At the recent Grasshopper Direct event, Shinji Mikami and Suda51 discussed a potential new collaboration centered around Killer7, the stylized shooter that debuted on the PS2 and GameCube in 2005.
Never played this game due to it’s weird graphics. But might it try out since it’s getting a rerelease.
Some games are so perfectly built to suit their original hardware that they just can’t benefit from a remaster. I’d argue that Killer7 is one of those games. Port it to modern systems and re-release it by all means, but I think that there’s very little you could really do to it without changing some part of its core DNA.
It’s a weird, janky game, but it was weird and janky back in the day, too, not just in the hindsight of hardware limitations and outdated design sensibilities.
The first time I played it (on PS2), a year or two after launch, I could not get into it at all, and even somehow got stuck quite early in the game. A few years later I gave it another try and everything just clicked for me, including passing that tricky part without breaking a sweat. I can’t imagine what the issue was the first time around.
I don’t think it’s for everyone but it definitely has a charming kind of oddness, and a slight clumsiness that’s more endearing than irritating for people in its target audience.