a lot of grit to it as well.

[JamesPopStar]

I have great memories of playing Rocket Knight on the Sega Channel when I was young. It's probably wrong to judge something based solely on some screen shots, but the fact is, I almost think this series would have been better off left as my memory would have recalled it. This looks as bland as the new Bonk game.

[sega]

Turtles one is just horrible, reminds me of those old brawlers with poor 3d rendered sprites that were the bomb once DKC and KI came on the snes. Ack.

The biggest drop in visual enjoyment for me was that the animation didn't feel nearly as expressive.  The fact that you can face in any direction your analog stick can point results in character visuals that aren't as well planned.  The bosses were just sad.  The whole thing felt really bland visually.  From a play standpoint, they didn't use the added depth of the SNES version, which should be the very least that they do for a remake.  It felt as lifeless and bland as it looked.

I just don't know why they wait 15+ years to reintroduce something to the world, and then throw it away like this.  By the way these publishers adhere to sequels, I'd think they'd recognize how careful they have to be when reintroducing IP to this new era.  They certainly don't like creating new IP, so you'd think they'd treat the drying IP they have left like gold.

I liked how Capcom treated Street Fighter 4 (which might as well be a remake of SF2 by how they approached it).  They really made an effort to keep the as much personality as they could.  They had the characters make crazy faces when hit.  They tried to make the characters look painted, as they know that people liked the drawn graphics of SF2 over the "photorealism" of Mortal Kombat.  They used 2D hit collision to make it feel more like Street Fighter.  They got that they had a big responsibility in reintroducing an IP that people felt died.  They treated it like gold, and ended up with the highest rated console game of the year, and got some solid sales to back it up.