Plenty Of Other Games Could Be Rearmed And Powered Up
August 20, 2008
I really have to give credit to Capcom, as they've been hitting retro remakes out of the park this generation. Bionic Commando: Rearmed is both refreshingly new and belovedly old, and of course I've gone on about Mega Man: Powered Up plenty of times before. Something that strikes me, however, is how the company seems to have a knack for coming up with cute, punny subtitles to signify a favorite game in new clothing. "Rearmed" is, of course, a play on hero Nathan Spencer's bionic arm, while "Powered Up" takes a cue from Mega Man's ability to increase his arsenal. Why aren't more publishers having this kind of title fun? Nintendo is about to unleash a Nintendo DS revamp of the Super NES classic, Kirby Super Star, with the unimaginative subtitle Ultra. Why not something like Kirby Super Star: Second Helping or Kirby Super Star: Redigested? Imagine the possibilities conjured up by these prospective titles:
- Sonic the Hedgehog Accelerated
- Castlevania Resurrected
- F-Zero Refueled
- Blaster Master Irradiated
- SimCity Rezoned
- Vectorman Anti-aliased
- Strider: Hooked Up
- Little Nemo Reawakened
The use of the re- prefix would grow old quickly, but I think the market could grin and bear it for two or three more solid uses. After all, we made it through the dark days of DS-based acronyms, "64" suffixes, and a whole other glut of modifiers. Let's have some fun with a naming gimmick for once.