If you've seen my stuff in the Creative Corner, you can make a pretty decent guess that I'm a huge fan of the Ghostbusters. The original film is my all-time favorite movie, I watched The Real Ghostbusters faithfully as a kid, and I even love both Ghostbusters II and Ghostbusters: Answer the Call despite their perceived flaws or unpopularity.

I say that to preface the fact that I never experienced the 2009 Ghostbusters game that serves as the closest thing to Ghostbusters 3 as we'll ever really get, the 2020 film aside. I never experienced it until now, that is, and I am really enjoying the experience.

But I'm not starting this thread to gush about how much fun the Ghostbusters game is. I'm starting this thread to talk about the potential that remastering games from yesteryear has, whether it's polishing up and packaging a beloved trilogy like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, or if its taking a single game and bringing it to a new platform such as with Link's Awakening, I think there's a lot to be said for bringing older games to a modern era not just to exploit nostalgia, but to expose new players to something they may have missed otherwise.

So this brings me to the question I'd like to pose to you - are there any games of yore that you feel could really stand a fresh coat of paint and a rerelease? Something that was either a big deal a long time ago but has since faded and could use a new jolt, or just something that could have hit it big if it had a wider platform?

I, for one, would really like to see Sega's Mr. Bones get a remaster and wide release. Bones was a super weird game, in which you played the recently reanimated skeleton of a blues musician who had to stop the evil vampire who resurrected you and a legion of others from taking over the world - and you do it with skeletal magnetism and electric guitar. It was a Sega Saturn release, so not a lot of people experienced it, but man was it something special. I feel like it could be a fairly big hit on the Switch, especially if the upcoming remaster of Panzer Dragoon hits big.

So what are your picks for ideal remastered games?

I have been eyeing Collection of Mana for the Switch since I played Secret of Mana quite a bit 25 years ago (I Think I managed to unlock all the level 9 weapons in two different save files…). I just realized maybe the kid and I could play that one together…
Anyway, I also just realized that I would love to revisit Chrono Trigger, if it could have a re-release of Chrono Cross (which I never played) too that would be awesome.

On the other hand... I Heard awesome things about Grim Fandango so I got it from the Switch eshop for a pittance. Haven't played it much though, requires too much concentration to actually listen to the dialogue.

I feel like I may have tried Secret of Mana way back when in the early 1990s on my friend's SNES. Or something like that. It was so long ago, I'm not sure I have my memory on it right.

But yeah, I've seen a lot of people wanting to see a resurgence in the Chrono games. It'd be hard to go wrong with a reworking of the more beloved SNES titles. That machine had some serious quality programming.

More than anything: Ogre Battle
If it wasn't for this series, I don't know that I ever would have given games like HeroClix a chance.