Sorry TC, your wrong on this one IMO. Maybe the games for those genre's haven't been as exciting for you this gen, but so far this gen has rocked hard.
Before I even get into some games that I feel prove you wrong, I want to address a key substantial difference between this gen and last gen; online play. Online communities for online games are new to this gen and it is nice to see some of our old favorite genre's come out with full online support. Our consoles now support the features which allow us to talk to each other, compare the games we play with one another, send each other messages while playing, create virtual living spaces and interact with other like minded gamers. Before that games were all mostly single player affairs. Now, things like MP and Co-op aren't only expected, they are standard and are huge negative factors if left out. These were features PC gamers were enjoying for a decade and this gen brought it to the table for our living rooms, personally I wouldn't have it any other way.
Now let's talk about some of the genre's you mentioned which are lacking, starting with fighters. Are you telling me that last gen fighters were good? What did you only play melee for 4 years? Last gen's greatest fighters were MvC2, SC2(3 was garbage),Tekken 5(4 was garbage),and street fighter 3. For some people the Guilty Gear franchise also applies so you could throw that in there too. We had some duds too, Capcom Fighting All-Stars and that terrible MS made Xbox exclusive, the one with real time bone breaking. This gen we've had VF5, SC4,Tekken 5 DR, DoA4 (if its your thing), MKvsDCU,SSF2THDR, and the biggest one probably is SF4. Make no mistake, the casuals hype around SFIV, along with amazing reviews and the praise this game is garnering in the fighting game circuit is already ensuring that this game will not only be a pheonominal success come Feb.17, but that it may save the image and reputation of the fighting game genre. No fighting game that came out last gen came close to even getting that praise, let alone living up to it.
Platformers, we definitly have had less this gen than previous ones, that is unquestionnable. However, what we have received was really different by comparison. So far we have gotten SMG, R&CF tools of destruction & quest for booty, Banjo Nuts & Bolts, Kameo, New Super Mario Bros., Braid, LittleBigPlanet, and Mirror's Edge (which i'll also throw into action adventure). The truth is that with the exception of Banjo and Mario, all these games moved away from the collectathon stigma that ran rampant in Platformers. Last gen didn't change it from SM64, and technically the genre hasn't been as big or expansive as when that game came out.We will see platformers springing up in the future, it is a great genre. And i'm loving the fact that the industry is moving away from the old collectathon's that we used to get in our platformers. PS2 alone must've had 2 come out ever 3 months.I won't even get into how awesome LBP is, both conceptually and gameplay wise.
JRPG's.I'm not surprised by what is happening to this genre and i'm actually glad it is. It is a kick in the balls to the developers and writers out there in this field. We have been getting rehashed stuff for multiple genre's, nothing has really changed in the storytelling or combat system for this genre. It never pushed itself to the edge or changed according to what this generation's console could offer the game itself outside of a platform in which to be played on. Best JRPG so far this gen? Persona 3, and it is a PS2 game! Just goes to show ya they aren't taking advantage of any of the capabilities of this next-gen consoles. There have been some okay ones (Lost Odyssey and Valkriya Chronicles) but all the other ones just fall into the same story and character cliches this genre was built on. Spikey haired or overly emotional main character with a big sword? Awesome, throw a turn based combat system, a forced love story, and a save the world sceanario and you have yourselves a hit.
By comparison, what took the place for RPG's over J is the awesome WRPG, something that was usually only churning out overly complex PC RPG games (Baldur's Gate, NWN). We have gotten some awesome WRPG's this gen, I don't even gotta list 'em they already come to mind when the genre acronym is mentioned. These are all games that take advantage of what our new systems can do, and they also offer us awesome forms of storytelling with thought-provoking exposition.
Action/Adventure, i'll sorta give it to ya here. Although Gears, Uncharted, GTA4,Saints Row 1&2, Merc 2, Dark Sector, Dead Space, Condemned 1&2, Zack & Wiki, No More Heroes would probably disagree with both of us. There is more to it than just those titles too.
In the end, the games that represent some of our favorite genres have changed. That is an okay thing though, this is an ever-evolving entertainment form and embracing the new and celebrating the old is the only way we will ever enjoy it. My advice to you TC is this. If you honestly preferred everything that last gen offered you, than just to back to playing last gen consoles. Obviously the plethora of options some of your favorite genre's are no longer satisfying you. Trust me, your old gen consoles work just fine and i'm sure they'd love to get some play time.
Log in to comment