Everyone knows that the Xbox One is slipping behind the PS4 with each passing day. With that knowledge in mind Microsoft should be scrambling to find some killer IPs to bring to its box. These are seven that I truly believe would be strong system movers for the company, especially the top two.
7) Amped – Last Seen November 22, 2005
Amped was born during the heyday of the Tony Hawk series and Microsoft felt the need to compete with the extreme sport game market. The first two games were original Xbox exclusives and were great games. I remember playing long into the night with my buddies couch co-op style. Then when the Xbox 360 launched Amped 3 launched with it. The game was fun, and look amazing compared to its predecessor, but it didn’t have the hear the first two had. They decided to follow Tony Hawk in the story line footsteps and ruined what could have been an amazing game. Extreme sports games don’t need stories, they need linked tricks, a point system and now online co-op. Seeing that the extreme sport game market is pretty barren right now Microsoft has a chance to rekindle that flame and bring back Amped 4 on the Xbox One.
6) Perfect Dark – Last Seen November 17, 2005
This first person shooter had it’s time in the spotlight during the N64 era and helped put Rare on the map as one of the best developers of that generation. After Microsoft purchased Rare, everyone though that the Xbox would have some of the greatest platformers and first person shooters. Sadly our hopes were dashed. Perfect Dark 0 didn’t well commercially or financially. We got somewhat of a taste of the old Perfect Dark when the XboxLive re-release was made available. Many aging gamers long for the sultry return of Joanna Dark, though, and Microsoft has the developer prowess to bring Perfect Dark back into the light, let Rare and 343 Studios team up for some nostalgia action.
5) Banjo-Kazooie – Last Seen November 12, 2008
Another Rare game from its gold years really needs to be given justice during the new generation. Nuts & Bolts, while fun, didn’t have the magic nor was even a platformer. Rare tried to do something new with their beloved franchise, and for that I applaud them, but sadly it didn’t take off like the originals. We were lucky enough to get the originals on Xbox Live all spit shined by HD graphics, but that just isn’t tiding this retro gamer over. Look at Ubisoft did with Rayman, which has a heavy platforming history, Ubisoft crafted two great platformers that did both financially and critically well. I don’t see why Rare can’t pull the same thing off with Banjo, the groundwork is there, they just need to take it to the next level.
4)Otogi – Last Seen October 19, 2004
From Software has made a huge name for themselves the past few years, namely thanks its own batch of bloody good projects, with their soul crushingly difficult games. Otogi was difficult, but obviously a predecessor to their Souls series. In the two games the main character was tasked with ridding Japan’s capital city of demons. The levels were less open and more linear but still a blast to go through. Microsoft would be silly not to think that a From Software exclusive wouldn’t help the Xbox One’s sales. The graphics would be stellar, and Xbox Live would be a great service to have so that players can drop in and out and troll one another.
3) Grabbed by the Ghoulies – Last Seen October 21, 2003
Grabbed by the Ghoulies was Rare’s first title to be released after being purchased by Microsoft, and to be honest, I really enjoyed this game. Not many people did though and to some it was the beginning of the end for Rare. However, the game reminded me of Luigi’s Mansion on the GameCube, you would enter rooms in a haunted castle and had to beat up a certain amount of ghosts to be allowed to exit. What made the game unique was the control scheme, instead of mashing buttons to defeat foes you would flick the right control stick and attack in that direction. It the made the game a bit more challenging and offered a new way to have hack and slash games. I think that Rare could successfully bring this game back, but as a mature title with a few more scares and some more raunchy humor seeing as the plot of the first game was to save your girlfriend.
