13 Remakes and Remasters That Disappointed Everyone

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Pretty graphics (and sometimes they’re worse than the originals!) can’t save a rushed game. We’ve rounded up some remakes and remasters that ruined classics with bizarre bugs and changes nobody asked for.

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Überarbeitet vonMeline Hoch

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13 Remakes and Remasters That Were Disasters

When a company announces the return of a classic that defined our childhood, player expectations soar. But things don't always turn out well. Today, we at UmGamer have picked out remakes and remasters that got it horribly wrong!

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition

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If there was ever a collection with enormous potential to shine, it was this one. After all, we're talking about the return of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas. At first, players welcomed the announcement. But what they received in 2021 was more of a nightmare than a celebration.

Rather than a careful restoration, Grove Street Games essentially delivered a poorly made adaptation of the old mobile versions. The result couldn't have been anything else. It was a festival of bugs, technical issues and strange character designs that made these classics nearly unrecognizable.

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Among the most notorious issues were relentless rain that obscured visibility, missing effects, an incorrectly drawn Rockstar logo and the lack of a stable frame rate. To make matters worse, the older editions were abruptly removed from digital stores. In the end, Rockstar had to issue a public apology and put out the fire with additional fixes. Instead of nostalgia, all that remained was disappointment.

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Resident Evil 3 Remake

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The original Resident Evil 3 was already a short game, but it had plenty of replay value thanks to its multiple paths through a choice system and its classic Mercenaries mode. Unfortunately, the remake went in a different direction.

The new version became extremely linear, and the choice system virtually disappeared. Several beloved sections were simply removed, including the Clock Tower and Mercenaries mode itself. While the new textures and lighting effects looked modern, they ended up undermining the dense atmosphere of the original games.

But the most frustrating part, without a doubt, was Nemesis. He completely lost his unpredictability. In the remake, the villain appears in highly scripted and predictable ways. Since he was made weaker, the constant tension of always being in danger was gone. The fight against his humanoid form was good, but he became a much easier enemy to handle.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

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Released in 2014, this collection had everything it needed to be a dream come true for fans of the franchise. The main idea was to bring together the saga's biggest titles with updated graphics and a unified multiplayer experience. The reality, however, was a major letdown.

The launch was plagued by severe online problems. Matchmaking was completely broken, and the number of bugs was absurd. This made it nearly impossible to compete or play with friends. On top of that, Forge mode, an incredible tool for creating custom maps, was practically unusable at launch.

The disaster was so severe that 343 Industries had to give away Halo 3: ODST's additional content for free as an apology. Even after years of updates, the collection was permanently defined by its negative first impression.

Warcraft III: Reforged

This is one of the biggest disasters in gaming history. Blizzard promised a full remake of the legendary strategy title. The entire community expected new graphics, a modern interface and several new features. In the end, Reforged delivered almost none of what had been promised.

The biggest issue was that the release replaced the original version of Warcraft III. This prevented players from going back to the old title, damaging the studio's reputation even further.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

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Anyone brave enough to play it knows what a headache this game is. The gameplay is terrible, and the title is packed with bugs. It's incredibly difficult to control Sonic while running, making you want to throw the controller at the wall every time he hits an obstacle. The camera doesn't help at all when lining up jumps or targeting enemies. Trying to earn an extra life by collecting 100 rings becomes an almost impossible task.

All of this is capped off by the strangest kiss in gaming history, between the hedgehog and a human princess.

Final Fight: Streetwise

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Final Fight is a classic beat 'em up that many people played. Throwing flying kicks at the Mad Gear gang during the golden age of Haggar, the fighting mayor, left a mark on many players.

Then came Final Fight: Streetwise, one of the biggest disappointments imaginable. The graphics are ugly, the controls are unresponsive and the camera only gets in the way. Its dark setting and the decline of the original franchise's characters destroyed the charm of the series. It was literally the worst nightmare for anyone who enjoyed walking through Metro City's streets kicking and beating up thugs.

Bomberman: Act Zero

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Bomberman was always known for its group fun and highly charming visual style. However, Konami decided to reinvent the wheel and go for a darker, more realistic look. The goal was to appeal to audiences playing more serious games during the Xbox 360 era, but the execution was a disaster.

