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Which Game Series Would You Reboot?
Franchise reboots are all the rage these days in Hollywood, and the trend is starting to creep into the games industry as well. The Guardian's games blog is running a story discussing a few examples and pondering likely candidates for future reboots. Quoting:
"If anything, the concept of the reboot makes more sense in the videogame sector than it does in movies. For a start, games are complex entities, with each new iteration in a familiar series adding many, many hours of fresh narrative content. Entering, say, the Zelda, Resident Evil, Half-Life, Dragon Quest or Metal Gear worlds at this stage must be massively intimidating — even if the developers go to great lengths to make each entry work as a singular, self-contained entity within the canon. Also, videogames are going through a paradigm shift in terms of popular appeal at the moment. The faithful audience of young males has been joined by new demographics brought in by the Wii, PC casual games, and now the iPhone. Many of these people may be vaguely aware of long-running game brands, but won't have a clue about the key characters, sign post events and basic gameplay mechanisms."
So, which series (or individual title) would you like to see rebooted?
I'm not sure if it really counts as a reboot since there's only been one console version so far, but i'd really like to see Kid Icarus! Rumors about it keep popping up from time to time along with vague statements by Nintendo, so hopefully it will actually get done at some point!
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
A humorous game series about a deep space janitor solving mysteries. There is no better plot.
I am the lawn!
I would love to see a remake of any of the descent series remade. I still have each of them and from time to time have to play them even though they are getting old.
I trust Microsoft as far as I could comfortably spit a dead rat
The original Wing Commander games were great. For some reason the gaming industry has moved away from space fighter simulators. Which is disappointing, that was an early genre that was a lot of fun.
I particularly have fond memories of Wing Commander Armada, which combined in strategy elements. You had to explore planets, mine resources and build factories and ships, and you had to do it carefully. When your fleet met the enemies, it switched to the traditional fighter simulator. Even then though, you had a fleet of ships with goals, and you could switch control between them.
I'd love to see Wing Commander, or some other space fighter, done with today's technology.
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
Grim Fandango. Just for the thought of being able to roam around in a full 3d environment with Manny would be awesome. Not that was a game that had style.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Dual solo campaigns (rebels and empire) and massive multiplayer dogfights, complete with capital ships. Hell yeah.
A remake of contra would be epic to say the least.
Old Acclaim IP was purchased by the tard that runs Throwback Entertainment. They aren't doing anything with it unfortunately.
OK, I know this would be the best selling game in the history of games... but I've been pining for an updated Sim Earth lately. There is so much going on with climate science I think it would be really interesting.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Half Life 2 is "open world?" I love the game, but it's totally linear. There's a series of arenas connected by narrow passages. Episode 2 had slightly more space, what with the driving sequence at the end, but even that was still an arena. And Gordon was mute all through the first game, so I don't understand why you feel it "works" in that one and not in the sequels.
I still religiously play Commander Keen every year or so. Even today, bouncing mushroom, slugs, and kid heroes in football helmets don't get old. I would love to see a remake, as long as it stays true to the original series.
Reboot of Zork!
The Microprose Turn Based Strategy Games have always been high on my list of wanting another game. Maybe not so much a redo as just get either series started again.
GalCiv is a good game but somehow it just doesnt have the feel of MOO1 or 2. I played MOO1 for hours on end, and the sequel though not as hard as the original was also a very fun game. MOO3 was rushed and it shows.
Loved those two games: Crusader, No Remorse and Crusader No Regret.
Starbreeze are supposed to be working on a new Syndicate title although it remains to be seen how faithful to the original/s it will be.
Spaceward Ho!
But I have no idea how to reboot that one.
Alpha Centauri!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_a_steel_sky would make an awesome movie.
not that it was really a series, but put in a better map, better hunting, different hazards, more types of supplies, open-ended route selection like gps navigation or something, roving bands of indians to deal with, much much more!!
i still have the old version on a flash drive with an old mac emulator and play it every now and then, so much fun hunting, i always max out the number of bullets i can take with me!
- My uid ends in 69...
I would love to see a remake of EA's Mail order Monsters. My friends I spent hours, weeks, months playing it. Ok Ok, I break down, we spent years playing. Actually I still do. It still holds my interest.
The originals - Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness. Wrap them in one long game. Tie them together a little more neatly. Remove the reliance on journals. (Although I will admit the translation wheel and journal were awesome in the day, now they only serve as a distraction -- dig through the box, find the manual, read the entry - and that's only if I've managed to forget what the entry was, which isn't likely.)
