Hey hey, everybody! Yeah, I know. “Graves, you said you’d update in a week! It’s been over a (EFF!)king month!” Yeah, well… didn’t you guys see my pseudo-update entitled “Master Graveheart’s Night Before a Noobing?” So… one of you? C’mon, it had everything. Jose truffle shuffles, Soulja Boy getting noobed… oh well. Bad timing for Christmas Eve night, I guess. But, anyway, let’s get started. My topic for this week’s edition of “Master’s Monday,” the belated edition, was going to be something completely different, but seeing recent releases on Nintendo’s Virtual Console, as well as taking in some of the new editions of the Happy Video Game Nerd, put some thoughts in my head. How many times have we looked at a franchise name and said “Now that’s got the makings of an all-time great franchise.” We ended up having them simply vanish (see Kid Icarus) or get mangled beyond recognition (see Golden Axe). To begin, let’s pick a few out of the blue. StarTropics – Nintendo’s top-down action-adventure game in the spirit of the original Legend of Zelda. You star as hotshot baseball player Mike Jones on a mission to save Uncle Steve from evil space aliens led by the evil Zoda. If you’ve seen Little Miss Gamer’s review of this tame, it needs no explanation. The first game was excellently done and the sequel was decent overall. In fact, the sequel was one of the final two major releases for the NES, along with Mega Man 6. As this game’s been covered to death, I’ll spare major details. Rocket Knight/Sparkster – Anyone who owned a Genesis had BETTER have played the original in this series for said system, otherwise you can just go ahead and click the back button of their browser and change your G1 name to Gramer McJock. You star as a jetpack-wearing, sword-slinging, armored possum. Over the top and unique. You didn’t quite see anyone quite like this. Man… I miss the mascot era… but anyway, Rocket Knight Adventures was without a doubt one of the best of the best in Genesis history. Even ScrewAttack acknowledged it (let’s face it, they miss a lot of gems), but what of the sequels? Sadly, they were so obscure, not many people knew about them. There were two games simply known as “Sparkster” released on the Genesis and SNES. Not having played them before, I won’t comment on them, but it is my understanding that despite the same name, they were both entirely different games. Shantae – One of my favorite lost gems of all time created by notorious shovelware company WayForward Creations… but are they really a shovelware company? Yeah, we got movie cash-ins, SpongeBob cash-ins, and other kinds of shovelware, but they also worked on Contra 4 and came out with Sigma Star Saga. But you can keep all of that. All I need from them is Shantae. Shantae is a 2D platformer in a style not too dissimilar to Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. As a budget title, it did suffer from a couple drawbacks, including wonky hit detection and some uneven difficulty, but they’re nothing you can’t get over. Your hero is a young half-genie who kicks monster ass with her hair-whip and transforms into different animals to get around tough terrain. The hidden goodies are everywhere and if you want to avoid the backtracking, you’d better be playing to find it all, but let’s be honest with ourselves; if a game is as good as this, maybe prolonging the experience is a good thing? Recently, WayForward hinted at a sequel being made, but the GBA sequel was scrapped, the PSP one appears to be just a rumor (thankfully… I don’t think I’d buy a PSP even for Shantae), the DS one is seemingly stalled, and the WiiWare one was still just recently announced. I talked to Matt Bozon, the man behind the sexy half-genie, and he seemed to show interest in a potential DSiWare game. Shantae, the world needs you more than ever now. Come back, my beloved half-genie… and don’t tell Tifa Lockhart I called you “my beloved.” …what the hell did I just post on the Internet? Mischief Makers: The definitive lost gem on the N64. A side-scrolling shake-‘em-up action game with cheesy text, wacky characters, and over-the-top fun. Starring Marina Liteyears, the Ultra-Intergalactic Cybot-G who goes from the robotic maid of the perverted Professor Theo to the mechanized savior of the recurring kidnapping victim Professor Theo. Your levels are very diverse from action-packed fighting stages, mind-wrenching puzzle stages, speed stages, mazes, and huge boss fights. I had high hopes that maybe she’d make an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but in the end, I think it’s a little too unlikely, especially considering the feuding between developer Treasure and Japanese publisher Enix, now SquareEnix. I hope this gets settled soon. I want me some more Mischief