10 Action Game Remasters we Would Love to See in 2026

3 weeks ago 11

Daniel has been playing games for entirely too many years, with his Steam library currently numbering nearly 750 games and counting. When he's not working or watching anime, he's either playing or thinking about games, constantly on the lookout for fascinating new gameplay styles and stories to experience. Daniel has previously written lists for TheGamer, as well as guides for GamerJournalist, and he currently covers tech topics on SlashGear.

The year has started anew, and 2026 is awash in potential for new high-octane action games. We’ve got plenty of big releases either lined up on the board or, at least, with general timeframes for this year, but that’s not the only fun part of a new year. New years bring new potential, a fresh slate for both new games and old games to strut their stuff, the latter specifically through remasters.

10 Best Action Games Forgotten by Time

The passage of time has only made these games feel even more awesome.

As we continue to move into the future of gaming, the big hits and cult classics of previous generations are being left behind on outdated hardware. Remasters allow these games to transcend the barriers of time, improving their graphics and gameplay in the process, and find new homes in the hearts of current gamers. Obviously, we have little-to-nothing to fuel our hopes for these particular prospective remasters beyond just thinking they’d be nice, but isn’t it thematically appropriate to have hope for the future when the year rolls over?

10 Crash Twinsanity

It Might Be Good if it’s Actually Finished

Crash Twinsanity Crash Cortex humiliskate

In the early 2000s, the owners of the Crash Bandicoot IP weren’t really sure what they wanted to do with it. The fourth mainline game, Wrath of Cortex, sold well enough, but didn’t do so hot critically. For the next major entry, they wanted to try something a little different, and the result was Crash Twinsanity. It probably would’ve been good if they’d actually finished it, but perhaps a remaster could remedy that.

In Twinsanity, certain circumstances force Crash and Cortex to join forces against a pair of evil, interdimensional twins, running roughshod around the world to find allies and amass crystals to cross the dimensional barrier. It was a game with a lot of good ideas and presentation, from funny dialogue to an ear-wormy a cappella soundtrack, though it was also very obviously unfinished at launch with low-detail assets, missing voicelines, and underbaked gameplay. Literally, when you’re about to cross dimensions, Cortex says, “we were going to do two dimensions, but we ran out of time.”

A Twinsanity remaster could not only clean up all the unfinished graphics and rebalance the gameplay, but perhaps also restore all of the cut content and get this game into the form it was always supposed to be. Activision’s been doing more and better with Crash lately, so it’s a pretty good time for it.

9 Drakengard

Where the Legend of Nier Started

You know how, when a game series spin-off reaches a certain degree of prominence, people tend to forget it was a spin-off at all? Persona would be a good example of that, though another example would be the Nier series, which is technically a spin-off of the Drakengard series. There haven’t been any new Drakengard games since 2013, with the series mostly focusing on Nier stuff, but it could be fun to remaster the original Drakengard just to see where all this madness started.

The original 2003 Drakengard is a bit of a Frankenstein game, specifically between Dynasty Warriors and Ace Combat. You switch between on-the-ground action combat against large numbers of mooks and aerial combat atop your trusty dragon mount. Some missions are strictly one or the other, while others allow you to swap gameplay styles on the fly. It’s definitely a weird system, but it’s that particular flavor of Yoko Taro weird that you just can’t get enough of.

Assuming Square Enix is interested in going forward with more Nier stuff, it’d be neat to get a Drakengard remaster on the board to help establish the timeline, murky as it is. Also, I just want more Yoko Taro madness in my life. Hey, don’t we all?

8 Viewtiful Joe

Throw Me a Bone Here, Capcom

I think everyone has at least one game or series that only they seem to care about. For me, that series is Viewtiful Joe, the sidescrolling action brawler developed by the late Clover Studios and published by Capcom. There hasn’t been a new Viewtiful Joe game in over 20 years, which makes me very sad, but the recent reformation of Clover as Clovers gives me hope for a new one, or at the very least, a remaster of the original.

