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Games Entertainment

Not Every Game is a Sequel 80

Posted by Zonk from the some-are-franchises-too dept.
Earth Wind and Metal writes "In response to a recent article from the Guardian about the lack of original games, Siliconera selected ten brand new titles set for release in 2006 to keep your eyes on. Five of the games are new to the USA and the other five are making their world debut. The list includes the robot house sim Chibi Robo, sandbox mecha RPG Steambot Chronicles, Taito's DS cooking game Cooking Mama and of course Okami." I am *really* looking forward to Okami.
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Not Every Game is a Sequel More

Not Every Game is a Sequel

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  • Other games (Score:5, Funny)

    by scragz ( 654271 ) on Wednesday January 25, 2006 @07:28PM (#14563079) Homepage
    There are also spinoffs and prequels.
  • ... not made in Japan?

  • Where are the PC games? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Chowderbags ( 847952 ) on Wednesday January 25, 2006 @07:39PM (#14563150)
    Seriously, what about Spore? Ok, maybe there's a tenuous connection to Sim Life, but seriously, Spore is gonna be a whole new thing.

    The article doesn't mention a single PC game. Why talk about sequels vs original games without at least mentioning computer games?

  • Blah Blah Blah (Score:4, Insightful)

    by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Wednesday January 25, 2006 @07:40PM (#14563163)
    Video game developers manage to do something which Hollywood has never been able to do - The sequels that we make are consistantly BETTER than the previous entry in the series. How many movies can say that?

    People love to talk about how so many new games coming out are sequels, and they are - But so what? If the games are high quality and you have fun playing them, then just enjoy! I could understand this a bit more if people were saying "this game sucks", but all they seem to be saying is "this game is a sequel".

    I'm not saying that some more original IP wouldn't be nice, but it gets tiring seeing all these blogs/comments/websites/etc stating the obvious.

    • Re:Blah Blah Blah (Score:4, Informative)

      by AuMatar ( 183847 ) on Wednesday January 25, 2006 @07:49PM (#14563218)
      If only that was true. The problem is, most video game sequels are the same thing with a new engine, or just additional levels for the same engine sold at the same price. The same thing repeatedly gets boring. So the sequels aren't as good, even if they still may be better than most movie sequels.
      • Yes, but some take the old concept and try to fix what is broken and keep what is good. That type of thing makes a game usually much more playable and thus more enjoyable.

      • Re:Blah Blah Blah (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Shadarr ( 11622 )
        Not true. Generally, even the "derivative" sequels are better than the original. They look better, they have more options and content. Basically, once you get the sequel you have no reason to play the original again. People who complain that Doom III isn't as good as Doom aren't really comparing the two games on their merits, they're comparing the original against what they wanted Doom III to be. Doom III is still better, it's just not innovative. It gets points off for doing a lot of the same sorts o

        • Re:Blah Blah Blah (Score:3, Interesting)

          by AuMatar ( 183847 )
          I disagree. The derivative sequels, by and large, tend to be worse than the original. Exceptions exist, but by and large their very lack of original gameplay makes them worse, because I played the first one. Having done it once, the second time is less fun, even if it is more polished.
          • I disagree. The derivative sequels, by and large, tend to be worse than the original.

            There are sequels, even derivative ones that take what made the original great and improve on it. There are also ones that just extend the experience, but if it was a great game that left you wanting more that's not a bad thing. We accept that a TV series tells a new story in the same world each week, why can't a game series be episodic as well?

            Then there are bad sequels. But there are also a load of terrible original ga
          • Nope. You've like many sequels, you just don't know it because you never played the original.

            Remember the original Warcraft? No, you probably remember Warcraft II. Hardly anyone played Warcraft.

            Who has player Grand Theft Auto I and II? Or SWAT 1 and 2? Or the very first SimCity?
            • I played the original WC. Great game, except for the infinite money AI cheat (I once spent 20 minutes killing his only peon, yet he kept making more. He had no mines at that time). I never got into the later WC games (other than WoW)- I was far more into SC and AoE/AoE2. I really disliked WC3, I found the xp system and hero units very badly implemented, to the point it detracted from the game. I didn't really like upkeep either. Of course, when it came out I was RTSed out.

