Port vs Remake

Yes, two posts in two days! I'm on a roll.

*ahem* Anyway, today I decided to write down once and for all my stand about what makes a port and a remake. It's a subject of many debates on the forums as wether a game should be considered a port or remake. In the end, it's just your personal opinion on it, but I think it's better when you can offer an educated opinion at least.

Let's start with the very basic definition of them :

Port
A port is when a game is taken from one console to the other, without a generation gap or little differences. For example, adapting an Xbox game to the PC is a port.

Remake
Remakes are when a game is made on a console of a different generation, which requires some changes in the way it's coded. A good is Wild Arms : Alter Code F, from the PS1 to the PS2 version.

Now that's fine and all, but when you look at the very basic definition, that's where some confusion can be created. The definition of remake implies that if they are created on another younger console, it's a remake. Thus Final Fantasy 4-5-6 on PS1 were remakes. Most people will agree that it hardly constitutes a 'remake' when you play it, and they are right. But we're talking about the basic definition here.

In reality, most people will consider a remake if it changes the game in major ways while keeping the story and basic gameplay the same. For example, Final Fantasy 1 from it's NES days didn't change much when it was ported to the MSX and PC in Japan, but the Wonderswan version had alot of changes. We're talking mostly bugfixes along with an upgrade in graphics and music. The PS1, GBA and PSP versions were essentially ports of that Wonderswan version, but still can be considered remakes of the original for all intents.

We could add to the remake definition that it also requires recoding the entire game. The FF4-5-6 on PS1 had no such thing done, only small additions for saving to a memory card. Otherwise, the game was more or less a ROM slapped on a CD, complemented with FMV and art galleries. Graphically, musically and gameplay wise, nothing had changed, not even most of the bugs and glitches.

On the other hand, the GBA version of these same games seem to constitute a remake in that aspect. The code looks like it may have been redone rather than adapted, as most of the bugs were fixed (and in certain cases new ones appeared). Graphically they are essentially the same, musically they needed to be downsized from the strong SNES music player to a more limited GBA music player, but otherwise the game looked and sounded so alike that people wouldn't think about it being a remake.

To add to the confusion about the whole port versus remake, let's hop back to ports. Ports are supposed to be when games are made on the same generation of consoles, for example if you took the various versions of Super Street Fighter 2 on SNES and Genesis, they had very little differences. Some ports were a little more odd, like Bart vs the Space Mutants that was on the NES and the Genesis, talk about a generation gap!

Nowadays it's even worse. The 360 and PC essentially are made on the same architecture, making ports easy between the two. Change a few things, add some graphic options and there you go, PC version. But the PS3 is built on a more complex architecture, and alot of developers have troubles porting their games to PS3 because of it. For example, while there is a Dynasty Warriors 6 on both PS3 and Xbox360, Warriors Orochi 1 and 2 were made on Xbox360 and PC, yet only on the PS2. There is no PS3 version, which seems to indicate that they didn't want to bother with recoding or adapting the game for the PS3, while they could just reuse most of the graphics and the engine they built with the previous games on the PS2.

So basically, a PS3 game needing to be recoded would almost constitute a remake rather than a port. Confusing enough yet?

In conclusion, how about you call it whatever you feel like, and stop trying to categorize it? Are you going to play it if it's not a port or a remake? If you're not going to play it, don't bother us with it either! If you're going to play it, what does it matter if it's a port or a remake?