A few of the most common staples in modern gaming are the port, re-release, and remaster. Normally, these types of games are released years after the original and marketed as an opportunity to experience (or re-experience) some of gaming’s most standout moments on modern platforms (i.e. Tomb Raider on iOS/Android). They may be a direct port with little to no alterations or they may incorporate new mechanics and systems to better integrate with their new platform (Resident Evil: Deadly Silence on the Nintendo DS). For those that take the first route, however, the act of porting across platforms may create an interface at odds with the game’s own design.
In the case of Tomb Raider, as many of us mentioned in class, the process of finding the best way to control the game can lead to a good deal of frustration. Because the game was designed and shaped around the platforms it was made on (the PS1/Sega Saturn), both of which used the standard controllers of their time, porting it to a new platform that has shifted away from controllers and instead uses touch screen controls leaves the game feeling clunky and unresponsive, especially to those accustomed to the controller experience. Similarly, ports of certain games designed with common control layouts in mind to the Wii (a platform explicitly designed to deviate from those norms) similarly results in clunky experiences that present a poorly made mimic of the original.
What this leads me to ask, then, is what kinds of ports can be seen as worthwhile, or whether all ports can have some value. Should transfers like these be limited to platforms that share design concepts? Or are these difficulties merely the result of our personal preference for platforms we find familiar?
