Late to the Party

October sees the release of Capcom's highly-anticipated Mega Man 9, a true old-school sequel to a series which started way back in 1987. It looks, sounds and feels like it was made in the 80's, with 8-bit graphics, bleepy-bloopy music and a nasty difficulty curve. (Check out our review here)

Because of its retro veneer, the game may not be to everyone's liking, but lately, gaming communities around the world have started asking if more developers will follow suit and deliver true sequels to the games of yesteryear.

And why not? Now would be the perfect time to do so: with services such as PSN, WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade providing the perfect low-risk sales platforms for risky projects and hit-or-miss titles. Mega Man 9 probably won't sell overwhelmingly well, but at least the production costs weren't through the roof. No harm, no foul.

The mod community took the idea to heart years ago, with several homebrew sites cooking up their own versions of classic titles. A simple online search will present you with new, freeware chapters in the Super Mario World series, with new worlds and things to see and do. While the lawyers may have a thing or two to say about this, there is no denying these are some incredibly talented individuals, displaying a real passion for the old school.

Although these games are essentially a new take on what has gone before, the difference is that they do not attempt to outshine the efforts of the original developers. Rather, they act as an homage to some true classics.

Take Streets of Rage Remake by the now infamous Spanish developer BOMBERLINK. Produced over many painstaking years, it takes the old school beat-em-up stylings of Sega's 1980's classic and turns it on its head, throwing in new move-sets, characters, stages and an entirely remixed soundtrack. Download it for free here: it's fantastic!

BOMBERLINK, whose real name is Eduard, says:

"Streets of Rage was one of the games I always played with my brother or a good friend when I was a child, playing it after having supper during the summer nights was almost a ritual. Starting it was almost a coincidence. I had finished my last game programmed in DIV2 and I switched to a more powerful language. I needed graphics to make some tests and the first sprites I found were those of Axel from Streets of Rage 2. Then, I browsed the web and found there was no remake of the game yet, so I decided that it was about time to make the first homage to this great saga."

Homage is right: it's a perfect way to celebrate such a beloved series, while bringing some new ideas to the table. You have the next move Sega, make the fanboys happy!

With a healthy collection of retro compilations on both PS2 and PSP, such as Power Stone Collection, EA Compilation and Taito Classics, old is very much new again. The handheld scene is awash with revamped classics such as Arkanoid and Space Invaders Extreme, showing that someone out there still has a soft spot for the classics.

So, the passion is present and correct in several developers big and small. And, as with all trends with a dedicated fanbase, it's only a matter of time before it rolls around and becomes popular again. Bring on the true sequels!

We'd like to hear from you. What remakes of classic series would you most like to see?