Series that should be revived, continued, left in the dust, or stopped immediately

[Hayden]

The title really says/asks it all - which franchises or series are worthy of being continued or revived, which should be left dead, and which should be abandoned/halted/put out of their misery?

Now, when it comes to series you would like to see brought back or revived, this isn't your chance to simply rattle of as many old series and franchises that you just so happen to like. Actually consider if a comeback is possible, required or a sensible move - would it actually turn out positive?

As for series that you want continued, this may include series and franchises that are either: a) still in production, or b) have been gone for a short while, but have not been confirmed to actually be dead or officially ended (like 'Monkey Island' in its current position, I guess).

Series that you think should be left in the dust are series that either turned horrible, or just were horrible, that should never ever see the light of day again. Edit: Or, of course, it can just mean a series that was good, is now gone, and should be left untouched and untarnished in order to preserve something good/great.

And series which you think should be halted or stopped are series that that are currently running, or have the potential of having further installments, which need to be put out of their misery before they can do any more harm to our world.

[Vainamoinen]

This is pretty similar to other threads in here, but I'm game.

REVIVE!

Beyond Good and Evil (Game, PC, 2003)
After an interesting Trailer in 2008 and an incredible leaked gameplay video in 2009, the project "Beyond Good & Evil 2" has been named "developed by a very small team" and "on hold" multiple times. Last thing heard was creator Michel Ancel's comment, the limitations of present consoles sort of suppressed his creativity for BG&E2, so the project would be pretty much inactive right now. What a stupid man.
Possibility of Revival: It's over now, pretty much. The re-release of the original game opened up a tiny window for customer interest in the sequel. It looks like the decision was to not use this window.

Anachronox (Game, PC, 2001)
A great roleplaying experience with quirky characters, wonderful voice acting and an interesting threat for our heroes to deal with. Also, it ended in the middle of the story. At the time the last actually good Final Fantasy game was released (FF IX), Anachronox took the best bits and ideas of that series and turned it into something new, with parody/comic elements as well as shocking "real-life" storyline developments. I want that second part. There was so much potential.
Possibility of Revival: When hell freezes over.

The Lost Vikings (Game, Amiga/PC 1992)
I'm not interested in Blizzard's games these days. 18 years ago, they were making good stuff. I was just recently playing "Trine", and although it was very good, the similarity of the concept made me wish for a Lost Vikings revival.
Possibility of Revival: It's pure fantasy, of course. As long as Diabolo and World of Warcraft make so much money, I don't think the firm will even consider it.


CONTINUE!

Sam & Max Season 4 (PC)
Well, what did you think I'd say? The Devil's playhouse had its low points, but on the whole, I enjoyed it as a visionary experience with lots of replay value.
Possibility of Revival: With BTTF and JP, TTG is making serious money. I'm not sure if these sums are actually comparable to what Sam & Max, even Monkey Island yielded. But the influence of these super-large franchises on the company and its philosophy towards gaming... well, no long rant, I don't like it. Sam & Max will return, I am sure of that. But as a good game? I'm not that confident any more.

The Longest Journey (Game, PC, 2000)
Yes, there was a sequel: "Dreamfall". And it had great graphics and wonderful characters. But it did suffer from a serious lack of gameplay. Creator Ragnar Tornquist acknowledged that this criticism was heard, so I am still waiting for a sequel. If there's still some vision left in that man, it might be good.
Possibility of Revival: Tornquist sais he often brings the idea up at FunCom. This sounds as if he was nagging the executives with no real chance of success. He also sais that if this game was to be made, it should be very different. I like different, but not the kind of "different" that Dreamfall was. We'll see where this goes. People might buy this sequel, but if they start developing now, it'll be two years at least, making this 6-7 years after part 2. Seriously, this doesn't work. People will not even remotely remember what happened in the sequel, forcing Tornquist to re-tell his story in prologues, narrative, flashbacks yet again. The longer the wait, the worse this game gets.


LEAVE IN THE DUST!

Firefly (TV series, 2002)
This series was a great experience. It was shameful when it was cancelled after 14 episodes, and the dedication of the fans and the cast was great to experience. Pure necromancy enabled a movie version in 2005, which was mostly shitty because creator Joss Whedon seriously failed to get his TV series in movie form. Following that were three comic stories which also failed because the TV episode format was still the targeted feel in these other mediums. Nowadays the fans' dedication seems like necrophilia, and I really hope that this series is not revived. It would be undead.
Possibility of Revival: However much the cast still pledges their loyalty, no TV channel would ever try to revive this. It would be watched, nonetheless, and this bothers me.

