This PS1 Gem From Dead By Daylight Devs Needs a Remaster

As a gamer in my thirties, I love pulling out random obscure video games from my childhood that none of my Gen Z coworkers will have ever heard of.

It differs on a week-by-week basis, but today I entertained the thought of a Jersey Devil remaster, inspired by a post on Reddit I saw calling for a remaster.

Naturally, my coworkers had not played it. Because why would they have played it? This game was pretty obscure even in 1997. It got an average critical score of 59%, and clearly didn’t sell enough because I can’t even find any public sales data for it.

Jersey Devil was a 3D platformer from 1997 in the same vein as Spyro The Dragon or Super Mario 64, but centred around the folklore character of the same name.

You played as the titular Jersey Devil, running around a series of levels collecting icons, eating pumpkins and defeating enemies.

It was developed by Behaviour Interactive, the developer you probably now know as being behind the Dead By Daylight franchise. It was made under its previous name, Megatoon Studios, but was also the first game published after the company was rebranded to Behaviour.

GAMINGbible

I replayed it around a year or two ago, and it’s not terrible. It’s incredibly flawed, but there’s something quite charming about playing a retro game that is fighting with your sanity every chance it gets.

The controls are very awkward, it has issues with the camera, and the difficulty spike is pretty intense once you hit the third or fourth level. I can’t say this is something that has stood the test of time.

Ocean Software

Despite that, there is still a lot of love for the game by those who remember it. Folks on Reddit have been singing its praises over the last few months, for example.

“As a child I hated it so much, platforming was a pain for a young one like me. Maybe I need to take a revenge on it,” writes one person on the PSX Reddit page.

“Loved this as a kid. OST is incredible,” wrote another.

Perhaps it’s about time Jersey Devil got a remaster. A fresh coat of paint could fix up some of those issues with the camera and controls, as remasters are often known to do.

It's a mascot platformer that perhaps didn't actually get a chance to become a mascot, but given the popularity of games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Rayman, I want Jersey Devil to get another chance.

I’m sure with all that Dead By Daylight money, Behaviour Interactive could probably make this happen, anyway.