Updated Rerelease

Because One Game for the Price of Two wasn't enough, we now have one game for the price of three/four. Not counting the remakes. Gotta buy 'em all!

When a bigger, badder, better version of a game is released a year or two (and with the more recent boom in the download market for classic games, sometimes 10 or 20 years) after the original, sometimes as an enhanced port on a different console. Common features include more game modes, new gameplay segments, shinier graphics, harder difficulty settings, new weapons and costumes, and so forth.

Of course, this can be particularly annoying to people who purchased the original, who now have to pay up to $40 (or more) for a game they mostly already own. Or worse if it is released for a different console than the original, and they don't own that console.

When a classic game is recreated entirely for today, it's a remake. Updated Rereleases are also different from collector's editions and should not be confused. The former comes out well after the original game is released and alters the gameplay significantly, whereas the latter is a more expensive version that comes out alongside the regular edition and offers bonus material separate from the core game.

This is mostly a console gaming trope, as extra material for PC games is typically released in the form of an Expansion Pack. It's becoming increasingly common, however, for PC games to be rereleased as a bundle along with their expansion(s), typically with such titles as "Gold Edition" (not to be confused with "going gold"), "Platinum Edition", or "Game of the Year Edition".

By the same token, it's starting to become less prevalent (or at least less profitable) on console systems, as DLC has made releasing entire new discs more a convenience for people who don't own it yet in any form, rather than a screw you to people who do. The current trend is for the "updated re-release" not to include the additional content on the disc and, instead, to provide a code to download the additional content.

It should also be noted that some companies, most notably Sony America, require a re-release to have a certain amount of new content or else it can't be released in that region. This is why some updated re-releases never see the light of day outside of Japan. The main exception to this is if the original version was never released there at all.

See also Regional Bonus, No Export for You, and Polished Port.

Examples of Updated Rerelease include:
  • Half-Life: Source, which is Half-Life 1 with the source engine.
    • The update and Mac port of Half-Life 2 and Episode One, which run on Valve's newer engine, is related, except that it's free to anyone who already owned the game (and installs on your system, overwriting the original, whether you wanted it or not).
  • The PC game Cave Story, created completely by one man who goes by the name of Pixel, was picked up by Nippon Ichi Software and released for Wii Ware and DSiWare with bonus features, and got a complete overhaul with Cave Story 3D for the 3DS.
    • And converted to the PC via Steam...
  • The Xbox 360 game Alone in the Dark was such a disastrously coded mess that its publishers went out of their way to re-release the game on the Play Station 3 as Alone in the Dark: Inferno, which fixed many of the game's glitches and added a few extra scenes to boot.
  • Bully: Scholarship Edition, which adds more missions, new high school classes, new items and clothing, and two-player Mini Games.
  • Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars is an updated version of the original Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes, with additional characters (though one of the original characters was removed due to licensing issues), tweaked mechanics, and altered character properties. This is a unique case where the special version is supposedly for Western release only (as the original game was only released in Japan), until Japanese fans asked to be released in their country as well.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, which featured a brand new playable character, new boss fights, rebalanced difficulty, a new "survival mode," and more.
  • The three SNES Donkey Kong Country games each had Game Boy versions released a year after each other, under the name Donkey Kong Land. While the first was a completely different game to its SNES counterpart, featuring new enemies, bosses, items, stage types and music, the second was essentially a port of DKC2 with the levels rearranged and some music, stages and a boss removed, and the third was a separate game from DKC3, but still used only music, level types and gameplay ideas from its SNES counterpart.
    • A remake of the first Donkey Kong Country was released on the Game Boy Color in 2001, featuring one new level and the ability to save anywhere.
    • Remakes of the three Donkey Kong Country SNES games were eventually released on the Game Boy Advance. While these games did have washed out colors, they did feature new music, levels, bosses, mini games and cutscenes.
  • Eternal Sonata. Originally released on the Xbox 360 and then re-released on the PlayStation 3 with extra playable characters, more plot, and additional costumes for the characters.
  • The Metal Gear series is notorious for this.
    • Metal Gear Solid was rereleased for the PlayStation in Japan as Metal Gear Solid: Integral. It has all the extra content from the overseas versions of the game (namely the addition of multiple difficulty settings, English voice acting, and demo theater), as well as a couple more easter eggs to the main game such as a game mode which alternates the patrol routes for enemy soldiers, a rather impractical first-person mode (you can move and shoot in first person, but you can't see where you're aiming), a couple of hidden codec frequencies (one of them featuring commentary from the developers) and a hidden sneaking suit outfit for Meryl. The main addition to Integral, however, was a bonus disc with over 300 VR Missions. Instead of releasing the whole Integral set outside Japan, they released the VR Disc by itself as Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions in North America and Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions in Europe. The Integral version did serve as the basis for the PC port of MGS.
    • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty became Substance and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater became Subsistence, both of which were available worldwide. Substance added, among another things, a slew of VR missions, new gameplay modes, an additional cutscene depicting Raiden running across the oil fence after Emma gets stabbed, and even a skateboarding mini-game. Subsistence added an upgraded camera system, an online multiplayer mode, the MSX Metal Gear games, humorous animated shorts, and more. Kojima Productions are also considering a re-release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots that would take advantage of newly introduced features such as Move and 3D support, but Hideo Kojima has said that someone other than him would have to be in charge of the project.
    • Sons Of Liberty and Snake Eater got a third rerelease as part of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for Xbox 360 and Play Station 3, as well as rereleases of the PSP's Peace Walker, and another Kojima Productions series, Zone of the Enders is getting a separate HD Collection of the first and second games in 2012. Let's just say that Kojima never considers his games finished.
