Ok the reason I am doing this blog is just to show that going back to the roots isnt a bad thing for certain franchises.
This is not a rant or anything that involves me trashing someone :P
As we all know gaming has changed alot from when we were kids most of grew up with a majority of our games in which the character moved from left to right and it stayed that way for years. We were blessed with great and memorable games such as Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Metroid,Megaman,Castlevania,Zelda and many others. These franchises continued to provide us with great memories and memorable level tunes and much more.
Then came the jump into 3D and these franchises that I mentioned joined in on the jump at first things got off to a good start we were blessed with Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time,Star Fox was a memorable game and on the Dreamcast we fell in love with Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 ( for a brief period). Some games continued their successful jump to 3D particularly Mario and Zelda and they have stayed that way since. However other franchises such as Sonic, Castlevania and Megaman fell apart.
With Castlevania the series had a successful title in Symphony of the Night on the Playstation however that game was 2D. The Castlevania games that were released on the N64 received mixed reaction. As for Megaman at first we were given Megaman 8 which was still 2D its an ok game but something felt missing. After that Megaman Legends hit stores which was a 3D adventure however it's sales did not meet what Capcom wanted. Capcom even experimented with Megaman x by having Megaman X7 switch between 2D and 3D gameplay however the game received negative reaction.
Sonic the Hedehog suffered a worse fate after Sonic Adventure 2 the qualitiy in the games steadily began to decline until the franchise reached rock bottom with the infamous Sonic 06 and the Sonic riders 2 which also received negative reaction. The poor hedgehog's games were filled with stupid gimmicks such as running around with a sword and even turned into a werewolf not to mentioned we were forced to play as his friends which resulted in disaster. Other franchises such as Street Fighter and Contra also tried 3D but failed.
Then however came what I call the retro revival. It started when Capcom decided to go old school. Enter Megaman 9 the game that went back to the Blue Bomber's 8-bit roots. The game received a positive reaction and spawned the sequel Megaman 10 which also received positive reaction. Capcom then decided if we can do this with one franchise we can do it with another and thats when Street fighter 4 was released and yes positive reaction and good sales.
Next thing we know Contra and Castlevania go back to their old school roots on the Nintendo DS until they both had 2D entries in the Wii. Castlevania eventually released a 3D game in Castlevania Lords of shadow which i havent played but I hear its pretty good. Before we know it Mario does the same thing and we are blessed with New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii before it was on the DS.
Suddenly Sonic does the same thing we get Sonic the Hedgehog 4 which is a good entry to the series and then Sega nails the 3D gameplay with Sonic Colors yes the game is a mixture of 2D and 3D but the 3D portions are very well done and it takes us back to the days when sonic games had silly enjoyable stories and not something I would see in Final Fantasy 34.
Also how could I forget the new Mortal Kombat which sreams old school and im sure alot of people are enjoying it.
What I am trying to say with this long novel im typing is that 2D isnt a bad thing. I understand we are in an era filled with FPS shooter number 1, Grand Theft Auto,FPS shooter number 2, God of War,FPS shooter number 3 and many more and yes those games are fun (most of them). The point though is that we can enjoy both and that there is nothing wrong with a game that plays like an old school genesis or nintendo side scroller after all we play games for the gameplay and not how they look.
Lets enjoy both I like the 3D games I play dont get me wrong Mario Galaxy is fun,God of War is good the recent Prine of Persia games i have played are fun and I even enjoy a few soot em ups particularly Mass Effect and Alien vs Predator but I will always be a 2D guy but 3D is good to dont get me wrong. :)
Log in to comment