How would you reboot an existing franchise into a new genre?

[Eternal]

A lot of classic games are in the process of taking the hollywood road of "remake but for a target audience" and obviously this upsets fans of the franchises original roots.

So I pose a question for you, what franchise or individual game would you reboot, and how would you do it? The only requirement is: you can't reboot the game in its native genre. You can do hybrids such as turning an pure fps into an FPS/Rpg hybrid monstrosity but you can't simply "improve the graphics add new gameplay elements and ship" as many of us would actually WANT of some of these existing franchises.

I could envision Psychonauts as a turn based RPG a-kin to Final Fantasy. 3 person party system with psychic powers instead of magic. Maybe with a platforming overworld type of thing like they have in Mario RPG. I actually could see that working and being somewhat fun.

 

[Surf Solar]

Re: How would you reboot an existing franchise into a new ge

The only requirement is: you can't reboot the game in its native genre.

I wouldn't bother then.

 

[SharkClub]

How would you reboot an existing franchise into a new genre?

You wouldn't. At least, I wouldn't.

I don't see why anyone should touch franchises and change their genres, it's getting tiring seeing it happen to everything nowadays. Why don't developers make new settings anymore?

 

[Brother None]

Yeah, not sure if I like the exercise either, Eternal. If you want to reboot a franchise, do it in its own genre or don't both at all.

Hollywood subsists on only reboots nowadays but even they're not rebooting Once Upon a Time in America as a romantic comedy or Citizen Kane as an action caper. Why doesn't this basic logic apply to videogaming as well?

 

[Walpknut]

Hollywood subsists on only reboots nowadays but even they're not rebooting Once Upon a Time in America as a romantic comedy or Citizen Kane as an action caper. Why doesn't this basic logic apply to videogaming as well?

The Day The Earth Stood Still? with Keanu Reeves and multiple scenes of the giant robot destroying jets and causing lots of explosions?
The problem is that it seems the concept of entertainment is getting narrower in the minds of developers, they tend to think that unless is an action fest full of explosion and that people nowadays cannot enjoy calmer more indepth endeavors, wich is completely false,just looks at the ENORMOUS fandom the Ace Attorney Games have, and the equally gigantic fandom Professor Layton has, two modern visual adventures that sell millions to the point of making a crossover between the two a very lucrative exercise. and I am just rambling, When reviving an old franchise you shouldn't make it into a different genre but instead expand on what it did or attempted to do.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

The Day The Earth Stood Still? with Keanu Reeves and multiple scenes of the giant robot destroying jets and causing lots of explosions?

Aand, how well did that movie do? Yeah, exactly.

Still, what's the point of rebooting an old game - especially an established classic with its own fandom - as a completely different game? Just make a different game or a spin-off series. Don't pretend you're still making the same game, and don't ruin a great series by making what should've been a crappy spinoff, a core part of the series.

Besides, just like the above-mentioned movie, out-of-genre reboots don't usually do very well.

 

[Eternal]

Besides, just like the above-mentioned movie, out-of-genre reboots don't usually do very well.

Regardless of their QUALITY they actually often do very well or at least well enough to justify their creation in the eyes of the investors.

How about when Prince of Persia went from a slow paced "avoid the traps" style exploration/platforming game to an action based 3rd person 3D platformer?

Mario 64?

Fallout 3?

Ninja Gaiden?

Metroid Prime?

Castlevania SOTN?

Duke Nukem 3D

Some of these titles had fairly logical leaps, some where fairly huge changes. But regardless of if it was a good idea or not, they all sold extremely well. Shadowrun didn't exactly do terrible, didn't sell like crazy either.

Just because it is a bad idea doesn't mean it wont sell.

Either way this was more of a "for fun/challenge" mental game. But obviously no one here is interested in hypothetical fun or mental stimulation.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Not a reboot, at no point a reboot, but I always considered Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as a rich enough background setting for the use such as spin offs.

I myself had one in mind that was a little Deus Ex like as in the player having to build up skills while undertaking missions.
The player would be a Peacekeeper special agent who is send to investigate a dig operation started by the University of Planet.

The University has made a unique find and Morgan Industries is interested in taking this discovery and exploit it for commercial purposes.

