The 10 Best Classic Video Games That Need Modern Remakes
Polygon argues that several influential but neglected video games deserve modern remakes to give their ideas a wider audience. It highlights titles whose original releases were hampered by difficulty, ageing technology or abandoned franchises, while noting that a remake would need to preserve their distinctive mechanics rather than merely update their graphics.
Examples include The 7th Saga, a 1993 SNES role-playing game praised for its competing adventurers and replayability but criticised for punishing Western balancing; Populous, Bullfrog’s pioneering 1989 “god game”, dormant despite later unsuccessful revival attempts; and Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, a 1993 strategy RPG valued for its large armies, automated battles and branching outcomes. The article presents these games as strong candidates for carefully balanced reboots after decades without substantial updates.
- Polygon wants neglected classics revived through faithful modern remakes.
- The 7th Saga’s difficulty obscured its inventive RPG design.
- Populous and Ogre Battle remain influential but long dormant.
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Video-game remakes rebuild older games for modern hardware, often improving graphics, controls and accessibility while keeping the original ideas. They have become a common way for publishers to reintroduce influential games to people who may not have played their first releases.
The games discussed come from a period when role-playing and strategy games often had complex systems, limited explanations and technical restrictions. The 7th Saga is known for letting players choose between rival adventurers, while Populous helped establish games in which players influence a whole world from above. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen combined large-scale fantasy battles with choices that could alter the ending.
A modern remake can widen an older game’s audience, but it also raises questions about what should change. Updates to difficulty, menus and visual design may make a game easier to approach, while changes to its central systems could alter what made it distinctive.