remake posts

Streets of Rage is one of those classic games that just about everyone with access to a Sega Genesis played at one point. The indie remake project, Streets of Rage Remake, has finally released the final version of their sprawling, PC-oriented remake of the classic franchise. Characters, stages, music, and objects from every game in the core series have been included and remastered, making this one of the most impressive remake projects we've ever seen. On top of that, it includes tons of goodies, such as editors and concept images.

[Via TIGsource]
[Image via Rock Paper Shotgun]

AGD Interactive has released King's Quest III Redux: To Heir is Human, a complete remake of the classic adventure game updated with higher resolution graphics, a remastered music score, and a voice pack. The game is available for free to download and play for both PC and Mac.

Those that want to check out remakes for the previous two games in the series can do so. Download links are shown below.

Download King's Quest III Redux: To Heir is Human (101 MB)
Download King's Quest III Redux: To Heir is Human [Mac] (165 MB)

Download King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones (308 MB)
Download King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones [Mac] (397 MB)

Download King's Quest: Quest for the Crown (101 MB)
Download King's Quest: Quest for the Crown [Mac] (165 MB)

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

We've covered a few remakes here on Freeware Friday, and without a doubt all of them have been fantastic. However, we can't say that we've ever covered a remake of an Atari game. Thankfully, we can cross that checkmark off our to-do list with RobotzDX. A fantastic remake of a relatively (by today's standards, anyway) obscure Atari ST game called Robotz, it is a stressful and intelligent experience that easily inspires addiction. It also has procedural generation, which is always the way straight to our heart!

Monkey Island 2 is often considered one of the greatest adventure games of all time, sitting alongside other classics such as Grim Fandango or Day of the Tentacle. With the remake of the first Monkey island game being a rousing success, LucasArts has decided to revisit one of their most enduring classics and give it a new coat of paint. The result is Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, and if this trailer is any indication, it will retain the brilliant writing of the game while making it both more pleasant to look at and adding voice acting. Our excitement is palpable!

Download HD Monkey Island 2: Special Edition E3 2010 Trailer (211MB)
Check out all Monkey Island 2: Special Edition downloads

PC gamers were nearly universal in slamming Microsoft's decision to cancel previously announced plans to bring Alan Wake to the PC. Now Oskari Häkkinen, of the game's developer Remedy, states that the real reason why a PC port of the upcoming Xbox 360 action-adventure game was canceled.

Chatting with VG247.com, Häkkinen (kind of) refutes the reason Microsoft gave for the PC version's cancellation where it implied that Alan Wake was better played on a sofa in front of a TV. So what's the real reason? Häkkinen states, " . . . we're a small studio. We're 50 people, and being a small studio, it makes a lot more sense for us to focus on one platform:" And what about a PC port at some time in the future? He says, " I think that's a decision to sit down [and make] with our publisher... and see where the title goes."

Not many games capture the feeling of "80s cyberspace" quite like Tasty Static. A remake of the classic Kosmonaut, Tasty Static is a love-song to the days of old. The days of really, really hard games that focus around super-tight controls and difficult movement, as well as the days of bright, geometrically simplistic objects. It's great, both as a remake and as a game in its own right, and at only 16 MB and the low price of free, it's definitely worth playing.

Tasty Static revolves around making it to the end of a long, puzzle-like track through use of speed and jumping. Movements must be carefully calculated, as you can't doing things like jump sideways, and speed plays a major role into determining where you can jump and if you will die. There's more to the game than these basics, thanks to the extras section, but you'll find yourself returning to the tracks over and over again.

For many a kid growing up, the game Kung-Fu Master on the NES was one of the hardest games available. Controllers were broken in fury over the difficulty of this arcade classic. In tribute to this excellent (and supremely hard) retro classic, some enterprising developers have expanded on the concept for the 2008 Retro Remake competition at Retro Remakes. Sure, it's a year late, but who cares? It's a great look back at the halycon days. At least what we thought were the halycon days, anyway.

Kung-Fu 2 is a simple game to control. Arrow keys move, ctrl and space perform attacks. However, what is hard is the timing. Much like the original, you must have perfect timing to eliminate enemies, or you will take significant damage. It's an exercise in frustration for those unfamiliar with the game, but it adds a level of old-school challenge not seen in many games nowadays. You can download the game from the developers website.

[Via IndieGames]

Fans of classic Sierra adventure games have a reason to be happy. ADG Interactive faithfully remade Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire so that it works on today's computer systems using a point-and-click interface. Best of all, the game is completely free to download and play, so everyone can appreciate AGD Interactive's hard work. This is great news since it looks like Sierra's legacy game series (among other games) will be forever lost with no chance of revival after the Vivendi/Activision merger. It's good to see fans keeping the fire alive.

Download Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire Remake (85 MB)