Series that Inexplicably Disappeared

[excelsior]

Mainstream video games are all about serialisation, with sequels all but expected by the fanbase most of the time. Sometimes, of course, series fall off. Usually this is due to poor sales or a negative critical reception, but there are occasions where it's just difficult to see why as a fan.

I'll start us off easy, with Nintendo, who hold such a number of strong properties that some fall off simply due to a lack of an assigned development team or outside partner. Again, some series have faltered in the sales department. As much as we can ask for F-Zero, it isn't too hard to see why no new entry has been seen in a good while, with only teases of the franchise since the final GBA entry. Personally, I've bemoaned the lack of follow ups of Chibi Robo and Endless Ocean, but these are certainly understandable omissions from a modern platform library. I'm going to pick on a different series then. One that managed to sell strongly, despite a drop off with the second entry, but also clearly is on the lower end when it comes to development costs is Nintendogs. Given that it shares development staff with those of Mario Kart, whose team have been largely absent on Switch, it's a little confusing there's been no new Nintendogs game, especially considering Nintendo's foray into the mobile arena. They also optioned not to carry on with the Style Savvy series, despite the fan base turning up to each outing, with developer Syn Sophia instead opting to make their own take. Though nothing officially has come out about which organisation ended that relationship, it only takes a glance at Nintendo's other former handheld parties to make an inference. 


Some other series may have experienced extended absence that were similarly confusing, but have seen some form of return. A good candidate for this is Sega's Streets of Rage series. Sega moved away from a good number of franchises that helped them build their past success, with this one being incredibly popular at a time when Sega was arguably at their strongest. They ported the 3 games a number of times but a sequel wasn't forthcoming. Streets of Rage 4 eventually came in recent years, though it wasn't through actions of Sega themselves. Nevertheless this entry again sold well, proving there was always a fanbase for a new entry. It's surprising Sega hadn't pursued it to the point of an actual release in the meantime.


Any other suggestions?

[dsparil]

I would say that Nintendogs isn't quite so inexplicable. The 3DS game sold very well (~4m lifetime) but that was only a small fraction of the original's ~24m. That being said, it 100% should have had a mobile version. It made no sense as a full price release by the 3DS era, but it was a series that should have found a home as a mobile game.

Half-life is a big one. That one has the obvious explanation is all that Steam money, but at the same time, that also means that Valve could have done whatever they wanted. There was Alyx, but that always seemed to me like a VR push rather than a real return. It's sort of the same thing with Duke Nukem with 3D Realms living off a mountain of Build Engine money with the difference that it eventually ran out.

Aside from Sonic, did any Sega properties actually survive the transition to 3D? A few got one offs later, but I can't think of anything that did more than that. I'll single out Ecco since that seemed like a series that would continue on, but all it got post Genesis was the Dreamcast game. Sega was developing a sequel, but that died with the Dreamcast.

[Snake]

Viewtiful Joe.  I guess henshin a go-go baby wouldn't get past 2010.

Gargoyle's Quest/Demon's Crest.  A pity the concept never got past 16-bit.  Such a great, dark, world and mood.

Konami Wai Wai World.  Geez, having a mishmash of Konami characters saving each other and the world together was a lot of fun. In a 2-D sprite adventure map format that followed The Goonies 2 and Castlevania 2.  I think there's a lot of potential to keep it going on later systems like GBA and 3DS.  

[spanky]

RE: F-Zero, I wonder if F-Zero 99 is Nintendo testing the waters to see if people would be interested in a new game.

Also, every single Konami franchise pretty much fits this bill.

I don't know if I could consider it a series because there were only two games and I don't know if it's inexplicable either but Startropics seemed well liked by anyone who has ever played it. I'm pretty cynical about modern updates to classic games nowadays but I would be legitimately pretty excited over a new Startropics.

[Snake]

Oct 24, 2023 13:37:28 GMT -5 spanky said:

RE: F-Zero, I wonder if F-Zero 99 is Nintendo testing the waters to see if people would be interested in a new game.

Also, every single Konami franchise pretty much fits this bill.

I don't know if I could consider it a series because there were only two games and I don't know if it's inexplicable either but Startropics seemed well liked by anyone who has ever played it. I'm pretty cynical about modern updates to classic games nowadays but I would be legitimately pretty excited over a new Startropics.

Ditto to all the above.

One thing I wish they brought back with games like Startropics, Metal Gear Solid, and some Sierra PC adventure games was 4th-wall breaking use of: pack-in booklets, manuals, and boxes in order to make progress.  Very cool to have to submerge a letter in water or decode a booklet to get that secret code as a 10 year old. Though it kinda sucked if you rented a game and it didn't have that manual.  Though Metal Gear Solid did get around you having to look at the back of the game case for Meryl's frequency; eventually the Colonel would straight out just give it to you.  

[retr0gamer]

With regards to Half-Life Alyx having played it it might seem like a spin off but it's a wonderful game and does follow up on the ending to Half-Life 2 setting up whatever comes next. I'd definitely regard it as a true entry to the half-life series and it's far and away the best experience you can have in VR (not played astrobot though which I heard is great).

