When video game publishers decide to re-relase an older title of theirs – be it as a remaster, remake, simple port or emulated – many commentators are quick to point out how "lazy" it is to just sell the same product again.
To counteract this, a common practice is to sweeten the deal by making some minor additions to the game, like adding a few new levels or collectible items. Note that this is different from adding them to the original release via updates or DLC.
In rare cases, however, video game re-releases receive new side campaigns which are distinct and/or full-fledged enough that nobody would mind if they had been published as their own standalone budget titles. In this gallery, we at EarlyGame want to highlight 12 of the most impressive examples.
Likely the most prominent standalone side campaign in recent history, when the 2013 Wii U title Super Mario 3D World was brought to Nintendo Switch in 2021, it was bundled with a completely new 6-hour-long 3D platforming adventure. Bowser's Fury not only has its own story – with Mario being tasked by Bowser Jr. to rid the latter's dad and the idyllic Lake Lapcat of a mysterious, heart-corrupting black goop – it plays completely different from any prior Mario game in that the player is free to access all platforming challenges in any order they want to. | © Nintendo
Some players of the 2011 Wii original may have wondered what happened to tiny floating mage Magolor after he betrayed Kirby, stole the powerful Master Crown and – in typical Kirby game fashion – paid for this act by having his soul shattered into pieces. The remaster on Nintendo Switch answers this question by showing Magolor stranded in some weird interdimensional afterlife, where he attempts to collect parts of the mysterious Gem Apple to escape. With most of his powers gone, players have to chain together combos to unlock unique new abilities, something never seen in a Kirby title before. | © Nintendo
The Final Fantasy VII Remake already didn't exactly follow the original's storyline step by step, but exclusively included with the Intergrade version on PS5 and Windows was Episode INTERmission, featuring a completely original storyline centered around Wutai ninja Yuffie Kisaragi. Only a minor optional party member in the original, this bonus episode follows Yuffie in her attempt to infiltrate the Shinra Corporation to steal their supposed "ultimate materia", meeting some important new faces like Sonon Kusakabe on the way. | © Square Enix
When action-JRPG Xenoblade Chronicles released on Wii in 2010, nobody could've expected it to turn into the million-seller franchise it eventually would become. So, when the first entry received a remaster on Nintendo Switch ten years later, a brand-new storyline set one year after its events was added to narratively tie into Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022). Featuring only Shulk, Melia and two new characters instead of the original party going up against a new threat, it streamlines the combat system while providing a full-circle moment for the narrative of the series up to that point. | © Nintendo
Out of the many robotic foes protagonist X had to face throughout the Mega Man X games, former Hunter-turned-Maverick Vile stands out for his arrogance, patholigical need for destruction ...and absolutely badass design. So, when SNES title Mega Man X (1993) was remade for PSP as Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (2005), fans were delighted to find a new mode allowing them to play as him with his own distinct abilities. Even better: Vile Mode offers its own story – a what-if scenario of Vile going completely rogue and deciding to not just take on X and Zero, but also main antagonist Sigma. There are even completely new animated cutscenes for the occassion, really selling this as its own campaign. | © Capcom
The Wii U game Pikmin 3 (2013) saw three new protagonist from planet Koppai – during their expedition to find food for their home on Pikmin-inhabited star PNF-404 – discover that protagonists Olimar and Louie from Pikmin (2001) and Pikmin 2 (2004) had previously crashed there as well. While the player can find their audio logs and eventually rescue them, it took until the Nintendo Switch re-release in 2020 to finally witness the two's misadventures on PNF-404 in playable form, with them having to reach a set daily mission goal to earn a set amount of pay (Olimar's Assignment) and rebuild their broken space ship (Olimar's Comeback). | © Nintendo
Resident Evil 4 is infamous for being one of the most-often ported video games of all time – and included with every re-release of the January 2005 GameCube original (starting with the October 2005 PS2 version) is the side campaign Separate Ways. This mode follows side character Ada Wong's covert mission to secure a sample of the Plaga virus while secretly aiding main protagonist Leon, offering a parallel perspective on the main story that reveals her ties to series antagonist Albert Wesker, while emphasizing gadgets and providing some narrative context absent from the main game. | © Capcom
Given that one of the most interesting bullet points of 2009 Nintendo DS action-RPG Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was that players experienced long-time villain Fawful's takeover of the Mushroom Kingdom not only through the plumber's, but also series villain Bowser's perspective, one may reasonably wonder why the latter's son and highest-ranking minions were nowhere to be found. Well, as the 2018 Nintendo 3DS remake shows, they were on their own journey to find a cure for the epidemic Fawful caused in the main game. It plays extremely differently as well, using a strategy-based, squad-command battle system instead of traditional RPG combat while packing three hours worth of new cutscenes to develop its characters. | © Nintendo
While Kirby's mysterious villain/mentor Meta Knight already got a side mode on his own in the 2002 remake of Kirby's Adventure (1993) with Meta Knightmare, it would only be in the DS game Kirby Super Star Ultra (remake of 1996 SNES title Kirby Super Star) that players would see him face brand-new threats: Meta Knightmare Ultra presents a what-if scenario of the sword-wielding bat blob rushing through altered versions of the game's Kirby-centered campaigns to prove himself the strongest warrior in the galaxy, eventually leading to a face-off with the even more mysterious Galacta Knight – a character who would go on to have heavy implications on the Kirby series' overarching storyline for years to come. | © Nintendo
The Majima Saga in Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a short side story set between the first Yakuza (2005) and Yakuza 2 (2006), the latter of which Kiwami 2 is a remake of. It expands on character Goro Majima' (who only played a supporting role to protagonist Kazuma Kiryu in the main game), by giving players control of him in a self-contained campaign that reconnects him with Makoto from Yakuza 0 (2015), providing emotional closure and crucial character development which adds a lot to the series' overall narrative, but would not have fit into the main game. | © Sega
While the Game Boy Advance version of the 1991 SNES classic The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past made some questionable choices (like giving Link some frankly grating voice acting), it came bundled with a completely new quest which marked the franchise's first foray into multiplayer: After drawing the Four Sword, Link splits into four copies of himself, which together must rescue Zelda from the grasps of evil mage Vaati. This side campaign was so beloved that it even received a standalone re-release on DSiWare in 2011 and a sequel with The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures in in 2004. | © Nintendo
2011's time-travel nostalgia powerhouse Sonic Generations was already easily the most beloved modern Sonic game, so when Sega announced that the 2024 remaster would be bundled with a completely new side campaign based on the past of his rival Shadow, fans of the franchise were overjoyed. Built in an updated version of the engine of Sonic Frontiers (2021), Shadow Generations played very distinctly from anything Sonic before by giving the "ultimate life form" brand-new abilities. At the same time, the developers were not afraid to reference even the "black sheep" of the franchise like Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) for this new, surprisingly emotional plot which successfully managed to bring the decade-spanning character development of the titular protagonist to a satisfying conclusion, making this standalone rerelease side campaign a contender for the best piece of Sonic media ever. | © Sega
Sometimes, video game re-releases receive new side campaigns which are distinct and/or full-fledged enough that nobody would mind if they had been published as their own standalone budget titles. In this gallery, we at EarlyGame want to highlight 12 of the most impressive examples.