Viewtiful Joe is a loving homage to tokusatsu film and television, specifically Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Godzilla. When movie-loving schlub Joe is forcefully dragged into a world of movies, he transforms into a superhero with the ability to directly influence the film reel, slowing it down, speeding it up, and zooming in on his heroic moves. It’s a bit cheesy, not unlike the film style it’s paying homage to, but it’s a great action game with plenty of potential for high scores and speedruns.

As far as I know, Capcom still owns the rights to Viewtiful Joe, not that it’s done anything with it. With Hideki Kamiya getting the band back together for Clovers, hopefully Capcom will do the right thing and let him go wild with his old creation, including both remasters and new entries.

7 Jet Set Radio Future

We Need a Reminder Before the New One

Back in 2023, Sega announced that it would be making new sequels to several of its legacy IPs, including Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, and Jet Set Radio. We still don’t really have any information about this new Jet Set Radio game beyond a scant few seconds of promo footage, and to be honest, I don’t know how many younger gamers even know about this IP, especially after Bomb Rush Cyberfunk ate Sega’s lunch. The original was remastered once already (though it has been delisted), but its second entry, Jet Set Radio Future, is still waiting for its shot.

Jet Set Radio Future is a direct follow-up to the first game, released exclusively for Xbox in 2002. Like the first game, the primary goal is to skate around town, spraying your personal graffiti on every wall within reach, while either antagonizing or evading local police officers. Compared to the original’s isolated levels, Future opted for more open-ended areas that you could explore at your leisure.

Besides helping to warm things up before the new Jet Set Radio game comes out, a Jet Set Radio Future remaster now might play better to the game’s unique strengths, specifically multiplayer modes and custom graffiti designs. I don’t know if it’ll become the next big multiplayer sensation, but people generally like a novel multiplayer experience with a customization element.

6 Okamiden

Speaking of Upcoming Sequels

Speaking of long-awaited sequels, not to mention the newly reformed Clovers, it was announced in 2024 that, alongside Clovers’ creation, a sequel to cult classic Okami was in the works. Okami has already gotten the remaster treatment, as it deserves, but there’s one more piece of the puzzle missing before we can get to something brand new: its semi-sequel Okamiden, still trapped on the Nintendo DS.

Like its predecessor, Okamiden is an action-adventure game, set around a year after Amaterasu’s journey across Nippon. Ammy’s descendent, Chibiterasu, appears in answer to a newly-rising source of darkness, wielding the same power over the Celestial Brush. Since he’s too young to quest alone, he’s joined by several child companions, each with their own unique abilities and quirks, like the hotheaded, sword-wielding Kuni and the spiritualist-acrobat Kagu.

While not quite as memorable a game as Okami, Okamiden was a pretty good time in its own right, and surprisingly dense for a DS game. I can’t imagine it’d be that hard to remaster it into a standalone game, as most of the touchscreen mechanics are the same as the regular Celestial Brush stuff from the first game. The only real hitch is that Okamiden wasn’t actually made by Clover, so Clovers may not feel any obligation to remaster it.

5 Kid Icarus: Uprising

Set it Free from the Corpse of the 3DS

The frustrating thing about gaming largely moving away from dedicated portable consoles is that many of the best games on those platforms remain trapped on them. This is especially true for the Nintendo DS and 3DS, as their proprietary gimmicks make porting and remastering them tricky. However, if there were any game that warranted the effort, it would be Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Uprising was one of the sleeper hits of the 3DS, the first modern Kid Icarus game since Pit’s redesign for Super Smash Bros. As a Sakurai game, it shares a lot of Smash DNA, actually, including the scaling difficulty system and a large swath of unlockables and collectibles. At its core, it’s a hybrid rail shooter and action-platformer, depending on whether Pit is in flight or on the ground. Of course, one of the game’s highlights is its story and characters, particularly Pit’s hilarious conversations with Palutena, Viridi, and his many other allies and foes.

Demand has been high for an Uprising remaster since the original Nintendo Switch came out, and has only increased with the release of the Switch 2. While the game made extensive use of the touchscreen for its aiming controls, it shouldn’t be too hard to adapt that to regular face buttons. Sakurai’s done with Kirby Air Riders after all, so I’m sure he’s got some time.