  • Each generation of Pokémon games consists of two games released initially with an expanded version a year or two later (Blue, Crystal, Emerald, and most recently, Platinum). The original generation even got an additional fourth version (Yellow/Pikachu) released. You invariably need to buy at least two of the three games (or preferably, know someone who has another one) for it to be possible to achieve 100% Completion. (This last part, however, has changed with the introduction of Wi-Fi in Diamond and Pearl, allowing you to trade Pokémon with people you don't even know, and thus complete the Pokédex with only one version.)
    • Recent generations also include remakes of older games due to the absence of compatibility with previous games in the third generation's case and limited compatibility with the third generation in the fourth generation's case. They seem seem to be immune to the the above treatment, as the remakes of Red and Blue/Green, FireRed and LeafGreen, did not get an updated rerelease like other paired games (including the games they are remakes of), and as HeartGold and SoulSilver have implemented features from the original Gold and Silver's Updated Rerelease (Crystal), this may be the case with them as well.
    • The Spin-Off series Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has gotten into the act as well, with Explorers of Sky adding new Special Episodes, selectable leads, dungeons, items and other goodies to Time/Darkness. Explorers of Sky does, however, avert the usual One Game for the Price of Two trend, being fully completable without requiring either of the previous versions.
    • To the surprise of pretty much everybody, this will not be happening for Pokémon Black and White. Instead, the fifth generation games are getting full-blown sequels, which is completely unheard of for non-spinoff Pokemon games.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was rereleased as Master Quest (AKA Ura Zelda), which contained alternate versions of dungeons. It was available for the first time in North America as a Preorder Bonus for reserving The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
    • Later rereleased as Ocarina of Time 3D on the Nintendo 3DS, which contains both versions with further tweaking. Both have an added Boss Battle mode, updated controls, and Master Quest gives more strength to enemies and reverses the world maps, making East become West.
  • Square (now Square Enix) has been known for this for quite a while.
    • Several Final Fantasy games have had subtle differences between their Japanese and North American releases; some, such as Final Fantasy X, had their NA releases re-released in Japan, with even more content, as "International" versions. It happened to serve as the PAL region version in the case of Final Fantasy X.
    • Some versions, like FFX-2 International+ Last Mission and FFXII International Zodiac Job System provide important new content and/or severe retweaking of the gameplay system. This being SquareSoft, none of these are available to non-Japanese speaking players.
      • This one is particularly frustrating for gamers in PAL territories because, much like with the Kingdom Hearts example below, Square-Enix had the time to release Final Fantasy X-2 AND FFX-2 International + Last Mission before giving PAL gamers the original FFX-2 with no extra content. To rub salt into the wound, International + Last Mission was released in Japan one day earlier than the PAL version of regular old FFX-2 was released.
    • Kingdom Hearts is (in)famous for this. Every game has three editions -- the initial Japanese version of the game, the American edition with bug fixes and usually one or two extra bosses, and the second "Final Mix" Japanese edition, with tons of extra features including all of the stuff the American edition included. Particularly notable is Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ , which includes several new cutscenes, an extra ending leading up to the sequel, hordes of new extra-hard optional bosses, and a complete 3D remake of the Game Boy Advance game, Chain of Memories -- complete with its own extra features.
      • Subverted with the Chain of Memories remake, which was released in English as Re:Chain of Memories. But only in North America.
        • But they still won't release Final Mix+ of course, despite the fact they don't even have to translate that one: the dialogue and most of the menu items are already in English; it would be a trivial matter to release it in the States, but No Export For Us(/US).
    • The SNES era Final Fantasy games IV, V, and VI were ported over to the PlayStation with new FMV sequences (and significant load times. It was also the first time players outside Japan got their hands on the fifth game, which was plagued with an awful localization (there's a monster named Y-Burns). Years later, they all got releases on the Game Boy Advance, sans FMVs, but with new bonus dungeons and revamped localizations, called the "Finest Fantasy For Advance" series. A few more years later IV was re-released again for the DS, with 3D graphics this time and different bonus content from the GBA release. A Wonderswan Color port of IV was released sometime between the PSX and GBA releases too, which was what the GBA release was actually based on.
      • The Japanese WiiWare version of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years may also count as a minor version of this, since in addition to the increased resolution and the convenience of using an actual controller instead of a phone keypad, none of the good Bonus Dungeon rewards in the original version of the game were repeatable, only giving you access to a single set of the ultimate armor and no copies of the equipment gotten from it.
      • Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection for PSP, which has Final Fantasy IV (though in a style reminiscent of the SNES version, rather than the DS), The After Years, and an Interquel bridging story, about what happened during the Time Skip.
    • Super Nintendo favorite Chrono Trigger also got a PlayStation port with FMVs and a bestiary, for the purpose of promoting the sequel Chrono Cross. The ending FMV had Sequel Hooks made to connect to the latter game.
      • It also got another Updated Rerelease on the DS. New translation, all the PS1 goodies without the horrible slowdown and bugged sound, reformatted interface, a few new dungeons, and a new ending. Schala Lives!
      • Which isn't surprising, since it includes even more Sequel Hooks to Chrono Cross. It also answers how Porre became powerful enough to take down Guardia, though that explanation has caused its own brand of Internet Backdraft and accusations of being a Voodoo Shark.
  • Nintendo did this with a series of Super Mario Bros. remakes, first with Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES (an all-in-one compilation with updated graphics and a few gameplay tweaks), followed by Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, which adds Super Mario World to its list of games and made a few changes to it (namely, Luigi is no longer a Palette Swap of Mario and you can bring up the option of quitting the game by pressing the select button on the map screen). Super Mario Bros. DX for the Game Boy Color followed, which takes the first game and adds a two-player racing game, a version of said racing game for single-players, a gimped version of The Lost Levels, a challenge mode, a photo album which serves as an achievement system, and a Toy Box mode. Then came the Super Mario Advance series on the Game Boy Advance (some of which featured heavily changed gameplay; for example, the first installment, featuring Super Mario Bros. 2, featured an added scoring system, giant versions of items and enemies, voices for the characters and bosses, and a new boss in Robirdo).
