Possible spoilers ahead, just FYI.
Original Platform: PC
Remake for: PC
"In the age of chaos, two factions battle for dominance..."
Without this game, Blizzard Entertainment wouldn't be Blizzard Entertainment. They would've petered out shortly after the development of Death and Return of Superman and The Lost Vikings. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, being the first in the series, set up the juggernaut that is the World of Warcraft. It also set up the familiar RTS formula used by Blizzard, even Starcraft 2 adheres to most of the same core basics that were codified by War1. I even like to give the Warcraft series a bit of credit for Diablo, at least in the top down camera, click-to-move gameplay aspect. Heck, if it weren't for Warcraft 1, we wouldn't have MOBAs like DotA and LoL (that's a bit more of a stretch though). Sheesh it's just the root of everything, isn't it? With rumours that some of the big wigs behind Warcraft want to do an RTS game again (either alongside WoW or after they're done with it) this would be a great game to go back to.
This deserves an enhanced remake for a few reasons. The first is story reasons. Other than "The Last Guardian", the novel that recounts the story of Medivh, there's no real chronicle of the first war to fit into modern lore. There have been a few retcons here and there but no real background to them, so there's this gap between the Orcs' start of darkness, and the 2nd war, where no one is really sure what happened. Modernizing the story will give lore fans more to discuss on forums, take away some questions that have been left hanging forever, and add more depth to the southern-most half of Eastern Kingdoms (which is a really boring area, Stranglethorn Vale aside.) The second reason is... Well... You know those core gameplay elements I mentioned? Yeah, that's all this has in common with Starcraft 2. Seriously, try going back to this after playing SC2, I dare you. It's slower, rougher, the UI is somewhere in between too big and too simple, and controlling your units is a lot more tedious. It's still playable, it just takes a lot of getting used to. A remake would provide a complete engine overhaul and make it a lot faster, smoother, and user friendly. Would probably also make it prettier, refurbishing graphics so things are more on-model. The final reason is almost an argument for an enhanced remake of Warcraft 2 as well; the more time passes and the newer PCs get, the harder it is to play, let alone find. Blizzard has yet to release digital copies of their legacy games, so it's either scour the internet or your local pawn shops for a possible copy, or *gasp* pirate it. Even then, I've noticed both OSX and Windows have a bit of trouble running things meant for older systems, mostly because it's so new it's incompatible, or so new it runs it impossibly well. There are ways to get around it, but in my experiences, they're not always effective.
....And don't just do it as a Map Pack for Warcraft 3, that would be a cop out.
Final Fantasy VIOriginal System: SNES
Remake for: 3DS
"But this already got a port to the GBA!"
Yes, yes, I know. So did Final Fantasy 4. In fact, when FF4 was being developed for the DS, that was EXACTLY what I said. FF6 is a major cult classic, even in Final Fantasy circles. It's a top contender for the best SNES game, one of the three best Final Fantasy games (as I understand it, 6, 7, and 8 still hold the top spots, at least story-wise.) It's got, arguably, the two best songs in the whole series; Tera's theme, and Dancing Mad (which my music major brother likes to say was Nobuo Uematsu's Magnum Opus), along with some other fantastic music. The characters were all done really well, and the dialogue (at least in the Ted Woosley-scripted english translation) was gold. It had some very interesting gameplay mechanics, from some battle system additions that went beyond simple RPG commands (Sabin's street fighter-esque attacks, Cyan's sword tech, and Gau's monster copy ability, for example) and some travel-based mini-games (the underground rapids!)
