Lately we have seen the return of many "old glories" in the form of remastered, more or less appreciated by the public. We have already seen several, where in particular the Crash Bandicoot 'N' Sane Trilogy e Spyro: Reignited Trilogy have managed to break into the hearts of gamers. These two trilogies enabled many adult fans to go back to the late 90s, but with the support of graphics twenty years ahead of then. Also aware of the imminent return of Crash Team Racing and Medievil (which we have already talked about in depth in our special), it is legitimate to wonder if all these remastered are simple commercial maneuvers, aimed at selling copies to nostalgic players, or if a real value.
Back to the Future Past
So let's start with some objective data: today, the vast majority of players born in the new millennium DO NOT know Spyro, Crash and all the videogame repertoire that has characterized the rise of first console by Sony. Of course we are not in school and everyone is free to know and play the titles they prefer or not. However, according to an idea shared by me personally and by many other connoisseurs of the sector, the works of the first PlayStation had "something more" than the current ones, and one realizes this by replaying them even after years, a lose the habit with the mechanics of time: try yourself to replay Spyro or any other game of the genre, and you will see that you will have no difficulty in regaining the hand, because if a game is well conceived it remains "timeless", free from the aging of the technology used.
What does this mean? This is an index of a job well done, a job that remains over time and that you will appreciate despite the passing of the years. In fact, the "today's" re-editions are called REMASTERED precisely because the only things that have changed, except for very small adjustments, concern the graphic sector which is remastered in high definition; if instead they had got their hands on the technical sector, the game would have been defined as a "remake" of the previous one.
I've got a Feeling
For now we have talked about the merits from the purely technical point of view of the Remastered, but those who have had the opportunity to know certain works know it well: the “immortal” mechanics are only a part of the masterpiece. So we must now move on to emotional and abstract part of the game, which has to do both with the practical experience itself and with the emotions it transmits. These days, games like the aforementioned would be considered "for children", yet to say that they are would be to declare the false: it is not defined as a child's game only for the absence of strong, raw or adult contents, because it is the whole that makes the game, not just what it shows; one could safely argue, reasoning this way, that the Touhou Project saga is childish, given that it shows itself through a colorful manga-style game, yet the level of skill required is impossible for a child to achieve. Likewise, titles such as those examined above have a interesting world to explore, challenges not for everyone e emozioni deep. It is a bit like re-reading The Little Prince later in the years: each time you notice different details, you give a different interpretation of the very aspect of the work and you live it in a different way.
Here is a personal case: I was about 4 years old when I finished Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer with my father; after 16 years, I remember perfectly all the emotions I felt even just inadmire the game, the landscapes and listening to the music, and the news that I could play Spyro again and relive all this, dusting off a memory and imprinting it indelibly in the memory of the person and gamer, made me really happy.
So now we turn to all those who, for one reason or another, have "lost them along the way". What remastered offers you today it is the possibility to rediscover something of a bygone era without having to damage yourself between old hardware, compatibility, screen resolution, graphics and so on. There is absolutely everything about the original games and, even more so if you didn't get to play them when their time came, now you have no excuse. Nobody here says that the player who only plays COD or FIFA should be scorned but, if you want something more than casual and don't just limit yourself to the "match in the dead of moments", this is your big chance. You have the opportunity, both you who have not played despite your age and who was born after, to be able to know those who were the fathers of the console games we know today. If nowadays the PlayStation has depopulated so much it is due to its beginnings, to when it offered games FOR EVERYONE and appreciated by ALL, with nice characters, beautiful worlds aesthetically and many secrets to discover. I know it's hard for someone who hasn't had such experience to believe that a '98 game can easily stand up to today's game years later, but I will challenge you: try it yourself, and we'll see what the result will be.
