Game Franchises That Should Make a Comeback
Some games deserve to return more than others. These are those games.
Games come and games go. Such is the reality of the video game industry. Some games overstay their welcome, others didn’t get to see the light of day.
And then there are some games that had their time in the spotlight, only for their spark to dim out, resulting in the games being put in stasis, waiting for another chance of revival. These games fall into the category, and I am going to elaborate on why I want them to make a glorious return to the gaming industry.
As a disclaimer, this story refers to game FRANCHISES, which means that there should more than one entry in the games’ respective series. So apologies to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Vanquish, as much as you deserve to make a comeback, you can’t make this list.
Def Jam fighting games
Last entry — Def Jam: Icon (2007)
A clear distinction had to be made for the Def Jam fighting games, since a rap music video game called Def Jam Rapstar was released in 2010. Def Jam is, after all, a record label company. Still, when discussing Def Jam as a game franchise, most gamers will still default their memory to the two acclaimed classics Def Jam Vendetta (2003) and Def Jam: Fight for New York (2004).
Let me be clear that to this day, no other fighting game did it like the Def Jam games. Starting from the roster, where players can play as famous hip-hop artists as in-game fighters thanks to the artists being signed to Def Jam at the time, allowing the usage of their likenesses in-game. It might not be as prominent in Vendetta, but in Fight for New York (FFNY), the rapper beatdown power fantasy can get wild. I mean, who doesn’t want to play as Snoop Dogg wielding an overpowered Jeet Kune Do fighting style? Not to mention the rappers lent their voices into the game, which added another layer of personality that other fighting games lack.
But the stacked roster could not have helped the game if the gameplay was stale, right? Fortunately the wrestling-inspired game mechanics were more than up to the challenge. From basic strikes like punches and kicks to advanced moves like counters and reversals, the Def Jam games got you covered. FFNY even spiced things up by throwing environmental attacks and improvised weapons into the mix. But what really sold the games for me were the over-the-top finishing moves that managed to thread the fine line between Mortal Kombat-levels of ridiculousness and UFC’s grounded reality. No eyeballs were gouged out (although WC’s finishers in both games came close) in the finishing moves or “blazin’ moves” as they are called in-game, but bones were definitely broken.
Sadly Def Jam’s glory days came to a grinding halt with the release of Def Jam: Icon (2007). Gone is the memorable finishers and bone-crunching blows replaced with floaty, underwater-like fighting mechanics. The visuals, while decent for its time, was not as memorable as Vendetta’s cartoony visuals or FFNY’s gritty backdrop. Icon’s only saving grace came in its unique integration of fight song into the fighting mechanics where players can exploit the drop of the background music to deal environmental damage to their opponents. Other than that, most players dismissed Icon as a nail in the coffin of the Def Jam fighting game franchise.
But why not make a comeback? The fighting game community has grown exponentially in recent years, and the rap game is bigger than ever. Imagine the scenes of a virtual fighting ring between old school rappers such as DMX (RIP) and mumble rappers such as Lil’ Xan. It doesn’t even have to be balanced, it just needs to be a crazy fun good time. The old games wasn’t known for its roster balance anyway, as evidenced in FFNY’s lopsided power levels where most of the rapper fighters are placed on the top tiers with some of them being banned on tournaments.
Of course getting the likenesses of some of the biggest rappers right now can cost a lot, but with the combined interest in rap music, fighting games, and beating up 6ix9ine in a fighting game, it won’t be hard for the game to break even.
Burnout
Last original entry — Burnout Crash! (2011)
Original being the key word here, since EA released a remaster of Burnout Paradise in 2020. It said “remastered” on the cover, but I personally think of it as a re-release that supports higher resolutions and framerates.
Burnout to racing games is like Mortal Kombat to fighting games : it served as the genre’s volatile but lovable cousin. Even without a drop of blood involved, the series is probably the most brutal of its kind with its car mutilations and dismemberment like no other in the racing genre, save for 2017’s Wreckfest developed by Bugbear Entertainment. And no, Dangerous Driving (2019) does not count. Yet.
However, tumultuous car crashes alone won’t get Burnout anywhere. In fact the franchise have had supporting mechanics developed over the years that helped make it the insanely violent racing game it’s known for today. Starting from the iconic takedown mechanic in Burnout 3: Takedown (2004), the head-splitting crashbreaker mechanic introduced in Burnout Revenge (2005), to the the high-speed high-octane open world in Burnout Paradise (2008). There were also crucial elements worth mentioning, such as the gritty and thunderous sound design, the creative track designs, the raw and terrifying sense of speed, and of course, the kick-ass soundtracks.
But if Burnout was loved by many, why did it disappear? There’s always that argument that the Burnout games encourage reckless driving, but like first-person shooter games and real-life gun violence, the correlation between the two can be easily dismissed.
In reality, Burnout publisher EA had made its developer Criterion as the lead studio for the Need for Speed franchise starting 2010 with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Following some back-and-forth with Ghost Games, Criterion had remained the lead studio for the Need for Speed franchise as of 2019, which leaves them with little time — and backing from EA — to develop a Burnout game. Furthermore, Burnout creative director Alex Ward left Criterion in 2014 to develop a spiritual successor to the Burnout franchise, the aforementioned Dangerous Driving game.
