Post by mizerable on Feb 3, 2013 16:59:36 GMT -5
This begins and ends with Adventure Island. It took ONE bad game (and by bad, I mean different, as opposed to being unplayable) to completely sink that franchise. They never recovered, and it's a shame because those games were amazingly awesome, I'd actually rank those in the top 10 platforming adventure games of the NES and probably top 20 on the SNES. But after what happened with Super Adventure Island 2? It disappeared into oblivion.
As far as franchises which just disappeared for no reason;
Tomba! Both games were amazingly fun. I don't know if the games didn't sell well, but I would assume the reason that Whoppee Camp dried up was that they didn't. Both games were sidescrolling platformers that really did feel like something you should be playing on the last generation of consoles. And as much as I do love the games, the first one especially feels like it's rushed in a lot of areas, whereas the beginning of the game had more balance. The second game is vastly superior in every way, but I remember always seeing it at Target and Kmart, and no one would buy it. Of course now, both games are sought after and can fetch high prices.
Sticking with the PS1 rulebook, I have to also mention Gex. Gex wasn't by any means revolutionary and in a lot of ways was your basic run of the mill FP platformer, at least the 2nd and 3rd games were. They were still a ton of fun and hardly ever get any recognition nowadays. I enjoyed the fact that Gex was a wisecracking gecko, something new at the time when the protagonist almost never spoke. I don't know what happened with Gex or why he disappeared.
Spyro the Dragon was also plenty of fun. A lot like Gex, it's your typical platforming game for PS1. I know they made a few games recently, but I never touched them since they looked awful. Year of the Dragon was one of THE top PS1 games for me, I'd easily rank it in the top 20.
Much like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot has also had a few games come out that just flat out sucked. Unlike Spyro, I actually played these crappy games. Word of advice; stop after Crash Bash...it's all downhill from there. I don't know what processed Naughty Dog to get rid of their first conception, because the first 3 games were a lot of fun, especially the 2nd one. CTR was pretty good and probably my second favorite racing game of that generation, next to DKR. Sadly, the only non-Naughty Dog game that Crash was in that is worth checking out is Crash Bash...and that's only half good.
I'd say in recent times, Nintendo has completely dropped the ball on several of their franchises, or at least didn't realize the full potential of them, here's a few that I've been annoyed by;
Donkey Kong; People will praise DKCR as a "return to the DKC roots", which I just roll my eyes at. The game felt NOTHING like DKC outside of the fact that it's a side scroller and you play as Donkey Kong. No, no, no...I want Kremlings, I want vast environments that don't look like a Mario ripoffs, I want animal buddies (plural), and I want to be able to play as the other Kong. The game felt more like Donkey Kong Land...which was STILL a better DK game than Returns. Hell, even Donkey Kong 64 got it right more than this game did. Donkey Kong Country Returns was a major step backwards in just about every way, hell in this day and age, you wouldn't think it was possible. It was very disappointing. Get Rare on the phone and quit f***ing up Donkey Kong, Nintendo! I guess it's better than what Donkey Kong had been doing up until that point, which was just being a token background character...there to fill the void of being the 9th man or something, hell I really wish DK would just stop existing in the Mario universe, he outgrew it in the 90's and he deserves to be his own entity franchise, because if he's not, then Nintendo can continually use him as a "Waluigi" and therefore people aren't bitching about "what happened to Donkey Kong?".
Oh and remember how Donkey Kong was a token character? I'll never forget when I heard that he was the token final boss at the end of Punch Out Wii. Now, first and foremost...I LOVE Punch Out Wii, it's probably my second favorite game on Wii. However, the shortcomings that I see are that they went too far out with this game and don't have a lot to offer in the foreseeable sequels. Personally, if we got a sequel, I wouldn't want to play the same guys again, since I know all their patterns. You could change the patterns, but that would be STUPID. If you're going to do that, you may as well make an entirely new character. I think a lot of the reason why we won't be seeing much Punch Out in the future has a lot to do with the "negative stereotypes" that it displays. Now, outside of the fact that every character is a vain asshole, I don't see anything to get upset over. I would love to see an Egyptian who does that silly little "walk like an Egyptian" dance when he boxes, or a Scotsman who boxes in a kilt, whom you can only score a knock out off of when he raises it in a taunt. You can even recycle old guys who weren't used in years; Texas Mac, Pizza Pasta, Dragon Chan, Bob Charlie, Masked Muscle, etc etc. The game easily writes itself! However, I think a lot of it comes down to; 1. People will be pissed that there aren't any recognizable characters from MTPO, and 2. The nostalgia from the original game kept people from getting pissed off over the "negative stereotypes" that would have caused problems if any of the foreign characters had been created at that point. If they made a game now and had a Cuban boxer who smoked cigars between rounds, it would cause outrage. And I know that they have talked about making a sequel, but again...you'd have to offer something different than Punch Out Wii to get people enticed, which isn't going to happen because....guess what? Most people aren't going to want something different. Total catch 22.
Pokemon; I still don't get why they don't release a home console game where it actually feels like a real safari, where you navigate tall grass and come upon Pokemon...as opposed to random battle. You could keep the RPR element, but it gives the game a totally new presence.
Star Fox; Like I said a few days ago...Star Fox 64 is easily my favorite game for N64. While being a short game, it has SO much replayability for me that I never tire of it. You would think that since it was one of the best selling N64 games that they could follow it up with something as good, but they haven't. And they keep failing to realize what people liked so much about the original 2 games! All you'd have to really give us is a more expansive version of the N64 game. More areas, longer levels and more variety when it comes to secret exits and shortcuts and such. Oh, and no Krystal...she sucked ass.
