This Destructoid article that just appeared in my feed is interesting - not just because it is a somewhat-well-written article by Jonathan Holmes (which is rarer than gold), but also because it is an interesting topic for discussion with current relevance.
As we all know, SEGA recently moved forward in its quest to Make Sonic Great Again by cutting itself entirely out of the design process - and it went pretty damn well. The game was lovingly crafted by fan creators with a serious passion for and understanding of the series, people heaped praises on it for bringing back the classic tight Sonic gameplay of yore, and SEGA made some good money and a lot of good PR for pretty cheap (only paying for a handful of devs and some old-school 2D graphics). Everybody won.
With such a simple but brilliant idea proving such a resounding success, the question becomes: who should try this next? What series could use a cheap refresh in the hands of someone else? What long-dead franchise should be revived by a fan? We have certainly seen some variations of this in the recent past. MercuryStream is currently working on an enhanced remake of Metroid II that only came to be from their love of the series and direct request to Nintendo. The Serious Sam devs made their IP freely available to indies for a time (albeit with mixed results). Super Mario Maker even took this concept one step further by essentially having players make the game themselves - and, to its credit, I had far more fun with 2D Mario again than I ever thought I would.
So, what would you like to see? Here's my wish:
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Yo, Konami. I know you're here. I see you've been toying with the idea of actually making games again recently. You wanna do one better, and collect the money on a game without actually making it? Assemble a team of fans/third-party devs to make a new Metroidvania-style game in the Castlevania series. You can even reuse the sprites from the PS1/GBA games, I don't care. If it's good I will pay $20 for that easily.
That, or have Ninty just give F-Zero to the FAST Racing devs.
As we all know, SEGA recently moved forward in its quest to Make Sonic Great Again by cutting itself entirely out of the design process - and it went pretty damn well. The game was lovingly crafted by fan creators with a serious passion for and understanding of the series, people heaped praises on it for bringing back the classic tight Sonic gameplay of yore, and SEGA made some good money and a lot of good PR for pretty cheap (only paying for a handful of devs and some old-school 2D graphics). Everybody won.
With such a simple but brilliant idea proving such a resounding success, the question becomes: who should try this next? What series could use a cheap refresh in the hands of someone else? What long-dead franchise should be revived by a fan? We have certainly seen some variations of this in the recent past. MercuryStream is currently working on an enhanced remake of Metroid II that only came to be from their love of the series and direct request to Nintendo. The Serious Sam devs made their IP freely available to indies for a time (albeit with mixed results). Super Mario Maker even took this concept one step further by essentially having players make the game themselves - and, to its credit, I had far more fun with 2D Mario again than I ever thought I would.
So, what would you like to see? Here's my wish:
Yo, Konami. I know you're here. I see you've been toying with the idea of actually making games again recently. You wanna do one better, and collect the money on a game without actually making it? Assemble a team of fans/third-party devs to make a new Metroidvania-style game in the Castlevania series. You can even reuse the sprites from the PS1/GBA games, I don't care. If it's good I will pay $20 for that easily.
That, or have Ninty just give F-Zero to the FAST Racing devs.
