New Remasters, Ports, & Collections - HRG Approved
Sept 8, 2018 22:33:19 GMT -5
Post by Xeogred on Sept 8, 2018 22:33:19 GMT -5
Thought this might be a worthwhile resource, after we covered this topic a bit here.
WHAT IS HRG APPROVED? Per HRG FAQ:
Do ports of 10+ year old games count as retro?
If you're playing a port of a retro game on a modern platform, but the retro game itself remains unchanged, then the port counts as a retro game. (Say playing a NES game via Virtual Console.) If however you are playing a remake of a retro game, the remake does not count as a retro game, unless the remake itself is ten or more years old.
What about remasters versus remakes?
A "remaster" of a ten year or older game that doesn't change the source material (aside from perhaps increasing the resolution, or upgrading the audio fidelity), is still considered the same game as its original self insofar as HRG cares. So if Game X released in 1999, but Game X HD released in 2018, but nothing about the HD version changed aside from say higher resolution or increased audio fidelity, then Game X HD is still considered on equal HRG-kosher footing as Game X.
However a "remake" of a game, meaning an old game that was completely remade with new graphics, new audio, and/or additional content, is no longer considered the original "retro" game it reiterates. Not until said remake is actually ten or more years older itself.
If you're playing a port of a retro game on a modern platform, but the retro game itself remains unchanged, then the port counts as a retro game. (Say playing a NES game via Virtual Console.) If however you are playing a remake of a retro game, the remake does not count as a retro game, unless the remake itself is ten or more years old.
What about remasters versus remakes?
A "remaster" of a ten year or older game that doesn't change the source material (aside from perhaps increasing the resolution, or upgrading the audio fidelity), is still considered the same game as its original self insofar as HRG cares. So if Game X released in 1999, but Game X HD released in 2018, but nothing about the HD version changed aside from say higher resolution or increased audio fidelity, then Game X HD is still considered on equal HRG-kosher footing as Game X.
However a "remake" of a game, meaning an old game that was completely remade with new graphics, new audio, and/or additional content, is no longer considered the original "retro" game it reiterates. Not until said remake is actually ten or more years older itself.
From the wise words of toei:
Besides, talking about the new ways in which old games are made playable promotes playing them.
Feel free to ask us if you have questions!
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Shenmue 1+2 HD, released on August 21st, 2018 for the PS4, Xbox One, and Steam.
From what I've heard, this is a pretty solid collection and released at $30 which seems like a great price. I have seen that Joe over at Game Sack tweeted about a bunch of errors and glitches on his end but I've otherwise heard mostly good things. Supposedly they did some retooling of the menu's but I'm not sure of the specifics. I think a major new perk though, is that the Japanese audio is now included in the options for both games. So that's cool if you want to play it that way.
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1+2, released on July 22nd, 2018 for the PS4, Xbox One, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.
First off, I really hate the title and the way Capcom released this, as it is technically two collections. The "1" part of the collection is X1-X4, while the "2" part is X5-X8. For the PS4 and Xbox One releases, you get both discs in one package like one big collection. They do have their own separate trophy/achievement lists. Now for the Switch, I think only the "1" portion is available on cart and the rest you have to get digitally, which really sucks. And then both releases are split on Steam.
This is a solid collection that I ran through this summer as it came out but it is not without some major issues in a few spots that hardcore fans will notice right away. A big one for Mega Man, input lag. Even after enabling Game Mode on my HDTV which helped a lot, Mega Man X1-X3 still felt a bit off and imperfect. I also even had some weird graphical glitches happen in X3, the screen would melt like an SNES that starts to mess up with handling Mode 7 graphics. The issue corrected itself after a minute or two the few times it happened, but yeah... it was weird. Ultimately the games are still playable and unlike the PS2/GC Mega Man X Collection, the version of X3 on this set is the SNES version. Whereas the old collection had the weird PC/Saturn version of X3 which has a weaker re-arranged OST and sound effects in my opinion. Though it did have some cool anime cutscenes like X4, oh well. I much prefer the SNES music so I'm glad that version is here.
On the major plus side, X4-X6 in this set play flawlessly and the loading times are instant. This is a huge plus for these and I think this collection will be my ideal way to replay these installments going forward.
X7-X8 seem totally fine but... who cares? Who knows.
There are no saves states in this collection which annoyed some people, since they did have that in the previous Mega Man Legacy Collections. But you can "save" at the password screen for X1-X3 and then load it later. After that, the X4+ games had save slots anyways.
The dual boss X Challenge modes are cool for a bit but more of a strange novelty. There are tons of cool art scans though, a music player, video galleries of promotional items and whatnot, a lot of stuff you got in the previous Legacy Collections too. You can also play all the games in Japanese or even other regions if you want. Interestingly enough I noticed the X4 voices sound more masculine in Japanese. Oh and the games default to some nasty sprite smoothing option but you can easily turn that off along with the border artwork if that bothers you.
Overall this is kind of a give or take with this collection vs the old PS2/GC collection. I was so weirded out by the input lag initially on this one that I got out my old collection to compare, right away I noticed the input lag isn't as bad in the old collection (specifically I have it for the PS2). However, the colors and sound/music are definitely a bit off there and not as good. So take what you want there, but from X4 and up I would say this new collection is more ideal and the old one didn't include X7-X8.
All around not perfect but still a cool collection that I hope does well and leads to a potential X9!