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Vodacixi on 27 March 2020
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The_Liquid_Laser said:

These terms come from the music industry.  "Remaster" means make a new master copy in a higher quality format.  "Remake" would mean to create the song again usually with different artists and a different take on it.  For example, we could say that Disturbed remade Sound of Silence with their own take on the song.  It is the same song as the Simon and Garfunkel original, and yet they made it their own.  The song is different on an artistic level and not just a technical level.

Likewise George Lucas has remastered the original Star Wars trilogy plenty of times.  Mostly the changes are on a technical level, although a few changes are on an artistic level (like who shot first).  Generally when fans want a remaster they don't want any artistic changes, just technical changes.  On the other hand the movie "A Star is Born" has been remade many times.  A basic outline of the movie looks similar, but the details can be extremely different.  So the recent version with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is similar enough to resemble earlier versions of the movie, but in looking at the details there are significant (artistic) differences in how the movie plays out each time.  It's not just about changing the technical quality of the film or special effects.

So, when we get to video games, I believe the terms "remake" or "remaster" are somewhat subject to interpretation, and marketing can play a misleading role depending on how a company wants to portray a game.  But generally a game which only has technical improvements (like graphics) will be received one way, while a game with changes to artistic elements like gameplay, story, controls, level design, etc... will be received another.  So, I believe it is best to use the term "remaster" to refer to a game with mostly just technical improvements, while a game with significant artistic changes should be called a "remake".  And as I've said above this is how the terms are used in other industries.

Examples

Remaster:  Super Mario Bros (8-Bit) -> Super Mario All Stars (16-Bit), uses a different graphics engine, but has identical gameplay
Remake: Metroid -> Metroid Zero Mission, changes not only to graphics, but controls, level design, some power ups, monsters, etc... but has lots of similarities too.

Thank God, someone who gets it...