A Cult Classic of the Sixth Generation

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

The sixth generation of consoles, including the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox, were home to all sorts of cult classic games. This was back when Blockbuster was still a thing, so everyone rented random titles, and the good stuff got around through word of mouth. One of the standouts from that era, and one I’d really like to see remastered, is Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.

Metal Arms is a third-person shooter and action platformer, in a similar vein to the Ratchet & Clank games. Our hero, Glitch, is a soldier in a war between the peaceful droids and the militant Milbots, traveling across the planet in a series of massive battles. You’ve got all kinds of cool weapons and vehicles to wreak havoc with, though the game’s signature weapon, the Control Tether, allows you to take direct control of enemies and use their abilities against them.

Metal Arms had excellent split-screen multiplayer, full of shenanigan potential, and a generally solid single-player campaign. I’m certain anyone who played it back in the day would love a remaster, though admittedly, I don’t actually know who owns the rights currently. It was a Vivendi Universal publication originally, so… Activision, maybe?

3 Bayonetta 2

Doesn’t Really Need to be a Nintendo Exclusive Anymore

Platinum’s seminal character-action game Bayonetta was originally a multiplatform release, launching in 2009 for PS3 and Xbox 360 and gradually making its way elsewhere in subsequent years. Starting with Bayonetta 2, though, the series became a Nintendo exclusive, as Sega wouldn’t pony up the cash for more sequels. A port of Bayonetta 2 is technically available for purchase now on Switch, but I think it’s high time Nintendo shared its toys and let everyone else have a remaster, especially since the original game is already on Steam.

Bayonetta 2 carries over most of the basic gameplay from the first game; our favorite Umbran Witch pummels both angels and demons with a combination of magically-enhanced melee and evil weaponry. She now also has a super mode that can be triggered at will, powering up her attacks and summoning her contracted demons to intermix with her attacks. The game also added a challenge mode, which includes several additional playable characters for added fun.

I know that Nintendo is incredibly cagey with its IPs, but Bayonetta has never really felt suited for Nintendo exclusivity to me. It’s a series that would perform much better on other platforms, and all Nintendo has to do is give a thumbs up for a remaster.

2 Bloodborne

Really, Sony? Still?

Speaking of publishers that won’t share their toys, it’s kind of remarkable that Sony is still stonewalling a remaster of Bloodborne over a decade later. It made some degree of sense back at launch; it was one of the big reasons to buy a PS4, but it’s getting silly now. Come on guys, Silksong came out before we got a Bloodborne remaster, it’s time to just give everyone what they want.

Bloodborne is one of FromSoftware’s most beloved Soulslike games, unique from both Dark Souls and Elden Ring for both its Gothic Victorian setting and faster-paced, dodge-and-counter-focused combat system. Like most FromSoft games, it’s also full of iconic characters and locales, albeit with a distinctive horror flavor that still makes it a standout amongst its contemporaries and successors.

When Sony started permitting ports of PlayStation games to Steam, everyone figured a Bloodborne remaster would be a sure thing, but it still hasn’t manifested. The only real argument I can think of is that, as a PS4 game, it’s too recent to deserve a remaster. Maybe, but if they can release a remaster of Marvel’s Spider-Man on Steam, a game that literally came out three years after Bloodborne, then there’s really no excuse.

1 God of War

How Kratos Got Where he is

God of War has always been one of the head honchos of PlayStation IPs, though arguably even moreso in recent years thanks to the meteoric success of the 2018 reboot and Ragnarok. Considering the original God of War released all the way back in 2005, there’s a good chance anyone who likes the current God of War games has never even played it, and that’s just not right.

In contrast to the rebooted God of War’s more methodical gameplay and somber tone, the original game is a bombastic bloodfest through Greek myth, detailing Kratos’ original journey to seek vengeance against the titular deity, Ares. There were no gear scores or accessories, just good ol’ hack ‘n slash combat, plus some platforming and environmental puzzles. It was a game that reveled in violence, and that’s what we all liked about it back in the day.

If you want to get technical about it, God of War did receive a remaster already, albeit back on the PS3. The problem is that this remaster is only playable on PS5 via PS Plus streaming, and it’s not particularly well-optimized either. A fresh, standalone remaster would be much more respectful to this landmark series, I think.