Editorials

Published on June 14th, 2012 | by Nichomaxwell

11

The Top Ten Games You Want to Play That Will Never Be Made

What do the players want but can never have? Grand Theft Auto: Ancient Rome? Animal Crossing, Rated M? Splinter Cell Meets Metal Gear??? Super Mario Bros: All Luigi No Mario??? Let’s take a look and find out!

When games get made, games get played, and they get reviwed for recommendations. Sometimes you get AVGN material, and other times, you end up with life-changing titles like Zelda, Resident Evil and Pokemon that have gamer geeks all around the world asking for more. Imaginations run wild regarding the next title that will be made. I cannot even begin to tell you how many different versions I’d designed  on paper for the Pokemon series, exhausting every color name under the sun in building up a repretoire of ideas that would never be read (until now?) or recognized (UNTIL NOW??). But in all seriousness, the captivating storylines and innovative play of some games have led to fans spawning campaigns for the next big title in the series (see Starmen.net). I  can’t say I will represent popular opinion in putting the following games forward, but these top ten ideas epitomize what’s missing from the lives of most gamers, as well as from the video game scene altogether. The following strike me as the games we would want to see more than anything in the world, but secretly know will never see the sun. Or the moon. Let’s take a look, shall we?

10. Super Wario Bros.

 >>>Wario and Waluigi have forever been the clones walking in the shadows of their celebrity-level counterparts, Mario and Luigi. Heck, Waluigi first appeared in Mario Tennis designed purely as Luigi’s evil doppelganger! He receives a poor rap, and desperately needs a game that fleshes out his character while giving Wario a sharper contrast that makes him more of an individual as well.

Image belongs to SuperBlade from DeviantArt. Image also belongs to evidence as to HOW MUCH PEOPLE WANT THIS GAME!!!

 Wario’s cheeky nature would lend really well to comical dialogue, and right away I can see him and Waluigi tearing the fourth wall a new one. I’d imagine a side-scrolling format for these two partners in crime on the 3DS with individual abilities for both characters. Wario could bite and spin, while charging up his bite power by eating garlic, and sometimes having to ride a motrocycle in certain stages. Waluigi could either do the same as a 2-player character, or he could finally get abilities of his own. I keep thinking that Waluigi would do well with remote-controlled bombs or piloting super hi-tech car jets. That, or he could dismantle a lot of bombs and unlock doors. Perhaps the same game could feature puzzle-solving elements for the leaner Waluigi while providing a buffer playthrough with the more physically inclined Wario. As for who would be the bad guys, I leave up to the creators…or the legion of fans out there who wish they were the creators, so that this game could actually be MADE!

9. PaRappa the Rapper 3

>>> I’ve only played a demo of the original PaRappa the Rapper, but from what I gathered, it gave the fans an addictive new form of play that involved synchonizing button presses with the rhythm. Although the series never took off, the original PaRappa remains a staple amongst the classic entries in the PlayStation vault. I’d go back and play it out of sheer curiosity, but I’m certain there are those who’ve just been waiting way too long for PaRappa 3. This game could feature both the classic characters as well as new arrivals, and this sequel would be a perfect one to incorporate motion sensor play from the Xbox Kinect. This would suddenly turn into both a rhythm game and karate-style workout. This title could also feature mini games that match the style of Wario Ware. The 3DS and Kinect would both be perfect platforms for this kind of title. But there is only one problem. Sony published the games and PaRappa returns to the console as a playable character in the all-star battle royale game for the PS3. So this would have to be a Playstation game on a system that caters more to graphically inclined games than quirky success stories like the PaRappa series.

8. PAC-Man vs. Frogger

This is a Pac-Man Frog?!

>>> I don’t know how the mechanics of this game starring two of the most renowned video game characters would work, but apparently people want this crossover. Whoever could combine both titles’ simple but addictive formulas would be considered a genius by my standards. I would like to see Frogger try and jump on the -inky ghosts as they wakka-wakka’d on by, while PAC-Man tried to maneuver through traffic and eat all of the berries in the road. Because everyone knows that berries are best when they are in the middle of the road.

7. Resident Evil: Barry’s Story

Barry’s weapons are really powerful, especially against living things.

>>> Everyone who has played the original Resident Evil on the PlayStation to the end should know of Barry Burton. He starred as Jill’s helping hand, and quickly became famous for his classic off-the-wall one-liners that epitomized the “Engrish” style voice-acting in R.E.  In the third game Capcom gave us eight epilogues, one of them hinting at Barry’s increasing involvement in Chris and Jill’s anti-Umbrella organization. But aside from the non-canon Resident Evil Gaiden, Barry has yet to reappear as a pertinent character. Heck, even Sherry Birkin has returned to the action in the upcoming RE6, and people hardly liked her because she was a child versus zombies! Barry, on the other hand, promised a riveting time with his powerful side-arms, and yet he stands to this day as the only major character to NOT have a playable role in a major R.E. game!