              I've never played any of the

        • Re:Blah Blah Blah (Score:2, Informative)

          by myster0n ( 216276 )
          Grand Theft Auto 3 was a sequel, as was Dune 2.

          I just have to correct a mistake here :
          Dune 2 was NOT a sequel. Westwood never made a Dune game before that game. The original Dune game was made by Cryo Interactive. And it's a totally different game. No-one in their right mind would (after seeing both games) call Dune 2 a sequel.
          I think that the only reason that it was called Dune 2 was that both games where published by Virgin, and they wanted to make sure people didn't think those two games were the same.

          So

    • OK, my brain is a bit tired here, so if this doesn't make sense, well, you've been warned. Video game developers manage to do something which Hollywood has never been able to do - The sequels that we make are consistantly BETTER than the previous entry in the series. How many movies can say that?

      This is somewhat of a non-sequitur. Movies and videogames, while both being entertainment that you watch on a screen, are not things where you can compare the whole of one to the whole of the other. The differe

    • I'd like to hear some examples to back that up, because I have to disagree. In general, game sequels, like film sequels, are a disappointment, with only a few bright stars bucking the trend (GTA, for instance).

      I'm quite fond of FPS games. I'd consider that Deus Ex: Invisible War, Jedi Knight II, Jedi Academy, Halo 2, Rogue Agent, and even in some ways Half Life 2 to be disappointing. The list goes on. Most genres have the same problem. The original game is fresh, unexpected, a new experience. The followup i

    • Re:Blah Blah Blah (Score:3, Interesting)

      by cgenman ( 325138 )
      Video game developers manage to do something which Hollywood has never been able to do - The sequels that we make are consistantly BETTER than the previous entry in the series. How many movies can say that?

      People love to talk about how so many new games coming out are sequels, and they are - But so what? If the games are high quality and you have fun playing them, then just enjoy!

      What we're selling is a visceral experience. When you first get a game like, say, Dance Dance Revolution USA, you have an amazi
    • Some people will argue that some sequels suck compared to previous versions. Personally, I think Quake III is much better than Quake IV
  • Okami's concept screams "make me on the Nintendo DS." Does anyone else agree or is it just me?
    • You're pretty much right on target there. There are tons of people scratching their heads right now as to why Okami isnt being rushed straight to the DS as soon as possible.
    • Though I agree in principle, I don't think the DS has quite enough graphical oomph to render Okami's visual style properly in full 3D. Maybe if it was done in a clever 2D/3D mix, that might work. I know that there's a new Goemon game coming out for the DS that takes that approach (and was in fact compared to Okami for drawing on traditional Japanese artwork in its style).
    • Fuck, man. At this point I wish every new game was released for the DS.

  • Pondering... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SpacialCoogs ( 946601 )
    My question is what therefore becomes an original concept for a game? Don't we really already have the most strangely unimaginable games out there? With games being the most lucrative form of entertainment and appealing to all sorts of genres we fall into the same stereotype as with movies. Every so often a gem comes out that everyone loves, but don't we still all go back to our old favorites, it's like comfort food. They become old friends and the sories and plots become our own sort of mythos. Therefore t
  • Such as the Final Fantasy series. With the exception of Final Fantasy X-2, each game is nearly unique except for some common elements (Like the theme song, chocobos, and the fundamental underpinnings of any RPG like hit points and experience). It would be like calling episodes of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits sequels, the story is completely different, but the theme song is the same.

    • FF is more like the exception than the rule (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Moraelin ( 679338 ) on Wednesday January 25, 2006 @08:55PM (#14563693) Journal
      The FF series, ok, it does manage to have different stories, swing between medieval and SF, and even change the game mechanics (whether it's needed or not). Duly noted, and true.

      But how many others do that?

      E.g., to pick on another long series of games, take Sierra's empire building games. Exactly what was the fundamental change between Caesar and Emperor: Rise Of The Middle Kingdom? I've actually had Caesar III, Pharaoh, Zeus and Emperor installed at the same time at one point to make a comparison, and make no mistake, they were the same game with different sprites.

