5 Video Game Franchises That Need to Die

As with every other entertainment medium, there are segments that become overpopulated and increasingly saturated. With movies, there’s the horror genre that consists of one cookie-cutter after another, and so it is with the video game industry. There are franchises that are expanded beyond their limitations, and at times, the brand name can almost get a product by entirely on its own. Sometimes, however, enough is enough. These five franchises have seen their share of the limelight and are in dire need of either a hefty overhaul, or, preferably, a silent and swift death.

 

 

5.) Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is a series that has been revitalized several times over the years, and has recently hit a very familiar brick wall in terms of sales and critical reception. Mixed reviews, even more sketchy PR scenes, and an ever-declining performance in the industry, Lara Croft is in serious trouble. With newcomers like Uncharted (lovingly referred to as “Dude Raider” by skeptics) taking up most of the adventure game market share, it might be time for Ms. Croft to throw in the towel. It’s been fun, Lara, and your…erm, assets have been a great deal of fun over the last decade or so, but it’s time to take those hiking boots back to R.E.I. and retire. Just don’t make a game out of it.

 

 

4.) Guitar Hero

Neversoft did an admirable job of taking over for Harmonix when the original developer of the Guitar Hero series moved on to bigger and better things with Rock Band. Years later, and Harmonix once again revolutionized the rhythm genre and (whether by accident or intention) made its previously created brand look inferior and painfully outdated. Guitar Hero III spawned a number of spinoffs that have only begun to show their faces, and unfortunately, these are essentially mere track packs that are written off as full games and sold for maximum profit. Harmonix is king of its genre once more, and Guitar Hero is slipping. While everyone knows Activision is going to milk the franchise as much as possible before moving on, it would be pleasant to think that the still somewhat respectable Guitar Hero brand should be given a proper burial before it desecrates itself.

 

 

3.) Tony Hawk

It seems that there is a developing pattern here. Games that have been outdone by newcomers are steadily replacing the old games that felt it was safe to rest on their laurels and pump out half-assed sequel after sequel. Looks like gamers don’t like that very much, as recent Tony Hawks’ sales numbers have proven. Skate has become the new skating game for the masses, and although the latest iteration was meant with fairly mixed reviews, the gameplay is still heralded as more streamlined and manageable than Tony Hawk. Project 8 was a game designed specifically for the most elite skating players, and while some might have liked that, Skate swooped in and stole the rest of the market share in the blink of an eye. Unless Neversoft (hey, wait a minute!) gets its act together and does some serious overhaul work on the time-tested franchise, Tony Hawk will be no more.

 

 

2.) Mortal Kombat

How many times have we been told that MK is officially dead? At this point, far too many to count. Midway can’t seem to let this franchise go, and considering current economic problems for the company, Mortal Kombat is the last thing the publisher needs right now. The franchise is falling to the likes of far greater fighters such as Soul Calibur IV and Street Fighter IV, and its time that Ed Boon let his brainchild rest with what’s left of its dignity. We all love fatalities. We all remember our first Scorpion fight. Make sure those memories aren’t tainted by repetitive sequels that fail to innovate and capitalize on the series’ greatest strengths and eliminate the increasingly serious flaws that have managed to creep into recent MK games. Yes, I’m looking at you MK vs. DC.  

 

 

1.) Sonic the Hedgehog

Please Sega. Please stop making Sonic games. They have become a running joke in the video game industry, and instead of being consistently quality games (as they were back on Genesis and Saturn) they have devolved into terrible, generic platformers that bring absolutely nothing to the table with each new iteration. The ridiculous character additions to the Sonic universe don’t help either, and only serve to further confuse newcomers to the game. Sega, I understand that Sonic is your Mario, but it’s time to give it a rest. If anything, focus on re-releasing older versions of our favorite blue hedgehog on the Xbox Live Arcade or something, where they will be noticed and recognized for the true gems of gaming that they are. Any Sonic game released past the Dreamcast can just be discarded as a worthless piece of plastic that can barely deliver a few hours of remotely entertaining enjoyment.

 

Feel free to express your thoughts in the comments section of this post!

Touchy Subject: RE5 – The Race Question

     With the impending release of Resident Evil 5, the topic of whether or not the game is inherently racist has surfaced once more. Earlier in 2008, when a trailer was launched showcasing main character Chris Redfield fighting against African antagonists, a strong divide on whether or not the short video conjured images of racism and prejudice was present through the gaming industry. The problem was further exacerbated by the mainstream blogging universe and media getting a hold of the concept and putting spin after spin on what they felt was clear, unadulterated racial slander in the form of Resident Evil 5. While it is important to understand the history that African-Americans have gone through and the hardships they have suffered, RE5 does not tap into those, nor does it attempt to act as a “training simulator” for gamers.

