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FEATURE

Genre Wars: This Year's Biggest Action Adventures

Joe Keiser's picture

By Joe Keiser

August 13, 2008

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2D Platformers


2D side-scrolling platformers predate the action adventure categorization by a huge span of time. Yet most of them now have that combination of puzzle-oriented gameplay and violence that makes them compete for the same dollars as others in this same space.




1. LittleBigPlanet
PS3
Sony/Media Molecule
October
LittleBigPlanet is finally, finally coming, which is great news whether the game is excellent is not. Sony has put a ton of muscle behind what is a necessary market experiment—so can a game that is largely being advertised as a game creation tool really find traction? There’re just so many questions here: the PS3 market skews old, while the game’s beautiful art skews young. It’s a side-scrolling platformer, but its competition is fully 3D. This might only sell to Half-Life modders, but it could also sell to everybody, everywhere. If LittleBigPlanet succeeds it will represent the biggest industry change of 2008.




2. Wario Land: Shake It!
Wii
Nintendo/Good Feel
September 22
Poor Wario Land: Shake It! was abandoned by Nintendo at its E3 press conference, a sure sign that the sort of games Nintendo used to make are just a secondary market now. It could well follow that the first Wario Land game in years will likewise not get a significant ad push, leaving it to flounder. It’s still a first-party Wii game though, so even abandoned it should still do decently—maybe three or four hundred thousand units, though that might be optimistic. Compare that number to what things like Wii Play have done, and it’s no wonder Nintendo has its priorities elsewhere.




3. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
NDS
Konami/Konami
Holiday 2008
Castlevania has gone from a console classic to a handheld staple, selling consistently to the same appreciative audience. That audience is probably pretty hungry these days as Castlevania skipped 2007, and Order of Ecclesia does promise some new additions that have been long to arrive—including new enemy types. 250,000 is what this series tends to do on DS, give or take 25,000. Order of Ecclesia looks slightly more ambitious than recent series entries, so expect sales to come in at the high end of this range.




4. Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition
NDS
THQ/Altron
September 22
Drawn to Life was the surprise children’s hit of 2007, vastly outselling even the most optimistic estimates. SpongeBob SquarePants is Nickelodeon’s most iconic, enduring brand. The conflation of the two should result in blockbuster sales numbers for a game of this budget. It doesn’t matter at all that Drawn to Life: Spongebob Squarepants Edition probably won’t change much of anything that was done in the original Drawn to Life—the SpongeBob makeover is reason enough for the product, and the first game was surprisingly rarely cribbed from. Let’s go with 700,000.


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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?