      The only noteworthy tweak I can remember was that after Pharaoh they finally introduced road-blocks, so you can make essential NPCs (e.g., those supplying a city section with food and water) move in a loop instead of wandering stupidly into the desert while everyone in town leaves in droves. Otherwise, other than changing the sprites to fit a different civilization, they just largely kept releasing the same game over and over again.

      It took PopTop's Tropico to shake the status quo, and give that team the idea to finally give NPCs a brain. E.g., to have each person on the map go to the market when they're hungry, instead of having pinball supplier NPCs walking in a loop. So they dutifully produced another mindless clone, I'm talking about Immortal Cities: Children Of The Nile, except this time they cloned Tropico instead of their earlier games. (And to add insult to injury, accompanied by a mess of interviews and trailers in which they act as if they're the ones who invented that, and noone before COTN ever thought of that.)

      Which brings us to another phenomenon: mindless clones of whatever sold well last year.

      Worse yet: often _clueless_ clones, by people who don't even like or understand the genre, but just have to make a RPG or The Sims clone or whatever, without even understanding what people liked about those games.

      And city building is used above just as an example. It's not even the worst offender. Other genres are worse offenders.

      E.g., take EA's neverending series of "Some Sport 2006", where the only major difference from last year's installment are the player names. 'Nuff said.

      E.g., take economic games. For every occasional gem like "Die Gilde" ("Europa 1400: The Guild"), you have about a hundred clueless "me too" exercises, often missing the whole point. Everyone and their grandma just has to imagine that giving people a rectangular area to place shops on, and slapping on a title ending in "Tycoon", is all there is to it. Actually worrying about gameplay, balance or diversity is obviously not needed.

      E.g., heck, take FPS, the genre which pretty much made mainstream the practice of releasing two dozen identical games per year. Get a graphics engine, bolt on two dozen unrelated maps, and the bog-standard assortment of guns (knife, pistol, SMG, sniper rifle, shotgun, flamethrower) and call it a new game. Oh yeah, and bolt on a half-baked multiplayer mode where no thought was given to weapon balance or map layout for multiplayer, and just reused whatever the single-player game had.

      In some cases the sequel not only didn't really add anything new, but was actually a step back and folded back into the comfy mediocrity of being another "me too" clone. E.g., Unreal 2. It did away with all the Unreal universe and unique weaponry (e.g., the flak gun being a unique something in between a shotgun and a grenade launcher, but not quite either), and replaced that all with a generic SF universe and generic FPS weapons (yay for having a standard shotgun again.) In fact, it was another dime-a-dozen generic FPS that only reused the franchise name.

      I could go on, but methinks you get the idea already. When some of us complain about sequels, spin-offs and raping a franchise name for a quick buck, what we have in mind is the above. It doesn't mean literally that exceptions like the FF series don't exist. It just means they're just that: exceptions.
      • good points but you forgot the biggest clone of them all

        urban *Insert something here*, that seems to be the BIGGEST upswing in clones, knockoff and just plain shitty games. Nothing has been this big since Medal of Honor burst onto the scene and made EVERYONE want to make their own WWII FPS.

        it all started with GTA to, it wasn't Urban but it was violent, it got big so someone somewheres said "Hey, let's copy that shit!" and they started making shitty game after shitty game tied in with hip-hop/rap artis
      • Some good points there, but I'm not with you on all of them.

        First off, there are two genres that really, in my opinion, don't leave much room for originality...FPS's and sports. Sports more so, because once you have emulated the real-life sport, how much more is there really to do? You can adjust control schemes, improve graphics, make an even MORE in-depth "team management" engine (which many players actually don't like...some of us just want to play some hockey), and update rosters. I mean, what are
  • I've never understood what line of reasoning leads people to think that sequels are automatically a bad thing. I mean, if the sequel doesn't add anything new to the gameplay of the original, then it's bad - but that's not because it's a sequel, it's more like it's because you're overcharging for an expansion. And if a sequel is a bad game, then it's bad - but not because it's a sequel, rather it's because it's a bad game.

    • Re:Sequels (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jclast ( 888957 )
      It doesn't even necessarily need to add something to the gameplay of the original.