     Knowing the history of the Resident Evil franchise makes any argument for racial propaganda negligible. The game has historically been about a white guy (or girl) killing zombies of mostly light-skinned coloring. This was all in context, however, as is RE5’s scenario. In Raccoon City (presumably a place in the United States, where the majority of the population is white) the lead characters killed white zombies. Okay, no problems there. In RE4, Leon Kennedy travels to Spain to rescue the President’s daughter from a cult with specific demands. Once more, no resistance. As soon as the game makes a logical step forward in both setting and environment to Africa, America explodes (and yes, I’d argue that it is mainly America that is affected by this, as other countries seem to be acting more grown-up on this subject). Kym Platt, blogger on www.askthisblackwoman.com (which appears to be offline) made a strong statement about the game affecting her in a prejudicial way. Her posts became incredibly public, and I am incredibly ashamed to say that several gamers left nasty remarks on her page, using racial slurs and hurtful slander to try and bring her down. While I respect Ms. Platt’s opinion, it seems that she had made a fatal error in composing her thoughts, and that is that she made little to no effort to understand the game and its history. This is where the racial argument is negated. The Progenitor virus has been stated as originating in Africa earlier in the game’s long-running history. It only makes sense to believe that this fact justifies the dramatic change in setting for the franchise, and as such, the idea of RE5 being a “training simulator” for “14 year old white boys” to be corrupted by is much too far-fetched for me to latch onto.

     What’s more is that the majority of people who feel that race IS an issue with RE5 are making all sorts of strides to ensure that their opinion is well-versed and heard by many. This is where most of the negativity surrounding the issue comes from. While it’s easy to argue that the game bears racist imagery and propaganda, to pull excessive attention to it only makes people angry, especially when it’s not something that has been paid much mind to until brought up. While some might argue that the game’s imagery is the big pink elephant in the room that everyone refuses to acknowledge, this is not the case. N’Gai' Croal’s post touched on this, and was one of the best, well-composed supporting arguments for the racist case, although I feel he is incorrect, he brings up valid points that truly deserve some recognition.

HOWEVER.

     The general idea that the game is TRYING to bring these images out of hiding and into the limelight is, in a word, ridiculous. To be honest, the last thing on my mind when I saw that trailer was “Oh man, there’s too many black people in this game. This is going to get noticed.” I saw no black people. I saw no racism. I saw zombies. I saw ordinary human beings that had been genetically mutated by a terrible virus that needed to be stopped, and that virus made them very, very angry at my in-game character. What’s more, is that the supporting character, Sheva Alomar, is dark-skinned as well. This in and of itself almost completely destroys the racial insensitivity argument, especially considering that Sheva looks poised to become a character that the player gets attached to, not just because she’s pretty, but because she cares about what’s going on. While not much detail has been revealed yet, it seems that Sheva might actually be a native of the region, while still being a part of the special forces branch that Chris Redfield is associated with. I might even go so far as to guess that the story will touch on this and have Sheva showing compassion (with an appropriate response from Chris) for her fellow citizens.

     To believe that RE5 is a racist game is something I honestly find blown far, far out of proportion. The game does not feature a white supremacist character as some people would have you believe, nor does that character act harshly towards the dark-skinned antagonists. Even in the demo build this is apparent. Chris isn’t screaming, “DIE FUCKERS!” while firing wildly at the enemies, but is instead terrified of the situation and wants to help out as quickly as possible. So if you expect Capcom to try and make a game that is directly attempting to reignite the fires of slavery or racial prejudice, you are one of the people taking this too far. It is a game, and like all media should be looked at objectively. I didn’t see people getting upset with Blood Diamond, nor did I hear about racism in Black Hawk Down. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it before, movies and games deserve the same treatment. They are both forms of entertainment media and as such, deserve to be looked at in similar ways.

     So, please, if you read this and feel either similarly or differently, please post your mature comment in the comments section, and we can prove to the media that gamers are not immature snots without social morals or standards. Any comments with hate speech or racial slurs will be deleted and reported.

 

Relevant links:

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2007/08/03/black-bloggers-react-to-gamers-reacting-to-resident-evil-5-racism-charges

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/953/953114p2.html

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/04/10/newsweeks-ngai-croal-on-the-resident-evil-5-trailer-this-imagery-has-a-history/comment-page-7/

What RE5 Could Learn from Dead Space

Resident Evil has always been a critically-acclaimed franchise, and has built up quite a following in its time in the gaming industry. For me, Resident Evil became a part of my gaming career when RE4 was released, and I instantly fell in love with the feel and control scheme of the game. Everything worked just as it should’ve, but with the upcoming release of Resident Evil 5 and my recent playtime with Dead Space, I can’t help but feel that the controls that I was so easily smitten by during the GameCube years have worn out their welcome in the next-generation of gaming. Not only that, but with the fairly recent release of Dead Space, it’s time that Capcom reconsider what makes its series tick.

