Franchises you wouldn't expect to make good games... but do
Jan 8, 2019 14:59:21 GMT -5
Post by edmonddantes on Jan 8, 2019 14:59:21 GMT -5
So here's what got the ball rolling.
For some reason, lately I've been interested in Mickey Mouse, and this owes largely to having played Castle of Illusion and Mickey Mania for the first time (and being familiar with the Magical Quest series as a kid).
It's always seemed weird to me that of all characters, Mickey Mouse starred in some good games. As a kid, I always thought Mickey was boring, just some dull everyman with a high-pitched voice (though I remember digging the Prince and the Pauper cartoon when I saw it in theaters). I always thought Donald or Goofy made better starring characters.
I think Magical Quest must've been a game my parents rented for me and I might've at first resented, but then I played it and like... holy moley, its actually pretty good? How does Mickey Mouse have so many good games? Especially considering Donald Duck has half good, half bad and Goofy barely starred in jack. They ought to make a Mickey Mouse RPG where he, say, uses a key-shaped sword or something.
... So it got me thinking about other franchises (particularly ones that didn't start out as video games) which you would think would suck as video games, but they end up being better than you expect, maybe even actually good.
There's two that come to mind for me almost immediately: Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.
Tiny Toons is somewhat nostalgic for me as I used to watch it on a daily basis when I was a young'un. Animaniacs though I've had a more changable relationship with--I was into it at first, but even as a kid I started to find its sense of humor repetitive and annoying, and it kind of weirds me out that people on the internet hold Animaniacs up as some sort of high watermark of cartoons when its honestly just kinda cringey and bad. Even Tiny Toons often reeks of "trying too hard to be funny and obviously written by people for whom comedy is not their forte." (though that outsourced animation inherently hurts comedic timing and thus ruins even the jokes that are good is also an issue).
Okay, a lot of people disagree here, but I honestly thought the SNES Animaniacs game was damn fun (over on Digitpress it seemed like everyone universally disliked it, and I never quite understood why). It's a rather unusual platformer, and the slot machine system could've been a problem (as it was in the Genesis version of Sparkster), but here it either helps you, or does nothing at all, so there's no reason not to pick up all the coins. My only major gripe is that the final boss requires you to luckily realize the sudden existence of a mechanic that the game never had before now (you can walk off the side of the level and appear on the other side, which to be fair is very Animaniacs-ish).
Tiny Toons, of course, was the basis of more good games than it had any right to have, from the two NES outings to pretty much all the 16-bit outings, I don't think there was any such thing as a bad Tiny Toons game until Konami lost the license.
... So anyway, what are your examples of things you never thought would make a good video game, but which somehow did?
For some reason, lately I've been interested in Mickey Mouse, and this owes largely to having played Castle of Illusion and Mickey Mania for the first time (and being familiar with the Magical Quest series as a kid).
It's always seemed weird to me that of all characters, Mickey Mouse starred in some good games. As a kid, I always thought Mickey was boring, just some dull everyman with a high-pitched voice (though I remember digging the Prince and the Pauper cartoon when I saw it in theaters). I always thought Donald or Goofy made better starring characters.
I think Magical Quest must've been a game my parents rented for me and I might've at first resented, but then I played it and like... holy moley, its actually pretty good? How does Mickey Mouse have so many good games? Especially considering Donald Duck has half good, half bad and Goofy barely starred in jack. They ought to make a Mickey Mouse RPG where he, say, uses a key-shaped sword or something.
... So it got me thinking about other franchises (particularly ones that didn't start out as video games) which you would think would suck as video games, but they end up being better than you expect, maybe even actually good.
There's two that come to mind for me almost immediately: Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.
Tiny Toons is somewhat nostalgic for me as I used to watch it on a daily basis when I was a young'un. Animaniacs though I've had a more changable relationship with--I was into it at first, but even as a kid I started to find its sense of humor repetitive and annoying, and it kind of weirds me out that people on the internet hold Animaniacs up as some sort of high watermark of cartoons when its honestly just kinda cringey and bad. Even Tiny Toons often reeks of "trying too hard to be funny and obviously written by people for whom comedy is not their forte." (though that outsourced animation inherently hurts comedic timing and thus ruins even the jokes that are good is also an issue).
Okay, a lot of people disagree here, but I honestly thought the SNES Animaniacs game was damn fun (over on Digitpress it seemed like everyone universally disliked it, and I never quite understood why). It's a rather unusual platformer, and the slot machine system could've been a problem (as it was in the Genesis version of Sparkster), but here it either helps you, or does nothing at all, so there's no reason not to pick up all the coins. My only major gripe is that the final boss requires you to luckily realize the sudden existence of a mechanic that the game never had before now (you can walk off the side of the level and appear on the other side, which to be fair is very Animaniacs-ish).
Tiny Toons, of course, was the basis of more good games than it had any right to have, from the two NES outings to pretty much all the 16-bit outings, I don't think there was any such thing as a bad Tiny Toons game until Konami lost the license.
... So anyway, what are your examples of things you never thought would make a good video game, but which somehow did?
