Whatever Happened To...?

[matmico399]

The strike game on several platforms. Jungle, Desert, Urban and Soviet on the Genesis and PS1. I always had a lot of fun with those games.

[Matchstick]

Command and Conquer did have a new game several years back, though it had a more co-op design than single-player design; it DID have J.K. Simmons, George Takei and Tim Curry being AWESOME, though...

...!

Well, I know what I'm doing with my upcoming weekend

[BanjoPickles]

Two big ones immediately spring to mind:

1). Viewtiful Joe: this is a franchises that didn't deserve a new entry every year, but it didn't deserve to be completely killed off. I always had a blast with it, and I feel that it is beyond worthy of a comeback.

2). Fight Night. I know that EA is garbage, and that they make terrible decisions, but this franchise was pure gold and they just killed it! Sadly, I would be shocked if it doesn't go the way of countless other EA franchises that have been unceremoniously killed off and buried (Boom Blox, Road Rash).

[txsizzler]

One word: Bubsy

[MSR1701]

One word: Bubsy

There was a new Bubsy game on the Switch recently, though if I recall it was of the "running" game style (like Bit Trip Runners). It kept the puns, though...

[Robotrek]

For some reason I expected this to be a thread about old members who don't come around anymore. AlienBlue, Vexer/Darkrage, etc..

[lynchie137]

The Magic of Scheherazade. I've referenced this game a bunch of times on this site on various threads in the past. So I figured I'd mention it here haha. But anyway, I do remember reading a one line blurb in a videogame magazine way back when (most likely Game Players or something like that) that mentioned that there was a sequel in the works for the NES. But sadly, I don't think it was ever released. Which as far as I'm concerned, is a real shame, as I think this game is an underrated gem and would be nice to see how it would translate on a modern day console...

[Matchstick]

You know, the more I think about this, the more I want to lump nearly every classic Nintendo franchise into this topic - F-Zero, Metroid, Star Fox, etc. Sure, there's been newer-ish releases in those series, but here's the caveat - none of them were actually made by Nintendo.

The last console F-Zero (GX) was made by Sega, nearly 20 years ago. The last few Star Fox titles (Adventures, Assault, Zero) were made by Rare, Namco, and Platinum Games. Even the most recent Metroid titles (Prime series, Other M, and now Dread) were made by Retro Studios, Tecmo, and Mercury Steam.

On the flip side, Nintendo is quite sure to only let themselves handle major new releases in the Mario and Zelda franchises. There's been spinoffs handled by different companies (Mario & Rabbids by Ubisoft, Hyrule Warriors by Tecmo) but they're still keen to devote their own resources to regular Zelda and Mario games.

Meanwhile, other games in their major franchises only see new releases if a third-party is willing to put in the work. I get that they aren't the money makers of Mario or the Big Z, but still, it's disappointing that they seem to have so little interest in continuing many of their own franchises, themselves. Heck, even the last few Donkey Kong games were made by an outside company.

Whatever happened to Nintendo developing their own games??

[MSR1701]

You know, the more I think about this, the more I want to lump nearly every classic Nintendo franchise into this topic - F-Zero, Metroid, Star Fox, etc. Sure, there's been newer-ish releases in those series, but here's the caveat - none of them were actually made by Nintendo.

The last console F-Zero (GX) was made by Sega, nearly 20 years ago. The last few Star Fox titles (Adventures, Assault, Zero) were made by Rare, Namco, and Platinum Games. Even the most recent Metroid titles (Prime series, Other M, and now Dread) were made by Retro Studios, Tecmo, and Mercury Steam.

On the flip side, Nintendo is quite sure to only let themselves handle major new releases in the Mario and Zelda franchises. There's been spinoffs handled by different companies (Mario & Rabbids by Ubisoft, Hyrule Warriors by Tecmo) but they're still keen to devote their own resources to regular Zelda and Mario games.

Meanwhile, other games in their major franchises only see new releases if a third-party is willing to put in the work. I get that they aren't the money makers of Mario or the Big Z, but still, it's disappointing that they seem to have so little interest in continuing many of their own franchises, themselves. Heck, even the last few Donkey Kong games were made by an outside company.

Whatever happened to Nintendo developing their own games??

At least Nintendo still owns their IPs, which is more than I can say for other franchises. Howdy, Crash and Spyro, how are your owners today?

[Atariboy]

They've lost at least one significant property from their earlier days in videogaming. Somehow somewhere down the line, Nintendo's own Popeye for the arcade and the NES port that Nintendo developed and published ended up being owned by Namco.

Of course that doesn't make what you said null and void, but even Nintendo apparently hasn't been completely immune. A bit unfortunate these days since Hamster is actually releasing Nintendo's golden age arcade lineup on the Switch, yet doesn't have access to what was likely Nintendo's 4th biggest hit in the arcades (I'd say that only Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Mario Bros. sold more arcade units and NES cartridges than Popeye did).

That oddity with ownership all but seals the deal that this already challenging game will never see the light of day again officially (Hamster would also need a Popeye license from the King Features Syndicate).