Being Halloween then it seemed fitting to discuss those game franchises which died, lay dormant, or maybe were kept on life support, for some years and then came back swinging. Not all manage such a feat and so should have been put down like the zombies they are. If you want to make it a bit harder we can probably all agree that the various classic games brought back as mobile phone games (looking at the likes of Dungeon Keeper mobile and Cannon Fodder 3) should not only have got both barrels but probably also have been seared from existence after that, give or take their value as a warning. On the flip side if we absolutely must then we also accept those times where the puppet masters move onto another host, or made a spiritual sequel if we are to use common parlance.

Taking an obvious example as a starter. Deus Ex from the year 2000. It started out as a work of some master devs and created what was then, and for some years afterwards, the pinnacle of PC gaming. Even today it is held as something of a high water mark, though some have started to debate whether it was a product of its time. Combined with the slow motion implosion of the developer also came the somewhat dumbed down and constrained sequel also available on consoles (even more of a bad sign back in 2003). The eventual owners of the IP tried a few more times (one attempt eventually becoming Project Snowblind) but it would be 2011 before we got Deus Ex: Human Revolution. While not maybe as great in scope as the first game it never the less managed to wrap a compelling and thought provoking story in a tight engine, and look good while doing it. Since then we have had a few sequels and side stories that also found themselves somewhat enjoyed, though speculation is that it might have entered into a second hibernation.

For the opposite then we have the Thief Franchise. The first two games plus expansions were legendary titles that in some ways were responsible for the glut of stealth sections in the years following them, to say nothing of many of the developers moving on to Deus Ex above. Ion Storm's decaying hand gave us the third game in the franchise a few years later as a parting gift to the world and it was not great. Some years later we saw Thief 4, at one point stylised as Thi4f but eventually becoming a "reboot" which probably tells you all you need to know there, though the uninspired levels, clunky mechanics, worse story and suspect graphics mean it probably should have been felled by a holy water arrow long before then. Fortunately around the same time we saw the first of the Dishonored games, and the modding community gave us both mods to take advantage of newer hardware, and something of a modder driven remake/spiritual sequel in The Dark Mod.

This is part of a series on GBAtemp where we discuss game culture, game mechanics, industry trends and similar such things. Last time we discussed things that were once quite radical but are now fairly commonplace, as well as things now missing in Back in my day we didn't have X but did have Y. Gaming edition.. We also have to thank Piotyr, one of our IRC channel ops, for the idea for this thread. If you have an idea then either make the thread yourself and it could get put on the portal, or get in contact to share some ideas.

Spoiler: earlier editions

what would $20 get you in your preferred gaming genre, games you play by your own rules., the state of VR and 3D and whether they had once more failed to take hold, the last game skill you unlearned, The game you invested the most money in, times where people said gameplay styles would not work for a platform, the value of online play, emulation vs hardware, a favoured game style that might have become less common in recent times, skills one might have learned or honed because of a game, games on the PS4 and Xbone that will stand the test of time, games that got better after launch, cancelled games and shuttered devs, and story canon in games.

So then what games rose from the dead to show us how it is done, and what ones should have stayed dead?

 

[EmulateLife]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge raaaaaacer

rise from your grave!!!!!!

we need you

please

your our only hope

Prayer answered

 

[zfreeman]

2) C&C franchise. This slowly went downhill after EA bought westwood studios. Red alert 2 was the pinnacle of RTS'es, but then lacked origality afterward. C&C 4 was "okay-ish". Red alert 3 was "meh". And once I heard they got rid of base building, I never even bothered to check (what was that? C&C 5?).
EA recently tried to reboot the franchise as a mobile game. I...didn't even continue watching the announcement. I really loved the franchise at one point, but PLEASE...let it stay dead!

 

[FAST6191]

Duke Nukem should have never been out of retirement. 90's tropes don't work these days, if ever again.

Shenmue should not rise from the ashes. It is bound to failure and I can't believe that a game that bombed hard, spawned a sequel that bombed hardest and will see a third entry bomb yet again.

From the top of my head, these.

Also, who farted? Smells bad, yo.

