GRcade

This thread is kind of a plug for a crappy youtube video I made but I also thought it'd be a fun thing to talk about on here.

The idea of a games franchise coming back from certain death has always been fascinating to me. With the way the industry works I've become very accustomed to seeing series die on the spot without a second chance if one of their mainline games flops in the market. My video talks about series that have been able to revive mostly on borrowed good will from past efforts but rarely, if ever, do we see a game series keep going if they have one disappointing outing.

I think part of what has caused this to happen in the last decade if the large amount of failed reboots that have been thrown out by misguided publishers. Sometimes this ends up working out like in the case of Deus Ex Human Revolution where a sleeping franchise was suddenly revived and came out the over side decently well but more often than not you get cases like the Syndicate and Thief reboots which have all but likely killed any chance of those franchises seeing new titles for the foreseeable future.

Even when a franchise doesn't die we can all see the damage a disappointing outing can do, Metroid: Other M certainly demonstrated that.

So what are everyone's favourite franchise to survive a bad outing? Which ones are you most upset about dying? Are there any you think can come back? Are there any instances where you were glad a series was revived or survived certain death? What is EA going to ruin next?
and so on.

Resident evil survived a dire stretch in the middle and has now produced an amazing game in Remake 2. XCOM returned from the dead and (ignoring that crappy bureau) is stronger than ever.

Although do remakes count as coming back from the dead?

Will be interesting to see how long it takes before someone tries Mass Effect again after the poor reception to Andromeda. Whilst I liked it and don’t think the franchise “died” the fact it was put on ice suggests the publishers do.

Will check out that video when I get the chance later.

FatDaz wrote:Resident evil survived a dire stretch in the middle and has now produced an amazing game in Remake 2. XCOM returned from the dead and (ignoring that crappy bureau) is stronger than ever.

Although do remakes count as coming back from the dead?

Will be interesting to see how long it takes before someone tries Mass Effect again after the poor reception to Andromeda. Whilst I liked it and don’t think the franchise “died” the fact it was put on ice suggests the publishers do.

People consider Resident Evil 7 to be a great game and the come back of the series.

Still waiting for a new F-Zero. Owned every console iteration and adored each one, GX was such a stellar game that it would be difficult to improve on it a great deal, but with that said I can think of several things that would immediately enhance it:

-Track editor
-The X Cup (from F-Zero X), a series of races on randomly generated tracks
-Death Race

I would love another Mercenaries game. The first game set in North Korea was such good fun but the sequel was a glitchy mess.

Soldier of Fortune is another series I loved, would be cool to see another one of those crop up with a decent developer.

Just looking at the main image and not watching the video:

Tomb Raider - Sort of came back then faded again
Spyro - Remasters don't count
Sonic - Mania aside it's been gooseberry fool since "& Knuckles"
Resident Evil - DEFINITELY BACK!
Crash Bandicoot - Remasters dont' count
Devil May Cry - Wasn't much for 4 or DMC, but 5 looks great

The remasters definitely count in the context that they literally revived the series and interest in future games. If Activision make a crash bandicoot 4 it will probably do well assuming it is actually, you know, good.

Preezy wrote:I would love another Mercenaries game. The first game set in North Korea was such good fun but the sequel was a glitchy mess.

Soldier of Fortune is another series I loved, would be cool to see another one of those crop up with a decent developer.

I own the first one on back compat on X1 (it was free with gold)...I might boot it up now...

Photek wrote:

Preezy wrote:I would love another Mercenaries game. The first game set in North Korea was such good fun but the sequel was a glitchy mess.

Soldier of Fortune is another series I loved, would be cool to see another one of those crop up with a decent developer.

I own the first one on back compat on X1 (it was free with gold)...I might boot it up now...

Ooh jealous.

I remember when you unlock the bunker buster bombs that you can call in on military installations, dat boom

It also had the fantastic plot device of having to assassinate the North Korean generals and officers who were each given a place on a deck of cards, much like they had during the 2nd Iraq War.

I haven't played them but the most recent Mortal Kombat games seem to have been well received, which is quite frankly a miracle considering how bad most of them have been since MK3.

Tony Hawks Pro Skater needs to return, and it needs to be done properly following the abysmal failure of the last one.

I'd also like to see Burnout come back.

Vermilion wrote:Tony Hawks Pro Skater needs to return, and it needs to be done properly following the abysmal failure of the last one.

I'd also like to see Burnout come back.

What I'd give for an HD remaster of Takedown.

Ironhide wrote:I haven't played them but the most recent Mortal Kombat games seem to have been well received, which is quite frankly a miracle considering how bad most of them have been since MK3.

Damn that series completely slipped my mind. Then again you could easily argue MK was never good and inferior to the fighting games created in glorious nippon

The Devil May Cry series survived Devil May Cry 2.

NickSCFC wrote:Tomb Raider - Sort of came back then faded again

Huh? It's one of Square-Enix's biggest franchises at the moment...

Sandy wrote:

NickSCFC wrote:Tomb Raider - Sort of came back then faded again

Huh? It's one of Square-Enix's biggest franchises at the moment...

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was gash.

The Red Faction series survived RF2, albeit they staggered on for a bit before being taken round the back and shot in the head.

I'd love to see TimeSplitters come back [hopefully it will with THQ Nordic acquiring the licence]; they were fun, had a good sense of humour and surely the time jumping leads to lots of inventive set-pieces.

I'd take a HD remastering of the originals at this point.

Dig Dug wrote:

Ironhide wrote:I haven't played them but the most recent Mortal Kombat games seem to have been well received, which is quite frankly a miracle considering how bad most of them have been since MK3.

Damn that series completely slipped my mind. Then again you could easily argue MK was never good and inferior to the fighting games created in glorious nippon

The first one was pretty poor once the novelty of the gore wore off but 2 and 3 were actually quite good.

MK3 was the best one though, the combo system made it more technical and some of the character designs were really interesting.