Franchises that should have never continued

[the7k]

Ha ha, I actually would have agreed with the Dynasty Warriors comments a few years ago.

However, with Dynasty Warriors Online (http://www.destructoid.com/dynasty-warr ... 6815.phtml - 24-Player Online? Holy Smokes), Hokuto No Ken (C'mon - it's Kenshiro, baby! I hope they do a Dynasty Warriors: Berserk next) and Strikeforce (It's like they're trying to compete with Sengoku Basara - which is great, because I prefer Sengoku Basara leaps and bounds over plain old Dynasty Warriors), it looks like they are finally taking some chances with the franchise.

[Limewater]

I appreciate your sarcasm. There were "fighting" games before Street Fighter II like Street Smart and Pit-Fighter. But they were actually considered to be scrolling "brawlers" or "beat-em ups"

...Except for all the ones that were one-on-one fighters...

They didn't require any real methodical technique.

...Except for the ones that did.

E.G. Yie Ar Kung Fu

[arion]

Pac-Man should have stopped at Ms-Pac Man. All those 3d remakes and some of those awkward attempts at fleshing out the pac man universe have never ever done the original justice.

http://www.pacmanworld2.com/home.htm - Just everything thats wrong with a Pac-Man sequel

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As for what games are clones well it's simple. A game is not a clone for using the same style or gameplay.

As long as the game feels different and adds something new then it's not a clone.

Mortal Kombat is not a clone of Street Fighter 2. Mortal Kombat did add something new to the genre blood and fatalites.

*Edit Duke came first but the point is the same*
Quake is not a clone of Duke Nukem 3d because both games feel very different to play. Duke kills enemies with one liners and goes to strip joints. Quake hangs out in slipgate complexes and shoots grunts and undead's. They are both shooters but the comparison ends there.

If we take this further Warcraft was just a clone of Dune 2 right. Yet Warcraft spawned it's own sequels and eventual online crapfest. Sure Blizzard took the idea from dune 2 but they took it in another direction. Hence not a clone.

But if using a similar style makes a game a clone then every 3rd person game is a clone of Tomb Raider. Every 3d shooter is a Wolfenstein/Doom clone. Every platformer is a Pitfall clone. Yeah Super Mario Bros is a fucking clone of Pitfall

Edit: I noticed after writing this that some of my points have already been made but i assure you this post is not a clone of another one.

[Gnashvar]

Sonic the Hedgehog. Enough said? Yea i thought so........

Thats one I had in mind.

Let's keep that to 3D Sonic.

[MrPopo]

Duke Nukem 3d is not a clone of quake because both games feel very different to play. Duke kills enemies with one liners and goes to strip joints. Quake hangs out in slipgate complexes and shoots grunts and undead's. They are both shooters but the comparison ends there.

RARRRGHH!

DUKE CAME OUT FIRST!
DUKE CAME OUT FIRST!
DUKE CAME OUT FIRST!

[Hobie-wan]

Duke Nukem 3d is not a clone of quake because both games feel very different to play. Duke kills enemies with one liners and goes to strip joints. Quake hangs out in slipgate complexes and shoots grunts and undead's. They are both shooters but the comparison ends there.

RARRRGHH!

DUKE CAME OUT FIRST!
DUKE CAME OUT FIRST!
DUKE CAME OUT FIRST!

I think the reason people think of Quake first is that it was the first fully 3d FPS so it jumps to mind before Duke since they came out close together. (Descent still used sprites for powerups and hostages)

[fastbilly1]

If we take this further Warcraft was just a clone of Dune 2 right. Yet Warcraft spawned it's own sequels and eventual online crapfest. Sure Blizzard took the idea from dune 2 but they took it in another direction. Hence not a clone.

Funny note on Warcraft. Apparently Games Workshop was working with Blizzard to make a Warhammer RTS but pulled out. Blizzard just renamed it and kept going.

As for the whole FPS topic:
Midimaze (known to many as Faceball) was not the first but made many of the established parameters that FPS games are measured in. It was the forerunner to Wolf3d which as we all know pretty much established the genre to gamers. To my knowledge there were six titles that we would consider FPSs before Midimaze:
- Maze War
- Spasim - though it is more of a flightsim
- 3-demon - which is alot like a first person version of Pacman
- Aliens the Computer Game - I have not played
- Driller - which is the first 6dof title - and actually quite a good fps/puzzle hybrid
- Dungeon Master - first 3d mouse driven first person title. Not quite a FPS but definitely set the standard for games going forward.

All of this five years before Wolf3d (Midimaze was released in 87). We can all just through out blanket statements, but most of us are adults and we shouldnt act like that. Each genre has several branching paths. FPS, for example, expanded early into First Person RPGs (System Shock), Twitch (Quake), Story driven (Marathon), 6dof (Descent) and Manic (Doom). While there were many games released that were Street Fighter or Doom clones, they are not the majority (it is alittle more apparent in fighters though). So before we start throwing out that games are clones of eachother, lets research the topics a bit ok?

[Erik_Twice]

Pac-Man should have stopped at Ms-Pac Man. All those 3d remakes and some of those awkward attempts at fleshing out the pac man universe have never ever done the original justice.

So you don't know how Ms Pac Man came to be, do you? Ms Pac Man was a hack. Capcom didn't make it. In fact Midway made lots of unofficial sequels to it, perhaps that's why it seems tehre are way too many Pac Man games.

There was a yearly release of Pac Man until 1984 (Makes sense to me). Given the arcade crash there was no new Pac Man title until 1987. Arcade wise that's all. There are some re-releases out there and Pac Man Virtual Reality (Cool!) but nothing more.

Now recently and on consoles there have been some crappy plataformers starring Pac Man, those are the ones you seem to be talking about.

[Hobie-wan]

FPS, for example, expanded early into First Person RPGs (System Shock)

Well, if you think about it, Wizardry and Bard's Tale were FP RPGs as well. You didn't see the monsters until you were in combat, but you were moving around in first person in the town or maze.

[Hobie-wan]

So you don't know how Ms Pac Man came to be, do you? Ms Pac Man was a hack. Capcom didn't make it.

Namco sir Namco!