    • And they've recently done it again, releasing a straight port of the original All-Stars on the Wii as the 25th Anniversary Edition with some additional memorabilia.
  • A comparatively early example in the computer game arena is The Journeyman Project. The original was released for Macintosh, and then on Windows. The Windows version was, however, unplayably sluggish and was shortly rereleased as The Journeyman Project Turbo!. (It was still unbearably slow, but mostly due to its being an Interactive Movie.) Also later remade a few years later as Pegasus Prime, of course Mac exclusive.
  • Fable I was later rereleased as Fable: The Lost Chapters with brand new content.
  • Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast was later rereleased as Skies Of Arcadia: Legends on the Gamecube, adding Bonus Bosses of varying quality, better graphics, and a sidequest that went deeper into the game's backstory.
  • Ninja Gaiden was rereleased as Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox, and again as Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3. Ninja Gaiden 2 was rereleased as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for Play Station 3. It includes co-op and a new character.
  • Excluding ports and remakes, the original Resident Evil was re-released twice on the original PlayStation: the Director's Cut and the Dual Shock ver. The former featured the original game and alternate version that added new camera angles, re-arranged item and enemy placement, new outfits for the main characters, and one new enemy monster (the zombie version of Forrest), while the Dual Shock ver. is the same thing, only with added rumble support and substituted the original music with a new soundtrack.
    • Resident Evil 2 also received a Dual Shock edition in less than a year after the original version was out (which introduced the "Extreme Battle" minigame that became the basis for the "Mercenaries" minigame in later installments), while Code: Veronica X was released for the Dreamcast a year after the original (albeit in Japan only).
  • The PC port of Jade Empire is billed as the "Special Edition," which features new weapons, new enemies, new fighting styles, a harder difficulty setting, and improved AI.
    • Although Monk Zeng was the Collector's Edition exclusive character on Xbox (and later downloadable for running on Xbox 360).
  • Street Fighter II. After the original, we got Champion Edition, Hyper Fighting, Super, and Super Turbo. All in a span of three years. And that's not even counting the Anniversary Edition that was released years later for the arcades. Or the various platform-specific variations like Super Turbo Revival for the Game Boy Advance or HD Remix for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.
    • This has become such an in/famous example that at least one unrelated Fanfic series has made a running gag of never showing the characters playing an identically titled Street Fighter remake twice.
    • The Alpha/Zero series wasn't much better. After the first two Alpha games, there was a Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha for the arcade, but that came out only in Japan and Asia (the PlayStation and Saturn port got released as Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, which added Cammy to the roster). For Street Fighter Alpha 3 Capcom simply added whatever extra character they wanted to add to the subsequent ports. The PS, Saturn, and Dreamcast versions all added Guile, Dee-Jay, Fei-Long and T. Hawk, as well as storylines and endings for Juni, Juli, and Balrog. Alpha 3 was then re-released for the arcades in Japan as Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper with all the console extras and from there it got ported to the GBA (with Maki, Eagle, and Jun from Capcom vs. SNK 2 added to the roster), PSP (with Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution added as well) and PlayStation 2 (as a bonus game in Alpha Anthology, minus the extra characters in the handheld versions).
    • And then when Street Fighter III did come around, they gave us 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike.
      • The re-releases of Street Fighter games are mostly anticipated by the hardcore fighting game fans (i.e., the tournament scene) because typically the updated rereleases usually make changes that make the game more interesting and long-lasting for Tournament Play. The first installment of a Capcom fighting game tends to have several extreme Game Breaker characters or strategies, but by the last revision, Capcom has improved the game to the point that most of the cast is viable (although Character Tiers are still apparent) and strategy is much more diverse. There's a reason Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the butt of jokes among mainstream gamers, is so beloved by the tournament scene - four games worth of improvements produced a game where even the weakest character can win with the right strategy.
    • The tradition continues with Street Fighter IV. It has gotten two of these remakes: Super Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. A third one, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012, is in the making.
  • The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match features every character from '94 to '97, online play, a color edit mode, a custom mode where players could set any combination of super meter and subsystems, and arranged soundtrack. Unlike most updated rereleases, which are released shortly after the original, Ultimate Match was released in 2008, a decade after the original.
    • This was followed by The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, which is to 2002 what '98 UM was to '98. It's a Video Game Remake, actually. All the fighters from 1999 to 2002 (except K9999, who is now replaced with an original character called "Nameless") are present here in the game.
    • Predating both of these is The King of Fighters '94: Re-Bout, which included remastered sprites, new 3D backgrounds full of ever-changing cameos, the addition of a team edit function (the original game had fixed teams), rewritten gameplay rules to balance the game, and the inclusion of Saisyu Kusanagi (a character not introduced until 1995). This was released in 2004, also a decade following its first release. It's also a Video Game Remake.
  • NiGHTS Into Dreams was remade on PlayStation 2 in 2008, including Christmas Nights as a bonus. Unfortunately, there are currently no plans to release it anywhere else, frustrating many fans. However, it should be noted it's a Video Game Remake.
  • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne received one of these, subtitled Maniax. The major addition was a Bonus Dungeon: a five-floored, mind-boggling hard (even by the game's own Nintendo Hard standards) Bonus Level of Hell that amongst other things filled in some of the missing plot exposition, offered a shiny new ending (and Bonus Boss) if you were able to complete it and allowed you to fight (and eventually recruit into your party) Dante of Devil May Cry. Fortunately, it was this version that was localised and released in the West.
    • It was recently announced that Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon would contain a new version of Nocturne including said summoner as a bonus character. The release including this, however, was unfortunately not the one that came to the US.
    • The PS version of Soul Hackers was also one of these—including adding a way to save Spooky in the New Game+.
      • And now, Soul Hackers is getting rereleased again for the 3DS, now with voice acting, updated visuals and animations, and more bonus content.