Makers! ActRaiser: …Need I say more? You’re friggin’ God! I know a couple people who called blasphemy on this game, but as a Christian myself I say this was an innovative series and it’s a shame that it only spawned one sequel which is pretty damn good in its own right and have absolutely no problems with its pretense or description. I was first exposed to the sequel and it rocked my socks off. When I got to play the original, I was able to see the greatness that its successor came from. For my money, it’s a shame that SquareEnix keeps bringing out some weird new franchises or works on ports and not evolve this classic franchise. Okay, okay, these were just a few names. I’m sure you all have your favorites and I’m sure I’ve only played a few of them, but I just wanted to give you some ideas of where I’m deriving at. These were all games of aspiring greatness that had all the makings of classic franchises but for some reason they just died out. ScrewAttack’s already touched on the subject a bit, but I wanted to dig a little deeper. I wanted to ask you all something? What if games like these ended up being more of a commercial success and prompted their continuation? Now, first, we’re going to assume only commercial success. Sequels are made not because a game is good, but because there is a demand for them. Mega Man got put on hold because standard Mega Man wasn’t as demanded anymore. Attention went to Mega Man X, Battle Network, and so on. So, let’s begin. One thing that would change is that the new franchise character craze probably wouldn’t have died off. You’d be seeing Marina Liteyears as the penultimate mascot of Treasure or Enix, Shantae carrying the WayForward Technologies flag (as they give the middle finger to Nickelodeon and their desire for SpongeBob games), The Master would be ruling over the Enix realm, and Super Smash Bros. would be welcoming Mike Jones into their roster. During this time, an emerging genre would face more challenges in getting off of the ground. Namely, the First-Person Shooter. Yes, there would be games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Goldeneye to carry the flag, but with the new IP craze not all conforming to the typical FPS mold, would we ever really get to Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Halo, or the upcoming destined Wii classic in The Conduit? Well, perhaps, but with the vast varieties of success, some of them might look very different. Call of Duty might not look like an FPS, but it just might look like an Real-Time Strategy game. Medal of Honor? It just might end up looking like Dragon Quest. Halo? Maybe we’d get something like Contra? Look, I’m not saying that CoD or Medal of Honor wouldn’t have a place in society. With the tragedies of 9/11/2001, the open floodgates of patriotism would have spurred game designers to want to cash in on our new willingness to wave Old Glory in the air and say “we’re gonna kick your ass!” Not that us waving Old Glory or having national pride is a bad thing… With the old games that tried to make a franchise of themselves missing, however, these games saw empty slots in gaming culture that they could occupy themselves with their games. Meaning? When Goldeneye became a big deal, when Doom and Quake made their moves, people wanted to copy the mold in their essence. And when Call of Duty showed up? Once again, the mold just had to be copied. No mass-varieties of game genres would lead to most-every new IP in the horizon being something to do with guns in browned-out post-apocalyptic ruins or battling it out in WWII Germany. Very few games in the mold of the FPS or shooter-esque game have really tried to be different from the others and have met with varying success. You’d get something like a Halo, which has seen great commercial success, or you’d get something like a 50-Cent… which even I question how this game got a sequel. But would we have had all of these games, good or bad, if the forgotten franchise hopefuls were successful? Would we really get games like Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Resistance, Mass Effect, The Conduit, the Bond games, and so on? No, we wouldn’t. At least, not in the way we know them today. Why? Simply put, with the games that we would have forgotten sticking around, developers would have realilzed that staying within the loves of the niche market that gaming was once upon a time, the need to appeal to the hardcore jocks that gobble up every Madden and GTA rehash would have been nonexistent. You’d be getting what gamers of old had been used to in the NES, Genesis, and SNES days of old. Yeah, you’d have gotten the occasional new FPS, but how successful would they have really been? The gamer culture would have only taken them as successful as