      Some games have a good enough story that I just want to know what happens next.
      • But unless you are actully adding new content or something extra then it's just an expansion (which I'm not putting down, by the way...we actually need more expansions...less sequels)

        A sequel should be the next step in the game, where problems are addressed, and the game is brought up to the current level of technology, and hopefully new (good if not great) content is added

    • Re:Sequels (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Delphiki ( 646425 )
      Reasoning? There is no reasoning. Bashing sequels and spin-offs and movie licenses is the way to appear more indie or underground than the other gamers. As far as I can tell, it's all bullshit penis waving by gamers trying to seem more sophisticated than other games. It goes kind of like this..

      "I'm too cool to play Madden. Football is for dumb jocks and frat guys."
      "Oh yeah? Well, I'm too hardcore of a gamer to play any sports or racing games."
      "But I refuse to play any sequels or movie licensed games bec

  • *sigh* (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HunterZ ( 20035 ) on Wednesday January 25, 2006 @08:14PM (#14563380) Journal
    I like how they try to respond to a cynical article about lack of originality in games by pointing out a bunch of cutesy Japanese titles (with the possible excpetion of the mech one).

    And what's up with the Dynasty Warriors clone? "But it has more bad guys!!!111" It's good that someone broke the mold - and hey, maybe it's a fun game - but I wouldn't trumpet it as a genre-defying revolution in video games.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is: Where are the gritty, realistic, 0% cute, immersive, nonlinear (within reason) sci-fi RPGs? Have any even been made in the past few years (other than KotOR of course)?

    • Re:*sigh* (Score:3, Insightful)

      by CastrTroy ( 595695 )
      I think the problem with a non-linear RPG is that people have trouble finding out when they've advanced in the game, or even beaten it. The probably get frustrated wondering if they are on the right path too. You spend all this time trying to do one thing, and you find out that the result of what you just did isn't really what you wanted to accomplish. I think people like to have a defined starting and end point in a game, and a well defined path between the start and end. If the game is non-linear, how

      • Re:*sigh* (Score:5, Interesting)

        by HunterZ ( 20035 ) on Wednesday January 25, 2006 @09:19PM (#14563836) Journal
        It's important to note that there's a spectrum between linear and open-ended, and the term "non-linear" covers a wide area in between the two. While I personally enjoy the open-ended RPGs that the parent poster described, I also tend to never beat them (after spending days looking under every rock and carting every piece of trash back to a shop, I eventually get distracted by some other game). On the other hand, Linear RPGs - which covers the vast majority of Japanese console RPGs - are something that I invariably get tired of because they start to feel like watching a (bad, really long) movie except that I have to hit the A button to keep going.

        There's a balance, and I really *really* enjoy the exploration aspect of good RPGs, especially when it's mixed in with the right amount of story to keep me from feeling lost on my way to the end. In contrast, I *detest* being hand-held through a sigh-seeing show while being bombarded with boring dialogue and cliche story.

        I also find the "getting lost" argument a little weak when I compare open-ended RPGs to platformers and such, although I suppose you could claim the latter to be harder to get lost in due to the subdivision of content created by having levels.
        • I think that games should be like porn. Just enough story to tie together the action. Maybe it's just me, but I hate spending 50% of my time listening to/ watching the story. The actual fun part of the game should be playing it. It should be possible to have a story to the game, without feeling like you are watching a movie. This is the way I feel with Final Fantasy (at least the newer ones, the original was better). On the other hand, I feel that games like Zelda, which although very linear, don't ha
    • Anarchy Online?
    • Hell, I'd take an RPG where you don't play a Metrosexual "Is it a Male or a female?!?!?!" teenage person out to save the world.

      or where you play a little kid (betweent he ages of 8 and 14) out to save the world, I understand that there is more innocense in a child then an adult but for christs sake give us something DIFFERENT!

      I know I will sound like a hypocrite but, I loved the Earthbound game, it did something that was never done before...an RPG set in (get this) PRESENT DAY AND TIME! granted you pl
      • did something happen in Japan where it's trendy for the guys to look like girls and the girls to look like guys?

        Yeah, we dropped an atomic bomb on them.