    • Devil Survivor got one for the 3DS, which added voice acting, an 8th Day for a few routes, more demons, a Demon Compendium for ease of resummoning Demons, and updated graphics. According to the press release, it's obvious the developers thought the original was unfinished.
  • Similarly Persona 3: FES, which was cheaper than the original game even though it was, essentially, a new, complete Updated Rerelease. Then again, the original Persona 3 also came with an artbook and soundtrack CD...
    • FES also comes with an entire additional game. Titled "The Answer" ("Episode Aigis" in Japan) it gives the spotlight to fan-favorite robot girl Aigis, giving us a look at how everyone is adjusting to the return to normalcy after the end of their adventure. At least until they all get thrown into a Groundhog Day Loop, necessitating a new quest. Oh, and it's also tough as hell.
    • And now you get to play as a female character with Persona 3 Portable, where the consequences of doing so summons the Butterfly of Doom. That's also the port's theme. There's also a few new Social Links around, including a cameo by Ms. Kashiwagi from Persona 4. Also, you now have full control over your party, like in P4.
    • Persona PSP, hereafter affectionately referred to as "P1P" is a re-release of the original '96 PS1 title, Revelations: Persona. All the characters' original models are brought back, and the Snow Queen Quest, originally axed in Revelations, is available in English for the first time. Shiny new graphics, menus, and J-pop soundtrack was also included.
    • Persona 2: Innocent Sin is also getting in on the act, with a remade PSP game of IS that came out on April 14, 2011 in Japan. It features new menus, larger character portaits, a new opening, (though, you have the option of the old one if that's your thing) and All-Out-esque cut-ins during Fusion Attacks. Even though there's gratuitous Hitler in the game, its English release isn't too hotly debated, as SMT generally flies under the radar.
    • Persona 4: The Golden has been announced for the Play Station Vita. They're not half-assing this one either: Atlus has promised a new character named Mari/Mary/Marie, 1.5 times the amount of voicework, new animation cutscenes, a new opening movie, wireless support so you can call on others to save you when you're about to die in a dungeon, and an as-yet-unrevealed feature that is apparently something fans have been mailing them asking for.
  • Gyakuten Saiban was originally released for the Game Boy Advance. An updated version, Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten, was released for the Nintendo DS with an extra case. This is the version localized and released as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. In Japan, all three of the Phoenix Wright games were originally released on the Game Boy Advance, but were re-released on the Nintendo DS with the English localization included. America only got the DS versions with just English. The DS remakes also included voice recognition.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog mostly confines this sort of thing to Compilation Rereleases such as Sonic Jam and Sonic Mega Collection. One of the few times they did try to remake a game on its own, Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis on Game Boy Advance, was a Porting Disaster of the first game. It added the Spin Dash move that wasn't present in the original game, but slowed it down considerably.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a special case. Originally planned as a Gamecube game, it was delayed until the launch of the Wii and got a slightly updated version for that system, even though the original is playable on the Wii as well (you just need a Gamecube controller and memory card). Of course, to promote the new machine, the Gamecube version was released later.
    • It's worth noting that the Wii version was a mirror of the GC version (due to the fact that Link is left-handed, but most people are right-handed, and will be using the Wiimote in that hand to swing the sword in the game), letting people who played both get a screwed up sense of direction and leads to the oddity of having a sun rise from the west. There's also no option to play left-handed, so those players will have to use their off-hand.
  • Namco has been on that trend lately with the Tales (series), releasing updated versions of older games on newer platforms:
    • Tales of Symphonia was promoted as a Gamecube exclusive entry of the Tales series. Then it got a PlayStation 2 port with some extra content. Well, in Japan only that is.
    • Tales of Vesperia, originally an Xbox 360 exclusive, got a PlayStation 3 port with a great deal of extra content at Sony's request, including two new playable characters, new Mystic Artes for everyone, several new bosses (also with new Mystic Artes), a new dungeon, and new coliseum fights including one where you fight Dhaos, Shizel, Barbatos Goethia, and Kratos Aurion together. In fact the plot is rewritten quite a bit to accommodate new playable characters Patty and Flynn (who was only available for a very short amount of time in the Xbox360 version) joining you. Japan only.
    • Tales of Eternia, Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2 (as well as the PlayStation version of Tales of Phantasia) were all ported to the PSP. The first three only tweaked a few bugs (though Rebirth reworked some of its more cringeworthy word puzzles), while the Phantasia port included full voice acting and redone battle sprites. And then it had a second port (alongside Narikiri Dungeon), with battle sprites redone again. All Japan-only except for Eternia, which was released in Europe (albeit with the skits still Dummied Out).
    • After being remade, the PlayStation 2 version of Tales of Destiny was rereleased in the same system as a "Director's Cut" version, including a POV Sequel starring Leon Magnus.
    • Tales of Graces received a re-release for the Play Station 3, with an extra story mode and corrected bugs. This one was released in the West.
    • Tales of the Abyss received a port for the Nintendo 3DS. It is largely the same game, the only notable differences being touch-screen support, reduced loading times, and stereoscopic 3D, and since it is based in the North American release of the PlayStation 2 version, Japan finally gets some extras the North American version added. Not only is this release not Japan-only, it's the first time Europe gets an official release at all, as North America and Japan were the only regions to get the original release.
    • Tales of Innocence was rereleased on the Vita. Changes include a new battle system, a new system for learning abilities, touchscreen support, updated graphics, a new opening song, more anime cutscenes, and two new party members that are integrated into the storyline. So far, this has only been released in Japan. Whether or not there are plans to release it in the West remains unseen (the Japan release was only very recent), but at one point, DLC for the game accidentally showed up on the American PSN.
  • Okami has an updated release for the Wii, with the additions being added progressive scan and widescreen support, and motion controls.