2)Alan Wake – Last Seen May 18, 2010
When Microsoft announced the Xbox One last year and showed off Remedy’s logo on the big screen my heart skipped a beat. I believed in full that we were getting a real Alan Wake sequel, not some Xbox Live game. My dreams were dashed when the weird Quantum Break was announced, and my interest in Xbox One also lowered. Hopefully Quantum Break is finished and the developers are sitting in their offices twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do. Well, what they need to do is make a new Alan Wake game. They can even integrate the Kinect in the game, where instead of using the controller to point the flashlight you use your actual hands. I’m getting ahead of myself though, survival horror is still waning and this could help revitalize the genre for the industry. Nothing is more satisfying than jumping on your couch because a video game almost made you mess yourself. If Microsoft announced this game tomorrow, I would be first in line for my Xbox One.
1) Conker’s Bad Fur Day – Last Seen June 21, 2005
Rare has the most titles on this list due to the fact of the fond memories they gave many gamers in the nineties. Conker is still my favorite game on the N64 and I love the remake on the original Xbox. This game was the first game I ever played that made me laugh out loud multiple times. Money with eyeballs that yelled at you to collect it, a drunk woodland creature, and a huge singing pile of pooh seared this game into my brain for all times. I’m pretty sure with all the nostalgia brewing in the industry that a full fledged, next gen sequel to this game would be a system mover. Rare could pick up right where the game left off and go the King Conker route, or have it set 20 years later when he’s been deposed and trying to survive in a kingdom he ruined. Either way Rare would get my money. I really want an HD Mighty Poo singing to me through his yellow corn teeth while I throw toilet paper at him again. It brings a tear to my eye. *sniff*
“Xbox, Go to Awesome”
Do these franchises still hold up in today’s AAA blockbuster market? We’ve already talked what we want from Playstation’s classic stable, but what retro gems could Microsoft still unearth? Sound off in the comments for what games you think makes the Xbox the all-in-one system.
[…] 7 Series Microsoft Needs To Bring To Xbox One […]
The next Conker game is called Infurno, like Bad Fur Day. King Conker is killed by a so called revolutionary and then goes to Hades or hell, hence infurno. Everything is very God of War-esque and he fights previos enemies he killed in BFD, opera poo included. They’re easy but fun to kill, since this is a training of sorts and a story brief for newcomers. You are granted new powers by a devil that wants you to have your vengeance. When you come out of hell you have a motorcycle and a squirrel skull on fire! A nod to ghost rider and you must escape hell on it. Other surprises include a nod to Gladiator when they kill your squeeze, a nod to Star Wars on space where the final battle takes place with lightsabers. Conker will fight a predator-like creature, joke that it was one of those Halo creatures and take his invicible device. There’s also a Mario-like level where he eats mushrooms to stay high and do extra jumps, sometimes fly all the while joking that he should be a plumber to clean some pipes. This is a sexual innuendo, very Conker. There’s a fast pace Sonic level where he pukes and says he understands why people don’t like hedgehogs for mascots, specially blue ones! There’s a racing level where you bet to win or lose your choice and the level is like Mario Kart. You will be escorted for tampering and taken to a Vegas-like casino. You will have a Bond-style cutscene and steal a car. Graphics go Forza -like and he jokes about the game being 1080 p 60 fps, or maybe not he says. He admits he might be fired like Don M for that comment and enjoy the game since it might be his last. He makes a 180 in the car, jokes that he doesn’t have to check in every 24 hours and decides to go to souther Europe Forza Horizon 2 promo. He jokes, at last open world! If I can go anywhere I want let’s go to Paris. Yes now we have Assassin’s Creed style gameplay. There he finds an exoskeleton armor, is like Edge of Tomorrow, but he jokes that Tom Cruise made a Call of Duty movie. He gets lost in a forest with a broken armor and goes to a Tomb Raider/Hunger games segment to survive. When he wins and they transport him to the district. Guess what, he goes to district 9. He fights aliens and steals a spaceship. Goes to a space battle and fight the final boss with a lightsabes and the Forces, gravity and stuff. He gets his revenge but gets summoned back to hell to free himself from the deal he made. He is now the king of the underworld Conker’s Infurno!
Thanks for the in depth description! Took a lot of time to write that out for sure. You affiliated with the game or just a big fan?