Image: Nintendo Life
For the more youthful readers among you, I presume that numerous 3D video games from the ’90s and ’00s appear rather charming at finest and downright unplayable at worst. It was a duration in which the medium was geting to grips with an entirely brand-new 3rd measurement; couple this with the restricted visual abilities of the PlayStation and N64, and you might argue that numerous titles have not aged well.
Me? I definitely like this period. I was 6 when the PS1 released in the UK; the ideal age to begin delighting in classics like WipEout, Spyro the Dragon, and yes, video games that maybe weren’t appropriate for me yet like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. When I go back and play titles from this period today, I discover them fairly friendly thanks to an intimate familiarity with the duration. Even remasters of video games that I’ve not experienced before feel strangely reassuring in such a way that I can’t rather explain.
Image: Nightdive Studios
Nightdive Studios, established in 2012, specialises in revamping early 3D video games from the ’90s and ’00s for the contemporary age, improving the visuals, enhancing the gameplay, and frequently including a host of extra product to supply context behind the initial titles’ advancement. It’s taken pleasure in some exceptional success stories throughout the years with the similarity Turok(s), Quake(s), and Doom 64– along with the frustrating Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition– however 2024 has actually certainly been the studio’s finest, most respected year up until now.
Nightdive has actually put out an overall of 5 video games this year. 5Which’s not consisting of the console release for the exceptional System Shock remake (which, before you go looking for it, isn’t on Switch). For a big business like Nintendo, 5 video games in one year may sound beautiful basic offered its various dev groups and partner studios, however Nightdive is a much smaller sized, particular group comprised of around 40 workers (since 2022). Given, it’s now got Atari behind it after the acquisition went through in 2023, however even the once-mighty Atari is an extremely lean operation compared to its prime time.
The business’s CEO, Stephen Kick, called the studio’s output this year “spectacular” and explored its fast development in a current livestream of its ‘Deep Dive’ series. “It’s a huge challenge,” he stated, “where we have a great deal of business concerning us with a great deal of jobs, and we simply do not have adequate individuals.” He is, nevertheless, fast to clarify that this is a great issue to have, keeping in mind that advancement expenses stay conservative which the business can run on a “lean and suggest” level without always fretting about conference lofty targets to preserve a big personnel.
Image: Nightdive Studios
When it comes to which video games it’s put out, you’ve got Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, PO’ed Definitive Edition, the upgraded DOOM + DOOM II (and the new ‘Legacy of Rust’ project),