Highlander (movie/TV series)
There's a movie every five years or so, and the last ones were so absurdly bad. This franchise is now contaminated with bad storyline all over, even a reboot could not help at all. Please, put this to rest.
Possibility of Revival: There will always be (another) one.


STOP!

How to train your Dragon (movie, 2010)
What the heck? I enjoyed the movie so much, it was pure joy. Loved how it was made, loved the characters, the voices, the emotion, the music. But also how it was one story, beginning, middle, end. It wasn't that special, but told with love. I feel that lots of franchises lost their uniqueness with a forced "part 2". This one will most definitly.
Possibility of Revival: It happens as we speak.

Trackmania (game, PC)
I loved the first part. It wasn't hard, easy to grasp, quirky graphics, a fun racer par excellence. Now Nadeo is in Ubisoft's clutches. The single player experience will suffer and it looks like they actually want the community to do everything for them, including the design of every track in existence. Also, the first scenes just show shiny-looking racing, but not much of the wild tracks I was used to in previous games. I think I'm done with this.
Possibility of Revival: It happens as we speak.

[RetroVortex]

Final Fantasy needs to just stop for a while.

You see the problem with it, is that SquareEnix don't seem to know where to go with the series.

Ever since Final Fantasy 10 (yes, I thought Final Fantasy 10 was very good. It had a unique battle system, and despite Tidus, the plot and settings were very cool and interesting), each main Final Fantasy game just seems to be getting worse.

Okay so I hear 11 and 12 aren't bad, but they aren't really Final Fantasy games in my eyes.

11 is a MMO and really should have just been called Final Fantasy Online, (like Phantasy Star Online is to Phantasy Star), likewise 14 should have been Online 2, that would make more sense.

12 is more of a spin of the tactics series really. Considering its Ivalice and all....

Now 13 was bad.
Just full of terrible design flaws.
Sure the game is long and does have an interesting story, however I think the game would have been a lot better if they just scaled it back.

I had more fun playing Lost Odyssey and Star Ocean: The Last Hope to be honest, because those games had much better pacing.

Final Fantasy 13 just felt like I was just rushing through it.
Running through corridors, and no real sense of interaction between the characters.

I will admit I never played 13 past the 10 hour mark, and it probably does get better, but its such a drag. The battle system has only just started to branch out, and even then its by a trivial amount.
Why bother having a customisation system, if you can only develop in one line.
The bonuses in that system even at that point had no impact on the battle system, so it didn't feel like I progressed at all.

14 still has no subscription fees.
And from what I've heard, it still hasn't got much better, and it still aweful.

You know its bad when your latest game is actually worse than the one you made 7 years ago.

And then. AND THEN SquareEnix decides to make XIII-2. (on top of the other XIII stuff)
WHY? JUST WHY!!!??!

SquareEnix need to get their act together.
(Constant remakes, no new Chrono or Saga)
Ever since Sakaguchi left Square, the Final Fantasy series has just lost its spark.

And the irony here is, that quite a few of the games SquareEnix has made which aren't Final Fantasy have been great, e.g. The World Ends With You, Dragon Quest IX

[DrRocketGenius]

Revive:

Luigi's Mansion - Not everyone cared for Luigi's Mansion, but I loved that game to death. I still play through it every year.

Continue:

Professor Layton - Even after three games (with the guarantee of another three coming), this series is still extremely fresh and enjoyable.

Alan Wake - although Alan Wake is getting a downloadable game, it's not Alan Wake 2 and I hope it eventually ends up getting a sequel.

Stop:

Call of Duty - No explanation needed.

[Davies]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

Last thing heard was creator Michel Ancel's comment, the limitations of present consoles sort of suppressed his creativity for BG&E2, so the project would be pretty much inactive right now.

That's the first time I've heard that said. I can't find out where you got this comment from, could you please provide a source and a link?

[Vainamoinen]

Original article (French); rough translation (English). I hope I was accurate enough!

[Davies]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

Original article (French); rough translation (English). I hope I was accurate enough!

You were accurate... sadly.

I really hope that BG&E HD will be available on PSN whenever the Store is restored, that would at least help soften the blow.

[Hayden]

Crap, I didn't know about this either ^. Damn, I was really hoping the sequel would see the light of day soon, after the development has been so on-and-off and up-and-down. But I guess we're stuck with another long wait with the game's development in limbo. And I don't even own any major consoles, so there'll be no blow-softening HD versions for me.

Eh, oh well.

