Last year marked 20 years since God of War hit the PlayStation 2 and started one of the biggest gaming franchises. Today, at the tail end of the 20th anniversary celebration, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio announced two new projects. First, and most importantly, the original God of War trilogy from PS2 and PS3 has been remade for the modern era.

There’s no footage of it yet — the developer says they’re “very early in development,” so we likely won’t see or hear about it for a while. But given new interest in God of War thanks to two excellent Norse games from 2018 and 2022 (not to mention upcoming series on Amazon), it makes sense to revisit these classics.

God of War and God of War II were released for the Playstation 2 in 2005 and 2007, respectively, while the third in the Greek trilogy hit the PlayStation 3 in 2010. The third game was also remastered for the PS4. But it’s safe to say that while the first two games are classics for their time, they’re also showing their age in certain areas of the game. Hopefully the remake will smooth those rough edges. (Who else had Hades-level nightmares near the end of the first game? It’s not just me, right?)

While we won’t see the remakes for a while, there is the a new game inspired by God of War from today: God of War Sons of Sparta. It was developed by Mega Cat Studios, a developer known for its love of retro games — it still releases games for the SNES and Genesis.

Given their pedigree, it is not surprising that Children of Sparta has the vibes of classic 2D action/platformer games. Apparently this is canon for the series and takes place in Kratos’ youth as he trains with his brother. It obviously doesn’t look like the other God of War games – but the combat and monsters shown in the trailer definitely feel right at home in the series.

Perhaps the funnest part of all of this is that it’s available right now for $30. while Children of Sparta seems like a fun surprise for fans of God of War, it only goes to whet our appetite for that remake series. I will suggest indulge in some Valhalla in the meantime?