        If a company (from ANY country) made an RPG that made fun of ALL of these things I would buy it in a heart beat

        I've had this same conversation with several of my friends over the years. I thought it would be especially cool to have the player start out with the cliche Japanese console RPG party in the cliche war-torn medieval/sci-fi mix world, but then have
    • Where are the gritty, realistic, 0% cute, immersive, nonlinear (within reason) sci-fi RPGs?

      RPGs always have sequels, whether they're direct like Xenosaga or indirect like Final Fantasy, so it's kind of tough to bring them up in this case. Anyway I don't think the audience for these games are so huge because of the nonlinearity aspect. People like an experience from beginning to end. Nonlinear games are so involving that 90% of the gamers that play them wouldn't see 90% of the game. Where is the incenti

  • Not trying to troll here, but can someone explain why Cooking Mama is supposed to be fun?

    Why not cook real meals (at a job or for the homeless) instead?
    • cause if you screw up in the game your house won't burn down, you won't start a grease fire, you won't get burned, your feelings won't get hurt when people say that meal sucked ect.

      kind of like saving the world in a game, It's a lot easier to do it there then try and walk into some random persons house, look through their stuff and leave like nothing happened and change the world to belive in what the truth is that could save the world.

      or to go back to a small gang and suddenly become a super spy and
    • because the homeless smell like cigarettes and poor, not plastic game cartriges. . .
  • I hadn't seen Okami before reading this story, and the trailer was a bit slow to download - so I made a torrent [thepiratebay.org] for it.

    Looks like a pretty cool game, but then I like cel-shaded stuff. Wish I knew WTF flossie was on about in the trailer tho.
  • it seriously lacked content. I mean, it's basically a list of names, with screenshots.

    but even though, okami (if it ever comes to .de, in german of course) might even put a ps2 on my shopping list.... together with katamari or what's it called...

  • Errrr WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HaydnH ( 877214 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @06:22AM (#14565967)
    From the blurb:

    "In response to a recent article from the Guardian about the lack of original games, Siliconera selected ten brand new titles set for release in 2006 to keep your eyes on."

    OK, let's look at some of these "ten brand new titles":

    Beatmania (Playstation 2)
    After the success of Dance Dance Revolution in the USA, Konami has finally decided to bring the first Bemani game over.

    So this is just another dance dance revolution but you press buttons with your hands instead of your feet... and that's not a sequel??


    N3: Ninety Nine Nights (Xbox 360)
    This brilliant game is developed by Q? Entertainment and action veteran Phantagram. On the surface it looks like a Dynasty Warriors clone

    "Dynasty Warriors clone".... says it all really.


    Every Extend Extra (PSP)
    The second title from Q? Entertainment has more in kind with their other titles (Lumines and Meteos). Every Extend Extra is actually an extended version of the PC game Every Extend.

    "An extended version" - heeellllooooo????


    Drill Dozer (Game Boy Advance) & Exit (PSP)

    Both are side scrollers - I 'm sure it would take a lot to make a new & innovative side scroller... and I'm sure I've seen a robot with a drill on his head before.


    Seriously, the article is meant to be arguing that not all games are sequels, and they use these as examples?

    Haydn.
    • Wow, you are amazingly good at judging games you've never played. That's remarkable.
    • Hey, Exit looks pretty original. You play as a little guy who has to save people from utter peril. It runs into being a bit of a puzzler, where you overcome whatever obstacles prevent you from saving the people, and then using the people to help save more people and eventually get out of wherever the exit is. I never played more than a demo of Abe's Oddysee on PSX, but I seem to remember it being similar in concept. It's been a damn long time since that game was out, though, hasn't it?
  • The problem with video games is that a "sequel" does not necessarily means the same thing as with a movie. A sequel to a movie usually (most of the time) tells a story that happens after the previous one, involving the same characters. In video games, this is far from true. People tend to mix sequel (sonic 2, mario 64) with franchise (CIV4, Doom3, Elder scroll). In one case, the game usually keeps most mecanisms and in the other, the NAME is what is kept (and sometime some characters or game genre). Why d
  • TFA: "...placed virtual billboards for the Subway fast-food chain within the popular massive multiplayer online (MMO) game Counter-Strike..."

    Wait a minute, I thought the mainstream media actually understood video games!

    I hate being wrong.

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