The House the Mister Chief Built
Bungie is well known for the Halo series. In fact, Microsoft owes much of the successful of the original Xbox console to Halo Combat Evolved. But we won’t debate the merits of Halo CE and the aftermath of the console game industry after its introduction here. We don’t want to get the PC fanboys worked up in a stink. Let’s also not forget their previous popular games Myth and Marathon. But Bungie’s track record isn’t perfect. Before they made their mark with Halo, Bungie made this:
Oni was a third person action adventure game that came out in 2001. It had a lot of potential but many people felt it didn’t live up to its promises. It was missing features and content touted in development and when released was criticized as underdeveloped.
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Free Roaming Home Defender
Bethesda has revolutionized the home console experience for role playing games. Many gamers grew up in front of their TVs playing story driven Japanese RPGs, walking along a preset path. This was changed when Morrowind hit the Xbox in 2002. The game focused not on story but choices. You were free to roam wherever you chose and free to do whatever you wanted. But before Bethesda took a PC staple and flooded our living rooms with it, they made this little gem:
Home Alone was a great family comedy about a little boy left behind over vacation who then had to protect the house from a pair of burglars. Bethesda took this empowering message and a game where “the purpose of the game is to escape the Wet Bandits while bringing all the McCallister’s fortunes from the house down to the safe room in the basement. Once all items have been sent down the chute to the basement Kevin must make it past rats, bats, and ghosts he encounters in the basement, then fight the spider king so he can make it to the safe room to lock away all his families riches.” Yes, the spider king hides in the basement awaiting Kevin and his riches. Maybe that was in the Director’s Cut of the film.
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Orcs and Cyborgs
Blizzard is so well revered by its fans that it holds a convention once a year where they charge $150 for a two day pass and they sell out in 30 seconds. So it would be fair to say that Blizzard is well respected. They have created some of the most popular games in the world and they do it consistently. Except once:
The Death and Return of Superman was arguably one of the biggest events in comic book history. Once of the world’s most recognizable characters fought to the death against one of the Universe’s most devastating force. What follows was the line of comics known as “The Reign of the Supermen”. How do you take one of the most influential events in comic book and immortalize it? Side-scroller beat em up!
What lesson should you take from this? Maybe that your favorite developers are fallible just like you and me. Take hype with a grain of salt. Or if you ever get the chance to make a game based on a movie license, don’t make a side-scroller beat ‘em up. Unless it’s Scott Pilgrim. That game looks awesome.
PS. The fact that all of these developers begin with the letter B is purely coincidental.
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