Here's the list, there are probably better choices he could have added, some of his choices are stupid as hell, and really, I'm not sure I fully accept his premise, the real problem is not that a franchise necessarily needs to be retired, but either need to be salvaged in a way that restores them to their former glory into a modern format, I see it more as a put up or shut up list. 

You can see from his opening paragraphs he has a real hatred for the craptacular Frogger franchise...the venom for that one is not misplaced.

Let's look at his list, and yes, I overthought this big time...


Pac-Man:  I agree 100% with this, the Pac-Man franchise has been awful since it left the old arcade days.  I think the basic game style and format could be interesting to make a modern game, but it would take a massive overhaul, rethinking of the entire franchise and serious investment.  I don't think Namco would make that kind of investment, and they'd end up screwing it up anyway.  As the author says, the exception was an XBOX live game that was supposed to be kinda fun, I'd kinda like to try it, actually. Apparently, you get to be Pac-Man or Inky, Blinky, Pinky or Clyde, so its a person as Pac-Man vs. people being the ghosts.

Medal of Honor:  I haven't played this franchise, but every review makes the same criticism of the series as the author does, all the new games that come out are almost all just lackluster, however, there I don't think its so bad that that it needs to be on this list, I'm sure it would be easy to find others that deserve it much, much worse.

Tony Hawk:  As is, I agree, it needs to go, but I think there are others that could replace Tony Hawk on this list.  However, I think if they back off making lazy sequel after lazy sequel, and really focus on making it a high quality franchise, they could bring it back.

Tomb Raider:  Yep, needs to retire, it needs to go away for a few years at least, Eidos swore up and down they weren't going to overtap the franchise back when they were making Tomb Raider 3, they didn't stop, and the quality dropped enough that people are squeamish about buying a Tomb Raider game. The last one was supposed to be decent, as the guy says, but I'm guessing they lost a lot of potential buyers because of skepticism about the franchise caused by years of crappy sequels.  I think the series needs to be mothballed for a few years, and then they need to either commit to bringing back the series in a huge way and doing it right, or retire it permanently.

Manhunt:   He says its not because of its violence, but because its a mediocre game franchise that pulls resources from the rest of Rockstar Games.  He says its because its a weak link in the Rockstar franchises, that its development sucks up resources for better games.  Its a crappy justification for retiring a franchise, its not the best in the Rockstar's arsenal, but its decent enough.

Spyro the Dragon:  Which he basically made a catch-all for most of the major platform franchises and franchises based on toys, movies or other products, think of those shitty Barbie, Disney movie tie-ins and Mary-Kate and Ashley games you always see in the bargain bin because no one buys them.  I agree with the latter, the shitty tie-in games have to friggin' stop, NOW, however the rest of it I'm not sure I accept.

Because he made this one a catch-all rather than a singular franchise, I'm gonna break down the real franchises he says need whacked. 

The Spyro franchise has never been especially bad, he just finds the character annoying, they're usually a decent little platformer, not particularly stellar, but they're almost always made well.

Frogger I agree with him on, its obvious no one wants to actually invest what is needed to make a good modern update for Frogger, and it needs to either retire or hand it off to someone comes along that will save the franchise, if such a developer comes.  Till then, it needs to go away. 

Crash Bandicoot, honestly, I have no strong opinion on because I've never really played it and its always been off my radar...which in itself is sort of a condemnation.

Sonic the Hedgehog...oh, this pains me so.  I agree with him 100%, its time to put the spiny little guy out of his misery, SEGA just can't seem to get it right.  Which sucks ass because I was a huge Sonic fan, and I know others were too. Unlike the others, the Sonic franchise has been given a lot of chances and resources in order to revive. 

SEGA needs to either make one last hurrah, start over from scratch, and totally reinvent the Sonic franchise into something decent, or retire it.  I actually think Sonic has less potential for a revival than even a Frogger or Pac-Man, they've never had anyone make a serious effort to revolutionize those games, they've always been second tier, their sequels afterthoughts, Sonic has had several major attempts at revival, they've all failed.

For the next one, he makes another catch-all choice, which he calls "Super Mario Party Kart Smash Bros. Brawl ":  I think he's full of crap on this, while I agree that it would be great to see Nintendo branch out more often than they do and make new franchises, this has been the biggest criticism of Nintendo for years, and while in some ways it sounds right, its a weak knock on Nintendo. 

Most of the standard Nintendo franchises are solid, and really, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Sure, Nintendo could trim the fat and maybe make a few less versions of Mario Party in order to retool the concept and put out a higher quality Mario Party type game, and they have the occasional miss, but most game developers would kill to have as solid a track record as Nintendo.  One thing I'll say for Nintendo, they're much better at making the proper balance, with possible exception of Mario Party, they don't overtap their franchises, particularly the Super Mario, MarioKart and Super Smash Bros. franchises, which are all consistently excellent. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 03:57 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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