Okay, playing this on Virtual Console on my Wii, one thing screams at me. The biggest benefit to an enhanced remake would be graphics. The world-map scrolling and cutscenes probably looked great way back when, but are starting to look really aged. CG cutscenes would be VERY welcome, can you imagine the whole world destruction thing, or even Terra's esper form in 3D? Wait, we got that in Dissidia, didn't we... But it could look better in context! Two; I mentioned the music. Like all music from that era, especially on the SNES, full-blown orchestral remixes only sound BETTER. Sadly, aesthetics is all I can really think of that would make this better. The puzzles, mini-games and battle system, they were all good as they are, the puzzles might be something to improve upon, maybe add more mini-games, but otherwise an update would just be a standard "make it looks prettier and flow better." If ported to the 3DS, the Gameplay benefits would be obvious - touch screen. Other than the obvious battle system flow, it'd be a fun way to steer Chocobos or navigate the underground rapids. Like most enhance port RPGs, bonus dungeons, bonus side quests, maybe a story extension or two, could be available (give more insight into characters' backgrounds - or futures).
I wouldn't be as excited about this personally, unless it carried something that blew me away, but, being one of the best in the series, and because FF4 got one, this deserves a 3DS remake.
Original System: Sega CD
Remake For: HD Systems
"How high in the sky can you fly?"
Warning: Major Fanboy Gushing ahead.
First off, I know this was out for Genesis first technically, but the Sega CD version had more levels and better music, so I usually prefer to direct attention to that version. Sega's video game about a cute little bottle-nosed Dolphin who gets to explore the ocean looking for his missing pod, and eventually saves the world from aliens (yes). This game CAPTURED the ocean. The music (especially incorporating the whale song) fits the environment perfectly, the graphics make the sea look beautiful, but the claustrophobic nature of the gameplay and some of the enemies, or even the hazards of the ocean in general... and the aliens (especially their queen), it's scary. Beautiful and scary. Yup, sounds like the ocean to me. The series has many fans, the first two games were brilliant, great story (if a little weird), great atmosphere, great music, fun (and HARD; you die... lots) gameplay... Sadly, it was short lived. Tides of Time, a sequel as good as the first game, came out a couple years later. There were a few kiddy-games. There was a 3D sort of reboot for the game for Dreamcast (and later released on PS2) called Defender of the Future, and while it got the atmosphere right, the gameplay was awfully scrappy. The original game (and Tides of Time) had some TERRIBLE ports to handheld systems too. It was really one of those cult classic/stealth hits, made it big with a few fans, but quieted down rather quickly. Maybe it's not as deserving of a remake as some games, but it would be an interesting venture, give ti a second chance to wow a new generation of gamers.
Like FF6, the major benefit a remake can give this game is aesthetics. Imagining this game in HD graphics just makes it more beautiful. Show off the beauty of the icey Arctic waters, the ruins of Atlantis, the Volcanic reef, and the horrors of the Vortex Machine in HD. That'll make people drool. Add in CG scenes like there were in the PC version, and those dolphin documentary videos from Atlantis in the Original game, and you're set. Maybe there can be some minor gameplay changes to facilitate a thumb stick, improve the health and air meters a bit (one thing Defender of the Future got right was making them solid bar meters not a bunch of notches), but otherwise the gameplay is great as it is. Could also compile the first game and the second game into one big one.
It'd be more of an enhanced port - just a MAJOR overhaul of the graphics. Hell, that can be done by FANS (look at Sonic 2 HD), except it'd look best in 2.5D, not redrawn 2D. It doesn't even need improved music, it's got one of the best soundtracks in video game history as it is (courtesy of the Sega CD).
So those are the 3 games I'd really wanna see an enhanced remake of on modern systems (at least enough to try to make an argument for.) There are so many more games that deserve this too; the Zelda Oracle games, Warcraft 2, Super Mario RPG, Earthbound (or one of the Mother games), Spider-man and Venom: Maximum Carnage (that would be rather brilliant, actually), Mickey Mouse's World of Illusion... So many really great titles out there, a great many of them bordering on lost to history, especially if they're not showing up on virtual consoles of any kind...
Remaking great games like these, could unite older and younger gamers like never before, as well as breathe new life into them.
I will continue making arguments for games, so there could be a part 2 coming soon.
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