As millennials return to the games of their youth, remakes of Star Fox and Halo suggest there is still plenty to learn from the past. Retro collections are being started or resumed, with PS1 classics and SNES or Mega Drive games filling living-room shelves. Many are replaying titles from their university days or sticking to comfort games like Stardew Valley.
Remakes Offer Fresh Perspectives
Both Star Fox on Switch 2 and Halo: Campaign Evolved on other consoles and PC have had summer 2026 glow-ups. These are games played for many hours back in the day, remembered beat for beat, but remakes have given a fresh perspective. They feel novel because in 2026, they are.
Star Fox, originally Lylat Wars (N64, 1997), is an arcadey on-rails space shooter, a genre that has fallen out of fashion. Velan Studios in New York has changed almost nothing about it, keeping the same webbed map of planets, enemies, and bosses. A playthrough takes maybe 60 to 90 minutes, and it can be played over and over, like a generous arcade cabinet. The remake looks very beautiful, with new cutscenes and dialogue, plus multiplayer and challenge modes.
Halo Remake Deviates More
Halo: Campaign Evolved deviates more from Bungie’s original space opera. It’s been rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 with different vehicle handling and more overwrought cutscenes. But the essentials remain: high drama, perfect weaponry, and intelligent enemies that react interestingly to how you play. The Flood, the mindless zombies that infect the game from the midway point onwards, are still hated, but the game was a blast to play through again with a partner.
These remakes show there are things to be learned from the games of the past, and a lot that is enviable about their design philosophy. Old games don’t necessarily need to be fixed to be appreciated anew; refreshing them is often enough.
