We live in a gaming era that's obsessed with remakes, remasters, reboots, and all sorts of ways to recycle old gaming series. After all, why not try to update something that was loved in the past for a new era? However, in the rush to repurpose old games for new platforms, we sometimes forget that everything new had to come from somewhere. Enter the demake.

Demakes are (usually) fan projects that aim to deconstruct a game for an older platform, adapting its features and story into the technology and aesthetics of yesteryear. In the process, demakes reveal the mechanical underpinnings of the games we love today while also demonstrating how those games are often developed around technology. They're an exercise in history and art criticism that's also fun. Here are some of the best.

Updated February 20, 2024 by Hilton Webster: While the gaming market grows all the more saturated with high-fidelity remakes willed into existence by nostalgia and profit and live-service games that refuse to die, some people wish for shorter games with worse graphics. Turns out, some developers are a pretty big fan of the idea too.

17 Bayonetta: Angel Land 💝

One Less Dimension To Worry About

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bayonetta is a character-action game, a genre that very rarely gets created, even more rarely gets done well, and most impossible of all — even gets called a character-action game. Bayonetta (arguably) sits on the throne of character-aꦬction games but can be just as difficult to get into and master as a result of that fame.

However, Bayonetta also pulls heavily from the olden days of arcades. In this sense, turning Bayonetta into an old-style sidescroller makes perfect sense. It's a simple game, letting you simply shoot and jump with Bayonetta, making it much less complex than the game it pulls from. That said, it also runs right in your browser, making it the most accessible game in the series yet!

16 ☂ Dragon Quest 11: DS Version 🎉

When You're Looking To Get As Classic As You Can

No one does it quite like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Quest. Having debuted in the same year as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest became a cultural phenomenon in Japan, far exceeding the likes of Final Fantasy despite their shared lineage. Dragon Quest in general has always been a bit more classic in its conventions, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Quest 11 takes it to a whole new level.

Originally exclusive to Japan, Dragon Quest 11 on the 3DS featured a pared-down version of the game, with 3D on the top screen, and 2D sprites on the touchscreen. Even better, this 2D version was made available internationally in Dragon Quest 11S. You really can play the entire game in 2D as if it was a classic Dragon Quest. You can't really get more retro than that.

15 𝐆 Final Fantasy 7 NES

A Fever Dream Willed Into Reality

Final Fantasy, though having debuted at the same time as Dragon Quest, became much more prominent internationally than it did at home. The series is endless, with new mainline and spin-off entries launched every year. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 🌠seems at times to be the most prolific of them ♏all, with a whole compilation of extended media.

Yet, some people are looking for demakes of this classic game, not remakes. Many people already aim for the PS1 as their demake standa𓆉rd, so where did FF7 land? Well, looking away from the somewhat dubious nature of its existence, Final Fantasy 7 NES was designed around, you guessed it, the style of the early NES games. With some elements shifted or even removed, it still remains a hilariously faithful demake of the original. Too bad it was only ཧavailable in China.

14 Bloodbor꧂ne PSX ♓

Demake Games As Historical Fiction

Souls games already owe a lot to survival horror, given their grim tone and emphasis on disempowering you, and the original 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bloodborne took those leanings a step further by incorporating 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lovecraftian cosmic horror influences.

Bloodborne PSX is the natural endpoint, then; by redoing the game in a low-polygon style, it calls back to the games that started the original 3D horror boom, like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Silent Hill. Intrigued? It's available to download now on Itch.io.

A legally distin🌃ct Bloodborne Kart is ev꧑en in development, so make sure to check that out too!

13 ♛ Pixel Forꦏce: Halo

No Contra-Diction Here!

Back in the day, consoles weren't powerful enough to render first-person perspectives in a non-turn-based context. So if you wanted a fast-paced sci-fi shooting fix, you'd have to get into action-platformers like Contra or Gunstar Heroes.

Pixel Force: Halo, a free download for the PC, transplants the blockbuster FPS to this old-school gameplay style, and even throws in overhead Warthog segments for good measure. Bonus points for the awesome chiptune remix of the Halo theme.

12 ♚ Ultimate Fl💙ash Sonic

A Demake For The Newgrounds Generation

For a certain generation of internet users, there was no better way to waste time online than by playing rudimentary games made with the now-defunct Adobe Flash. For many, Ultimate Flash Sonic was the first exposure to 2D Sonic at all.

It basically strips back the core Sonic gameplay into a form that can be played for free in your browser, with simplistic backgrounds, horribly (though intentionally) compressed sound effects, and very basic level design. But it's just as fun sending Sonic through a loop here as it is in the original games. The game is still hosted online, so you can judge for yourself.

11 OpenLara

When Demake Games Break The Matrix

The original 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tomb Raider was one of the PS1's killer apps, and it played a big role in helping Sony put a dent in Nintendo's console dominance. However, enterprising modders have found a way to get the game running on the humble Game Boy Advance.

OpenLara, an open-source port of the original game, was optimized for the GBA by the modder XProger; despite the system's limited capabilities, the port is a pretty faithful translation of the game. For now, it's limited to just the first few levels, but more are in the pipeline.

10 2600 Doom

Proof That Doom Can Run On Anything

It's a cliche at this point that Doom can run on anything, but take a second to think about it and you'll realize just how impressive it is. The source code for the groundbreaking FPS is freely available, meaning that an enterprising programmer with a dream can get the game anywhere -— including Atari's creaky old 2600.

The AtariAge Forum user TheMajorHavoc posted a demo of a 2600 demake of Doom, complete w🥂ith the crunchy graphics that the console was known for. Their commitment to verisimilitude is honestly pretty incredible.

This is, of course, still nothing compared to Doom literally running𓄧 on gಞut bacteria.

9 ༒ Fallout Free Style RPG Quest

A Fascinating, Lost Demake

For a series that has gained enduring popularity, you'd think that all of the games associated with Fallout would remain accessible. You'd mostly be right, except for Fallout Free Style RPG Quest, which was a browser-based, classic-styled JRPG that Bethesda created to market Fallout: New Vegas to Japanese gamers.

There wasn't a lot of game to it, as each interaction would just lead to marketing copy around New Vegas's mechanics and story, but the concept of breaking down a Western RPG into JRPG conventions is such a cool idea that it's a shame 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:it hasn't been preserved.

ﷺThough Fallout Quest was used to promote New Vegas, it is itself a demake of Fallout 3.

8 Super Meat Boy Hand𝕴held ಌ

How Demake Games Can Make A Statement

Some demakes are great because of how they preserve the original game's mechanics and atmosphere for an older platform; others, like Super Meat Boy Handheld, are great for precisely the opposite reason.

Super Meat Boy Handheld launched in 2010 as an intentionally cheap, bare-bones mobile game on the then-novel App Store — tagged as 'all of the branding of Super Meat Boy, without the actual gameplay or art from Super Meat Boy.' Was it fun? Eh, not really. But it was cheap! This joke title, though originally lost to the collapsing archives of the internet, .