The original was a fun game with a beautiful style. This remake feels better to play, and doesn't look too bad. There are some questionable artistic choices though.
The remake has plenty of features that make it more approachable. Being able to resume playing between chapters makes late-game challenges less stressful. The improved frame rate over the original benefits this shooter a lot. While aiming feels smoother than the original, moving the dragon with the reticle is still pretty sluggish. It felt better after I turned up the retical aiming sensitivity (though your mileage may vary depending on your controller). The options in general are good, particularly on PC. There's also a "modern" control scheme that lets you move the reticle with the right analog stick, separate from the dragon. I imagine this is what people wanted Star Fox Zero or Kid Icarus Uprising to play like. I kinda hate it? It makes my hand feel tired from moving my right thumb while mashing the right trigger to shoot.
While the game still plays well in general, the new art is questionable. It's nice to have a high-resolution version of the game to play, but in terms of the art, they should have taken a less-is-more approach. They adds a lot of details to the environments, particularly with the new lighting, that change the vibe the original levels had and sometimes make things less clear (the lights made by the player's shots can be blinding in darker areas). There's also some weird changes, like the camera cuts before bosses, whereas the original kept the camera by the player as much as possible.
There's also a remixed soundtrack included, but having listened to it, they shouldn't have bothered. It's still midi, and it doesn't sound significantly better than the originals besides being looped properly (which only really matters for bosses). The game sets the music to Classic by default, which was the right choice. The original opening and Chapter 1 songs make a much better first impression than the new arrangements.
If you have an Xbox console, I'd recommend getting Panzer Dragoon Orta instead, since the original game is included as an unlockable, and it's cheaper than this remake. The biggest reason to get this version is to support the developer in the hopes that they'll someday remake Panzer Dragoon Saga. Hopefully by the time they get to that, if they get to that, they'll have learned how to better represent the original visuals.
In the meantime, they better not screw up Zwei.
The remake has plenty of features that make it more approachable. Being able to resume playing between chapters makes late-game challenges less stressful. The improved frame rate over the original benefits this shooter a lot. While aiming feels smoother than the original, moving the dragon with the reticle is still pretty sluggish. It felt better after I turned up the retical aiming sensitivity (though your mileage may vary depending on your controller). The options in general are good, particularly on PC. There's also a "modern" control scheme that lets you move the reticle with the right analog stick, separate from the dragon. I imagine this is what people wanted Star Fox Zero or Kid Icarus Uprising to play like. I kinda hate it? It makes my hand feel tired from moving my right thumb while mashing the right trigger to shoot.
While the game still plays well in general, the new art is questionable. It's nice to have a high-resolution version of the game to play, but in terms of the art, they should have taken a less-is-more approach. They adds a lot of details to the environments, particularly with the new lighting, that change the vibe the original levels had and sometimes make things less clear (the lights made by the player's shots can be blinding in darker areas). There's also some weird changes, like the camera cuts before bosses, whereas the original kept the camera by the player as much as possible.
There's also a remixed soundtrack included, but having listened to it, they shouldn't have bothered. It's still midi, and it doesn't sound significantly better than the originals besides being looped properly (which only really matters for bosses). The game sets the music to Classic by default, which was the right choice. The original opening and Chapter 1 songs make a much better first impression than the new arrangements.
If you have an Xbox console, I'd recommend getting Panzer Dragoon Orta instead, since the original game is included as an unlockable, and it's cheaper than this remake. The biggest reason to get this version is to support the developer in the hopes that they'll someday remake Panzer Dragoon Saga. Hopefully by the time they get to that, if they get to that, they'll have learned how to better represent the original visuals.
In the meantime, they better not screw up Zwei.