Major Nelson posted another update today, informing people that Operation Flashpoint: Red River and Guardian Heroes have been made backward compatible for Xbox One. Previously released for Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360, Guardian Heroes was an enhanced version of the original 2D side-scrolling beat ’em up game, which was first released on the Sega Saturn. The Xbox Live Arcade version was ported by Treasure and published by SEGA.
The game offered an original mode, where the game looked like the original Sega Saturn version, as well as a Remix mode featuring a redone UI, new high-resolution artwork and revamped gameplay and story. In this mode, which runs in a 16:9 aspect ratio, the character sprites were upscaled and also received a pencil-shading effect. Unfortunately, the filtering used in the Remix mode removed a lot of the detail in the backgrounds in an effort to hide the pixelation. You can see two screenshots showing the difference below.
Original
The port was actually supposed to rekindle interest in the series and make way for a sequel. Here’s a statement made by Treasure’s Hirato Matsuura to Eurogamer back when the XBLA port was first released;
“Originally, the project started as Guardian Heroes 2,” Treasure’s Hiroto Matsuura told Eurogamer, “The team that had been working on Sin & Punishment [last year’s Wii sequel], after that project they wanted to start a new game.”
“The project started as Guardian Heroes 2, but the publisher – that’s SEGA – said in order to create a sequel, they wanted us to revitalize the IP. So instead of starting on the sequel we made a remake.”
The original article on Eurogamer can be found here. Unfortunately, a sequel never materialized.