Let’s start with the control scheme. For starters, RE4 controlled great for its time. It was a game that both revolutionized the survival horror genre and put an adrenaline shot in the Resident Evil franchise. A few years later, and now we’ve got RE5 on our hands, with little to no progress made in the control scheme or the gameplay, as it were. To be perfectly honest, the game is RE4 with a fresh story and beautiful new coat of paint. While this is in no way a bad thing, it begs the question of what the game could be with a Dead Space-esque control scheme and presentation. Dead Space is one of the most fluid and easy to control third-person survival horror games out there, and it still manages to be scary. The most important difference between Dead Space and RE5 is that in Dead Space, you can actually move around while you shoot and reload. RE5 continues the use of the RE4 control scheme, which in today’s gaming generation, feels archaic and tank-like. While the addition of a strafe is nice, the game still feels awkward, not fluid, as it should. Purists will argue that it heightens the tension and the terror of combat, but personally I feel that it just makes the gameplay very frustrating at times, especially in close quarters. With the recent announcement that RE5 would not feature a “run ‘n gun” control scheme, I couldn’t help but sigh sadly. While I don’t think having a Gears of War style control scheme where the player is running through zombies blasting them away is a good idea, I think loosening up the player’s movement would do the Resident Evil series a whole lot of good. A few people have mentioned in the comments section of the news post on Joystiq that having a walk-while-aiming system would work well and give Capcom a chance to flex their horror muscles a little more. The control scheme shouldn’t bring tension, the story, environments, and enemies should do that. When a developer relies on the inherent limitations of its input options to generate scares, something is very, very wrong. Check out this quote from user Ihavepants in response to the Joystiq post:

 

“So am I to understand that people actually believe that, standing still while shooting=scary?
Why don't the developers actually put some effort into the horror so it doesn't rely on how uncoordinated your character is.”

 

In retrospect, the control scheme that RE features actually makes the game LESS immersive and LESS engaging because of how ridiculously unrealistic it is. In RE5, this fact is only exacerbated by how insanely muscular and agile Chris Redfield appears to be. That entire mentality is shot once you get a controller in your hands, however.

Now with Dead Space, you have a game that holds almost nothing back in terms of controls. The one control limitation is something that is done purposefully (and implemented correctly) to increase the feeling of vulnerability, and that is the omission of any kind of quick turn maneuver. While normally I would say that this is a flaw, it makes sense in Dead Space’s gameplay. Since the controls are so easy and intuitive, turning around isn’t excessively difficult, and as such doesn’t warrant any kind of quick turn ability. If Resident Evil 5 were to implement a Dead Space-like control scheme, there wouldn’t be any removal of tension, and I’d even argue that the tension would get that much stronger with a control scheme that allowed freedom of motion. How so, you ask? Simply because of the immersion factor. You don’t feel like you’re playing a game so much as you feel like you are Chris Redfield. This, of course, is where RE5 could take another cue from Dead Space.

Dead Space understands the importance of presentation and environment, and it does so with such panache and skill, that it’s almost impossible to overlook. The whole game is delivered in such a great fashion that it makes everything that much more immersive when you pop the disc in the tray. This is one place where RE suffers. The environments (especially in the new Africa setting) just aren’t scary. While the move away from horror into a more action-packed gameplay style isn’t a bad thing, it’s just that there are some things that feel misplaced in Resident Evil’s particular breed. With the poor control scheme comes contrived and extremely linear environments. While Dead Space was about as linear as they come, at least the game embraced this fact and helped you find your way through the complex environments, so as not to frustrate the player and take away from the immersion. This is where RE5 stumbles (or at least in the demo). It’s hard to really fathom just how small the environments are until you play a game like Dead Space and then go back to RE. Think carefully about how big the demo levels are. It’s almost no wonder why they can make the game look so damn good, as there’s barely anything at all to render! You get some zombies, throw in a few houses and breakable barrels, and bingo, you’ve got a Resident Evil level. Things just don’t seem to click as well for this scenario in this gaming generation.

In conclusion, I don’t think that RE5 will be a bad game. On the contrary, I think it will be a fantastic game. The only problem is, I don’t think it will be nearly as good as RE4, simply because of just how incredibly different the times are today. If Capcom widens up the environments and allows more freedom of motion in the next iteration (following RE5, as it is way too late to make any big changes at this point) of the Resident Evil franchise, you can bet that the game will garner a much broader audience and will begin to be taken as a serious action game, as opposed to a somewhat broken one.