Remaking the games and giving PoR and CotAB the Fix command in camp would be nice. Updating the graphics would be nice. But the game play - what I refer to as fantasy based squad level combat, not role playing - could be hugely improved. You could add role playing elements by expanding the options in the games for solving the puzzles. Make the players think more in quite a few of the situations they found themselves in.
Though, SotSB could probably be left out to die. I don't have many fond memories of it. And this probably doesn't qualify as a reboot so much as a remake. And WotC, or whoever holds the AD&D license now, would insist on using 4e rules which would change the flavor of the game entirely...
Dungeon Keeper would be a fantastic game to see re-imagined. Eye of the Beholder. I'd enjoy seeing what some of the darker personalities of the world could do with the Warcraft lore, given the chance. Space simulations need to come back -- picked up FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2 at Good Old Games (http://www.gog.com) and loved 'em; they're made even better with the FreeSpace Source Code Project created by the source code release by Volition. (Hm, have they already been rebooted, or just remade? There are several new campaigns...)
Wing Commander would be awesome to see revived. Ultima would be a fantastic series to see reimagined, especially the first three (which I never liked all that much due to the space portions). RIP Origin. :|
My reality check bounced.
Yep, Wing Commander is a game series that could really use a good reboot. Start with the same premise with the same characters, and see where it can take you. I liked 1/2 and loved 3/4, I wonder what modern graphics technology could do with this series. And as others mentioned, space sim games are really lacking nowadays. The last good one I played was Freespace 2.
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
I would love to see a modern-engined Carmageddon reboot. Sure, the 3rd one(TDR) was horrible, focusing on the missions. The reason for that is that even the developers realized there wasn't much to this game. The enemy cars often got damaged and just randomly veered around. There was no sense of urgency except to kill peds to keep your timer from running out. Ergo, missions were put in(some I could not solve even with cheats).
It was just fun to drive around & do stunts, mixed in with car combat & running peds down. Veered into sandbox-style games. It was a zen game. Let's see this redone with a modern game engine, perhaps with destructible environments and such.
Probably nobody else is going to agree with me, but I had to mix it up a bit.
Duke Nukem is in serious need of a Reboot! Don't you agree? I even know the perfect studio to take care of it...
without a doubt; in my opinion that's one of best games ever. I wonder why there weren't any more games like that, probably too complex for true 3D?
Personally, I preferred the Sega Genesis version of Shadowrun. Pretty good story, lots of options and a decent world to explore but it could be drastically improved with todays technology. Imagine a huge open world SR game with customizable characters, a dab of the thief series, a huge cast of characters to interact in many ways, a way of joining with other players to do a run and you would have an epic game.
My guess is that it will never happen because Fanpro, the current owners of SR are idiots. Just look at SR4 and the MS shooter of the same name for proof.
But a man can dream!
Back in the 80's my parents bought me the game for my 8086 5mhz 512k CGA computer. It was a neat game. The mechanics of it were very much like scumm. The music was catchy (written by DEVO) even on PC speaker. It wasn't until years later that I read the book. After reading it, I definitely wanted an updated version of the game.
Sims were a victim of the success of gaming as a whole. Why devote a massive game budget (like Falcon 4.0) to target a tiny segment of the customer base when you can just go after the lowest common denominator with something like Ace Combat 71?
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
Crusader: no remove/no regret aged terrible. A while ago I tried to reply the games, it partially ruined my fond memories of it. I would love a reboot of the series.
Wings, Rocket ranger and 'It came from the desert' were outstanding Amiga games from the 80's. The graphics were about the best there was at the time, The Music in all the games was excellent and all 3 games (except Wings) combined strategy elements with (fun) action sequences.
.... (there was no save)
I played Rocket ranger for about 10 years and never once was able to finish it
Remember the Myst series, and the spin-off Uru series? The franchise is almost surely dead at this point, and in the time leading up to it's death Cyan Worlds was working against a tight budget of time and money. This resulted in some official works violating canon and general confusion and drop in quality. Nonetheless, I think the world and concepts they developed still have enormous potential. It would be nice to see another game from them that better explains the world (which would make it more approachable by new players), perhaps starting at the discovery of the cleft by the DRF and going through the restoration (the DRF/DRC and the Restoration were covered in the spinoff Uru series), with integrated history lessons going over the fall of D'ni and the events that followed that (which was the focus of the Myst series).
I might be stupid, but that's a risk we're going to have to take.
Yes give us more commander Keen.
read my mind at http://the-willows.blogspot.com/
Burger Time Deluxe!
(Not to be confused with Burger Time Deluxue, released for the original Game Boy in 1992.)
...Lemmings!
Stupidity is its own reward.