Create new account
Forgot password?

FEATURE

Genre Wars: This Year's Biggest Action Adventures

Joe Keiser's picture

By Joe Keiser

August 13, 2008

  • Login or register to post comments

See also:

Related Articles:

Family


Action adventures targeted at children can be quite heavy on platforming and collecting elements, as the more violent sorts of actions have to take a back seat on the bullet point list.




1. LEGO Batman: The Videogame
X360/PS3/PC/Wii/PS2/PSP/NDS
Warner Bros Interactive/Traveller’s Tales
September 23
On their own, the LEGO games always do excellent business. But LEGO Batman also gets to ride the tide of a worldwide Batman mania, thanks to the success of the Dark Knight movie. With no official movie game taking advantage of the fervor, LEGO Batman has that whole market to itself—but it also has the kid demographic, and the legions of players who know that Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO games have a reputation of unerring quality. LEGO Indiana Jones cleaned up earlier this year, but LEGO Batman will sell at least a half million more.




2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
X360/PS3/PC/Wii/PS2/NDS/PSP
EA/Bright Light
November 11
The latest Harry Potter is in nearly an exact opposite situation from LEGO Batman. The videogame adventures of the young wizard have never been held in particularly high critical regard, and with no new novels due out ever, the Potter franchise has waned to its lowest point in quite some time. But a bad day for a Harry Potter branded product would still be a good day for anything else, and with the game releasing on every platform under the sun there’s no reason to believe it won’t sell similar to the brand’s historical levels.




3. Sonic Unleashed
X360/PS3/Wii/PS2
Sega/Sonic Team
Holiday 2008
Recent Sonic games have been so lacking in quality that it’s almost impossible to have even a cautious optimism for the new ones. But the property still has significant power in the youth market, so it almost doesn’t matter that all the former Genesis owners are rebelling. The target audience didn’t mind that Shadow the Hedgehog used guns, and they didn’t mind when Sonic made googly eyes at a human girl, so they certainly won’t mind when their blue hero becomes a rubbery werewolf thing. The PS2 SKU will push this title to near a million.




4. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
X360
Microsoft/Rare
Holiday 2008
Banjo Kazooie has been dormant so long it’s likely that the target demographic doesn’t even know the franchise exists. That’s the bad, but the rest is largely good for this reborn property—it’s one of the best-looking games in the category this holiday, and Nintendo isn’t doing much to counter this 360 exclusive. It still has plenty of competition (primarily from games that will also appear on Xbox, and particularly from Rare stable mate Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise) and it can’t be forgotten that Microsoft’s family-oriented efforts haven’t really panned out yet. Cross your fingers for a few hundred thousand.




5. Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant
X360/PS2/PSP/Wii/NDS
Activision Blizzard/Radical
Holiday 2008
Activision has said that it wants to overhaul this franchise now that it owns it, and that’s a fine idea—albeit one we’ve heard promised before. In the meantime there’s Mind Over Mutant, which looks very similar to last year’s Crash of the Titans and will probably sell in similar amounts. That’s a few hundred thousand across its many platforms, which will be enough to keep the brand relevant as it enters what will hopefully be a significant overhaul. This is an underperforming strong brand, and Activision knows it.
« first‹ previous12345next ›last »

Philip_Arcan's picture
On August 13th Philip_Arcan said:

Silent Hill.

Sometimes it’s easy to see the potential of a franchise (or the lack of it) when suddenly fans take over the development work. The Silent Hill series is something you either love or hate. People love it in spite of frustrating camera angles or hate it because of them as gaming for these haters involves spatial control. The franchise itself definitely needs an overhaul when it comes to this, not only if it wants to attract fresh interest but definitely because it is the only definite thing that can be done to the series without damaging too much of what makes SH an outstanding horror saga.

Silent Hill Origins was made by “fans” (yes they are) in the UK (Climax) and Homecoming is developed by “fans” (yes they are) in the US (Double Helix, The Collective merged with Shiny last year and changed name, by the way). The “Japanese horror in a Western context” aesthetics initiated by the members of Team Silent becomes more and more something invalid, or at least irrelevant. But it’s just natural. It was a spark ignited in the past but the psychologically introvert and existential core-of-individually-experienced-horror which is the corner stone of the original concept is not so original anymore. The feeling of horror is a transition in itself, it’s another world but it stays true to the one who senses it, and we have ample proof that this kind of perspective, where horror merges with drama, has found its way into the Western film industry. The Others and the Orphanage are good examples.

I think the “Western turn” in regard to outsourcing the development of the Konami franchise to Western companies is something inevitable. I’m not so sure Konami is able to make it on their own anymore. I know they don’t want to repeat themselves but I think they don’t have the expertise or the necessary creative pathos any longer, at least not when it comes to guts to hit next-gen. Akira Yamaoka has expressed his worries that Japanese game developers are not competitive, they don’t have the money or the voluptuous cravings for quick hard- and software evolution – they have fallen behind.

Putting the Silent Hill franchise in the hands of the “fans” is just natural evolution. We will see if Homecoming will be able to take the series to a place where long time friends can feel at home and new friends feel sufficiently comfortable. Making a Resident Evil out of Silent Hill is not an option. Taking it back to the old days is not an option. Yet something must happen. If not, then Homecoming will be the last instalment.

Kenology's picture
On August 13th Kenology said:

Any reason why Fatal Frame IV isn't under the survival horror genre?