"Are Popular Gaming Series failing?"

It’s now 2004 and it’s the start of yet another year to come for everyone and also the gaming industry. With rumours about the next consoles being unveiled and new characters, games and “revolutionary” new gaming concepts that will “change the course of gaming forever”, it seems like it’s going to be a good year for gamers and games alike. However, even with these new revolutionary titles and characters, there is a wealth of game series that made their name many years ago. They have made their name, but are they still doing as well as they were doing those many years ago?

This investigation (and possibly another to follow) will look into many of the popular gaming series and see if they’re failing in this day and age?

The Legend of Zelda series

Seen by many as one of the best series of games around, The Legend of Zelda series has seen 10 games (Oracle series and Four Swords are each counted separately) released across 5 Nintendo hardware formats (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube and Game Boy). Though there was a slight dip very early on in the series, when Zelda 2 was released with its side scrolling approach, the games have never failed to impress and sell extremely well. However, if you look closer, there has been a huge downfall in quality. This all began when the series made the transition to 3D. Ocarina of Time is a good game in its own right, and is seen by many as their favourite game in the series. But it is extremely flawed, to some of the Zelda fans acround the world it felt like a stone had fallen on their heads and the pain was too hard to bear. The storyline didn’t seem right to be a Zelda game, fine it mentioned the triforce, had Ganondorf/Ganon as the bad guy and Link went on a big quest, but there lacked key Zelda elements. If you’d like to read more about my idea’s on Ocarina of Time then please read my November 2001 investigation.

So, then there was Majora’s Mask, the sequel to Ocarina of Time. I personally believe that this is actually quite superior to its prequel in many ways. It was the first ‘dark’ Zelda game (LttP was dark as well, but not to the extent of MM); it used time as a key element and brought another game in the series that was not set in Hyrule. Fine it has its problems, as it uses the same old OoT engine and there weren’t enough dungeons. Also at certain points the game did feel a little rushed, but it never stopped it from being fun and that is what I believe OoT had a slight lack of.

Both OoT and MM did keep the series in its hearts and did not fail to pull in the crowds. However, it’s the latest game that has brought the fall of the series. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, has been the most controversial and widely fought about in the series. Bringing cel-shading to the series, saw a lot of Zelda fans disappointed and have been put off the series for eternity. This was not the only problem, however. Though TWW sold well, a lot of people haven’t rated the game highly (including me): it was too easy, there weren’t enough dungeons, it felt cheap (due to the game being set on the sea and the islands being really tiny), the storyline was quite weak, the tasks were mediocre and the list goes on. The Wind Waker has not done the series any justice what so ever. A lot of fans have been left disappointed over the fact that a GameCube Zelda game created by Nintendo could be so linear. A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening are much better games. They may be older, but they retain the great Zelda feel that has kept people playing Zelda for years. So has The Wind Waker brought the down fall of the series? Well yes, because if you look into the future, we have Tetra’s Trackers and Four Swords to look forward to, which to be honest looks like they’ll push away even more Zelda fans. If Zelda games continue like this, then they are surely failing. However, the only way to stop this failure is for the Zelda series to go back to its own roots. Nintendo need to create a Zelda game that is one player, top-down view and has an extremely immersing storyline.

The Mario series

Nintendo’s mascot is one of the most famous video-game characters around and has appeared in many games (too many for me to count) over all of Nintendo’s consoles. From Super Mario Bros. on the NES to Mario and Luigi on the GBA, the series has gone from strength to strength. But it isn’t all good, because if it were I wouldn’t be writing this. The Mario series managed to move to each Nintendo console with ease, well that is until the series arrived on the Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 was an excellent game and did the series favours, so that wasn’t at all bad. Mario also dabbled in driving, tennis and golf (each game being rather good). But when Mario and co. started partying everything went pear shaped. It all started on the N64 with not one, not two but three Mario Party games, each one getting worse as the series went on. It seems that Mario can’t handle the booze (and as it’s a Nintendo game, then the booze is just plain old Pepsi). The first in this annoying series was enjoyable and it was good for multiplayer fun. The there came the second game, not as good and seemed more of a re-hash of the previous game. And then came the point where all began to get silly. Nintendo released a third version for the Nintendo 64, did anyone care? There had been two games before hand and this one was identical! So I didn’t really care about the game, and from what I’ve gathered from reviews, it was a waste of space.

So this leads me to current day with the Nintendo GameCube. And guess what everyone! Within these past few years of the GCN being released, we’ve seen two more Mario Party games. They are the most un-original pieces of rubbish Nintendo have come up with in recent years. They are exactly the same as the previous three for the N64, why would I enjoy 2 more? From this it seems that Nintendo have sold Mario’s soul for extra cash, selling him off in any sort of game.

