Colony Wars
Why this sleeping giant been left dormant for so long is a mystery. With the arrival of Colony Wars Psygnosis shrugged off five years of blocky horizon updates and twitchy control schemes typical of the genre like a bad dream. The game had it all, great visuals, slick controls, a gripping Sci-Fi storyline and some truly huge explosions. The game did well with critics and fans alike and enjoyed two sequels before the Playstation was finally laid to rest.
Imagine an HD version with more ships to fly, an even deeper storyline, online multiplayer dog fights and the sort of explosions that make grown men weep with joy. Warhawk PS3, eat your heart out.
Jungle Strike
A stalwart of the 16 bit era, EA’s Strike series was extremely popular, particularly on the Mega Drive. The simple isometric shooting action was a perfect match for the Mega Drive’s basic controller and the non-linear approach to punishing the player’s mistakes was also forward thinking in an era typified by cut and dry boundaries in game design. The Strike series offered something beyond the hordes of platformers and fighters of the time and was granted several sequels culminating in the never released Future Strike.
The reason Jungle Strike would make for a great next gen comeback is because jungle settings have been getting much better of late. If the crisis engine was ever to be used on the current generation of consoles it would do well to resurrect the isometric-chopper-em-up as opposed to churning out another FPS. Also, Middle Eastern geopolitical themes and settings have saturated the military genre of late (and lets face it, it is a genre of its own these days) so a return to the jungle might just be a refreshing change. Come to think of it, any military based game that does not rely on FPS shooting, squad or otherwise would make a refreshing change.
Pilot Wings
The game that helped launch the N64 (and less famously the SNES) was a critical and commercial success despite being overshadowed by both Mario and Goldeneye. Pilot Wings engaged the player in a smorgasbord of madcap aviation thrills and was a dream to play with a quality bar owing considerably to Miyamoto’s subtle yet precise direction. Whilst hued typically in the cheerful toyland shades one would expect of a Nintendo first party title, Pilot Wings showed off the sense of scale that the N64 was so good at conveying and was also a showpiece for the N64’s (then) revolutionary controller.
Despite the fact that the Wii needs third party titles way more than it does another first party remake, the potential that a new version of Pilot Wings coupled with the Wiimote presents is tantalising to say the least. The appearance of the SNES version on the Virtual Console is indeed welcome but will surely only arouse appetites rather than sate them. Nintendo, if you are out there…
NiGHTS into Dreams
NiGHTS into Dreams was the platforming game that Saturn owners never thought they would be lucky enough to get. Shortly after Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot dropped their respective bombs (although the latter much more mutedly) on the console platforming world, Sonic Team released NiGHTS into Dreams to a surprisingly receptive press and public, much of whom had long since abandoned hope for Sega’s ill fated console. The game regularly appears in greatest game ever lists and demand for a sequel has been high since the Saturn choked its last.
Interestingly a sequel titled Air NiGHTS did enter the development phase and included tilt sensor controls for use with an unreleased Saturn peripheral. The project was moved over to the Dreamcast and eventually canned. Famitsu reported in 2006 that a game creator who recently went independent is developing a game for the Wii featuring a flying clown. Yugi Naka (NiGHTS creator) has stated that the Wii would be the perfect console for a sequel to the game but so far none of the rumours have been linked or substantiated.
Oddworld Inhabitants
Oddworld was more than a series of games, it was a fully realised fictional universe that creator Lorne Lanning chose to present in video game form. After the commercial failure of the critically acclaimed Strangers Wrath, Lanning publicly bowed out of the gaming industry to concentrate on feature films. Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey gave the Playstation its first thinking platformer and also introduced the world to the Oddworld team’s unbound imagination, creativity and flair.
The capabilities of the current generation of consoles could push the realisation of the Oddworld universe into previously only hinted at realms. For a series of games with such a distinct visual signature the case for HD gaming has seldom been more compelling. The Oddworld games always lent the onscreen action a layer of thinly veiled reality borne of the world’s acute sense of humanity; the scope for pushing that sort of visual story telling has never been more palpable and sadly due to the disbanding of the Oddworld team, never less likely.
These games all deserve a comeback, chances are due to the nature of the gaming industry, at least one of them will be resurrected at some point in the future (who saw PDZ coming), but for the meantime we will just have to make do with eulogising about what could be.
