trivard676A remastered PSP game for the PS3. It really does sound like a cheap cash-grab from a company that is undeniably suffering from a recent network snafu. Or a company desperately trying to recoup lost revenue from the PSP system in its entirety. It’s no secret that while the PSP might have been the king of portables in Japan, that time is quickly coming to an end, thanks mostly to the Nintendo DS/3DS. With the digital-download only PSPgo dead in the water, it’s time for Sony to hike up their pants and get back to work, raking in money.
It’s hard to ignore those previous facts, but at the same time, it’ so hard to stay away from re-releases of some of our favourite games. Some of the most overlooked games came from the PSP, or in this case, the Wii, then the PSP. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories saw a release on the PS2 and the PSP, but anyone who has played the game on more than one system can tell you that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was made for motion control – it was made for the Wii.
However, the Wii isn’t the only contender in the ring anymore in terms of motion control. The Playstation Move sits as a nice contender for a whole slew of ‘remastered’ Wii titles. The fact that the controllers look remarkably similar makes the comparison and debating on which games would be best-suited for the other system all the more…required. We’d be irresponsible gamers if we didn’t.
It was previously doubted by industry experts that the Playstation Move would actually get Wii re-releases. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles would be no-brainers, they’re light-gun shooters, and the Playstation Move is a match made in Heaven for light gun shooters. Dead Space: Extraction was already ported over and was a great addition to the Dead Space 2 Limited Edition (only available for PS3). Hell, if you were so inclined, or didn’t have one, you could use the Dualshock as a substitution for the Playstation Move controller.
But why would you be so inclined?
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was actually a refreshing take on the Silent Hill series. At a time where it seemed like all of our favourite series were turning more action-oriented, Shattered Memories shied away from making its protagonist a big brute, and made him…a scared little man. The game had a heavy focus on puzzles and exploration, with a big emphasis on motion control. But like all Silent Hill games, it was a masterpiece of atmosphere and creep-factor.
Where the Wii had some hang-ups with the non 1:1 movement, the Playstation Move could remedy this. One of our pet-peeves about the title was that some of the puzzle sections requited some intricate movements. Organizing little pieces to a puzzle to figure out a code, pointing Harry Mason’s cell phone camera at a particularly saucy dress, even a simple colouring exercise (yeah…there’s colouring in a Silent Hill game) all would work much better with a 1:1 movement.
Covering the move ‘ball’ could effectively turn off the flashlight, too.
The only instance where the Wii had the advantage were the sound effects that came out of the Wii-mote itself. When Harry would get a phone call, the call would play through the Wii-mote’s speaker, and you’d have to hold it up to your ear to hear it – like an actual cell phone. It might have made us look silly, but it was a cool effect…and who cares if we looked silly? Also, the series’ trademark static came from Harry’s cell phone, which also came out of the Wii-mote’s speaker.
Graphics for Shattered Memories blew us away. We were amazed that the Wii could actually churn out near HD quality graphics without setting our consoles on fire. The PS3 could more than handle an HD remastered version, but even if it wasn’t digitally re-mastered, it would still look golden.
Although this would go beyond a simple re-mastering, we also felt that the psychological aspect the game touted before its release, while good, could have been better. Perhaps more elaborate, or have included more sections? One of the most intriguing aspects of playing the game was seeing how your choices affected the game itself. Answer your questions a certain way, and Cybil was a stripper moonlighting as a cop – answer another way and she was all-business.
Above: Business
Last but not least, what’s a PS3 game if it doesn’t have Trophies? Well, it’s an ‘early’ PS3 game – honestly, we’re still hoping for Kojima and Co. to give us some love for MGS4. We can think of quite a few Trophies we’d actually play the game through again to get, in addition to just figuring out all of the different little changes to the game based on our psychological profiling.
There were some murmurings that remastered PSP games wouldn’t be getting any Trophy support which a) sucks b) doesn’t deter us from dreaming. Slight spoiler alert ahead.
“You Can’t Fool Me!” – get the correct answer for the therapist’s ‘picture test.’
“Daddy Issues.” – complete the game.
“That’s…not how I remember it…” – complete the game more than once.
We’re sure you can think up a couple of your own, too. So what do you think? Would you buy a re-mastered Silent Hill: Shattered Memories? Or does it seem like just a cheap cash-grab by Sony? Would you by ‘any’ PSP remastered title? Sound off in the comments section!
