In my experience people go on and on about how there are not any original ideas any more. All game companies do is rehash old series’ and do remakes. To be perfectly honest I don’t care as long as it’s a fun product. I’d even be as bold as to say there are very few original ideas left anyway. There will always be “God of War clones” and “Halo clones” but that’s another story. There are several series’ I’d actually love to see make a return to the current gen of consoles. I have compiled the Best Five Series’ to get some more love in this generation of gaming. Well, its my opinion anyway and I dare you to challenge my list. I am open to suggestions and entertaining conversation below, but for now lets get this bad-boy started!
5. Blue Dragon
I know, I know. There are already two sequels on the Nintendo DS, but COME ON! Sure they have some relevance to the story, but its not the same. The handheld Blue Dragon just doesn’t capture what made the original so great. The scale of the world, the growing characters, the great music, and the fun shadow system all made that game great. Perhaps after Last Story, Mistwalker should give Blue Dragon a proper sequel, or at least look at the idea.
4. Zone of the Enders
When I first got my Playstation 2, I picked up Zone of the Enders. I didn’t get it based on what I had heard about it, or what the screens on the back looked like. I got it for a completely unrelated and unfair reason; It came with a demo of Metal Gear Solid 2. I played the hell out of that demo, but once it began to get a little old and this was my only PS2 game, I decided to try out the game that came with the demo. Little did I know what was in store for me. I figured it was just another Mech game with a giant sluggish machine lurching about a city scape blowing things up. (Granted that is VERY fun at times). When I started it up I was given an audible treat with an AWESOME soundtrack. (one of my favorites). This game was far from sluggish, as I was flying around slicing, dicing, and blasting stuff. It was some of the best mech combat I had played, until I played the sequel. Zone of the Enders 2 gave the series more story, cel shaded stye graphics, and tightened the controls a bit. It was just as fun. Why we haven’t seen a new addtion to the series baffles me. Kojima needs to fix this right away!
Really now? You thought you’d come along and read an article with this type of subject material and thought I wouldn’t talk about Shenmue? Well I’ve drawn this out enough, but if you still want to see my true feelings on the series you can read my old Shenmue Article http://www.roboawesome.com/?p=13670
The fact of the matter is that we have this story that’s being told, but it has not been finished and it needs to be resolved.
2. Megaman Legends
Megaman has been an icon to gamers since the days of the NES. The Legends series was a fantastic alternate universe with the familiar characters. To me it always felt like Zelda and Megaman had a baby, the perfect baby, having taken parts of two of my favorite series’ and bonding their DNA together creating something wonderful for the world. It was a shame that both of the titles were only for the original Playstation. A PS2 sequel would have been wonderful. A current gen version would be even better. I must say though that as I type this I read that during the 3DS information given at the recent Nintendo Conference, there is in fact a Megaman Legends 3 Project coming for the 3DS. This has me VERY excited. (Source: http://www.Capcom-Unity.com )
Whoa! Let’s take a quick breath thinking about all the possibilities. Let me get a few socks…
There we go. This had to be my favorite Sega game when I was younger. It was the most fun I had ever had with a football game since Tecmo Super Bowl. The actual football was great. The animations were fluid. You could kill the other teams players as well as the ref. Usually you did that if the other team bribed the ref. The players would make witty comments when they did something good. You could play teams that were either exclusively one of these types of creatures: super humans, cyborgs, ogres, skeletons, aliens, or play as a team with several types. The fields also had several hazards including fiery pits and land mines.
Look at the Madden series for a moment. It’s essentially the same game with added elements and updated rosters. Can you just imagine if for one year EA said “Hey guys, we know you all love Madden, so for this year we are just gonna give you all an update to last years Madden. You know, new rosters and some gameplay tweaks. I know you’re all getting angry right now, but we figured if you wanted to give us 50 bucks, we’d earn it this year. So instead we’ve done a current gen Mutant League Football!”
I know, it will probably never happen. My best bet is Blood Bowl, and while I love Warhammer, that’s just not the same. I just don’t see the reason behind NOT bringing it back. It has so much more potential now than it did back then. Multiplayer would be insane! The graphics would be so crazy. Just the thought of it… oh geez, I’m out of socks and now I need to clean up…
I hope this list has been eye opening and I look forward to the debate!