TL;DR? It’s highly unlikely that gamers are going to get another full-fledged Burnout game, not with EA’s tight grip on Criterion’s leash. There might still be hope with the recent remaster of Burnout Paradise, but it only warrants a cautious optimism reaction at best rather than all-in enthusiasm.
In this day and age, no other racing game has done aggressive combat racing like Burnout. It’s almost like the other developers are reserving the spot for battle racing subgenre seat previously occupied by Burnout, waiting for it to return someday.
Dead Rising
Last entry — Dead Rising 4 (2016)
What is up with the zombie game subgenre? It saw a rise in late 2000s, a peak in early 2010s, a fall in mid-to-late 2010s, and now another rise in the early 2020s with remakes of the Resident Evil games followed by the upcoming releases of Back 4 Blood and Dying Light 2. It seems like like their collective subject, zombie games cannot stay dead forever.
But do you know the game franchise that had died and is waiting to rise again? Dead Rising.
It is factually easier to mow down a zombie horde for days using an arsenal of high-power firearms. But where is the fun in that? How about literally mowing down a zombie horde using a lawn mower? Or barging through with a patio table? A park bench? What about improvised weapons such as two chainsaws duct-taped to the ends of a kayak paddle? Or a good old spiked baseball bat with nails for spikes? Knives attached to a pair of boxing gloves? Zombie games can be cutting-down-a-zombie-horde-with-a-machine-gun cool, but they can never be cutting-down-a-zombie-horde-with-two-machine-guns-attached-to-an-automatic-wheelchair cool.
Just killing zombies can become stale pretty fast, however. The Dead Rising games managed to negate this by peppering their open-world zombie playgrounds with things to do. There are survivors to rescue each with their own predicaments, deranged humans dubbed “psychopaths” that needed to be put down, and an engaging main storyline all wrapped up with a time-limit based gameplay to keep players on edge.
This is what the latest Dead Rising game lacked, and what likely led to its downfall: the survival aspect. There are no time limits in Dead Rising 4, which brought down the incentive for players to fight for survival. If the time is infinite, why bother going through the main story? Why bother trying to save all the survivors in the map? To top it all off, the return of fan-favorite Frank West was handled poorly in Dead Rising 4 with sub-par dialogue and story. It was as if the developers could not come up with an original protagonist and setting, and instead settled for a revisit to the same setting and protagonist of the first game that fans know and love.
Disappointment aside, now (or at least, in the near future) is a good time for Dead Rising to make a comeback. Internally within Capcom, it makes sense: Resident Evil has made its comeback, Monster Hunter has made its comeback, and Devil May Cry has made its comeback. Externally, there is that resurrection of the zombie games in the early 2020s pointed out earlier. A new fresh setting, the return of time-based gameplay, and a likeable protagonist with a name that ends with a ‘k’ (like Frank West, Chuck Greene, and Nick Ramos), and the new game is set.
Of course there are millions of other aspects between a good Dead Rising game and those three pillars, but they are something to start out on.
Saints Row
Last original entry — Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell (2015)
Let’s throw this one into the mix, at least until the newest game is officially announced.
The Saints Row franchise is entering a fork in the road: go grounded and (relatively) realistic like the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise and risk being wrongfully called a clone of said franchise, or go crazy and over-the-top like its last two entries and risk alienating more of its fanbase.
After all, that craziness is what sets the Saints Row franchise apart from GTA. It’s still grounded in tone, but with enough explosiveness and extravagance in its open-world to keep the players hooked on that dopamine and adrenaline rush. Not just in side missions, but also in random events that can be triggered by the player (dubbed “diversions”) and interactions with the world.
While the same statement can also be applied to the newer GTA games, know this: can you start an impromptu kidnapping scenario with the passenger whose car you have just hijacked in GTA? Or drive around in a convertible with a live tiger beside you in order to gain “courage”? Or cause property damage around town by spraying sewage on houses and public properties? These are some far out ideas that might be good for a GTA game, but unfortunately, they belong to Saints Row.
All that, and an unparalleled freedom in creating your own in-game avatar. The GTA series might be able to emulate the insanity found in the Saints Row sandbox, but that character creation? That’s going to be a tough one.
Despite all that, earlier Saints Row games never let that frantic insanity bleed into their main story, which stayed serious and sensible. Although often wrapped with Bay-esque explosive action set pieces, the story never strayed too far of its course. Loyalty, betrayal, loss, grief, vengeance, and love are some the themes explored in the Saints Row games. That’s right, even Saints Row 4 with its nonsensical blast-off-to-space storyline had some serious story beats in it.
This perfect balance the serious and the fun is what caused Saints Row to have a fanbase with an undying loyalty. They stuck with developer Volition after publisher THQ declared bankruptcy. They stuck through the largely divisive Saints Row 4. They stuck to the franchise when the next game developed by Volition is not a mainline Saints Row title, albeit set in the Saints Row universe. They stuck when said game failed commercially, which prompted Volition to restructure itself, which caused uncertainty for the franchise. They stuck when the next release in the franchise turned out to be a remaster instead of a new major game.
They have stuck with Saints Row, and will keep doing so until the franchise makes a comeback, be it in the near or far future.
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Of course, this story is subjective. Some might argue that game franchises like Twisted Metal should have made a comeback, while there are others who will argue that Medal of Honor should have made a comeback instead.
Whatever the case maybe, I believe that we can all agree that some game franchises deserve to make a comeback, the same way some deserve to be put to the ground for good. Whether gamers will get what they want remains to be seen. For now.