Not all high-definition makeovers are created equal

Killing giants in the PS3 re-release SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS is much more trying emotionally. When these things lumber at 30 frames per second, stabbing them in the head is that much sadder.

When the universe collectively harumphed in 1997, agreeing to switch from VHS to DVD under the condition that it never be asked to do this again, movie studios couldn’t have been happier. The repurposing of catalog titles helped propel the young format to popularity, but the classics came out so often and in such great numbers that, by the time you trashed your first videotape, you somehow had bought three versions of “Goodfellas.”

It was a dizzying, gluttonous and financially catastrophic time for people who collect things. Especially if you were a 13-year-old bankrolling your growing library with, you know, an allowance. For good or ill, the videogame industry has been slower on the uptake. The first high-definition videogame console was released in November 2005, and by my reckoning, the Great HD Repackaging of Game Studios’ Back Catalogs didn’t kick off properly until fall 2009, with the GOD OF WAR COLLECTION on the PlayStation 3, followed late last year by THE SLY COLLECTION.

These were respectful, workmanlike upgrades of great games, and they performed well enough commercially that the industry took notice. In the second half of 2011 alone, we’ve seen highly publicized makeovers of RESIDENT EVIL 4, ICO, SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, two more GOD OF WAR games and THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME, among others.

Each of these games looks sharper and, in some cases, plays remarkably better. The two PSP GOD OF WAR titles — CHAINS OF OLYMPUS and the fantastic GHOST OF SPARTA — feel terrific on the PS3, running in 720p at a rock-solid 60 frames per second, and the addition of a second analog stick eliminates the PSP versions’ awkward roll-dodging conundrum.

The OCARINA OF TIME overhaul, still the only real feather in the 3DS’ cap, could fairly be called a remake, such are its improvements. The game’s character models have been dramatically retooled (although I still have a soft spot for the Nintendo 64′s low-poly young Link), as well as a number of usability improvements and the inclusion of the “Master Quest” version of the game, which reconfigures the dungeons and ups the difficulty. It’s as archival as these sorts of things get; it’s just a shame that this edition is tethered to 3DS.

SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, re-released in September as a double-feature with ICO, is a more moving experience on the PS3. The game debuted on the PS2 in 2005, and though it was as enormous in scope then as it is today (which is to say, “huge”), jagged edges and a wildly inconsistent frame rate kept the game from matching its artistic ambition. With those technical hurdles cleared, the ambiance takes center stage on the PS3, and boy, is it ever thick.

The game’s story charges your character with slaying 16 giants in order to conjure enough magic to save your girlfriend. The rub is that these creatures are nonviolent (until you fire arrows into their backsides, anyway), and the mysterious forces that you’re working for have their own agenda. Stabbing the colossi was always a curiously spooky thing on the PS2, but it packs an almost unbearably emotional wallop on the PS3.

(Also, the tiny white lizards that increase your stamina are much easier to hunt when you can actually distinguish them from the rocks they’re clambering on. So there’s that.)

Not all of the re-releases have fared as well. Though I haven’t spent much time with them, Ubisoft’s HD PRINCE OF PERSIA and SPLINTER CELL collections feel glitchy and actually subtract some of the original releases’ features, while Capcom’s latest edition of RESIDENT EVIL 4, released digitally last month, feels like a missed opportunity. The PS3 version of the game doesn’t take advantage of Sony’s Move controller, even though the Wii implemented pointer controls to great effect three years ago. And the cosmetic improvements are practically nil — models are sharper, but textures and menu elements look dirty and blown out.

Rubbing salt into an already putrifying wound, Capcom this week released the gold edition of RESIDENT EVIL 5 on the PlayStation Network. That game, for all its many faults, comes with Move support and embarrasses the new versions of RE 4 visually. We’ve had fully six years to get used to the idea of high-definition gaming on consoles, and this remake of RE 4, my friends, does not feel HD. It might be running at 720p, but it looks like mud.

Aside from the Ubisoft collections, I bought all of these things. I’m not sure what this says about me, what it ought to say about your fall gaming schedule or what it says about where the industry is generally. I’m a helpless nostalgic and a compulsive shopper who self-medicates (and frequently overdoses) with retail therapy, and I understand that my opinion is suspect.

But I’m also an archivist, and I suspect there are more of you out there than society cares to admit. In most instances, these HD re-releases are the best versions of these games we’ll ever see, just as the Blu-ray cuts of “The Godfather” and “Blade Runner” are the best those movies will ever look on a disc.