Like just about everything in life, gaming goes in cycles. There’s probably something poignant tucked away in there but damned if I can see it. Anyway, in the same way that one day you’ll be able to sport that fine mullet without a twinge of shame and folks pointing from the other side of the street, so too will gaming’s forgotten genres be remembered, rekindled, reborn.
This year we saw the resurgence of 3D platformers, for better or worse. The Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter a while back seemed to shift things up a gear, even if it ultimately ended up being the least remarkable of the bunch. It saw us get A Hat in Time, Grow Up, Super Mario Odyssey, Skylar & Plux, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Poi, to name but a few.
The year or so prior we saw the resurgence of CRPGs. The likes of Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin, Torment: Tides of Numenera and Wasteland 2.
All good things will pass, but one day they’ll come back around. Just look at Call of Duty: WWII; a safe haven from the years of interminable modern shooters set in sun-drenched deserts.
So what I’d like to open up to you is - which forgotten genres would you like to see make a return soon? Is there nothing out there that’s quite scratching that itch you felt when you first played Dungeon Keeper in the 90’s?
I’m going to start off with a well-worn one - God Sims. Before Peter Molyneux hammered the genre into the dust with one over-ambitious promise too many, and before we chipped away at that stupid Curiosity cube in the hopes of unearthing some deeper meaning, we had the sublime Black & White games, and a personal favourite of mine - Populous. With the additional resources available now, and the advances in AI, it seems fitting that a big studio could take this idea and run with it. I can but dream.
And now it’s over to you, are there any genres from gaming’s past with have largely been forgotten?
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battle realms, always
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I miss Spore. Now that was an awesome game. EA doesnt even need to make a new game, like a sequel to it. Just remaster the original game and I'll be happy. But oh well, I dont want another microtransaction and lootbox infested piece of trash
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Those were some good times, I might even say that the game still even today holds up gameplay and graphic wise, it's just forgotten and played through and through by most. I still have a near pristine Galactic Edition sitting in my bookshelf actually. It'd be awesome if they remastered it, I always thought the game needed some more depth, it had a lot of great phases but as they say ''Jack of all trades, master of none''. I loved the creature phase where you build your own monster and upgrade it and play as hostile carnivore or a peace loving herbivore, if they just, made that deeper it would be awesome :D
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But yeah I can already see the cash shop and DLCs where you splash on new legs, mouths and other parts and gimmicks
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Yeah makes me feel sad. About what games could be..
But publishers gotta mess it all up :(
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sacrifice and black and white are the 2 games that come to mind
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I remember playing a lot of Sacrifice while I was going to school. It was kind of a third person RPG with RTS elements. It was great, you had to think on your feet and control an army at the same time. Playing matches against other people online was always fun, even if there were a lot of serious imbalances.
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sacrifice was a good game I still play it sometimes to this day I know a few other guys who play it to online using Hamachi
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I wish there were more tactical shooters like SWAT 4
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Star Trek: Starfleet Command
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They actually released something similar for VR recently.
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Yes, but I'd rather some studio remade it looking the way it did, except that the ships could fully utilize all three axis'. One can only dream I guess.
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I would love to see an update version of Black & White. That game series had so much potential that could possibly be realized with the current technology. After all, who didn't like beating their monkey? -grin-
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I miss that one to its a shame black and white 2 didn't have skirmish and multiplayer like black and white one did to bad we will never see black and white 3 thanks ea....
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i wish they make a 2nd tzar game
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Not necessarily a forgotten genre but wow Timesplitters Future Perfect was such a fun game, I remember playing virus mode with my friends for hours.
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God sims here here. i remember playing black and white when i was a kid and it was the coolest thing ever nothing else felt quite like it only game that came closest is from dust, but that game lacked the followers, but had the powers.
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Minesweeper
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quake
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Spyro
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I miss LAN-multiplayer games, regardless of genre, who knows if they ever come back :/
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Those were the good ol'e days
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I used to take my PC to the Linux Users Group at my college. Hang out, eat some pizza, play some games, and work on eachother's Linux headaches. It was always a good time.
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I miss good old space sim games, such as Freelancer, which had both a story-driven campaign and were open-world (or open-space, in this case).
Elite: Dangerous has a whole galaxy to explore, but lacks an immersive single-player campaign which would see a player taken all over the game world. Star Citizen has a lot of promise, but until the game gets fully released, we cannot really rate it.
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Freelancer is one of my all time favorites, the guy who made it is making Star Citizen but form following the news about it, unfortunately it seemes that he bit off more than he can chew on that one
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Yeeesss. I'd kill for a new X-wing game. EA would never do it though, at least not without spoiling it by shoehorning lootboxes into it.
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Megaman? (Legends, or x8-like)
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I really need another Clonk game. Clonk 4 was an absolute blast with my friends a long time ago and the last game to be released was back in 2008 with the Clonk Rage. The series was developed continuously from 1994 all the way through to 2008 with eight different Clonk titles published. Still occasionally enjoy a long session of it, that is, when I don't forget it exists and end up scouring those 'old games you remember playing but not the name of' forums till I 'rediscover' it
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shining force
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Half Life 3 ????
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Brigandine The Legend of Forsena