Retro City Rampage / Retro City Rampage DX

A game by Vblank Entertainment for PC, Mac, Linux, PS3, PS4, Vita, PSP, Xbox 360, 3DS, Wii, Switch, iOS, and Android, originally released in 2012, with the DX version released in 2014.

A long development cycle is almost universally a bad thing when it comes to developing video games. The longer it takes you to make your release date, the less impressive your game will look against its contemporaries, and if you wait too long, the thing will be just plain outdated. That rule certainly applies in a hardware-driven market where developers are trying to create games using the most cutting-edge technology… but the same cannot be said for a game that’s purposely being developed to look like it might have debuted more than 2 decades prior to its actual release date.

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 2012, 2014, 3DS, Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, PC, PS3, PS4, PSP, Switch, VBlank Entertainment, Vita, Wii, Xbox 360

A Boy and His Blob

A game by WayForward for Wii, Xbox One, PS4, Vita, PC, and Switch, originally released in 2009.

CONTEXT
Today, we are simultaneously blessed and cursed with “reimaginings” of popular entertainment. Rather than making a direct sequel to a pre-existing franchise, a reimagining is an attempt to retell the same story in a more modern context, using modern-day technology. And generally, these reimaginings take certain liberties with the original narrative and other core elements, which is often done to make things more plausible, but other times just to make them different enough that they aren’t outright remakes. Sometimes this is successful, and manages to capture the attention of a whole new audience while keeping fans of the original happy, but other times – especially since the original is usually an established favorite – the newer version fails to live up to its lineage.

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 2009, Majesco, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita, WayForward, Wii, Xbox One

Cave Story+

A game by Studio Pixel and Nicalis for PC, Mac, Wii, DS, and Switch, originally released in 2010.

It was 2004. Sony’s towering obelisk, the polygon-pushing Playstation 2, was teaching mankind to beat each other with bone clubs as it passed on the knowledge that the only truly outstanding games had $10 million budgets and development teams sized in the triple digits. By all accounts, the days of a single developer working on his own to create a worthwhile gaming experience that would reach – and touch – a wide audience, were long past. Gaming hardware in the new millennium had reached a point of complexity that no single individual could hope to harness its power and make anything more complex than a box-moving puzzle game… right?

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 2010, DS, DSiWare, Mac, Nicalis, PC, Studio Pixel, Switch, Wii

Max and the Magic Marker

A game by Press Play for PC, Mac, PS3, Wii, DS, iOS, and WP7, originally released in 2010.

Max and the Magic Marker started off as a Flash demo, illustrating the core concepts and game mechanics. The small Copenhagen-based dev house, Press Play, used the prototype to secure 114,000 Euros worth of grants from New Danish Screen and Nordic Game Program, which they used to support development of a full-fledged game. In 2009, with a 6-level demo in (virtual) hand, they began shopping the game around to publishers… but no one would bite. Finally, pursuing the route of many other indie developers, they opted to self-publish, and 2010 saw the release of the game on WiiWare and as a PC download. The game was subsequently released on Mac and Windows Phone 7 platforms. It was also ported to the iPhone in 2011, courtesy of EA Mobile, and eventually released to retail as a full-blown packaged Wii and DS release later in the same year. In the Fall of 2011, it was re-released on the Playstation 3 via PSN in full 1080p with Playstation Move support.

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 2010, DS, iOS, Mac, PC, Press Play, PS3, Wii, WP7

La-Mulana / La-Mulana EX

A game by Nigoro and Nicalis for PC, Mac, Linux, Wii, Vita, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, originally released in 2012, with the EX version released in 2017.

La-Mulana began its life in Japan as a freeware PC game in 2005, which later received an English fan translation by Gideon Zhi (who also translated Cave Story, among many other games). The game pays homage to the games developed for the MSX, a computer system that was popular in Japan in the mid-1980’s, which predated Nintendo’s Famicom console.

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 2012, Active Gaming Media, Linux, Mac, Nigoro, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii, Xbox One