[RetroVortex]

Originally Posted by DrRocketGenius

Revive:

Luigi's Mansion - Not everyone cared for Luigi's Mansion, but I loved that game to death. I still play through it every year.

Continue:

Professor Layton - Even after three games (with the guarantee of another three coming), this series is still extremely fresh and enjoyable.

Alan Wake - although Alan Wake is getting a downloadable game, it's not Alan Wake 2 and I hope it eventually ends up getting a sequel.

Stop:

Call of Duty - No explanation needed.

Bison-Cat agrees that Call of Duty should be pummled to dust!

I agree with the other stuff as well.
(Along with The Longest Journey and Anachronox)

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by Hayden

And I don't even own any major consoles, so there'll be no blow-softening HD versions for me.

Don't think twice - if you have the PC version, you have actually been in possession of the BG&E "HD version" for a very long time.

[der_ketzer]

Revive:
Vampire: The Masquerade
The first 2 games (REdemption & Bloodlines) are some of the greatest RPGs I ever played. Unfortunately Bloodlined was not a commercial success and so the series died. The game is far from being dead though. There is a constant flow of fan-patches.


Continue:
Aquaria
My favourite 2D-game of all time. And there is a *sopmewhat* cliffhanger ending. If only there would be part 2.

STOP
Fable:
These games have always been mediocre. The features that are promised since the first game have yet to be realised. Part 2 never saw a PC-release but Part III is out now and a complete mess. Just stop. The first game was okay for one playthrough but for an "RPG with so many moral choices that effect everything" actually there isn't much difference no matter how you play. The most ridiculous thing: I played a bad character through the whole game that became an angel the moment I decided not to kill the main characters sister at the end of the game. Well if it's that easy to go from 100% evil to 100% good why even bother with a moral choice system then?

The Elderscrolls:
These games have become worse and worse since part 2 in the series. (Daggerfall). The series still is completely addicting and offers enough replayability but after the excellent Morrowind Oblivion was a disappointment (even though it is still very good). I am actually not looking foreward to Skyrim at all. Just end this series before you ruin it.

Call Of Duty:
Just horrible

Halo:
Nice score, okayish story but what ruins this series is thge legion of fanboys.
Let us pray that THIS will never turn out to be true.

[doodo!]

Revive: Blade Runner.

There's apparently a new movie coming out, so why not have another game? Unfortunately the game is likely to suck as it will be all shoot and bang and will have little actual story to it. But, I believe that it might be done in a Heavy Rain or Jurassic Park type of way. Blade Runner is very intellectual material and should be treated as such, if licensed to gaming.


Revive: Adventure gaming.

Stories being told through action/ action adventure, are getting old, we made that leap like 30 years ago now. And it's getting old, most human behaviors work in patterns and only distinguish their self through labeling. Why not return to the adventure gaming genre? Theory, is that now that video games are such a huge empire, people go off of what's expected of the industry, what's safe and no one wants to take a risk on adventure games. This is why I believe smaller companies starting on foot with adventure games are able to achieve success because they take risks and start off low on the business scale and don't have any major economic profits to make for their self.


I think TTG does well for itself , because it took the risk and people expect that sort of thing from them and they typically give the games that their audience want to play, and also they are drawing in a new crowd from non adventure game franchises.


Continue:Monkey Island

You can do a lot with this franchise. The game sales are brilliant. People would pay to play 4 more games, just like they did in the 90s and in 200(2)(?)

I don't see any reason why Monkey Island shouldn't be continued, unless Lucas arts some how weighed that they weren't getting enough money for the project they partnered in. Productivity on their part versus profit.

Revive:Simon the Sorcerer

The first two games were brilliant, especially the first. The graphics, the music and sound effects, the attention to detail, the story. It's said that games didn't take as long to make back in the day. But, the amount of detail and attention put into that game deserves to be remembered.

The later 3D games, lacked the imagination and life of the first two games. The scenery was dull, the environments felt fake, and the music wasn't enchanted. The games simply lacked in brilliance where the first two games soared. I did enjoy Simon 3D, regardless of its many many many problems, and I also enjoyed the fourth game.

But, the franchise could use a new treatment, in a fresh grasp of hands. Right now it's more so being milked , and only decent games are coming out of it, rather than master pieces as before. The stories are eccentric but lack the spirit of the first two games. The first game was the only real Simon game to get it right.

The story has continued through the last two games, but I don't think that a partner ship is out of the question with Silver Style Entertainment. Another company that got its start with adventure gaming.