Doom coming back did quite well, Serious Sam similarly continues to do OK, in many ways I would consider Army of Two in these, and Saint's Row made something of a go of it too (especially sequels and DLC). Bulletstorm might also serve as something of a nice throwback, and I will not knock the earlier Dead Rising efforts too hard either in this.

As far as Shenmue then while I am not expecting massive sales or anything I could see it going in the same way each year we get Oscar bait films that only a handful of people will see but those that enjoy the art form usually quite like as well. I would also say the first still has things aspiring to create a living open world too -- I can't remember how many years it has been since I played the first but I can still navigate the main town section, honestly couldn't do that for most of Skyrim at this point (a game I probably put longer into), and even Far Cry 3 which I was playing a couple of days back has similar issues for some of the towns but they at least don't appear to be going for living world there.

Altered Beast used to say "Rise From Your Grave!" and it rose from it's grave on PS2, it ended up being one of the worst games ever it should have stayed in it's grave.

Ahh the PS2 resurrections of 8 and 16 bit classics... how I don't miss that one.
Anyway I never played the Altered Beast PS2 effort. For similar vintage titles back then I did once play the Shinobi game, and while its memory has certainly faded for a reason it served as something of a template for the likes of Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta and similar such titles.

Now the question of Golden Axe coming back (granted for the 360) with Golden Axe beast rider... If you wanted either a new golden axe or a faithful step into 3d a la some of the prince of persia stuff (fittingly in a thread like this I am ignoring Prince of Persia 3d) then no. If you take it on its own merits though I can see why people defend it.

 

[Sakitoshi]

(I refuse to see Other M as a Metroid game)

maybe for you.
I get that samus representation seems poor, but we hardly had any hint of her personality before (even fusion showed only the necessary to move the plot), regardless of that other m is still a solid entry.

Jazz Jackrabbit 3 should gwise fwom yar gwave and get a release. no hd remasters needed, the old games hold up pretty well (though I haven't played the gba game, but I will one of these days).

 

[pedro702]

Metroid is probably the franchise that exemplifies this.

Releases are sparse, the series oft seems little cared for and at one point we pretty much had a release drought for over a decade (I refuse to see Other M as a Metroid game), yet whenever it comes back, it comes back in full swing.

complaining about other M when we got Federation force after ...

 

[Foxi4]

maybe for you.
I get that samus representation seems poor, but we hardly had any hint of her personality before (even fusion showed only the necessary to move the plot), regardless of that other m is still a solid entry.

I really enjoyed Other M, it was a solid game. Yeah, Samus wasn't a battle hardened bounty hunter we all know and love, but it was explained fairly well in the game. Besides, she always had a certain fondness for the Baby Metroid, even in the older entries, so much of the critique seemed unjustified to me. She did rely a lot on Adam's instructions, but then again, she was following orders during the mission, so it made sense to me in the context. It was a good blend of 2D and 3D gameplay, I'd be happy to see a sequel at some point.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

I get that samus representation seems poor, but we hardly had any hint of her personality before (even fusion showed only the necessary to move the plot), regardless of that other m is still a solid entry.

I see this argument propped up every once in a while. That since Samus has no personality, so the character we get is basically gonna be her character.

And... I kinda disagree with that assessment. It's true that Samus's speaking lines in the games aren't much, but they infer a character. Compare her to Link, the other Nintendo Silent Protagonist. Most people would agree that, even if Link is the blank slate, he has some amounts of character. It's for example generally agreed upon that Link doesn't like Ganon very much, cares about the people of Hyrule and wants to save Zelda. Most people wouldn't agree if someone then suddenly told them that in reality, Link is beating up Ganon because he has deep-seated daddy issues he hasn't worked out or something.

