For those unfamiliar, a “demake” is where a modern game is redesigned to be “played” on an older system. This could be anything from a 16-bit version to a straight up text adventure. And we’ve found the seven greatest online.
Most of which center around Kratos for some reason.
You’re damn right that’s Halo on an Atari 2600. And believe it or not? It works. Oh, it’s not quite as graphically rich, but stripped down, Halo is still a fun game. You can play it over at Code Mystics.
The first of several “God of War” demakes, this one reimagines it as a NES game. Awww, Kratos is adorable! You can play this free on PC, courtesy of Holmade Games.
“Super Smash Brothers”…except it’s on a Game Boy. The only way this could be improved is if it came on an actual Game Boy cart. You can find the full free download over at PikiGeek.
Yes, that’s “God of War” as a Tiger Electronics handheld LCD game. The sad thing is that this game makes that first boss fight way less frustrating than the original. You can play it on Newgrounds.
We’re a little surprised this isn’t an official Valve product: “Half-Life” meets “Metal Slug” seems like something that would be right up their alley. But at least it’s available on Steam.
“Haze”, as a current-gen FPS, was pretty forgettable. Turned into an NES game, though, it actually works pretty well.
Believe it or not: this is an official release. Bethesda actually put this together themselves. Why? Explaining the style and gameplay of western RPGs to Japanese gamers is pretty tough: they don’t know the lingo and the systems are different. So this was Bethesda’s way of introducing Japanese gamers to western RPG tropes.
And finally, there’s this: God of War as a text-adventure game.
This makes the list not because we’re Kratos fanboys, but rather because it’s extremely well-written and pointedly critical of the sloppy storytelling and general crappy attitude of many current-gen games. Kratos is, when you think about it, a crappy, crappy character, and this game gleefully rips the mindset that celebrates him as a hero a new one.
Any you think were better? Let us know in the comments.