  • Although not as well known as Capcom's other fighting games, the Japanese version of Rival Schools (Shiritsu Justice Gakuen) received a sort-of pseudo-sequel in the form of Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 exclusively for the PlayStation - the title is a reference to a "life sim" mode featured in the Japanese PS version of the original game. Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 featured an expanded version of that life sim mode and added two new playable characters to the main fighting game: Ran and Nagare. Since Capcom omitted the life sim mode in the overseas versions of Rival Schools, they chose not to localize Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 either.
  • LucasArts did this notoriously with TIE Fighter. Although the final edition of the game was labelled the "Collector's CD Rom Edition", it was released a full three years after the original game had been released, and its main draw other than updated graphics was that it finally allowed the player to complete the campaign of the original. In other words, those who had bought the game originally were required to buy it again in order to finish it.
  • Tomb Raider 1, 2 and 3 all had "gold" editions of the PC versions released a year or two after they came out, not only having a budget price, but each including a pseudo-Expansion Pack with around 4-6 new levels. In the case of Tomb Raider 1, the gold edition also gave the option to play the game using a 3D card.
  • Mass Effect 2 was released on Play Station 3 around a year and a half after the Xbox 360 and PC versions, and contains some of the Downloadable Content missions for free on the disc.
  • The PlayStation 2 remake of the original Sakura Taisen game used the updated 3D engine from the third game in the series.
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was pulled from stores after the Hot Coffee incident and the Media Watchdogs had a field day with it. Rockstar tried to justify a rerelease of the game (while making the "offensive" bit truly inaccessible to keep the game rated M) by including a "behind the scenes" of a movie and a 30 minute cut scene showing events that occurred before the beginning of the game. Some glitches and bugs were also fixed, while Supply Lines was made beatable. PC modders tend to avoid the updated PC version as it made modding, well, harder.
  • Nintendo's "New Play Control" line, which consists of of GameCube games, updated with Wii controls and other stuff (depending on the game).
    • Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 didn't receive an NPC release. Instead, they got a Compilation Rerelease in the form of Metroid Prime Trilogy... outside Japan. They still have to fork over the cash to buy them separately.
    • It should be noted that Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is pretty much a different experience for its NPC release, as the unique bongo controls (which would have translated to madly shaking the Wiimote and Nunchuk to control DK) are shacked in favor of a conventional platformer control scheme (Control stick to move, A to jump, waggle to clap). It also changed the Excuse Plot from "Crush everyone to prove you're the biggest and baddest for no reason at all!" to "Kings from other realms have stolen your bananas, get them back". (As some members on DKVine have stated, it thankfully makes DK look less like a "Toothy Grin Jackass".)
  • Rez HD takes the trippy-yet-beautiful visuals and sounds of the Dreamcast and PS2 versions and cranks them up to 11. Furthermore, it grants access to various sound and visual equalizers, offers vibration support for the other three controllers (to make up for no Trance Vibrator support), and has online leaderboards.
  • The Unreal Tournament games fall almost directly into this trope, though the bonus packs and mods are all free for online downloading:
    • Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year added 2 community-made mods and their first 3 bonus packs into the original UT.
    • Unreal Tournament 2004 was this to Unreal Tournament 2003. It also has another Updated Rerelease in the form of Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition which added several maps, characters and vehicles, plus a set of 10 community-made mods.
    • The latest is Unreal Tournament III: Black Edition which has both UT3 and the official Titan Pack. It's only sold through Steam.
  • This is prevalent in Visual Novel industry, usually when a game gets an anime version. Besides releasing the game to another console, changes can include entirely new stories and characters and, almost always, removal of sex scenes.
    • Some older classics usually get a fully-voiced edition, the best kind of premium content people's wish to be found in this genre. Some rare cases, like Little Buster (Ecstacy) get a reversed-Bleached Underpants rerelease.
  • When Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse was brought to Sega CD, it featured a rearranged redbook audio soundtrack, Mickey spouting situation-sensitive one-liners, and an additional level where Mickey summons the Mickeys of the featured cartoons to kick Pete's ass. The PlayStation version entitled Mickey's Wild Adventure, meanwhile, took the Sega CD version, greatly enhanced the graphics, amped up the difficulty, and added another new stage, this one having Mickey escaping from a pursuing Willie the Giant.
  • Has happened at least a couple times with Super Robot Wars, with most of the SNES games being rereleased on the PS 1 (Now with voice acting!), SRW4 being made over into SRW F and F Final (with new series, and substantial changes), and SRW GC ported over to the Xbox 360 in the form of SRW XO.
  • The Last Remnant received a re-release for the PC. This was infuriating for Xbox 360 owners, as it not only had new content, updated graphics, rebalanced several game features and removed the hated "Leader" designation (which had previously forced you to fill your army with generic recruits), but it fixed practically all of the technical glitches and shortcomings that had severely tarnished the original version.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion got a Game of the Year Deluxe Edition, which is bundled with the two biggest official Downloadable Content released (Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles). This edition, among other things, is an ideal prerequisite for modding. On the 5th anniversary, Bethesda released the, er, 5th Anniversary Edition. The thing that sucked? The Anniversary editon was THE EXACT SAME as the GOTY edition, with no new DLC, and the only new thing was a $10 coupon for Skyrim that was US only. There is currently no version of Oblivion for Xbox or Play Station 3 that has all DLC pre-installed.
    • Fallout 3 also got one, with all of the DLC installed on it. This was a particularly big deal for the Play Station 3 version, as the DLC was released there later than the 360 and PC versions.
    • Fallout: New Vegas has an Ultimate Edition, which, like Fallout 3, has all the DLC on it.
  • Vampire Savior, the third game in Capcom's Darkstalkers series, received not one, but two upgraded rereleases for the arcades in Japan only months after the original game: Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2. Both re-releases essentially bring back Donovan, Huitzil, and Pyron, the three characters from Night Warriors missing in Vampire Savior, but does so by substituting characters from the original Vampire Savior: J. Talbain, Rikuo, and Sasquatch in Vampire Savior 2; and the four new characters from Vampire Savior in Vampire Hunter 2. Thankfully, for the Saturn and PlayStation versions of the game, Capcom simply included all the characters from the three versions.