GIVE ME MY OWN GAME YOU CORPORATE ZOMBIES!

We all know that needs to change, and the best way to appeal to fans out there (while perhaps bringing back the classic Resident Evil formula that involves more puzzle-solving) means giving Barry his own side game. As a weapons expert, Barry could mix gunpowder and collect weapon upgrades and custom-tailor them into his own master creations, with perhaps the player being able to name his or her weapons and post them online. Perhaps this game could feature online play with the cutomizable weapons system playing a major role in the online combat system. The only problem facing Barry is his in-game strength. He starts off with the most powerful weapon in R.E. outside of the Rocket Launcher: the .357 Magnum. To disarm Barry of the .357 would mean starting off the game with a scenario where he gets captured and loses all of his weapons, yet that has been done before with Claire Redfield in Code: Veronica. Perhaps you could start Barry off with the .357, but he only has 6 shots and no remaining ammunition. Perhaps that would lead to Barry having to find and make new weapons in order to survive. And perhaps the game could include melee movements while keeping the traditional R.E. format and reintroducing the horrifying camera angles.

6. Disney vs. Capcom

>>> This idea makes legitimate sense for many reasons. For one, Capcom had success with Marvel vs. Capcom and garnered moderate numbers from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Also, I’m sure that few people today know of the wholesome partnernship in which Capcom created games based off of Disney movies and TV shows. These games include Duck Tales, Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and DarkWing Duck. Therefore, it’d make sense for Capcom to make a brawler that pitted Capcom’s best against the legends of the Disney world(s). Capcom could throw Spencer, X, Dr. Wily, Jill, Wesker, Dante, Chun Li, Ryu, M.Bison, and creatures from the famous Monster Hunter series up against the likes of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aladdin, The Beast, Peter Pan, Mulan, Hercules, Dark Wing, and Kim Possible. There’d be so many characters to pull from with a variety of abilities to incorporate and a zany atmosphere that could tone down the violence like HAL’s Laboratory did with theSmash Bros.series.

5. Calvin and Hobbes: The Video Game

THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE IT HURTS!

>>> One of America’s most famous comic compilations never expanded beyond the panels. Perhaps Calvin and Hobbes was famous because it never cashed out, and it remained organic in its emphasis on making the author’s points through the panels. But Bill Watterson, the genius behind the boy with the most overactive imagination ever seen and his stuffed tiger, refused to let his creation run away from him in the hands of other artists and on the sides of coffee mugs, and so today we are without a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, live-action movie, and an epic selection of video games to choose from. Given the action-oriented nature of Calvin’s fantasies, Watterson’s series works EXTREMELY well as virtual source material, and its graphic simplicity combined with fast movement panel-after-panel would have done wonders on the old-school systems like the SNES and the Sega Genesis. Between chowing down on Triceratops, outrunning aliens as Space-Man Spiff, piloting fighter jets, evading the school bully and a hopping Hobbes, surviving wagon rides and mosquito-infested vacations, and making life miserable for Rosalyn, game developers would not be ALLOWED to run out of ideas! Execution would be up to the developers, but as far as content goes, they’d be more than covered. But as long as Watterson lives, he will retain his right to refuse the merchandising of his beloved creation.

4. Grand Theft Auto in the Bible Belt

>>>We’ve seen city takeovers by the Mafia. We’ve followed our mishievous sword-wielding warrior through medieval-style villages and castles, pillaging and plundering without overwhelming penalties. We’ve experienced the wild, wild west through Red Dead Redemption. But we’ve yet to take on a free-for-all that places the new Tommy Vercetti knockoff in the most stereotyped region of all: the “country.”

Bible Belt, yo!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d want to see your GTA-style character end up in a series of small towns where the countryfolk blast Blake Shelton from their Chevy pick-ups and show off horses for fun. Your character could shuffle through churches and storm honky-tonks, while discovering Easter Eggs like Sasquatch in the backwoods behind a haunted lake. Wildlife and exploration could play a major role in the setup of this Southern-style game. Imagine a Bayou-like location where you have to navigate your motorboat through a gator-infested swampland. Small town setups could also lessen the number of NPCs while making them more important to the course of the story. Or, you can end up killing everyone in the town and thus trigger some alien invasion or zombie takeover. These are weird theories, but interesting to work with in the small town settings. The reason this game will never be made manifests itself in the church’s staunch opposition to the GTA-style games. If you think the Church hates that style of game now, imagine how hot the blood would boil if a GTA game had a character blazing his machineguns through chapels or towns stockpiled with Conservatives, religion’s favorite kind of man.

