Daily Video Game News Blog 09/05/20

Hello everyone! Welcome to the video game blog. Let’s get right to it. I’ve been noticing some trends recently in gaming, one being remakes. We’ve seen so many remasters, and remakes and definitive editions this year that it’s kind of ridiculous. Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom, Destroy All Humans, Resident Evil 3 Remake, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Mafia Definitive Edition, and even more coming this year, some rumored like Mass Effect Trilogy remaster (Which I one hundred percent will buy day one) It’s getting a little ridiculous. They are even bringing back older franchises like Ratchet and Clank and Crash Bandicoot to stir up the nostalgia frenzy in everyone. I feel like the gaming market is relying too heavily on the nostalgia in older gamers to help them sell their mediocre remakes. Don’t get me wrong, some of the remakes and remasters are amazing and do the franchise a great service in making older fans excited again and creating new fans of the series in the process. Sadly, it can only last so long. Eventually they will run out of things that people care about getting remade and then they’ll have to come up with original ideas. Which sounds horrible I know, but then we can have new franchises to adore that can create new fans in gaming instead of just pleasing the slowly aging fan base of their previously popular titles. I hope gaming companies realize they can only do the remakes for so long and they can’t remaster a remaster. (I don’t want to say that too loudly though, Capcom or Nintendo might hear me and do that exact thing)

 Speaking of Nintendo, that new 3D all stars pack that I previously complained about, there’s another thing that I think is kind of dumb. They didn’t even remaster or make the games look any better at all. They put it through an upscaling process and made them 16 by 9 aspect ratio and that’s it. Did they need to? No. Is it kind of crazy that they are charging 60$ for a HIGHLY sought after collection of games during the middle of a pandemic, where MANY people have lost their source of income or at least taken a hit financially, and they didn’t even make the games look any better? HELL YES IT IS. Does it agitate the already stressed wallets of parents and gamers that this collection is a limited timed release during said pandemic? Again, HELL YES.  It’s super messed up and very anti-consumer, what Nintendo is doing, and I really hope this isn’t something that they are going to continue doing.

Another trend that has been going on is just taking a game concept and tweaking it slightly and making a new game out of it. Battle Royale seem to be the focus in this aspect with Warzone, Fall Guys, Tetris 99, Mario Royale to name a few. They really need to come out with a new mechanic that they can tweak for years and milk for all it’s worth soon because I think battle royals have been pretty much thoroughly milked. I don’t understand how they can come out with another interesting twist on the genre. People already audibly groan when they hear the words Battle Royale and I’m sure there’s already another like six battle royals to come out before the end of the year. We already had this overload in game genres with open world story games with crafting systems started by The Last of Us. I don’t want to see another version of Ghost Recon Breakpoint but battle royal. Just come up with some new ideas guys, Sucker punch Studios started it out with Ghost of Tsushima. Let’s follow their lead and create some cool original titles with new gameplay mechanics. Please.