A common trend across all types of art, video games included, is that creating something where you need to navigate strict limitations can often lead to more creative and better solutions. Often, those limitations don't come from something an artist or creator imposed on themselves. It usually comes down to not having the time, the money, or, in the case of video games, the technology, to truly bring someone's vision to life.

There are some instances, though, where creators get a chance to go back to those original games, and either through a remake, remaster, re-imagining, or whatever you want to call it, get a second shot at making their dreams come true. And the second time around, they have all the money, time, and technology they need to do it to the fullest.

But having all those resources doesn't necessarily mean they'll get it right. In fact, there are more than a few examples of times when game makers get it wrong, so wrong that you're better off playing the original version, even if it's on retro hardware that barely works. That's the category the following four games fall under.

4 Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection

How do you mess up this badly?

The original Star Wars: Battlefront games that arrived on the PS2 and original Xbox were two of my favorite games when I was a kid. Thanks to my Dad, I was a huge Star Wars fan, which meant wanting to try any game I could that let me swing a lightsaber or fly an X-Wing. These games ran smoothly on my PS2, and I spent more than a couple of nights with my best friend playing Galactic Conquest, or just playing through the entire campaign for either game well past our kid-friendly bedtime and into the wee hours of the morning.

So, after a third installment was canceled, and then the series was brought back with two modern reboots that eventually became great games, bringing the originals to modern consoles would be a money-printing machine, right? There were millions of new fans brought in by the reboot, and plenty of veteran fans that would love to jump back into the original games, with fully-functioning online systems.

It might've been, if developer and publisher Aspyr hadn't absolutely mucked it up. The launch was terrible, servers were not working at all for online play, and the game launched with a myriad of technical issues. On top of that, Aspyr kept a fan-made mod for the original games on PC in their final build for this remaster. After having been caught with the mod in a trailer, Aspyr admitted the mistake and said it wouldn't be in the final game. Until it was in the final game.

And that's all before mentioning that, as a remaster, the Battlefront Classic Collection did very little to make the game look and run better. If you're playing on PC, then you're much better off just playing the original games on Steam, or playing the modern Battlefront II, which DICE managed to make into a pretty great shooter after its own abysmal launch. If you're on consoles, then at least with the Xbox you'll be able to grab the original games and play them there. PlayStation and Nintendo players are unfortunately out of luck.

3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

Better than nothing, but not great

After Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 lacked any kind of single-player option at all, and the new battle royale mode didn't take off quite in the way Activision would have hoped, the series went back to the era that made it incredibly successful in the first place. In 2019, Call of Duty went back to its Modern Warfare series with a full reboot, simply titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Granted, the multiplayer was a big step up from the year before, and it was great to have a bombastic, action-packed single-player campaign again. But both modes still paled in comparison to the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The campaign in 2019's Modern Warfare was much shorter, and failed to achieve the same heights that Infinity Ward had hit in 2007. Sure, it was better than what we got the year before, but it's not difficult to be better than nothing.

Long-time Call of Duty fans are used to the ups and downs the franchise goes through, year over year, and while 2019 definitely isn't one of the worst years the series has had, it's also nowhere near the top. And the 12-year-old title that came before it, which also catapulted the franchise to heights it hadn't yet achieved, still stands above it. At least you can play the remastered version of Call of Duty 4, equipped with a multiplayer mode.

2 Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

Did anyone actually look at this before launch?

That might be a little harsh, because, of course, there were people working hard to bring these excellent games to modern platforms. But it still feels worth asking, because the condition in which these games launched was nothing short of atrocious.

Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are each three incredible games that helped cement the Grand Theft Auto franchise as a household name for players around the world. We would not have gotten Grand Theft Auto V, nor would it have sold hundreds of millions of copies, if these games didn't create the foundation for that success. It's upsetting, and arguably disgraceful, that a collection of these games remastered for modern platforms was as horrible as it was.

That's even before getting into the fact that the trilogy together cost just as much as a brand-new AAA game. I'd like to be able to tell you that you can just play the original games on PC, but Take-Two de-listed them ahead of the launch of the remasters. So now you actually can't go back and play the original games on digital storefronts.

We're left with worse versions of great games that can still be fun to play, only because they were already so good. It's also worth noting that each game in the trilogy has been patched numerous times since launch back in 2021, but I would argue it's worth the effort to find a CRT (or a way to hook up your old console to your modern TV) and just play these games on original hardware. It's definitely more of an effort, but it's worth it to not reward Take-Two with your money for this awful "remastered" collection.

1 Resident Evil 3 remake

Maybe just avoid this one altogether

Unless you are incredibly enamored by the modern remakes of the Resident Evil franchise, and feel you absolutely must play the Resident Evil 3 remake to get the full experience, then you're almost definitely better off avoiding it.

This remake cuts away huge chunks of the original game, and while it's nice to play it with the same modern graphics and play style that the absolutely incredible Resident Evil 2 remake had, this version goes a step too far. The changes made to the narrative and its short runtime make this a remake that's worth skipping.

You can at least still grab the original on GOG, so there's luckily no need to dust off the original PlayStation, or find one and an original copy of the game if you don't already have both at the ready.

Sometimes there's more than just nostalgia holding up the OGs

It makes perfect sense when an old game is given a remake, remaster, or re-imagining treatment, with updated technology and swaths of cash put behind it, and it turns out all the better for it. It will typically stand alongside its original as a new way to experience what made that original game so great in the first place.

When the opposite happens, it makes no sense at all to have spent time and money on such an effort, and we're all left wondering what went wrong. At least in the case of most of these examples, there's still an easy way to go back and play the original games.