Remasters are trending. More and more companies are bringing games from previous console generations to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U, giving them glossy new coats and, in some cases, mechanical tweaks. In 2014, we got everything from Vita ports of late '90s Japanese role-playing games to retooled versions of the most recent Grand Theft Auto and 2013's The Last of Us.

　　Accessibility is the key here. How many people still have a working original PlayStation at their fingertips to play Suikoden II? Who traded in their Xbox 360 to pay for an Xbox One and with it gave up the ability to play Halo: Reach and Fable II on a whim? Not everyone has the space in their living rooms and wallets to multiple systems dating back into the 16-bit era, but many have the drive and desire to play these older classics. Maybe you meant to play Vagrant Story but never got around to it, or a pang grips your heart when you remember you stopped playing Banjo-Kazooie. As the industry sees it, these games make money years later because people still love them.

　　In light of the growing remaster trend--and to perhaps plant a few ideas in some game-making heads--I took the liberty of looking into some beloved old games that could use the shiny veneer of an upgrade. Note that this is for remasters, not remakes--no one has the resources or patience to spend a million hours remaking Final Fantasy VI to look like Final Fantasy XIII, so this list of six is based on what classic titles could get by with a little elbow grease.

Banjo-Kazooie

　　The XBLA port of Banjo-Kazooie didn't improve much on the original game, which in itself is far from perfect: But the updated port exists for a reason. Banjo-Kazooie was a landmark title in its time, one of the more remarkable milestones of video game history. As one of the pioneers of the 3D platforming genre, Banjo-Kazooie was mammoth in terms of things to do and items to collect. As the game that catapulted Rare into the spotlight, Banjo-Kazooie's visuals stretched the N64 to its graphical limits, assaulting players with a world of color, humor, and really strange noises.

　　You could say Banjo-Kazooie is one of those classic titles belonging in the canon of "video games everyone must play," regardless of how well it has held up over time. It's like the required reading of Mrs. Dalloway before you can watch The Hours with Nicole Kidman. But that XBLA port doesn't do the game justice. The technological advances that have accrued since Banjo-Kazooie's initial release show that it's possible to smooth over those jagged angles and give the whole affair a nice rub-down for Xbox One. With a deficit of 3D platformers in the current generation, it's not hard to believe an updated Banjo-Kazooie would be well-received by more than a few players.

Vagrant Story

　　The memories of action RPG Vagrant Story have been somewhat buried under those of its more popular and prolific cousins from the Final Fantasy series. Square (before it became Square Enix) put Vagrant Story in the hands of the Final Fantasy Tactics team. Both titles are linked thematically, with the former building more on the world of its 1998 predecessor. But what made Vagrant Story unique is that it shied away from the typical RPG emphasis on inter-character relationships and instead made players pour stock into everything else.

　　There are no friendly shops in which to buy items. There are no opportunities for players to walk around and talk to other characters. There is no massive, lush world to run around in. Instead, players are confined to dungeons, hallways, back alleys, always creeping along in the shadows, and in real-time no less. Players could switch between third-person perspective, watching protagonist Ashley Riot, or to first-person for a full view of immediate surroundings. The game focused on weapon creation and modification, and tossed players into a complex battle system that straddled challenging and infuriating. It didn't hold your hand. It was unabashedly what it was: a thick story in a thick setup with a thick combat system.

　　Vagrant Story saw Square defying the expectations it had already set with Final Fantasy, and it has since become the poster child for the company's willingness to take risks and try new things under the leadership of director and designer Hironobu Sakaguchi. As current JRPGs tend to backslide into the same field of overused tropes and systems, Vagrant Story would be a beautiful offering to the current generation of players unaware of Square's braver first endeavors.

Bushido Blade

　　Bushido Blade set a new bar and tread new ground for fighting games. Up until this point, one-on-one combat usually meant punching, kicking, hitting and/or stabbing repeatedly to whittle down opponents' health gauges. But Bushido Blade turned the idea of bullet sponges and competitive fighting games on its head by allowing players to either kill their opponent or slowly disable him, one limb at a time.