As far as franchises which just disappeared for no reason;
Tomba! Both games were amazingly fun. I don't know if the games didn't sell well, but I would assume the reason that Whoppee Camp dried up was that they didn't. Both games were sidescrolling platformers that really did feel like something you should be playing on the last generation of consoles. And as much as I do love the games, the first one especially feels like it's rushed in a lot of areas, whereas the beginning of the game had more balance. The second game is vastly superior in every way, but I remember always seeing it at Target and Kmart, and no one would buy it. Of course now, both games are sought after and can fetch high prices.
Sticking with the PS1 rulebook, I have to also mention Gex. Gex wasn't by any means revolutionary and in a lot of ways was your basic run of the mill FP platformer, at least the 2nd and 3rd games were. They were still a ton of fun and hardly ever get any recognition nowadays. I enjoyed the fact that Gex was a wisecracking gecko, something new at the time when the protagonist almost never spoke. I don't know what happened with Gex or why he disappeared.
Spyro the Dragon was also plenty of fun. A lot like Gex, it's your typical platforming game for PS1. I know they made a few games recently, but I never touched them since they looked awful. Year of the Dragon was one of THE top PS1 games for me, I'd easily rank it in the top 20.
Much like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot has also had a few games come out that just flat out sucked. Unlike Spyro, I actually played these crappy games. Word of advice; stop after Crash Bash...it's all downhill from there. I don't know what processed Naughty Dog to get rid of their first conception, because the first 3 games were a lot of fun, especially the 2nd one. CTR was pretty good and probably my second favorite racing game of that generation, next to DKR. Sadly, the only non-Naughty Dog game that Crash was in that is worth checking out is Crash Bash...and that's only half good.
I'd say in recent times, Nintendo has completely dropped the ball on several of their franchises, or at least didn't realize the full potential of them, here's a few that I've been annoyed by;
Donkey Kong; People will praise DKCR as a "return to the DKC roots", which I just roll my eyes at. The game felt NOTHING like DKC outside of the fact that it's a side scroller and you play as Donkey Kong. No, no, no...I want Kremlings, I want vast environments that don't look like a Mario ripoffs, I want animal buddies (plural), and I want to be able to play as the other Kong. The game felt more like Donkey Kong Land...which was STILL a better DK game than Returns. Hell, even Donkey Kong 64 got it right more than this game did. Donkey Kong Country Returns was a major step backwards in just about every way, hell in this day and age, you wouldn't think it was possible. It was very disappointing. Get Rare on the phone and quit f***ing up Donkey Kong, Nintendo! I guess it's better than what Donkey Kong had been doing up until that point, which was just being a token background character...there to fill the void of being the 9th man or something, hell I really wish DK would just stop existing in the Mario universe, he outgrew it in the 90's and he deserves to be his own entity franchise, because if he's not, then Nintendo can continually use him as a "Waluigi" and therefore people aren't bitching about "what happened to Donkey Kong?".
Oh and remember how Donkey Kong was a token character? I'll never forget when I heard that he was the token final boss at the end of Punch Out Wii. Now, first and foremost...I LOVE Punch Out Wii, it's probably my second favorite game on Wii. However, the shortcomings that I see are that they went too far out with this game and don't have a lot to offer in the foreseeable sequels. Personally, if we got a sequel, I wouldn't want to play the same guys again, since I know all their patterns. You could change the patterns, but that would be STUPID. If you're going to do that, you may as well make an entirely new character. I think a lot of the reason why we won't be seeing much Punch Out in the future has a lot to do with the "negative stereotypes" that it displays. Now, outside of the fact that every character is a vain asshole, I don't see anything to get upset over. I would love to see an Egyptian who does that silly little "walk like an Egyptian" dance when he boxes, or a Scotsman who boxes in a kilt, whom you can only score a knock out off of when he raises it in a taunt. You can even recycle old guys who weren't used in years; Texas Mac, Pizza Pasta, Dragon Chan, Bob Charlie, Masked Muscle, etc etc. The game easily writes itself! However, I think a lot of it comes down to; 1. People will be pissed that there aren't any recognizable characters from MTPO, and 2. The nostalgia from the original game kept people from getting pissed off over the "negative stereotypes" that would have caused problems if any of the foreign characters had been created at that point. If they made a game now and had a Cuban boxer who smoked cigars between rounds, it would cause outrage. And I know that they have talked about making a sequel, but again...you'd have to offer something different than Punch Out Wii to get people enticed, which isn't going to happen because....guess what? Most people aren't going to want something different. Total catch 22.
Pokemon; I still don't get why they don't release a home console game where it actually feels like a real safari, where you navigate tall grass and come upon Pokemon...as opposed to random battle. You could keep the RPR element, but it gives the game a totally new presence.
Star Fox; Like I said a few days ago...Star Fox 64 is easily my favorite game for N64. While being a short game, it has SO much replayability for me that I never tire of it. You would think that since it was one of the best selling N64 games that they could follow it up with something as good, but they haven't. And they keep failing to realize what people liked so much about the original 2 games! All you'd have to really give us is a more expansive version of the N64 game. More areas, longer levels and more variety when it comes to secret exits and shortcuts and such. Oh, and no Krystal...she sucked ass.
