It could be that I’m worrying over nothing, and Capcom plans to do Resident Evil 4 all the justice in the world, but many of the habits it has formed and repeated over the last generation have me thinking otherwise. I hope I’m proven wrong, since I’m still so excited for such a reboot, but not if it does a disservice to what came before

As Nintendo stuck very close to the original game's blueprint, this is, ultimately, still the same Super Mario RPG that has been around for decades. It looks better and comes with a few quality-of-life adjustments, but the campaign does not have much in the way of new content. Consequently, players who have completed the original version and do not feel like revisiting it might want to hold off on picking up the remake. However, this also means that Super Mario RPG has all the same positives as its ancestor, including frequently hilarious dialogue and a world that is fun to explore. While generally the same, the combat is also improved thanks to the addition of a new special combo me

I’m worried that Breath of the Wild 2 likely won’t heed this advice, with Zelda being yeeted into a hole in the latest trailer and seemingly imprisoned as Link, Ganon, or whoever we end up playing as is tasked with saving her and freeing the realm. It’s far too early to draw conclusions about exactly how BOTW2 will play out, but it’s easy to assume that Nintendo will abide by series conventions and go for something safe.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is, for the most part, polished and enjoyable. For the uninitiated, the game casts players as Mario, who is on a quest to reclaim toys stolen by Donkey Kong. As such, levels consist of basic but decent platforming along with puzzle elements that see Mario try to direct mini-versions of himself. While the story is not the point, the cutscenes are well-animated and charming. Once the main campaign is completed, players can unlock extra stages, which should help to keep them entertained for a couple of ho

This train of thought originates from the remake of Resident Evil 3, which was a painfully underwhelming successor to the phenomenal remake of Resident Evil 2. The latter was one of Capcom’s best games in years, ushering in a new era of survival horror brilliance that I was confident it would build upon. With the arrival of Resident Evil 3 and Village, it seems it is opting for an action-oriented approach that won’t risk alienating those who aren’t willing to negotiate with horror. It’s the smart move, but creatively, it feels like a hollow one. Resident Evil is at its weakest when the action ramps up, giving way to adequate gunplay instead of allowing its atmosphere and monsters to do the heavy lift

It would be interesting to have a sort of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes type of release for the remake in order to get players excited for it and to also set up Leon better. Maybe they could even include cut content like the ghost house or the Hook

Breath of the Wild tells an achingly human tale, but to uncover it you’ll need to invest dozens of hours into scouring Hyrule in search of brief cutscenes that chronicle Link and Zelda’s doomed pilgrimage in search of allies. None of the flashbacks are told with any sense of chronology, so you’ll stumble across them randomly and be forced to work out exactly what is going on and how it factors into the overall adventure. This mirrors Link’s own amnesia, so it feels like we’ve truly been placed in his shoes, Needle Knight Leda trying to work out how our friends were lost and what we can do to save whatever it is they left behind.

The removal of design decisions previously viewed as irksome would undermine so much of what Breath of the Wild managed to achieve, and the last thing I want to see is Nintendo steering its formula in a direction that abides by more traditional genre conventions. Assassin’s Creed and similar games of this ilk are arguably more akin to content mill, built to draw you in for hundreds of hours even if much of that time is filled with uninspired busywork. The time you spend with the game is what matters, and Breath of the Wild managed to challenge a system that has become increasingly tired in the eyes of players. Its sequel needs to continue chasing that ambition, and not compromise on its own design ethos.

Nintendo has built up a cast of beloved supporting characters, so expand upon them and make them matter. Age of Calamity did a solid job of this, although I wasn’t a fan of its more eccentric approach to storytelling - still, it’s a good blueprint to follow if the overall tone is given a few much-needed adjustments. Breath of the Wild was so compelling because of the mystery that defined it, each hesitant step into its sprawling world rewarding us with riches and a freeform experimentation in gameplay that nothing in the open world genre has been able to match since. It’s a marvel, and something the sequel should build upon as opposed to replicating with only a few key changes.