Stop porting old Star Wars games and remake them instead, please

I bet a lot of people have super fond memories of Super Star Wars and its OG trilogy sequels on the Super Nintendo growing up. Were you excited to play it again on the PlayStation 4 when they brought it back? I was too. What about Bounty Hunter? Star Wars Episode One Racer? The Jedi Knight games?

Maybe these were fondly remembered classics for their time, but they don’t hold up very well today. It might even be argued that they were never actually that great we just didn’t know any better because there wasn’t much to compare them to. After all, really great games remain great years, even decades later. These “classics”? You might have some fun with them for a minute, but then you’ll likely put them down and never pick them back up again.

Now there are fairly solid rumors of Republic Commando and Knights of The Old Republic getting some sort of modern ports and after the rose-tinted glasses effect has worn off thanks to the last several ports of Star Wars games I’m none too excited. Granted I still think Knights of the Old Republic is an exceptional Star Wars game, but it’s also one that’s not terribly hard to get as long as you have either a PC, virtually any model Xbox, or a decent mobile device to play it on. On top of that, it’s definitely showing its age in some ways with slow combat and graphics that even for the time it released were not top-notch.

And sure, it’s the easier route to just port an old game and make sure it doesn’t break on a modern platform and I’m sure you’ll make money on what is a minimal investment. But I truly think a bigger investment, especially with a brand as popular and beloved as Star Wars is worth the risk of doing more with old games.

Don’t give me an adequate but kind of quick and dirty port of Star Wars Episode I: Racer. Update the visuals, give it online and cross-play, add new vehicles. Maybe rename it Star Wars Racer and just incorporate the whole saga. If you are porting Republic Commando, give it similar considerations. A 4-player mode with drop-in/drop-out options would do wonders for such a title. People are begging for the old school Battlefront games to come to modern platforms, could you imagine those games with no online multiplayer? What would even be the point?

I’m not against playing (and paying) for old games again, maybe even old games that I already own, but give me a reason beyond mere digital convenience, give me some reason to really get excited about them. You might even revitalize the franchise doing so. I realize it’s not an easy task, and even porting any old games to a modern platform isn’t the easiest of tasks either, but I really think it’s better in the long run and would open it up to whole new audiences instead of just old people like me who want to relive their youth for like an hour and then never do it again.

That’s all for now but I’m hoping to do a couple of posts next week if my schedule allows so see ya real soon!