  • GHOST Squad Evolution adds nothing new to the version that uses cards, but grants you access to everything that a fully-leveled up card has, without needing a card. If you're coming from the watered-down version that has only four mission levels and four weapons, however, Evolution is a HUGE update.
  • The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition seems to straddle this trope and Video Game Remake: The game is essentially the same as the original, and even has all the old visuals still intact, but also adds brand-new redrawn graphics, rearranged music, a cleaner user interface, and a full voiceover soundtrack performed by the cast of The Curse of Monkey Island.
    • And then they did the same thing for the sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition. The upgrade has all the features of the Secret re-release, but adds a commentary track recorded by the three creators of Monkey Island (Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, and Ron Gilbert), plus a concept art gallery featuring backgrounds created for the original game (including some that were ultimately cut), as well as character design art from the brand-new high-resolution makeover.
  • Rayman 2: The Great Escape was first released on the PC and N64, had some features added in the game for the Sega Dreamcast version released several months later, and was later rereleased on the PlayStation 2 a year later as Rayman Revolution, which featured a new hub level, enhanced graphics, level revisions, and several of the features included in the Dreamcast version including some of the minigames and the option for full voiceacting. And, to add to the confusion, a PlayStation 1 version of Rayman 2: The Great Escape was released between the Dreamcast version and the PS2 version, only this version had only 800 lums, an exclusive minigame, several characters added, and several levels modified or removed altogether.
    • And now there's Rayman 3D for the 3DS, which is content-wise identical to the Dreamcast version.
    • The original Rayman also underwent this trope many times. First was Rayman Gold for computers, which added a couple extra features and included a level editor. Rayman Forever was released a year later with over fifty new levels and a level creator, then came Rayman Collector, a France-exclusive package with some new levels. Rayman Advance for the Game Boy Advance had fewer levels than the original but gave Rayman higher energy points. Not to mention the various DOS patches released over the years, either.
    • Rayman 3 has recently gotten an HD re-release for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.
  • Glider PRO was rereleased on a CD which included over a dozen new houses.
  • Fate/stay night got a rerelease on the PS2, titled Realta Nua, which... er, revised certain possibly controversial points, updated the CG art and effects, and most importantly, gave an ultimately happy conclusion to the Fate route, the only route in the game where the couple could not stay together.
    • It's just a pity they weren't gracious enough to add an alternate ending to the "Fate" route. Besides being a grave insult to people who dislike the Together in Death trope (particularly since it doesn't have to be that way for either Rin or Sakura's routes), it's disrespectful to the fact that the UBW & HF Routes both have two different main endings, while the "Fate" route has only one. Maybe next time - it's not we've gotten the much-anticipated "Illya Route" yet either, so Nasu's probably still got some way to go.
  • Chelnov was an old Arcade game that few remember, and got rereleased for the Genesis as Atomic Runner, an old Genesis game few remember. It has better graphics, playing style, and more music, at least, according to ACESpark.
  • SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle was rereleased with new content as SWAT 3: Elite Edition and again with more content as SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition, however both were made available as patches for older versions (although only people who bought TGotYE were able to get the disc featuring videos of Blackwater demonstrating tactics).
  • The XBLA ports of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie include the Stop N' Swop feature that was planned but scrapped with the original games.
  • The North America release of Dirge of Cerberus contains many tweaks to the mechanics compared to the Japan edition.
  • The original Hidden & Dangerous had a 'Deluxe' edition that bundled together the original game and expansion pack on one CD, and gave the graphics engine a very minor upgrade. It doesn't seem to have sold well, and eventually became a free download that included a mission editor.
  • Daytona USA is getting an Updated Rerelease in the form of Sega Racing Classic [dead link] , which ups the resolution and draw distance a bit, but otherwise keeps the classic gameplay intact.
  • Backyard Skateboarding: Game of the Year Edition, released a year after the original, has a new level and new unlockables.
  • The only version of Rogue Galaxy released outside of Japan is this one.
  • No More Heroes is now set for an Updated Rerelease on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, featuring high-resolution graphics, revamped controls and alternate, more Stripperific costumes for the female characters in Very Sweet Mode. The Play Station 3 version supports Playstation Move.
  • The Witcher had an Enhanced Edition with several fixes and completely re-recorded dialog. Since the stories it was based on weren't even translated into English until the game was well into production (and the game was expected to have little appeal except to existing fans), the original English-translation dialog was bare bones and seemed thrown together. The changes were available in a multi-gigabyte patch, though.
  • Thief: The Dark Project was rereleased with several new levels, appropriately enough as Thief Gold. Unfortunately - in Australia at least - the two versions you are likely to find are a secondhand original TTDP or the much-later budget edition, which is also only the original levels. *sob*
  • Many shooters developed by Cave fall under this, often retitled as "[original game name] [color] Label."
    • Do Don Pachi got an update in DoDonPachi Campaign Version. Unfortunately, only one PCB of it has ever been released, given to the world record high score holder. All other copies of the game remain in Cave's possession.[1]
    • DoDonPachi dai ou jou to DoDonPachi dai ou jou Black Label.
    • Mushihime-sama to Mushihime-sama Black Label.
    • Mushihime-sama Futari was rereleased not once, but three times: a version 1.5 rerelease with rebalanced stages and scoring system, a version 1.01 rerelease that has 1.0's stages with 1.5's mechanics, and a Black Label rerelease with new shot types, more changes to scoring, and a new Harder Than Hard mode called God mode (which has nothing to do with God Modding) that replaces Ultra mode and offers a new True Final Boss. Versions 1.5 and 1.01 as well as Black Label are available on the region-free Xbox 360 port...but you need a code card that shipped with random copies of the port to get Version 1.01, and you need to buy Black Label off of the Xbox Live Marketplace.
    • DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu is also getting the Black Label treatment.
  • The Godfather game, originally for PC, PS2 and Xbox, was re-released for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. There are different numbers of Execution Styles, an amount of new content and the latter two make some use of motion-based controls.
  • Perfect Dark has an Xbox 360 Live Arcade remake with updated graphics, online multiplayer, a better framerate, and refined controls.
  • Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance improves upon the original's frustrating exploration by adding warp points at certain areas in each dungeon to limit Back Tracking, and reducing the maximum party size from six to four, allowing your characters to level faster, since gained experience is split among active party members.
  • Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a pretty Egregious example. First they release the "Ultimate Sith Edition" in the fancy tin with collectors' cards (one card included; collect all ten!), all the DLC, etc. Pretty standard procedure for a Game of the Year edition, except the reviews didn't get it anywhere close enough to being 2008's Game of the Year by anyone's count, so hence the "Ultimate Sith Edition." So anyway, this edition of the game contains all the past DLC, plus an exclusive level with exclusive achievements that LucasArts pretty specifically said you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. Naturally, this angered a lot of fans who had already bought all of the DLC, and didn't want to pay $40 for $10 worth of content. So for those of them that did, imagine their surprise when LucasArts announced out of the blue a few months later that hey, the exclusive level can be downloaded by anyone now! This makes the "Ultimate Sith Edition" even more worthless, when you consider that they didn't even make new menus.
  • Mortal Kombat 3 removed all of the Palette Swap ninjas from the previous two games with the exception of a now unmasked Sub-Zero and the robot version of Smoke. Midway attempted to compensate for this by releasing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which brought back Scorpion, Kitana, and the all the ninjas from Mortal Kombat II, while introducing one previously fake one to the series.
  • Mortal Kombat 9 has a Komplete Edition, which includes the 4 DLC fighters and all the classic costumes. Also, the online multiplayer is compatible with the original MK9.
  • Nippon Ichi seems to like this trope quite a bit.
    • Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories both got rereleases on the PSP adding some extra items and cameos, correcting a few bugs and adding an extra story mode (for Etna and Axel, respectively). The PSP version of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness also got a DS port, which has the mentioned extra story mode, but has inferior music and less voiceovers. Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice has been recently announced as a Vita launch title in Japan with all the DLC from the Play Station 3 version in the game and more story modes.
    • Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure got a rerelease in the Nintendo DS, where it got a battle system overhaul and a few other tweaks (though this version lacked a very lauded element from the PS1 version, which were the English vocals for the songs).
    • La Pucelle Tactics also got a PSP port, with extra content, called La Pucelle: Ragnarok. Japan-only.
    • Phantom Brave got a Wii port: new story mode (of a new character), and extra cameos/items/stuff in general. This version was later ported to the PSP with extra characters.
    • Makai Kingdom has been recently announced for a PSP port. The port will have a new story mode that deals with Petta, a young girl who claims to be Zetta's daughter.
  • For its 10th anniversary the manga Azumanga Daioh gained a remake that had quite a few extra chapters.
  • Assassin's Creed was re-released for the PC as the 'Director's Cut Edition', which features a few new types of missions, such as Archer Assassination Challenges. They're still horrendously repetitive, though.
  • Descent II: The Infinite Abyss had a remixed CD soundtrack and was bundled with the Vertigo Expansion Pack and the Mission Builder level editor. Later, there was the Compilation Rerelease Descent I and II: The Definitive Collection.
  • Dragon Quest has made a bit of a habit out of these:
    • Dragon Quest 1 - 3 were remade for the Game Boy / Game Boy Color, Super Famicom, and Mobile phones.
    • Dragon Quest 4 was remade for the PlayStation and Nintendo DS.
    • Dragon Quest 5 was remade for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS.
    • Dragon Quest 6 was remade for the Nintendo DS.
  • Dragon Quest Monsters got a rerelease -- Dragon Quest Monsters 1+2 PSX, a PlayStation remake of the original 2 Game Boy titles, with updated graphics and the ability to connect the save files between the two games.
    • In addition, Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Professional was announced recently, less than 6 months after the original's release. This variant may hint at a US release, as the US release of Joker had balance changes that were not backported properly to the Japanese Joker game—if they were making balance changes for the US game, they would have to rerelease those changes in Japan.
  • MOTHER and EarthBound got MOTHER 1+2, something of a combination of this and Compilation Rerelease in that MOTHER was improved upon and extended using the unreleased English prototype (EarthBound was unmodified, though). Of course, this being MOTHER, No Export for You ensued.
  • No One Lives Forever got a Game Of The Year Edition in 2001, which added a four-level mission, new textures and models, a map editor, source code, game music CD, and strategy guide.
  • Guilty Gear X got one in the form of Guilty Gear X Plus for the PlayStation 2, though sadly it was Japan-only. This version included a prototype story mode, Mission mode and Kliff and Justice as playable characters.
    • And then there's Guilty Gear XX and it's updates, Guilty Gear XX #Reload (balance tweaks and making Robo-Ky playable from the start,) Slash (more balance tweaks, the introduction of A.B.A. from Isuka and Order Sol, and two new stages,) Accent Core (introduction of the Force Break, Slashbacks and throw breaks, two new music tracks, and more balance tweaks, but the removal of Story Mode, Kliff and Justice) and finally Accent Core Plus (introduction of a new Story Mode, reintroduction of Kliff and Justice, and a new survival mode.)
  • Baldur's Gate was originally released on five discs plus the Tales of The Sword Coast disc. It was later re-released as a three-disc game, reducing the amount of CD-swapping a player must do.
    • And it's recently been announced that there will be a graphically updated version in 2012, as well.