That is what Other M did to Samus' character. Samus' character was sparse, but we had some general concepts of who she was and what she was like. She's a hero who saves the day, cares about individuals and isn't afraid of telling a shitty system to go and fuck itself and do the right thing anyways. Other M then proceeds to set out to completely tear down that character. Hell, they even reference that particular character which I just described in Other M. It's past Samus for that story. Present-Day Other M Samus however seems to be a shivering wreck who has deep-seated daddy issues, follows instructions like a fucking puppet and the game even removes any sense of catharsis that might alleviate this. There is zero character development. We aren't shown seeing her grow past the character hang-ups (which would've made them tolerable if a bit weird for Samus), we're actively denied four separate moments in which Samus could have been a badass hero who saves the day:

• Ridley enters the plot and leaves it the moment he's not needed. The de facto Metroid villain is instead delegated to a honestly offensive boss fight by all accounts, both for what it does to Samus' character, what it does to the established canon of Metroid and what it speaks of for sexism in the video game industry in general (yes I went there).
  
• Sector Zero, the sector with supposedly unfreezable Metroids in it, which would've served as a great final dungeon, we are barred from entering. Why? Because they needed Adam "Mary Sue" Malkovich to have a shining moment, since he was so endearing to the audience by shooting Samus in the back with his stun gun of maximum plot power.
• The Metroid Queen, the final boss, isn't a story relevant boss. It's a lame attempt at another motherhood reference. It also ties in with why Ridley is so awful, since the Queen is implied to have killed Ridley. To a similar account, the Deleter is a similarly crappy villain. He literally is added to add weak tension and the game doesn't even acknowledge he existed the moment he stops being relevant to the story.
  
• MB, who is the main villain, you don't even get to fight. You go into visor mode and you aim at her. Then a bunch of military guys shoot her for you.

And that's without going into the numerous ways it cherry-picks previously established bits of Metroids story and explicitly contradicts the Prime series.

Gameplay is similarly just... bad. It's not good, the Primes, and although hindsight makes this cheating, Samus Returns prove how you can do a 2D/3D Metroid game with 3D models. The controls are good for what they had to work with, but honestly the fact that they insisted on a Wiimote only control scheme really hampered the game and the forced aiming mechanic for investigation and missiles is just... no. This should've been a nunchuck game.

And let's say I wanted to ignore the story and focus on the game. Except I literally fucking cannot. People deride Fusion for being overly linear, but Other M cranks it up to a fucking new degree. Fusion had it's linear segments sure, but there was a sense of exploration, unforeseen things would happen that the game wouldn't tell you about which would change the way you approached obstacles. Other M is completely linear, any side paths available at any time are blocked off by Adam "Mary Sue" Malkovich. There's no sense of secrecy to exploring the BOTTLE ship (another shitty motherhood symbolism), no sense you're ever breaking the mold. There's exactly one shortcut and iirc you're forced to take it, so there's no real "metroidvania" for the game.

Fusion handled it really well on the other hand. Yes, the game was restrictive whilst you were working on an objective, but otherwise, you have complete freedom of movement within the sector you're in, and near the end of the game it actively makes a point of you having pretty much worked free from the heavyhanded guidance of your AI companion by showing a ton of interconnectivity between it's sectors.

And I got this far on gameplay without even talking about the sheer incompetency that they did with the Varia and Gravity suit in Other M. They're both equally egregious, but for different reasons. The Varia suit is literally the reason you can't avoid Other Ms story, the fact you can't use it is dysfunctional from a gameplay perspective (it's a purely defensive mechanic, there is no reason she shouldn't have it on to begin with) and if you turn to the story you get... the story. Which calls in the infamous death run section, which to this date is pretty much the only instance where you're forced to take environmental damage that doesn't easily heal off. Prime 2 had it's dark world sections, but the safe zones would automatically heal you and it was a gameplay mechanic and it was justified due to the corrosive air. In Other M, Samus goes through a superheated environment that given the point in the story this game takes place, she has dealt with several times before. She reaches a certain mark in the game (I think it was at the beginning of a boss), and suddenly Adam "Mary Sue" Malkovich approves her using the Varia Suit. The game forces you to pay attention to the story for this to make sense.

There's several possible readings of that scene, and none of them paint Samus or Adam in a particularly positive light. Samus is delegated to either daddy issues or is abused. Adam is either negliglent or abusive.