The player would also run into the Spartan Federation and perhaps some of the other factions.

Weapons would be stuff like shredder pistols, flame guns, sonic hammers, psi modules, and very rarely the atomic mortar. (got all these weapons from the story made up for Alpha Centauri and the game)

Opponents would range from security/military of the various factions to Planet's indigenous life such as the deadly Mindworms for which flame guns are a must.

 

[Sabirah]

Not a reboot, at no point a reboot, but I always considered Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as a rich enough background setting for the use such as spin offs.

I myself had one in mind that was a little Deus Ex like as in the player having to build up skills while undertaking missions.
The player would be a Peacekeeper special agent who is send to investigate a dig operation started by the University of Planet.

The University has made a unique find and Morgan Industries is interested in taking this discovery and exploit it for commercial purposes.

The player would also run into the Spartan Federation and perhaps some of the other factions.

Weapons would be stuff like shredder pistols, flame guns, sonic hammers, psi modules, and very rarely the atomic mortar. (got all these weapons from the story made up for Alpha Centauri and the game)

Opponents would range from security/military of the various factions to Planet's indigenous life such as the deadly Mindworms for which flame guns are a must.

The only problem with Alpha Centauri is how it was Hard Science through and through until towards the end where people become telepathic.

Overall though yeah that game's setting and philosophy is really deep, that's why It's my second favorite game ever and would make it really easy to make new games in the same setting

 

[shihonage]

Games are most often a combination of narrative and gameplay mechanics, and in 99% cases, the narrative is supplementary, and gameplay mechanics are the CORE. As result, the game becomes famous mostly because of its gameplay mechanics. Y'know, because "gameplay" has "game" and "play" in it. Because that's what you do with games. You play them.

There's something inherently perverse about changing a game's genre. It means that the CORE of what made the game fun, famous, etc, is willfully discarded. What's left is this pale narrative background that used to hold the original game together. In other words, pretty much NOTHING.

You build on that NOTHING, and your project is just like any other project that's started from scratch. It may succeed on its own merits, but not because it has anything in common with the game whose name it has stolen.

I.E. let's make Diablo into an FPS!

Okay. Now you got an FPS with a moody town, a guitar soundtrack, and there's a dungeon of monsters underneath where scary music plays. Congratulations, you're playing FPS# 10932. It certainly wasn't the plot that made Diablo special. It just held the gameplay mechanics together.

 

[Eternal]

Not a reboot, at no point a reboot, but I always considered Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as a rich enough background setting for the use such as spin offs.

I myself had one in mind that was a little Deus Ex like as in the player having to build up skills while undertaking missions.
The player would be a Peacekeeper special agent who is send to investigate a dig operation started by the University of Planet.

The University has made a unique find and Morgan Industries is interested in taking this discovery and exploit it for commercial purposes.

The player would also run into the Spartan Federation and perhaps some of the other factions.

Weapons would be stuff like shredder pistols, flame guns, sonic hammers, psi modules, and very rarely the atomic mortar. (got all these weapons from the story made up for Alpha Centauri and the game)

Opponents would range from security/military of the various factions to Planet's indigenous life such as the deadly Mindworms for which flame guns are a must.

This actually makes me think that Deus Ex would be interesting as a sort of X-Com style action point based tactical game.

 

[Surf Solar]

Games are most often a combination of narrative and gameplay mechanics, and in 99% cases, the narrative is supplementary, and gameplay mechanics are the CORE. As result, the game becomes famous mostly because of its gameplay mechanics. Y'know, because "gameplay" has "game" and "play" in it. Because that's what you do with games. You play them.

There's something inherently perverse about changing a game's genre. It means that the CORE of what made the game fun, famous, etc, is willfully discarded. What's left is this pale narrative background that used to hold the original game together. In other words, pretty much NOTHING.

You build on that NOTHING, and your project is just like any other project that's started from scratch. It may succeed on its own merits, but not because it has anything in common with the game whose name it has stolen.

I.E. let's make Diablo into an FPS!

Okay. Now you got an FPS with a moody town, a guitar soundtrack, and there's a dungeon of monsters underneath where scary music plays. Congratulations, you're playing FPS# 10932. It certainly wasn't the plot that made Diablo special. It just held the gameplay mechanics together.