Reviveragon's Lair


How hasn't any one touched this yet? I see it on PS3 Network , and else where. But, how a remake hasn't been considered is beyond me. A remake would likely be much easier and maybe even in a slightly different format, but a game like this could benefit from modern technology and a company with vision to create a new engine that could be used for other titles in the future.

Stop or revive: Broken Sword

I love Broken Sword, truly I do. But the visual style from the first two gave it an entirely different feeling than the last two games gave us. The series just didn't hold up, it changed too much. I feel like it got too far way from the heart of it all. If they could remake it , that would be great. A remake isn't necessary, and the game is timeless but a remake might do as must justice as a remake to a Dragon's Lair remake might.

If not a remake, I don't think the story is worth following at this point. The third and fourth games started to feel tired or worn. It was too camp, and everything was sort of expected , and the series didn't have much new life.

From what I've played I've enjoyed both titles, but the original two games had me hooked, the first two titles are timeless classics. The second two titles , I lost interest and never finished the games.

Revive: Final Fantasy

All these sequels are stupid. They've lost their way with the franchise. It was never the greatest RPG. But, the characters and story lines and battle systems and settings , always held my attention. And , the music was always brilliant. Even the original titles managed to create another world, where you were absorbed into it. The game series has gotten more linear and is loosing that other world feeling to it. The characters don't feel as real, and are becoming flat. And these sequels feel heartless , and they are pointless when they are making 14 and 15, and games like 12, and 13 , while enjoyable aren't as developed and thought out as these quick money scheme sequels are.

I remember that every Final Fantasy was drastically different, had something new, exciting , special about it. Even with the second game on the nes, it had features that while you played the first game, you'd never dream of. Then the third had the job system. The fourth had something..the fifth had a evolved job system, and other awesome features. The sixth game , had a lot of cool things going on, it developed a party system similar to the seventh game and expanding the universe. The seventh game expanded the universe. Then we got to the eight game, and from their the series began to loose heart in my opinion, it started to shrink, marginalize...

By the time of the 13th game , we're just mixing things up a little and slicing off extra features, shrinking the world map down to pocket size....and whether it for artistic reasons , or technological reasons, or profit reasons over productivity, time investment....the series lost its true spirit and stopped expanding and has really began to condense.

Continue: A Vamprye Story


It had its problems, but over all it was one of the best adventure games in a long time, and it got lots of people interested in vesting time and money into adventure games once again, the consumer and the companies involved with adventure gaming.

[MusicallyInspired]

Many could be revived, but I no longer trust Telltale to do any of them justice.

[Hayden]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

Don't think twice - if you have the PC version, you have actually been in possession of the BG&E "HD version" for a very long time.

Wait, so there weren't actually any graphical updates whatsoever?

Originally Posted by MusicallyInspired

Many could be revived, but I no longer trust Telltale to do any of them justice.

This thread isn't about Telltale.

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by Hayden

Wait, so there weren't actually any graphical updates whatsoever?

I haven't played the "HD version", but it really seems so. The game runs in HD now, and it looks like some of the icons had to be redone. Apart from that, no textures are new/redone, and the effects seem to be the same as well. Most work was invested into the new cover.

[Silverwolfpet]

Revive:

Jazz JackRabbit

Fun! Fun! Fun!
Simple platformer, but really fun! they should keep the 2D though. 3D platformers are...less charming.

Loom

First game of my childhood. Big emotional strings here for me.
I would love to see it in an HD version or maybe even continue the story (since it was originally planned as a trilogy).

Continue:

Monkey Island

duh.

Silent Hill Series

Just a personal favorite, I don't mind if they reach Silent Hill 47 with this series. Right now they're making SH 8 so...I'm happy. ^-^

Leave in the Dust

The Prince of Persia Series.


STOP!!

Every. Single. Freaking. War-Related Game.

I am so so so SO sick and tired of the same boring shooters.
Oh look, it's war, let's shoot!!

Gah! Enough already! 90% of multiplayers involve war-related stories. Is the human race really that unimaginative nowadays?

[The-J23]

Originally Posted by Silverwolfpet

Leave in the Dust

The Prince of Persia Series.

You mean stop. They're still making Prince of Persia.

[doodo!]

Originally Posted by The-J23

You mean stop. They're still making Prince of Persia.

I actually enjoyed 3D , despite it's really stupid ending. The later games went ninja matrix style , and I don't feel like that fits the first three games faithfully. I don't even really feel the connection in a abstract sense even though in a abstract sense a connection always exists.

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by Silverwolfpet

Leave in the Dust

The Prince of Persia Series.

This series is in the Sand. Not in the dust.

[Silverwolfpet]

Well, either way, they made too many of these