Video Game "Demakes" Bring Modern Hits Back to the Good Old Days

Honestly, these seem a lot more appealing than any number of HD remakes

January 07, 2012 11:30pm PST (1/7/12)

Before anybody says it in the comments, it is not Friday and I am technically posting fanart, but these were too awesome to pass up. Mojang (Minecraft) art director Markus Toivonen (junkboy) released a few new "demakes," which he used to make for Swedish gaming magazine Level, where he takes a modern game and redoes it in pixel art--and often changes up the game's genre in the process.

Here's the two new ones, followed by a bunch more:

demakehalo

Halo: Combat Evolved as a classic Contra-style shooter

demakegothic

The appropriately-named "Gothic Ghoul Grappling" feels like Shadows of the Damned somewhat

demakesc

SoulCalibur in glorious 2D, probably with breakable railings and animated blood

demakestarcraft

StarCraft from a time long before LAN parties

demakebrutal

Brutal Legend, appropriately using the SCUMM adventure game engine--whoever makes this will get my money

demakegalaxy

My only concern: would a 2D Super Mario Galaxy still have the same great soundtrack?

demakebayonetta

Bayonetta as a ruthless, quarter-munching shmup

demakemariokart

A version of Mario Kart that would probably have had a steering wheel built onto the cabinet

demakebioshock

A Metroidvania version of Bioshock, which would probably make a great portable game

demakemetroid

If it were released for the SNES, Other M might use the Super Scope 6

demakeuc

This version of Uncharted would probably have beautiful Prince of Persia or Flashback-style rotoscoping

demakesmash

Seriously, an arcade cabinet for Smash is just a license to print money

As I've said before, I'm a big proponent of 2D gaming and classic game design, so my opinion on these is pretty much a given. What about you? Would you give these "demakes" a shot?

via Destructoid

Tags

2d, fanart, art

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28 Comments

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1/7/12 by Nork22

The Soul Calibur one if it plays almost like Last Blade/Samurai Showdown.

1/7/12 by Roth

Of course, Super Mario Galaxy's music would also have to be in SNES FM synth style.
In relation to this post, you might also wanna check out Eric Ruth Games' 8-bit demakes of Valve games and more..

// Roth

1/7/12 by Anonymooo

16-bit instruments can be corny as hell, but work, like the still-awesome Mega Man X soundtracks.

Eric Ruth Games' 8-bit remakes were pretty amazing, with their version of Left 4 Dead being my favorite.

1/8/12 by sickVisionz

I agree. A lot of SNES music is just poor quality general midi sounds as opposed to an actual synth engine in action like the Genesis, Gameboy, NES, etc.

1/7/12 by JonPWills

Soul Calibur has never had animated blood.

1/8/12 by Kamek20XX

Um....that's just a hint of what it might play like if it was in 2D (Samurai Shodown/Last Blade)

1/9/12 by Anonymooo

Exactly what I was thinking--I had Samurai Shodown or original Guilty Gear blood in mind.

1/8/12 by SpiritWolf15

I'd so play some of these! They have to be mad real!

1/8/12 by KylotheGuy

I would play all of those games.

1/8/12 by happyharry

Some of the best games are 2d. Somewhere along the line, graphics began to outweigh gameplay. Or stepping out of the digital world...some of the simplest games are the most challenging. Othello, Mancala and Janken come to mind.

1/8/12 by Ronic21

Well there already is a "demake" of Super Smash Bros. http://www.mcleodgaming.com/viewflash.php?id=6&type=game enjoy. :D

1/8/12 by Toastradamus

Yeah, I thought this was going to be about a bunch of actual demakes (like Team Fortress Arcade, http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Team_Fortress_Arcade) instead of just pictures. :(

1/8/12 by RayLRhodes

I would only give them a shot if the original companies made these themselves, and where official products. Just saying.

1/8/12 by RayLRhodes

It's too bad we can't edit our posts. Anyway, I meant to say that I would play them if they "were" official products. I also want to add that I would only play them if they were made the original companies, especially the Nintendo ones.

1/8/12 by Victoryfraud

I would totaly buy and play the Soul Calibur 2D edition.

1/8/12 by GuardianXIV

It looks like the demake of Uncharted used the background from the Stargate video game on the Sega Genesis.

1/8/12 by flotsam3

...
I want that Halo.
.......No.
I NEED that Halo. SOMEBODY MAKE THAT

1/8/12 by omnikinrouge

anything that like a 2d metroid or castlevania yah id go for it cause those are some of my favorite games other than rpgs :D

1/8/12 by darkfireblade

Playing bayonetta would be like playing a top down shooter with melee. or switching between that and sidescrolling shooter with melee like metal slug.

1/8/12 by sickVisionz

Some of these seem cool like Halo and Mario but for the other's I'd rather play the originals or an HD update. For Mario, it's only cool to me because there are no bad mario platformers so I'd give it a show, even though an HD remake would be super awesome. I would play a 2D Bayonetta buy only if it had pseudo-3d movement like Streets of Rage and Final Fight.

Cool art. I wish a programmer actually made these though.

1/8/12 by entropiCCycles

This is all awesome, and I would definitely play these games if they had good gameplay (which should be a given for several of these, anyway).
2D Games FTW! >:3