I just hope we actually do get a follow up to it and it's not 15 years down the line.

[dsparil]

I didn't mean to single out Alyx quality-wise, but the "not 15 years down the line" is key. Erik Wolpaw did an interview a few years ago that mentions that's it's difficult to actually finish projects there. Valve is pretty small (360 is the tossed around number) which is a factor too, and so many people on the game side are put towards Dota 2 and Counterstrike that it's difficult to actually wedge in other projects. So it's slightly explicable, understaffed, but also still inexplicable, they have the money for more staff. I'm sure that Gabe Newell had some kind of formative experience at Microsoft that's making him keep the company lean, but it seems too lean at this point.

Edit: Microsoft has/had a reputation for the major divisions e.g. Windows and Office, acting like little fiefdoms at war with each other. I assume Valve was trying to avoid by not growing large enough for that to happen, but all they did was create a smaller scale variation of that.

[Woody Alien 2]

Darkstalkers. Seeing how much Capcom has milked their franchises and especially the Street Fighter one, it seems especially bizarre that no more than three measly games were ever made for this series, while they were also trying to reassure us that "Darkstalkers Is Not Dead". Yeah right. And even as a media franchise it did not amount to much, seeing that we just have a terrible American cartoon, a decent Japanese OVA (I still have the tapes of that one) and a short comic book adaptation that never really went anywhere.

[excelsior]

I tend to agree on Darkstalkers. Capcom went from all in on arcade fighters on Dreamcast, to minimal output in this genre in a short timeframe. Fighting games did die down in popularity for a while, but we're at the point once again where a game like this could make sense. Those comics though, as well as a lot of Morrigan statues, suggest Capcom just likes to use this series to create horny art and nothing more.

Startropics I think didn't start off on a good note in the first place. The series not coming out in Japan definitely puts it low to non-existent on the priority list. At this point the Director is now retired also, so there's nobody to champion a return.

Sega, yeah, they definitely made a conscious decision to move away from old IP for the Dreamcast, which made sense in the short-term. Returns we have seen have been a mixed bag, and largely one-offs. Qualitywise we've had the brilliant Outrun 2 (which I guess was replaced by the Sonic Racing games), all the way to that PS2 Altered Beast game, which never seemed to have any confidence from Sega.

[Snake]

I really do miss Darkstalkers/Vampire.  It really did shine during Capcom's 2-D hand drawn animation fighting era.  I would have loved to have seen it taken to the level of today's Arc System Works' Guilty Gear and BlazBlue.

But a lot of Capcom's fighting series really dropped off the map!
Muscle Bomber/Saturday Night Slam Masters
Power Stone
Justice Gakuen/Rival Schools

While not a series... Capcom really went through a mech phase - Cyberbots, Tech Romancer, Steel Battalion.

Pity.

[shelverton]

Not gonna mention anything Konami cause it is what it is (and perhaps we’re slowly seeing things changing for the better too?), but I frequently wonder why Chrono Trigger only got one sequel and then just died?

(And not to go off topic but SquareEnix is remaking their back catalogue left and right (heck, even Seiken 3) but the original Chrono Trigger has only, what, two ports? The last one being on the DS back in who even knows. If SquareEnix is not currently planning a AAA remake of this game in the vein of FF7, I just don’t know what the deal is…

Although I guess I can see why remaking Chrono Trigger is a difficult one cause it’s probably too big and legendary to just get the Live A Live treatment, bit it’s perhaps too old and borderline niche to recieve a AAA remake like FF7. Is that it, perhaps? It’s just stuck in a really weird spot?)

I also second Viewtiful Joe.

Oh, and Klonoa.

[personman]

Off the top of my head Crazy Taxi is one that just seemed to vanish right as it got a sequel. There were a couple ports and even a 3rd game but it just seemed to check out so much I never knew of its existence till recently. Only time I had heard a thing about it was complaints about how bad a little GBA spin off was.

Hell the Simpsons copycat got more traction (for a lot of reasons). For how popular it was with the first game it just kinda tripped me out how quickly it petered out. Suppose may have been about that time arcade like deals just weren't interesting to the general public.

Similar deal with Viewtiful Joe. First one I remember making a splash then no one seemed to give a crap about the rest till it just blinked out of sight.

Then poor Klonoa. They seemed to try so damn hard with that series but it never really caught on. Guess I can't blame them since despite the efforts it was never paying off. Wonder how that Switch release has been doing.

[Natalie]

I was shocked to learn the other day that there were four Crazy Taxi releases after 3: GBA, a PSP port, and two mobile apps in the '10s. Hopefully they bring it back properly next time.

Crazy Taxi is one of a whole slew of Sega series that could fit here. There was this huge push as soon as the Dreamcast died to establish themselves as a third party, especially on Xbox, and they released what ended up being a last hurrah for so many franchises: Crazy Taxi, Panzer Dragoon, ToeJam & Earl, OutRun, Spikeout, Virtual-On. I get that they were having a rough go and a lot of non-Sonic stuff like Billy Hatcher and Gunvalkyrie probably didn't pay off, but it's crazy that the only ones to really get a second life have been Shenmue and TJ&E, at their creators' behest.