You pretty much nailed it. So true!

 

[Ausdoerrt]

Regardless of their QUALITY they actually often do very well or at least well enough to justify their creation in the eyes of the investors.

And I'm sure The Day the Earth Stood Still still made a plenty of money. But it SUCKED. And that's what the thread is about (if/how you can make a good reboot), not whether shit sandwiches sell well.

How about when Prince of Persia went from a slow paced "avoid the traps" style exploration/platforming game to an action based 3rd person 3D platformer?

Well, they kept some of the mechanics intact. And in case you didn't notice, the latest games are back to platforming. Probably for a reason. AND, I'm not even sure that slasher trilogy can be considered a direct sequel or not. In any case, it was hardly GREAT.

EDIT: I can actually think of an example of a good reboot. It's when a series that has had a bad reboot goes back to its roots. Good example: Worms Reloaded.

 

[Walpknut]

The Day The Earth Stood Still? with Keanu Reeves and multiple scenes of the giant robot destroying jets and causing lots of explosions?

Aand, how well did that movie do? Yeah, exactly.

*GASP* wow, I didn't think about it and I didn't mention it just as a joek example of it actualy happening, you are so insightful friend.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

*GASP* wow, I didn't think about it and I didn't mention it just as a joek example of it actualy happening, you are so insightful friend.

Newsflash: sarcasm doesn't work on the Internet.

 

[Eternal]

How about when Prince of Persia went from a slow paced "avoid the traps" style exploration/platforming game to an action based 3rd person 3D platformer?

Well, they kept some of the mechanics intact. And in case you didn't notice, the latest games are back to platforming. Probably for a reason. AND, I'm not even sure that slasher trilogy can be considered a direct sequel or not. In any case, it was hardly GREAT.

Actually they aren't. Forgotten Sands is more of a return to The Sands of Time style. And Prince of Persia 2008 was a complete departure from either the classic style PoP or Sands of Time. It had fast paced impossible acrobatics with absolutely no reprecutions for failure and none of the combat or time manipulation from SoT. The original PoP was very slow paced and often running could lead you into a spike trap or falling to your death. You could do some acrobatic stuff but ultimately you were pretty frail and couldn't fall very far without getting hurt/dying.

 

[Jebus]

Games are most often a combination of narrative and gameplay mechanics, and in 99% cases, the narrative is supplementary, and gameplay mechanics are the CORE. As result, the game becomes famous mostly because of its gameplay mechanics. Y'know, because "gameplay" has "game" and "play" in it. Because that's what you do with games. You play them.

There's something inherently perverse about changing a game's genre. It means that the CORE of what made the game fun, famous, etc, is willfully discarded. What's left is this pale narrative background that used to hold the original game together. In other words, pretty much NOTHING.

You build on that NOTHING, and your project is just like any other project that's started from scratch. It may succeed on its own merits, but not because it has anything in common with the game whose name it has stolen.

I.E. let's make Diablo into an FPS!

Okay. Now you got an FPS with a moody town, a guitar soundtrack, and there's a dungeon of monsters underneath where scary music plays. Congratulations, you're playing FPS# 10932. It certainly wasn't the plot that made Diablo special. It just held the gameplay mechanics together.

Agreed. This is kinda like what they're doing to Jagged Alliance 2: they are currently remaking it (not reloading, actually remaking JA2) not with turn-based, but RTwP. How oblivious would one have to be to remake a game that was centred *completely* on the fact that it was turn-based tactical combat? Taking out the turn-based makes it a very, very bland Company-of-Heroes-esque game... It's so depressing.

 

[UnidentifiedFlyingTard]

I wouldn't say a remake, but I wouldn't mind a a full blown S.T.A.L.K.E.R. RPG.

 

[Hassknecht]

I wouldn't say a remake, but I wouldn't mind a a full blown S.T.A.L.K.E.R. RPG.

Yeah, that would be kinda nice.
Also, a Metro 2033 point&click adventure following the book more closely.

 

[PlanHex]

Re: How would you reboot an existing franchise into a new ge

So I pose a question for you, what franchise or individual game would you reboot, and how would you do it?

I think I'd reboot Fallout: New Vegas as an isometric turn-based RPG.