what games like Doom and Quake before would have. The biggest X-factor would have been the idea of online gaming. How would this have worked? Would it be what we’re seeing from Nintendo today? Instead of pistol-whipping (hehe) your buddies in real time, would you be open to data swapping and record holding like you did in the arcades? Hey, speaking of arcades, with the weaker online-play of games in this continuity of the world, would the arcade have died out with less of an online-play mode due to the lack of FPS games out there? Eh… maybe online’s existence period would have spelt the end for the arcade, FPS genre or not. I mean, just because we couldn’t fight one another doesn’t mean we couldn’t play Ninja Turtles with one another and add in voice chat some time down the road. Maybe we’d have lost the arcades some time in the long run, but it wouldn’t have come so abruptly. At the very least, we just might have seen a third Turtles arcade game and perhaps a sequel to The Simpsons arcade game. But herein lies the problem: everyone has the same variety now. Nintendo never did really have a lot of shooter-style games, nor did Sega. Sony brought this up, as did Microsoft. But with the shooters now playing second-fiddle to what had always existed, dare I say, it’s a 4-way slugfest of near-even proportions. Now, who wins? Well, let’s take the systems into consideration. GameCube vs. Dreamcast vs. PlayStation 2 vs. X-Box. Nintendo and Sega would have had a definite advantage, being the long-running kids in town, and the PlayStation 2’s extra offerings would have given it continued legs from its 3rd place standing when it was the PS1 (because it didn’t do enough to differentiate itself form the N64 or the Saturn as far as title library). So, would a fourth company really do much in this system war with the same strategy? I’ll leave it up to you who wins, but now the realization might hit gamers that Nintendo might just lose, not having strong online power or DVD playback when it reached the GameCube. It might be so 3rd place that it just might have gone down and out. We all miss the franchises that could have been. I’ve been kicking and screaming for a new Shantae and Mischief Makers game for quite some time and I know Craig would be high on a new ActRaiser, but maybe having a straight-line of the games of multiple varying might have hurt some in the end. But let’s take heart. Nowadays, we got Mega Man 9, an impending Shantae sequel, the return of Tecmo Bowl, Mushroom Men, Street Fighter 4, a new International Track and Field, a new Golden Axe (even if it sucks), some reinvention of Sonic (some good, some bad), No More Heroes, Bioshock, and others. We’re still getting plenty of innovation today. Yes, it’s not as frequent as yesterday’s standards, but maybe, just maybe, we’ll be seeing new, fun, gameplay varieties. Heck, Klonoa is making a comeback too. The ways of old aren’t dead yet, but with the domination of the grim and the gritty, how much longer do even the current big franchises have? Who knows… so let us take a look at some of the games we’ve overlooked. Have you ever picked up a copy of a game, said “Huh, not bad looking… OH! Is that the new Madden?!” Or “Oh, this game here in the bargain bin looks fun… eh, I’ll pick it up later.” This is the ultimate nail in the coffin for hopeful franchises. If you have the means and a game piques your interest, don’t run home and check the IGN or GameSpot review and pass it up just because it didn’t get a 9.5 and the editor’s choice award. Faxanadu was a well-liked game by the public, but ask any critic and I’d wager you’d be hard-pressed to find a rating for it surpassing 7.8. People liked it, even if it wasn’t in the mainstream like of the greater gaming culture. Yeah, today it’s a well-known title, but Hudson’s little offshoot shot proved well-liked. I can name a few more, but I hope my point remained on target. To end, I want to present a figure to you all. Shantae. I’ve gone back to this game a whole hell of a lot of times. Here’s a figure to think about. Shantae scored a 9.0 at IGN (about 8.4 average) and sold 15,000 copies. SpongeBob SquarePants the Movie sold 1,000,000 copies and scored an average of 6.0. Sure, SpongeBob had the unfair advantage of already being recognizable, but I ask you… REALLY?! So, the next time you see a new-blood idea on the shelf, give it a second look before you decide to pass it up for the next NCAA game or the new GTA cash-in. You might be pleasantly surprised and people seeing you play that game just might inspire the longevity of a brand new game franchise that could one day find itself amongst the gaming elite. And maybe, just maybe, we can reclaim a piece of our lost gaming past... or at least pay a tribute to it.