Rebirth of a Genre

[Nibiru]

I have been buying a lot of good old games recently, since I was not able to experience the golden
age of DOS games in the late 80s and early 90s, and I must say, I am having a lot of fun with them.

(Currently trying to figure out Master of Orion 2 entirely)
(And while I am at it... I urge you to play Might and Magic 4+5 if you haven't already!)

But even before starting my 'DOS marathon', I knew that certain genres were enjoyed
by many gamers in the past, have become less popular or even obsolete.
The point&click adventure genre,for example, or the old shoot'em ups that you enjoyed in the arcades.

If you are a gamer who was able to enjoy some of the games, that we now consider
classics, back in the days (or a person like me trying to 'study' gaming history)...


What genre would you want to bring back to its former glory, that was
left in the dust by game developers since the turn of the century?

And while we are at it...
Why do you think it was abandoned in the first place?


(I was not able to think of an appropriate title, but I guess it gets to the point...)

 

[Griphphin]

I don't know if it's a genre, per se, but I love the feel of sprites in older gaming systems, and how graphical limitations forced game makers to show more with less (take the smaller party menu sprites in older Pokemon games, for instance). I'd like that style of graphics to become more prevalent, with less focus on high polygon counts.

 

[dante brevity]

Text-based adventures. Seriously, these were fun and they could conceivably be made by one guy. Why can't a few indie hipster game designers try making a few of these? I'd be entertained for days.

 

[Griphphin]

Cute dog. Looks a bit like mine. =]

Thank you, his name's Rusty. ^_^
He's really energetic, had to wait for him to nearly fall asleep to slip on the sombrero :3

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The beat 'em up. Pure, uncomplicated fisticuffs for 2 or more. I would consider The Simpsons Arcade game to be an excellent example as well as the first Simpsons game that wasn't horrible. The Bouncer was the last one of its breed I can remember, and it's lack of sales or length despite Square's high production values may have been the final nail in the coffin. The recent rerelease of TMNT 4 for XBox Arcade did little better.

Some days, the simplicity of it can act as a deterrent. Many of the arcade beat 'em ups suffered from limited numbers of enemies or moves (more recently seen in No More Heroes) and a lot of the 'mass multiplayer' action was hoovered up by the advent of the MMORPG. Many companies found it one of those genres that was hard to translate to 3D without wrecking it. 3D required a dynamic camera in a time when a lot of companies didn't know what a good camera was, and it took player's concentration away from the fighting.

One of my top 3 dream games to make is a LAN/Online beat 'em up that fixes most if not all of these problems. Have a fighting system that start simple but gets complicated only it you're going for those insane 12-hit combinations, as well as a diverse variety of enemy types to force you to use all of your tricks. Encourage and allow the use of team attacks, possibly used by enemies too. Ensure a relatively meaty story mode plus a large number of optional stages available. In fact, I don't think it would be too hard to make a stage editor for such a simple concept.

 

[migo]

Space sim - Descent, Wing Commander, Escape Velocity - anything like that. There really isn't enough of it, and it's pretty much just X3 right now.

 

[Griphphin]

HE'S WEARING A SOMBRERO?!

Good god, he is truly a beast of considerable awesome. =]

Sombreros make everything better!
I just googled Rollcage, I used to have one of those in RC car style.

Spoiler: Kinda looked like this, but green

Fond memories

 

[hawkeye52]

any point and click adventures made by tim schaeffer. day of the tentacle ftw