Turok and Stuntman Are Coming Back Different Than Before

Welcome back to Remastered! This week, I’m highlighting two retro revival titles from Saber Interactive that I saw at Summer Game Fest Play Days earlier this month. Please consider subscribing or supporting me on Ko-fi if you enjoy what you read.

Saber Interactive Has A Different Approach To Retro Revivals

Since splitting from Embracer Group in 2024, Saber Interactive has been making a name for itself by creating new games based on pre-existing franchises. It’s produced a number of licensed games based on IP like A Quiet Place, Hellraiser, John Wick, Jurassic Park, and Star Wars, but it’s also making sequels to older games well-deserving of a follow-up. 

After finding extraordinary success with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (a sequel to a Sega game Saber had no hand in creating), Saber’s attention has turned to two other franchises: Turok and Stuntman. At Summer Game Fest Play Days, I had the chance to play Turok: Origins, a new co-op shooter based on the classic comic and retro game IP, and Stuntman: Hollywood, a revival of a cult-classic racing game.

Both games definitely differed from the older titles they were based on. For better and for worse, both Turok: Origins and Stuntman: Hollywood very much feel of 2026. Still, they paint a clear picture of Saber’s approach to bringing classic franchises, from gaming and beyond, into the modern era of gaming. 

Turok: Origins

While this game is called Turok: Origins, the series’ roots actually go back to 1950s comic books that starred an indigenous American fighting dinosaurs. That’s a pretty rad premise, so the idea of the character stuck around for decades, being reinterpreted by different comic writers across different publishers. Nowadays, though, the series is best known for the retro first-person shooters produced by Acclaim in the 1990s. 

1997’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a quintessential retro FPS and Nintendo 64 game. While the game looks incredibly dated nowadays, it was one of the console FPS games that truly felt as if it delivered expansive and detailed 3D levels at a time when most shooters still copied Doom. Its sci-fi edge and the fact that you fought dinosaurs also made it incredibly distinct from other shooters of the era, and helped the game become popular enough to spawn sequels.

The franchise unfortunately peaked during the N64 era, as its shooter sequels failed to leave a lasting impression once they were competing with series like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and Halo rather than Doom. Turok: Origins is the first shooter set in this universe since 2008, and it’s not trying to be a retro throwback to any of those older N64 games. Instead, Turok: Origins embraces what it means to be a modern co-op shooter.

You’re grouping up with friends in a lobby and picking a character class before loading into levels where you complete different objectives as wave after wave of enemies tries to kill you. Sometimes, a level will emphasize platforming or a boss will show up, and smart use of abilities can give your squad an edge you wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s all pretty standard co-op shooter flair, just with the jungles and dinosaurs the Turok franchise is known for layered on top.

While the game was originally just a third-person shooter, Saber has implemented a first-person mode, which was definitely my preferred way to play the demo. Even if the boomer shooter vibe of the original Turok games was quite different from the modern squad shooter vibes of Turok: Origins, I can still feel the influence of those retro titles even while playing in first-person. 

Turok has a history of reinterpretation under different companies, so it should not be too surprising that Turok: Origins is different from the Turok games that came before. While the demoists told me Saber has great respect and reverence for the originals and wanted that to influence the sequel, the vision behind Turok: Origins is very much its own. Saber isn’t aiming to create a retro revival or spiritual successor with this game, but a complete reinterpretation.

Stuntman: Hollywood

While Stuntman isn’t nearly as widely remembered as Turok, the series does have a cult classic following because of how unique it was from other racing games of the time. Instead of just driving along normal tracks, you’re performing stunts for a variety of parody films and are judged on how well you perform them. The duology’s legacy has been the inclusion of stunt-based objectives in racers like Forza Horizon, but now Saber Interactive is revisiting the franchise in a very 2026 way. 

While older Stuntman titles had to settle for parodies of films like The Dukes of Hazzard, Volcano, and James Bond, Stuntman: Hollywood can take advantage of Saber Interactive's strong licensing track record. Like the ill-fated Funko Fusion before it, Stuntman: Hollywood is being made in partnership with NBCUniversal, which gives it access to franchises such as Back to the Future, Knight Rider, The Fast and the Furious, Jurassic Park, and more.

