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With the successful release of the God of War collection, the announcement of the Sly Cooper collection (a HD/3D update of Sucker Punch’s legendary Sly games with full trophy support) and the rumour mill working overtime about a possible Team ICO HD collection, Sony looks locked and loaded to launch a new brand – “Classics HD”.

There has been a lot of discussion since the end of E3 and the main point has been this – “What next Sony? Which games are you going to give the sparkly HD/3D treatment too next?”

The majority of game forums are filled with what you would expect – A Final Fantasy Collection. A Gran Turismo Collection. A GTA Collection – but I wasn’t satisfied with this. There were so many classics on PS1 and PS2 that I don’t think it should be just the big franchises that get the make over. I have scoured the recesses of my brain to come up with a list of forgotten legends that deserve another £25 out of our pocket, a good old HD spit-shine and haven’t been mentioned anywhere else. Here it is…

A Crash Bandicoot Collection
Crash Bandicoot is Playstations prodigal son. He was the unofficial Playstation mascot for 2 generations of console, having a successful career, developed by Naughty Dog (You know those guys right? Uncharted Series?) on the PS1 and an array of studios on PS2. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem capable of making the giant leap to the PS3 .
I’m sure that anybody reading this who owned an original PlayStation will have fond memories of this series. Jumping over pitfalls, collecting Wumpa Fruit, avoiding Nitro boxes and running away from giant boulders/polar bears, all with the aim of rescuing your bandicoot lady friend Tawna from the nutty professor Neo Cortex. Ah, the memories.
Now imagine this Crash craziness in glorious HD? It would be like taking a trip down memory lane on acid! All the colours of the rainbow pummelling your retinas as you try and navigate the super fun (although occasionally frustrating) islands? Yes please. Throw in 3D and I would sell the left hemisphere of my brain to see it released.

A Legacy of Kain Collection
You name it, The Legacy of Kain series has had it. Vampires, Time Travel, nasty looking swords, giant spider queens, swirly vortex gods and everything dark and spooky in between. The story line is epic, involving and completely engrosses the player, not to mention the game play and graphics that were so far ahead of the times that it was scary. Why not let Kain and his soul sucking spawn Raziel have another crack of the whip? This time in 720p. It would be huge.

A Zone of the Enders Collection
With Hideo Kojima teasing the development of Zone of the Enders 3, this looks like a sure fire bet to get a HD remastering. The 2 PS2 games (ZOE and ZOE 2: The Second Runner) received moderate success but sales weren’t anywhere near what the games deserved. Kojima blames this on “releasing the game at the wrong time” and it had to compete with other big titles. Perhaps Kojima can find a nice clear window in the release schedule of next few year and give the Enders another chance to blast around Mars and Jupiter in a Mecha? I hope so. It would sell like hot cakes in a Japan for sure.

The 3 games I have mentioned are my personal favourites, but there is an immense library of 1st rate titles on PS1 and PS2 just begging for a re-release. Dino Crisis, Beyond Good & Evil, Devil May Cry, Oddword, Driver…I could go on forever.
Also, Mr Rob Groove wanted a special mention for the Mortal Kombat series, namely MK: Deception. Apparently he had an unhealthy addiction to the puzzle and chess modes. Could the MK classics be getting a HD upper cut? With the new MK game on its way, who knows.

Omac_brother

Tags: CLASSIC, Classics, Crash, Deception, future, HD, Kain, mk, Playstation, ps, PS1, ps2, PS3, ZOE