　　Bushido Blade's body damage system was bold and a little unnerving, making for a more realistic fighting experience. During swordplay, players could cripple their opponent by attacking legs, or arms, or the torso. These attacks would slow enemies' speed or even break them altogether, sometimes forcing them to crawl into battle. And whereas most fighting games include a selection of balanced characters, Bushido Blade put stock in its weapons instead, offering items that granted different power and ability stats. Playable characters had smaller secondary weapons, and were more adept with some blades than others. Bushido Blade wanted you to focus on mastering the steel.

　　While elements of its combat system have been poached and iterated on over time, the overall Bushido Blade package is proof of a bold move paying off. Fighting game enthusiasts interested in landmark moments from the genre's past would likely appreciate the opportunity to play a scrubbed up version of this classic.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

　　Silicon Knights' psychological survival-horror adventure was critically praised but commercially flopped. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem has sold less than 500,000 copies worldwide since its 2002 release, but that hasn't stopped those who have played it from singing its praises.

　　The Resident Evil series was well underway by Eternal Darkness' debut, having kickstarted the modern survival-horror movement six years prior and set a benchmark for the kind of jump scares and tension players were looking for in games. But Eternal Darkness took everything it learned from its predecessors and overcomplicated it--and that over complication worked. Players controlled multiple characters and could make decisions that affected not only the storyline and outcome but the difficulty of the game itself. A decision to patronize certain otherworldly things as one character could set your game into unofficial hard mode. The sneaky way Silicon Knights hid these difficultly spikes and challenges makes every minute a minefield.

　　But what Eternal Darkness is known for is its Sanity Meter, and those who have never had a copy of the title and a GameCube can't really understand its psychological impact without experiencing it. As the game progressed, a meter displaying characters' grip on reality slowly began to dip down, which in turned ramped up the creepy factor. This went beyond the haunted call of ghosts and rattling chains. Statues would move to watch you walk by. Monsters would appear. Walls would bleed. The volume would lower and a fake TV volume indicator would appear on screen. Eternal Darkness toyed not just with characters' sanity, but the players' nerves, making it a horror experience worth resurrecting.

Valkyrie Profile

　　Valkyrie Profile's twisted take on Norse mythology is usually the first thing we remember about it. Playing as Valkyrie Lenneth, players must travel the world searching for and recruit einherjar, strong souls of the dead, to fight alongside them in Ragnarok. The way the game balanced fighting the war between gods and Lenneth's own struggle was brilliant: both systems required players to pay careful attention to the characters they recruited, some of which were necessary to advance the plot. But many more were optional, hidden away in corners of the map for players to pick as they would.

　　But not only did you have the freedom to choose your soldiers, you had the freedom to alter their skills, traits, and weapons as you saw fit. Einherjar assisted Lenneth crawling through dungeons, fighting alongside her in random encounters, but players also had to decide when to send them along to Valhalla, transferring their skills from the everyday party to the gods' own army. Players could then periodically check up on these characters and what they did in the war, watching them fail to achieve anything or earn prestige.

　　It's the way Valkyrie Profile built up the struggle--not just Lenneth's, but that of her gods and her followers--that made this JRPG special. The unique combat system certainly helped, with each party member assigned a face button for attacking and allowing the entire party to attack hordes of enemies all at once. As a JRPG that pushed the limits of tone, pacing, combat complexity, and even player tolerance, it's a gem among its kind.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

　　Legacy of Kain owes much of its inception to former Uncharted and current Star Wars game writer Amy Hennig, who assisted development on Blood Omen before moving on to write, direct and produce Soul Reaver. Hennig is one of the strongest writers in industry history, and her trademark emotion-tugging dramatic stamp is evident on Soul Reaver.

　　Combat itself in Soul Reaver could get repetitive, but it was the puzzles that ate up most of your playtime. The reward for solving truly maddening, nail-biting puzzles--was another thread of plot, a deeper dive into the game's sinister world. It was the atmosphere that captured people's imaginations: a grim, dark, and engaging tale set in an equally-dark world that felt lived-in. You're not just hacking up bad guys in square rooms, you're unraveling a hero's past and discovering a place so very different from the real world. Soul Reaver is a testament to video games' power as a storytelling medium.

　　While the Legacy of Kain series would go on to spawn more titles and spin-offs, it's this title from its early years that deserves one more go-round. The Legacy of Kain series boasts one of the most sold game worlds to date, and for its time already boasted impressive visuals; imagine what it could look like today with a few upgrades.

　　Alexa Ray Corriea on Google+