My Summer Game Fest demo allowed me to try a handful of the game’s stunt challenges. None of the levels were that wild nor spectacle-filled; they mostly just asked me to drift tightly, drive close to other vehicles or objects, and make massive jumps to earn points and a higher star rating.  Game feel reigns above all in racing games, and Stuntman: Hollywood did feel good to play. 

I always felt like I was in full control and could pull off any stunt the game asked me to. Its bite-sized mission-based structure also means it’s a game I could see myself replaying a lot. The inclusion of well-known franchises honestly didn’t impress me that much in this demo, as, beyond some flavor text and vehicles, nothing else felt pulled straight out of those films.

Still, Stuntman: Hollywood definitely shares the spirit of the older games it’s based on, definitely more so than Turok: Origins. That said, its visuals and use of real-world IP ensure it doesn’t feel like a retro or PS2-era racer, even though I’d like to see those make a comeback. Of the two Saber Interactive revivals in development, this is definitely the one that I’m looking forward to playing more.

This pair of franchise revivals cements Saber Interactive’s place in the retro revival development scene. I can look to developers and publishers like Atari, The Arcade Crew, or Retroware for modern games that feel retro, and I can look to Saber Interactive when I want to see a classic franchise turn modern. I’m more inclined to the former, but games like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 show that there’s an appetite for the latter. 

Turok: Origins and Stuntman: Hollywood will be the games that help make or break Saber Interactive’s reputation for that kind of gaming revival. Ultimately, both are appetizers for the still-in-development Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, which will be Saber’s true test on whether it can steward a beloved game into the modern era.

What's Old Is News

EverQuest Legends, Xbox's tumultuous week, and more

• You should check out this neat SNES remake of Earthbound Beginnings (also known as Mother) that fans spent around 19 years creating, per Time Extension.
• Pre-orders opened for EverQuest Legends, which I also got to check out at Summer Game Fest Play Days. Expect a deeper dive into this one in a future Remastered newsletter.
• Xbox is reportedly planning to shut down some of its studios with storied histories, including Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, and Double Fine. More on that in a bit.
• While Final Fantasy fans want a Final Fantasy VI remake after Final Fantasy VII Revelation comes out next year, director Naoki Hamaguchi isn’t interested in working on it. 

I’ve been gaming less since I returned from Summer Game Fest because I don’t want to burn myself out. That said, over the last couple of days, I have been giving one game a shot, and it feels fairly relevant given what’s dominated the industry news cycle for the past week.

Forza Horizon 6: Playground Games’ latest is yet another wonderful racing game. Like almost every game in the Forza Horizon series before it, this game captures a wonderful balance between immaculate world design and visuals, game feel that doesn’t feel too simulation-like but still rewards precision, and a constant treadmill of progression systems to keep me engaged.

I spent so much time in Forza Horizon 5’s Mexico that I’m not sure I like Japan just as much yet, but I’m sure Forza Horizon 6 will win me over as I continue to play. It’s a testament to a talented development team that has stuck together for over a decade, without ever worrying about their franchise’s future. That’s why it angers me that not all studios under the Xbox banner are getting this same treatment. 

It’s well-reported by Bloomberg, The Verge, and Kotaku that many Xbox studios are on the brink of closure and mass layoffs. Xbox wants to focus on fewer, bigger franchises and doesn’t seem to really care about the talented individual developers it spent billions of dollars acquiring over the past decade.

I have enjoyed many games released by Xbox Game Studios recently, namely Keeper and The Outer Worlds 2. To see that Microsoft now cares about them so little because they’re prioritizing profits over all, it’s heartbreaking. You don’t get games like Forza Horizon 6 without letting teams of talented developers work together over an extended period of time to make something great. 

Now, I can’t even guarantee that Xbox’s downsizing won’t impact Playground in the coming weeks. Forza Horizon 6 proves the developers under Xbox’s employment know how to make outstanding games. Microsoft just doesn’t seem to know how to manage that talent properly, so its amazing studios are paying the price. 

That’s all for Remastered this week! Summer Game Fest coverage will continue in the next newsletter as I reflect on two actual remasters I played at the show. Subscribe so you don’t miss that, and consider supporting me on Ko-fi to support independent games media.