There’s been a lot of talk recently about how all the best games so far this year have been remakes, and why that’s a worrying portent of doom, but I’m here to tell you: it’s a good thing. If you’ve seen much of what I’ve written on TheGamer before, you’ll know I don’t much care for remakes in general, and think the industry should be focusing more on fresh experiences, not cynically banking on the popularity of old franchise names and our own lingering nostalgia. However, even if remakes as a whole are a sticking point, it’s never a bad thing for them to be great.

Much fuss has been made about how nine out of this year’s ten highest rated games are remakes, ports, or similar re-releases, but let’s break that number down. Three of those ten games are Resident Evil 4 on different platforms, and a further two are Persona 4 Golden: that’s five slots taken up by two games, which doesn’t seem like a fair way to measure things. Of the other five, there’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition, which nobody seriously includes as a game from this year, and Tetris Effect: Connected, which launched on PS VR2 as an upgrade. The other three slots are taken by Metroid Prime Remake, Dead Space Remake, and the one true newcomer to proceedings, Hi-Fi Rush.

Related: Resident Evil 4 Is The Best Horror Game Ever Made All Over Again

It’s strange to see this described as a new trend, however. Last year’s top ten includes Portal & Portal 2 (which beat Elden Ring to number one), Persona 5 Royal in three different slots, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition again. The Stanley Parable, God of War (2018), and Persona 5 Royal once more all arrive before 15th place. I won’t do this for every year, but in 2021 the top two spots were held by deluxe editions of Disco Elysium and The House in Fata Morgana. Remakes and remasters usually review more positively than the average game because they’re typically reviewed by people who already like them.

This year seems no different then, but I’d argue it’s not just the same, it’s better. A lot of the games listed above are just ports or graphical tweaks - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is only so great because the base game is beloved. No one is giving it five stars because the puddles are a little shinier, they’re giving it five stars because of the game itself. But the three that have garnered these headlines are so much more than that, and that makes them worthwhile.

While nothing has achieved the complete rebuild of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, both Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 reshape their foundations to create something fresh. Even for fans of the originals, the remakes are a new experience. Refined, heightened, modernised. Metroid Prime is not quite to that level, instead being more inline with a typical polish, but it’s also a significantly older game than we often see churned out for a remaster.

Naughty Dog made a lot of fuss over The Last of Us Part 1, and how every inch of the game has been dialled up to perfection. I doubted it at the time, calling it a vanity project. Playing the game did not dissuade me, and these new remakes only prove my point further. I wish it could have been given the Resi 4 treatment, and I bet a lot of the die-hard fans do too.

All things considered, I think the industry has too many remakes and would prefer to see us building towards the future, not looking at ways to improve the past. But these three games feel like the wrong ones to go postal about. If we’re going to have to live with remakes, I’d much rather they be strong reimaginings that offer a fresh experience rather than just a graphical polish. It’s a good thing that the best games of the year are Resident Evil Remake, Metroid Prime Remake, and Dead Space Remake. It could be worse: it could be Persona 5 Royal again.

Next: Starfield's Lack Of Love Making Is A Major Loss