The Gravity suit is just egregious considering it's particular incarnation in this game. Whilst the purple/yellow/red color scheme is... always one of the more "interesting" examples of an outfit color scheme, in this game it is literally a pink glow. Why? Because Sakamoto, the director for every single Nintendo game that wasn't a Prime (those were directed by Miyamoto) since Gunpei Yokoi died (the original Metroid creator), found it a weird color scheme and asked it to just be a glow.

Other M fails on every single level. It does an active disservice to the Metroid canon and not even the gameplay can save it's ass since it's forcibly intertwined with the story, which is a whole bunch of crap I can unpack much further if desired.

I refuse to see Other M as a Metroid game.

complaining about other M when we got Federation force after ...

Federation Force is so bland, I forgot it existed, and honestly it was overshadowed by AM2R for me. Like, FedForce isn't good, I won't say it is. But it's not offensively bad beyond just being exemplary of how little the big N cares for Metroid as a franchise, which is only an aspect of the much bigger issues I have with Other M.

Plus we got Samus Returns the year after (and Prime 4 announcement) which alleviated pretty much any negative resentment I held about Federation Force. We didn't have any alleviation for Other M.

 

[Sakitoshi]

@Ev1l0rd Ain't reading that wall of text. but you are wrong from the beginning .
Link does show his personality because he is expressive, he shows his face all the time and you can tell by his face alone what is he thinking.
Samus on the other hand has never shown her face outside of a couple seconds at the end of the games of the prime series, and her expression in the prime 1 ending at least, is that of a person that is sad because of all the destruction she had to leave behind or relieved that everything is over which fits her personality in other m.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Samus on the other hand has never shown her face outside of a couple seconds at the end of the games of the prime series, and her expression in the prime 1 ending at least, is that of a person that is sad because of all the destruction she had to leave behind or relieved that everything is over which fits her personality in other m.

Samus has the opening cutscene of Super, the monologues of Fusion and short bits of zero mission (I'll grant that ZM isn't much tho), the logs in Primes and an entire manga that characterizes her (I glossed over that last one, but it's actually pretty good and a lot of the things you see Other M flub, the manga handles really well). All of those characterizations actively run counter to Other Ms portrayal of Samus.

There's different ways to express a character. Link does it through his facial expressions, Samus we learn about due to inferring her character from how others see her and the short bits that tell us the backstory of how she got on alien planets.

 

[Deleted User]

One of my favorite (or my favorite) franchise is Klonoa, and it should be able to pass for this thread as it is likely coming back. I say this because earlier this year Bandai Namco registered the trademark Klonoa Encore, bearing a similar name to Katamari Damacy Encore, which was a enhanced port of Katamari Damacy.

 

[Sakitoshi]

One of my favorite (or my favorite) franchise is Klonoa, and it should be able to pass for this thread as it is likely coming back. I say this because earlier this year Bandai Namco registered the trademark Klonoa Encore, bearing a similar name to Katamari Damacy Encore, which was a enhanced port of Katamari Damacy.

I would argue that remakes don't exactly bringing back a game/series, if anything is like putting them on life support.
sequels is what we really need.

 

[Alexander1970]

It always amazes me how Resident Evil goes down the drain, on and on, and it does not get better again .....
F1 Series...where are the REAL Innovations......
Sonic,the Hedgehog.....
(my first Console and Video Game)
Star Trek......why did not they stay with the Adventures ?
Doom....
Wolfenstein....What did the games exactly have to do with (Return to) Castle Wolfenstein.....
Far Cry.....funny Shooter Series,but from the Spirit from the First Game is not many left....
Tomb Raider.....also a nice Game Series after Part III,unfortunately not more.

 

[FAST6191]

Ignoring 6 and the various unnumbered spinoffs (save for Code Veronica) does Resident Evil get worse and worse? I am not entirely sure why 7 got called that (save perhaps oh look we have a horror game, let us crowbar it into the series, but it was hardly bad either, and the recent effort at remaking 2 will probably be the high water mark for such endeavours for some time to come.

 

[pedro702]

I would argue that remakes don't exactly bringing back a game/series, if anything is like putting them on life support.
sequels is what we really need.

a remaster doesnt but a remake it does, since its totaly new engine and graphics and whatnot, but yeah an hd remaster doesnt bring anything to a series a remake does indeed.