  • The Genesis port of Virtua Racing was the only game to use the Sega Virtua Processor chip, and consequently was the only Genesis game not backwards compatible with the 32X (due to shared addresses). However, it did get a 32X version called Virtua Racing Deluxe with improved graphics, a choice between three cars, and additional tracks.
  • Red Baron II was an expanded revision of its predecessor, with new aircraft and an overhauled campaign system. Unfortunately, the game was quite buggy, so the designers released a major patch to fix most of the bugs and add multiplayer and 3D graphics support. This new version was later released itself as the standalone Red Baron 3D.
  • Inazuma Eleven 3 had what may possibly be the fastest turnaround yet of an Updated Rerelease, with Inazuma Eleven 3: The Ogre released in Japan a mere 5 1/2 months after the original. It replaced the subplot with a new one based on the The Movie of the anime adaptation (released a week after The Ogre), culminating in an extra story chapter with a Bonus Boss. It also added a bunch of various features, bug fixes, and new optional sidequests and postgame content, plus tweaks to some of the original content.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has an update called Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (for the first time in the Marvel vs. Capcom series), featuring 12 new characters, as well as new stages, re-balancing, and other additions.
  • Lode Runner: The Legends Returns was followed a year later by Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge. In addition to the titular online mode, Mad Monks' Revenge featured an extended story mode, new objects, new tilesets, and bugfixes over The Legend Returns, along with the code being updated to run on newer computers.
  • Heavy Weapon was ported to the Xbox360 as "Heavy Weapon: Atomic Tank". Which featured better controls as well as co-op multiplayer.
  • Eggerland for Windows 95 was re-released a few years later as Revival! Eggerland, updated to run on Windows 98 and Windows ME.
  • Digimon Battle Spirit got one within just six months of its initial release, Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit 1.5. It was a comparatively minor update, adding three new playable characters, a few new stages, an evolution for a pre-existing character and a True Final Boss. Considering how little it added and how soon it was released, one must wonder why they didn't just wait a few months and do this to begin with. It ended up as a case of No Export for You.
  • Burnout Paradise was re-released as "The Ultimate Edition". For your money, the disc included three sets of DLC; Menu, weather, and time updates (free upgrade), Bikes (was free anyway), and Party Mode controller sharing multiplayer (available to buy for about a thousand points on Xbox Live). Was not worth purchasing new (esp. if you already had the original) but the price has now come down to the point where it's the same to buy as the original itself, so worth picking over the original if you don't own it.
  • Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was released exactly 10 years after the original game came out. It has updated graphics using assets taken from Halo: Reach, and a remixed soundtrack, but the game itself still runs over the same 10 year old engine, with identical gameplay and weapon and enemy behavior.
  • Command & Conquer (the game that was retconned into being named Tiberian Dawn) had 'Gold' or 'Windows 95' Edition released two years after the original came out. It was essentially a backport of all the enhancements the Windows-version of Red Alert had to the original Tiberian Dawn, the big one being that it ran in Windows 95 rather than MS-DOS.
  • Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD) got a remake in the form of Lunar: Silver Star Story for the Sega Saturn, and that got re-released as a PlayStation game with the word Complete attached to it. Lunar: Eternal Blue did the same thing years later on the same two systems. In the case of Eternal Blue, the initial remake on the Saturn wasn't released in the States due to the system failing there. In this case, neither the remake nor the re-release differ from one another, while they are greatly different (moreso The Silver Star than Eternal Blue) from their Sega CD originals.
  • Castlevania 64 received a more polished and complete update known as Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, featuring two more playable characters and some remixed levels.
  • Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a version of Dead Rising 2 with Frank West, the hero of the original game, as the protagonist instead of Chuck Greene. It's been significantly rebalanced to remove several of the Scrappy Mechanics from the original version (such as adding a checkpoint system and removing the walkie talkie), and also has a new gameplay area, some new content, and three new bosses.
  • Fatal Fury Special was a heavily revised version of Fatal Fury 2 with more characters. (However, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special does not have a similar relationship to Real Bout Fatal Fury.)
  • Living Books re-released Just Grandma and Me and Arthur's Birthday in the late 90's. Both of the games turned up the resolution (so now the pages are bigger and have more to click on), and added a few minigames. Just Grandma and Me gave us a UI to switch the languages (rather than using the "1" and "2" keys), and it removed the Japanese language, while adding French and German. It also added a sticker feature, although most found it entirely pointless. Arthur's Birthday took out the Spanish language, but did add a minigame to play through the whole book.
  • Viewtiful Joe had one called Viewtiful Joe: Revival, released only in Japan, that added a new difficulty even easier than "Kids", called "Sweet". "Sweet" mode was also included in the PS2 version, which was released everywhere.
  • Pac-Man Plus featured the same characters and same maze as the original Pac-Man, but changed the fruits and gave the power pellets some new random effects.
  • Homeworld Remastered in 2015 features both the original Homeworld and Homeworld 2 in addition to heavily enhanced versions of those games that retain the gameplay while upgrading everything else to contemporary standards.
  • Microsoft Windows. Here are some examples:
    • Windows 3.1 was an updated rerelease of Windows 3.0
    • Windows 98 was an updated rerelease of Windows 95
    • Windows XP was an updated rerelease of Windows 2000, which was an updated rerelease of Windows NT
    • Windows 7 was an updated rerelease of Windows Vista
  • Subverted by Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4+ (The series was previously released in the west as Disaster Report). Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4 was canceled despite being mostly complete due to a major earthquake. The game was then Uncanceled when the creator's new company, Granzella, bought the rights and assets and was reannounced with a newly added +. As a result there never was a non-"Plus" version released.
  1. ↑ Cave currently claims they only made that one PCB and then lost every copy of the source code. However, Cave had two copies of the game on display at the 2006 Cave Matsuri; this likely means the source code and remaining PCBs are simply a closely-guarded secret.
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.