But of course the Mario Party games are just side games, Super Mario Sunshine on the other hand, is the GameCube’s offering in Mario frills (platforming wise). So how does it fair? Well to be honest it’s a load of crap that has been chucked out of Nintendo HQ, because it’s Mario and of course Mario games will sell extremely well. SMS is full of glitches, the controls seem un-responsive (at points you’ll find yourself plummeting to certain death, when you know you’ve pressed the right button to save yourself), it’s short, it feels extremely cheap, the storyline is not up to scratch and this thing with the FLUDD just does not do Mario any justice. Mario is meant to be Nintendo’s mascot, so the games are supposed to be good clean fun and not have much to tarnish it. Fine I’ll admit Mario Sunshine is fun in places, but it doesn’t last and the frills are few and far between. Mario Sunshine is the biggest failure in a gaming series that I’ve ever seen. Mario seems to be getting old and it seems that Nintendo are losing their touch with innovation. Oh yes and don’t ever get me started on Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (It’s awful).

But then there is still hope for Mario! Though most of the GameBoy games have been re-releases - Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga - it is a refreshing change and does the Mario series some justice. It’s the kind of thing I like to see from Nintendo and the proof that maybe Mario still does have a chance, but it depends on the next 3D offering from Nintendo.

Sonic the Hedgehog series

Poor Sonic, he hasn’t had a good life in the 3D world has he? Well no, he hasn’t. But unlike Mario, he isn’t failing too much. Going to straight to the land of today, with the next-gen consoles, Sonic has appeared on the GameCube no less than 3 times and will soon be popping up again. He’s also starred in 4 GBA titles and 1 more coming very soon.

Sonic’s problems started way back on the Saturn, with his appearance in 3D. Sonic R was a mediocre title that was extremely short lived and Sonic Jam wasn’t really much of a game. He made his way to the Dreamcast, sort of successfully and retained a little pride there, but was soon overshadowed by the smash hit game, Shemue.

Sonic then started appearing on the GameCube, with re-releases of the DreamCast games. We’ve seen Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Sonic Adventure DX Directors Cut is to be honest an awful game. It had thousands of bugs, the slowdown was really bad, camera angles were annoying, the clipping was dodgy as hell and it was not a Directors Cut. The list is so long, that I just don’t want to re-live the memories playing it; though I didn’t mind ripping it apart when I reviewed it (I gave it a nice 3.2/10). Now to move onto the next game in the series. Launched before Sonic Adventure DX and released as a launch title in Europe, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was not bad, but still not good. It had a superior storyline to the previous game, but it still didn’t set the gaming world alight. The only sections of the game that were any fun were the Sonic and Shadow sections. The Tails and Robotnik shooting parts are a boring destroying spree, and the Knuckles and Rouge treasure hunt sections were so boring, it was unbelievable! The camera angles are awful, the voice acting was unbearable and the music was just about okay to say the least. So you’re most likely thinking that Sonic is yet another failing character/gaming series. However, it isn’t failing as quickly as Mario is and the Sonic series may even pick up again. Why’s this? Well Sonic Team have also re-released all the old Mega Drive/Genesis games in Sonic Mega Collection to allow people who didn’t play them first time round, to play and find what Sonic is all about. It was a wise move by Sonic Team, because it has brought new interest to the series. Fine Nintendo have re-released all the old Zelda games, but it is damn impossible to get your mitts on the Collectors Edition and as it’s only available through Nintendo and not out to buy. There Nintendo have missed out on their opportunity to pull in some new fans for the series. The Wind Waker is hardly a good way to bring in new interest for the series.

But back to Sonic the Hedgehog, as it’s not been released in Europe at the time of writing this, it seems that the new Sonic game (that will appear on GameCube, PS2 and Xbox), Sonic Heroes has shaped up quite nicely and so far received a good response.

The GBA has also seen its share of Sonic games and have all been quite good (except for Advance 2 and Sonic Battle is a bit strange, but still okay). Sonic may be in luck and if Sonic Team continue to work on improving Sonic, then he may make in the Next Generation as well. But we shall see, all in good time.

*MagicFox note: Ok, Doh, I'm not one to cut in on your Investigations but I seriously need to comment here. Sonic Advance 2 was EXTREMELY good. I have both Advance games and have seen/played Sonic Battle in the stores. Sonic Advance 2 is the cream of the crop. Sonic Advance were tiny 1 minute scenes with hardly any puzzles until you get to the two final zones and collecting the Chaos Emeralds. Even then there is little to look forward to or reason to play. The only reason to collect the Emeralds was to unlock the very secret base while SA2 offered a secret character, the garden, sound test, and secret base. Sonic Advance 2 has kept me coming back for more. It has superiour difficulty and yet is fun. There are several paths to go in each scene and for me the aggrivation starts at the third set of zones. The bosses are also fun and challenging. Storyline being better? The first game didn't even "have" a storyline. The music tracks are also highly enjoyable and fast paced and it's fun to do things in time with the tracks. I think your little "review" on this particular game was scraping and highly errored - and we usually agree on most things. Sonic Advance was the most boring and dullest game I have ever bought. But if they keep things going and improving with the same scheme as SA2 ^_^ there is definitely a lot of promise for the series.