3. Pokemon Snap 2

>>>We can all agree that Pokemon Snap surprised players with its severely addictive but nonviolent game play. This game along with Stadium on the N64 showcased Game Freak’s strengths in pumping out stellar spin-offs of the main series on the handheld systems. Pokemon Snap also gave the player one of the highest degrees of interaction with the pokemon world in terms of perspective and proximity. Snap allowed you to view the world of pokemon from your own eyes, but left much to be desired in the exploration aspect. Pokemon Snap 2 would feature pokemon from the newer generations, and could open up a larger world where you, the player, peruse shops, buy items, discover new lands, and capture pokemon to have them pose in roer for you to meet the requirements of certain challenges. The first-person perspective would be retained, and you’d have the abiity to buy new cameras and change the lenses in order to zoom in your shot on your out-of-reach locations or complete a photo-shoot in black and white. This wouldn’t just continue on what could turn into yet another revenue-generating stream for the Pokemon series, but it could possibly give us one of the best games we could ever fathom in both its accessibility for all ages and the potential world it’d allow you to explore. Did I also mention this would work extremely well with an online feature that allowed you to interact with other players and explore the world and tackle missions together???

2. Final Fantasy VII-2

>>>This is just a given. The ending of Final Fantasy VII ended on a flashy but ambiguous note, with the developers teasing us with the ending scene of Aeris “waking up,” when really she was just realizing her place in the lifestream.

 But a sequel to the classic RPG epic could answer so many questions that countless fanfic after fanfic has explored and exhausted. What is the future of Shinra? Where did Jenova come from? Where do the Advent Children come from? CAN Cloud and the gang revive Aeris? Also, what would be the genre of this much-desired sequel? Perhaps this would follow the route of FFXIII and allow you to fight in real-time as one of the members in your party? Or would it return to its original version’s turn-based roots and feature a more in-depth battle system that perhaps allowed your characters to transform into higher beings, switch out with summons, and change their classes? What would it be like to explore THE WHOLE WORLD AGAIN after the effects of Holy and the LifeStream work The Planet over? What new characters could come into play? What new modes of transportation would you have access to? Could you return to the Golden Saucer with cooler minigames and a full-fledged Chocobo racing series??? Could you combine weapons into stronger forms but with slower recovery rates like Cloud did in the AC movie??? These are the questions that speculation makes us ask, and the only way we could be satisfied is with a game of FFVII’s caliber. That may just be too expansive, especially with the modern-day desire for jaw-dropping graphics and the nightmares that the game lengths of VII  and VIII must have given creators…

And now, for possibly the most desired game that will never be made:

1. Super Mario 4

>>> There is absolutely no reason in the world why this game should ever be made given the success of the Mario franchise, and yet there’s every reason in the world why this game MUST be made! Why not continue with the classic series and return to the franchise’s roots with the bare-bones adventures of Mario and Luigi as they journey across strange lands to save Princess Daisy (with Princess Peach and Yoshi helping our heroes along the way, of course) from the clutches of the comically evil Bowser? We’ve seen enough remakes of the original to last us an eon!

PLAY AS BOWSER?!

 Yes, yes, I know that there is a Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan (which became Super Mario World for us), but take us back to the side-scrolling format, give us the classic with a fresh flavor of new and exciting! Give us four-player mode where Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad team up to conquer Koopa Troopas and bring down the castle flag! Give us more stages with insane variety and different styles that incorporate multiple genres, including racing, sports, exploration, and brawling! Give us secret, unlockable levels with hidden villains and unbelievable powerups! How about a Blue Shell Launcher that killed enemies instantly?! Give us stats differences in the characters you can choose from! Make Bowser a playable character while allowing the player to eventually face Drybones Bowser! Heck, give us new villains! Give us Wario and Waluigi and enhance their rivalry with the Mario Bros.! Give us new environments that have our heroes bypassing busy city streets, deep space, treacherous mountains (vertical climbing???), and spooky mansions! Give us one of the funniest but most involving games of our time that keeps an ageless concept going, and pushes the importance of compelling game play back to the forefront. What better game to return flavor to an increasingly stale industry than an entry from one of video game’s most celebrated series of all times? The remake of Mario Bros. may have been something of a gimmick, if not a good gimmick, but the effect of a fourth Mario Bros could reverberate throughout the gaming world for decades and serve as a reminder as to the importance of game play in creating a masterful title.

 ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

***Feel free to bring up the games you’d like to see made in the comment selection below!***

Tags: calvin and hobbes the video game, disney vs capcom, final fantasy VII-2, grand theft auto bible belt, pac-man vs frogger, parappa the rapper 3, pokemon snap 3, resident evil barry, super mario bros 4, super wario bros, video games

About the Author

Nichomaxwell Nichomaxwell is a reporter for the Northern Neck News in Warsaw, Virginia. When he's not writing newspaper articles, he's driving around in his unreliable SUV to see people or playing a new or old videogame. Although once the "review machine" on the site, NM has shifted his interests to feature stories, "did-you-know's" and editorials for TG.TV.

Related Posts

Games That I Suck At – Bomberman 64 →

13 hours and counting, what the new Xbox may (or may not) bring to the table →

New adventures await, Pokemon X and Y →

An Epic goodbye to Cliffy B →