 

[Sakitoshi]

a remaster doesnt but a remake it does, since its totaly new engine and graphics and whatnot, but yeah an hd remaster doesnt bring anything to a series a remake does indeed.

remake, remaster, same thing.
putting a new coat of paint doesn't advance the plot or bring anything new to the table. also Klonoa already had a remake on wii that went nowhere.

 

[pedro702]

remake, remaster, same thing.
putting a new coat of paint doesn't advance the plot or bring anything new to the table. also Klonoa already had a remake on wii that went nowhere.

what look at resident evil original and remake... its night and day and they even had alot of new parts of story and bosses and everything.

a remaster is just the same exact game with same assets but hd textures, higher definition and some better framerate(sometimes), a remake its basically a new game based on the original.

you got amazing remakes like
RE
Pokemon heartgold,soulsilver
shadow of the colossus(yes it first got remastered and then remade lol)
RE2
metroid samus returns
links awakening
crash trilogy
spyro trilogy

remakes are totally different beasts, some of them change even game-play(RE2) and add their own things, they aren't just copy past jobs, that's why there are very few remakes compared to remasters don't put them both on the same cup.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Don't know if this counts, but Yakuza was basically completely dead in the west towards the end of the PS3 era. Between Yakuza 3's localization mess, the fact that very wonky Japanese games weren't as en vogue back then, and the absolute failure of Yakuza Dead Souls in the west, it was a miracle that Sega kept trying. Hell, Yakuza 5 for PS3 was digital-only in the west. It was basically dead.
Yakuza 0 changed it all with the last Hail Mary from Sega with its physical copy and special edition, and saved the series in the west, and now it flourishes. That makes me extremely happy as Yakuza is one of my favorite video games series and I'm glad it came back from near-death.

Let's hope that this Ichiban nerd's love for Dragon Quest doesn't fuck us over, Okazaki-chan!

remake, remaster, same thing.
putting a new coat of paint doesn't advance the plot or bring anything new to the table. also Klonoa already had a remake on wii that went nowhere.

Remake = brand new game with new and updated assets, gameplay, areas to explore, etc.. Think Metroid Zero Mission, AM2R, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Crash N-Sane Trilogy, Super Mario Bros. All-Stars, etc..

Remaster = Take a previous generation game and code it for a new CPU architecture/OS to make it run better than the initial system it was released on. Only got devs any money this past generation because both systems have inconsistent BC unlike with the PS2 with the PS1 and the OG FAT PS3s with both respective systems before it.

To actually get on topic, how about Fire Emblem? This was a game that, even when they started localizing the games with FE7, didn't really see success until Awakening, which ironically was going to be the series' swan song. Since that game's commercial resurgence, they've been able to keep making more and more games and even a Warriors spinoff for Switch!

 

[raxadian]

lol spyro can crash have many other games besides the first 3, and they were boring

Well, Twinsanity was buggy and incomplete but fun.

And Spyro had one or two good games after the first three but they ruined it.

 

[YukidaruPunch]

Wonder Boy is one of my all-time favorite series and has seen a recent revival as of late. The subseries Monster World inside of Wonder Boy are, in essence, "Metroidvanias". Most of them are excellent games, and almost everyone who played The Dragon's Trap agrees it to be one of the best games on the Master System.

Everything is just so vibrant and colorful!

After over 20 years without a single new game, there have been two recent revivals: both The Dragon's Trap remaster by Lizardcube (who's now making Streets of Rage 4) and Monster Boy by Game Atelier. While the first is a faithful remaster which is quite literally (and impressively) running of the original ROM, the second is an original game which serves as a spirital sequel that has many nods to the original series and also had some of the original developers. I'm more fond of Lizardcube's work, but both are great and it was immense to see two WB-related properties being developed at the same time after two decades of naught but rereleases (and an official Monster World IV localisation, that's true.)

Excellent games, excellent series, all of them.

 

[Souperman9]

Contra. The new one looks awful though.