Creativity in Game Sequels

The New York Times (reg. required) has a look at two sequels that manage to recapture some creativity from the original games. Resident Evil 4 and Mercenaries aren't just knock off money makers, a refreshing note in a rehash heavy industry. From the article: "Capcom's invigorating leap into 2005 includes tossing out what had been the basic premise of the series, which centered around a manmade virus that destroyed Raccoon City."

Comments

Re:also

[UWC]

Though I'm a Nintendo fan, and the Gamecube was the first console of this generation that I owned, I was about to mention that I reluctantly disagreed with your assertion there.

Until I realized that for the most part, it may be that there just aren't many core game types out there, and true innovation in gameplay is rare. What Nintendo manages to do is hold on to those core game types, making some changes and additions, and still keep them engaging and fun and at the same time technologically competitive with the games that get by on newness alone. And if you have a context (franchise, etc.) in which a particular game type works, there's not necessarily a reason to abandon it. The reuse of franchises allows them to refine the gameplay experience instead of having to worry about both creating a new brand and delivering good game mechanics.

Granted, there are new and original games out there. Pikmin, for example, managed to make RTS-style gameplay playable on a console. And the gaming snobs' favorite this year, Katamari Damacy, is indeed unique and delivers both a world and gameplay experience unlike any other game.

Difficult To Come By

[White Roses]

The gaming industry is increasingly motivated by profits for major conglomerates (the EA sports deal comes to mind), not even just little publisher shops anymore. In an environment like that, you have to have companies that are willing to use the profits from a major hit series to fund development on more groundbreaking items. Better yet, support a studio with a history of groundbreaking games (Bungie anyone?) and let them keep doing what they do best. Even then, what the masses want is what's going to fill the shelves in most cases. We're lucky to see any creativity at all sometimes, and creativity in a sequel, well, that's just unheard of in many cases. Scott McCloud wrote about this in the context of comics. Penny Arcade covered some of this in a series a few years ago.