Other titles that missed the cut are:
Jetforce Gemini
Megaman
Destruction Derby
Dino Crisis
Loaded
Jumping Flash
Ecco the Dolphin
Why this sleeping giant been left dormant for so long is a mystery. With the arrival of Colony Wars Psygnosis shrugged off five years of blocky horizon updates and twitchy control schemes typical of the genre like a bad dream. The game had it all, great visuals, slick controls, a gripping Sci-Fi storyline and some truly huge explosions. The game did well with critics and fans alike and enjoyed two sequels before the Playstation was finally laid to rest.
Imagine an HD version with more ships to fly, an even deeper storyline, online multiplayer dog fights and the sort of explosions that make grown men weep with joy. Warhawk PS3, eat your heart out.
Jungle Strike
A stalwart of the 16 bit era, EA’s Strike series was extremely popular, particularly on the Mega Drive. The simple isometric shooting action was a perfect match for the Mega Drive’s basic controller and the non-linear approach to punishing the player’s mistakes was also forward thinking in an era typified by cut and dry boundaries in game design. The Strike series offered something beyond the hordes of platformers and fighters of the time and was granted several sequels culminating in the never released Future Strike.
The reason Jungle Strike would make for a great next gen comeback is because jungle settings have been getting much better of late. If the crisis engine was ever to be used on the current generation of consoles it would do well to resurrect the isometric-chopper-em-up as opposed to churning out another FPS. Also, Middle Eastern geopolitical themes and settings have saturated the military genre of late (and lets face it, it is a genre of its own these days) so a return to the jungle might just be a refreshing change. Come to think of it, any military based game that does not rely on FPS shooting, squad or otherwise would make a refreshing change.
Pilot Wings
The game that helped launch the N64 (and less famously the SNES) was a critical and commercial success despite being overshadowed by both Mario and Goldeneye. Pilot Wings engaged the player in a smorgasbord of madcap aviation thrills and was a dream to play with a quality bar owing considerably to Miyamoto’s subtle yet precise direction. Whilst hued typically in the cheerful toyland shades one would expect of a Nintendo first party title, Pilot Wings showed off the sense of scale that the N64 was so good at conveying and was also a showpiece for the N64’s (then) revolutionary controller.
Despite the fact that the Wii needs third party titles way more than it does another first party remake, the potential that a new version of Pilot Wings coupled with the Wiimote presents is tantalising to say the least. The appearance of the SNES version on the Virtual Console is indeed welcome but will surely only arouse appetites rather than sate them. Nintendo, if you are out there…
NiGHTS into Dreams
NiGHTS into Dreams was the platforming game that Saturn owners never thought they would be lucky enough to get. Shortly after Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot dropped their respective bombs (although the latter much more mutedly) on the console platforming world, Sonic Team released NiGHTS into Dreams to a surprisingly receptive press and public, much of whom had long since abandoned hope for Sega’s ill fated console. The game regularly appears in greatest game ever lists and demand for a sequel has been high since the Saturn choked its last.
Interestingly a sequel titled Air NiGHTS did enter the development phase and included tilt sensor controls for use with an unreleased Saturn peripheral. The project was moved over to the Dreamcast and eventually canned. Famitsu reported in 2006 that a game creator who recently went independent is developing a game for the Wii featuring a flying clown. Yugi Naka (NiGHTS creator) has stated that the Wii would be the perfect console for a sequel to the game but so far none of the rumours have been linked or substantiated.
Oddworld Inhabitants
Oddworld was more than a series of games, it was a fully realised fictional universe that creator Lorne Lanning chose to present in video game form. After the commercial failure of the critically acclaimed Strangers Wrath, Lanning publicly bowed out of the gaming industry to concentrate on feature films. Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey gave the Playstation its first thinking platformer and also introduced the world to the Oddworld team’s unbound imagination, creativity and flair.
The capabilities of the current generation of consoles could push the realisation of the Oddworld universe into previously only hinted at realms. For a series of games with such a distinct visual signature the case for HD gaming has seldom been more compelling. The Oddworld games always lent the onscreen action a layer of thinly veiled reality borne of the world’s acute sense of humanity; the scope for pushing that sort of visual story telling has never been more palpable and sadly due to the disbanding of the Oddworld team, never less likely.
These games all deserve a comeback, chances are due to the nature of the gaming industry, at least one of them will be resurrected at some point in the future (who saw PDZ coming), but for the meantime we will just have to make do with eulogising about what could be.
Other titles that missed the cut are:
Jetforce Gemini
Megaman
Destruction Derby
Dino Crisis
Loaded
Jumping Flash
Ecco the Dolphin
