The remake disappointed me more than delighted me, but it’d be disingenuous to say I didn’t have fun with it. Taking down a boss that’s triple your size is still satisfying, and the wondrous world is teeming with creative baddies, from mushbooms to nitro pumpkins. Even so, this remake doesn’t do enough to address or improve the original’s problems. Some tweaks are for the better, others are for the worse, but the end result is a remake that fails to do anything meaningful with a beloved classic.

While I appreciate their attempt to modernize the experience, this one doesn't seem so much as a love letter to the fans as much as an attempt to fix what wasn't broken. It won’t do anything to hurt a person’s enjoyment of the original, especially my own, but it’s altogether a lackluster effort for something that could have been so much more. In the end, you may be better off investing in the SNES Classic and trying it out that way instead.

Secret of Mana (2018) makes for a nice jog down memory lane, even if there were some long-forgotten design flaws that years of nostalgic memories had blocked out over time. If you remember enjoying the SNES game, Secret of Mana holds onto many of what you liked about it back then. But if you’re looking for a polished, modernized version of the game, then you will be disappointed. For better or worse, not much has changed in Secret of Mana since its initial release in 1994.

Sorry, but no! The re-imagination of one of the most beloved JRPGs is mediocre in almost every aspect. Bugs, crashes and on top of that the visual renovation is lackluster. If you really wanna play Secret of Mana, you should think about investing in the Nintendo Classic Mini SNES.

A flimsy remake of a flawed 16-bit favourite that exacerbates all the original’s problems while failing to recapture its strengths.

The remake not only highlights all flaws of the original, making me wonder why I loved the 1993’s Secret of Mana in the first place, but also introduces some new problems. [05/2018, p.68]