They removed the colorful design and replaced the friendly big-headed characters with generic, muscular robots. Beyond the visual overhaul, the gameplay also underwent drastic changes. Adding a camera focused behind the character ruined the maze's tactical view, making it harder for players to judge space.

To make matters worse, the developer removed local multiplayer gameplay (a crime against Bomberman!). The title only allowed online matches for up to eight players. That put an end to the experience of blowing up friends sitting on the same couch, turning the game into something very unpleasant and far removed from its essence.

Super Mario 64 DS

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The original Mario 64 shone on Nintendo 64 by teaching us how to explore a 3D world with an analog stick.

The Nintendo DS version made a major mistake in trying to adapt that movement. The handheld didn't have an analog stick at the time. Trying to control Mario freely with a stiff D-pad was a decision that made the gameplay feel far more restrictive and regressive. Precise jumps became much harder to pull off. What a shame.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider

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Bringing this arcade and Mega Drive classic into the 3D generation was a project that went terribly wrong. The developer tried to ride the wave of modern action games, but ended up delivering an empty and strange experience.

The first major problem was that the team removed Gilius Thunderhead and Ax Battler, leaving Tyris Flare as the only playable option. Okay, that's not so bad, right?

But the gameplay was extremely weak and repetitive, as players had to run through huge, lifeless environments just to find small groups of enemies that didn't even offer enjoyable combat. The fights were dull, and the hit detection system was so poor that attacks often simply didn't register.

The fatal mistake, however, was the complete absence of a co-op mode. Removing the option to play alongside a friend in a franchise designed to be enjoyed as a pair was an unfortunate decision. The title only recalled the glory of the past through the name printed on its cover.

Silent Hill HD Collection

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Konami managed to admit that it had lost the original source code for Silent Hill 2 and 3. That alone is serious, but its impact on the game was even worse.

This collection had to be rebuilt from scratch using broken code and arrived riddled with bugs. And to further upset horror fans, they simply removed much of the town's fog. Without it, the defining element of tension was stripped from the high-definition visuals, taking away the mystery and even revealing the ends of some environments.

Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection

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The remaster of Ezio Auditore's adventures across Italy suffered from a painful lack of care. The promise was to make cities such as Florence and Venice more beautiful for a new generation. However, the changes ended up bringing numerous serious bugs and issues, both visual and gameplay-related.

The original game featured a beautiful yellowish filter reminiscent of old Renaissance paintings. The collection removed that lighting in an attempt to make the image cleaner and, as a result, the graphics took on a rubbery, somewhat flat appearance.

The technical side also left much to be desired. The title became notorious for various movement problems and strange glitches during Ezio's climbing sequences. The ultimate symbol of this disappointment came when players encountered an NPC with a completely distorted face in the opening scenes. The bug was so ugly and bizarre that it became an online joke, forcing the team to release an emergency update just to fix the character's face.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled

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The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game was widely known during the arcade and Super Nintendo era for its speed and energy, featuring a frenetic soundtrack, plenty of color and lots of action.

This remake did feature graphics that the community considered acceptable at the time, but its fights were no longer frenetic. Movement became stiff, and the soundtrack was nowhere near as exciting as the version everyone grew up playing. It felt kind of... depressing.

Mafia II: Definitive Edition

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The definitive version of this PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360-era classic looked like a project that simply wasn't finished. Exploring the mafia story of the 1940s had always been full of charm, but fans found an Empire Bay plagued by technical problems.

The title hit the market with ridiculous visual glitches. Players had to deal with constant frame rate drops and NPCs bizarrely stuck in the scenery. Ironically, this supposedly definitive version managed to make details from the original game worse. The impressive physics system that made the characters' clothes move, present in the 2010 release, was completely broken in the remaster.

Grotesque bugs also appeared in every mission. It's common for dialogue audio to come through only one side of the headphones, while in story scenes, the protagonists' eyes can blink out of sync.

Conclusion

The truth is that tampering with players' cherished memories is walking a very fine line. When a remake or remaster is made with care and respect for the original work, the result is incredible. But when a project is treated solely as a way to make quick money, the outcome is disastrous.

In your opinion, which remake on the list is the worst? Tell us in the comments below!

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