The 10 WORST Video Game Remasters

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at the 10 absolute poor excuses of video game remasters. The classics deserved better than whatever garbage these were!

“Super Mario 3D All-Stars” (2020)

Now, we aren’t saying that “Super Mario 64”, “Super Mario Sunshine”, or even “Super Mario Galaxy” are bad games. And let us preface this by saying this trilogy is in a much better state now than it was at launch. But for the nine months it was on the market, “Super Mario 3D All-Stars” was sloppy. “Galaxy” was fine overall, and “Mario 64” looked about as rough as we expected, but “Sunshine” had debug mode left on in some areas and lacked support for general settings like inverted camera controls. Of course, the most frustrating aspect was the limited availability. As we briefly mentioned earlier, Nintendo sold the game for only nine months before pulling it from sale everywhere.

“Halo: The Master Chief Collection” (2014)

Much like “Mario 3D All-Stars”, “Halo: The Master Chief Collection” is in a way better condition these days. Heck, we’d call it one of the best collections of games that everyone should own! But back when it first launched in 2014? Horrendous. While the offline campaigns were fine for the most part, the online portion was a freakin’ trainwreck as matchmaking refused to work. You couldn’t play any co-op games or even PvP modes without some kind of nonsense error. Like we said, the collection is now in a far better state, but at the time, it was abysmal.

“Mafia II: Definitive Edition” (2020)

When it was announced that the original “Mafia” titles would be getting remastered and brought forward to modern hardware with the first game getting fully remade, folks were ecstatic. The first game was brought forward with little to no trouble. As for “Mafia II”? Oof. Players were greeted with a litany of technical problems in both audio and visuals. It wasn’t uncommon to see objects and character models clipping into each other. We’re just glad Hangar 13 and D3T managed to fix it up before long.

“Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition” (2021)

The early 2020’s saw the beginning of society finding ways to integrate AI into the workplace. Among the first of these companies was Rockstar Games and Grove Street Games. In an effort to remaster “GTA III”, “Vice City”, and “San Andreas” for modern platforms, Grove Street Games utilized artificial intelligence to upscale textures while retaining the source code as much as possible. The results were less than pleasant. So many of our favorite characters wound up looking worse than they ever did before while Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas looked more alien with incorrect signage, misaligned tiles, and visual effects ruining shots of certain cutscenes. Updates have since fixed most of the games, but many folks are still scorched from this release. At least “Red Dead Redemption” went by a little smoother when it was brought to modern platforms a year later.

“PaRappa the Rapper Remastered” (2017)

The Hip-Hop Hero PaRappa does have a place in the modern world to succeed and grow if Sony were to allow him. But ever since the failure that was “PaRappa the Rapper Remastered”, we may never get to see him get the one-up on Joe Chin ever again. What went wrong? Well, for starters, there wasn’t really anything touched on here. Japan Studio just took the PSP port, touched up the visuals, and called it a day. Nothing was done to improve the timing of inputs with the beats of the songs, thus maintaining the nightmare that was Stage 4. Few people stuck with the game after about thirty minutes, and now, it’s impossible for anyone to want to believe.

“Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection, Vol. 1” (2023)

The “Metal Gear Solid HD Collection” was already a bit of a hiccup in 2011. This was Konami’s chance to do right by their IP and show they were ready to come back to the games industry full force. But when the first volume of the “Master Collection” dropped, that hope just wasn’t in the cards. While the games did launch in stable conditions, players were disappointed to find that nothing was touched. The controls were still whack, and the resolution was stuck at 720p. On top of that, the games were still running at thirty frames per second while the first “Metal Gear Solid” was stuck at 4:3 aspect ratio. Talk about doing the bare minimum.

“Tales of Symphonia Remastered” (2023)

“Tales of Symphonia” already suffered from a shoddy remaster when it was ported over from GameCube and PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3 in 2013. While it did include added content, it did so at the expense of frame rate and less cel-shading. It wound up making the game look generic. So, how does the latest remaster make it worse? Simply put: bad optimization. The frame rate fluctuates more than its previous versions ever did, and the load times were far too frequent and overly long. To make matters worse, it does not include the sequel like the PS3 version did. Considering you can buy the PS3 version on Steam for twenty bucks (or five, if you catch it during a sale), this iteration for Switch, PS4, and Xbox One was unnecessary and piss-poor.

“Silent Hill HD Collection” (2012)

Going back to Konami one more time, “Silent Hill HD Collection” has been among the worst titles in the company’s catalog. On the surface, everything seemed like it was going to be a simple touch-up on visuals and controls for the PS3 and Xbox 360. What we got was a significantly inferior version of “Silent Hill 2” and “Silent Hill 3”. In addition to various audio glitches plaguing cutscenes, various moments had removed the fog that kept the games tense. Easily seeing stuff more than several feet ahead of you made the games less scary, and it's why some fans have refused to forgive Konami to this day.

“Warcraft III: Reforged” (2020)

Blizzard has been struggling to maintain fans ever since this disaster. “Reforged” was to be the long-awaited return of “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos”, a real-time strategy game widely beloved for its story, gameplay, level design, and wealth of support from its community. This was the game that would inspire and help pave the way of success to games like “Dota 2” and “League of Legends”. But when making “Reforged”, Blizzard fumbled in the worst ways possible. For starters, “Reforged” launched with many features missing that Blizzard had originally advertised like new cutscenes as well as pre-existing features being noticeably removed. Then, there was the End User License Agreement that said any mods made within the game would become property of Blizzard Entertainment, meaning anything you made would be owned by them. And this all goes without mentioning the plague of bugs and glitches that could be found around every corner.

“Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection” (2024)

What an utter s**tshow. Aspyr had already dropped the ball when remastering “Knights of the Old Republic” and its sequel. Remember that new content that was supposed to come with it after launch? Never happened. Canceled. Maybe they’ve learned and will give “Battlefront” the respect it deserves? Not on your life, sport! “Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection” was marred with all kinds of problems. Where do we even begin? First off, there are a handful of audio problems, one of which could have caused some severe ear pain to us. Then, you have a wonky UI for menu navigation between selecting units and moving around the Galactic Conquest map. And worst of all, your online multiplayer is busted to hell! And what makes this whole situation even more aggravating is that Aspyr only spent enough money to secure three servers for the multiplayer. How did you not know this launch was going to be as big as this and NOT properly prepare?? “Battlefront Classic Collection” has pissed off so many fans that at the time of this video, it is the ninth most hated game on Steam. And trust us, you are better off going and buying the older versions or even the games from EA and DICE.

What’s the worst remaster you’ve experienced in video games? Did it make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday.